On Starting Back, The Summer, and The System.

     Wednesday was a good day. Actually, it was a damn near amazing day if I've got to be truthful! Let me give 'ya the shakedown of all of its goodness:
Wake up in the morning, peruse French book an feign studying whilst coffee brews
Come said caffeinated deliciousness, creep Facebook, and get some laughs on Letsrun ('cause I'm lammeee)
Erika arrives after class; Throw clothes on an roll to Jim & Milt's for some quality Sarah time
Roll to class to take LAST French final of all time; Leave 20min later after bending the test over the desk and making it my bitch
Home for some lunch and an epic nap-time
Wake, drink tea, and watch Slumdog Millionaire with Leedshow
Roll to Chris Hughes' house to run with him, Leeds, and HS Throwback Champ Drew "The Hobbit" Horner
Home for dinner with Erika before a solid TV and tea sesh
Pass out on couch and crawl back to bed
How great is that?!? Pretty damn great. Unless you're a dusty bastard--and in that case you can go straight to hell.
     The best part? Easily the run. When I managed to drag myself from bed around 4:30 I heard the rain starting to pound the skylight...disaster. Honestly, I thought for sure I'd be rolling into Chris' to jog with him at 5:30 to a bright sun and an absolutely inhumane humidity/dewpoint level. However, it was just one of those amazing days where the storm hung aboot long enough to kick the heat and humidity out and simply provides one with amazing, and rare, cloudy 75 degree weather to run in! Add in the fact that Drew and Leeder came long and it's a damn fine run filled with a few memories and plenty of shit-talking (the art form formerly known as "banter").
     It was strange to go for a run with Drew for the first time since my sophomore  year of high school, actually. When Drew left he was a freak to me--Bekele level unbelievable to be fully honest. The guy was All-State in Cross-Country and Track, had school records, and was leaving to go to college on scholarship. Champion. Now, years later, I'm running along in a rainstorm, just like we'd done so many times back in the day, with two of my high school teammates. Rather surreal when one considers the paths we've taken to get there--but awesome nonetheless!

     This leads me to why I hate the System. No, not the government (though I do listen to old Against Me! albums, stare at my black bandana and lighter and think "What if?"), but the athletics system we have to work within. The NCAA system is great--actually, it's goddamn amazing and one would be hard pressed to truly discredit that notion so I'll not waste good time defending its many merits. However, there most certainly is in issue in some of its modus operandi.
     Now, Drew is an incredibly successful guy and that's a fact. He gets to live where he wants (Atlanta) and just flies into Tallahassee to do what he calls "a stress free job," and makes solid bank doing so. I wouldn't mind that life! Buuuuttt Drew also never got the chance to fully express his athletic abilities due to the fact that he ended up at an inferior university due to the fact that he needed the scholarship money and it was easier to get things covered at a less recognizable institution. And therein lies the problem: athletes who should be going into institutions where they can have the coaching and support they need to reach higher levels end up lower down the ladder than they deserve simply because the money isn't there to be handed out to non-high school All-Americans. This leads people to not only miss out on athletic opportunities, but (more importantly) to miss out on opportunities offered academically at larger, more funded, more bastions of academia schools.
     This frustrates me to no end; as an Athletic-Student (word order changed for emphasis) who is taking a financial hit to attend a university that will allow for both of those I'm especially frustrated. But what, oh, what can I direct my anger at? I choose not to blame the football team (though I defiantly think that teams who have won an ACC or NCAA championship in the last year should be able to eat in the athletic meal hall for dinner, too!!), but to blame the feminist movement and whomever decided it was a good idea to splice Tile IX together way back when. Seriously, it's had the opposite effect of what it intended: it did not end gender discrimination--it passed it on! Now, as a male athlete of decent ability in an Olympic sport, one can look around which ever school one is attending and see female athletes of equal to lesser ability being allowed greater opportunities (financially speaking). Hell, there are even women's Equestrian and Rodeo teams at some schools to offset the football scholarship allowance. Ugh...the system blows sometimes! I love it...but it sucks, too. It's like Starbucks: It has some delicious [pansy] stuff, but it is still a massive, evil corporation that puts good, local businesses out and makes little anarcho-punks want to throw bricks through their symbolically oppressive windows.
     But now that's turned into a semi-sexist rant that will probably result in someone reaming me for my expression of opinion in such a public way. C'es la vie!

     Right, all that is fine and dandy--but what really, really matters is that I'm back running and have a plan for the summer! Here, let me give you a general overview of the most general summer training plan ever:
Start at 40 miles for the week last week; Work up 10% each week with every 4th week being a 'down' week at 20-25% less volume; Throw in the typical FSU 5-6 mile Steady States and Light Speeds after 5 or so weeks; Arrive in Tally at the end of August fit to train. That's the key right there, actually. last summer I spent a lot of time relaxing and trying to get my body back under me after all the medical issues I'd been having (which are a story for another day!), and, once back, running between 55 and 75 miles per week to avoid any complications. However, feeling stronger physically--and being rid of the leg issues--after last year I've made it my goal to get to 85 miles a week by the end of the last cycle where we show up at school for pre-season. While I recognize that isn't much, I feel it's a rather good [maybe ambitious] goal as when I went over my logs I only averaged 76.1 miles per week from the start of August last year 'till the end of Cross-Country, and averaged even less at 73.2 from Jan. 1 to the end of track (less if one counts the winter up until that point!). Truthfully, I must say that I'm rather surprised that those are the numbers! I never thought I had the ability to run as decently as I did off of such relatively 'low' miles.
     So, that's how it's going to break down for the summer--and I'm STOKED! With moderately ambitious plan set forth for volume and complete faith in Braman's periodization with the intensity, workouts, and volume I can't wait to be knee deep into the whole thing. As for now, however, I'm just excited to go win some watermellon deliciousness this 4th of July and see the #1 Girlfriend after a few weeks of separation--and in the even shorter term take a nap before I have to meet Little Will to run this evening!
So with that I bid the blogosphere adieu...

On Current State of Proct Affairs

     Great, so after two [incredibly long] posts I've failed to mention anything about how things are going on the training front--probably need to at least graze the subject, eh? Well, I should also put in the excuse that I've been doing a whole lot of jack shit on that front since the Regional 10,000m. After the race I took 8 days fully off minus a couple forays into a Yoga class at the Muggle Gym and a trip or two over to Moore to hit up the weight room for some epic lifting (Well, not really. Me getting 'swole' is not really gonna happen).
     As of this week I jogged a frog's hair over 20 minutes with The Leeder on Monday to test out the leg a bit. It having felt mostly good, I gave myself the clear to run every other day for ~60 minutes. I went Wednesday morning with Brooksy for 52:30 over to the ol' stand-by San Luis and, again, felt pretty good in the leg and back. (Despite feeling the full awkwardness that is my form after having been off for over a week!) Friday morning, however, was quite a bit different. I had plans to go shark fishing later in the day and evening so despite my usual nature decided to wake early and try to be out the door by 7:30 to a) "Beat the heat" as Bobby B so oft says, and b) get it out the way and enjoy the fishing and Friend Friday at the athletic meal hall!
Things felt good at the start, but at around 45 or so minutes my glutes and quad starting giving me trouble and getting weak. I managed to get back fine, and even felt better once I picked it up the last 5min to make it back to use the bathroom (yep...my body generally tries to punish me in some manner for making it run in the morning!), but it was kinda weak and tingly for the rest of the day.
     I've since taken Saturday and am taking today off as well. I'm frustrated as I'm really itching to get back at it, but I also can't imagine dealing with the leg for the entire Cross-Country build-up and season. The issue, even when it wasn't really acting up too very badly, really hurt me in my ability to race well all track season and I can't have it hindering me in the Fall. I need to be epic. As for now I guess the 30minutes of Aquajogging I've been doing with the #1 Girlfriend will have to suffice for helping me not loose to much for now.
    
     So, anyway, here's to it feeling okay this coming week and letting me get some jogging in--and that a pair of mad fresh running kicks will have some positive effect on the condition. (As I've been stuck in the same one's since Indoor ACC's)

On Motivation

     I'm sitting in front of the TV alternatively attempting to splice coherent sentences together for this blog during commercials while watching the final day of the NCAA meet on CBS at the moment. While I missed the men's 10,000m yesterday due to being out combining boating, alcohol, boiled peanuts, and 7 foot ocean predators about 5 miles off the Gulf Coast, I'm determined to watch the closing stages of the meet come hell or high-water (as I managed to not lose a hand or get pulled off the boat yesterday, I think I can pull that off). More importantly, however, I'm interested in seeing how Ciaran closes out what has, truthfully, been one of the most inspiring years I've ever seen an athlete put together. No matter what happens today Ciaran (or Cir ['keer'], or, as Braman's shortened it to lately, Key) has run a season to be proud of and there's nothing that could make the day better than getting to sip on my tea, eat my fried chicken, and watch him destroy 5,000m and help the rest of the team win a 4th (that's right, I still say 4!!) NCAA title.

Wow! Just watched the 4x100m...someone call the NCAA Baseball council and have them give Hyman an honorary Golden Glove for that catch. Sicksauce.

     Okay, whoops, back to working into the main point of the blog today... Ciaran is a monster this year and the guy has got some serious momentum behind his Irish ass. Seriously--I spoke last time about how my 5,000m has dropped over the past 18 months, but I just thought about how much he kicks my ass with progress, too. (Damn...even lose in that too! Getting destroyed in straight races and stat battles...EFF!)
The guy had a 14:10 PR coming in and split just off of that closing a massive PR 28:32 10,000m at Stanford. Damn. Same with The Man, The Legend, The Pudding Fart-est...Michael Fout. The guy gets a set of training without injury and crushes out huge PR's and lays down a 28:34 10,000m debut; Huge year and even bigger things on the horizon for a guy I'm happy to call my friend, teammate, and [future] neighbor.

     So what was the point of all that? To hype a couple guys looking to go pro in the future on a blog that has almost zero traffic? Or to hope they read it and like me more for it? Meh... hair of both, maybe? I don't really know, actually--but what I do know is that it segues perfectly into the main point for this:
Big things can happen if you just believe in yourself and get some good work in.

     I really started thinking on this idea of being able to make huge jumps and reach new levels the other night sitting around watching some South Park with the Three Roommates. (Well, actually, I only I have one roommate officially as I live in a 2 bed 2.5 bath condo...but Smyth (Smithers, Shmee, Shmitty) lives in my garage (kinda), and my girlfriend is here enough to count as a semi-housemate. So yeah, the Three Roommates and were watching South Park on Wednesday and started talking about what went down in the Pre 10,000m.
     As one could surmise, I'm a big believer in the Hard Work and Belief school of thought on sports (provided one has SOME genetic ability...). I thought EVERYONE was this way, too. Well, this is why it was interesting to me: One roommate's sentiment revolved around the statement of "Why do we even try dude...no matter what we do someone is just going to dust us. We'd be getting double-lapped out there, man." While the other thought "Well, I just want to get some of the barriers out of the way so I can say I did it. I just wanna walk away as a sub-4, sub-14 athlete--I can live with that." The Girlfriend #1 (Erika), is injured and is mainly just concerned with the desire to get out the door and jog down the road again. Myself, of course, had to counter with "I just wanna see where I can get...I mean, sure, I'll get my ass kicked by quite a bit by a LOT of guys--but, man, I just can't walk away from this without knowing I gave 'er and at least came close to what I'm capable of."
     I can completely understand where the others are at, though. Honestly, (prepare for cliche sentiment) we are in a country and culture where, mostly likely, athletics is not going to be our ticket. Most of us aren't in anything near a state of poverty and our best chance at achieving fiscal gains as an adult is to jump out of the University setting running (haha..) and be searching for "Real" careers to chase and set ourselves up for an "Adult Life." Well balls to that! I don't mean to sound like Arciniaga (I think), but the guy was damn near dead on about keeping at it! I can't say it enough, I just want to see where I'm at--if that 14:07 was the best 5,000m I'll ever run, then so be it. However, I'm not going to call it a day until I can say I've given everything a shot and that X time IS what I was capable of.
     Now, does this mean that I forever will define my life by a set of arbitrary numbers? No, but what I will, and DO, define myself by is a deep-burning desire to never quit without knowing I gave it a true go. No matter what "it" is in my life. So here's to not quitting on oneself--ever. And here's to the teammates who've shown that desire this year and the possibilities such an outlook provides: Mike Fout and Ciaran O'Lionard. It may sound lame, but thanks guys.

On Beginings and Endings

     Well, it seems that I have fully settled into the doldrums of both summer and the break from running that coincides with its beginning. This being recognized, along with the fact that there's a) not much to do in Tallahassee between the hours of 4am and 10pm and b) I'm not tired enough from athletic pursuits to sleep through any boring spots, leads me to the Grand Beginnings of the thought to hop onto the blogtrain.
     While I disdain the thought of being at the far side of town to the one the bandwagon starts at I've managed to reconcile the fact that both Cir and Forrester have thoroughly kicked my ass in getting on the blog scene first (almost like throwing me in a race with them! Yay for depressing analogies revolving around my slow-ness!), I've managed to reconcile that by realizing that, once begun, my rambling writings will be far more glorious, entertaining, enrapturing--and, well, just fucking AWESOME--than anything either of their foreign asses could hope to turn out! (Yes, that was a call out despite how long it took to get there...)

So there's the Beginning, now for an Ending.

     With the coming of the aforementioned break I've begun a break period--and a badly needed one at that! Since the 10 days or so before the ACC Indoor meet my lower left back started aching on a morning run, and by the end of the day my piriformis on that side had tightened up to the point where I was limping just walking around. This led to some issues with my Sciatic Nerve along with some compensation issues that resulted in my left quad and glutes being in a constant state of fatigue and, on occasion, going to the point of where they were totally exhausted and/or I couldn't feel my left leg from the knee down to my foot. The worst period of this was leading up to and during the Stanford 10k where I finished a grand total of 1 (ONE!) workout over 7 weeks; the best seemed to be (thankfully) the period just before the UNC Last Chance 5k (where it was 100% unnoticeable the day before, day of, and for 3 days after the race) and the East Regional 10k (where it was probably about 90% normal on starting a warm-up and mostly un-noticed during the race until trying to start some semblance of a kick with ~1200m to go).

     Anyway, I suppose that's enough whining about a random injury that I can't even define or point to a cause about--I should probably enumerate the grand positives that came from the last training cycle. First of all I can say that I'm 100% sure I came out of the season far fitter and more confident in my abilities than I did coming into the year, or even after Cross-Country. Cross was great, don't get me wrong. I mean I dropped 89 seconds off of my 8k best, got eligible (that was HUUUGE), ran on the team that won ACC for the first time ever, made All-Region, and went to the NCAA meet and ended up standing on the podium with the second place trophy and seven of the best guys I could hope to call my friends. (Plus three people I've been lucky enough to call Coach) Needless to say, I went back home for Christmas with my head held up for the first time in two years!
     Track, on the other hand, started out rather inauspiciously by comparison. a 14:56 indoor opening in late January at Arkansas didn't start the year out anywhere near right even though we, as a team, had made a decision to 'trash' indoors and just let whatever happened happen in an attempt to maximize our late-season efforts in during the Outdoor campaign. A couple weeks later, however, things went much better upon my return to Arkansas at the Tyson Invite--a 10second lifetime best over 5,000m and a victory (though it resulted in fair amount of ribbing from Braman over the rest of the spring about how I "gotta be the slowest guy ever to win that meet")! Things did, however, go downhill from there once my leg issues flared up the Tuesday after. In the end, however, the ensuing issues with completing workouts and keeping my miles at a respectable level and being able to successfully compete in races due to them are not of importance when looking at the season in a Big Picture sort of matter...
     I finished the year as a 14:07, 29:35 athlete. That's ridiculous for a guy who couldn't crack 16 minutes of 5k or 9:40 over 3200m in HS. I can complain to myself all I want about not being able to do all the workouts, or run all the easy days, etc. that I wanted to--but goddamnit, I was DFL at Penn Relays last year in 15:30+ and my last three years have gone 15:46, 14:39, 14:07. That's pretty damn good and I've still got eligibility to burn.

     In the end, what's happening now is that I'm done with what amounts to be an amazing year as my first wearing a college singlet. I'm stuck here in the calm before what (I hope) will be the most epic of storms in the coming year and enjoying some much looked forward to rest and the copious amount of excess time that goes along with it.
Onwards and Upwards!