Running is now on a Break

SO I have had a long period where I have not taken more than 1 day in a row off, since August of 2007. My training has been steadily declining and I feel that now is a good time to call it quits for the season. I am most likely going to take like 10 days or so completely off and just relax and then get back into some easy running for a while. I can't say that I am completely or remotely happy with how my season went. I raced just about 2 times, 3rd time ending abruptly, and just trained more or less all year. The worst part was the fact that I did not run as fast as I wanted to in the season. I was very disappointed with myself, but such is life.

I will have to reconsider my goals for next year and I will make 2 nice scheduled breaks after the seasons, so hopefully I can make it further in the year feeling fresher. This was a little bit of a transition year for me, coming back to NY and training with the Westchester Track Club and all the crazy runners here.

Also from June 28th - July 7th I was out at the Olympic Trials in Eugene, OR with Jeff Caron, Lansing, Ira, Fenton, Brendan Carr and many many others that we knew. It was friggin sweet being out there. All we did was run, eat, sleep and watch track......and drink. I will also say that probably one of the coolest runs that I have ever done was at the McKenzie River National Park I believe. We went for an easy 10 miles along the river, and it felt like we were in the EWOK Forest from Star Wars, it was NUTS. The trail would go along the water for a while then go back inland and then back to the water and so forth. Everytime that we got near the water the air temp cooled about 10 degrees at least and it was really awesome. The Men's 800 was the race of the trials with the Men's 100 also being unreal. So in retrospect, I was so happy being out there with everyone and wish that it did not have to end.

I am going to try to recall what my running has been over the last 5 weeks, I can remember the workouts no prob but the running might be tough.

Thurs. July 17, 2008
Off

Wed. July 16, 2008
Off

Tues. July 15, 2008
Off

Mon. July 14, 2008
Off

Sun. July 13, 2008
Off

Sat. July 12, 2008
3 mile warmup, 2x mile, 7x40 sec hills, 2.5 mile cooldown
4:43, 4:34
Felt ok, not great, it was really hot and I have not been sleeping very well the past couple of nights since coming back from Oregon.

Fri. July 11, 2008