Injury Update

This evening, while moving some furniture, I realized that my chest injury has practically become a non-factor. While there may still be moments when I feel something is slightly off (like when I lie face down on my bed), I have little difficulty lifting or carrying heavy items and, more importantly, I no longer feel any tightness when I run.

This is very promising indeed!

One Month Before L.A. Marathon

Fastest 5km Split in 20+ Years

After watching yesterday's Winter Olympics coverage, I felt inspired to reach for a personal record...and threw down a 21:37 in a mostly downhill 5km (and perhaps my fastest time on the 6 mile Malaga Cove Plaza orbit). This was the fastest I have run a 5km in over 20 years and an extremely encouraging turn for this marathon training session considering that the L.A. Marathon is exactly one month from Sunday...

14 on the 14th

Just a little more than a month from marathon #3 and I continue to make slight alterations to my training schedule to compensate for my run-free week of snowboarding. I am concerned that I have been a bit more winded at the start of each run than I had been at any time over the months before the break...and even more so that my legs burn with greater intensity on the return ascent despite shorter total distances. My snowboarding injury is proving to be nowhere near the challenge I anticipated it would (no pain, but tightness over the last few miles), but I suspect that the blow to my chest may have contributed to my drop in performance.

Though I am not that far off my annual pace through 14 miles and am still well ahead of it during runs of 6 milers or less, I did not complete this Herondo orbit nearly as quickly as I did last May. At that time, I had just started to increase my distances while training for marathon #2. This does not bode well going into next weekend. If I resume my training schedule, Sunday's run should be at my peak distance (a 22-23 miler).