A familiar feeling...

These past 7 weeks of training have meant many things to me. They have been the beginning of what is hopefully a long and fruitful career as a professional athlete, they have opened my eyes to the joys of running, not racing or working out, just running, and they have been my emotional release, allowing me to remain sane in a time of uncertainty and doubt. But now, just 8 days before my trip to Mammoth I find myself taking yet another unplanned break, resting my hip as my running shoes collect dust, and my training log begins to look naked. The familiar feeling settles back down upon my shoulders, the feeling that I have been down this road before, the feeling of injury. After 7 weeks of believing this was my time, that this year would be different than the others, I am back on the shelf, feeling betrayed by my own body. I am 5 foot 9 and I weigh 125 pounds, nothing about these numbers screams strong, resilient, or capable, yet I have run under 4 minutes for the mile, I have represented team USA at the highest level of international competition, I am a national champion, and I am fragile. It is simply in my DNA, it is who I am, and it is most certainly a part of what I do. I have God given abilities that I surely do not deserve, but do not take for granted. Maybe this is life's way of slowing me down to peak just perfectly for London, or maybe it is Gods way of saying now is not my time, either way my body is speaking and I am listening. This may be a road that I have traveled down before, and it may not seem fair or just, but at the end of the day it is not my right to question the path laid out in front of me, but instead to walk it with pride and a burning passion, knowing that this road will come to an end, and when it does I will be off running faster than ever on a road somewhere in London.

I love the Fall!

This last week was a great one. Many great things happened, I hit my first 50 mile week, (still on single runs and Sunday off) found the greatest chiropractor ever, I am wrapping up the second season of Mad Men on dvd, and yesterday was the best Sunday or any other day for that matter that I have had in a long time.

Lets start with the running, this is after all a blog about running. The weather has been the best I have ever experienced in my 4 years here in Arkansas, and great weather leads to great running. I held at just over 8 miles a day but kept the pace pretty relaxed for the most part, there was one day where my last 4 miles were all well under 6 minute pace. This was a planned run, but the best part was how smooth it felt. This was certainly my best effort thus far and it felt like I was gliding. The first half of this week I will stay at 8 miles for each run, but if the legs are feeling pain free I will make another little jump in mileage, no more than a mile for each run though.

Secondly: I have found the best chiropractor in the entire state of Arkansas. DR. Blair Masters is from Iowa North Iowa community college to be exact, and a graduate of Palmer chiropractic. school in Davenport, Iowa. Now if you know where I hail from (Port Byron, Illinois) you will understand why this seemed like a sign from above. I stumbled into Dr. Masters clinic purely by luck. I had actually been very frustrated recently as my hip flexor pain had been creeping back in the picture, so I decided to log onto my favorite running website, flotrack, to watch some videos and see if somebody knew something I didn't, and surely enough I found exactly what I was looking for. It was a video with Bernard lagat, and he was talking about an old injury he had managed to get about 85% healthy but still dealt with pain on a daily basis. Long story short he was utilizing a combination of very interactive muscles testing, chiropractic adjustment, and low-level cold laser therapy to help rebuild the damaged muscles. (I highly suggest finding the video) Lagat said within 2 minutes of his first treatment he was pain free! 2 minutes! So I thought I would see if any chiropractors in northwest Arkansas were doing anything remotely similar, I was very doubtful of finding anyone who even new what a cold laser was. Boy was I wrong! Not only did I find nearly the same exact modalities offered at a nearby rehab clinic, but much like Bernard I left my first session nearly pain free. I will be going back twice a week as the cold laser therapy has an effect that gets better each time used. This was the second most amazing find I have made in my four years here, Rachel being by far the best.

I have recently been watching seasons of Mad Men, big shout out to Target for selling the seasons for 12 dollars! The show takes some getting used to, just like any other, but once you have adjusted to the time warp back to the 50's and 60's it is great. This show has been my form of recovering after my daily run. Plopping down on the couch and vegging out for an hour or two each day seems to give my legs a bounce they didn't have before.

And last but certainly not least, a recap of the greatest Sunday of all time. Rachel and I don't see much of each other before 5 or 6 pm these days so sitting down and eating breakfast together would have been enough for me but it gets better. We packed a picnic and headed to our favorite park, Wilson park, and enjoyed a delicious spread for lunch before laying around for a bit enjoying the perfect weather and amazingly refreshing silence that comes with being in a park the day after a motorcycle rally has finally released its stronghold on your town. From there Rachel and I bought and carved some pumpkins, then shortly after jumped in the sauna. A little while later Rachel and I made our best pizza yet, a barbeque chicken pizza that I dare say was better than any other I have eaten. We rolled out the dough, buttered the crust, put down a base of barbeque sauce, then cilantro, chicken, a blend of Italian cheeses, some more cilantro, and the cherry on top, a light swirl of barbeque sauce, absolute perfection! You may be thinking to yourself, wow! What a day! But no, it isn't over yet! For dessert we prepared the pumpkin seeds with olive oil, salt and a bit of garlic, Yumm....... Greatest Sunday ever. Period.