Can Scotty Come Out and Play!?!

Time: 59:42
Distance: 8.29 miles
Pace: 7:12

I ran over to Scotty D's house this morning for a run with my summer training partner. We've been banged up the last couple of months but I think we are both on the mend. Scotty has been able to slowly get back into things these last few days. Check out his blog posts from his site sunsplashedbevvy.blogspot.com or you can click on the link to the right.

I had planned on meeting Dizzle at his place around 7:30, but when 7:15 rolled around it was still nearly dark. I had a hard time leaving the apartment but when I did it felt pretty good to be out on the roads. I ran through campus, to Brooks and over to Walnut which brought me to his house at 4.25 miles on the nose. The two of us ran casually back to my apartment where I changed and suited up for work.

In the evening I came home to find that Mr. Tom McArdle, my coach and well-rounded muppet, had changed his website on Facebook to whatiswrongwithtommcardle.blogspot.com. I had to check this out and it appears that he is going to start running again. Tom McArdle is the worst coach ever (the two athletes that he was training for the Marine Corps Marathon are no longer running it) and hasn't called in weeks, so who knows what the dude is doing these days. Keith Kelly, former NCAA XC champ and all around great dude, has also started a comeback blog which can be read at kelrock.blogspot.com. There should be some good stories from both these guys.

The New Plan

This morning I had a nice conversation with my coach Tom. We discussed many things like becoming a general in the Costa Rican Army, the price of bicycles in Trajikistan and the prevalence of "mingers, munters, and wagons." More importantly, we talked about training. Some of the notes to come out of the discussion were:

• stay off the track in Cali
• focus on hills
• spend any extra energy doing drills
• run strides right... 150m hard
• week #1 - 60 miles
• week #2 - 70 miles
• get ready to start doing legit track work upon arrival to Oklahoma in Jan. (600s, 800s, etc.)

I liked the training plan and think I should stick to it if I want to run a decent indoor season. We think a trip up to the "launch pad" would be in our favor. Since I am just getting back to filling out this blog after some time off, Owen's potential race list serves as a decent model. Also, I haven't discussed this with him, but... Tajikistan? You see, I wasn't really interested in reading anyone's blog while I wasn't running. Especially, when it was ice storming in Oklahoma and I catch a glimpse of this. 70 degrees? Are you kidding me?

Lloyd Noble Loop

Time: 51:10
Distance: 8 miles

Easy run in the morning to put time on the legs. I'm still rather sore from Saturday and traveling to Arkansas. Today will be another easy day to fully recovery. My dad is in town and he gets to see the great cities of Norman and Oklahoma City.

I chatted with Coach Tom yesterday and we came up with the next cycle of training. It's going to be a cycle lasting 6 weeks (until Thanksgiving) and go in 2 week periods. Over the two week segments I'm going to get in 5 sessions of harder work. Does that make sense? The 5 sessions will be:

1. Long run
2. Long run w/ tempo (8-10 miles dropping pace)
3. High quality session (race)
4. Track work (300/100, hills, 400/200)
5. Discretionary (tempo repeats at faster pace)