I am one with the levee and the levee with me

Worked this morning till it got too windy (it's been blowing a steady 15-20mph for the last week, grrrr). Made my last minute preparations and headed up to Spokane.

After registering and eating, I headed back out of town to find myself a campsite. I was hoping to stay with a buddy but it fell through, so I found myself under the stars tonight. I loved it. I'll probably do this more often, I just need to get myself a little more gear.

It was pretty late by the time I got camp set up, so I headed out with my flashlight onto the lonely wooded road that ran by the lake. Creepy. Don't think I'll ever do this again. 

It's intimidating to find yourself in a room full of people with names like Korir and Kiptoo. Kinda like you don't belong. 

But's that's where I found myself this morning. I submitted an entry to get included in the elite field at this year's race, they just said you had to have a shot at placing in the top 50, so I made my case and they accepted. But I definitely felt out of place in that little room by the start line. I did make the top 50, so I guess it was justified.

The race did not go as well as I'd hoped. I hoped that I'd be rid of whatever is in my chest by now, but it hasn't gone away. This is my second round of antibiotics, what's going on? 

In any case, I ran my race under the assumption that my body was 100%, so going through the first two miles in 5:08 and 5:06 (long downhill from about 1.5 to 2.0) felt perfect. My legs felt responsive and I felt confident I'd maintain a 5:10 average the rest of the way. It wasn't to be. 

Mile 3 climbs about 100 feet in elevation through a series of rolling hills and I came through in 5:35 (15:49) which seemed acceptable for the hill climb. But from there to the finish I couldn't get myself out of the 5:30 zone. Mile 4 continued the rolling hills but the altitude changed little, and I only managed 5:25 (21:14). At this point couple runners caught up to me and I managed to latch on to one, and we went back and forth for a couple miles, which helped. It's funny, I recognized him from his stride as Jesse Fayant, a guy who used to dominate Washington distance in high school. He was the same grade as Chris Lukezic, and the races between the two were epic. Jesse won state XC over Chris, then lost the state 1600m title to him. When the 3200m rolled around, the two ran stride for stride, closing the last lap in 57 thanks to a 27 second final 200m and Jesse managed to edge him at the line. Obviously his training isn't where it could be, but all this was running through my mind as we were running together.

Mile 5 lost considerable altitude before beginning the ascent up the Doomsday Hill, and should have been at least 5:00, but my watch had me at 26:49, another 5:35. This was incredibly frustrating: my body told me I was running 5:10 pace effort but I just wasn't producing. I can only chalk it up to my breathing issues. My chest was noticeably tight at this point, but regardless I was still positive my effort was equal to 5:10 miles. 

The climb up the hill was not bad. My runs up Jump Off Joe have paid off as I climbed mile 6 (141 foot gain) in 5:38 (32:27). Jesse dropped here and I didn't see him till the finish. A group of runners came way, way back and I nearly caught them. I set myself to catching them as we crested the hill, but again I ran into a block at around 5:30 pace. I swear up and down it was 5:10, but the watch doesn't lie. I finished mile 7 in 5:30 (37:57) and those runners had quietly slipped away. I passed a clock that I assume was set at the 10k, my watch reading 33:36.

The finish was very cool. The crowd thickened from mile 7 on, until we turned onto the final downhill stretch to the finish. Thankfully it was downhill and I managed a decent kick down the last quarter mile or so, stopping my watch at 40:20.

Very cool race to do despite the frustrations. I'm looking forward to doing it again in future years. I was planning to race at the UW this coming Saturday but think I'll skip it to let my body get back into balance.

Ferocious recovery. Those are the two words that describe my run today, the former referring to the wind and latter my goal for the run. By the end I felt a little closer to thrashed than recovered. We got  steady 20-30mph winds today with gusts up over 50. Every trash can I passed was toppled over, contents spilled and scattered and its lid lying some distance away as if saying "We're really sorry. We tried...."

Legs are very sore. I'm making it a goal to be more diligent about my stretching and core workouts, which I've been very lazy about. Finished up with 30 reps on my stomach workout... I'll be feeling it tomorrow.

AM - Easy 8 miles. I took another step towards my goal of eating healthier: I ate oatmeal for breakfast. Willingly. And I put bananas in it. I believe this marks the official end of my childhood.

On a positive note, my chest feels like it's clearing. My breathing felt much better. I'm still coughing up stuff now and then, but easy breathing is a good sign.

PM - Easy 4

Woke up bright and early at 5:30 for an easy 8. 57:07

AM - My work start moved to 7am, so it's gonna be a lot of early mornings. I rolled over and closed my eyes when the alarm went off but remembered how nice my evening run would be if I didn't have to smash in 90 minutes, so rolled out and got it done. Easy 4.

PM - Headed over to the high school meet right after work. It was a thing of beauty. The boys went 4:17, 4:22, 4:22, 4:23 in the 1600m, then followed up with 9:40, 9:44, 9:46 off a 5:00 first half in the 3200m. Big things are happening over there. Anthony is getting scary... the head coach taped his double from a meet last week where he went 4:25/9:26. Splits in the 1600m were 2:20/2:05. Also clocked his last 100m in the 3200m by video at 12.6. That's not a typo. He was down by 10m with 100m and pulled it out of somewhere to win by 2 secs. The guys keep me humble.

9.5 miles with warmups, cool downs, and an easy 50 minutes down a canal.

AM - Easy 4

PM - Easy 8 

Ran around Richland today from my apartment. Headed down the usual river trail, planning to do a 2hr out an back but just continued around on the bike path up the bypass highway. The whole loop was about 90 minutes, so I tacked on 30 at the end to finish at 2:00:00. Compared to the last 2hr run, my pace was much quicker and I felt quite a bit better. I started feeling a little shaky with about 15 minutes left, compared to 45 minutes on the last one. Good stuff.

The not-so-good stuff is that I've developed a jarring pain in my knee. It didn't prevent me from striding normally, but every so often it would shoot a sharp pain. Stretched and iced when I got back, I'll have to work on it hard this week.

Well, things are a little worse in the knee. Think I'll have to take a little downtime, try to get it up to speed.

4 easy miles this morning, had to hobble the last minute or so.

Just working over my legs and icing the knee to try to get this thing taken care of. I don't think work is helping... too much walking under load. Anyway, this is what I get for getting complacent about my stretching. It's the same injury as I had last summer, as far as I can tell.

Went to the high school regional meet. 3 easy miles in warmups, knee isn't 100% but feeling much better, the running didn't aggravate it so hopefully I can keep doing a little more each day as it continues to heal.

Some great races tonight. Anthony ran 9:13 with 4:42, 4:31 splits, running a 58.6 last lap, getting edged at the tape by Adam Thorne. Very exciting race. Austin ran another solid time with ridiculous splits in 9:40. I think Evan kind of shut down mentally for this one. It's his final race and he's not planning to run in college (despite running 9:16 last year at state), so it kind of turned into a "what's the point?" race and he jogged a 9:49. Charles made the final in the 800m. 

Second day of regionals, I pulled in 31 minutes of warmup/cooldown running. The knee is still doing well.

Thorne was obviously shocked by Anthony's finishing speed last night, he took out the mile in a 61 sec first lap and ran the kick out of everybody. I don't think Anthony was ready for a hard early pace after such a grueling 3200m and he kinda shut down. Came through 1200m in 8th place, looking like he was going to completely give up before kicking the last 150m to come within 5m of qualifying, 4:19 final time. He didn't realize it till later but he'd still have qualified if he'd started the kick about 100m sooner as the lead pack was fading fast. 

15 minutes easy. Cut it short for the knee. Still working it over.

4 at about 6:30 pace. Noticeably less pain today.

4 easy

Drove up for state meet. Anthony handled the fast pace in the 3200m pretty well, closing his last lap in 60sec to move from 8th to 3rd and finish in 9:07. 4:31/4:36, first positive split race of the year.

5 easy on the Burke in Seattle. Knee feeling much better, stretching is obviously working. Should be 100% soon.

Took a break from the state meet to check out St. Martin's in Lacey. Turns out I have a year of eligibility left and the coach there offered me some money to come compete for them. Ran 5 miles around the campus, checking out the running trails. There were signs everywhere warning about a cougar that's been in the area and not to run alone. Spent the run imagining how I'd defend myself if it pounced on me. I think I could take one.

Ran another 3 with Anthony when we got back into town. 

Anthony wanted to do an easy 30 so I joined up with him. Ran about 6:40 pace.