5/2/06

Things are going well right now. I am very excited to get back to running but fighting the temptation to go too hard too early. Spending four days around running is a good way to get the competitive juices flowing for me. Last Friday my team competed at the Simpson relays. Nearly everyone on the team ran to personal best times and provided a great cap to a good season. I am proud of them. Saturday we went to watch the Drake Relays, one of the most famous track meets in the country. Unfortunately the weather was pretty nasty. It rained and rained and rained. I actually spent most of the time in the Drake Fieldhouse where they held the high jump and pole vault. Some of the best athletes in the world competed which made the day quite exciting for a track junkie like me. On the way back to Fulton, I hitched a ride to Kansas City with a friend and spent the rest of the weekend with some old friends which was great. A few beers and a couple hours of sleep later I went to watch Pat run the Trolley Run. Some of the best runners in the region were there which was really cool to see. Before the race I met Ben Rosario and Matt Helbig from Big River Running Co. They seemed like really cool guys and I hope to get to run with them sometime. They actually invited us to participate in their Elite Two Mile they are putting on in St. Louis Thursday. Pat may go...I can't run that fast now. So needless to say, I left KC with an all new passion for the sport. I saw guys I have raced with in the recent past run to some great times at Trolley. Knowing that I can compete with guys who ran 4:50 pace for four miles when I was completely out of shape is a good sign of great things to come. I am pumped.

Here is my running for the last few days:

Wednesday April 26: 34 minutes alone IT Band exercises
Thursday April 27: 35 minutes with Pat
Friday April 28: off IT Band exercises
Saturday April 29: off
Sunday April 30: 30ish minutes warming up with Pat for Trolley felt pretty good
Monday May 1: 35 minutes with Jamie IT Band exercises and Calf exercises

So far I am feeling great. The IT band is tight but I am doing quite a bit of exercises to get rid of it for good. I am following the advice I read on the Peak Performance website and I am doing a lot of ecentric squats and a lot of ecentric calf excercises. I am also stretching all the time. I plan to run 20-40 minutes today with Pat.

I have a plan for my next running goal... I'll talk more about that later.