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

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.

On the training front, last week was my first solid seven-day stretch in a long, long while. I put in 7 hours and 23 minutes of work, 4:23 of that on the roads or AlterG treadmill and the remaining 3 hours in the saddle of my favorite spin bike at the gym. All the effort is aerobic at this stage of the game and my goal is to continue increasing volume and stay on top of the assigned ancillary exercises in an effort to stay healthy in 2010. So far, so good.

I’d much rather take my slow show to the streets right now but I feel fortunate to have access to such an incredible machine like the AlterG, and, given my injury history, I’d be a fool not to take advantage of it. Plus, I get to wear the sexy shorts pictured below. Don’t be jealous.

That said, I realize you’re probably here to see what I’ve been up to of late or are in search of some information. I’ll do my best to cover those bases (and possibly more) in the following paragraphs.

Personally, and physically, I’m well. My mind and body are in a good place, and I find when that’s the case everything else seems to fall into place. My own training is actually starting to resemble, well, actual training, so I may post more about it now that I’m putting up numbers I can be proud of. The last three weeks I’ve been averaging six days of activity, which includes about four days of running and a few spin sessions on the bike. Mileage has been in the range of 25 per week and I’m getting in 2 to 2-1/2 hours on the bike for the time being. The only goal for this year is to get through it in one piece so I can have a big base to build from in 2011, and right now I’m right on track. The little things are making a big difference as I’ve emphasized the assigned ancillary exercises and have noticed a big improvement in my overall strength.

On the business side of things, On The Line Athletics became an official enterprise last week. A new website is in the works so keep an eye out for a launch sometime in the next couple of weeks. I’ll be co-hosting a few FREE short seminars this spring/summer on a wide range of training topics, as well as putting on a weekly workout and a boot camp for runners, so stay tuned for more information on these exciting events as it becomes available.

As for writing, my most recent work can be read here. Keep an eye out for a Leading Edge piece in the March edition of Running Times, which I suspect will be hitting newsstands any day now.

That’s all I got for now, and I only went a touch over two weeks between posts. Not bad.