Why Do We Fall?

Why do we fall? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.

This quote has always hit home for me, especially in these past couple weeks. I've been in the thick of my training, enjoying the process and trying not to let my beat-up body get the best of me. Every day has become a routine, and I'm learning to enjoy the healthy habits needed for success. In the meantime, I've found it enjoyable to break up the routine and try my hand in some summer road races with some former Shawnee State Bears.

WV 5K Championships

Freedom Fest 5K

The West Virginia 5K Championships on June 18th in Huntington, West Virginia (Results here), and this past Monday at the Freedom Fest 5K in Jackson, Ohio (Results here), have been both a learning experience, and a bit of a letdown for me. Leading into these races, I try to muster up any pop or freshness in my legs as I can, but they are always resistant and quick to remind me of how unfamiliar and unpleasant full-time training can do to your body. As you can see above, Eli Gerlach has shown me a familiar site at both races. Though it's fun competing, I find it more rewarding by putting "money in the bank" depositing miles after miles on your body in hopes of surpassing expected goals on that given day of withdraw.

The past eight weeks of training have been somewhat of a breeze so far, as I've just now been starting to get heavy in both volume and in workouts. My mileage has been slowly increasing (60, 59, 67, 70, 68, 75, 73), as I'm making sure to take things slowly and one step at a time. The plan is to continue increasing by 5 miles every two weeks, making the 100 mile benchmark by the first week of September, and holding that until Club Nationals December 10th. On top of more miles, my coach has begun incorporating an early week tempo/progression, as well as a later week fartlek/hill interval workout, and then topping it off with a up-tempo in the middle of my Sunday long run.

With the increase of volume, as well as continuing to get into the weight room twice a week for some strength and conditioning exercises, supplementary and core work, there is no doubt in my mind that I'm going to be in the best shape of my life this fall. But for now, I have to bit the bullet, enjoy the discomfort of a hard day's work, and not get caught up in meaningless summer road races.