New Beginnings

So, after creating this thing months ago, I have finally decided to start posting on it (well I actually have some time and think I have figured out how to work this thing!).

After a very successful fall (finally), I am now in the starting phases of my next training cycle. For those who don't know me (which I imagine will be most who happen upon my blog), I am very injury prone, and my fall racing season marked the start of what I hope will be a continual improvement.
I broke my pelvis the first week of April 2009 - no I did not fall or get hit by a car - I did it to myself, in the last half mile of a 14 miler along the Rideau Canal in Ottawa. At first I thought I pulled my groin, but soon learned that I had snapped my pubis. In August of 2009 I moved to East Lansing Michigan to finish the American portion of my law degree, and though training started out well, I was soon sidelined again by injury and was pretty much kept out of commission until I finally took time completely off and starting back running 10 minutes a day in May 2010.

I spent my summer in Chattanooga interning at a law firm, and slowly increasing my mileage. By slowly I mean going 10 min a day the first week, then 12 min a day the next week, slowly building up until I could run 35 minutes pain free and without any aches in the night. I supplemented my training by swimming in the Tennessee River on Wednesday evenings with the C.O.W.S (Chattanooga Open Water Swimmers), and rollerblading on the riverwalk. I also started doing some killer strength sessions with Damien - who I plan to have kick my bum again when I move back down to Chattanooga permanently. My summer as a whole was great - probably because I ditched a 150 lb weight I was carrying on my back (blerg), and stopped fretting so much about running and training in general.

So, with that background outta the way, I started doing workouts in July - just light easy ones, and my coach - Dave Mills - gave me a 10 weeks to 10k plan to start working on. Of course, I decided to do a triathlon in the middle of the 10 weeks, fell off the bike, dislocated my shoulder and cracked a rib, so yah, the 10 weeks were a little altered after that.
Finally, when classes began again in August, I started the 10 weeks over again, with the goal race being the 10k Championships in Toronto. To be brief, the workouts were great - some I liked more than others - I HATE supersets!! (sorry Dave) - I PR'd in every race I entered (easy considering most of my PRs were from 2007/2008) and I made my half marathon debut (1:16), followed by my second half (1:15) at the Detroit Free Press Half (which for some reason I thought would be fun to run the day after the 10k championships).
Anyways, the 10 weeks to 10k worked great - I was third at the Championships and was named to the Chiba Ekiden Team. I ran the anchor leg for team Canada, and was very pleased with my run. I followed the Ekiden up by returning from Japan and racing at National X-C in Guelph 3 days later. Thankfully, that was not only my last race of the season, but it was my LAST X-C race (at least that what Dave has agreed to for now).

So new years is 1 day away, and I am in the middle of my 3rd week of my new training plan. Of course by new I mean the 10 weeks to 10k with a few extra weeks or a few repeats of some of the weeks to make it last a little longer.

I am excited for the new year to start. It marks the start of my last semester of law school (say that 10x fast), and hopefully a new tradition of injury free training! I have not totally laid out my race plan, though I have an idea of some key races I will try to focus on!

Happy New Year!