Mud Run + a Kick in the Butt

   It's time for a shining new update on the 5k training regimen that I have commenced since January 1st towards my goal and well it has had some up and downs. After starting out very consistently over the 1st 2 weeks of my training with incorporating attainable speed workouts and mileage I was feeling pretty confident that in 90 days I would have a pretty solid level of fitness to at least break my 15:26 PR on the track, then running started to take a back seat to some big events in life.

Karin is on the left of course

  For those who may not know, I am now engaged to my lovely fiance Karin, and this is the big event in life that I am referring to. In short, most may not know but while away living in Australia, Karin and I kept in communication with a few skype sessions every week and nearly daily emailing, accompanied with a 2 week visit by her, so we were really able to establish a relationship while most had no clue we were even talking. OK, back to the running, while sneaking around trying to make the final arrangements for the ring running seemed to fall on the back burner but for good reason of course. There last 2 weeks have been pretty crazy with what seems like a constant stream of events over our engagement and our b-days, that's my excuse anyways.


   My 1st true test of fitness would come at the US national white water center in the 9-mile trail race which could have been labeled "Muddy Buddy 9 miler" as it rained all weekend and the course was pretty damn sloppy. Fortunately I did not fall once and came out unscathed from the race and even recorded a W. The goal was to run with Kevin Lisska as long as I could to establish who was in the 9-mile race and then just after half way drop a very hard surge to hopefully break open the race and it went off without a hitch. On the hardest mile of the course I took off and "went for it" luckily enough to outdistance 2nd place, whom was actually on my high school soccer team and has taken to running success very quickly. Karin finished up the race with a smile as well, only muddy and never have fallen, I think that made me just as happy.  9-mile results


   In the days proceeding the trail race I didn't feel any soreness which was a pleasant surprise and I attacked my track workouts. Running faster than my goal splits once again, I was thinking that the upcoming CRC trail 8k could be a pretty solid event for me. Finally, 2 nights before the race I signed up and it was official, I was racing. While evaluating my fitness level, I knew for sure I was in sub 27 shape but wasn't sure if that meant 26:30 or 26:59, so I decided to just stick with the leaders and to see how 3:15-3:20 per K felt. Basically from the Gun, a small lead pack formed passing 1k in 3:16 and dropping it down to 3:14 on the 2nd K to break open the field. We maintained around 3:20 the rest of the way while changing positions a few times, but I could tell the 1st hill worked my aerobic system a bit too much and by the 2nd pass of it i felt pretty unmotivated.

Compton, Matena, Paul and myself taking it out

   At that point the goal was to keep Dan in my sights as Paul surged past us and John was smooth sailing up ahead. While relaxing and feeling sad for myself I managed to let Dan keep floating further and further ahead. This is still one area I need to work on, when I don't make these races my "goal" race I tend to back down a bit too much. I finished with a decent 3:14 last K for 26:55 and 4th overall. Immediately after the race I could identify my downfalls in training, mileage which in turn increases the aerobic system. My legs felt great the entire race but I just had some extreme difficulty breathing and everything I tried to surge I felt like I was in middle school and having another mini asthma attack. Looking back over the month of January, Bill Shires posted the CRC Mileage results and I had a pretty discouraging #, 184 miles for the entire month of January~ wow that's about 46 miles per week, which isn't horrible but there was a time when I was hitting about 100 miles more per month and I was in amazing fitness.

   The race proved to be a big wake up call for me and has helped me go back to the drawing board and to push through with increasing my mileage. I will never be where I need to be for a collegiate meet if I don't start putting in some long work, I am putting in the hard intervals but I need to additional mileage to allow my body to accept these workouts properly. At this point my next race is still the Charlotte 49er Classic on March 16th. under the lights. Hopefully I can get a few other local faces to jump in and try for a quick time. All in all I am happy that I am still able to get out of the door to run but I really need to kick it in overdrive before the 16th as well as taking my running to the Cooper River Bridge 10k, hopeful to beak my PR of 32:48. Thank you to the CRC for keeping my motivated, TrySports for keeping my healthy and Cody Angell for keeping me focused.