Heat, Heat, Go away! Come again after we've had too much of the cold, please! :)

The last few weeks have been challenging weeks. Kimi and I have returned to heavy training. Over the last couple weeks, we've been running over 60 miles per week and all in singles. It hasn't come quite as easy as it did prior to our June marathon but I'm assuming that has a lot to do with the intense heat that has taken over during the last month or so. I've always found that some of the hardest mileage of the year comes in August while the hot temperatures seem to just hang around and the anticipation for cooler air just keeps building. With that in mind, sometimes you have to alter your expectations for how you might feel on a day to day basis with the understanding that when the cooler air does arrive, (and I'm sure it will eventually) the times will get easier to hit and the way you feel will also improve.

This is is exactly what Kimi and I are banking on. Our runs haven't been absolutely horrible but they definitely aren't going quite how we'd both like them to be going right now. I remain optimistic and trust in what we're doing right now but it sure does get difficult in late August to stay the course when the times you're used to running in Spring and Fall temperatures aren't happening.

Over the last couple weeks, Kimi and I have run two workouts each week and a long run.  We've run a Fartlek, and a track workout.  They both were reasonable but definitely slower than what both of us have grown accustomed to.

Over the weekend, Kimi and I headed to Nixa for the first ever Diva Dash 5k - Nixa put on by KC Running Company. Kimi has always enjoyed these races because of their competitive fields.  She usually gets to really compete with some of the best female runners in the mid-west at these races. This particular event wasn't quite as fast as most of the Diva Dash 5k's have been in the past and Kimi ran off with the win by 3+ minutes. It was hot and she ran really well considering she was pushing herself all by herself. She managed to muster up a 17:54 so all in all it was a good day!  Since Kimi was running in an all women's event, I had to do my own tempo run by myself. I started about 15 minutes prior to the start of Kimi's race and ran the entire course myself. However, I had planned to go an additional mile to make a 4 mile tempo so I had to do a little bit of looping towards the end just to finish out the tempo run. This was probably one of the better tempo runs I've had in quite some time. To be honest, I couldn't even begin to put a finger on why that is unless Kimi's old Garmin Forerunner was simply being generous to me (which it does seem to do for some reason).

Over the next couple weeks, Kimi and I are going to be focused on a lot of speed work and high intensity tempo runs to get us into racing shape.  The next couple months are the most exciting racing months of the year (but of course, you know that already)!

A Birthday Celebration! Two week review!

August is what I consider the best month of the year. Other than the extreme heat that typically comes along with it, August is the month that everything seems to happen in. Students of all ages typically head back to the classroom, fall sports practices start up in preparation for the upcoming competition season, and it's the month when I was born. So I'm officially beginning the final year of my 20's which saw an awful lot of time with my eyes staring into books, notes, and exams. That basically engulfed 7 years of my 20's.  I've now been a chiropractor for 2 years and it has been a lot of fun. I love every opportunity I get to help someone else improve their life and/or their performance.  So how am I going to celebrate the final year of my 20's?  That's the ultimate question that I've been asking myself and I think I have an idea for how I'm going to do it. Here's what I think I'm going to do to celebrate my last year in my 20's.

First of all, I've always wanted to complete 100 push ups straight through.  There was a time when I could do 50 straight through.  This will be the first thing I attempt to mark off my list of goals for my now 29 year old self. I started this on August 1st and I'm already up to 35 straight through by adding 5 per day. I don't expect to accomplish this in 13 more days, but if I keep at it, I should be able to complete this in about a month or so I think.

My next goal will be to run a new personal best in the 10k and then again in the half marathon. Currently, my personal best in the 10k is 34:04 which I ran in college on the track. I've come close a few times on the roads since but just missed by about 4 seconds a couple years ago. Following that, I'd like to regain my half marathon P.R. shape from 2012 when I ran 1:12:58.  I don't know for sure if I'll ever repeat that feat, but I sure would like to get close. In the following Winter/Spring, I would like to run a new personal best in the 3000 meters which would likely have to be completed on an indoor track. If I am able to accomplish that feet, it should roll me directly into the next goal to finally dip under 16 minutes in the 5k.  My next goal will be to run a Marathon under 6 minutes per mile. I came very close to this just this past June. I averaged 6:02 per mile so that makes me believe I can still accomplish this goal.

The simplest way for me to put it is that I intend to run a P.R. in pretty much all common distances from the 3,000 meter up to the marathon. Do I believe that I will have failed if I turn 30 and don't accomplish all the goals? Of course not, but I intend to do my best for the next year to see if I can't have the best year of running yet.

Now to recap the past two weeks.  Kimi and I have been training pretty well for the last couple weeks. We put in our first tempo run on Saturday. It was to be a 6 mile tempo run between 6:00-6:05 pace followed by a long cool down of 5 miles. We were rolling through the first 4 miles of the tempo when our momentum sort of fell apart. It wasn't bad, but we weren't able to hit our goal pace for the remaining two miles. We might have started out with a tempo run that was slightly too long for our first one. Sunday was an awesome run that neither of us saw coming. We had a 10 miler and we decided to stay home and try a new route. We ventured out on the South Creek/Wilson's Creek trail to the west and were we ever taken back by the hills. We haven't ran hills like these in quite some time other than the Wilson's Creek Battlefield hills.  The run was pretty solid averaging under 6:50 pace per mile.

Prior to the weekend, we had put in some solid miles including another 10 miler and an 11 miler during the week. Those weren't great runs by any means but they weren't terrible either. The
 weekend before that was a great experience. Kimi ran the Diva Dash 5k in Tulsa where she took 2nd place. We were fortunate enough to walk into a Sports Authority that was having a going out of business sale where I was able to find 6 pairs of running shoes for $36 a pair (and that included the tax). I should be set for nearly the entire 30th year of my life. :)

This week brings high mileage and a couple good solid workouts on the schedule so hopefully I'll have some good news to report during my next blog post!

For now, I'm signing off to go celebrate my 29th birthday with a simple 5 mile run this afternoon.

We even picked up one pair for Kimi!