Ah, Nostalgia.

As I stepped out of the door to get rolling on my long run yesterday afternoon, I started up my Pandora as is tradition.

The song that came up first was 'Ghostwriter' by RJD2, and damn did that take me instantly back.

Flash to summer of 2005. I'm heading into freshman year of high school, and all I want to do is make the varsity team. I'm barely hanging on to the top guys on runs if at all (our #1 runner at the time was a 16:40 5k guy, so you get the picture of the 'top guys').

We run as a team 3 times a week, but the other 4 days are on our own. I have a simple concept - run as hard as I can during those non-team days and I'll beat everyone. I had JUST gotten an Ipod. A big fat 2nd generation thing with a click wheel. To me, it was god of all music. I find a nice 5 mile loop from my house with rolling hills, and just kill it to my hearts content. I find another 5.5 loop and I literally spend every day running one of those two as fast as my little 14 year old legs can carry me.

Why do I think of this now? Because the first song on that Ipod playlist that carried me through each run that summer was Ghostwriter, by RJD2.


I remember not liking running. I remember running because I was good at it, and wanted to prove to everyone that I could get a Varsity letter as a freshman (which, of course, was the MOST important thing at the time), and hating the solo runs.

I vomited at least 4 times a week that summer. My weakness has always been my aerobic capacity, and running 5 or 5.5 miles was honestly the absolute brink of what I could handle on a daily basis.

A week before our first meet, I ran the 5.5 mile loop at 6:59 pace, feeling fantastic. I could not believe it, you would've thought I had set a world record by my expression.

I made varsity the next week at our first race.


Flash back to Sunday, and all of the thoughts bounce around my head as I cruise along the tidal basin memorials in the DC sunset.

If you told me 6 years (and change) ago that I would be here, in DC, working full time and running 14+ mile runs as a typical Sunday, I would have thought you were crazy.

I don't know where I will be in 6 years. I don't know where my life will take me or who will and won't be in my life.

But I know I'll still be running. I know I'll still be finding those perfect sunset long run routes. I know I'll constantly be looking for ways to improve, to tweak my form, to absorb everything I can about this sport that I love.

As I finally finish up in the dark, humid, DC night I check my watch. 6:57 pace.

I wonder if my 6:15-6:25 pace base runs now will be my long run pace in 6 years.

I guess we'll see.

The Lasse Viren 5k & Slow Growth

Every runner has their staple workout.

It may not be the workout you enjoy the most, or the workout you are best at, but is an accurate metric for your form at the moment. For me, it's what I call the 'Lasse Viren 5k' because to my knowledge he invented the workout. Basically, its in-&-out alternating 100m sprints for 5k on the track. I read about it when I was in high school, but never got around to doing it until the summer after my senior year.

The first time I did it, I had a 4:26 mile and a 16:17 to my name.

6/1/2010 - 18:30.

I remember it hurting a lot, the discomfort of changing gears every handful of seconds throwing me into oxygen debt quicker than I would like to admit, and struggled to make it through the whole distance.

6/18/2010 - 17:36

A couple weeks later and a couple weeks stronger. I wore flats this time and was mentally ready for The Pain.

Flash to a year later, starting to climb my mileage:

7/7/2011 - 17:19

My log:

Was 5:33 - 11:06 (5:33) - 16:40 (5:34), so damn consistent. Could've gone for another mile, but I didn't want to push it too hard. Still need to run miles this week. Felt smooth, pretty nice until last 8/1200m or so.

edit: Upon review the last time I did this was 2 weeks ago last year and I did it about 20sec slower, and I remember it hurting a lot more. Good sign.

A couple days ago I did it again:

9/10/2011 - 16:32

I knew 800m in that I was going to break 17, I passed it in 2:33 as my legs were just starting to warm up.

My stride is coming together nicely, I've been working on my lower core as that area being weak is what I've deduced is making me over-stride. I have the luxury of keeping some quality in my miles as I build, and I haven't lost the weight that I did last summer doing less miles than I am now, but I am managing to keep the power that I had during early track season. If I can keep that, AND build strength, I should be able to click this workout off in sub16 before the end of the semester.

Regardless of what I'm doing, I'm doing something right. And that's all I really care about.

Sickness & Second Home

So maybe I overreacted. Maybe.

It turns out that I was actually quite sick. I woke up the next morning and couldn't get out of bed without getting extraordinarily dizzy. Took a couple days off. My head was so full that I actually broke out in an insane nosebleed on the way over here. Second of my life, and the most I've bled in a while.

Seriously, those things suck. But I digress.

Back in DC means back in humidity. I'll be glad when it gets colder. It also means that I'm in a permanent place for a while and need to get my workouts in. I was referred to Georgetown Running Co. that has workouts on Wednesdays and that they are actually legit runners, so it looks like my week will consist of a couple runs with them, which will be nice.

Back in my second home in DC, and aside from the weather I'm really loving the city. The problem is that the weather is a total deal breaker for any long term living situation.

So I sit here, looking ahead at a schedule of 70-80 mile weeks for 5 months, trying not to think how shitty it will be in this weather. Hopefully it will cool down ASAP.

The work will get done regardless, for no other reason than it has to get done.