Pennsylvania

I am returning to Maryland today after being in PA since sunday afternoon. It was great to see family and friends. The trip was a busy one. I woke up at 6am on monday and headed out to the Eagles training camp at Lehigh University. We had a great time watching the team as well as mingling with the crowd. Philly gets such a bad reputation for being terrible fans... If you are one of us, you would see that we are just loyal fans... We are a family in a sense. Everyone talked with everyone on the side lines of training camp and even in the stands. I would talk to people about which players were going to break out, which ones shouldn't even be on our team and of course how we want to absolutely punish McNabb and the skins. It was a great day overall.
Monday evening I got out and ran 12 miles with Sean Keefe and Dan Beck (two former runners I had the opportunity to coach in my one season as head coach at CR south h.s). Sean will be a sophomore at Syracuse U where he is looking to get in that top 9 spots to run at Big East champs in the post-season. Dan will be a frosh at DeSales University and I expect to see some big things from this guy (especially on an 8k XC course). The run was nice and relaxed.
Tuesday i had yet another busy day. I had a scare today as I woke up at 2am with my hip in a lot of pain. I couldn't go back to bed after getting up to try and stretch.... It felt my hip was out of place a bit... like i slept wrong or something... I almost didn't go on the planned golf trip with my dad... but I decided to give it a go. I played a round + of golf with my Dad. I have a bet going with a math teacher at my middle school (who is also a pro golfer) that I can break 100 for 18 holes this summer. Well, I was closing in on a 98-99 score going into the final hole... I needed a double bogey on the final par 4 to hit 99 and I managed to blow it on a 4 foot put and scored an even 100... oh well.. While on the golf course i could feel my hip and that was a lot on my mind... I got into Dr. Derek (who along with Dr. Johnny work on Catherine "the great" Ndereba (one of kenya's most successful female marathoner). He popped my hip back in as it was out of alignment and massaged and got my back in order... I felt ready to go... These guys are absolute miracle workers... if i have any problems down the road... i will drive 3 hours to go to them... rather than try someone in the d.c/metro area!!!
I met with Sean and Dan once again for a 10.5 mile run in tyler park. Felt relaxed but a bit sore from the hip massage.
Wednesday:
I set out to run a workout (plus incorporate the alumni XC 5k at CR south). I warmed up 1.5 miles (it was 98 degrees... therefore you don't need to warm up much). I jumped on the track and paced a 9:59 2 mile... I grabbed some water, jogged a lap and jumped in a mile at the same pace... I hit 4:58 and even with the heat felt relaxed. There was 5 minutes to spare before the race started... I grabbed a water and ran across the field to the XC start. the horn went off and i ran relaxed for 1 mile with the team and alum. We went out nice and easy at 5:39. The first mile is the fastest mile on this course... after that you hit very rough footing plus snake turns practially every 150 meters... It is up and down and never lets up from 1-3. A footlocker finalist has the course record in 16:24... just to let you know how slow this course is... he ran sub 15 3 weeks later on a fast lehigh course. At the mile i decided i was going to start ticking the pace down and progress to a hard but controlled effort in the final 1/2 mile. I ran a surprisingly fast 5:03 second mile through the turny and hilly second mile. I closed the final mile in 5:16 and with the final .1 i came in at 16:40. I felt good and felt like I combined the track pace work and the race really well to get a nice workout in. mileage was low today (9 miles)
Thursday: (double) 10/6.
AM: 10 miles
Ran in tyler and with a spitting rain and low humidity it felt great out. I got to say bye to some of the rock runners both boys and girls teams that were training in tyler this morning. It is always a running reunion in Tyler... If you are a runner in the area, you train in tyler... its that simple.