My email from futureme.org

In January I sat down and wrote out a few things that I wanted to focus on in 2006. I went to futureme.org and wrote out those few things in an email. I set it up so the email would go to me today. Actually, I forgot that I had done this... so I guess the system worked as a good reminder to myself.

Here's the email:

The following is an e-mail from the past, composed on Friday, January 6, 2006,
and sent via FutureMe.org)

And Here's my list for 2006:

1. be involved in regular devotion/prayer (spiritual)
2. tell nikki "I love you" at least once every day (marriage)
3. re-establish a thoughtful approach to consumption / buying habits (financial)
4. build on personal training / coaching business (financial / work)
5. consistency of training, as few days off as possible (Ironman 4-5 yr. plan)

So let's review my attention to this list using a standard grading system.

1. C- , It has recently improved, but I haven't set aside any specific time to devote to this area of my life.

2. C+ , Nikki could address this one better.

3. B- , We did a good job of this in January and February. March developed into a month that we saw things others had that we wanted. This discontent lead to purchases that were not in line with this goal. This will likely be an everlasting battle between wants and needs.

4. A , Well as I mentioned in a previous post, Nikki has quit her job at the YMCA so that she can get away from management and work with people one-on-one more. Hopefully this decision will give me the confidence that I need to continue pursuing my desire to develop as a coach for runners and triathlete's.

5. B+ , Doing well since we started the marathon training program I developed for the Derby Marathon in Louisville next month. I have been focused on my running and feel positive about that aspect. I'm also looking forward to getting on the bike and into the pool again. My hope is that by focusing on #3 and #4, we will be able to continue racing towards a few half Ironman distance races in 2006 and an Ironman in 2007. What many people don't realize is that the financial aspect of training / racing can be as big of a challenge as the race itself. Why? Because you either have to work full-time to be in a position to do the racing, which impacts the amount of time you have to train. Or, you have to take on less work responsibility and learn to be more conscious about lifestyle (goal #3).

I've said it before, the athletes that train for Ironman (or marathons, etc.), work full-time and have a family with children are my heros. The balance they develop in their lives has to be amazing.

Reviewing these ideas has been a good exercise. I'm going to sit down this weekend, adjust and add to the list and send them to myself again in 3 months.

recovery week review - taper importance

I finished last week feeling good about what I accomplished in the workouts. The weekly volume was up around the highest levels and I had a decent 10k towards the end of the week. Taking the time to review this last period (phase 3) of training has allowed me to see a couple things:

1. Don't schedule back-to-back "stress" days or "breakthrough" workouts. (depending on your preferred terminology)

The 10k on Saturday was scheduled to be a training run that would help us determine pacing issues for the marathon and allow us to analyze our fitness levels. The race was used for both those purposes, but even though it was beneficial for those reasons, it still turned into a pretty tough workout.

I will still schedule races in future training plans, but how they fit into the overall program might change. It would be nice if the races were a little further out from the marathon. And I will be more thoughtful about the next days workout. A race would fit better into a weekend that is a back-to-back long weekend, not a single long run weekend. (I've already altered the workouts leading up to and the day after the 10 mile Papa Johns race that takes place 2 weeks before the marathon.)

2. I was on the razor's edge of overtraining on Monday. This is most likely due to the first observation. The benefical part of our current program is that this week is a recovery week. On the Tuesday run, I ran at the back of the group and tried to keep myself content with running slower. This wasn't too difficult because I was so tired, but to turn your typically fastest run of the week into an easy run can be difficult.

I may have been better off running by myself and skipping the group run that day.

Taking Monday off along with running easy on Tuesday and Wednesday left me almost back to normal when I woke up today. The recovery shined through on today's run. We started out at an easy pace (8:00 to 8:30) and gradually built the run throughout. The last couple miles we went sub 7:00 (6:2x to 6:4x). The best observation is that I didn't really noticed the increased pace.

Tom and John can be pretty entertaining. I'm not quite witty enough yet.

This reinforces the confidence that I have in starting a taper. Our taper will include 2 solid weeks of decreased volume along with a third week of decreasing volume (approximately 70% of max volume). The last 10 days will include one threshold type run and then a couple runs that include a few strides, with very little volume.

A taper like this should leave my legs completely rested and ready to go. It should also leave my mind a little edgey and dying to run the marathon.

During last night's run, Nikki and I began talking about race pacing and strategy. The taper will be a good time to get all the last mental aspects taken care of. As my body becomes rested and my vigor increases, I anticipate a need for as many relaxation techniques as I can practice.

Mark Nenow - A Todd's Road Stumbler.

I am not sure how I have not known this story, but today I feel like I've discovered another little "pot of gold".

Last month, I wrote a post titled Lexington's endurance culture. The point of my post was that Lexington, Kentucky is a great place to run, bike and at times swim (the pools are nice, but you have to deal with the open water you can find.) But the greatest thing about this community is that there are a lot of people willing to help you become active.

What I found out today

Today I found out that Mark Nenow was from Lexington.

If you do not know who Mark is, then don't feel bad because I didn't either. While talking to my client the other day she mentioned a runner and how he had won the Bluegrass 10k. Yesterday, she had his name for me. I didn't know it. (And I feel like I have a decent understanding about the history of running.... obviously not!) Today I looked him up. Mark was a pretty successful runner (sarcasm intended).

He held the American 10,000 meter record for the track and road. His track record lasted for 15 years, until it was beat by Meb Keflezighi in 2001. His 10,000 road time of 27:22 still remains the American record.

So what is more exciting than one of the best American runners being from my adopted home town? Mark Nenow was a fellow Todd's Road Stumbler! Here are a couple links to some old TRS newsletters that talk about Mark's running:

1. Fall, 1983 - notice he's wearing the TRS jersey!
2. Spring, 1984

What a great story.... and one that just seems hard to believe.

Another step towards our dreams.

Last week I wrote a post about finding happiness through your (our) choices that result in more freedom. In that post, I mentioned that Nikki and I had been talking about taking a "chance" to improve our freedom as a family (family = 2 right now).

Soon after writing the post, we decided that our (specifically Nikki's) happiness is what is important. On Thursday, Nikki put in her two week notice at the YMCA and made the decision to pursue more opportunity with her personal training.

This was the right decision, but it still comes with a little bit of anxiety. Passing up on position that comes with a regular bi-weekly paycheck to pursue working for yourself was not an easy decision. But how many times is the easy way the right way? I don't know, but I'm proud to say that at this point-in-time we were not too afraid to find out.

*****

Gordo Byrn made a post yesterday that explains how I feel about this subject better than I could right now. Read the entire post, it'll give you some things to think about, but here's a specific quote that touches home:

"Work -- I find work to be a tricky one for many. This is due to a mistaken belief in a lack of choice, or perhaps, a lack of personal responsibility. There is a movie called Holywood Shuffle that is about an actor trying to break into the movies. It is a comedy but contains quite a bit of truth. In the end the actor decides to forget about it and joins the post office. The personal sacrifices to achieve his "dream" weren't consistent with his self-image."

*****

I guess for us, Nikki is making the opposite move. She's walking away from the post office in order to become an actor. So-to-speak.

I have always found an interesting analogy between training for an endurance event and developing freedom in finance/work life. Hopefully my thoughts on the parallels will become a little more concrete so I can share them.

Week and Rodes City Run review

copied from an email I sent to "The Group"

*****************

Saturday was a little cool for me, but based upon weather predictions I don't think that we could have asked for a better day. As far as my race went, it went about as expected.

On our Thursday run I said that anything between 37:00 and 39:30 would be acceptable so I made that. The frustrating part for me was not having that top speed. I ran 6:08ish twice but between miles 3 and 4 I wanted sub 6, but didn't make it.

Despite the ego fulfillment that sub 6 would have given me, I'm not sure that there would have been any relevance to my marathon training. :) I finished the week with 6 hours and 48 minutes of total running time, which is my second largest total yet (6:54 last week). So running the race in the middle of that schedule makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Now Nikki once again over shadowed my running. She ran 47 something, which is 7 minutes faster than her PR of 54 that she ran at the Bluegrass 10K last summer. AND she looked solid at the end of her 2:30 run yesterday.

Lot's of Todd's Road Runners at the race. (Carol, Skip, Steve, George, Ernie, Sue, Sarah and more that I'm missing) A nice way to run a race.

Despite all the x's and o's. This is the first race that I've tried to "race" since the Bix 7 in 2004. And it is amazing how much "CHATTER" I had going on in my mind.

So while I may be in shape to run, I've got to get that out of the way. 16 miles of that kind of thinking would lead to mental exhaustion and physical break-down. Just another piece to the puzzle.

Next step of technology and running.

I just wrote a post on finding happiness and freedom while you run. In that post one of the comments I made was:

Here's a short list of things you might want to do in order to help facilitate this feeling yourself:

- leave all gadgets at home (hr monitor, gps, watch)

- run a route you know (getting lost is scary not freeing)

- every once in a while, say to yourself out loud how thankful you are that you can run

- do not get caught up in a single thought

- pay close attention to how your body feels (breathing, cadence, etc.)

The basic concept is to use your running session to associate with your body and your movement. This morning in my RSS reader, I had a link to a blog entry by Brad Feld. You should check the set up that he has created to help facilitate getting in some runs. You could say that what he has created is the exact opposite to the ideas I had. His "treadputer" (not sure if that is trademarked yet or not) helps the user remain completely interactive with the world while disassociating from the run.

Both can be good ideas, but I dislike treadmills so much that I can not imagine that I would be end up being productive doing either task - working or running. I must ongratulate him though in innovating something for himself that increases his productivity and incorporates something he enjoys doing.

The other aspect - besides associating vs. disassociating - to this story that comes from the first few comments, relates to mental capacity while running. I have always felt that I think incredibly clear while running. In fact, I have often wondered if I could somehow rig up a recorder to take notes on thoughts I have during runs. There seems to be so many good ideas, innovative ideas, that I have while running. Unfortunately, they are thoughts that I often can not get back once I'm done running.

I have no idea what causes this phenomena? Maybe it is due to some state-dependent consciousness that only occurs during a physiological state that results from running? A similar situation or line-of-thought to that presented by Candace Pert in Molecules of Emotion.

Whatever the case, I know that this clarity of thought rarily happens when on a treadmill. That could be the beauty of Feld's creation. On a treadmill, it may be better to disassociate yourself as much as you can from the run.

I can't wait until virtual reality treadmills are common place, because I want a treadmill that allows me to run in the moutains one day and on the beach the next. Until then, I'll get out of bed and run in the 20 degree temperatures.

This week's running session contemplations.

One thing that I've realized is that completely dedicating yourself to a single goal can be extremely challenging. Life continually throws choices at you that don't support your goals, but may seem like a toss-up in deciding what to do.

I have mentioned a couple times when running with the group that I am always amazed at parents that can manage taking care of their children, being productive at work and train at a high level. It makes my decisions seem so minor in scale, but non-the-less intrusive on my desire to be a decent (slightly above average) endurance athlete.

Two examples from this week:

1. NCAA Tournament Pool. I made the choice to not participate in a pool because I didn't want have more desire to watch the games than I already possess. There is one level of excitement about the tournament that exists because I love college athletics. But the level of anxiety and excitement increases 10 fold if money is involved (no matter how much that may be). I guess that is why gambling on the NCAA tournament is such an enormous "business", it gives excitement to a lot of people's lives.

I still watched a couple games I didn't need to watch, even though I wasn't participating in the pool. Add to this my anticipation of this weeks American Idol and I will likely get a-big-fat F regarding t.v. time this week. T.V. time always seems to impact amount of sleep.

2. Social Requirements. These are the choices I find the most difficult to make. This weekend Tyson had a get-together for his birthday. The gathering was on Saturday night, which means I was tired from running in the morning and training clients during the day. Not only was it on Saturday but it started at 10:00pm and was at a bar downtown. Therefore, I didn't get to bed until 12:30am and ended up drinking two beers (what else would I drink at the bar).

I don't want to say that I didn't enjoy myself, because I did. It seems that these "outings" are attended less and less. But it created a pretty big hole to dig myself out of on Sunday. I didn't recover well from Saturday's run and woke up tired and sluggish, plus I had a terrible headache all day from the 2 beers I had. (I could have had water at the bar, but who wants to be that guy?)

My training plan had an 1:40 scheduled for Sunday's run. I got in 1:37. But to say that the run was a good run would be a lie. I was a little more sluggish than I should have been and I never felt like I got into a rhythm. Recovery today is a must.

Choices are such a funny part of life. Even the little ones we make can influence our paths. I wonder how much time I spend making these decisions? My guess is not very much. I just ended up getting caught in the middle of another basketball game and when Nikki woke me up and said we had to go downtown, I rolled over, put on my sweater and went downtown. Not much thought at all.

Another Adam Morrison post.

A while back I posted about Adam Morrison being diabetic and how I thought it was great that he wasn't being handicapped by the NBA scouts due to it. In the first game of the NCAA tournament for Gonzaga, the announcers discussed how he was managing his blood sugars during the timeout. The cameras even had a shot of him pulling out his insulin kit.

I don't know what Morrison thinks about his diabetes being discussed because I've never heard him speak of it. I imagine that he prefers to hear talk about his play on the court, especially by the scouts and potential NBA teams. But I think that it is a good thing that people don't forget that one of the two best players in college basketball (I feel the best), is also an insulin-dependent diabetic.

The 'Zags play UCLA next. Every prediction I heard this morning said that UCLA moves on. I hope they are wrong.

running with happiness (freedom).

Some of the "technical" aspects of running are starting to get discussed in the forums, which is nice because it allows me to bring up topics in the blog that are less technical, but just as important.

There has been a topic that Nikki and I have been discussing the last couple weeks that relates to the idea of happiness. Specifically we are trying to figure out how big of a "sacrifice" we would be willing to make in order to take another "chance" at being happier on a daily basis?

I think that a lot of people would say, "Take the chance. Your happiness is worth it. You'll always look back and wonder, what if?" if we really sought out advice from others. But how many people really sell out to follow a dream compared to how many decisions do people make based upon:

• influences from media and marketing (does Starbucks really make me hip?)


• influences from family and/or friends


• social status pressure (house purchases, cars we drive, clothes we wear)


• thoughts of fear and safety

I have found in the last several years that there is one common component to all of the decisions I made that ultimately made me happy - freedom. Decisions that I make that create more freedom in my life, always turn out positive when I review them in hindsight.

It's interesting that freedom can be found in various ways and is probably defined differently by each individual.

What does this have to do with running?

Running is freeing. When approached with the right state of mind, the time I spend running creates a lot of freedom. During those times, I don't worry about the list of 8,000 various things that I'll normally worry about during any given day. Call it meditation, focused movement or ignoring your problems, I don't really care.

The benefit of finding freedom (for me happiness) with running isn't in how it happens, but that it does happen. Here's a short list of things you might want to do in order to help facilitate this feeling yourself:

• leave all gadgets at home (hr monitor, gps, watch)


• run a route you know (getting lost is scary not freeing)


• every once in a while, say to yourself out loud how thankful you are that you can run


• do not get caught up in a single thought


• pay close attention to how your body feels (breathing, cadence, etc.)

As a kid, I loved the movie Running Brave about Billy Mills. It's been a long time sense I've seen it, but there was a scene that took place after Mills had won the 10,000 Olympic gold where he was back on the reservation and just running. That's probably the best visual that I can think of, when explaining how running creates freedom for me.

the value of interaction.

Last week ended up on a high note. I ran with the group out at Todd's Road for the first time in a while, which really helped the quality of my long run. We ran the 18 mile loop, starting out on Basin Springs, heading over Jones Nursery, up Pit Bull to Judy Ray's and back to the club house. I love this run!

We averaged just over an 8 minute pace for the entire run. But after Judy Ray's we were consistently under 8 min pace and ran around 6:40 for our last mile. The last mile pace is great because I didn't really feel like I picked it up that much. (I'll post the data on the forum if/when I get it.)

Even with the good run on Saturday morning, Nikki had a better run. She ran the 15 mile loop over Pit Bull, by herself. And ran it in approx. 2:15! Jim and I were talking about where she was at because we didn't catch her on Jones' Nursery. Then we didn't catch her by the time we got to Judy Ray's. And then we never caught her by the time we reached the school house. We thought for sure that she found people to run with and did something different. She didn't. She just ran a lot faster than I (we) thought was possible.

Value of Interaction

This week has also been exciting for me because there seems to be a lot of different forms of interaction among the runners. This isn't new, but I think this week I've noticed how valuable it is (for me at least).

This week I ran with the Johns' group on Tuesday and Thursday, which is a certain running dynamic (fast). Saturday was a relaxed run with the group at Todd's (but still a high quality run). Wednesday, Nikki and I ran with Ernie, Haley and Sarah, which was a nice social aspect to my weekly runs. Then Nikki and I did a stride workout Wednesday night, which is "business", trying to improve our economy.

But apart from the running itself, we had the Todd's email list, the Johns' email list and this week a few people jumped on our boards. I also had a good friend from Nebraska email me about my training and thoughts I had on the blog.

Everything put together creates a tightly developed running culture for me to participate in. I hope that it is a culture that will help propel me towards my goals. If nothing else, I'm enjoying the heck out of the lifestyle. I would be very happy talking about endurance sports 16 hours a day. (I always need 8 hours of sleep!)

Here's to another week in running paradise.

we've got a hot one!

This is the first season that I've been interested in American Idol. And to be honest, I couldn't wait until tonights showing to get the flow going so I thought it might be fun to make a post that related Idol to our running group. Plus it was something that I was thinking about while we were running.

Today is the first day that I've run with the group when Walt was there. Here's what I think the judges might have to say about him.

Randy - "wooh, wooh (arm pumping a must).... we've got another hot one! Come on dawg. Yo, man - you know you can run."

Paula - "I'm almost in tears, because I'm so moved. The way you run... you've got energy, it's infectious. Did you see how the others wanted to make sure they ran with that kind of energy? The performance was amazing, you are a star. A bright shining star."

Simon - "You know Walt, I've seen some runners come through lately that were just - well, ok. At first, I thought that you might be another one of those forgetable types... but I have to say you impressed me. You have the ability to make all the others run behind you for hours, wondering how in the world they will ever catch up. And for that.... I think the group will only get better. Because they'll have too."

What singer would Jim's running be compared too?

I was also wondering what kind of singer Jim could be compared to. A singer who's songs have been used on the show. Stevie Wonder is what I came up with. First of all Stevie's songs have been used multiple times on the show already this season (I think 3 times). Jim is kind of that guy from my perspective. He's one of the guys that you would naturally gravitate too because he has an inviting personality. He's always willing to help people out and makes sure we all know when, where and what our runs will be. People would definately choose him to help their running group flow.

The other similarity I thought of was that Stevie's songs are still relevant. The relavancy of Stevie's music is pretty impressive considering the time span that his music has remained popular. Consistancy. I only met Jim a few years ago at Todd's Road, but one thing that I would say about him is that he is consistant with his running. I don't ever remember him talking about a period of time when he wasn't running. Consistancy is a key to becoming a good runner. And a key to remaining a professional musician. (Anyone know what Vanillia Ice is doing right now?)

What singer would I like my running to be compared to?

Johny Cash. Jack Johnson. Beastie Boys. I'll leave it up to you to figure out how those comparisons / analogies might exist. I just like their style.

period one review.

The first training cycle of the 12 week training program is over. So how did it turn out? Here's the summary stats:

Week 1 (Feb 6th): 4:50
Week 2 (Feb 13th): 6:23
Week 3 (Feb 20th): 5:26
Week 4 (Feb 27th): 4:24

Week one - went well as it was my introductory back to running 5x/6x a week. Week two - started running with tues/thurs group in morning. Speed increased due to that. Week three - overall volume was down due to 1 long run with no run on Sunday versus, long weekend the previous week. Week four - achilles issue starting up, likely due to intensity from week 3 long run. Spent time healing, rehabing and was good to go to run weekend runs! It was a recovery week, so time off wasn't that mentally taxing.

Lessons Learned:

1. Even on the 1 long run weekends, I need to add in a shorter run the day after (Sunday). I have done this in the past. That would be bump running to 6x per week, every week.

2. Speed/Intensity good IF recovery is adequate. Long is good if body holds up. Speed + Long, probably only good for race day. (re: achillies issue)

3. Core strength, yoga and stretching are still important. (A friendly reminder to myself.)

Week 5 starts the second training period. Goals here are to:

1. increase intensity on Tuesday and higher level of steady on Thursday.
2. make sure body is prepared for the final training period of peak / taper.

Planning to fail.

I have always wondered why people make up excuses for everything, except when they succeed. If I don't live up to expectations, then it must be someone / something else that caused it. When I succeed, it must have been something I did well. Right?

In some of my college psych classes they talked about the concept of cognitive dissonance. Applying it to this situation, it means that you make these attributions of failure/success so that you can mentally deal with the situation. Ultimately, so you can feel good about yourself and not be depressed all the time.

On ESPN.com, Bill Simmons did an article that was an exchange with Malcolm Gladwell. They touched on this subject:

Simmons:

"On Mickelson and Sports Lent, I remember watching one of those 20/20-Dateline-type pieces about him once, and he was adamant about remaining a family man, taking breaks from golf and never letting the sport consume him ... and I remember thinking to myself, "Right now Tiger is watching this and thinking, 'I got him. Cross Phil off the list. This guy will never pass me.'" ....

Gladwell:

"This is actually a question I'm obsessed with: Why don't people work hard when it's in their best interest to do so? Why does Eddy Curry come to camp every year overweight?

The (short) answer is that it's really risky to work hard, because then if you fail you can no longer say that you failed because you didn't work hard. It's a form of self-protection. I swear that's why Mickelson has that almost absurdly calm demeanor. If he loses, he can always say: Well, I could have practiced more, and maybe next year I will and I'll win then. When Tiger loses, what does he tell himself? He worked as hard as he possibly could. He prepared like no one else in the game and he still lost. That has to be devastating, and dealing with that kind of conclusion takes a very special and rare kind of resilience. Most of the psychological research on this is focused on why some kids don't study for tests -- which is a much more serious version of the same problem. If you get drunk the night before an exam instead of studying and you fail, then the problem is that you got drunk. If you do study and you fail, the problem is that you're stupid -- and stupid, for a student, is a death sentence. The point is that it is far more psychologically dangerous and difficult to prepare for a task than not to prepare. People think that Tiger is tougher than Mickelson because he works harder. Wrong: Tiger is tougher than Mickelson and because of that he works harder."

That is a thought provoking dialog, in relation to endurance sports... especially running. Running is pure. I would make the claim that it is the purest of all the sports, even with all the technology being incorporated into shoes and other gear.

In a running event you can't blame a flat tire, a tight rim or an old club head. Running involves you and space. That space may be defined by climate, weather patterns or terrain, but the space is the same for all runners. We each find our own way through that space.

This makes running a marathon either a very satisfying event or a devastating day. We either feel good about what we were able to accomplish, accept the fact that we were not good enough to meet our expectations, or make up excuses. Like the student realizing they are stupid or attributing it to the alcohol, in Gladwell's explanation.

It also means, a perspective that views the process of doing as more important than an obession of achieving, can lead to more fullfillment and happiness in an age-grouper's running life.

I have thought about this question over the years when I hear stories of races run well and races run not-so-well. And I need to think about it some more. But I really believe that if we are 100% honest, we all self-sabotage on occasion. The ability to quickly side-step that mental process and move ahead can lead us beyond even our best expectations.

broken wheel.

I have been a little down the last couple days about training, but I guess it is all a part of the process. The frustrating part is that when I'm training just for the sake of training, a "broken wheel" would not bother me. The first sign of pain and I'd go cycling. If that still caused pain, I would swim or take an approach like I wrote about in my Training through Injury article.

An interesting thought is that my current issue is probably related to an imbalance between my muscular ability and my connective tissue ability to withstand this specific training protocol. Therefore, I would have probably done better if I had followed my own advice prior to this 12 week training period (i.e. yoga/pilates/strength training).

My Achilles heel.

My "broken wheel" is actually an achilles problem. Self diagnosing - it is achilles tendonitis. I've tried to be pretty agressive in treating it because this crap can stick around. What am I doing? Rest, ice and elevation. The classic rehab plan. Plus I have taken ibprofen yesterday and today. (You know something isn't right when I start taking NSAID's, since I always feel like I'm preaching against their overuse.) And I'm following the strengthening / stretching advice from: http://www.nismat.org/ptcor/eccentric_achilles/.

Learning from the experience.

So how did this happen? My first assumption would be my saturday run (see: cowabunga). I do not think that the volume (duration) of the running was the problem because I have already completed a 2:00 run. And last weeks total volume was actually down from the week before. The issue is likely the intensity with which I ran the 2:10. The frustrating part is that I'm always preaching (to myself at least) that long runs DON'T need to be run at a quick pace. And I take precautions to make sure I don't get competitive during the runs. I just felt good on Saturday... so I ran faster than I thought I was running. Was the result an inflammed achilles?

Another possiblity is that I used an unsupported shoe on Monday, while my body was still recovering from Saturday. A combination of the two is most likely. The thing that I don't understand is that on Sunday I didn't run, but I walked all over and never had any signs of pain. Then monday, I got on the treadmill to warm up. And bingo - bango.

The process!

The last thought I have on this is that I've let the "result" become as important as the "process" over the last few weeks. Running at my (our) level isn't about results (if we are completely honest about it). It is about the process. Sharing stories with other runners, training with the group and testing our bodies and our minds.

The sub 3:00 result had become way too much of my focus last week. It obviously isn't wrong to have goals. In fact, having goals may be an important part of the process. But obsessing about a result rarily helps accomplish much in endurance sports. Who knows, maybe Bode Miller has a better approach (mentally) to sports than we're willing to give him. I actually find it kind of refreshing that he can walk away without any medals and still feel positive about his skiing.