Every little thing If you give it time Is destined to change you

Back in February, the tide was turning. I had a respectable, albeit average race at USA Cross finishing 10th only a few seconds out of 7th or 8th. But the thing is, I felt the feeling where I was just a race or two away from running really well. Really, really well. I have experienced this before and I really believe that I was honestly on track. For whatever reason(s), since the Monday after the Spokane race in February when I did a 2:30 run on the snow and ice of the Mnpls Lakes with Vega, it's been pure crap on the running front. In March, I got sick the Monday before the Gate River 15k in Jacksonville. In April I tied together some lackluster training including a ridiculous 10 miles of running on the track in spikes where it worked out to be 20x400 in basically 61-62 with 400m jog. IN SPIKES. 10 MILES. Not good. At all. This was really stupid and from this I developed a sore achilles that reared it's ugly head a couple days before the Cardinal Invite 10000m the first of May. Since then I first tried to just run miles for a month after 5 days off, and then finally in mid-June or so I decided to take three weeks off totally to let the thing heal. It definitely was the trick and although I feel almost zero pain running it's just a matter of entirely eliminating scar tissue and it will be time to get this mother rolling. Never have I been more motivated to race well and try and beat people that I am supposed to beat. My mindset in races will be modeled after James Carney which is basically telling yourself to flip it and see what happens.

On top of all this, I was definitely coasting on fumes due to what some may call overtraining. Maybe the whole achilles deal was a way for my body to trick me into giving it a rest. I pack on the lbs pretty easily, but since Julie and I now live together and bought a home in SLP we eat relatively healthy and I am only 3 or 4 lbs from racing weight. I have felt the best I have since Summer/Fall '08 on the easy runs.

So the bottom line is I needed to rest. I did. I needed new motivation. I have that for sure. I needed a change of scenery. SLP is freaking awesome and I love the running here so it's been a fantastic move. Hoping to spend the next 8 weeks or so training intelligently and getting in racing shape before unleashing something around mid-October. Wishing the best for everyone out there.