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“When you bring an act into this town, you want to bring it in heavy.” — Hunter S. Thompson, “Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas”

Ensuring it won't be tough to pick me out amongst 28,000 other runners tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow morning I’ll get up before the butt crack of dawn with about 28,000 other like-minded marathoners and half marathoners for the second running of the Zappos.com Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas event–the biggest thing to hit The Strip, well, ever.

It will be my first actual running of a Rock ‘n’ Roll after covering five of the things, so to say I’m excited for the opportunity to lace up my racing flats would be a disgusting understatement. And of course, it’s still a work day for me, as I’ll commence with my coverage duties upon crossing the finish line–not a bad way to mix work and pleasure on a Sunday morning.

I’ve got a little work left to do and dinner to attend before I cash in for the evening, but before I go–and since we’re in Vegas–let’s go over the latest line on my race from right outta my room here at THEhotel…

The Spread – 1:11:00

Over/Under – :30 seconds

That’s 5:25 per mile, give or take, with a little wiggle room either way. Given my lack of races, not-so-long long runs and minimal number of challenging workouts in the last seven weeks, I’d be thrilled with a result somewhere in this ballpark. The pre-race plan is to leave the watch in my backpack and race some fools to the finish line. I’ve found that to be the best way to go about my business.

Best of luck to everyone racing tomorrow–soak up the energy and enjoy the electric atmosphere!

Heading out for the first run on my new trails at Penasquitos Canyon.

Yes, it’s been a while. A long while. A lot has happened since my last entry back in April. In a nutshell, a job opportunity at The Competitor Group in San Diego opened up, I flew out and interviewed for it, was offered the position, accepted said position, and moved across the country in the span of about 5 weeks. Needless to say, any extracurricular writing activities (namely, keeping this blog updated) have gone out the window. To keep up with my recent running ramblings, however, check out the all-new competitor.com, where I currently preside at web producer and post some of my own unique content no less than once a week.

As for the cross-country move itself, so far things seem to be working out swimmingly here in San Diego. I mean, it’s November 26 and I ran in shorts and a short-sleeve t-shirt this morning for crissakes! What’s to complain about? I live in a great apartment, it’s in close proximity to work and more importantly, trails (see photo, below right), not to mention less than 15 minutes from the ocean.

My new job is everything I hoped it would be (and then some!) and I’ve taken advantages of some cool opportunities to travel, cover big events and interview some incredible athletes as well as a few select celebrities. I took a big risk in packing up my life and heading west, but I have absolutely no regrets. A risk only has a shot of paying off if you actually take it. Playing it safe won’t get you anywhere in life.

Leading the way for The Lost Boys at the Cuyamaca 6K. Finished fourth on a rare rainy day in San Diego.

Speaking of not getting anywhere, my running is more or less stuck in neutral right now. With the exception of a few semi-respectable performances over the last few months, I haven’t done a whole lot on the racing front. I did nab a new road PR of 31:57 for 10K on July 4th (my first race as a member of my new team, The Lost Boys), and made a little noise in the Dirt Dog XC Series, but on the whole the results were far from outstanding. The one big positive about my running right now is that I’m not (majorly) injured! Almost exactly a year ago at this time is when I made my return to the roads after sitting on my ass–quite literally–for four months while I was recovering from a third stress fracture in my pelvis. I made it my goal to get through the next 12 months free of any major injuries that would force me to the sidelines, and while I don’t want to jinx myself just yet, I’m happy to write that as of this week I’ve accomplished that goal.

As for future goals? Career-wise, I will continue to take advantage of the opportunities presented to me and keep working hard to grow the Competitor brand while making a name for myself as one of the main men in the running media. I’ve got the support of a talented group of colleagues and the resources available to me to do just that.

Running-wise, goal #1–as always–is to stay healthy. Quite simple in theory, rather challenging in reality, as I’ve learned the hard way more than once. Assuming I’m able to keep the ball rolling on the health front, 2011 will be devoted to reclimbing the competitive ladder. It’s been way too long since I’ve run a PR worth writing home about, and I know I have a sub-2:25 marathon or sub 1:08 half somewhere in these aging legs of mine. Time is running out, so best to take advantage of it while it’s still on my side.

And that about sums up the last six months or so. Anyone looking for anything more than the irregular work or running updates will have to call me on your own time. Moving forward, my hope is to update this space quasi-frequently, so keep an eye on your RSS feed. If my blogging history is any indication, however; well, we all know how that goes…

As I made my way into the cemetery, my thoughts turned toward my Mom, whom we laid to rest in this place some 21 months ago. Nostalgia always seems to set in when I approach the St. Luke section of the cemetery, and a sense of calm comes over me as I stop at Lot 4 and share a moment with my mother. I always immediately feel at ease during this brief respite in my run, and it’s comforting for me to be able to reflect on past memories and consider future possibilities, all the while feeling Mom’s powerful presence and undying influence. It’s an experience that even the most wonderful words won’t do justice, but it’s as magical a moment as I’ll ever have in this life.

Running has provided me with many of these magical moments throughout the 13 years I’ve involved myself in the activity, and not a day goes by that I’m not thankful to call myself a runner. Beyond my competitive career and the hundreds of races I’ve run since high school, running has become a huge part of who I am and what I do on a daily basis. The run itself is time to myself, or time with friends, and provides moments of clarity that otherwise escape me during the craziness of the day. I’ve laughed and cried, made plans and solved problems, been inspired, gotten pissed off, forged many a friendship and learned a lot about myself and others while on the run. Neil Young put it best…

We’ve been through
some things together
With trunks of memories
still to come
We found things to do
in stormy weather
Long may you run.
- Neil Young

I’m behind on blogging (along with everything else that needed to get done this week), so until I can find a few more snippets of free time to waste on updating this website, I suggest checking out this short story on the resurgent Rebecca Donaghue, whom I wrote about for the March issue of Running Times. The piece was republished on the web recently for all eyes to see, so give it a look if you’re like me and too lazy — and cheap — to sign up for a subscription. (Contrary to popular belief, even contributors have to pay to see their work in print.)

My latest work for Competitor Running’s website will be found here after the powers that be slice it and dice it to their suit their tastes. Look for it as early as this afternoon, but most likely it will find its way onto the website sometime over the weekend or at the beginning of next week.

That’ll do it for now. I’m off to romp around in the woods for an hour and make a muddy mess of myself on this autumn-like afternoon. Shalom.

*I recently discovered Guayaki Yerba Mate tea and decided to give it a whirl for no reason other than it peaked my curiosity while I was grocery shopping the other day. Boasting 24 vitamins and minerals, 15 amino acids and shit tons of antioxidants, I’m hoping this healthier alternative to my afternoon cup o’ joe is equally as effective at getting me through the day.

*This morning I made the wheel on the spin bike go round and round for exactly an hour and thought to myself how miserable it must be to be an Ironman athlete in New England and have to spend 3-5 hours in a stationary saddle at a whack during the winter months. For this wretched reason alone I have no desire to train for a 140.6-mile sufferfest. I’ll stick to the monotony of marathon training, thank you very much.

*Tomorrow morning I hope to run on trails for the first time in I don’t know how long. Fingers crossed the impending Nor’ Easter stays coastal tonight, thus allowing me to enjoy a romp in the woods with minimal interference from the elements.

I’ve got nothing else for now. Take it easy out there in Blogland.

Adding to yesterday’s excitement was having two of my athletes PR at their respective races, as Doug Sylvester turned in a 1:48:15 at the Jones Group Realtors 10 Mile Road Race in Amherst and Heather Roy spun a 1:06:44 at the Polar Bear Run. Congrats to them both!

In the day’s other big news, USA Track & Field  announced that the men’s and women’s Olympic Trials in the marathon will be held in Houston on January 14, 2012. Like many others, I’ve been eagerly awaiting this announcement for a while, and even though my recent race results suggest I have no business even thinking about making a run at the Trials, I know I possess the ability of others in my position and am confident that if I can stay healthy a qualifier is not out of the question.

I don’t have much else for this entry but if you’re hungry for more then I check out my latest piece for runnow.com on race fueling. Take it easy out there.

On the whole, February turned out to be a most excellent month of training, as I was able to reestablish some consistency in my routine and put in some solid work. I didn’t miss a scheduled day on the road or on the spin bike, did my assigned ancillary exercises with regularity and totaled 30 hours and 24 minutes worth of training time over the course of four full weeks. Not an insane amount of volume by any stretch of the imagination, but it does represent a step in the right direction. My goal moving forward is to stay healthy and keep the momentum going in my quest to reach a newfound level of fitness.

So what have I been up to in my free time? Eh, you know, the same old same old — working out a few times a week, drawing up training schedules and dabbling in a little bit of writing when the mood strikes me right or if an editor comes a callin’. It’s not a bad existence, really.

In the what’s-new-around-here category, all you nosy number crunchers can now keep tabs on my training by checking out my log on this website. If that’s not your cup of tea but you’re one for reading the rest of my rubbish, feel free to take a peek at my latest piece of prose for Triathlete Magazine, recently republished on the web here. I wish I had for more stuff to share with ya, but that’s about it for excitement around here right now. See ya again in a week or so, perhaps sooner in the off chance that I’m really itching to say something.

OK, out of shape is admittedly an exaggeration, but I’m a ways off from being able to work out with these fast folks again anytime soon. I am, however, coming around and put in 7 hours, 22 minutes and 15 seconds of total training time last week. I’m hoping to break 7:30 this week by sneaking in an extra day of running on the AlterG. Almost all of the work I’m putting in on the roads is of the easy aerobic sort, but I did add little intensity last week in the form of a progression run that went something like this: 7:49.44, 7:01.18, 6:35.35, 6:16.25, 5:48.35. This workout was a corner turner of sorts for me and for the first time in I don’t know how many months I felt like a runner again. The important thing is that I came out of it OK and came away with the confidence that my injury is fully healed and I can continue to move forward without reservation.

Moving onto other endeavors, my Owner’s Manual piece on hill training from the January/February issue of Running Times has been posted on their website for all non-subscribers to see for free. And on the filling-in-for-Peter Vigneron front, my Weekly Racing Recap for this past weekend can be found on the front page of the site as well.

In the words of another irregular blogger friend of mine, that’s all I got.