relentless forward progress

Very easy on the flat grass loops at the sports park. Legs feel much better now after yesterdays soreness. So nice out.. 7:52

 More easiness on the grass and dirt loops on a perfect afternoon. Ran into Rachelle and got to chat a little which was cool :). Finished with strides. Hope to speed tomorrow :). 7:18

Tried a little speed workout today. I have to start somewhere. 2 mile warmup. .5 mile transition 2:50 just to take the edge off of the faster stuff. Then 6 x 400 progressive. 80, 78, 76, 75, 72, 70. Did some 90 second jogs in between at 7:45 pace and then finished with an easy cooldown. I would have done a few more but I was pressed for time today. The good thing is everything felt pretty good. The last one was really pushing for me, I actually think it's a 400 PR lol. Starting point.

I'm just going to keep it short for a while and get used to running every day again, even if it's only 5-7 miles. Throw some intervals in, some hill repeats, and some tempo miles as I get going and try to knock down my shorter distance PR's. By the time July rolls around I should be in a great place to start ramping it up and have a successful late summer/fall season.

6:30

ez on the trail after work. 7:12

 Easy with Scott, Matt, Mike, and Toni. I turned back early with Toni to stick to my planned 8. A little chilly but a great morning. Saw Marie, Josee and girls on the way back. 6:56.

After the banter the other day I became fascinated with a dose of Irish history. I can tell you Bam I think the story is awesome so the blog name is not mocking at all. :)

Easy run with Matt and Scott around Matt's hood. Matt and I did 6 and wished Scott well as he continued on. Threw some strides in at the end. The 5k tomorrow should be fun. It will be good to see where I'm at with almost zero prep and to have a starting point. Maybe Matt can carry me :). 7:06

This is the first 5k I've ran since last July and I was fairly unprepared but I needed to have a baseline to move forward with. This was a fun race. Lined up with team mates Matt and Trevor and soon enough we were off. There was a pack of 5 that went out very quick and then I was in the 4 person chase pack that was about 3 meters back at the half mile point. By the 1 mile marker I was about 10 meters behind the lead group of four and all the guys with me had faded back so I was all alone the rest of the race. I saw one of the guys on the lead pack fall off at the 2 mile mark and made it my goal to try and catch him but it didn't quite happen. I faded a bit on the last mile which is about right considering I haven't done much of anything speed wise and that I was solo. I was hoping to be under 17:30 but it just isn't there yet. Trevor won the race with Matt a close second. Good day for the team. Course was a bit long and I ended up 5th in 18:20.

I'm happy to have a starting point now. I know that I have lost some fitness this year but I am in a good place and it will come back quickly as long as I stay patient. Though I did a bunch of Xtraining through my injury it's still not running miles and short races like these reveal everything, I've only ran just over 400 miles this year. Right now it's all about respecting the process and being consistent. As long as I can do these things and continue to be smart with my workouts then the rest will take care of itself. Structurally I feel very strong which is a good sign. Feeling excited.

I had a great time with Matt today. Matt is all class and it definitely made the day so much better to do this with him. Very cool to see so many friends and people from the blog out running and racing. Awesome to see James running today although I didn't get to talk with him. Always good to see Allie as well. One of the additional highlights for me was when I was picking up some post race food at the finish and this voice said "hey quit eating all the oranges." I looked up annoyed and smiled when I saw that it was my wife who had came up to surprise me.

Also of note: it was so cool today to see Kodi kill the half and talk with her after. I get all excited when people from my hometown rock races. I hope I am in shape to race her at a couple local Sanpete County races this summer.