I will typically change my training schedule when IUPUI has a scheduled competition so that I workout the day before or after their XC meet. Coaching has really revitalized me and helped me focus my energy even more. I enjoy being around the guys and take away some of their positive energy on a daily basis. This keeps me more attentive with my primary job and more focused on my own training. More than anything it really does keep me sane (ha-ha). I love the daily interaction with the guys and enjoy watching them workout and compete. Secondly, I get to assist one of the most succesful high-school coaches in history (Chuck Keoppen). One of the best guys I have ever gotten the privilege of being associated with. He has retired from HS coaching and is now the Head Coach for IUPUI Men's XC. GO JAGS!

I currently work 60 or so hours a week between my job at the Tobias Center for Leadership Excellence and as assistant XC coach at IUPUI. I typically complete all homework for my Master's degree on the weekends. This structure has really kept me focused and productive. Without much time in between (if any) I wake, train, work, coach, train, study, sleep, and repeat daily through the weeks. The mind and body are great tools when they are in sync. I have been able to tune both into a daily schedule that to most would seem very demanding, but to me it keeps me stimulated both physically and mentally. Once the cross-country season comes to an end, I will have more time for my studies and my focus will become even more concentrated towards my competitive season.

It is my hope that 2010 proves to be the break out year that I have been waiting several years for. Now that I am no longer hobbled by serious injury and can pick up with a consistent training system guided by the same Coach for more than one season (all contrary to my college career). It is up to me to continue this journey with the highest of expectations that things work out for those willing to remain persistent in the pursuit of their goals and dreams.

I will leave it at that for now... As always thank you for time and interest. I will start posting a training log when things start to get more interesting ;)

I mean not that 67s for quarters and 3:0s for 1ks on grass in trainers isn't (ha-ha), but you get the point. :)

Take care.

 Currently, I feel that I am in my "peak window" right now and could run a significant PR at 800m as well as 1500m. When about 3 weeks ago I was having some mixed feelings from my legs. But, the primary goal for the season was accomlished (fingers crossed) of 100% health or close too. This allows me for the first time in my running career to a)run in the summer and b) stack two consecutive training cycles together without major lay off from injury. With that said I should be happy with the way this season went even though I felt that it was over before I was able to do what I wanted time wise.

This gives me high hopes for the 2010 indoor and outdoor campaigns. I look to revolutionize my training over the course of next year and only go bigger and faster each year that follows. This sport I am learning is more and more about consistency in all spectrums related. You may run 100 miles a week and murder intervals, but it will mean nothing if you cannot be healthy when the times are going to count the most. I have learned to be patient and not rush things, as the body will do what you enable it to do by way of training effect and sufficient recovery. I am becoming more and more a believer of the saying "train hard, but recover harder".

I will be racing the Ryan Shay Mile in 2 weeks and would like to believe I have just as much a shot at winning it as anyone. My fitness is right there and most importantly my psyche is positive. After that Coach Harger has a roughly 10 day break from running scheduled in for me. After that I take step one towards my big picture goals on the track. Year one was a success overall and great experience.

I will keep you all up to date on my training and race results later this month. As always I thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I will post some notable workouts from the past month soon.

Take care everyone!

Monday: 3x3x300 w/90 seconds and 9 minutes @ 40.5. I was able to run a solid workout and ran the sets pretty much the same. 39, 40, 40 for all three sets and I was pretty happy with that.

Tuesday: Easy 7.5

Wednesday: 500-200-300 w/ 2:30 rest at 13.0 per 100m pace. I ran the workout just after a rain storm and just prior to a thunder storm. The wind was shifting in every direction, but at times it fealt absolutely perfect out. Since I have done really no speed work this year as part of the "Keep Adrian Healthy for 1-Full Year" campaign I was suprised how "smooth" the workout was. I ran the 500 in 1:04.3 coming through the 400 in 50.5. I was able to run easy through the 200 in 25.2 and then cap it off with a 39.4 on the 300. Overall it feels great to come to the track and do this. It makes me feel like I am racing and made me more confident about stepping on the track next time for a competition.

Thursday: 30 minute run, 3x1000 w/ 4minutes and cool-down. I just went from the run into drills and then cruised some 1ks in the 2:52-2:55 range in trainers and called it a day. Overall fealt very good.

Friday: 3 miles in the AM. I forgot that I am supposed to start taking a day off, so I about 15 minutes in I jogged back home.

Saturday: 2x3x500@ 70 with 2min and I dont remember between sets, but I think it was maybe 5min (??). I know I am not yet a real strong runner coming from a football background. But this workout was tough! I have ran some solid workouts similiar to this one, but i was hurtin pretty bad on this one. I was able to run the first set for the most part right on. The second set was another story... I was hitting 74-75 in racing flats. IT was a challenging workout, but I hope to get more of it next year.

Sunday: 60 minute run. Feeling pretty good :)

Mileage: give or take a mile or two... 46-ish

This week in general was good for me both physically and mentally.  My legs are coming back around and just at the right time. More improtantly I am getting alittle bit of the competitive spirit I have been lacking back. I mentioned that I know endurance/strength work is not my strength, but I look to build on a full-year of training and roll that over into next season. It would be my hope to raise my volume a bit and really work my threshold levels up next year. I know that is where I will make my biggest gains. But lets get through this season with health and some healthy PRs at 800m. I will be running 800m on May 30th in Indianapolis at the American Milers Club series.

As always thanks for taking the time to read...

I hope to report more good workouts and some fast 800s in the coming month.

adios!

Training for April 27-May 3rd:

Monday: 2x4x400 w/90 seconds and I cannot recall the rest between sets, but not that long... It was windy as Mondays have tended to be as of late. The goal for the workout was to start about 60 with conditions considered (for the first set) and bring them down each interval for the second set. Intervals 1-4 were in the 58-59 range in racing flats and the second set of 4 was in 59,58,57 and 56 right on! Overall a very good workout! My legs had been feeling a little flat prior to the start also, so that helped to still hit times. I did weights and core at the home before jumping in the ice tank!

Tuesday: Easy 8 (feeling a bit stiff)

Wednesday: 2x3x300@ 40.5 w/90 seconds and 9 minutes. The goal is some obvious turnover without overdoing things prior to running/rabbiting at Jesse Owens. My legs were really feeling run down today. It was one of those days where you really do not feel like even doing strides. I just have been feeling stagnate lately. Never feeling good or great, but regularly feeling very sub par. The weather was nice though :). I ran the intervals in racing flats (Katana Racer) and hit 40s for the 2 and a 39 on the 3rd. For the second set I only did 2 of them, I ran 39 and 40, then Coach called the workout for me. I was running faster than pace and my legs already didn't feel great. So... we called it a day.

Thursday: Easy 5... legs are not feeling so hot. :/

Friday: Jesse Owens 1500. It rained the whole way there, but Coach Harger was right in that it would clear up in time for the race. Conditions were honestly perfect! But, as my outdoor season has gone thus far... my racing slash competitiveness has been lacking. I cannot seem to put my finger on it because I am VERY fit. I got off the line and hit aggressive splits early on and when people began coming up on me I slowly allowed myself to fall of pace and fall out of the race. I have yet to go to the well what so ever in a race. I keep finding myself giving up... I hate to say it but I am not competeting to the fullest of my ability. I am running excellent workouts and having very weak race perforamances. Ragardless... the final time was 3:53.1 and based on early race spits... I really clocked out on pace the final 500m to run that slow.

Saturday: Ran a morning shake out run and strides. My legs feel pretty good today! I am set to rabbitt Jeff See of Ohio State to a Sub 4 in front of the home crowd. I was able to get off the line and run 58, 1:58, 2:26 (1000m) and felt like I wasnt even running. I realistically felt as if I could have layed down a solid 200m off of that pace to hit 2:54. That is just how smooth and easy it felt. I had it in my legs to run a high 27 last 200m off the pace we were already running. From there Rondell Ruff was the second rabbit who was to take him through the 1200m, but he decided to just one up me for the day and run 1050 meters and drop off ;). So I walked away from the weekend with very mixed feelings and emotions. The difference between friday and saturday was that on saturday I didnt worry about the clock or anything. I just focused in... and ran smooth and relaxed. Friday night I told myself I have no business running in the USA 1 Mile Road Championships based on that performance. Then Saturday reaffirmed my fitness and that I am being a head case when it came to competeing.

Sunday: 11.5 miles

Monday: 4x700m @ 1:55 with 3 minutes rest. I was feeling a little lathargic today and ran 1:51-1:55 for the 700s. Fealt easy still and followed it up with 3x150 at 19 nice and smooth all in racing flats. The goal of this session was to flush things out with a little turnover.

Tuesday: Easy 6 miles

Wednesday: Easy 4 and strides

Thursday: Ran a 15 minute early shake out run before breakfast. Then hung out in the hotel unitl the press conference. My legs were feeling pretty good to be honest. I hadnt had my legs under me for a few weeks now. But come race time at my first USA National Championship, I was not able to put anything together again. It has yet to be a physiological response in the race, but rather psychological. I keep finding myself falling asleep either the first half or the second half of my races. This time it was at about 500 meters. I started watching my feet instead of continueing on the pace and competiting! I ran 60-61 for the first 400 and 2:03 for the 800m. The hard part was done and now it was all downhill...literally. But I found myself zoned out and just running. I did not yet have any fatigue setting in my legs nor did I at the finish. I finished 9th with a 4:17 and for the mathmeticians that means I ran 2:13-2:14 last 800m downhill. There is absolutely not one single excuse for it. I have to get myself mentally into this.. and quick.

I am healthy and fit. I am not competing though... flat out. I hope to find myself in 2 weeks writing a blog about how I found my sack and run a huge PR at 800m. I really hope that I can do that. It is long overdue this year and I am hoping to find out what is going to make this happen. The hard work has been done and I am ready, but can I find my competitive spirit soon enough to salvage my season? It would be one of the biggest dissapointments in my life not too. So I have 2 weeks of solid training left before hitting the stretch in June of really racing hard and going for PRs/USA standards.

Friday: I slept in after staying up a tad later than usual at a couple Minneapolis Pubs with the other athletes. I have to say all of them were truely great people to be around and found myself learning alot from them. Jon Rankin especially... he really reminded me of the purity of sport and competition. He flat out told me he doesnt worry about splits or being at a certain point at a certain time. He just runs hard... sometimes it doesnt pay off, but when it does it REALLY pays off. I have to remind myself that... that I have a talent to run and that I am in excellent shape right now... So just go run and make people come get me... ran a solid 8.5 that night. Myl egs fealt great...

Saturday: 5 (AM) and 5 (PM) w/ 10x long strides.

Sunday: 9 Miles. Legs feel pretty good.

So here we are... time to start adding a couple more quality race pace sessions into my weekly training. Time to start gearing up for some big race performances. I am going to do everything in my power and means to find my inner competitive spirit. I have to at this point because I have done nothing noteworthy this whole season. I had a couple glimpses of light during the indoor season while still trying to get back into race shape. But it is narrowed down to being a mental block. I will update you on the next two weeks training and look to post a hot 800m time after the first American Milers Club outing.

It is important at this point to believe that fortune favors the brave and quit racing so passively and fearful of passing over barriers that have not been crossed in my running career. I will leave it at that...

Thank you again for reading this rambling that I have posted and I look forward to writing about fast times and how I found what I have been looking for the past few months.

Tuesday: 8-ish ... easy run turned up tempo run... i.e.: exploring Indianapolis and ending up on a not so friendly street block. Excellent!

Wednesday: 3x3x300@40 w/90 seconds and 8:30-9min rest. This workout fealt almost identical to Monday in that I was unable to get up to speed or change gears if I wanted. I was able to hit the times consistently, but at times it felt like more work than it should getting off the line. It was another very windy day (what's new?) and I ran the first set in racing flats (Katnana Racer) and spiked up for the 2nd and 3rd sets (Nike Zoom Celar). I need to start wearing spikes a little more to start acclimating to alittle more heal drop. Overall I cannot complain because I hit the interval times, but in general just am not feeling very "springy" this week. Core and stretching followed the workout.

Thursday: Took a day off. All through college I took a day off a week and have been doing that for the most part since being in Indy. But, I have found myself on about a 2 month stretch of running every day. I need to go back to my 1 day off a week routine to see if my legs will get a little more bounce back. I took a nap after work, stretched and did some core.

Friday: Drove to Hillsdale, MI at noon and ran 2.5 miles, drills, and strides at the track. Overall feeling okay. 

Saturday: Ran 10 minutes in the morning and stretched and had breakfast...then took a nap. Hung out in the hotel until about 3pm and headed over to the track for my 5:30 race. The meet had very strong winds and you could definitely feel them, but most of the performances I had witnessed were still very strong. The day prior had alot of distance races that were obviously effected by the winds. One Coach told me that 5k races were 40-50 seconds off what they should be because of the winds. Unfortunately I cannot use that to excuse my performance.

I train very hard and dedicate a lot of my time to doing the "little things" that help performance. My biggest problem since about my junior year of college is taking command in a race. Ever since I started racking up injuries post-sophomore breakout season, I find myself doubting my ability to be aggressive in races. I am the guy you have to pull the reins on it practice, but you have to spur in the ass to race. I find myself being very hit or miss on race day. You either have me ready to get after it or trying to sit in the back and try to kick everyone down at the last second. I knew that the times were not going to be fast, but I knew that I wanted to win and win in a dominant fashion. The second the gun went off... my mind changed. I went to the back... Sat and sat... then kicked for about 150 and ended up with my slowest time at this meet ever (1:52...garbage) the winning time was 1:51.8 (Figgins, Eastern Michigan). This is unacceptable and embarrassing to be completely honest. All week I told myself that I would go out and run a solo sub 1:50 just off of my strength in whatever weather. No excuses...period!

I went straight from the finish line without stopping into a run upto my bag and changed into my trainers, then headed away from the track. I have never been one to do this after a race, but I went on a little jog then ran some long sprints before cooling down. This was purely out of frustration and for nothing else. I could have lined right back up and ran again or even more productively should have rounded the turn after 800m and ran a 1k ;). Regardless... I did eventually cool-down and pack it up. We drove back to Indy and when we got home I went for a 5 mile run where I found myself re-visualizing the race and surging mid-run. I have to say I have not been this bothered by a race performance this much in a long time... if ever (as crazy as that sounds). But having battled serious injury for the past few years, I find myself needing to have that break out performance that I am ready for to re-energize and to see the fruits of my labor. This ultimately is what has been leading to my mental block in competitions.

Sunday: 11 miles (48-50-ish for the week)

This week the plan is for me to run a solid 1200m at the Jesse Owens Classic in the invitational 1500m on Friday. This will be in preparation for the USA 1 Mile Champs. the following week. We are tossing around the idea of me racing 800m or rabbting a hard 600m on Saturday. I need to work on being aggressive from the gun and losing some of the fears I have built over the past couple years with my running. For me I think one of the best ways is to see how hard I can run to that 1200m point or that 600m point of the race and walk away knowing could I go faster and/or could I finish strongly off that pace? I have been doing alot of very good workouts and becoming very fit and very strong, but I have not done alot of race simulation. I know things will come together at the right time, and I do truely have to be patient, but most importantly I HAVE to be aggressive and prove to myself that I am ready. Coach knows I am... My teammates know I am... so why shouldn't I???

Thanks for reading this mess :) ...and congrats to teammate Mason Cathey of "Cathey Mason" for kicking butt with a 10:17 solo 3k steeple after 4 years of not running the event!

Adios!

PS: I dont know why the font changes through out this blog... keeps it interesting I suppose ;)