True Sportsmen

For those of you who don't follow running, the world record in the men's marathon was set today in Berlin by the incomparable Haile Gebreselassie. He ran an unbelievable 2:04:26 to shave nearly 30 seconds off of Paul Tergat's record, set in Berlin in 2003.

Those two men are role models for all young athletes. Not only do they have amazing dedication and discipline in their training, they are also humble sportsmen. Check out the phone conversation between these two rivals after the race:

"Tergat was one of the first to congratulate him, calling from his native Kenya shortly after the race.

"Sorry Paul," Gebrselassie told him over the phone. "I think I had better conditions than when you ran the record. After 20 kilometers, I knew I could break the record, because I felt so good."

Tergat was happy that he lost his record to a good friend.

"That's sport, records are made to be broken," he said."

To read the whole article on MSN Fox Sports, click here.

This Week in Training

Well, school is in full swing, grad school has begun (2 courses: 1 French, 1 dumb- mandatory through my high school) and boy am I busy. I can't get enough sleep!

I felt great this week: got in some sprinting and weightlifting, plus I ran PR's on a couple of my training courses. Next week will be back full-time! Indoor track build-up consists of 3 track workouts, 2 tempo workouts and 2 easy runs, plus 2 days of weightlifting and medicine ball work on the other days. I can't wait!

Congratulations Janda

Up at 4:30 AM! But it was all worth it:

Janda won his first half Ironman of the season, down in CT at the Nutmeg State 1/2 Ironman. He had a good day all around, improving on his swim and running a stellar 1:17 1/2 marathon off the hilliest bike course that I have ever seen.

All in all it was a fun day and the weather was beautiful. Sabra (Para-Olympic sprinter headed to Beijing next summer!) and her dad came down to watch, so it was nice to have some company, especially since the bike was extra long and I had even more time on my hands than usual. The weather was so nice that after the race we hung out, chatted and had some food in the picnic area while lounging in the sun.

This Week in Training

More of the same.

No real workouts this week, just some tempo running to test out the legs. I've determined that the knee problem has little to do with how much I'm running and everything to do with how I moved my knee last, so it's back on. I'm going to do extra strength training and core work to try to correct this and any other muscular imbalances that I have.

So, about 3-4 miles most days this week. Next week: workouts and weights. Should be fun. T-minus 2 months til I start racing again. Come hell or high water I will make it through this season!

A New Bag

I saw this corduroy paisley fabric last month when I went shopping with my sister. I went back to the fabric store this past long weekend and got it and some satin to make a bag. I'm pretty sick of the bag that I normally carry to school, so I thought that I would try to make a new one. It came out pretty well, but I think that if I did it again i could definitely make it better and more easily.

This week in Training

More of the same.

I've been easing back into running, so as to not re-injure myself. I ran 3-4 miles most days, actually running my usual loops faster than I was before my short respite from running. This week will again be easy, but I'm going to start following my new indoor track build-up, so I'll be more structured and back on the track again. Hopefully this will be my last week of half-hearted training.

I've been quite busy with my free time though, and have almost finished a couple of projects, so in the next couple of days I should have finished products ready to be photographed and proudly displayed on the blog!

This Week in Training

All better!

Well, I hope so anyway.

I used the elliptical machine on Tuesday and it irritated my knee, so I said, if the elliptical machine hurts, I might as well run. Then something funny happened. I ran and my knee didn't hurt! It's official, I hate elliptical machines!

It seems like the down time, a week and a half, and maybe (but I doubt it) the elliptical machine helps because I ran 3 times this week and felt great each time. Next week I'm going to ease back into my normal weekly schedule and determine how much fitness I lost to decide if I should race another mile or just head into indoor track base training.

Janda's famous!

As a nice perk at the end of a long work week, Janda's interview came out on Ironmanlive.com today. He was interviewed last week by telephone and we have been waiting on the edge of our seat for it to be published!

Congratulations Janda!

Here's a link to the article.

Back to School

Well, the time has come. Tomorrow the kids come back to school and we begin another year. It seems like just yesterday that I was saying good-bye for the summer! It's very sad to see another summer come to an end, but it is always exciting to begin a new year. Hopefully it will be a good year!

This Week in Training

A recovery from injury week!

I didn't run at all and did use the elliptical 4 times. My knee pain didn't get any worse, but I want to make sure that it gets better ASAP. I've been icing twice a day, minimum and it seems to be working. I'm still not 100% sure what happened, but I've had similar pain before, so I basically know what to do.

I can use the elliptical with no pain, so I'm going to try to phase running back in next week and continue to elliptical every other day. I'm also going to start going the usual strengthening exercises to help make sure that the pain stays away once it's completely gone. I've also started doing a heck of a lot more core work, just for fun, and I'm enjoying working out with the medicine ball.

Hopefully next week I'll have more interesting workouts to report.