Matt's Training Log

Matt's Training Log - Summer 06 Segment
July 3rd -

Spring 2006 Segment: March - June

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

Welcome to my log. I have kept a log since my freshman year at Truman State and enjoy looking back at my running history. My current log contains a little bit of everything including the usual stuff about how far and how I felt on my runs and whatever else was on my mind as I logged it. I hope you can take something out of reading my log and apply it to your training in one way or another.

My last segment went fairly well. It was the first time in a while where I was able to get in some consistant training. I raced more in those four months that I had over the past 18 months and had a great time returning to competition. This segment is goning to focus on more quality than quantity with more speed sessions and not much more mileage than I have already been doing. Main goals are to stay healthy and get some good races in this fall. Oh and get the store going:)

I hope you enjoy this log, feel free to email me at matt@bigriverrunning.com if you have any questions about things that I am doing.

Week 1

Monday July 3rd - 8.5 miles. Monday morning high school run at Queeny. Got rolling on the first lap, then let things settle down a bit. Ran my last lap with Dan Quigley from CBC. He's looking good this year for the XC State title, very fit. It was a hot one out there today as well. Need to drink more water and get up earlier to run!
Tuesday July 4th - 7 miles. Solo loop around S. City. Went down Grand to Gravois to Kingswighway through Tower grove back home. It rained most of the run coming in bursts and dissappearing here and there.
Wednesday July 5th - 7 miles. South city style to Carondelet and back. Ran with Ben and Thomas
Thursday July 6th - 0 miles.
Friday July 7th - 4 miles. Quick out the door and back. We were pressed for time as we had entered the KFNS Poker tournament where both Ben and I won out our tables (9 players per table) to make the final tables (20 total). Well our luck ran out as I got busted on pocket Kings and Ben got knocked out with pocket Jacks. We finished 18th and 16th respectively. The winner won a trip to Vegas!
Saturday July 8th - 16 miles. Castlewood trails. Ran with a handful of college guys, Adam from the team, and Coach Blair from the Blazers. We basically stayed on the flat part of the trails and followed Blair as he criss-crossed almost every trail on the river bottom trying to get the maximum distance out of the run. We made it all the way to Hwy 109 where we turned around and made it back in a little over 1:42. Took a nice dip in the creek at the end to help the legs recover. Later that day was the 6th annual Header Tournament (A south city tradition) where I defended my title from 2003 (I was not in attendance for H4 or H5). All in all a great day. A day off tomorrow is looking very likely.
Sunday July 9th - 0 miles. Recovery from yesterday.

Total Mileage: 42.5 miles 5 runs. Ok first week back. I did get a nice long run in on Sat., but did not get my faster workouts in this week as I had planned.

Week 2

Monday July 10th - AM 8.5 miles. HS morning run @Queeny. Feeling saturday's long run still. Got through it. SLUH sophmore ran with the top group most of the way today, I was very impressed. PM 2 miles. Played in an indoor soccer game tonight with one of my roomates. It been a long time since I last kicked a ball around. Needless to say I was running all over the place. I did accomplish what I was hoping to do: NOT GET HURT!
Tuesday July 11th - 10 miles. South City loop with Tim Bradley. Went down along River Des Peres up through christy park along Kingshighway to Lindenwood then back to the starting point @ Tilles Park. Good run, legs feeling good again.
Wednesday July 12th -
Thursday July 13th - 8.5 miles. Group Run at Queeny. It stormed most of the afternoon leading up to the run, but it was nice and cool when we started and it drizzled here and there on us as we rolled through the hills. Good stuff, nice break from the HEAT.
Friday July 14th - AM 4 miles. Did the tower grove loop from mi casa with Ben. We then proceeded to ride up to K'ville for a coaches clinic @ K'ville High. PM 7 miles. Did First Street run from Pershing Building (Truman XC headquarters). Very nostalgic run doing a classic out and back on 1st street. Can't remember last time I ran by a bunch of cows on the road. Of course it was hot and I was tired but it was a great time remembering all the times I had done that run with my teamates over the years. Finished up with a half mile on the ol Kenneth L. Gardner Track. That was my track for five years. Lots of tough workouts done on that ol boy through rain, ice, heat, wind and darkness.
Saturday July 15th - Super hot day in the ville. I decided I would take the day off and just take Mags (my dog and a Kirksville native) to the lake where she could cool off and get some exercise swimming and making an fool of herself. The lake was warm but refreshing and she had a blast chasing waves adn barking at anyone who made eye contact (yes shes a little neurotic) Good time well spent day off.
Sunday July 16th - 14.5 miles. Long run out at Castlewood again this week. Ben, Brian, Jen and I started out and went out to hwy 109 and back. When we got to 109, Ben and Brian pulled away and picked it up enough to where I decided it was not a good idea for me to push and try to hang with them. I made it in at my own pace, a much better idea, and took a nice long dip in the creek near the parking lot. Great morning to get a long run and with the creek there I felt great later that afternoon.

Total Mileage: 61.5 Miles in 7 runs. Big mileage week for this guy. I did some research and I hadn't logged over 61 miles since back in 2003! Now thats saying something! It went really well though and I am looking forwards to my next race.

WEEK 3

Monday July 17th - 8.5 miles. Two loops around queeny with the high school crowd. Ran the first loop with a group from Parkway south, west and summit. Second loop whittled down to just me and Eric Fernandez from West. Kid looked good. He's gonna be a beast this year AND next year for his SENIOR year! We took the second lap a little easier and cruised it in.
Tuesday July 18th - 10 Miles. Ran a loop from Kirkwood to Webster adn back with the SLUH boys. I was a guesty at their camp tonight. We took the first half pretty easy and then picked it up a little on the way back running up some fairly nice hills. They are gonna be a tough team to beat this year.
Wednesday July 19th - NEW SHOES (note to self) 0 miles. We were supposed to do a workout this evening on Forest Park's central fields, BUT right about te time we were supposed to go THE STORM rolled through and there was no chance to get it in. I really wanted to tear it up tonight too as were supposed to do a 40 minute fartlek 3 on 2 off.
Thursday July 20th - AM 6 miles. Met up with Porter for an easy 6 reservior loop. PM 5.5 Queeny group run did one loop and took adetour to add a little bit more. It was HOT HOT HOT! Probably the hottest conditions I have ever run in. We had lots of gatorade and watermelon and the like afterwards thanks to SLUH's XC camp. Thanks guys!
Friday July 21st - 7 miles. Ran with Alan and Mike from their place. Did a nice Francis loop and added on an extra mile to see this severly damamged car that got rocked by a tree in our neighborhood. Felt ok.
Saturday July 22nd - 15 miles. Great run. Believe it or not it was actually cold this morning to start the run. A cold front moved in and this morning it was around 67 when we started. Great group this morning too, around 20 people showed up to put in some big miles. the grou0p ranged in distance from 10 to 20 miles, me adn five others did 15 finishing up in around 1:38. Took a nice dip in the creek afterwards. Took a long nap this afternoon, I guess I was tired! Leaving for Ames tomorrow for the ISU Cross Country Camp. Should be a great week of running, talking running and fun!
Sunday July 23rd - 7.5 miles. First day at the Iowa State University Cyclone Wilderness Cross Country Camp. I ran with the kids for an easy run out and back from camp. Should be a fun week the kids seem excited and ready to go!

Total Mileage: 59.5 miles in 7 runs. Another good week. Would have liked to have run that workout on wednesday, but as those of you know that storm was not going to allow it! Looking forward to the rest of the week at camp!

Week 4

Monday July 24th - AM 10 miles. Up 1. Ran a short 3 miles tempo with one of the groups this morning. Went out in 6:35, 6:30 and 6:00. Added on another 6 after with Jory Zunich (Soph. @ ISU this season). PM: easy run with the campers. 4 miles. Great day, we swam in the afternoon which was a great way to finish off the run.
Tuesday July 25th - 10 miles. Long run day with the campers. I ran with the top group again. We took off pretty conservative then progressively dropped the pace as we got further along. It was hard to get them to slow down as I was continually trying to explain to them that long runs were not meant to be races!!
Wednesday July 26th - 6 miles. Kids ran early, hills. I waited and did my own workout trying to get ready for this weekend's mississippi mile. 1 up. 4 mile fartlek (1on, 2off). 1 down. Workout went pretty well, I put in 8 decent surges. The first five went really well, the 5th and 6th not that great, sucked it up on 7 and 8 and ran them pretty well. I felt pretty tight, tried relaxing the shoulders a littel more toward teh end and felt a little more smooth. All in all a pretty dencent workout. Need to start doing more fast stuff!
Thursday July 27th - Skipped the morning run @ camp, They had their wilderness challenge race and I opted to be the head timer. I waited till i got back to STL in the afternoon to join ben and the others at the thursday night group run at Queeny Park. We did two laps. 8.5 miles. I felt pretty good, the first mile or two were a little rough, i could feel yesterday's workout still.
Friday July 28th - 4 miles plus strides. Easy shake out for tomorrow's race. Felt fast and smooth on the strides. Tomorrow's goal: sub 4:20 although I'd be happy with a sub 4:25.
Saturday July 29th - Mississippi Mile Race Recap - Well going into this one was a real toss up. Basically the top four guys on the Racing team were squareing off in a wildcard distance, the mile. At one point and time, this area was my domain, but seeing that none of us train speed that much anymore and the fact that Ben and Brian have been trianing significantly more miles that Adam and I no one really knew what was going to go down. Like I said the day before, the strides felt fast and smooth, so going into todays race I felt pretty good about my chances. But I would bet some of the other guys were felling pretty good as well. The funny thing was we all knew how the race was going to unfold. Ben adn Brian were going to ahve to break me early in the race to put enough distance on me to hold off my kick. So after a mile warm-up, strides and a few drills we toe the line. It was already well into the upper 80's at this point and we were all thoroughly soaked with sweat before the race even started, good thing we were racing a mile and not anything longer. So to the race. The course was on the Chain of Rocks Bridge in N. StL and basically climbed the first 500 meters, leveled off for 600 then dives back down the last 500 to finish off the course. The gun went off and we got out pretty conservative, 68 for the quarter. We climbed a little more that second quarter and as we crested I could see Ben and Brian setting themselves up to make their move. Funny thing was neither of them wanted to show their hand first so they put the move off a little longer than they should have. Ben finally made a go of it with 800 to go, we cruised through at 2:15 (67). Ben surged, Brian without hesitation jumped on his shoulder and the two of them made a break for the finish. I knew it was coming, I saw it coming a mile away (ha), but at that moment, the legs were still feeling heavy from the hill and I wasnt feeling all that chipper, I knew I had to keep it close though if I was going to give myself a chance. They quickly put 10 meters on me and we made the turn for home (begin downhill). At this point I wasnt sure what I was going to do, I was hurting for sure, but they had made their play and I was still within striking distance. Slowly but surely they started coming back, just a bit. Seeing this I began smelling the finish. As we crossed the 3/4 split at 3:20 (65) I was only a few steps back and was ready to make a move. A few seconds after crossing the third split I made my move. Its a nice feeling when you go to another gear that you havent used in a long long time and its still there. I moved to the outside and within a few strides went flying by the two of them running for everything, the last thing I wanted to do was get caught after making my move. It defintely helped that the race finished on the downhill, I was able to freewheel most of hte last quarter. I put my head down and pushed for a good 200 meters, glanced back and realized I was all alone. I cross the line @ 4:20 a nice 60 second quarter to close things down, adn right where I was hoping I could run. Definately the most fun I've had at a race in a long time, it was nice to ahve the guys move down to my distance and for me to get a chance to put the hurt on them, quite frankly it can get tiresome getting dropped on long run after long run. Anyway, we had a great showing with the Big River guys going 1-4. Cooled down 4 miles and called it a day. Total for the day 6 miles. Tmorrow's gonna hurt!
Sunday July 30th - 0 miles. Sore as hell. Hadnt take a day off this week yet anyway.

Total Mileage: 48.5 miles in 6 runs. Lots of quality this week with a little less quantity. Skipped the long run on sunday, feeling pretty banged up from Saturday's mile. REally just looking forward to next weekend's kickoff we have some things to prove.

Week 5

Monday July 31st - AM 4 miles. Final High School Morning Run @ Queeny. Had a great group show up today over 40 strong! Did an extremely sore loop with Shannon Leinert (Former Eureka and U of Florida standout) who is leaving to compete at the World Junior Championships in China in a few days! PM 9 ran @ the Chubb with Kevin Crean (current Truman State runner) and Ben. Loosened up quite a bit on this one, I could almost lengthen my stride to half its normal length (hammys super tight!)
Tuesday August 1st - 8.5 miles. Did a workout with the Big River teamates @ SLUH's Track. Once again, I cant say how nice this facility is! It was SUPER hot, and we ran at 6:45 PM! Here goes: 2up / 5x1000 @ 70 pace (2:55) with 4 min jog recovery (400m) / 2 down. Did this one with Adam while pacing Ben and Brian on their workout (5xmile @ 4:40). We were right on and felt smooth taking turns up front. The wind was against us pretty good but we fought it off heading into each homestretch. 2:55, 2:53, 2:54, 2:55, 2:54 for the splits. Cooled down in FP afterwards. Great tune up for this weekend's race. I'm pretty confident Adam and I can run together just off the lead pack.
Wednesday August 2nd - 7 miles. Ran out at Castlewood this afternoon around 6pm. Again it was a scorcher. I ran slow and stayed on the flat stuff. I was hurting pretty bad from the workout we did last night. Cooled off in the creek afterwards. I wish every place I ran had a nice cool creek to soak in afterwards!
Thursday August 3rd - 10 miles. Queeny Group Run. Ran with Mark Buha and Tim Bradley. Tim dropped off at 8, Mark and I added a mie and back to get 10 in for the day. Feeling better today, my body has finally caught up with me! Should be ready to rip on on sat.
Friday August 4th - 6 miles. Got my easy 6 in early this morning doing the ol Resevoir Loop. Felt a little sluggish, but I think it had more to do with teh time than how my body was feeling. Should take it easy the rest of the day and be ready for tomorrow morning.
Saturday August 5th - 10 miles. Cross Country Kickoff @ FP. Great day for a race! A little warm, light breeze. Racing team won the individual (Ben) and team titles. We barely edged out the hometown college guys, who are in very good shape for this time of year. I wasnt particularly stoked about my race. We got out right where we wanted to be 4:55 first mile, followed up that one with another 5 flat (9:55 2-miles), and kinda cruised in the last mile in 5:05. I kinda lost motivation toward the end of the race. I was running in a pack of 4 guys. Myself, Teammates Adam and Tim and Tipper O'Brien (Mizzou guy). Looking back there was no one for 20-30 meters. Couldnt really get myself to go after the last 400 meters of the race. Team score wouldn't have mattered if I passed Adam or Tim and call me a puss, but I didnt think passing Tip was gonna be a walk in the park. So I cruised it in. I was glad to hit 15:38 (5 flat pace) though.
Sunday August 6th - 0 miles. Took the day off. I was pretty sore.

Total Mileage: 54.5 miles in 7 runs. Not a bad week. Quality workout on tuesday. Nice race. Should have went long on sunday, but Mikey advised a day off and I wasnt going to argue! Next week will be a bit of a down week as things with the store will be going full swing. If everythingg goes well we could be open in a less than 2 weeks!

Week 6

Monday August 7th - 10 miles. Ran @ FP. Clayton Loop. Felt good. Got moving towards the end.
Tuesday August 8th - 0 miles. Shoulnt have missed today but the store is leaving me no time to get a run in.
Wednesday August 9th - 6 miles. Resevior loop. Nice run. Felt sluggish at start but got going a bit.
Thursday August 10th - 6 miles. Ran a Loop of Queeny and to the store and back. Good distance for the group run, which will be starting at the store from now on. Hamstrings are killer sore today from installing the floor of the store last night and all day today. I have a new found respect for floor layers.
Friday August 11th - 10 miles. South City loop - tower grove, to kingshwy, to Fyler, to Jamieson, to Nottingham, loop around Francis, back up Nottingham to Macklind to Southwest to Magnolia to Shenandoah viola 10 miles!! Still pretty sore from construction the last two days, but I felt ok towards the end. I need a nice day on the couch, yeah right!
Saturday August 12th - 0 miles. Spent most of the day building out the store! Very exciting, but not very condusive to training! I have a feeling things are going to be this way for a while.
Sunday August 13th - 15 miles. Ran with the sunday morning crew from FP. We did the usual loop down to the river front along the arch then down broadway across pestilozzi, through tower grove park, into the hill, down macklind back to FP. Great run for me, I was only planning on doing 12 but felt pretty good towards the end and instead of peeling off at my house I finished up the loop. Longest run for me on pavement ever!

Total Mileage: 47 miles in 5 runs. Alright week, I really wanted to get 6 days in this week but I guess with all things considered I should be happy with getting a nice long run in on sunday.

Week 7

Monday August 14th - Well the day has finally come, we officially opened Big River Running Company today! The day at teh store was a good one, family and friends stopped in to see the place and buy a pair of shoes. As for a run for the day, Brian stopped by and we ran up to Queeny for an easy loop. 6 miles we're calling the route from teh store with one loop around the park and back. It will be the thursday night group run staple for years to come.
Tuesday August 15th - 0 miles. Busy day getting everything set up, not getting much sleep right now and training will struggle for a while, I'll do my best to get my runs in though.
Wednesday August 16th - 10 miles. Drove over to FP this morning and met up with Thomas for an easy 10. We did the clayton loop. Felt good and got moving towards the end, I had to get to the store and was running a little late.
Thursday August 17th - 0 miles. Big day at the store, spent most of the day there. We did send the group run out at 6:30, but Ben adn I were busy with customers and couldn't escape to join them.
Friday August 18th - 10 miles. Ran from my house in Tower Grove to FP, did a loop around the park and ran back. Turned out to be right around 10 miles. Felt pretty good. I did run through a sketchy part of town on my way back and was dodging walnuts from some of the locals. I dont recommend running through tower grove ave north of manchester rd!
Saturday August 19th - 0 miles.
Sunday August 20th - 6 miles. Not a whole lot of time today for my run. Just did a quick resevior loop from the house.

Total Mileage: 32 miles in four runs. Not pretty this week. I guess it is to be expected settling into a new schedule and working 60 plus hours. We did have a great first week though, and I'd like to thank everyone that has been visiting the website and supporting the store. Hopefully my training can pick itself back up and can get going once we get settled in here.

Week 8

Monday August 21st - 0 miles.
Tuesday August 22nd - 9 miles. Treated myself to a trip to the Chubb today. Ran from the lone elk side out and back for a nice 9 miler. Basically ran down the hill took the right under the train tracks, did the castlewood loop clockwise then took the main trail to the base of the huge hill leading back to west tyson and turned around and headed straightr back on the main trail. Saw a few people, but had the trails to myself for the most part, which is why its one of my favorite places to run.
Wednesday August 23rd - 7 miles. Ran from my fenton home, down in to lower buder back up and behind maritz and back up bowles. Decent run, havent been through Lower buder in a while.
Thursday August 24th - 6 miles. Did the group run tonight! Ran with a few of the new people, had some good conversation. If your still thinking about coming out, please come out and join us! Anyway it was a beautiful afternoon to be at Queeny.
Friday August 25th - 10 miles. Queeny park from the store, 2 loops and back. Felt good out there, I love the fact that the store is so close toe Queeny, it seems like it only takes a few minutes to back on the trails away from everything.
Saturday August 26th - 0 miles. Busy day. Met out at Creve Coeur Lake this morning to do a shoe clinic for a group getting ready for the Disney Half/Full Marathon then had to go open the store. unfortunately I did not pack my shoes so I couldnt sneak out for a run during the day. I did spend the afternoon at my Grandpa's 85th brithday party! It was great time seeing him and my grandma. He still gets around pretty good too, looks like I have good genes to look forward to.
Sunday August 27th - 12.5 miles. South City Loop, along River des peres, and back. Great run. I was pleased to go that long Han Solo style.

Total Mileage: 44.5 miles in 5 runs. If I would have run saturday I would have been happy with my week. And really I had the time to do it, I just didn't plan all that great. Hopefully next week I can get something going. I have a race a Truman this weekend and I think I can run pretty well. 4 miles, with one big hill in the middle, the rest of it is mostly downhill. Almuni won it last year, so I hope we can defend the title, although it isnt looking good this year without Rosario, or Nelson or a healthy Alan.

Week 9

Monday August 28th - 0 miles. Unplanned day off. Forgot my shoes at home (or i should say orthotics as I work at a shoe store nad shoes shoulnt be a problem!) and didnt realize it until I got to the store!
Tuesday August 29th - 10 miles. Clayton loop from Forest Park. Felt pretty good most of the way. Got moving on the way back. Final time was around 1:03.
Wednesday August 30th - 6 miles. Did the queeny loop from the store. Weather has been unbelievable the last few days, fall is looking closer then ever.
Thursday August 31st - 6 miles. Group Run from the store. Headed out from the store and an old friend appeared out of nowhere a few minutes into the run. Zach Edmonson was in town from Minneapolis for teh weekend and was just pulling into the parking lot as we were taking off. We caught up most of the run as we tackled the hills at queeny. He was looking very fit and was talking about getting ready for the indoor track season, something I am contemplating as well.
Friday September 1st - 7 miles. Cedar Bluff Trail in Castlewood. Great trail! Havent run that one in a few years. Met Zach and another buddy. Ran at a good clip (Zach is a fit dude!) especially on the downhills! Great run though. Weather again was fabulous. Off to Kirksville for Purple/White tomorrow!
Saturday September 2nd - Purple/White Alumni Race Recap: 8 miles. 2 up, 4 mile race, 2 down. This was the first year the race was four miles instead of five. Heading into it, I figured I had a pretty good chance to take the win as Ben was not racing this year and Alan was not in great shape at this point in the year. As for the truman guys, while they'll be fairly deep this year, their front runners wouldn't be rounding into great shape till later in the year, so I figured I'd have a chance to steal this one if I played my cards right. My plan was to take the first mile easy, push the second to third mile (big uphill), coast the downhill and make a big push for home (last 3/4 at the bottom of the hill). Race went well as I stuck to my plan. Led from the gun, with a big pack. Hit the first hill and broke away from everyone. Truman's #1 (Jason Simpson) passed me on the downhill, which I was half expecting, then I made a big move with about 1200 to go, again gapping Simpson. Held him off with a time of 20:16 for the 4 miles course. Alan finished third just a few tics behind Simpson in 20:30.
Sunday September 3rd - 11 miles. After a rough night out with the boys, Al, Erik, and Hronick and I went out and got a nice run in around the mean streets of Kirksville. Actually the gravel roads were nice and soft that day as it had been drizzling all morning. Al and I got 11 in, while Erik, and Mike got in around 7.5. Finished off our stay with a trip to King's Buffet a Kirksville staple! Crab rangoon and sweet and sour chicken, mmmm...

Total Mileage: 48 miles in 6 runs.Can't complain. Finally settling into some type of schedule here at the store where I can actually get a run in everyday. Nice race and long run for the week. Thinking of running in the Oktoberfest Run with Joe a few weeks from now. 10 miles would be the longest race I have ever run, but its on the Katy Trail so the surface wouldnt kill me, plus a chunk of it is off road, bring on the dirt!

Week 10

Monday September 4th - 6 miles. Queeny run form the store.
Tuesday September 5th - 11 miles. Ran from the house to Forest Park, ran the FPXC Course in a little under 20 min. and ran home. Great run. The course is looking fantastic, I cant wait till saturday. It should be great!
Wednesday September 6th - am 3 miles. Ran to the resevoir and back with the Mags (my pooch!). Mags is a little out of shape right now, but it was cool outside so she did pretty good. pm 6 miles. Ran a workout with Joe Con and Joe Porter 1 up, 5 x 1000m, with 3 min recovery, 2 down. Wanted to hit 3:15s for the k's, we went 3:14, 3:11, 3:08, 3:13, 3:11. Felt good out there, the first one was a little rough, but things got better as we progressed. I should also add I was hurting bad from eating a late lunch from hotshots (greasy burger), my stomach was doing back flips inbetween repeats. Bad idea. Good workout though.
Thursday September 7th - 0 miles. I really wanted to run at the group run tonight, but alas there was no one to watch the store! No run today:( Bummer.
Friday September 8th - 7 miles. Not much sleep last night. Lots of things floating around in my head. Run went great though. Did the resevoir loop, but added on two extra loops around the res for an extra mile. Big day today and tomorrow!
Saturday September 9th - 0 miles. FPXC Festival 2006. Busy to say the least. Didn't really sleep last night, was at SLUH at 4:30am getting things ready to go out to FP. I ran the timing for the meet, which went off pretty well. Meet ran smoothly for the most part. I had to jet during take down to come back to the store and close things down there. got to bed early and slept well.
Sunday September 10th - 6 miles. Ran the queeny loop from the store with Mikey. Felt ok. I think yesterday took quite a bit out of me both physically and emotionally.

Total Mileage: 39 miles. 6 runs. Not that bad. A nice longer run early in teh week and a nice workout with the boys at FP. Things should slow down for us now that the meet is over. Running the Oktoberfest 10 miler in two weeks.

Week 11

Monday September 11th - 11 miles. Ran from SLUH into FP then did the Clayton loop backwards and finished up running the other side of FP. Good run, drizzly and cool. Perfect weather by my account.
Tuesday September 12th - 7 miles. Went to my favorite place to run in STL - Chubb Trail (am I the only one who voted for the Chubb?) Started from the West Tyson side, which I rarely do, and ran the Flint Quarry Trail loop for the first time. Very cool trail. Got done earlier than I expected so I ran over to route 66 state park and did a short loop over there to get 7 miles in. Again perfect weather, drizzly and cool.
Wednesday September 13th - 10 miles. Tempo workout: 2 up, 4 mile tempo, 4 min. rest, 2 mile tempo, 2 down. Wanted to try and hit 5:30s, first four went well, hit 5:28, 5:32, 5:20, 5:16 = 21:36 (5:24 avg.) Next two went well too 5:21, 5:27 = 10:48 (5:24 avg.) Felt good the whole way. Trying to figure out what kind of pace I should try and hit at the Oktoberfest run. Have a long run planned for this weekend and then another tempo early next week, which should get me ready for the race.
Thursday September 14th - pm(1) - 3 miles. Ran my butt off all over the campus of Parkway Central cheering for the runners. Was there to watch Summit, but was cheering for all the runners I knew, which are a lot. pm(2) - 6 miles. Pulled into the parking lot just in time to join the group run that had begun. Ran with Joe. 9 total for the day.
Friday September 15th - 7 miles. Ran from the store after work. Wandered around the neighborhood and Queeny park for around 7 miles. Hit Ted Drewes afterwards for a nice treat.
Saturday September 16th - 0 miles. Took the day off. Went to my grandparents 60th!!! wedding anniversary! 60 years is a long time to be alive, much less married to the same person! I tip my hat to both of them. When asked what their secret was to such a successful marrige, my grandpa responds, "Our secret is that we're both half blind, half deaf, and blessed by the good lord."
Sunday September 17th - 14 miles, the hardway. The plan was to get up early and get a nice 14 miler in. Well I slept in and ended up going around noon instead. Everything would have been fine except about 1.5 miles into the run it started pouring, HARD. Not a big deal, I wore my hat just in case, but I was running out at Castlewood, on the trails! I wasnt about to turn around and I knew a little farther I would hit gravel for the majority of the run, so I kept on going and made my way to the end of the trail. It was a continuous downpour for the most part letting up occationally for a few moments. I made it back to the dirt trails around, mile 12, only to find them for the most part unrunnable. The trails had turned into slop, and by slop I mean mud so slippery I might as well have been running down a luge course. After eating $hit hard, coming down a small hill, I was forced to walk almost a mile, mind you, covered in mud from head to toe on my right side. There is a small section of the trails that are badly eroded and have some steep pop-up hills, they were so muddy and slippery I had to scramble up the side pulling myself up on the weeds that lined the trail. I eventually hit some gravel again and ran it back in. Covered the 14 in a little over 1:36. Before getting back to my car I jumped in the nearby creek to wash all the mud off, didnt really matter, I was already soaked ot the bone.

Total Mileage: 58 miles, 6 runs. First week since we opened the store I was able to get a decent week in. Great workout and a nice long run. Running a 10 miler out in augusta, mo next weekend. The course doesnt seem to be all that fast, but I'd like to break 55 if at all possible.

Week 12

Monday September 18th - 6 miles. Resevior Run from the house. Not feeling it today. I think yesterday took a little more out of me that I thought originally. Left calf was a bit jacked up today. I think I'm a bit dehydrated.
Tuesday September 19th - 0 miles. Not happening today or tomorrow for that matter. My left calf is banged up pretty bad from Sunday. I guess with al lthe slipping around I tweaked something in there. My left gastroc muscles, the medial belly specifically is what is bothering me. The plan is to take tomorrow off as well and see if there is still a chance to give the 10 miler a shot on sat.
Wednesday September 20th - 0 miles. Rest day. Calf feels better than yesterday, gonna give tomorrow a try.
Thursday September 21st - 4 miles. Did an easy loop around Tower Grove from the house. Good news is the calf felt pretty much back to normal, but as I was getting done I felt something wasnt excatly right with the left quad. I guess I'll wait and see how it feels tomorrow. Let me go on the record that I HATE injuries. You tweak one little thing which alters your stride a millimeter and BAM it throws your entire body out of whack. This quad thing would have never happened if the calf wouldnt have been tweaked. I guess I am the one to blame for trying to come back in two days, but hey you cant get faster sitting on the couch, right?
Friday September 22nd - 6 miles. Resevoir loop from the house. Quad was feeling better, although overall I felt sluggish and tired. I need to take a look at my diet and see what I might be missing and I definately need to drink more water. A lot of it though probably had to do with not running very much the past four days. So the 10 miler is a go tomorrow! I think with a good warm up, and my adrenaline pumping I'll be fine.
Saturday September 23rd - Oktoberfest 10 Miler Race Recap: 53:50 for my debut at 10 miles. Splits went as follows 5:12,14,15,14,36,22,29,30,31,21. So I took it out with the leaders (2 other guys) not really any other options and stayed with the eventual winner until mile 4. At that point the course went up hill and we ran this short section with 4 switchbacks which basically slowed things down quite a bit. Zac (winner) pulled away right before the base of the hill and ended up putting a little under a minute on me over the next 6 miles. Right after the 5th mile marker the course nose dived back down to the Katy Trail and headed back the way we came. I felt good most of the way back and tried to keep my foot on the gas as best I could. I picked up the effort the last few miles although splits really didn't come down that much. At 9 I realized I'd have to break 5:30 to go under 54, I was still feeling really good at this point and finished in 5:21. Overall I was pleased with the race. Running a little smarter pace wise would have been more beneficial for my time, but it was fun to see how long I could stay up front w/Zac too. The course wasn't all that fast. The hills/switchbacks really slowed things down and the surface was on gravel the entire way. It would have been fun to see how long I could have held 5:15 pace if that hill wouldnt have been there and the course was on asphalt. The race was a fun one, race directors did a nice job, I'd like to come back and run it again next year. 2 miles up and down for a total of 14 for the day.
Sunday September 24th - 0 miles. Sore from yesterday's race and last night's house warming party at Ben's place.

Total Mileage: 30 miles, in 4 runs. Yikes. What a weird week. My legs were acting a fool. Hopefully things can get back to normal next week and I can get some decent miles in with a nice workout and longrun. Very pleased with the race on saturday, I was a minute under what I was hoping to do, although it was a pretty safe target to hit. No races planned in the next few weeks I'll have to figure out what I want to do.

Week 13

Monday September 25th - 0 miles. Still feeling sunday's race. Both calves are still balled up. Should be able to go tomorrow.
Tuesday September 26th - 6 miles. Resevoir Run. Felt ok, quad was feeling jacked up a bit, kind of the same thing I was feeling last week so it should feel fine tomorrow. RETIRED CURRENT SHOES (Brooks Glycerin - 448.5 miles)
Wednesday September 27th - NEW SHOES (Brooks Glycerin - last pair worked out great!) 10 miles. Forest Park - Clayton loop. One of my favorite loops. Felt good, was running too fast at times. I tend to run too fast when I am by myself sometimes, I need to start doing a workout here and there to tire me out!
Thursday September 28th - 8 miles. Met Ben for a run from his new place. We ran a loop of FP and ran into some buddies of ours, so we turned around and ran with them for a bit. I felt ok, Ben was feeling good and took off about halfway through the run.
Friday September 29th - 9 miles. Ran out at the Chubb Trail today. Ran from the lone elk trailhead to the base of the hill adn added on the castlewood loop to make it 9. Great day for a run, weather is perfect here this time of year. Makes living in STL bareable.
Saturday September 30th - 6 miles. Closed down the stroe at 6pm and went for a run through queeny. Picked it up a few times, wouldnt call it a workout but I defintely dropped the pace below 6 min/mile a few times. Figured if I didnt have time for a long run I would get something with a little more intensity in.
Sunday October 1st - 0 miles. Spent the day with a friend from out of town:)

Total Mileage: 39 miles, 5 runs. Kind of a down week. Figured this one would be a good place to end the segment. Big things coming up, XC Nats, getting back on the track to run some fast stuff.

I'll do my best to keep my log updated!

Thanks for visiting!

Matt