Monday, June 21, 2010

Back to Training!

Since today is the first day of summer, I thought it appropriate to post an update. I've had a hard time this year sticking to training. I was in really good shape coming off of ski season and into March, but then work caught up to me and I ended up travelling the world for the month of March and April. As a result I missed all of my planned spring races including the Holyoke St. Patrick's Day 10K that I was really looking forward to. Running and travelling simply don't mix for me. If I'm 1/2 way around the world talking to partners and customers, I'm going to go out, socialize, and make the most of it. That typically leaves very little time for running. I'm not complaining as the experiences were just fantastic and well worth the training delay.

I had an epic day where I was able to run a few miles on the Great Wall of China! It was quite the challenge running up endless set of steep stairs. I took some video of my experience. I only wished I could have gone further.


After a couple weeks of China, I traveled to Europe. Do you remember Eyjafjallajökull? Yup, I was stuck in Europe for a while, nearly a week longer than I planned due to the airspace being closed for almost a week. Rented a car from Zurich and drove to Brussels for an insane amount of money. Finally had my opportunity to drive as fast as my car could go (200 kph) on the autobahn and was stuck in Brussels for 3-days while I waited on standby to take the eurostar through the tunnel back to London. Managed only a couple short runs while I was there and finally made it back home to my family who missed me very much!

After a couple months back from travelling and focusing on my company I was only running once or twice a week. Recently, I managed to find a day with a light schedule and went out on a 10-miler at lunch. Then the next day, my colleague Dave convinced me to run a speed workout on the track. Finally, I was able to get back into a routine and manged 38-miles in the second week of June starting with that 10-miler. I squeezed in 44 miles last week and am looking to pull > 50 miles this week. While I'm not running as fast as I was in January-March, I'm starting to get the bug again and set some goals tonight.

Tomorrow is booked full from 8:00am - 9:00pm. The true test is if I actually get up for my 11-miler at 5:30am tomorrow. I'm not a morning person. Will let you know...