A week and a day out from Lubbock. I can say that I am starting to get a little excited. The flu/stomach bug/fever/death cold had really taken it out of me for a couple days. After Valdese, I honestly was pretty bummed that I wasn't able to put forth my best effort simply because of all the hard hours I had been logging in training. I love to race and train to race. When I cannot show up to a race and 'showcase' all the work I have been doing, it is frustrating.
However, to find the good in everything, this sickness might have been a blessing in disguise though. The short bit of rest Marc gave me heading into Valdese allowed the virus to settle in. If we had continued to push through and waited till the end of this week or the beginning of next week to start resting, the virus could have had a devastating effect on Collegiates. Alas, the life of an endurance athlete, always walking the thin line between being in peak shape and on the verge of starvation and a debilitating illness/injury. I am heading down to Charlotte this weekend to get into some warmer weather for my last little bit of hard training, spend some time with Kristen and get away from all things race related before we ramp it back up and I fly out to Lubbock early Thursday. I am copying a few quotes from a recent RunnersWorld article done on Ryan Hall about his upcoming Boston preparations.
"You ran well in the Beijing Olympics, but of course many, again, had very high expectations of you. Afterward, you didn't make excuses, but you said you never felt quite right in the race or your training. April marathons have been good to you the last two years. Do things feel different than pre-Beijing? How so?
RH : Oh yeah, I feel night and day different. Just to give you an idea. I am doing eight-mile tempo runs on the same course as before Beijing but running 3:00 faster...three times three is nine, nine minus 2:12 is...well you get the picture...all I am saying is that my fitness is in a totally different place. I remember doing runs before Beijing and feeling like I was trying so hard but my body was just plateaued. Looking back on it, I think I never let my body totally recover from London so I never made the physical gains that I needed to. I am just excited to race again, which is even more important than the workouts. Before Beijing I was concerned but trying to stay optimistic and hoping for a miracle (what else could I do). I am proud of what happened in Beijing because I did the best with what I had even though I wasn't my usual Ryan. In Boston, I will be fully Ryan."
Do you pay much attention to the kind of results we saw at Rotterdam and Paris last weekend? How do you react when you see this proliferation of truly fast marathoners?
RH : Man, when I saw those results, I wanted to do another long run, even though I had run 25 miles the day before. It got me pretty pumped up. The world of marathoning is changing. It is exciting to be apart of it and be spurred on by what other guys are doing. When you see a 2:07 guy take a couple minutes off his PR, it makes you think about what is possible for you. I think there is a couple of ways to look at guys stepping up their game. Either be inspired by it or give up. I have always chosen to be inspired."
I will leave on this quotes:
"I don't know if I ran to my fullest potential if that would equal a win in Boston, which is exactly why it is easier to focus on running to fulfill your potential then to focus on winning just as long as focusing on fulfilling your potential doesn't cause you to not fulfill your potential. Welcome to "Runners World" philosophy 101. I like to set goals that I know I can achieve independent of my competitors (like praising God with every step, or doing my very best) but this doesn't mean I completely ignore my competitors. I believe competition in the purest form is not to challenge each others competency but rather to challenge each other to be the the fullest of who we are."
If you want to check out the full article it is at http://dailynews.runnersworld.com/2009/04/a-brief-chat-with-ryan-hall.html
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