(silicon @ MindSay

     G'day out there in cyber space. I just woke up and felt the need to finally do a quick update. It's currently just after 9AM here in Los Gatos, California. For my body it means it's really just after 10AM (Boulder time). I got into town late evening on the 1st, so I have only really been here one full day thus far. It's a very very nice area, ridiculously wealthy. I won't go into too much details about that (that's what google is for), but let's just say that the only 3 car dealerships I saw in town only sold cars that were in the six figures.
    I'll recap last week (not in the typical fashion though as I'm pressed for time). Last week's training was overall a good one. Lorraine wanted to experiment with my peak or rather finding when I'd peak in a mini 4 day cycle. So last week's mileage was VERY low for what I'm used to.
Last week = Week # 42, March 23rd - 29th
    I woke up on Sunday and felt very sore from the previous day's workout (really the 6 x 150m fast sprints). So my Sunday long run was rather short @ 11.50 miles or so. Monday was an easy hilly run of 11.50 miles or so as well. Tuesday (while still sore) we headed to the track and did a light workout of 3 x k. The pace wasn't supposed to be fast and thus I avg about 2:51. Lorraine asked me to take Wed off and I did. I felt way to full of energy on that day though, but I knew that we were experimenting with a day off in the middle of the week to see the results. I like that Lorraine can think that far ahead and experiment now for things that we'd like to have completely nailed down later on in the summer/year.
    Thursday itself consisted of an easy 7 miler and 6 x 100m strides on the grass. I was far too sore (STILL!!!!) to do anything too quick w/ them and just ran them at about 15 sec or so. Friday I was allowed to run more of my typical daily avg and ran an easy 12 miler @ South Boulder Creek Trail. After that I ran 3 x 200m on the track where I was told to FLOAT the 1st 100m and then pick up the last 100m. I ran 27,26 & 26 seconds.
Finally on Saturday we had planned a quick workout. Just 1 x 2 mile in a time trial type situation. The goal was 9 mins. I felt pretty confident that I'd be able to run around 9 mins and if all went well -without killing myself for the effort- be able to run anywhere between 8:50 - 9:00. Well that was not to be the case. We (we as in BOULDER) had unreal winds. Lorraine and Harlan would later go on to tell me that they thought I'd call it quits somewhere before (or maybe after) the 1st mile, when I was already behind the pace and visibly struggling against the wind. The thought never crossed my mind, instead I kept thinking, "Well I'll have to run the next mile in xyz to get this time." Later with 1/2 mile to go when I saw I'd need to run a 1:56 or at least sub 2 mins I thought, "Well why not I haven't gone this fast yet but let's give it a go..."
    Needless to say I came home in a 9:30 and it was the toughest 2 miler I had ever run. We found out later that we had 46 mph wind gust, and I felt every single mile per hour of it. I was very upset by the time (not effort) and thus Lorraine decided that we better try another one, since the time didn't reflect my true fitness. I didn't really think I could do another because (A) I was tired from battling the wind (both physically and more importantly MENTALLY) & (B) I just flat out felt frustrated by the effort and wanted to call it quits for the day.
    Lorraine drove me up up and a ways out of town (between Lyons, Boulder & Longmont) to do the next repetition, where I'd follow her car and stop when she stopped along a looong stretch of dirt road. I got pretty stiff in the car while driving with her and could barely keep up with her at first when we got out and were warming up. I kept trying to push the negative thoughts out of my head. She sent me off and told me to just stride out the 1st mile or so and see how I felt. To be honest if it hadn't bee for Lorraine I would've def called it quits. Eitherway it went much better than the first. I ran a 9:15 for that 2 mile and the effort didn't feel anywhere near as tough as the 9:30 fist effort. I also ran it rather evenly through 1 mile. The splits were 2:20, 2:20, 2:23 (I stopped because I thought Lorraine said I was done, and didn't realize I had 1/2 mile to go) and 2:12 last 800m.    So there you have it that's basically the training from last week. I hit 65 miles and felt rather sore for the 1st part of the week. Now I'm in California and looking forward to getting in some training down here as well as lacing up the spikes and starting my 2008 Olympic Journey.
    I'll try and do another update soon. My good friend: Steve Sherer (who I'm training and staying with) can't remember the password for his wireless internet, so I have to use his lap top. Meaning that for the time being I've brought a lap top that's essentially a giant paperweight in my bag pack. The guys are still sleeping now but when they wake up (hopefully soon) we'll go for a nice run in the Redwood Forest in Santa Cruz. I'll definitely take my picture as it's truly a beautiful place. I was there once in 2001 when my then college team and I came this way for the Stanford Invitational.
    Well I must get going. Thanks for stopping by and having a (hopefully) quick read of things.

Peace & Love

-Rob