Oatmeal Festival

I finally ran this one on Saturday. I was surprised at the turnout, 1100+. Not bad for a cold 20 degree morning. This is a more difficult course than the typical 5k and there were some fast guys there including Ewen North, Peter Reamian and Mr. Keino from Arvada. Peter and I knew that we would have to take the race out hard if we wanted to beat Keino, so that's exactly what we did. For the first half of the race which is basically all uphill, we just kept increasing the pace. By the turnaround, we had put a pretty good gap on him. The rest of the race was basically Peter and I running side by side with him eventually pulling away for the win with 200 meters to go. Good race for both of us, and not a bad way to start the new year winning some money. I may run a track race in Nebraska soon.

Last week:
Sun: 16-18 miles in Mvp. Turned into a fast run with 4 of the 6 of us being sponsored runners. Ran with James Carney, Trent Briney Ian Burell, Ryan Hafer and Ryan K.
Mon: 10 Miles in AFA.
Tue: 13 miles in MVP.
Wed: 25min AT workout with Matt Williams and Dan Castle of AFA. About 11 miles total.
Thurs: 11 Miles in MVP. 5 in about 26 min.
Fri: 10 miles on bike.
Sat: 13 miles in MVP with Andy Rinne.
Not a great week, but not bad. About 73 miles for the week.

At the crossroads

Its now 2009, and I find myself at a point where I have never been before. I have to start making decisions about training and racing and finally see what I can do. I have thought about my running goals (14:20 5k and 29:30 10k) and with some constructive feedback from some very good and elite runners, realized that my training methods were getting me nowhere. These individuals have known me for 6 years now and feel that I have not come close to running at my full potential. I feel that a small part of that has to do with the fact that I race at 6000+ feet all the time. If I am going to run fast, I will have to commit to a difficult and different training regime that I am not used to doing. I will also have to find a way to get to a fast sea level race such as the Mt.Sac Relays in April. Its time to figure out what I need to do to run faster and train smarter.