Matt's Training Log

Matt's Training Log - Fall 2006 Segment October - December

Spring 2006 Segment: March - June
Summer 2006 Segment: July - September

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

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. I did accomplish some major goals I had for myself. #1 we finally opened the store! Running did suffer for a few weeks there, but my racing continued to go fairly well. I was healthy for the most part which was another goal of mine. A few highlights from the races I did included 4:20 Mississippi Mile, the 53:50 Oktoberfest 10 miler, and the team winning the XC Kickoff. I also got some great long runs in over 14 miles, I havent done runs that long since I was Iowa State. So this segment is going to be more about getting ready to tear up some fast times. Which means more workouts, keep the long run up, but mainly watch everything and make sure I stay healthy.

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 October 2nd - 8 miles. Met up with Aitken at Forest Park. Beautiful day. We did a loop around the park then ran up behind Barnes and back. Felt great while I was out there. Said goodbye to KT:(
Tuesday October 3rd - 9 miles. Ran a great loop at castlewood. Ran a miles on the flat, then took the lone wolf trail around the outside of the park, then out to the cedar bluff trial. 9 altogether. Great day for a run a little warm for this time of year, but not too terribly bad being in the trees most of the time.
Wednesday October 4th - 0 miles. Nothing for the day, thought I might run in the afternoon, but I was hungry after work and decided to take my day off for the week.
Thursday October 5th - 9 miles. Group run from the store to Queeny. did one loop with the guys then added on three 1 mile loops thorugh the park under the lights. Felt good.
Friday October 6th - 8 miles. Queeny again from the store. Ran a figure 8 runnign teh Red hawk and cutting across the middle. Added two miles to get the 8. Decided I would run the Ivory Crockett race tomorrow morning at the last second. Hope I'm not getting myself into anything I shouldn't!
Saturday October 7th - 10 miles. Ivory Crockett 4 miler. Raced this one with Adam and the Conley Twins. I was fairly pleased with my race, completed the 4 miles in 20:13 closing with a 4:55 last mile. 5:09, 5:06, 5:04, and 4:55 were my spilts which was nice considering the course got significantly harder from 2.5-3.5 miles. Adam dropped me on a HUGE hill right before the third mile mark, couldnt hang on. 2up and 4down made it an even 10 for the day.
Sunday October 8th - 13 miles. Met for the group run at Forest Park at aviation field. Ran 12.5 with Ben, Adam, Tim, Joe P. and Liam. Got movin towards the end, our second to last mile was at 5:30! Which explained why I felt like I was red-lining! Jogged a half mile after the run for our commercial shoot. We'll be producing a few commercials for TV in the next few weeks, details to come as always.

Total Mileage: 57 miles in 6 runs. Great week! Good runs, tough race, and a nice long run. If I could just string 6-8 of this type of week together, and add a little more mileage to each of them, then we'd be getting somewhere.

Week 2

Monday October 9th - 8 miles. Ran an EASY loop around forest park and the FPXC course. Was feeling sat and sun in the legs and tried to go nice and slow to recover.
Tuesday October 10th - 10 miles. Ran a difficult 10 at queeny. With all the hills I wasnt feeling all that great. Still I think putting in the miles in now is only going ot help me come Club XC Nationals.
Wednesday October 11th - 8 miles. Forest Park again, this time with Aitken. We went up Wydown and came across Forsythe to get the two additional miles. We got clipping pretty good toward the end, I felt pretty good today. Meeting Mike tomorrow for a track workout, my first one in quite some time.
Thursday October 12th - Mike and I met at his place and ran over to the Wash U track to do the workout. It was pretty darn cold too I might add! We both ran 4 x 1000. I hit mine in 3:06,3:03,3:01,2:56. Felt better and better as we got going, my chest felt like it would not open up due to cold air on the first couple. Jogged back. Not sure the total milage for the day. My guess would be around 8.5 miles. I felt great at the end and almost did a couple more just because, but Mike thought it be better I save it for next week. No need to get hurt now. What am I doing running on the roads. I belong on the track kicking home my last lap of a 1500 in 57! Can't wait to do some indoor races this winter/spring!
Friday October 13th - 0 miles. Took my day off today. I feel good though and almost decided to sneak a run in late in the day but went and watched the Cardinal game instead.
Saturday October 14th - 8 miles. Ran with Ben at his place did a loop around FP and added on the Wydown/Forsythe Extension to get the extra 2 miles. We were moving well toward the end (which is usual when running with Ben, he's freakin fast!)
Sunday October 15th - 14.5 miles. Ran it in a little over 1:30. Ben and Tim were the only other two to go 14.5, Ben actually added on 3.5 more to get 18 in. We had a good group turn out for the long run this morning at Castlewood. I feel like I can run forever out on those trails. The dirt is so much more forgiving than the roads. I felt strong the whole way.

Total Mileage: 57 miles, 6 runs. GREAT WEEK! Good long run, decent mileage, great track workout. Thinking more and more about heading to San Francisco for Clubs, cant wait to be in a race where there will be 300 guys who can all roll, I feel like I need a big challenge to get me going.

Week 3

Monday October 16th - 7 miles. RAINY! Crazy rain all day. I ran from the streo to queeny and added 1 mile i nthe park to make 7. It was that type of weather where I wasnt sure what to wear, so I went with a longsleeve and a pair of shorts. I was ok for the most part but my hands were freezing! Wish I would have had a least a light pair of gloves. Oh well. The trails at Queeny were suprisingly runnable in the rain. Not really any mud.
Tuesday October 17th - 6 miles. Met Ben and our college friend Matt at the store early in the morning. Did a easy loop around queeny catching up with Matt (he's getting married this saturday!).
Wednesday October 18th - 9.5 miles. While most of you were most likely watching the Cards lose tonight Mike, Ben and I were at SLUH's track putting in one helluva workout. This is how it went, Ben was supposed to do 8 x 1000 @ 2:56-3:01 with 200m jog recovery between intervals! I was going to run as much of it as I could, which I thought would be six. Here was my workout 2up, 2:59,3:00,2:58,3:00,2:56,took one off,2:58,2:56, 2 down. I felt real good out there, couldnt have kept up after the 5th so I took an extra lap recovery while Ben did #6. I jumped back in after that and felt good on the last two. Mikey paced us through 600m on most of them getting us there between 1:47-1:49. We did make it back to watch the last two innings of the game too.
Thurday October 19th - 6 miles. Ran the group run tonight with a couple of the guys. We did an out and back twice into the park and back to get in the six. The trails arent very runnable at night! Felt pretty good after yesterday's workout which made me feel good.
Friday October 20th - 10 miles. Ran from the store into the surrounding neighborhood, did a little house shopping, then into queeny for a loop and a half before heading back in. Calves were much sorer today than they were yesterday, wed's workout was still lingering around.
Saturday October 21st - 7 miles. Ran at Jefferson Barracks before the District Meet (which I was timing). Run went ok, I ran the course backwards and then jumped on the bike path across the road for a few miles before finishing up at the finish area. The race was exciting, CBC looked great up front as did my alma mater, Rockwood Summit! Go Falcons! Then off to KC for Matt's Wedding!
Sunday October 22nd - 0 miles. Saved my day off for today, those weddings usually dont end early and I figured getting sleep would be the wise. Did not enjoy the drive back to STL or wathcing the Cards lose game 2 that night!

Total Mileage: 45.5 miles, 6 runs. Pretty poor mileage week. Missing the long run on Sunday really killed it. The workout on wednesday was probably the best one I've had in close to two years though, so that is encouraging. Next race looks to be the Columbia XC challenge on sunday nov 5th.

Week 4

Monday October 23rd - 12.5 miles. Got yesterday's long run in this morning. Did my south city loop along river des peres. Felt fabulous, which is not a suprise after an easy week of mileage and coming off a day off.
Tuesday October 24th - 6 miles. Queeny from the store.
Wednesday October 25th - 6 miles. VO2max test @ Acceleration with Tim. Warmed up 2 miles on the treadmill. Then did my test. I pushed pretty hard and quit upon reaching the 11 min mark (he never should have been counting down, I took it as a place to stop:) It was fun, although painful the last two minutes, but I like seeing how my numbers compare to the averages and among elite guys. My VO2 was measured at 80.2, which was actually higher than Ben's. But you have to remember I am more efficient running at faster speeds, which is basically why I scored higher. Now if you look at the percentage of our VO2 max that we can run efficiently at (Anaerobic Threshold), Ben can run at almost 96% of his VO2 while I can run around 92%. Hence the reason he kicks my ass in every race over a mile.
Thursday October 26th - 7 miles. Gold's Gym Treadmill. I kinda took the easy way out of running in the rain. Anyway I enjoyed reading subtitles from Around the Horn as they discussed the Cardinal's chances of winning that night's game 5 of the world series. 3 out of 4 said they'd do it that night. And as Jack Buck would have said, "That's a winner!"
Friday October 27th - 10.5 miles. Started at my house, ran to the hill and took Macklind to Forest Park, did a loop around the park and came in on Tower Grove back to the house. Nice run. Weather was perfect for a change!
Saturday October 28th - 4 miles. Grand Opening Costume Run! I was Lance armstrong for the day, and was lucky enough to run with some outrageous characters. I did 4 miles with a guy in a chicken suit! I'll have to get the pictures up soon. Among the other great costumes in attendance, was Velma and Daphanie from Scooby Doo, An Army man, and a guy in a pair of cut-off blue jeans with a nice haircut (Lyons:) Like I said you have to see the pics.
Sunday October 29th - Long weekend. Late night at my house last night, roomates threw a halloween party, so I had to participate. So no run for me today, busy day at the store overall. No gas in the tank at the end of the day.

Total Milage: 46 miles, 6 runs. Not a bad week looking back. Two decent longer runs, a nice VO2 test with Tim, and a easy fun run on Saturday.

Week 5

Monday October 30th - 8 miles. Visited the Chubb trail today, which always makes for a good run. The weather was great and the fall foliage was in full color. This also meant the trails were covered in downed leaves, which slowed things down a bit, but I didnt mind. Ran from the Lone Elk trailhead to the base of the monster hill heading into the West Tyson side. I saw more people out there today than I see in three or four visits. It was a perfect day to be enjoying the solitude of the Chubb. Feel a little cold coming on, time to get some sleep the next few nights! Plus my hip flexor has been acting up just a bit which always freaks me out. never really sure what it is, it just feels severly fatigued sometimes.
Tuesday October 31st - Happy Halloween! Day off, forgot my shoes at the house, or I should say orthotics as shoes really wouldnt be a problem when you own a running store:) Guess it's not that bad that I missed today, caught up on some sleep and let the hip flexor rest a bit.
Wednesday November 1st - 6 miles. Ran the 'ol Resevior Loop from the house. I felt good right from the first step, which isnt a big surprise when I only ran one of the last three days. Was running at quick tempo from the beginning, but decided about two miles in that I would make a bit of a workout out of it. So I picked it up for the next mile, slowed for a minute and hammered the next mile. I figure I was running between 5:00 and 5:15 for the two miles. Hip was sore afterwards. Usually when I run fast it gets aggravated.
Thursday November 2nd - 5 miles. Had the afternoon off so I stopped by my Mom's place. Ran from there and did my old Bowles Loop, a staple of my high school and college summer training runs. Enjoyed every step.
Friday November 3rd - 6 miles. Queeny loop from the store. Ran with Miles Kreiger, the SEMO Head XC Coach, he stopped by on his way up to the state meet to intorduce himself. Super nice guy, we actually raced in college when he was running for University of Southern Indiana. Sounds like his program down there is going really well, I wish him nothing but success down there!
Saturday November 4th - 6 miles. Had to man the store today while Ben was coaching at the state meet and didnt get a run in in the morning, so I didnt think I'd get one in. But as I was driving home I called Mike nad Ben to see what the plans were for hte night and they said they were getting ready to go for a run. I was in. That's what friends are for, getting your lazy butt out the door! So I ran a loop of the park with the guys.
Sunday November 5th - Columbia Cross Country Challenge. We were invited to come to Columbia and race the Columbia Track Club's team, they're going to Nationals just like we are. we raced 6k which was the first time I'll be racing that distance. We warmed up 2 miles. Did some strides, laced up the Zoom Distance (greatest spike ever created) and toed the line. Hit the first mile in 5:03, felt pretty fast. No more splits from there as the course was not marked al lthat great. Plus there were some nasty turns that had us slowing down to a crawl to make them without flying off the course. There were some decent hills too for the 3 2k loops. Tough course, great day to race, I ran 19:15 which is around 5:10 pace. Now @ clubs I only have to run 4 more k at :10/mile faster for the whole race. Sounds easy right? 2 miles cooldown. 8 for the day.

Total Mileage: 39 miles, 6 runs. Down week. Trying to beat a cold, and let the hip heal up. It didnt really bother me at the race on Sunday, which is a good thing. Hopefully it doesnt affect my running too much. 5 weeks to go till clubs. Adam, Tim and I are going to start meeting twice a week to do some workouts together to get ready. They should be pretty tough.

Week 6

Monday November 6th - 0 miles. Feel pretty good today, not too sore from yesterday. We shot a commercial for the store yesterday and I didnt bring my running gear as I expected to go home after the shoot, but I didnt and went to teh store, so I got off and had plans, AH. Basically I didnt get a run in.
Tuesday November 7th - 10 miles. First workout with Tim and Adam @ SLUH's track. I'll say it again, that track is amazing! We thought we'd start off with a workout, the three of us could handle pretty easily so it went like this 2up, 1 x 1 mile @ 4:50, 400m jog recovery, 1 x 800m @ 2:20, 3 min jog recovery, 1 x 1 mile @ 4:46, 400m jog recovery, 1 x 800m @ 2:16, cooldown. So we took turns takign the lead, and rotated every 800 meters. I led the second 800 of mile 1, the first 800 of the second mile and just sat in the pain train for the rest of the workout. My spilts were decent, we were a little slow on the first and little fast as we got going, here they are: 4:51, 2:18, 4:44, 2:15. Felt pretty smooth most of the way, I have to start running more on my heels as I ran most of the workout on my toes. Running 10k on my toes sounds like a bad idea.
Wednesday November 8th - 8 miles. Figure 8 loop at Queeny. Calves were sore! Needed some oxysox today. Workout beat me up. Easy day tomorrow. Going on vacation to Great Smoky Mountain national park Leaving tomorrow!
Thursday November 9th: 8 miles. Stopped in Knoxville and ran at Runner's Market (their version of Big River Running Company:) The staff was awesome and gave me a great 8 mile course to run PLUS a hot shower! If you ever drive through Knoxville be sure to stop by and say hello.
Friday November 10th: 0 miles. Hiked 4 miles in the Smokies if that counts for anything. It was a nice weekend away from the store.
Saturday November 11th: 0 miles. Hiked 5 miles today. Then slept in a leaky tent:( Sorry Kate!
Sunday November 12th: 8 miles. Stopped in Nashville on my way back to St. Louis and ran a nice 8 miler with my good friend Matt Judson. We ended up getting lost and turned a 6 miler into an 8 miler. It was all good though we had more time to catch up. Again I was in luck, He and his wife were very hospitable, they both fed me and gave me a place to shower. I jumped on the road in the early evening and made it back to StL late that night.

Weekly Total: 34 miles, 4 runs. Not a good week for me. Great workout on Tuesday! But vacation put a bit of a damper on things. Oh well, I wont be going on vacation again anytime soon so I shouldnt have any problems with that:(

Week 7

Monday Nov. 13th: 10 miles. Calves were unbelieveably sore after eysterday's run. I think the workout I did almost a week ago never really healed. I almost called the run after 2 minutes, but toughed it out and finished it up.
Tuesday Nov. 14th: 8 miles. Workout at Central Fields with Adam and Timmy. Conditions were less than ideal with a sloppy course and me in my trainers. We were supposed to do 1 x 2 miles @ 10:30, 3 min recovery, then 3 x 1 mile @ 5:00 w/3 min recovery. I hit the 2 miles right on 10:30 did the first mile 5:11 and knew the calves weren't going to have it. I called it there and cooeld down 3 miles. Need to get the calves back to normal.
Wednesday Nov. 15th: 0 miles. Recovery Day.
Thursday Nov. 16th: 8 miles. Group run from the store. Queeny.
Friday Nov. 17th: 6 miles. Queeny loop.
Saturday Nov. 18th: 10 miles. 6 mile tempo run at Central Fields in FP w/Timmy. Set out to hit 5:15 per and ended up gettign confused and ran around 5:13. For some reason I kept thinking I was hitting the halfway mark too slow and would pick it up, when I really didnt need to. Ran 31:22 for 6 miles. Calves felt pretty good.
Sunday Nov. 19th: 12.5 miles. Long run from FP with a big crew. I was hoping to go 15 but my calves were feeling pretty raunchy after the tempo yesterday and I decided cutting things a bit short would be the wisest move I could make. ended up getting almost 13 in.

Weekly Total: 54.5 miles, 6 runs

Week 8

Monday Nov. 20th: 6 miles. Queeny Loop. Pretty banged up at this point. Workout tomorrow could be rough.
Tuesday Nov. 21st: 6 miles. Supposed to hit 4x800 @ 2:16 w/400 jog recovery. Hit the first two right on, but felt both calves on the second one. Started out the third one and faded the last 200 when they started feeling bad. I really need to recover, I'm not ready yet to be doing two workouts a week and a long run.
Wednesday Nov. 22nd: 6 miles. Queeny loop. One of hte worst runs I have had in a long long time. My calves were cramping and I just felt tired. I walked up one of the hills, which I havent done in as far back as I can remember. I really dont see me racing tomorrow morning.
Thursday Nov. 23rd: 8 miles. Well i warmed up for the race and felt good enough to toe the line. The usual crew was there including Zack Freudenberg, who ended up winning in 14:30ish. I went out pretty hard from the gun, hung onto Zach through a fast first mile (4:41) then went into survival mode through the next two miles (10:20). I ended up running 15:01 which for that course is pretty decent. I do think if I wasn't so fatigued I could have given Zach a run for his money, the fact that I was able to run that fast in my current state tells me that I am pretty fit, just in need of a few easy days of long slow runs.
Friday Nov. 24th: 0 miles. Recovery day.
Saturday Nov. 25th: 6 miles. Easy day at Queeny
Sunday Nov. 26th: 14.5 miles. Felt pretty good on this one. We ran out and back 6 miles and upon returning to the parking lots at Castlewood we picked up the tempo for the last 15 minutes on this 1k grass loop. I was feeling prettty good until the last few minutes and I kinda shut 'er down to keep from aggravating my injuries. It was a nice long run though and perfect timing for the race in two weeks.

Total Milage: 46.5 miles in 6 runs. Mileage is down but the intensity is there. Nice long run over teh weekend and a nice race on thurday. Just need to get healthy and I'll be able to pop off a good one in SF.

Week 9

Monday Nov. 27th: 6 miles. Queeny from the store. Very tired and very sore, this pattern is getting old.
Tuesday Nov 28th: 10 miles. Ran after work at home ran to francis park and did a loopa round there before heading home via the south side. I kinda miss running over in that neighborhood with Ben, Mike and Alan.
Wednesday Nov. 29th: 0 miles.Didn't have time to get out and get a run in.
Thursday Nov. 30th: 8 miles.Treadmill @ Gold's
Friday Dec. 1st: 6 miles.Treadmill @ Gold's
Saturday Dec. 2nd: 6 miles. Fenton style on the roads through the neighborhoods. Saw my Dad with Mags on a walk. Felt great getting out of the house. If was my first run outside since the storm.
Sunday Dec. 3rd: 11.5 miles. St Louis Track Club Marathon Relay. Team took 2nd on a brutally cold and windy morning. Unfortunately one of our guys came down with the Flu a couple days before and decided he would try and run today. It didnt go too well for him as he threw up during his first leg and gave up two mintues that he normally wouldnt have lost. We lost the race by a minute or two but would have won pretty handily had he been healthy, but hey, thats why you run the races. As for myself, I wasn't overly thrilled with my performance, My first leg was a slow 17:19 for the 3.275 miles (5:17/mile), felt like I couldnt get going in the cold, my second leg went much better felt a lot looser and I was able to finish a lot stronger coming home in 16:46 (it was about 8 seconds shorter on the second loop; still averaged around 5:09). At this point I'll take it.

Total Mileage: 47.5 miles in 6 runs. Ok week. Again mileage is down, whatever has been aggravating my feet will not allow me to recover from anything above an easy run. I tihnk my orthotics have about had it and my shoes are beginning to show their age. One week to go till Clubs!!

Week 10

Monday Dec. 4th: 6 miles. Ran at Queeny, the trail is basically a slip and slide with all of the ice that has been packed down. It'll need a few days of warm weather to melt it down to where it is run-able again. Felt ok after yesterday's race.
Tuesday Dec. 5th: 5 miles. Warmed up with the guys at SLUH for the planned workout, but my feet and calves were sore so I decide to just get an easy 5 in. Basically at this point whatever I do this week will not improve my chance this weekend, so my goal this week is to get on the plane to SF HEALTHY!! I'll try tomorrow to get part of the workout in at Summit as I meet with the Track guys and gals for the first time this year. I'm excited to see all of them again!! Time for Summit's Distance squad to get in shape!
Wednesday Dec. 6th: 5 miles. Ran an easy four mile loop around Summit before the meeting and hit the track for a bunch of strides on the track. Felt fast! It was still pretty cold out and the track was partially covered in ice, but I got a nice little workout in before the meeting. The kids all seemed pretty excited to get started with winter training, I hope they can stay motivated over the next two months as we get closer. If they can just get out there everyday and do any form of running we'll be so much better than last year!
Thursday Dec. 7th: 6 miles. Ran at Forest Park before heading into the store. Needed a change of scenery and forest park was a nice one. Plus its a lot less hilly than Queeny! Wind was bad, the wind chill was right around 0', had a nice frost beard going when I got done too. Leaving for San Francisco tomorrow, not really sure how I'm going to do, my training has not been all that great over the past month. Cross your fingers!
Friday Dec. 8th: 6.5 miles. Traveled all morning and got to SF with time to jog the course. First impression: its going to be a lot of FUN! The course is fair, with a decent amount of hills, and varying terrain. It narrows pretty quickly with a 30-40' right turn about 400 meters in, gonna be crazy with 350+ guys all trying to jocky for position. Felt pretty rusty on the run, strides didnt feel all that great either, only did two of them. At least i'll be fresh for tomorrow. It started raining as we left and continued to rain all night, leaving the course very soggy and slow.
Saturday Dec. 9th: am 3 miles. Did a shakeout in the morning with the guys to get ready for this afternoons race. Felt terrible the first mile, but started feeling better by the end. Glad we got that out of the way!
pm 11 miles. USATF Club Cross Country Championships Warm up felt good, we did one of the 4k loops, I still didnt feel great until I put my spikes on 15 minutes before the race. Strides felt good and I was ready to go. Started on the second line and got out hard, I didnt want to get stuck in the back. Not sure where I was at the mile, I heard someone yelling something about the 50s and I think the split was around 4:50. Here are a couple pics right at 2k with Adam and I running together (pic 1 pic 2) Adam and Brian were right there too and we stayed together until about 5k (pic @ 3k) we all three hit the two mile togther right around 9:50. Didnt really hear any splits after that, no one was giving splits. I made a few moves and lost Adam and Brian, I wish they would have went by though, I needed some help pushing the pace in some parts. Fought the last few miles and made a pretty decent move at the finish to pass about 8-10 guys (Finish: pic 1 pic 2 ). Came home in 32:07 for 10k, a PR by over 10 seconds! Finished 61st overall, which I was very pleased with. With all of the injuries and missed training I was nervous about how things were going to go but I felt good today and rode it as far as I could! Even better was the fact that upon turning around in the chute was seeing Adam, Brian and Tim all close behind, which meant the team was going to have a great finish with Ben way up front in 7th (Ben @ 6k man he looks fast!)! We ended up finishing 9th overall in a very loaded field. 42 teams competed all together. Had a great cool down with teh guys we were all going over our races. Then headed over to the award ceremony and then later to the party, needless to say a good time was had by all.
Sunday Dec. 10th: 0 miles. Travel all day back to STL.

Total Mileage: 42.5 miles in 7 runs. Well I guess looking back I can't complain on how things went down. I was fortunate that I felt good on Sat and was able to get out there and feel good most of the way. It would have been nice to see what I could have done had I not missed most of the training with Adam and Tim, although in a way I think it was good I couldnt do some of it as it was very intense and I dont know if it would have been too much. Either way I had a blast racing again with a team in a big meet. I'm already planning my trip next to next year's championships in Ohio. With a healthy Lyons and MacDowell, and an improved Tim and Ben we could crack the top 5! Looking forward, I tihnk I'm going to try and get this injury thing cleared up with a lot of easy running over the next few weeks. I'll decide what I want to do next after that.

Week 11

Monday Dec. 11: 6 miles. With the High School Crew @ Queeny. Trail was still pretty icy, we took it pretty easy. Felt pretty good considering I ran a 10k pr just two days ago. RETIRED CURRENT SHOES (Brooks Glycerin - 508.5 miles. GREAT Shoes though probably way too many miles on these 'ol boys! Need to be better about keeping track next time!) NEW SHOES (Reebok Aero Elite- Going to try these to see if they'll work for the store.)
Tuesday Dec. 12: 7 miles. Ran from the store and did a loop around the neighborhoods. Went south on Weidman till I got to Big Bend then Dougherty Ferry to Carmen and back down Weidman to the store. Nice run, all sidewalks except for a few hundred meters on Carmen.
Wednesday Dec. 13: 6 miles. Ran to Queeny and did a loop on the trails. It always amazes me how fast that trail dries up. Two days ago it was a sloppy mess and now it was almost perfect. Now if there was only a way to make the hills less steep.
Thursday Dec. 14: 5 miles. Ran at Summit with a couple of the track guys. Felt pretty good, I could get used to running 5 miles a day!
Friday Dec. 15: Day off. Did go for a short bike ride with my friend Thomas at Jeff Barracks. I bought a road bike alst spring an have not had a chance to ride it very often. I may look into doing a couple duathlons this summer just for a change of pace. Also decided this afternoon that I would jump in the Frostbite 3k tomorrow, should be fun.
Saturday Dec. 16: 8 miles. 2up, 3k race, 4 down. The 3k was a little crazy on the start. For some reason they had us start on some side street and make a 60-70 degree turn 50 feet into the race, so even though I got out hard i was swallowed up by all of the other racers and had to avoid a little bit of unwanted traffic. Got clear of it pretty good after a few hundred meters then moved to the front, feeling the pace was a little slower than I wanted. Came through the mile at 4:43 and then kept it nice and steady finishing in 8:48 (4:43 pace). I felt great the second mile and felt like I could have kept ramping it up the whole way. Without the crazy finish turns I think things could have gone a little faster. Either way it was fun and there were a million people there to hangout with afterwards. I love how distance runners are all so friendly!
Sunday Dec. 17: 0 miles. Taking some down time starting today. I plan on running on the occasion whenever it arrises.

Mileage Total: 32 miles in 5 runs. Easy week to wind down the segment, had a nice 3k on saturday running even splits. Next week will be pretty low key (meaning: LOW miles) to get recharged and healed up for the rest of the winter and spring racing season.

Week 12

Monday Dec. 18: 0 miles.
Tuesday Dec. 19: 0 miles.
Wednesday Dec. 20: 0 miles.
Thursday Dec. 21: 6 miles. Queeny loop from the store. The weather was gorgeous! I had to take my shirt off it was so warm!
Friday Dec. 22: 0 miles.
Saturday Dec. 23: 0 miles.
Sunday Dec. 24: 0 miles.

Total Miles: 6 miles. Recovery Week.

Week 13

Monday Dec. 25: 0 miles.
Tuesday Dec. 26: 0 miles.
Wednesday Dec. 27: 6 miles. First day of the winter distance camp. I ran the Queeny loop from the store with the campers felt pretty rusty.
Thursday Dec. 28: 2 miles. Jogged over to the field to watch the campers do their workout. Everyone did a great job with the workout!
Friday Dec. 29: 0 miles.
Saturday Dec. 30: 5.5 miles. Ran back from the Frostbite race with the campers, then when I got home ran another couple miles with my roomate.
Sunday Dec. 31: 10 miles. Big River Sunday Group Run. About 10 people were there, teh group split at about mile 5 where some of us decided to do ten and the other half did 13. First longer run since taking the time off. I was hurtin the last 2 miles heading back through the park.

Total Mileage: 23.5 miles in 4 runs. Nice to get back into things. My body feels good from the time off and hopefully is ready to do some great things this next year. This will be the last week of this segment. What better time to start a new segment than right now with the new year!

2006 Summary: This was a good year for me and my running career. I started the year coming off a year where I put running on the back burner and let my fitness slip to pursue a few other passions. It was nice to get back into shape and run some good times again. Although it took me a four or five months of running to get back to where I wanted to be, it was all worth it. On a personal note, getting the store open was a huge accomplishment, one that took more time and effort than I ever could have imagined. I just hope things continue to go well for both my running and the store.

So here are the highlights of my running in 2006 (stolen format from Ben via Terrance P. Shea Jr.)

Best Run (of any variety)- I don't really have one run that sticks out as my favorite run per se. But the long runs out at Castlewood are my favorite training runs. The miles just seem to tick off faster running on the trails out there. I got a couple of nice 15 mile runs there this summer and of course followed them up with a nice dip in the creek. Cant beat that!

Favorite Workout- The 6 miles tempo Tim and I did before Club Cross Country was a huge workout for me. I was under my target pace (5:15) for all my splits and felt great pouring through the turns at Central Fields. That workout gave me a ton of confidence for the national meet as I had been kind banged up those weeks leading up to the race.

Favorite Training Mate- Big Mike Nelson. I've been running with Mike longer than anyone (since high school) and we usually find our selves running the same pace on most workouts. We usually end up gabbing like high school girls too.

Favorite Race- US Club Cross Champs, San Francisco, CA - Big races get my juices flowing and to have the team there with me was a huge plus! Even though I was battling a few injuries leading up to the race I still managed to get out hard and fight my way to a 10k PR! And for Ben adn the team to crack the top 10 was just icing on the cake.

Favorite Spectating Moment- Watching one of the Summit Freshman (Fuad Aaden) just miss going to State in the 800m by a few seconds placing fifth at sectionls. I was the proudest coach in the whole stadium watching him give his best effort.

New PR's in '06: 10k XC - 32:07, 4 miles road 19:43, 10 miles - 53:50.

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

Thanks for visiting!

Matt