January 31

AM: 10 miles easy
PM: 5 miles easy

Tired legs today. I dragged butt through a run with Reed in the morning, and then made it out to the ATT for a shakeout at dusk.

January 30

AM: 12 miles easy
PM: 4 miles easy

I met Reed in the morning for a campus and fitness loop run, and then went out in the dark through downtown and East Campus in the evening. I felt reasonably good despite the weekend's workload.

January 29 (91 miles/week)

AM: 20 miles easy

I ran the usual campus and Duke Forest long run with Reed, adding the fitness loop and a couple of miles on the ATT when I got back to make it 20 miles for the day. We kept the pace pretty easy, and I wasn't up for more than that fast yesterday's fast race and battle scars.

My foot throbbed in pain despite wrapping my blisters in moleskin. The large blister popped a mile into the run, filling my sock with a warm, bloody mess that stained the toe box on my Pegasus beet red. While completely gross, this actually made the pain in my foot subside a lot. The two other smaller blisters I picked up from the indoor track yesterday also yielded during the run, easing more pain. I cleaned up accordingly when I got home and gladly got off of my ravaged foot. With a recovery week behind me, I'm ready to jump back into higher volume next week--including a tough 20-mile trail race on Saturday at Uwarrie.

January 28 - Liberty Indoor Invitational 3,000m

PM: 3,000m race, 8:56 (PR), 5th place - 9 miles

One goal I had in my only indoor track season in college was to break 9:00 in the 3k. Not only did it never happen, but I'm pretty sure I never came close. 9:11 may have been the best I managed on the indoor oval. I've tried to break 9:00 several other times because I considered it a "soft" personal best, but I've never had the natural leg speed for it to come naturally. I've tried to get under 9:00 in the 3k three times since college:

1.) once en route to my 5k PR on a cold time trial with Kilm and Bert;
2.) once at the Maryland home meet where I tied up something awful after taking an early lead; and
3.) once in a time trial with Liam on Duke's outdoor track

That makes three times I've tried and failed since college. I don't race the event very often, so my attempts have admittedly been few and far between. And because my only other races on an indoor track were some disastrous 5ks at Maryland, I'll venture to say that I've never once felt good about racing on the small oval.

Today, after more than seven years following my first attempt, I finally managed a decent race indoors.

Indoor track is and has been hard on my body. My broad-shouldered frame and inherently weak leg speed don't take kindly to the tight turns and confines of indoor tracks, especially the non-banked variety at Maryland and Liberty. As the post-race photo of foot illustrates below, I almost always tear up my feet racing on indoor tracks, and today was no exception. My left foot felt like a shoe-demon was stabbing it with a hot spoon for the last 10 laps of the race, but with more than two hours of driving each way, I earnestly wanted to make this race count.

A handsome blood blister as my reward for a PR.

As for the race itself, the field immediately shot me, Alex, and Monk to the back of the pack coming off the line because college races always go out way too quickly. Alex made his way to the front after two laps, and I followed to the chase pack that was running steady 35-second laps. I kept the rhythm through the mile in 4:40, after which I slowed a little bit and focused on passing guys to block out the growing discomfort and singe of lactic acid that comes with racing 3,000 meters.

Normally the second mile is my weakest moment when racing the 3k. After going from last place up to the chase pack early on, I again fell back as far as 10th place in the race, but instead of accepting my fate and ceding the race to younger, faster legs, I hung in and fought. I was passed by at least three runners in the second kilometer, but then I'd fight back and re-pass.

Another huge improvement is that I out-kicked four considerably younger college runners in the last 400m. I've never had much of a kick, but I closed the last 200m in :32 and got one last guy at the line. That just doesn't happen that often for me, particularly in short races.

The PR and the respectable kick fired me up so much that I ran through the line and immediately high-fived Alex (who won in 8:37) without breaking stride. Monk came in behind me and set a PR in his first ever indoor race. That made three BCTC PRs propelled by the encouraging cheers from Coach George (Monk's eight year-old son) on every lap.

I've unquestionably found some pop in my legs in the last few weeks. I don't know what exactly brought this on given that I'm only now just getting into higher mileage, and I haven't otherwise introduced new stimuli into my training recently, but I'll gladly take it.

I'm really pleased with the way the training cycle for Boston has started: we aren't even a month into 2012, and I've already broken two PRs after a nearly two-year drought. It's extremely satisfying to get that frustrating chapter of my running career behind me, and unlike last week, I even managed a PR in a real race--with timing, competition, and everything--this time. My major hope is that breaking these relatively soft PRs will set me up to break through to bigger and tougher challenges at 10 miles and the marathon in April.

The video of the race is here. I look like a huge dork with my t-shirt tucked in because I forgot my BCTC singlet at home.

Three PRs are all that could have made four hours of driving worth it.

January 27

PM: 11 miles easy

I waited until the late afternoon to run with Reed when we hit campus and the fitness loop. My legs felt good despite waiting until late in the day to run.

January 26

AM: 9 miles easy, treadmill

I snuck in an early morning run in the hotel in Oklahoma City before spending the day in the field and flying home to Durham.

January 25

AM: 9 miles easy

I got up early to catch a flight to Oklahoma City for two days and slogged alone through the darkness across downtown Durham and Duke's campus. As a part of a class with Duke's environmental management school, we're going to visit a natural gas company. In a surprising turn of events, they sent the jet. Dragging butt in an early morning run proved well worth it to feel like Jay-Z for a day, saving the world one G-5 at a time.

Beaming with irrational confidence.