Coming home!

Hello everyone, right now I'm in Chicago waiting for my flight home. Sorry I have not been blogging over the past couple days. Things have been crazy and I spent most of my free time lounging around watching football over the weekend. After running in Vail on Friday I've felt run down and ready to come home. It doesn't help that my foot has been bothering me over the weekend, which killed my motivation to train hard. I mean I still ran 10 miles Saturday morning and 12 yesterday. Putting me at 63 for the week. Not what I envisioned at the beginning of the week. Who knows, maybe my body is trying to tell me something. I did however get in two solid workouts this week. This dull ache in my foot is really pissing me off! Two years ago I had a stress fracture in my left foot, which I ran through for about a month before ending my career at VCU. I'll never forget that day at conference when warming up I could barely run. I tried to run the 1500 final and I had to drop out two laps in... I was sitting in the grass crying. There was absolutely nothing I could do. Just sitting the grass watching the race unfold. Two hours later I jogged two laps in the 800 final so I could score for the team. That was my last race in college, the pity aplause as I was finishing. Not how I had envisioned things coming into the season. I know injuries are part of the game and we all have to go through them. Last spring I was fitter than hell and the same pain appeared in the same foot. I took off the entire month of April, which pretty much ended that season. Once I started training again in the late spring the pain was there, but gradually subsided. From late May till December, I for once stayed healthy and ran huge pr's in distances that I'm not a huge fan of. I put a huge base in over those months, averaging 65-90 miles a week. My main focus has always been track. Yes, road races are fun as is cross country, but there's nothing like that gut feeling I get just before an 800 or mile! Plus most road races are 5k and longer. I have a feeling that I'm capable of running sub 4:05 off my current fitness. I'm so far ahead of where I've ever been before, which leads me to now. I don't think the pain in my foot is another stress fracture. I believe there is some trauma there from when I fractured it two years ago. Maybe tendinitis, a neuroma, hell I don't know, all I can do is guess. I don't have health insurance so I'm sure as hell not going to the doctor so they can tell me there's nothing they can do, here's some medicine that eats up your liver, or better yet a cortisone shot. Anyhow, I'm taking today off since I'll be traveling and need a break. I'll see how things feel tomorrow and play it day by day. Just as I have over the past couple of years. This may be my last shot of competing at a high level. People have asked me, why do you still run, why do you put so much pressure on yourself? To answer that question.... In my 10 years of running I've never been able to put a year together without a long layoff. I only ran in college for 2 years, some of which is my fault, other reasons are beyond my control. It's hard to hang up the spikes when you know how much faster you can run. That's what keeps me going... I appreciate everyone's support. I want to take the time to thank my family for making my trip to Colorado possible. You guy's mean the world to me!. I can't wait to get back home and train with my roommates, past teammates and even forming some type of post-collegiate group. This sport will always be a part of my life in some way, shape or form. I'll do whatever it takes to help promote and get people more involved! I'll leave you guy's this an amazing picture I took while driving out to Vail on Friday. Enjoy!