I swear it was Reider's fault.....

It's been a week of ups and downs ...literally.

Just as i think that things seem to be slowing down something else comes into play. Such was this week. I had Monday off and did a nice easy dbl run, but I had a dep\t meeting On Tues, a XC meet on Wed (where I had to stay longer and get all the gear for the race we're hosting) and parent teacher conferences on Thurs. I swear this week will be better (fingers crossed), but it's not entirely good. Julie is taking a friend of hers down to Maple Falls, which means no Carter and no dug. It will be a quiet place....the only real positive being getting work done, training and a Pro D on Friday. I am still contemplating racing on Sunday, but I am also thinking just get through the season healthy and get ready for indoors (yes indoors).

Kamloops (3 hrs from here) is hosting the Wld Masters (that evil word) Indoors and since I want to get back into track this could be a good short term motivational goal for the next handful of mths (I think my last indoor race was 2003).

I mentioned that last week I had chatted with Albert Reimer who is the XC/distance coach at Western Wash Uni. I used to compete against WWU in the NAIA, but they are now D2. Over the last few years they have really improved and I am sure that is in large part due to Albert. He's one of those character guys that got the most out of his abilities through hard work. You alays knew that if you lined up against Albert that he was going to race as tough as he could, irrelevant of his shape. I also think that the team is beginning to take on some of his character. He said one of the things that has been his greatest bane with his team is pure simple aerobic endurance. Since Al was the consummate harrier it`s no surprise that he mentioned hitting hilly trails (ala Arthur Lydiard and running all year around. it was one of those conversations where many young athletes see the season as the end as opposed to part of the building process. It`s one of those things where some young athletes don`t realize that good optimal distance running is pretty much year round (although that doesn`t mean hammering all yr around). One just hopes that many young runners fall under the influence of Uni coaches like Albert.

My Week:
Mon: AM 68 mins at Silver lke PM 38mins easy
Tues: 3 sets of 6 x 400m off 200m jogs with a 3-3.5min set break. Normally I like grinding this sort of session out based on time with no set break (egs 15-20 x 60 sec hard-med), but the chance to train with the lads overrode `normàlcy`. But it was a nice relaxed session. I ran with Geoff, Jon and Trvor on the first 3 and then dropped it down the second half. It was consistent and solid.
Wed: 64 mins plus 6 mins transition drills
Thurs: Student teach conferences and I didn`t get hm til late (these days really destroy you mentally). I ended up not running til almost 9 and did a mini monfartlek (took out the 90s) just to keep things honest (but i felt terrible)
Fri: 66 mins with dug (it`s the first run she`s been with me since being on seizure meds) plus 4mins transition
Sat: At Stanley Park...The plan was alternating 1000s (flat) with 2 x 500 (hilly). But on the first set of 500s Geoff Reid almost went down and I was in behind. I tried to not run him over and went down. I didn`t think it was that hard but the rest of the workout was a real struggle. Later in the day I could really feel my lower back and assumed that I had jammed by back or that it had tightened up when i fell. Even this morning it was really stiff.
Sunday: 2 hr 12 mins....I read an email from Dick at 9:10 (I fell asleep early on Sat...I should have know better) that some people were running at 9....oops....I headed down to Bby Lake around 9:40 and eventually hooked up with Trevor, Steve and Jon. About 5mins into the run Steve took off and I ran with T and J for the rest of the lap, did a half lap and hit the SFU trails. I accidentally messed up my watch and ended up running about 10min longer than planned, but alas not an entirely bad thing...

...all i want now is a nice standard week of training with no ìssues`.....