Travel, Turkey, and Transit.

These past few weeks have left me road weary and tired of planes, hotels, and bus rides. Too bad as I write this entry I have just finished checking out of a hotel, am currently sitting in an airport, and waiting for the eastern sierra transit to take me back to Mammoth. Out of the last two weeks I have spent more than 10 of those days on the road. The first trip was to L.A. to see Dr. Vincent, A chiropractic, ART specialist. After 5 months of being frustrated and having my training continually disrupted I had had enough, and decided to take my problems to L.A. Within one hour of my assessment with Dr. Vincent he had diagnosed my injury, something that no other doctor, chiropractor, or athletic trainer had been able to do. The injury? Nothing more than some tendonitis of my iliacus. Chronic inflammation of improper running mechanics is all that stands between myself and being truly pain free. I am already on the right track, now that I know the injury I can do the proper exercises and stretches. This was not only physically very important, but also mentally relieving.

My second trip was to Houston for Thanksgiving. What an amazing trip. There was plenty of great food, great people, and of course, the whole reason that I would go to Houston, Rachel. I loved every minute of my trip, except for the minute of saying goodbyes as everyone went their separate ways. Seeing Rachel for the first time in nearly 6 weeks was the greatest treat I could have wished for.

Now as my trip from Houston back to mammoth winds down, I am left to ask myself one question, how can life get any better than this? well, minus riding a bus for the next 4 hours, for me, it will, shortly. I will be seeing my family for Christmas, attending my niece Hazel's birthday party, and spending most of that time with Rachel. My bus is drawing near now so I suppose that is it for now. I will post again in the next few weeks.

Chlorine....my new scent.

As you are all aware, my hip has not been very cooperative over the past few months, and for a runner there is only one place to go when you can't pound the pavement....the pool. I have been in the pool twice a day using the kick board. I'm sure this sounds like a child's device, used to get kids comfortable in the water. I am also sure that if you are anything like me, you laughed at the thought of using the kick board for a workout. Trust me when I say that it is an evil device, used to torture ailing runners, making them wish they were any but the pool. Hopefully this will not last much longer, as I am heading to the greater L.A. area next week to pick the brain of one of the worlds foremost authorities on athletic injuries. Dr. Vincent is a A.R.T./chiropractor, located in Santa Monica, CA, and is considered by many a "genius" in the the profession. I will be in Santa Monica from Monday night through Friday, going through various tests and drills to narrow down the causes of my hip issue. Hopefully I will be able to once again begin jogging within the next few days. I am optimistic that this will be an extremely fruitful trip. This will mainly be a business trip to solve my mechanical problems, which I'm sure will be painful, but I will also be enjoying all that L.A. has to offer, beautiful weather, beautiful beaches, and a little mini vacation from the relentless snow here on the mountain. Why just this morning I was heading to purchase batteries for my camera after my pool workout, so that I could share some of the sights and sounds of Santa Monica with you all, when I noticed that my camera had been stolen at the gym! I suppose I have done something to deserve this, karma doesn't just kick people in the groin like that for nothing. Hopefully I don't run into any celebrities while being cameraless! I'll update the blog during or shortly after my trip. Peace out!

Mammoth update #1

I am very well aware that this update is long overdue, but trust me people, I have my reasons. I will start from the beginning and move forward from there. For those of you who don't know, flying to California is EXPENSIVE. Now, make that Mammoth Lakes, CA, and the ticket price only goes up. Only one flight a day is offered into the Yosemite/Mammoth regional airport. So to find the cheapest flight I decided to drive to Fort Smith, where I would then fly to Memphis, from Memphis I would fly to L.A. and from L.A. into Mammoth later that night. As if this day wasn't going to be long enough already my flight from L.A. to Mammoth was canceled due to weather concerns. This meant spending the night in L.A. and then waiting around until 6 pm the next day for my flight. By the time I had finally arrived in Mammoth there was no gas left in the tank for a run, so I opted to head straight to dinner to meet the other runners. The food was great, the beer equally great, and the company was warmly welcomed after spending nearly 24 hours by myself on planes and in hotels. Since this point there has been little to brag about. I ran for about a week before my hip once again got the best of me. I have been spending most of my time at the gym on the bike or eliptical. I am probably getting in more work than I would have had I been running this entire time. Since there is little or no pounding on the body involved in cross training I have been spending at least an hour every morning working my aerobic system, and in the evenings performing a bike workout or easy 45 minute ride.

Now, on a brighter note, the town is absolutely beautiful, and the weather was great for the first week and a half of my trip. Since the beginning of November the temperature has dropped considerably and we even had about a foot of snow recently. The best part of my trip so far was being told I could get out of town for a few days for Thanksgiving. Upon being informed of this, I went home and bought a plane ticket to Houston. There was no way I would have been able to go almost 9 weeks without seeing Rachel, so this was just the pick me up I needed.

Lastly, on my way home from grabbing a few drinks and playing some pool last night I experienced my first bear sighting! It was amazing. What a beautiful animal. I was stopped at a stop light when the black bear crossed the road about 50 yards in front of me. He ended up walking through the parking lot I had just left, so I drove immediately back to the lot and got out of the car to get a better look. Black bears are known to be pretty peaceful and even scared of humans, so I felt pretty safe standing about 10-20 feet from the beast. It probably wasn't my brightest moment but very much worth it. Well that is it for now. I will post again next week. Hopefully I will have some more bear sighting news!!

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.

Monday morning blues

The Monday morning blues now take on new meaning for me in my post collegiate days, instead of the thought of going to class I am struggling to find the motivation to get out the door for my run. Now that I take every Sunday off from running I find it is getting harder with each new week to bounce break from my lazy Sunday ritual, which mainly consists of grazing through the cabinets for spare scraps of food while watching the bears lose. If you had asked me a couple of weeks ago what my favorite part of the day had been I would have said without a pause, "my run of course!" Now that may still be the case once I break the cycle of laziness and actually start my first run of the week but until that happens I am content to sit here and tell you all just how lazy you can actually be and still be considered a professional athlete (not sure what just happened to my font but I don't know how to fix it, so deal with it!)

In other news this is actually quite an exciting time, as the miles continue to build up and up (shooting for 50 this week) and the weather cools off I find myself in the midst of signing my official contract with nike, (I know what you are thinking, and yes, it does take that long to sign the official contract) receiving my first pay day, picking up my diploma in a couple of hours, my Fall shipment of shoes should be coming any day now, and preparing for Mammoth, which is now just over a month away. Exciting times for someone who makes a living sitting on their butt. Today also marks my first massage since my return to running over 5 weeks ago, this sounds like a lot of fun, but trust me, it's not. running massages are different from the massages portrayed in movies. There are no ocean sounds, no dim lights, and I certainly will not be so relaxed that i fall off into a deep peaceful sleep. It will go something like this, Robin (my massage therapist) will inevitably find every tight/sore/aching muscle in my body and beat them into submission. Along the way there will be lots of leg hair being pulled out, and me breaking into terror sweats on the table. I usually leave these "massages" feeling a little emasculated, very tired, and despite all the pain inflicted during the massage, phenomenal! Well folks, its time to pour a hot bath and get my muscles warming up for the run! Until next time.....

Is it Fall yet?!

This week started very much like most other weeks in Arkansas around this time of year, temperatures in the mid 90's with no rain and no wind, well that all changed on Wednesday. I woke up Wednesday morning mentally prepared for another run in the scorching heat, but to my surprise it was barely 50 degrees outside and as gloomy as I have ever seen here in Fayetteville this time of year. It was more than a little uncomfortable having the temperature drop 40 degrees over night, now add in zero sunlight and lots of wind and you have yourself a rather unpleasant run! This continued to be the norm for the rest of the week. Yesterday was a planned easy run so I didn't mind the torrential downpour that lasted for about half of my run, it was actually quite calming. I have never been a big fan of running in the rain but all that has changed now that Nike provides me with killer rain gear. I have four different ultra light rain jackets that are perfect for days in the 50's, 60's and even 70 degree range. With my amazing rain jacket and hat I was in 7th heaven as the rain poured down, killing off the wind, and finally giving the skies a reason to look so gloomy. I wasn't the only runner out on the cross course that day, but I was the only one not huddled under a tree ( bad idea for future reference) trying to wait out the storm.

Today is my day off and I am making the most of it! I slept in until 9, sad, I know, but that is great for me, at which point I made my healthy yet delicious breakfast of oatmeal with brown sugar and a piping hot cup of coffee. After a mid morning shower I washed some dishes, folded laundry, wrote out my dinner menu for the week, and just finished grocery shopping. Now all that remains is a sauna session later followed up with some dinner. Now that I am done with school and don't dread Mondays, Sunday is by far my favorite day of the week, once again sad, I know, but I'm not the party animal I once was and I rather like the calming feeling of a day spent doing chores around the apartment, and not to mention the day off from running!