NCAA Regional Coaches Meeting

Last night we had a coaches meet for the Great Lakes Regional Meet.
They fed us some yummy chicken, salad, pasta, cheese, olives, and cake. I opted out of the cake and pasta, but it was plenty of food, and good conversation.
I looked around the room, and man did I feel small! The room was a host of respectable coaches and former athletes. Lee Labadie, now the coach of the Akron Zips men's team, and two of his former athletes Coach Croghan (Kent State), and Coach Gary (Ohio State), both Olympic Steeplechasers, my former Coach Scott Jones, and the Coach of the Miami Red Hawks 2 time All-American (mile, 3k), and 2 time Olympic Trials 1500m qualifier, Kelly Phillips, comprised the table I sat at alone!!
It was fun to be a part of what I always wondered the meetings Coach Jones would have to go to were about.
The meeting itself was rather boring, and aside from the stuff about working to keep our sport what it is, and how we can become/need to be involved with that pretty mundane, and obvious. But being in a room full of people I have looked up to and respected for years, we could have been talking about bowling, and I would have appreciated it!
Meeting=waste of 2 hours of my life. Being in that room=priceless!

let the countdown begin!

24 days until I get to lace up my racing flats, harness all the anxious energy, and poise myself for 26.2 miles through the streets of Sacramento. I feel like I've come a long way since the debacle in Minneapolis/St. Paul.



After 2 weeks of really just getting in some running, and trying to find a way to get my focus on the right things to feel prepared to race again. I was able to run a new PR for 10k (as i mentioned in the previous post).

I have had some very solid, long workouts and I feel like things are going in the right direction.
I did a 20 mile workout with Jason back in September, and I mentally struggled so much that it manifested as a physical struggle in the last 8 miles or so. I struggled to hit sub 6 min pace all out. I have done a 21 mile workout running the last 10 miles at 6:20 pace without feeling like it was more than a glorified easy run. 4 days later I was able to run 22 miles progressing through the run down to a fast last 2 miles. Which I was able to run faster than during my prep for Twin Cities in 2009.

I feel very confident that I will be ready come Dec. 5th.

So today I am on my way to the NCAA regional meet with the team. I am excited to see how they will race, and eager to watch a great meet.
After raking and bagging leaves for 5-6 hours yesterday my hamstrings are pretty tight, but not too bad to run with. I ran 8 this morning, and will have another down day tomorrow.
Sunday has a 15k race and then 15k running a mile marathony, a mile easy in store.
By time we get there ill have 3 weeks til race day!

I am eager to get to the start line, and very excited for the chance to race a good marathon so soon after Twin Cities. I still have a lot of work to do, and more mental prep to get to the place I want to be, but I'm getting there. One step at a time!