I think I'm in Kansas

Before I get into this post, let me just address Allison's post about the run. She kicked ass and could have run it much faster. :) Enough said.

I have to agree, the run felt pretty good and much better than training for Seattle a couple of years ago. Let me give a shout out to our boy Carl because without him, there is no way I could cover 16 miles and feel decent. I was testing out brand new orthotics and outside of some Achilles pain (that started back in Atlanta), all was ok. As the day wore on and Sunday came, I had some pretty significant pain in my heel that I think I'll need to address with the podiatrist. Since it started prior to the new orthotics, I know that's not the issue but he's the expert so I want him to fix it. :)

Tosha and I ran a nice 5km on Sunday and it was great to catch up with her! I had a busy day and ended up getting to bed pretty late. Up early this morning to pack and get ready for my trip to Indianapolis, so no workout. I got off the plane and got into the hotel at 8:30 pm EST. Can I just say how f-ing hot and humid it is over here? Kirk, how do you workout in this crap?

For some reason I was inspired to go down to the gym and decided on a tempo run. Half mile warm up, three miles at 8:30 pace and half mile cool down for 4 miles total. My heart rate was through the roof. Different from speed intervals, but still very challenging. I think next time I'll try to increase the pace slightly, and add a little distance. I read an article today that said tempo training should be "comfortably" hard. What does that even mean and when do you cross the line to "this sucks ass" hard? :)

Since I can't do mountain conditioning the next two weeks I am going to run more and take things up a notch (or try at least). Here is the speed training plan for the week. Same distance (7 miles), but I've changed the pace by 10-20 seconds each.

1 mile warm-up

400 @ 6:50 pace
400 recovery

800 @ 7:30 pace
400 recovery

1 mile at 7:45 pace
800 recovery

800 @ 7:30 pace
400 recovery

400 @ 7:00 pace
400 recovery

1 mile @ 8:15 pace
1 mile recovery

I don't actually know that I can do this, but I will give it a shot.

As for the blog post title, Indiana is a special, special place. I haven't actually spent any time in the Midwest before, and it hit me in baggage claim. First, I saw an 16ish year old girl get congratulated on her engagement. Then, while waiting for a cab at the airport for 10 minutes (behind a sign that read "Taxi Line"), I saw a security officer on a Segway stop cars to let people cross the road ON A CROSS WALK. There weren't really any cars to stop, have you been to JFK? Oh, finally I get into my cab and I tell him I'm staying at The Westin. I'm a little worried because I don't know which Westin I'm actually going to. Apparently it's not a problem, there is only one. 1.7 MILLION people in this city and there is only ONE Westin? Is that weird to anyone else?

Alright, enough bitching. I just ate my room service salad at 10:45 pm local time and followed it with enough crackers to refuel after giving blood (Allison will know what I'm talking about). Tomorrow I'm heading out to a local trail to run, looking forward to that. Wednesday I'm making my way to Toronto and will be working out with Kirk "the tool man" Gaskell for the week. Who needs Carl when Kirk will make sure I can't walk?!?!