Vacation!

Well as most of you know I have been on my break from running these past few weeks in an attempt to heal my lingering hip flexor issues and recharge the batteries. This means a lot of laying around with the occasional round of golf, in other words life has been great! This coming week I will be meeting my family in Eureka Springs for a relaxing weekend on the lake. This should be a good distraction from life in Fayetteville, which lets just say has been somewhat lonely. This coming week will be my last week of down time (assuming my hip is ready to go) and training will resume the following week. I can't say that I am too disappointed to have missed these past few weeks of training seeing as it has been the hottest two weeks of my life. The average temperature here in Arkansas has been right around 105 or higher and I don't remember the last day the temperature didn't reach into the triple digits. Hopefully this message finds you all in good health and spirits!

A break in the action

After nearly a year of continuous training, whether it be mileage in the fall, running on the banked oval in the winter, or battling the spring and summer heat on the big boy track, there is really only one way out, on a stretcher. Okay so I didn't literally end my season on a stretcher but it was close. A strain in my hip flexor was leaving me nearly unable to walk, so you can imagine how painful it was to run. After miraculously running the second fastest 1500 of my career (3:37) I decided to cash in my chips and head back across the pond to get some much needed rest and rehab. I have now been resting for one week exactly and my hip is finally starting to respond to the treatment. After seeing my go-to chiropractor/acupuncturist my hip is finally starting to feel like it is getting better! Coming home to an empty apartment broken and burned out definitely was not the way I had envisioned this summer ending. Yet I still have much to be thankful for with a new contract with Nike, my new agency Global Athletics, my family who never cease to amaze me with all their love and support, and a very helpful athletic training staff here in Fayetteville who are still willing to help me out even though I am no longer on the team. And all this all leads up to Rachel, she will be back soon and life will be as close to perfect as it is ever going to be, she is the one person that I can always count on to make just any day seem like the perfect day.

Sign on the dotted line!

5 years, 2 Universities, 11x All American, National Champion, Graduate. The last 5 years have been the greatest years of my life. I have met new people, traveled to foreign countries, and now, finally, signed a professional contract. For the next 3 years I will be represented by Mark Wetmore and Global Athletics, with my sponsor being Nike. I have so many things to be grateful for and so many people to thank for helping me finally see my goals come true. One phase of my athletic career has ended but another has just begun. So to anyone who has ever lend a helping hand or words of encouragement, thank you!

In my next post I will try and upload some pictures from my brief but very fruitful stint on the European track circuit. It should be up within the next couple days!

I'M BACK!!!!

I just want to let everyone know that this blog is once again up and running! It has been too long since my last post and I have been very busy, but rest assured I will inform you all of everything! Stay tuned for my next post.

SEC champs!!

After a two year drought that surely seemed more like ten the hogs are back! Putting all five of our scoring runners in the top ten, and scoring only 34 points, we made sure their was no doubt that we came to win. This was the perfect race for the team as it felt more like a steady state. We ran as a pack until about the last 1k, keeping the guys under control, while at the same time controlling the race. An early contingency of about 6 runners made a break, about half of that group were reeled in by the next mile, and they just kept coming back. The plan was to run as a pack for as long as possible, all the while making sure no team had their fifth man anywhere near ours. The strategy paid off bigtime as we ran to 3rd place (me), 6th place (eric fernandez), 7th place (dey tauch) 8th place (solomon haile) and 10th place (bryan cantero). Now we are going back to the training table to get in some more work before regionals and nationals. We are slated for an 8 mile steady state today but this is subject to change. I will post again after the workout.

SEC madness!

With four really high quality workouts behind us and one more to go the team looks poised as ever to provide what we have been missing for two years, an SEC cross country championship.  We have come off chile pepper really well in regards to recovering physically as well as mentally.  We will be leaving this Saturday morning for the University of South Carolina, where we will be dueling over 8k to see who has put in the base work and times their fine tuning just right.  We have come up empty handed the last two years at this same meet but this year something just feels different.  The attitude around the team is one of confidence yet humility, and eagerness yet patience.  Keep your eyes peeled for results next week.  We are racing Monday morning, so make sure you are wearing your red and calling those hogs!  Woo Pig Sooie!

Chile Pepper recap

After a great workout and some easy recovery runs early last week the team felt poised to have another great performance, this time at 10k.  With the exception of one runner coming up with a side cramp and being forced to step off the course nearly every runner in the race set a new pr, my 4 second pr being the smallest margin.  After somewhat of a non reflective third place team finish we look on to the SEC championships which are only two weeks away.  The workouts and mileage will return to slightly normal levels this week and taper off again next week to insure another SEC cross country championship (my first as a razorback hopefully!!)  I will post an update after the workout tomorrow to let you all know how it goes.