I'm back running again (sort-of). This is my log over the last month, which is basically the span of my injury from origin to now.

16 4.5 Meet vs Tantasqua- 2 mile 11:46, 4th.  Mile 5:32, 3rd. hurt ankle/leg 
17 5.75 39:27  5 woods medium +wu. [ankle/leg] 
18 3 27:21t  xc course easy +wu. [leg, knee] 
19 -   [?ankle/leg/tendon?] bike7.2 
20 -   [injury] 
21 4 Meet at Bartlett- 3200 11:51 2nd. 1600 6:18 4th. [injury], ankle, hot, no rest between. 
22 -   [injury] bike7.2 
23 -   [injury] bike3.6 
24 -   [injury] bike7.2 
25 -   [injury] walk4 
26 -   [injury] bike7.2 
27 -   [injury] bike3.6 
28 -   [injury] felt good on walk home-almost better 
29 -   [injury] probably good to run but no practice 
30 2 Meet at Grafton- Mile 5:38 2nd. [injury], 8 days off=slow time 
MAY 1 -   [injury] worse than before due to race; ice all day 
2 -   [injury] 
3 -   [injury] 
4 -   [injury] bike3.6 5 -   [injury] 
6 -   [injury] 
7 -   [injury] 
8 -   [injury] 
9 -   [injury] 
10 -   [injury] bike7.2 can start to walk. 
11 -   [injury] bike3.6  
12 -   ready to jog? 
13 -   ran around in gym-hurts but ok to jog a little 
14 -   can jog; not run. 
15 1.25   1 lap warmup, 2 800's. 
16 -   sick 
17 -   sick 
18 3 30:45  homewoods w/Neil

On the days there's actually something written, the columns go total miles/time/workout description. Also, about the bike-I didn't choose to cross train, the bike hurt my injury, but it was my only means of getting to and from work. Also, any day where it says 'bike', I was working too so that's probably about 3 miles of walking total during the day, and otherwise standing the whole time.

On the run today I was breathing pretty heavy throughout.. Wasn't going better than 8:30/mile at any point. I'm still a little sick and I'm coming off the biggest layoff from running in at least 2 years.

About 2 weeks ago I contacted the assistant coach for distance at UML, Nate Jenkins, inquiring about walking-on. He said I have to run between 10:00 to 10:10 2 mile by the end of the summer. He gave me a basic outline for training which is this;

At least 70mpw. Two-a-days every day except for Sunday. go easy/easy one day, easy/hard the next. On Sunday I start with a 1 hour long run and build up 10 minutes a week to 2:10, then I finish with a 400@ 2miGP. I'm supposed to build this up as much as possible and hopefully finish the 2:10 with a 5:00 mile or 7:30 2400 by the end of the summer. Also, because I'm following this traditional running week, my log weeks go Monday to Sunday, with the long run being the last run of the week. The training goes that way so it makes more sense to put it in that way.

At least once a week I do short hill repeats. These are 8 to 15 second all out sprints up the steepest hill I can find (luckily for me there's 2 awful ones within a 1.25mi of my house). I start out at 8 or 10 reps (something like that, I'll check the email again before my first one) then I add on a few each time I do the workout and I should be doing like 25+ repeats by the end of the summer. Once a week I do strides, 8 to 10 x100m (which I'll probably do as an easy workout because I defenitely don't see that as hard.) On the hard runs, I do a progression or tempo but either way it has to be HARD and AEROBIC.

I have to be able to run a 5min mile any time ("drunk, yup, hungover yup..."). 6min/mile is TRAINING-tempo run pace. 7min/mile is EASY running. 8min/mile or slower is shakeout.

How the hell am I going to do all of this? 2 simple reasons;
1. I love working hard.
2. I love running.

Coming off the injury I have to be careful as not to make it worse while I'm running again. I think I'm going to accomplish this by doing two-a-days immediately. So rather than put the leg through 6 miles, I'm putting it through 2 3-milers. I think thats going to be easier on the leg. As for this week I'm doing a couple miles until I can run without pain. I'm hoping it will still heal while I do this easy running, otherwise I'm going to need even more time off and there will be no way I'll come close to making the team.

So, once I can run once a day without pain in the leg, I'm immediately going to 2 a days and building up to that 70mpw as soon as possible. When I get to the 70 I'll maintain it for a couple of weeks and when I know I can, I'll increase. There's not too much I can say about it now because I guarantee something will happen between now and then. (I mean look, 40 days ago I thought that on Wednesday I'd be looking to break 5 mins in the mile. Now, on Wednesday I'll be looking to complete a 3 mile run without making my injury worse.) I'm really looking forward to this; honestly, I'm going to love doing this, but I just need all the help in the world to make this leg better.