So the day finally came, after 6 months of waiting patiently for my injury to heal so I can get back to training! A lot has happened actually since my last post here, Team Run Eugene has a new coach, Ian Dobson! This is very exciting for the team, Ian is an Olympian and competed in the 5000 meters at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and previously ran for Stanford, most recently he has run professionally for Adidas and OTC elite from 2005-2009, we are honored he has agreed to take over coaching responsibilities as Andy Downin the previous coach took a job with New Balance and relocated to Boston. After meeting with Ian and discussing my training and racing plans for both short term and long term I am so thrilled and excited to be able to be coached by him, what an extreme honor. He brings to the team many years of success as a professional athlete and there is no doubt in my mind that our team will thrive with him leading the way. So far we have met as a team 3 times this week for workouts under his supervision. On Monday and Friday I met with my teammates Ian Cronin and Jordyn Smith for strength and conditioning at Cooperative Performance and Rehab clinic (CPR) with coach Ian Dobson leading us in various strength exercises. I can’t describe how amazing it is so be able to workout and train with Ian and Jordyn who have similar goals that I have.
So today we met at South Eugene High School track for workouts. Up until this point for the past 5 weeks I’ve been on the road post injury building back my base, basically just doing easy runs and getting my body used to running again. I’ve had to remind myself to remain patient during this process as it will take awhile to get my fitness back to where it was 6 months ago. I still have some ankle soreness but I mostly feel it when I’m not running. Todays workout was mainly a benchmark to see where I’m starting from and shake the dust off the wheels and get my body used to bringing in some speed work to my training. I did 2X2 miles right around 6:05 pace for the 1st interval and back off a bit on the 2nd one to 6:15 pace. I have to admit I am very out of shape but that is to be expected. I actually had a funny laugh with coach Ian before the workout because we both really didn’t know what to expect for todays workout, he said “I don’t really know” and I said me either! Ok maybe you had to be there, but it was funny at the time, I basically just ran by feel and kept reminding myself to stay relaxed and don’t push it. what fun to just be out there doing what I love again. Coach Ian had really great things to say after watching my workout on the track, he says I have a lot of work to do but that I looked like an athlete and I looked strong, that was so good to hear after this 6 month hiatus from training. I am just thrilled, honored, happy, excited, so many emotions to begin this process under Ians’ guidance. I just want to get back to work! In a way my running has hit the reset button and I get to start from scratch, that is so cool! I’m also proud of my teammates Ian and Jordyn for their great workouts today too, Team Run Eugene is getting strong! Look out Eugene here we come! I’m targeting Eugene Holiday Half Marathon as my 1st race back on 12/22 if all goes well! We shall see, just happy to have a solid workout today.
I’m happy for you on all counts–getting back to running and the encouragement about your potential–good luck!!