Yes, I'm still alive...

WOOOO I'M BACK!

  So it has been nearly 2 months since my last blog post and surely all six of my followers are just dying to see what's going on in Lamperski land (sarcasm). Luckily my blog is in part a reflection for me as I look into my past one day, showing my child that yes, I was not always fat. I was on a hiatus from running of sorts, I wasn't racing and I was logging my workout specifications to kind of stay off of the grid. After 4-5 weeks of solid fitness gains, I hit a hump in the road and have been in a pretty bad slump since as this blog will recap.

  "Over 30 and Under 15" what a ballsy statement for someone who has an inconsistent history and about 25 seconds to trim off of my personal record, meaning 8+ seconds per mile FASTER than I have ever gone before. In fact its pretty funny to think about now, but sometimes you just have to throw goals out there to hold you attainable. I am not one who is super regimented in attaining goals over long stretches and I have realized that stating my goals via social networking tends to keep me on track without looking like a fool (at least I think so?). After the CRC 8k and sub 27 clocking, my fitness was moving in the right direction and I was excited at the thought of getting in speed workouts. "Take the Lead"  was the source of my training plan yet again and I began segmenting workouts to increase distance and speed as each week went by.

Running Attire
 pre Blog phase

   An example of a workout would be 5 x 400m (75-76sec) with 1min rest on a Wednesday, then the following Wednesday I would do 6 x 400m (75sec) with 1min recovery and so forth. I would routinely switch up the segments to 800's, 1000's and eventually mile repeats. I knew right away that I had the legs but not the lungs/cardio for fast racing. Tempo's traditionally were my weak point year ago so I spent a lot of time working on that aspect and got away from the quick turnover needed for anything 10k or below in my opinion. Essentially I wanted to focus on the short distance to obviously set new personal records but to also not dedicate so much time to training since the distance was short enabling the training to be the same. When I was running up to 70 miles a week I was in great shape but I felt like that's all I did and was a priority, so the 40-50 mile range is what I was looking for with a lot of quality work.

   MEXICO! Yes Mexico, that's what happened, but it was O so good! Karin and I traveled to Riviera Maya, Mexico for a week long holiday of basking in the sun by the pool bar. It was simply amazing and the food was even more mouth watering for a Mexican cuisine lover. Unfortunately the running was not that great there, it was in the upper 80's and humid and I was on vacation after all. Fortunately I used the treadmill a couple times in the fancy spa and managed to burn out one of them while rocking out my sub 5min fartlek intervals! Too much food and too many mixed drinks managed to weaken my immune system and as we arrived back into Charlotte through our various connecting flights I was sick. Week after week went by and it would not go away, Mucinex, Zicam, DayQuil, NyQuil, and finally Amoxicillin. I did not feel like myself until about March 15th, dating back to February 24th being the 1st onset of sickness.

My Good Friend Katrina "Coco Loco"

The extent of my training in Mexico, Jumping over little girls in the pool

   Being that I was sick and fighting this seemingly deathly virus I managed to compete in a 5k in Wilmington (only because my friend Greg planned his weekend around this race) and take the W. The time was nothing to write home about but at least I was able to run and Greg won the 10k going away! I was on the 1 day on 3 days off running track for those 3-4 weeks and assumed that my fitness was very depleted. As the week rolled by the prescription drugs were kicking in and I was beginning to feel better.

My last 3 weeks

 Adam Mayes told me about the "Angels of 97 5k" in Huntersville weeks back and it was tempting, especially since everyone was racing Tobacco Road or the Shamrock 4-miler. One day I emailed Allan Strickland after seeing that he was 5th overall in last year results but in an unusually slow time for him, thankfully he was gracious enough to share with me his recap HERE. I planned on Friday night to tentatively do this race but I found that I was struggling to get out of bed lacking motivation. I had no indicator as too what my fitness level was but I figured, why not take a stab at winning $100, it would actually help me pay to have the A/C serviced in my truck so I am not sitting in a sweat box as I was last summer.
  
    After running behind and driving a bit too quickly to the race, I made it, signed up and caught up with Adam Mayes who told me that Mike Beigay, Brad Popple and himself were racing. For some reason instead of getting nervous, I thought to myself, "great. people to run with and push for a faster time!". Adam and I did a 2 mile warm-up, I changed into my flats and did 1 stride, "Let's do it!". Eventually we were allowed to make our way to the start line and Dennis yelled out "On your mark, get set, GO!". Brad and I took off together for the 1st 1/2 mile or so and I felt very relaxed, in fact I looked at my garmin and made myself slow down. I pulled away a bit just before the mile and decided to keep pushing hard until the 2 mile at least and see what happens. As I passed the mile my garmin didn't beep and I thought, I may actually run a race that doesn't end up being 3.2 miles! 5:07 on my garmin, about 5:03-4 on the race counter I would guess and I attacked the steep hill. Let's keep this going, I maintained the same effort and felt pretty solid with my form up until the 2 mile which I hit in 5:08 on my garmin, so 10:15 at 2 miles.

   The last mile wasn't too bad until I hit the North Mecklenburg campus and had to run uphill to the finish. Knowing the distance to the finish from the street when my Garmin hit 3 miles, I knew right then it was not going to be 0.1. I eased up a bit as I turned the corner and saw Popple a clip back but I was still hurting. I crossed the line as it ticked over 16:28...29 and had to put my hands in the air they actually had a finishing tape, which was pretty cool. After reflecting on the race, I ran 5:07, 5:08 and 5:12 through my mile splits and averaged 5:19 per mile, adds up right? Ha I guess I was walking that last straight away or the course was a bit long as my watch indicated 3.19 for me( i would include my garminconnect data but I can't find my ANT stick to link up!).

Cooper River 2007

 Overall I was pumped with this run because after all of the set backs, I still think I could do fairly well at Cooper River. I have 2 weeks to get my Sh*t together and compete again, not with the Kenyan men but the Kenyan women. I am so thankful that I was able to run again and hopefully continue to, barring no injuries or illness. To my surprise Karin my fiance' set a big personal record in her 5miler race in her hometown of Rochester, NY. She also set a 5k PR in route to this 5 mile PR, I think I was happier to find that out than I was by running well at my own race, GREAT WORK KARIN, I LOVE YOU GIRL! More too come, next update will most likely be after the Cooper River Bridge 10k on march 30th, wish me luck, I really need it!