Boost Revolution

It was 1960 when eventual Olympic Marathon winner Abebe Bikila cruised through the shadows of a Rome night, barefoot. Bikila would become immortalized for his win, blisters and all. Sure, we all know this story, the one small credit towards barefoot running. What didn’t fall into folk-lore, was what Bikila whispered after the race. The one important word that would go silent for another 53 years. What the world missed after the exuberant Ethiopian crossed the finish line, forever marking history with his feet, was the then tiny word he shared to a race official upon finishing. “boost” he said quietly. The confused race official didn’t understand the broken english, so Bikila said it again, “BOOST”, this time louder with power. His eyes grew wide and he said once again, “BOOST” before faltering to his knees and being carried away. The race official stood perplexed, and shrugged off the incident as it would forever be lost in history before transforming into fiction here.

But now, it’s coming back. Can you hear it? Like a heartbeat, it’s getting faster, and faster. Like Godzilla taking quicker steps, closer, and closer. You can’t see it yet, but you can feel it. 

BOOST.

Like an explosion, blowing everything sky high into the stratosphere. 

BOOST.

Like Sonic The Hedgehog’s pack, ripping through the roller coaster to the finish.

BOOST.

Like when you’re halfway through a long run and you want to let something slip out between your (southern) cheeks, and it ends up being more than you bargained for.

It’s getting louder now, can you hear it? The Adidas Boost is almost here. With a revolutionary midsole that has an unrivaled energy-return, it’ll be sure to give you a boost in every run. We used to want to prance around like fairies along the trails, no wings, no dust, but now with a little boost in our step, we can chase bears and tackle mountain lions. “Boost Runner Sighting” will liter the trails and roads. Wild animals beware. With a little extra boost, we’re no longer afraid to run - fast

The term “Aggressive Running” will be thrown around more frequently with three-stripes on your feet. They’ll make t-shirts and warning signs. Runners without Boost will fear those with Boost, fearful of the savage three-striper hunting them down, and leaving them behind. “Boost Runner Sighting”. Too late, they’re already gone.

The Revolution has begun, and it didn’t start with a gunshot, it started with a BOOST. Which side are you on?

It’s coming. February 27th - at the Boulder Running Company - Boulder store, Adidas will rally the troops and officially launch the BOOST. Come join the Boost Revolution at 6pm, and also be a part of the most epic “Harlem Shake” ever. Bring your green hat, and be ready to RUN. See you Wednesday!

Running Stronger

Well it's a Sunday afternoon and after a nice long run, I figured it would be a great time to get back to some blogging. For those of you who didn't know I have finally gotten back into serious training again after about a 10 month period of off and on running due to a nagging ankle/achilles injury.  I was typically running about 2 to 3 days a week, just to stay in some kind of shape, but was running through pain most of the time.

About a month and a half ago I finally found a way to get my ankle feeling back to 100%.  I started wearing a night splint that kept my foot in dorsiflexion throughout the night.  I started getting immediate relief after about 3 days, and after about a month, I finally got my ankle to basically feel normal again.

So on to the good stuff, I got a new coach on the first of Febuary named Jon Sinclair.  For those of you who haven't heard of him, he was one of the nations top runners during the 80's and even held the 12k US National record.  Training has been going really well, even though we still having been keeping the mileage relatively low as to not reaggrevate my ankle injury.  I am finally starting to feel stronger and more fit again, along with loosing about 8 pounds.

I am still hashing out my racing plans for this spring and summer as we will be having a new addition to our family  in about 2 weeks and I'm not sure when I will be able to free up some time.  I plan on doing some St. Patty's day race and then a couple local races in April, before trying my hand at some bigger/longer races come may/june.  Anyway that's it for now, and hope everyone is training hard for this upcoming spring so we can all take some names!

Boost

So, I’m pretty bad about blogging overall. I don’t usually feel like I have anything super interesting to say. I train hard, but it’s relatively standard stuff. My life right now is mostly made up of eat, sleep, run, work repeat.



There is something that has brought me out of blogging semi-retirement. The adidas energy Boost. Hands down these are the best shoes I have ever put on my feet. I love running in them so much that I can’t even bring myself to wear a different pair of shoes on my four mile easy runs. My big fear right now is that I won’t be able to get replacement pairs throughout the year because I am told that the quantities are pretty limited in the initial stages of Boost.



For full disclosure, I am on the BRC adidas club team and the man of my dreams works for adidas. However, I am not on a contract with adidas so I am in no way obligated to blog about the Boost. I am going to try to convince you to try them on and I hope that you love them as much as I do.



Since this is my blog, I am going to talk about myself a little bit. I have been on the BRC adidas team since 2006. In the last couple of years, I feel like adidas and myself have both really stepped up our game in the running department. I committed myself 100% to training hard and becoming the best runner that I can be and adidas has committed resources towards becoming a leader in the specialty running industry again culminating with the Boost. I only hope that I can perform up to the level of Boost this year (too bad it isn’t an Olympic year).



Now, on to the good stuff. Like I said, I do pretty much every run in the Boost except my tempo runs and track workouts. I used to trade off between the Glides for my easy days and the Aegis or Bostons on my long runs. Now, I just wear the Boost. I have run over 350 miles in my Boost and they feel as good as the day I got them.



I try to run on dirt as much as possible. I don’t really like to do much running on the roads because I feel like it beats up your body a bit more. We have been getting a fair amount of snow lately, so I have been relegated to the roads the last few days. It is a different feeling running in the Boost. I feel like I am actually getting return from the road as opposed to feeling flat.



In general, my legs haven’t felt nearly as beat up since I started running in the Boost. Elite runners are always walking that fine line between injury and staying healthy. I honestly haven’t run in them enough to have a good sense of whether or not they will have a positive impact on injury prevention. I do know that my legs feel much better after an 18 mile long run in the Boost than they do in other shoes. Cushion has always been an important part of my running shoe make-up (not sure why anyone would ever run barefoot, ouch), which I believe is why I feel so good in the Boost. It is just the right amount of cushion that allows your feet to move and stay strong.



Last thought on the shoes – they are heavenly in the winter time. They don’t feel rock hard in some of the colder temperatures that I face on my 6 am runs. Also, sometimes I leave my shoes in my car during the day, only to be running on bricks for my second run. That doesn’t happen with the Boost.



I have my first race since training in the Boost next weekend. I have no idea what to expect from this race as it is my first race back from the marathon. I do know that I will be relying on Boost to help with my recovery from the race.



adidas is going to have several unveiling nights at local running stores with test Boost for you to try out. Before you start thinking “yeah, yeah new midsole, heard that before…” I urge you to at least go and try a pair on you just might fall in love like I did. It’s a good year to be running in adidas.

On the Comeback Trail (again)

Welp, I will say that it has been a wee bit of a long 7 weeks and 2 days composed of a lot of bike-time and even more pool-time. But finally, and I say this while throwing the entire shaker of salt over my shoulder and crossing my fingers...light at the end of the tunnel!

The estimated downtime assigned back in December was "4-6 weeks off." I had happily determined this to translate to "2 weeks off", owing to the week I took off after Clubs in combination with fact that I was only running 3 or 4 days a week for the month leading up to Clubs, so that had to add like 3 more weeks in there somewhere, right? Give or take a few days. So one week plus 3 more weeks is already 4 weeks, so if I took off 2 more solid weeks then BOOM I took 6 weeks off. This seemed like completely sound reasoning. Easy peezy lemon squeezy! Silly broken toe.

But apparently it doesn't really work that way.

Whatever. So here we are 7 weeks later, and while it was longer than my initially anticipated Dr.Payne prescribed 2 week layoff, I am pleased to say that I made it through 29 of those days without a single irrational or psychotic thought darkening my psyche, that's a PR by about 28.5 days! But after watching my teammates kick ass at Fast and Flurryous up in Boulder a few weeks ago, for some reason I got back home from the race and went to the pool, started "running", and was suddenly consumed with the unreasonable notion that I would never run again. Ever.

"THIS WILL NEVER HEAL," screamed the voice of Unreason, "NOT EVER. I WILL BE RUNNING IN CIRCLES IN THIS POOL FOR 2 HOURS A DAY EVERY DAY FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE UNTIL THE CHLORINE EATS AWAY MY AQUA-JOGGER AND SWIM SUIT AND I, NAKED AND WEAKENED WITH DEPAIR, WILL SINK SADLY INTO THE FAKE-BLUE DEPTHS NEVER TO BE SEEN AGAIN. Please, no one save me."

Thus ended my 29 day streak.

I don't know how I always seem to forget that this point seems to come with nearly every prolonged setback, yet my worst fears have never actually come to fruition. In retrospect, I'm not actually sure why I ever even bother worrying in the first place. Even though sitting on the sidelines was no less difficult than usual, and even though watching the live-stream of the U.S. Cross Country Champs was something akin to watching a beloved, much-adored pet screeching and writhing in its death throes while dying some kind of terrible, drawn-out, agonizing death from which I could not save it (although I did really enjoy watching our girls and guys and my college coach running around out there. Good job everyone, and thanks Runnerspace.), and even though I learned that I really need to stay off Facebook, Twitter, Letsrun, Runcolo, Flotrack and any/all other forms of social networking/media running-related or otherwise during downtime in an effort to avoid hearing all about everyone else's awesomeness, the healing process did not fail.

There is something about seeing your embarrassingly slow walk-jogs (wogs) gradually transform into actual pain-free running--or what passes for running right now anyway--that suddenly makes me realize that once again, there was no need to fear, it's actually going to be okay, and I did not stop loving it in the meantime.

I'm not 100% sure what's coming up in terms of races, first things first for now. Possibly a St. Pat's day rust-buster race or who knows, maybe I will end up on the track later this spring. Although as previously mentioned, on a track everyone else looks like this:

Meanwhile, I more closely resemble this guy here on the left:

So try not to get too excited.


Thanks for reading! Until next time, in recognition of the upcoming Valentine's Day, I will leave you all with this hug-train of koalas:

And a hug-train of cats:

First Blog

Since it's my first blog, I figure it is my responsibility to fill you in on some details about my life.  After college I moved to the Woodlands, Texas, having the opportunity to run with an olympic development group and one of the greatest high school coaches of all time, Danny Green. After being plagued by injury, I had to do something different. 

I decided to move back to Colorado, to be surrounded by optimal weather, altitude, and hundreds of thousands of miles of trails. So I packed up everything I owned (which wasn't much, considering I could fit it in my VW Golf) and traveled across the country. I didn't really know where or what I was doing, but I needed a change and a different outlook on life. I moved to Alamosa for the summer with my girlfriend. Although I hadn't really run for the last 4 months or so in the Woodlands, my life was surrounded by running and it was the reason I was there. It was getting to me... badly. I was depressed!  Moving to Alamosa gave me a physical and mental break from running.  I was living with no direction, no job, but I was happy, surrounded by friends, and getting healthier by the day. 

I met with coach Scott Simmons in July at the Olympic Training Center.  After speaking with him, I knew he was going to help me get back to running again.  His training philosophies were very similar to mine and I loved his optimism.  We were going to start fresh, almost as if I had never taken a step in my life.  Most importantly, he was flexible and was going to work with my injuries with a gradual progression.

So that's what we did. I packed up my bags and moved to Manitou Springs, Colorado. It is the home of Pikes Peak, the Cog Railroad, and Garden of the Gods. Overwhelmed by the beauty, I wake up every morning and remind myself that I'm not on vacation, this is where I live. I live a simple life, in a very simple cottage, nestled snugly on the side of a mountain.... and I love it! 

In august I started running 15-20 minutes every other day and with a gradual progression, my training is almost where it needs to be.  I train with the American Distance Project with runners I only wished I could be like when I first entered college.  My shape progressed faster than I thought it would. I am now doing workouts that I couldn't do even in the best shape of my life and running workouts with Robert Cheseret, Augustus Maiyo, Leonard Korir, and Kyle Heath really gives me confidence for the future.  My weeks are getting bigger and my intensity is increasing.  Here I come 2013!

Currently, I work at Boulder Running Company (who paired with Adidas is my sponsor).  Working at a running store gives me the flexibility to be able to train and travel when I need and my boss does a great job working with my schedule.  It is greatly appreciated. 

Oh yea.... I failed to mention that I also live with 4 of my closest friends. My girlfriend of course, along with Drew Soucy, Scott Kimbell, and Mario Macias.  They are living with Addison and I until they find a place. According to Scott, that will be early February, but he has been saying that for months now :) Anyway, I really don't mind. It keeps things interesting.  I always have a running buddy and there is always something to do.  So.... if you are planning to move to the area you can come stay at Hostel de Birdsong. Ha! 

There is not much more to say. I hope you enjoyed my first blog and I will see you guys soon.

Cheers

Project Mayhem

The First rule of Project Mayhem is you do not ask questions.

Why? You might ask. (Uh oh, you’re already asking questions...) Questions require thought, thought implies you’re doing your own thinking, and in Project Mayhem, that’s unacceptable. 

That means the Space Monkeys will have to slice off some fat and turn you into soap, but in a town like Boulder, soap will hard to come by, given the limited fat. Maybe that explains why some people walk around town in dirty clothing. I would say they’re homeless, but in Boulder appearing homeless actually is a style, so you never know. Or maybe they’re a segregated group of those attempting to hit bottom, and those appearing to hit bottom. Again, you never know.

The urge to indulge in self-destruction and the actual act of self-destruction are two entirely different things. It’s the difference between wearing non-prescription glasses for “style”-sake, and actually having to wear prescription glasses because the lens within their eyes have stressed enough to the point it no longer flexes properly, thus leaving you helpless without your precious eye-gear for the remainder of your days. Unless you get surgery. 

Self Improvement Is Self Destruction. Yes, I’ve cleaned that line up a bit from it’s original delivery, though I feel it holds a bit of weight, particularly within the wide world of running. The irony is if you flip “Improvement” and “Destruction”, the line still works and retains the same amount of weight. I bet right about now you’re starting to question, “Where is he going with this?” (Uh oh, you’re breaking the first rule of Project Mayhem again...) You’re beginning to wonder why I’m taking you so far down the rabbit hole, away from your latte, away from the white noise in the background of wherever you are, away from your present reality and well within the reality of these words that to be honest, are still just spiraling down into the dark hole. Who knows? (Crap, another question...)

Running involves a daily bout of self-destruction (LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL!). And through that destruction, comes improvement. Physically, Mentally, Emotionally, All of the Above, you must be broken down to build yourself back up - quite literally. Physically, Muscles must be broken down, with a hammer until they can longer handle it, Then, (via recovery), they come back Stronger. Mentally, you must push on, and on, and on, and on until you don’t really think you can anymore. Then you run some more. The wall of Pride and Ego has to fall before you can bulldoze through it (sure, that might not make sense - but remember the first rule of Project Mayhem). Emotionally, every run and workout starts out with all the Will in the world, but this one runs parallel with “Mentally”, when you want to stop and cry on the side of the road, hoping for mommy or daddy to come hold your hand and kiss your forehead, “everything’s going to be ok sweetheart.” they’ll say. Sorry sport, but mommy and daddy ain’t here, it’s all on you to finish this workout, so buck up and quit pouting on the side of the road, you’re about to hit by someone who doesn’t care about your feelings: Big Pappa Results. 

Big Pappa Results is the Godly-figure that looms over you daily, the black and white numerals of your last workout or race. There’s no hiding from Big Pappa Results, because he is everywhere. He's the reason you get out of bed before the sun rises to get in a hard workout, and he’s the reason you drown your sorrows away with alcohol when the wind is blowing against you in an endless uphill climb. Big Pappa Result, the tourist who never left. He’s everywhere, always.

Self Improvement is Self Destruction. There’s no crying baseball and there’s no hiding from Big Pappa Results. So before your next workout, when you’re sifting through the dresser drawer, searching for that musky flannel to place by your bed for tomorrow morning, before you slide on those non-prescription glasses and read an ethically challenging book by candle light, remember: Big Pappa Results is watching you. He saw you digging in your dirty laundry for clothes that smell of something that died under the refrigerator, and he saw you pick out those glasses at Claire’s Boutique for $9.99.

Some days you just have to literally run yourself into the ground, destroying all that you think matters until something climbs out of the ashes, stronger than ever. Only the survivor can describe what climbed out, and if it was worth it. 

But you can’t ask because the First Rule of Project Mayhem is you do not ask questions.

I am Jack's total lack of originality.

Training Camp & Breaking Marathon Pace

When I got to Phoenix last week for the PF Chang's Half Marathon, what seemed like a good idea a month ago was suddenly not seeming so good.  My training coming off of the marathon in December had not gone very well.  My longest workout had been 5 miles and to kill my confidence a little more, I found myself struggling to hit the my marathon pace that was coming so effortlessly 5 weeks before.

When the race started, I stayed between 6:00 to 6:05 pace for the first 5 miles.  Based on my training, I thought I would be lucky to hit marathon pace for this race.  After I got through 5, I felt surprisingly comfortable.  I thought I would try to grind down the pace a little bit and see how it felt.  I began to increase my effort and each mile that went by I was thinking, "Surely this mile is faster than 6:00."  6:05, 6:01, 6:03...5 miles later I was thinking, "You've got to be kidding me!"  My legs were not going to budge from marathon pace.  By mile 10 I was pretty frustrated and had had about enough of that.  I hit a slight downhill in the race and was able to use it as an opportunity to finally break out of marathon pace.  I averaged 5:51 for the last 3 miles and crossed the finish line with a 35 second PR of 1:18:45.  So thankful!

American Distance Project spent another week beyond that in Arizona for Training Camp.  Immediately after PF Chang's we headed up to Flagstaff for 3 days.  I had never been there before, but it was really beautiful...and much colder than Phoenix!  As a group we had been basking in 75 degree weather in Phoenix where Flagstaff was right around 10-15 degrees in the morning.  We had some beautiful runs out at Coconino National Park and were able to meet up with some of the McMillan athletes for an easy run.  I highly recommend Beaver Street Brewery and Macy's Café! 

After a few days in Flagstaff we headed back down to Phoenix for a track workout at Arizona State University.  I sat out of that one, but it was inspiring to see everyone working out under the lights of the track and reassuring to see the paces that they were able to hit at the lower elevation. 

Back to Colorado Springs tomorrow, and excited to get into some heavier training.  Next up is Gate River Run in Jacksonville, FL.  Big thank you to American Distance Project and Sharkees for a great trip!

Master's training

Its been awhile since I last posted. My introduction to the master's level has been a tougher transition then I thought. After running 8:24 3k and 29:54 10k less than two year's ago, my right knee has been a constant struggle. Its slowly getting better after a knee scope this past summer, but it may never be 100%. Hope to hit an indoor track meet 5k at Washington in two weeks with the goal of sub 14:35. Recent training: 1/14/13 - 9 miles easy - Cemetary 1/15/13 - 3 mile warm-up; 24 min of tempo effort on the Poudre River trail at 5:30 pace, two mile cooldown 1/16/13 - 80 min easy - Spring Creek Trail 1/17/13 - 9 miles easy - Cemetary 1/18/13 - 3 mile warm-up 6 x 600m 2min rest on CSU track 1:43 average 4 x 100m fast in spikes running start 13.2, 12.9, 12.8, 13.2 - Felt great to sprint again. Its been a long time, two mile cool down 1/19/13 - Sore today 13 hilly miles at Bacon Strip 1/20/13 - Off 34 minutes on eliptical in basement, light weights Week Mileage 59 miles 1/21/13 - 3 mile warm-up; 12 x 1 min hill repeats - South Horse Tooth two mile cool down 1/22/13 - 81 min Spring Creek trail 1/23/13 - 63 min easy strides 1/24/13 - 3 mile warm-up; 4 x 800m 2 min rest 2:27, 2:26, 2:22, 2:26 Cold this morning could not get going. 4 x 300m - 100m jog recovery (35 sec rest) 49, 50, 49, 47 Good luck with everyone's training!

Houston Marathon a hard 2:30

 

It was a long over due marathon which I was planning on racing New York City Marathon and it was canceled.  I started to train for NYCM in July, top mileage was 118 miles, longest mileage day was 35 miles, A1C during the build up was 5.7, and my best workout was 8x1mile hard, 1mile medium- avg. 5.01, medium miles 5:40 which was 85-90% of marathon race pace and 12x2min, 8x1min that same afternoon.  As good as my Training was for New York  Marathon was great until I raced USATF Club Cross Country Championships.  I was a 10k and I don't know why it messed me up, but my training suffered.  At Club Cross Champs,  I started the race out a little too fast 4:40 first mile, but we used it as a tune up for Houston and it took 2 weeks to get over the mental and physical strand on my body.  I'm sure training for 6 months was too long without any breaks, but it was hard for me to conceder to throw away all the hard work I had done so I pressed on for 10 more weeks from NYCM to Houston Marathon.  I also was a little sick going in to the race with a lingering head cold and a bunch a junk in my throat.  I don't know if that was a problem but I know all week long it kept me from sleeping.  I'm sure it had some effects on my for the race, but there is no gauge on how much it would have affected me.

 

The extra time for figuring out my blood sugar problems with racing fast helped to fix some of the kinks.  That helped me out a lot I was also much better at traveling and eating what was available to me and for Houston I didn't have any problems with my hands swelling.  Which has been a big concern that I have chatted with Missy Foy about and Dr. Chris Monty.  I know some of my issues with racing fast is my body buffering system is not working correctly and I feel I'm getting closer to a solution.  I don't always have the option of going out slow for every race especially if I want to compete for the win.  Winning is much less likely if I don't go out with the leaders or at least closes to the leaders.  That was one of the biggest success I had in Houston was that my hands didn't swell up much at all.  I have been trying a couple of different things to stop the hands swelling.  I changed my diet to 99% gluten free and Dairy free to keep from slowing my lymphatic system down some of the other digestive problems that comes with those foods.  I also need some more vitamin B-6 and that was more for my Krebs cycle and training at the high intensity level that I do.  Probiotics to keep my digestives system running and healthy.  I took a little more then I had been thinking and it worked great!  I also started to take some of Power Bars High Intensity- Beta Alanine which helps buffer the lactic acid in your body.

 

As for Houston pre race nutrition preparation I was eating more carbs then normal and had to take a little more insulin to balance that stuff out a little better.  I would have smoothie in the morning maybe some Organic Sharkies as a snack, salad for lunch with a Lara bar or 2, then I did make some chili for some of my meals that week, but dinner is usually pretty small.  The day before the race I had a package of Sharkies and a Protein Plus Power Bar, Lunch I got in to Houston later so another Power Bar and some cashews, and Dinner I had a big salad and a little bit of chicken with another bar for the carbo loading.  Race Morning I had a couple of bars worth about 400 to 500 calories and was ready to race.  durning the race I took a Power Bar Gel at mile 8 or 9 because I felt like I might be a bit low of BG and at 25 because I need something to change up the scenario.  Other than gel I had water most of the way and at 5 miles I took some Gatorade at an aid station when I missed a gel stop.

 

It was an overall ok race, but I want more and all my training was based on 5:00 to 5:10.  My body was ready tor run under 2:15 and racing much slower is a big problem because the way my body used energy was based on those paces.  I did not train to run 2:30 or 2:20 and that made racing this marathon much more painful.  I did feel pretty good up until 10 to 11 miles and at that point I could feel my body really start to tighten up.  I had a side cramp right after 11 miles to 14, plus I could feel my IT bands start to tighten too.  There are a lot of things to improve and I need to change for my next marathon.  For the most part I was pretty happy with how I controlled my diabetes for the race.

 

I want to race a Marathon where I feel good at 1/2 marathon at my goal marathon pace.  It has not happened yet and it drives me nuts that I can put together a half marathon.  It will come and I know I'm close and the weather was bad, but in my mind I still want more then a 2:30 marathon.

 

What is next for me I will hold off to plan because I need some time off training.  I will take a couple of weeks off and start a build up, however I wont start setting up races until I'm extremely fit.  I hate planning races before my fitness comes around and not know if I'm ready to race or not.  I will fight all temptation to put anything on my schedule until I know I'm and my peak fitness.

 

Tommy

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Since it's the Bobby-and-Shannon-Blog Show, it looks like I'm up.

Alright, so maybe nix USA Cross Country this year. Following a return to training post-Club Cross Country, I managed to string together a handful of half-decent runs...but my foot. My dadgum foot. I figured taking a week off after Clubs would yield a miraculous recovery--actually I never thought twice about it--but to no avail. Following a uh...really delightful (attempted)...long run up the Chutes to Goldcamp Road that ended up being abruptly halted by said foot--resulting in a LONG walk/jog/hobble/shuffle back home (but at least it was nice out) I actually had to relent to the fact that there might be something up. And that it might unfortunately have nothing to do with too-tight shoelaces, which is what I'd been telling myself since freakin' October.

So fast-forward a couple of weeks and one reluctant MRI later, the mystery of the last two and a half months of not quite being able to run longer than about 4-5 miles at a given time and not even being able to put together more than a couple consecutive days of that without my toe feeling like it might snap in half, was finally solved as there was not one, not two, but two and a half (the half being a stress reaction) stress fractures in my big toe. One toe. It didn't even spread the love to any other toes. That poor guy, not sure what happened there.

Sometimes it's just like....wtf?

So as my friend/teammate Amanda asked me the other day, "So, are you just like 'SERIOUSLY?!'" Yes, I'm just like SERIOUSLY. Not being particularly prone to stress fractures, there's about a half a dozen potential reasons I could think of for how the whole thing transpired: Could've been the upped-mileage this past year (slightly likely), the upped-mileage being performed mostly in less shoe than what I'm used to (very likely), the attempt at vegetarianism that I still get made fun of for (unlikely), the slightly altered and hopefully more effective (at least eventually) mechanics recommended to me by a biomechanist I saw last spring; more specifically, one issue being that I didn't effectively use my big toe during push-off (incidentally on what ended up being the affected side) and needed to learn how to do it better (also very likely), the suggestion of acquiring more of a forefoot strike (also very likely) with less of a shoe (again, likely), or it could've been the quick-as-possible comeback from an SI joint injury last summer (slightly likely), or maybe the fact that I stupidly can't seem to learn to take an easy day all that easy and can't get away with it as easily as I could in college any longer (very likely), or it could be a combination of most or all of these things. Whatever the case, advice thrown in for free: when it comes to your mechanics, if you're going to make changes, no matter how small, you'd better do it painstakingly slowly. Thousands of steps a day makes small pretty huge.

Or it may not have been any of these things. I've decided that if you try to figure out a reason for every single setback your body throws at you, you'll just drive yourself nuts and get paranoid over every niggle. There will always be weak links to fix, but if you change one thing, you'll change everything, so approach with caution. Sometimes it's a single misstep that'll throw you off for weeks, and it just has to run its course. I guess you just have to avoid things that you know don't work, be proactive, and take care of stuff as best as you know how to before a molehill becomes a mountain, but you can't prevent everything and you can't always learn from everything either. But in spite of that, there are always blessings in disguise. A screwed up SI joint and messed up hip/hamstring that put me out for almost two months last summer led to the discovery of an awful lot of longstanding imbalances going on in the hip flexors, glutes, core, and low back, and thanks to being forced to address all of those issues during the downtime, I now have a pair of hamstrings that aren't forever feeling ripped-in-half after EVERY workout (for the last two years) and glutes that actually do their share of the work. So there is occasionally a silver lining. Two steps forward, one step back, and eventually things get there. Although truthfully the actual training part of this sport can sometimes be the least challenging part of the process of "getting there."

On the upside, this injury isn't nearly as tough a nut to crack as that one was: No tight this or weak that or scar tissue to be broken up here or there. Just four to six weeks and GO. In the meantime, back to my Injury BFF's the pool and the stationary bike out in the garage (who I have christened Old Goldie--he's older than me and has been my faithful ally in many a comeback) and soon enough the Alter-G.

Okay, admittedly 2013 hasn't gotten off to the greatest start, it's a pretty discouraging start actually. I'm really disappointed I won't be on the line in St. Louis on February 3rd, chances are I'll be unplugging myself from the running world as much as possible that day. But sometimes that's the risk you run for putting most of your eggs in one really small basket: extreme disappointment. But, as Cassie said to me referencing her broken foot following last year's Clubs (and that was a legit break, none of this measly crack-in-the-bone nonsense) that caused her to miss most of last year including the Trials, "There's a reason for it, I just haven't figured out what it is yet."

2012 was far from everything I was hoping for. But even so, I PR'ed once, I finished higher than I ever have at Clubs (and a few spots closer to Team USA--baby steps), and I got out of some of the training ruts that I got myself stuck in for the last few years. Two steps forward and one step back. So here's to an injury-free and PR-plagued rest of 2013.