Dragons

Perdon.

It has been a long, long time since I updated the good old training blog so I will just hit you with the fast facts instead of an in depth analysis of my training.

First and foremost, I have been suffering from a tweaked foot for the past 2 weeks. Basically, it boils down to pain at the top of the arch near the front part of the foot. So, unless I am well taped, well iced, and well medicated with ibuprofen, I experience a little bit of pain while running. I am just going to live with it as I can run but it certainly adds a large amount of inconvenience into my daily routine. Treating an injury is an involved process that is just annoying but, in the long run, well worth the trouble.

Anyways, in regards to training, I still feel like we haven't hit it too hard yet. On Monday, we did some longer intervals on the riverpath near my neighborhood which were quite painful. We were assigned 2x1.5 miles and 2x800 with 2:00 rest. I ran the first 1.5 mile interval in 7:28 and then the second in 7:25. For the 800's, I ran 2:19 and then 2:17 for the last one. Because my foot became slightly irritated at the end, I held back on the 800's and then just worked on kicking the last 100 meters which was my first introduction to speed work this year.

After a solid interval session on Wed, I knew that I was physically ready to race at Griak but my legs/body in general felt like garbage. I had a super hard week in school which usually translates to little sleep and this week was no exception.

Roy Griak:

After a long day of traveling with no water (stupid FAA) and absolutely no food, we arrived at the course in cold and rainy Minneapolis around 4:00 PM local time. After jogging the course and doing some strides, I realized that I would need a miracle to happen if my legs were going to feel better.

Unfortunately, a miracle did not happen and I felt like garbage the whole race. After a 4:53 first mile, two miles at 10:25 and 5k at 16:08, I knew I was going backwards. Between 5K and 7K, I felt like I was trotting and before finally picking it up and running a somewhat strong final mile to finish in 26:30 and 123 place.

I was not happy with my place or time at all but the team did manage to pull out the win thanks to Bob, Obed, Moses, and a great run by Echa. I finished 7th on the team but ran horrible. ASU's 9th man outkicked me and I was dominated by their 7th who I recently beat at our home race (ASU is the only team we have raced twice so I am just using them as a measuring device).

Getting the team win was certainly cool as most of us agreed that we have a long ways to go and look forward to hitting it hard in the next couple of weeks in preparation for pre nats.

I hope everyone's training is going well.

Bear Down!