And so it begins...

I'm a runner and a scientist, and I need to balance the two.
 

Sometimes, I'm kind of intense.

My start in running came in high school as a desire to get in shape.  I joined the cross-country team as a freshman and was awful.  Granted, as a dumb freshman, I thought I could show up at the first meet in the fall and run "fast".  It didn't work.  I should have learned by the next year to actually run over the summer... but I didn't.  It took until my senior year to start caring about running, but even then, with many, many improvements made during my senior year, I graduated with personal records that were fine but not awesome (~4:57 mile, ~10:45 two-mile, and ~18:30 5K).  I thought that I was done racing for good, and during my freshman year at Juniata College, I ran when I had time. But something was still missing.  I joined the track team in the next semester, and I quickly improved.  By the first meet of the season, I ran a 17:16 5K, and by the end of the season, I was down to 16:54! But alas, injury struck for the next two years, and it wasn't until my senior year that I was injury-free and able to improve.  I graduated with good times, and once again, I thought I was done racing.  But I couldn't quit, and as I was moving to Rochester in the fall, I found that the Rochester Marathon was in the fall, and I signed up right away.  After that race, I realized I didn't have to give up racing just because I was in graduate school.  Within the following year, I raced another marathon (which will likely not be discussed here...), I joined RoadKill Racing, and I started racing many more cross-country and road races in the area.  

Start of the final cross-country race of the year.

Following that long introduction, that leads up to now.  I'm coming off of the most successful season of my career, in which I raced more than I ever have (11 races, ranging from 5K to half-marathon, in three months) and ran more miles that I ever have (~1150 in the same three months).   I lowered my 5K PR to 15:51 and my half-marathon PR to 1:12:12. I learned several things about my running:

1. I can handle many more miles than I previously thought.

2. I can race more frequently than I previously thought.

3.  I'm a lot more "injury-proof" than I previously thought.

4.  Maybe if I ran more NOT when I'm racing almost every weekend, and if I rested a little bit more when I was racing, I could have a very successful season, even more so than the season that I had.

 My next goals are to get some base-like training in for the next few weeks; I'll have some light workouts, start to build up my mileage, and race a couple of races (including the first race of the Freezeroo Series).  Long term, I hope to find a spring half-marathon and some other races before I race the Gettysburg North-South Marathon in April. 

Since I'm coming off of one season and into another, my training has been light; this is "Week 0", if you will.  The next week will hopefully include at least a little bit of quality.

Sunday: 5 miles easy (~7:00 per mile)
Monday: 3 miles easy
Tuesday: 5 miles easy
Wednesday: 4 miles easy
Thursday: 6 miles easy
Friday: 7 miles easy
Saturday: 10 miles easy
Total: 40 miles

As for the science....well, I said that I had to find a balance.

Thank you for reading.