2011 TRAINING/RACING IN REVIEW

    Throughout this year, just as every year I have had some major ups and downs when it comes to athletics. I took a huge leap of faith towards the end of 2010, packed up my bag(literally), gave away all of my clothes and essentially started over in Australia. Luckily I was very fortunate to meet some pretty cool people who really showed me how to race just a bit better while embracing the torture of racing. In July upon my return from my adventures in Australia, New Zealand and California I shattered my arm and wiped away all goals for 2011 and got a much needed break that I did not want.

   Even though I did very limited training from May-September I managed to rack up some new personal records even after my injury somehow. The list of 2011 includes;

3k - 9:08 > Challenge Stadium, WA
4k - 12:13 > HBF Run for a reason
5k - 15:25 > Challenge Stadium, WA
Marathon - 2:40:43 > RNR Savannah, Ga
Olympic Distance Triathlon - 2:03+ > WA
70.3 Ironman - 4:30:09 > Busselton, WA

       My main goal of 2012 has already been stated and I can tell you its going to be a very hard target to hit. Looking ahead I will have most likely in the ballpark of 5 months to go from chunky monkey Chris to fit and fab stallion. I would like to run in the 2012 USATF Master's track and field championship as well, which is late into summer but attaining my time goals will be a spring mission for me. I have been trying to figure out what makes me tick, what training works for me and how to train in a new fashion to maximize my fitness.


   After accessing my goals for 2012, I know for a fact that I need to visit with a dietitian to help me buckle down and get my race weight down while also building appropriate strength in order to handle faster speeds again. Having a coach would be the best thing for me as I do need an accountability partner but I am optimistic that Karin and my other close friends will assist me to getting my lazy ass out the door for some workouts. In the past while training according to the Scott Simmons training plan, I quickly lowered some PR's and focused much better while racing, so I am going to adapt some of those training philosophies once again. My mileage will need to really ramp up and be much more consistent with threshold/speed sessions. As it stands right now, over the last 2 months I have hit 38 miles in a week as my highest mileage paired with some 20-30 miles weeks, nothing that makes champions, lets just say (972 annual, 33 per week avg!). Optimistically I keep telling myself I will be fine starting on January 1st but in reality I know that I needed to start months ago.

   The marathon was a much easier goal for me to conquer in my opinion because all I needed to do was put time on my feet. I didn't ramp up crazy mileage, mostly because I just didn't have time too, but I only did 1 marathon pace run which was a whopping 5 miles leading up to Savannah. Attempting to race at below 4:50 per mile is going to hurt in a bad bad way. My hamstring injury from 2003 continues to pop up nearly every time I do strides (which is non existent at this point), so I am thinking that my legs will begin to rip apart by the end of January, just in time for the CRC Winter Classic 8k. Tentatively I am hoping to join up with many CRC members for quality training so that I can really get into my groove and may even throw in a couple road races for tuning up and fun of course. So after Saturday if you see me eating a double bacon cheeseburger with onion rings and chili cheese fries, I give you permission to slap me.


  On my next blog I am going to speak about progression and how it has worked for me. Starting from my late high school years up until this point and how making little gains in fitness gave me confidence to continue pushing my boundaries. It's pretty cool looking back and seeing the slow yet steady progress through the years.

2012: Another Year of progress - "Goal setting"

  So after a fun, frustrating, incredible, death defying 2011, I have decided to kick off 2012 with a new blog, that will track the conquering, bone crushing, plantar hurting, side cramping, lactic pumping, rise and fall of my athletic goals. At this point in time, due to my wrist/arm surgery I am still not to a point where I can ride a bike comfortably so I am solely focusing on my running specific ambitions.

   It has been a year of ups and downs for me with my running, but all in all, I managed to set personal records in the 3k, 5k, and marathon, despite my triathlon periodization and motorcycle crash. Have to look at the positive side of things to keep my mind and my feet going forward of course. There have been numerous occasions when some of my closest friends have inspired me to really test my limits out in my 30th year. Cody broke out of no where with a 15:12/8:56 5k/3k while I was in Australia, big Adam ripped off a 2:37 in Melbourne, Billy dropped a 2:38 at Thunder Road, John Compton busted a 1:08+ half at Savannah, and Alana Hadley keeps consistently improving with her 1:16:58 HM (Footlocker Finalist as well). So these people keep pushing me to really strive for more from myself, to keep pecking away at those times.

   While in Australia, my close friend Cody Angell challenged myself and our friends to breaking the 15minute barrier in a 5000m race on the track. He kept pushing himself day in and day out and has crept closer and closer to his goals. With a stunning cast of runners at his running disposal, he intends to again break that barrier in the Australian summer track season which is now. After finishing the Savannah Rock N Roll marathon in November, I decided that I would focus solely on the shorter stuff again in 2012. That being said, I do have one BIG goal of 2012 and that is to run 14:59 in a 5000m track race this spring/summer. Choosing the track is an accurate way to create a PR, as opposed to road course which measure slightly different every time.

5000m - race length

14:59 - race time

4:49 - per mile pace

3:00 - per kilometer pace

   To some, this might be a mark that they have hit numerous times, while others may not even be able to comprehend the time. After looking at the McMillan Pace Calculator and seeing the equivalent times across the board it is quite frightening to think that this could be a possibility. 4:49 per mile, wow, that in itself would be hard for me to run solo right now I feel. Thankfully I have a good crew of people who support me in the community. TrySports supports my ambitions fully and the CRC has been a great outlet for me to use while getting back into marathon shape so quickly this year.

   Sometimes we all need a fire lit under us to really get us motivated. I often lack the motivation to get out the door on some of those early cold mornings, but hopefully some of you out there can help hold me accountable. I will need to really step up the mileage and actually plan in weekly speed sessions into my routine. It may seem and BE a long shot, but why not shoot high? It's NOT going to win me an Olympic medal even in the women's race by a long shot but hey its a barrier and I would like to say I broke it at 30 years old, a MASTER in track terms believe it or not.


   So to all of you haters out there, I know that you may think this to be a silly dream given that I need to trim off nearly 30 seconds from a PR I set over a year ago almost, thank you. You are the one's that fuel my fire and allow me to push through the hard days when I would certainly like to be laying on a coach or the bed relaxing. In order for this to happen, I am certain that I will need the guidance of a sports dietician as well as a coach to hold me accountable for my progress. To achieve this goal I will set up a series of open/collegiate running events most likely at UNCC, Duke, Raleigh Relays and Wake Forest.

   The next few weeks I will be taking things very slowly as I have just begun incorporating strength work into my routine, to become stronger all around. It is a slow process as my arm still hurts as I am barely holding myself up while attempting push ups, but it will soon come around. So here is to 2012 and goals, we all need to keep going forward with our passions despite what people think of it or even if it seems nearly impossible but you miss 100% of the shots you never take right?