It's just that simple

Garden City/Eagle greenbelt - 56:07

One of my favorite places to run, although two new small sections are now paved. I guess that's "progress" Eagle, Idaho style. I had a nice evening run - 7.5 miles at 7:28 pace. My achilles felt fair, I guess. During the run, I did a lot of thinking about my summer running. This was natural because my summer is offically coming to an end; I go back to work tomorrow. My review can be summed up like this:

After I ran the Great Potato Half Marathon on May 17th, I was stoked to prepare for the Newport Marathon 2 weeks later. After that, I planned a few weeks of lighter training (including 2 weeks in Spain) and then some great base mileage during the summer.

Looking back through my blog, I've averaged 23 miles per weeks in these last 11 weeks! I hoped that number would be in the 60s or 70s. The few weeks of down time have spiraled into 2.5 months. To be fair to myself, the two weeks before Newport I was having a lot of shin pain, and the time off didn't appear to hurt me too bad. And the travel to Spain and not wearing good shoes really messed with my already chronic achilles tendonosis.

But it's hard to separate being injured and being unmotivated sometimes. I do think the two go hand in hand. It's hard to get pumped up to go run when you know it's going to be a drag. The less you run, the harder the daily runs get until you're at the point where long runs are iffy because you don't know if you'll make it back to the house!

That's where my running is right now. Dealing with the chronic achilles deal, trying to rehab it (not being all that motivated to rehab it), planning big for the future but wondering if it's realistic. I suppose the best thing for me to do right now is as much easy running as I can tolerate. I think Fall racing is probably out for now. I probably will get some "workouts" in with the junior high xc team I coach, and that coupled with a slow, steady increase in mileage should be my game plan.

Hopefully today was a step in the right direction.

Nike Triax - 246 Nike Zoom - 210 Brooks - 35.5

A.M. - Biked 6.5 miles to work and back

P.M. - Treadmill - 40:01

Easy pace. Achilles felt really good.

Weights, core & stretching - 25 minutes

Nike Triax - 246 Nike Zoom - 215 Brooks - 35.5

Treadmill - 25:55

Kind of ran out of time today for a longer run...was helping Mat with some pictures for the climbing book he's working on. Managed to hop on the treadmill and do some pickups the last 10 minutes. Sweaty, but felt ok.

Nike Triax - 249.5 Nike Zoom - 215 Brooks - 35.5

Cassia Park loop - 44:41

Ran with Danny at 6:30 a.m. Achilles very sore first mile, but slow pace early helped out and it loosened up after a while. Stomach also giving me fits, resulting in a unscheduled pit stop on the canals. But after that, we got into a good rhythm and had a nice morning run. Good to have the run done and out of the way!

Weights, core & stretching - 40 minutes

Nike Triax - 249.5 Nike Zoom - 215 Brooks - 41.5

Rock Creek Park - 1:01

I ran 19 minutes with Emily to downtown T.F. for her eye exam, then did 25 minutes steady on the path below the Singing Bridge. I finished with 17 minutes easy home with Emily. Felt ok other than the early morning (8 a.m.) achilles pain.

Nike Triax - 249.5 Nike Zoom - 215 Brooks - 48.5

Perrine Bridge + Rim trail - 55:33

Ran with Danny at 8 a.m. Pace was around 7:20-7:30 with a few miles right around 7:00. Fun to run in the old hometown and see some of the sights again.

Nike Triax - 249.5 Nike Zoom - 215 Brooks -56