Ben's Training Log

Grandmas Training 2006 Archive

Summer 2006 Archive

Houston Marathon 2007 Training Archive

Boston Marathon 2007 Training Archive

Early Summer 2007 Training Archive

Olympic Trials Training Archive

Indoor Track 2008

Summer 2008

Fall 2008 XC

Indoor Track 2009

Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
Weeks 12, 13, 14
Week 15

"Hello everyone. Since we are opening the store soon I thought I would start posting my log on the site to give people a little bit better idea of who I was and to give people who are interested a little insight into some high level training. A big reason that Matt and I are opening this store is so we can give back to the running community. For me, an easy way to do that is to share my training. American Distance Running has seen a huge resurgence over the past few years and I believe that the internet is a big reason for that. I know that when I was in college I was constantly reading interviews from the nation’s best runners and trying to figure out what they were doing that made them so good. It was because of the information that I read that I began to experiment with higher mileage. When I did that I became a lot better runner. It is important for today’s high school runners to see what is out there at the elite level. I am not saying that high schoolers should be running the amount of miles that I am running, but I just want them to know that it is a big world out there and kids across the country are doing some amazing things and they can too. " - summer 2006

UPDATE: For those of you who read my log you know that I haven't posted in a while. That's because I haven't done much. After my last indoor race on February 14th I was going to take five days off to recharge a bit but five days became ten days and next thing you know I had only run three times over the course of three weeks. Then I had to get my butt in gear because the St Pats race was a week away and I was definitely not ready. I ran for 55 minutes on Friday by myself on Friday March 6th and then for 30 minutes with Carter on the 7th, one week from the race. The next day I forced myself through 90 minutes with the guys at the Sunday Long Run. I'll start this segment's log with what I did the week leading up to the race. Hopefully it will be the first of many good weeks! The goal for this segment is the Big River Festival of Miles which will take place on May 23rd at Saint Louis U. High and will benefit Brain and Spinal Cord Research. Hopefully a sub 4 mile will be in the cards....we'll see!

WEEK 1

Monday March 9th- Ran for an hour in the morning. Not pleasant.
Tuesday March 10th- Ran with Lyons in the pm in the pouring down rain. Felt quite good actually. May have turned the corner tonight.
Wednesday March 11th- 2 miles up/ 4 x 1k/ 2 down. Ran with Carter. He had cutdown 1ks on his schedule and I figured I should at least do something fast before the race to see if I thought I could actually pull it off. We went 3:04/ 2:59/ 2:56/ 2:50. I called it a day at that point as I had felt pretty good and didn't want to go over the edge.
Thursday March 12th- ZERO. Worked 15 hours. Did not feel like running. Plus, Adam texted and wanted to run tomorrow morning at 6:30am which didn't seem that far away as I sat at the store and pondered a 9pm run.
Friday March 13th- am 4 miles with Adam and Brian before Adam left for Baton Rouge. pm 20 minutes with Lyons to shake it out a bit. Felt pretty good actually. I think I'll be able to give it a good go tomorrow.
Saturday March 14th- got up and got 10 minutes in at 6am for a shakeout. Warmed up about 2 miles to and from our tent with the group. Did some dynamic stretching and drills to loosen up before jogging down to the start with the team. What a sight it was to see 9,500 people lined up down Market!! I get super pumped for this race anyway and at this point I was really feeling ready to go. Of course, I knew that I hadn't run much in the last month so my fitness was a bit behind my ambitions. My race plan was to sit behind whoever was leading and pretty much stay as relaxed as possible and use as little energy as possible so that I could make it to the last part of the race still in contact. I figured I would be able to outkick anyone in the field...it was just getting to that point! The race went out a bit slow (which was fine with me) for most of the first mile until Brian started picking it up. It was down to he and I and Zac pretty quickly which I figured would happen. We hit one mile in 4:53, then 2 miles in 9:45. We turned uphill onto Olive and Brian fell off the pace and pointed to me as if it to say "It's up to you." I was a bit surprised he fell off but it turned out he was having some issued with his calf. Anyway, I really locked in at this point because I knew if a Big River jersey was going to cross the line first it would have to be mine. I got up that hill okay and then we went downhill past Jefferson and hit the 3 mile mark in 14:45. There was one more significant hill on Olive and I was a bit worried Zac would hit that hard and he did pick it up but nothing too crazy and I just followed right on his shoulder. He actually pushed hard on the corresponding downhill and put a couple steps on me but I regrouped pretty quickly with a little Jeremy Doherty-esque self pep talk, "c'mon Ben...it's a downhill." Once we hit the flat part of the race in the heart of Downtown I started feeling more positive because there was only a mile to go. We hit 4 miles somewhere around 19:35 and shortly thereafter turned onto Market for the last 3/4 of a mile. At this point I really felt like I had to come through since I had made it this far. I decided to make a move once I hit about a minute to go. I ended up looking down and seeing 23:18 on my watch and I went to the outside and ran as fast as I could. I opened up a pretty good gap right away and held it through until about 50 meters to go when I started to rig a bit but I looked back and saw that I had enough room and came across at 24:11, two seconds ahead of Zac. Proceeded to have a blast the rest of the day!!!
Sunday March 15th- Ran 15 miles at Castlewood with Brian and Juan. Actually felt okay which was surprising.

Weekly Total: 56 miles, 7 runs. Certainly an interesting way to start a new training segment.

Week 2

Monday March 16th- OFF. Planned Rest Day.
Tuesday March 17th- Ran for an hour. Started at the store and headed to dogtown to see the beginnings of the St Pats day festivities which I will not be able to indulge in as I have to work all day. Oh well. I do miss the Hamlin Pub run.
Wednesday March 18th- am 2 miles up/ 2 mile tempo at central fields/ 1 down. Ran with Lyons at 6:30. We are going to build some base by running a tempo every Wednesday and increasing the distance by two miles each week. This one was obviously the first one. Splits were 5:19, 5:14. pm knocked out another 4 miles
Thursday March 19th- ran at 6:30 am again with Lyons. Got an hour in.
Friday March 20th- Ran a couple miles warmup, did 10 x 20 seconds hard, 1 minute easy and cooled down a mile before going out with Jen's parents at Iron Barley which is a great restaurant on the South Side. Highly recommend!
Saturday March 21st- Ran with Lyons again. We ran over to the reservoir and slogged around that a few times discussing plans to race a marathon this fall.
Sunday March 22nd- Ran 90 minutes at the Sunday Long Run with Brian, Tim and Adam. Did the Clayton loop. Didn't feel good out there.

Weekly Total: 52 miles, 7 runs. Not a good week of training obviously but what I didn't include was how much I worked this week which was about a gazillion hours (or at least it felt like it).


Week 3

Monday March 23rd- 2 miles up/ full set of drills and strides with Carter/ 2 miles down. Feels good to be getting back in the routine.
Tuesday March 24th- am 4 miles pm 4 miles. Not much to report.
Wednesday March 25th- 2 miles up/ 4 mile tempo/ 2 miles down. Pleasant surprise today as I felt terrible warming up but then the tempo felt easy. Ran 5:11/ 5:14/ 5:16/ 5:16. Of course that should feel easy but it's all part of a more long term training plan rather than the "get fit quick" strategy I've been using lately.
Thursday March 26th- Ran for just under 50 minutes with JCR, Carter and Brian. Ran the St. John's loop which incorporates the old loop I used to run in gradeschool where my running career began!!
Friday March 27th- 30 minutes up/ 10 x 20 seconds hard, 1 minute easy/ 20 minutes down. Beautiful day to run. Felt good.
Saturday March 28th- Had to get up early and load up the truck and go to the Wash U Track Meet. It was about 38 degrees and pouring down rain which was not ideal conditions to be out in the day before a race. Oh well. I got out of there at 11:30 and then worked at the store for a couple hours before finally getting a chance to rest a bit and take a 45 minute nap. I ran for a half hour and then flew to Chicago. Flight was easy and I was in bed by 10:30.
Sunday March 29th- Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle 8k. Got up and did about a 14 minute shakeout with Brian and Adam. Felt good. Warmed up from the hotel to the start and added on for about close to 20 minutes total. The weather was CRAZY as it was snowing heavily but it was in the high 30s so once it hit the ground it was just slush. Made for some cold feet! Anyway, the race took off and I thought it might be tactical with no one wanting to lead but Ryan Sheehan pretty much took off and I decided I'd just go with him because if I wanted to try and win I didn't want him to get too far out in front. We hit the mile in 4:50 but it felt much faster to me which was not a good sign. I fell off a bit and was in around 5th or 6th at 2 miles in 9:40. From there I just sort of got passed by a guy here or there the rest of the way but I fought each time someone went by so I was at least happy with that. Brian had passed me at 1.5 so I spent much of the race keeping an eye on him and I caught back up with about 400 to go. He was kind of stuck in neutral because his shoes weren't getting much traction at that point. I kicked home past another guy and finished in 24:58 which I think was 12th place overall. Anyway, we got third as a team. It was a blast!! Check out some PICS HERE.

54 miles, 8 runs. I want to get my mileage up around 75 for the next few weeks if I can.

Week 4

Monday March 30th- Zero. Planned rest day.
Tuesday March 31st- Zero. Non-planned rest day. I just felt totally mentally and physically exhausted today. Couldn't bring myself to run.
Wednesday April 1- I ran today and that's not an April Fools Joke!! Ran 4 miles in the morning and 4 more in the evening just to get the legs back under me.
Thursday April 2- Ran 4 in the morning. In the pm I warmed up 2 miles with Lyons and we did 10 x 1 minute hard/ 1 minute easy. Cooled down 2 miles.
Friday April 3- am 10 miles with Lyons. Really felt like garbage.
Saturday April 4- 2 miles up/ 6 mile tempo at Central Fields/ 2 down. This is the third of five tempos we'll be doing to try and build a base for the mile training that will be coming in May. Just wanted to hit 5:20s. Hit 5:20/ 5:20/ 5:20/ 5:19/ 5:17/ 5:17. Course played tough today as it was windy and the grass was thick. Really had to dig down to hit the times which is unfortunate as that should have felt easy.
Sunday April 5- 90 minutes. Did the downtown out and back with Tim, Juan and Carter and Brian for a while. Felt crappy, then good for a while, then crappy again.

52 miles, 7 runs. I'm letting stress from work keep me from running. I've got to suck it up.

Week 5

Monday April 6- Zero. Wanted to run today but didn't feel like it and justified it because I want to run next Monday in case the end of the week gets too hectic and I'm supposed to be taking every other Monday. Bottom line...I am still lacking motivation right now.
Tuesday April 7- Ran 63 minutes at Laumeier Sculpture Park scoping out places to run when we have Blazers practice there. pm ran a couple of miles with the kids at Blazers practice. Had a blast!!!
Wednesday April 8- am 3.5 miles up/ 8 mile tempo/ 3.5 miles down. Tempo #4. Ran this one on the path at Forest Park. Insanely windy day. Hit 5:22/ 5:28/ 5:09/ 5:08/ 5:20/ 5:52/ 5:13/ 5:05. This was a big time slap-in-the-face to show me that I am not in shape at all and need to get my act together. The 5:52 was just a total lack of concentration and the inability to get up the big hill on Skinker. That should feel so easy for me. I need to get my mileage up and start doing the little things again- core work, stretching, nutrition, etc. I am telling you...it starts now. I am going to start training like I need to right now.
Thursday April 9- am 10 miles at Queeny. Ran into Connor and Zach (DeSmet HS runners) and ended up running with them for 25 minutes or so which was nice. Felt quite good actually.pm 2.5 miles at Blazers in the rain with the kids. I know it seems silly since I was just jogging but I could tell that I felt really good.
Friday April 10- woke up genuinely excited to run for the first time in a long time (excluding race days). Warmed up 30 minutes with JCR and did 10 x 20 seconds hard/ 1 minute easy on the track in spikes. Felt quite fast. Cooled down 30 minutes as well.
Saturday April 11- am Ran 8 miles with Julie Bokermann and her friend Brian at our Training Team's last group run before GO! St. Louis. pm Ran 6 miles with Lyons over to Tower Grove Park and back.
Sunday April 12- 15 miles at Castlewood. Ran with Carter out 42 minutes on the flat trails. 75 minutes in I took off and ran hard for the last 15 minutes, finishing doing 1k loops on the grass field. Felt very good.

78 miles, 9 runs. What a difference a week makes. From Wednesday on the snowball just seemed to start rolling in the right direction. Felt like my old self hammering a long run on Sunday.

Week 6

Monday April 13- am 4 miles in the morning solo. Pushups and situps afterwards. pm 40 minutes up/ drills and strides/ 20 minutes down
Tuesday April 14- am 6 miles at Queeny. Felt kind of crappy. Can't feel good every time out I guess. pm 4 miles solo, Francis Loop. Felt markedly better than this morning.
Wednesday April 15- 2.5 up/ 10 mile tempo/ 1.5 down. The last of the stretch of five straight weeks of tempo runs. This one was pretty much a carbon copy of last week. Did it solo at Forest Park. Started at Forsyth and ran 5 miles out clockwise, then turned and came back. Wanted to hit 5:20 pace. Had a couple of slip-ups (a 5:32 and a 5:27). Other than that I was right at 5:20 or a little under. It scares me a bit how hard these have been considering I have run a marathon five seconds faster per mile. I have to remember though that I am far removed from that type of training after a year and a half of mile training. Hopefully when I get back to marathon training this fall I can get it back. As for now...on to the track!!
Thursday April 16- am 60 minutes pm 30 minutes
Friday April 17- 30 minutes up/ 10 x 1 minute hill repeats/ 20 minutes down. Definitely a good workout. Ran over to St. Vincent Hill St. Hill in Shrewsbury where I used to live. The hill is a monster so I didn't want to go to crazy on the first couple but my plan was basically to try and get farther up the hill each time. Unfortunately on number three I got a little carried away so 4, 5 and 6 were pretty much the same as 3. I dug down a bit on 7 and got a little farther and then I really nailed 8, 9 and 10. I was really pleased.
Saturday April 18- Had the GO! St. Louis Marathon expo all day yesterday but I really didn't feel too bad. Ran for 83 minutes over to Forest Park to watch the 5k and then ran back home.
Sunday April 19- ZERO. GO! St. Louis Marathon day. Pretty much knew going in there was no way I was going to run today.

72 miles, 9 runs. Pretty good week. Stupidly stayed out late on Saturday night though and had to get up early to volunteer at the marathon so that may come back to haunt me next week.

Week 7

Monday April 20- ZERO. Could not bring myself to run. Completely exhausted from the weekend.
Tuesday April 21- Ran with the kids at Blazers Practice. Probably got about 3 miles in.
Wednesday April 22- am 4 miles pm 15 minutes up/ 17 x 400/ 10 minutes down. Workout was supposed to be 20 x 400 but had to cut it short due to calf cramps. The gameplan was to go 5 at 72/ 5 at 70/ 5 at 68/ 5 at 66 with 200 jog rest between repeats and 400 jog between sets of 5 but the fifth one in each set would be a hammer (stolen from Greg McMillan who stole it from Scott Simmons). The Hammers were set to be 64/ 62/ 60/ 58. Here's what I hit: 68/ 69/ 71/ 71/ 64/ 69/ 69/ 69/ 69/ 62/ 67/ 67/ 67/ 67/ 61/ 67/ 69 (calf grabbed about 30 meters from the line and had to jog it in). On paper the workout looks pretty good but it was more of a struggle than it should have been. Felt rust from the days off and tired from the LONG weekend.
Thursday April 23- ANOTHER ZERO. I was unbelievably sore from the workout. I just think that standing on concrete for two days in a row, then staying out late, then standing outside in the rain for six hours, then not running for basically three days and trying that workout was a DUMB idea.
Friday April 24- am 4 miles. pm 6 miles
Saturday April 25- 30 minutes up/ 10 x one minute hill repeats (same as last week)/ 20 minutes down. My calves were still wrecked from Wednesday so I couldn't rip into the hills like I wanted to. Still pretty much got as far as I did last week which was a good sign. A bad sign that my calves were cramping so bad that I had to stop and walk three times on the cool down.
Sunday April 26- 80 minutes with Carter at Castlewood. Not fun. Felt like garbage. Probably going to the Toadies concert last night on sore legs was a bad idea.

Weekly Total: 49 miles. Yuck.

Week 8

Monday April 27- 7 miles solo in the am.
Tuesday April 28- am 4 miles pm 3 miles up running the kids' tempo with them at Blazers practice. Carter and I did a workout afterwards- 2 hill repeats (45 seconds each) and then a 20 minute fartlek of 2 on/ 1 off on the grass loop. Felt much better than I have lately but I had to stop at 18 minutes due to more calf cramping. Stretched it out and did one more hill at the end (41 seconds). 2 miles down.
Wednesday April 29- 60 minutes in the pm with Brian and Carter. Felt markedly better after getting a massage and chiropractoric work at Dr. Cragg's in the am.
Thursday April 30- am 4 miles pm 4 miles or so running with the kids at practice.
Friday May 1st- Drove down to Fayetteville, AR to run in the Arkansas Twilight Meet. Was going to run the 5k against Eric Fernandez but the meet was cancelled due to heavy thunderstorms. Ran about 6 miles with Eric before the torrential downpours and extremely close lightning made us call it a night.
Saturday May 2nd- am 3 mile warmup/ 2 mile time trial/ 4 down. Eric and I decided to just do a 2 mile time trial since we didn't get to race last night. Didn't go all that well. It was rainy and windy. We alternated leads trying to hit 66s but it wasn't happening. He ended up pulling off on the sixth lap with a blister so I finished it off solo in 9:02. Honestly though with how little I have done and how inconsistent I've been I will take it. pm 4 miles with new daddy for the second time Brian Lyons. Little Lucas Lyons was born Friday and I'm quite sure you'll see him on the top of the podium in a few years!
Sunday May 3rd- Had the Blazers meet in the morning so had to run at noon with Adam and miss the Sunday group run. Had a good one though. We ran 14.5 miles at sub 6 minute pace. Ran from my house to Forest Park around it plus a loop up Wydown and down Forsyth. Hammered the last few miles. Got a pacman tattoo tonight. Been wanting it for a while. It symbolizes how I like to race, gobble em up from behind, but also that in running if you want to have a long career you are faced with lots of decisions and if you make a few wrong ones you're okay but make one too many and you're done. I feel like in the last year I have been getting close to game over for my running. Sort of living on borrowed time and running fast times just because I had trained for so many years, so hard. I have to get back to making all the right decisions and finishing my career like I started it, full-bore and fully committed.

Weekly Total: 69.5 miles, 10 runs. I leave this week feeling quite good about things after coming in not so sure so I'll take it.

Week 9

Monday May 4th- 20 minutes/ drills and strides with Lyons/ 45 more minutes. Felt quite good. Went to the Killers concert at night. Good show. I am not sure Brandon Flowers thought it was a very good crowd but I still dug the show. They played everything I wanted to hear except Neon Tiger from the new album. They opened with "Human", ended the set with "All These Things That I've Done" and ended the encore with "When We Were Young." I know some critics rip these guys but I don't care. I like 'em.
Tuesday May 5th- am 4 miles...did some nice lifting and core work afterwards. pm 2 miles. Got a little bit of running in at Blazers practice but not much.
Wednesday May 6th- 2 miles up/ 8 x 800 with 400 jog rest/ 3 miles down. Adam and Brian and I hit all 8 in 2:18-2:20 as planned. Idea was to have a somewhat easy workout to just take a step in the right direction as none of us are feeling very fit.
Thursday May 7th- am 4 miles. pm 2 miles. Same as Tuesday...meant to try and get a bit more in at Blazer practice but it didn't happen. Did not feel good running today at all.
Friday May 8th- am 63 minutes with Matt. Felt a bit better than yesterday at least.
Saturday May 9th- 2 miles up/ 5k road race, 8 x 200/ 2 miles down. Warmed up with Adam and Brian. Ran the 5k at the Epiphany Run for the Stars as a tempo and then drove over to DuBourg for some 200s at mile race pace. We ran 15:27 for the 5k, right about what we wanted, then hit all of the 200s in 29-30. I felt really good at that pace.
Sunday May 10th- Slogged through 90 minutes at Castlewood. Did not feel great after a quick turnaround from last night's workout.

Weekly Total: 66 miles, 9 runs. Not a very good week but I'm glad that I felt sharp on the 200s on Saturday.

Week 10

Monday May 11th- This is day one of what should be a very good week. I am not going to to go in to the store for the next five days to try and properly prepare my body for the race next week. Today I ran 4 miles in the morning and 4 more miles in the afternoon with a full set of drills and strides.
Tuesday May 12th- 2 miles up/ 15 x 400 in sets of 5 with 200 jog between repeats and a 400 jog between sets/ 2 miles down. Ran with Brian at SLUH. Very windy day which made it tough but we hit it. Had a few 65s in there but mostly 64s.
Wednesday May 13th- am 60 minutes with Brian and Trent, who was driving through on his way back to Flagstaff. Nice to run with an old teammate. pm 30 minutes.
Thursday May 14th- 65 minutes with Matt and Brian.
Friday May 15th- 2 miles up/ 400/300/200 x 3/ 2 miles down. SUPER PLEASED with this one. I did this same workout before I ran 4:06 in 2008 and before I ran 4:03 earlier this year and I felt far better today than on either of those. Hit 59/ 46/ 30...59/45/28...57/44/28. Felt very in control. The 59s felt especially good. Pretty much a jog. We took 200 jog after the 400 and 150 after the 300 and then about 4 minutes between sets. Ran it with Brian and Carter.
Saturday May 16th- am 6 miles solo. pm 4 miles with Carter.
Sunday May 17th- Ran 84 minutes with Brian but it was not good news. My left hamstring, which I felt bothering me a little on both of yesterday's run was full-on hurt today. Had to cut the run short by a few minutes and jog it in. It feels pulled which is weird because I don't remember it bothering me on Friday at all. I felt unreal during that whole workout. I am very concerned.

Weekly Total: 70 miles, 10 runs. Well, after Friday I felt ready to be close to 4:00 on the 23rd. Now I am not so sure I can even run. What a difference a day makes.

Week 11

Monday May 18th- Went to Dr. Cragg hoping for some miracle treatment. He checked out the hamstring and thought that it was a strain of the muscle sheath around the hamstring not a strain of the actual muscle which I guess is good. Did some ultrasound and stim treatment which seemed to help. Did not run though.
Tuesday May 19th- Back to Dr. Cragg in the morning for some more work. Tried to run in th evening but couldn't go.
Wednesday May 20th- Did not run. Iced and heated the hamstring and satyed off it as best I could but it's not easy with all the stuff going on for the event.
Thursday May 20th- Did not run. Got worked on again by Dr.Cragg. I think it is getting there. 75% I would say.
Friday May 21st- Not good news. Ran about 15 minutes with Brian as well as Leo Manzano and his coach. Had to turn around because the hamstring was no better than it was on Sunday. Not looking good for tomorrow.
Saturday May 22nd- Big River Festival of Miles!!!!! Well, I warmed up and despite about 25 ibuprofen it was a no go. Wasn't all that bummed though. Got to watch a 3:55 mile in Saint Louis!!!

Weeks 12, 13, 14
Well, here's the update. After the Festival of Miles I took a full week off to let the hamstring fully recover. The next week I just ran a few times nice and easy but didn't really test it. Last week I went ahead and started doing some pretty hard strides and everything felt good. On Friday the 12th I went to Portland where I was originally supposed to run a 5k at the Portland Track Festival. Obviously that was out since I hadn't been training but Jen and I used the trip as a chance to see her friends up there. Right when we got there I went for a run on the Leif Erickson trail which is an uphill crushed gravel trail with quarter mile marks. I was just going for a regular run but my second mile was 5:46 so I picked it up and ran 5:02 and 5:06 for my next two. It was really fun to run fast for the first time in a few weeks. Jogged the 4 miles back down. On Saturday we made the trip down to Eugene and I ran on Pre's Trail for about 35 minutes and then ran over to Hayward Field and I ran a couple laps on the track there. Pretty cool. I did a nice hard set of drills and strides and then cooled down a couple more laps. Sunday I ran 90 minutes out and back in Beaverton where we were staying. I ran out to the Nike Campus and they have a cool wood-chip trail that goes all around campus as well as a track that is set right in the middle of the woods with trees in the infield. I ran a few laps of the track before heading back. Didn't feel great on this one but got through it.

Week 15

Monday June 15 - Ran 25 minutes with Carter to the track, then did drills and strides. Ran about 20 minutes home.
Tuesday June 16- Day off. Pretty exhausted from the Portland trip. We were pretty much doing something the whole time we were there and having some late nights plus the time difference had me screwed up.
Wednesday June 17- 2 miles up/ Track Workout/ 2 miles down. Was supposed to do 3 mile tempo followed by 4 300s but it was crazy hot and I thought 3 miles of tempo was going to fry me so I just switched it up and ran a short and sweet workout- 800/ 600/ 400/ 200. It was not pretty. 2:07/ 1:35/ 61/ 29. Felt all out. Wasn't really ready for this type of workout.
Thursday June 18th- 41 minutes in the am, some of it with Matt.
Friday June 19th- 60 minutes easy.
Saturday June 20th- 2.5 miles up/ 10 x 1 minute up St. Vincent Hill in Shrewsbury with Carter, Adam and JCR/ 2.5 miles down. Hot, tough workout. Went pretty well until the ol' calf acted up on the last two.
Sunday June 21st- 60 minutes at Castlewood.

44 miles, 6 runs. I just don't have the same drive that I had last year at this time. I think I am going to pull out of the Ryan Shay Mile in Michigan and just try to race as best I can at the Macklind Mile on July 4th and then begin a long marathon training segment leading up to San Antonio in November.