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In June I ran the Dipsea race for the 4th time, and won my 2nd Black T-Shirt with my 24th place finish! I usually write an extensive post on what's my favorite race, but just didn't happen this time (click the Dipsea tag below if you're really curious about prior years). My spring season had been rolling, but I hadn't trained specifically for the unique trail race (which I always said was necessary). Still, coming off my best 10K in 10 years, and one really strong workout on the Dipsea course, I expected both my best place and best time on the course. These days I'm usually calm and relaxed on race mornings, but this time I had nerves of Jelly starting the afternoon before! Race morning was HOT. I felt flat and out of rhythm for the first 20 minutes of the race, but finally turned it on during the second half of the big climb. Realizing the heat seemed to be affecting a lot of people, I was rolling with little resistance on the most technical downhill section when boom, I feel a tweak in my ankle (the same one I had injured twice previously). I saw my black shirt aspirations fly out the window, but at the bottom of the stairs I realized I could still run on it. It was time to stop feeling sorry for myself and keep rolling - just a little more cautiously. My time of 33:40 was exactly a minute slower than my 2010 best, and 5 places back, but I was happy to overcome some adversity and get that Black T-Shirt for finishing in the top 35!
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My son Jackson turned 1 last week! Yes - everybody who told me that it would go by so fast, you were right! He's walking, learning new words every week, and been a ton of fun. I really hoped to keep my running going after becoming a dad, and thanks so much to Dana for being so supportive. Some good advice I got from another dad runner was to treat running like a time management exercise - find the time, get it done, and be efficient. It helps that I leave for work between 5:15 - 5:30am then get home early. We've had quite a few days where I'll go to work before dawn, get home at 4pm, Dana heads out for a run while I play with Jack, after spending a little time with all three of us together, then she starts to get him ready for bed while I head out for a run. Then dinner around 8pm, bed at 9. We've enjoyed our weekends, which are far less hectic! Here's me playing with my cute little guy!
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I'm still stoked at how the US mid-distance and distance runners performed in the Olympics. The highlight for me by far was seeing Galen Rupp battle with the Ethiopians on the last lap, storming down the home stretch for the silver. I made quite a scene watching it from an airport bar. I was pretty close to buying a round for the whole bar, which luckily only would have been three other people. I thought Leo Manzano could be a sleeper if he found his best stuff, and sure enough he did coming out of nowhere for a silver. After that we had 4 other 4th place finishes (Duane Soloman - 800, Matt Centrowitz - 1500, Bernard Lagat - 5000, Meb Keflezighi - marathon). Also depth wise on the men's side we saw 2 in the top 5 in the 800, 3 in the top 10 of the 5000, and 2 in the top 8 in the steeplechase.
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The morning before Rupp won his silver, I finished second place in a somewhat less significant race - the 50th annual John Kelley 11.6 mile road race in New London Connecticut. The race is completely free and run in honor of the former Boston Marathon winner and two-time Olympian. In addition to being the 50th anniversary of the race, it was the first running since John passed away in 2011. It was long, humid, but a lot of fun. Averaged 5:39 pace which I was happy with given the weather and how early in the season it was.
Here's the wiki article on John Kelley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_J._Kelley
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The PA cross country season has started. The West Valley TC men's open team keeps attracting more and more talented runners to the club. While, I have to resist the urge to over-train on the workout days (instead of saving the best efforts for race-day), it has been fun to chase the faster guys. I'm definitely feeling fitter and faster! Despite getting faster, I keep getting pushed down the WVTC depth chart. But that's a good thing - it's fun to be a part of such a strong team, and sets the bar higher which helps me get better. Through the first 4 races of the season, and team has won 3 times and runner up once. I finished in the top 10 in the 3 races I've run. Here I am in the 2nd race:
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I plan to write a separate post on training. The bullet points: I'm getting better and listening to my body like I did successfully back in high school. Once you experience the benefits of increasing your mileage (and there are many), it's so easy to become a slave to your weekly mileage. It is by far the most quantifiable measure of training, so naturally many runners - myself included - make irrational decisions around weekly mileage. At times I've been a slave to it. Sometimes a runner needs a day or two of easy or no running to realize the benefits of prior training. Consistency and the trend of mileage/workouts/recovery over the course of a training cycle is what leads to good results, not arbitrary benchmarks in a given week.
