July wrap up.

A recap of the month of July and where things stand:

- I averaged 70 miles a week for the month, 4 weeks of basing.

- 7/11, Bastille Birthday 5K: 17:14. It wasn't pretty since I hadn't had any solid running prior to that point. But then again, maybe that time was meant to be? I hadn't thought of that until just now. Forget it, I like it.

- 7/14, Hometeam Charity 10K. In addition to 5oz of gold and 300oz of silver, this was my 36th Birthday present to myself. It was a disgusting stuffy heater though, and hurt at 35:39. I felt old. I died. The last mile was pathetic. I had no motivation either. I blame it on the weather and a lack of speed work. I placed 2nd for CARA AG points.

- Since then, long runs have jumped up to 20 miles.

- I now have 3 weeks in a row of tempos, with averages in the mid-5:40's... I guess technically, including the races, I have 5 weeks in a row with tempos.

- I took 3 days off from running in July, and as of now, I haven't taken a day off in over 2 weeks.

All in, my endurance has come back. I feel comfortable running pretty much any distance, and am feeling more fit. I'm still lacking any interval training at this point.

BUT.... All of this has come at a pretty nasty cost: I did bump up rather quickly after having some lame running in June. I'm now suffering from some ugly shin splits in my left leg and I'm actually starting to feel a bit broken down. This is classic. I've been dealing with left calf issues for nearly 10 years now. Anytime I drop my mileage down and then pick it back up again, I aggravate the calf and inner shin. Massage hasn't helped one bit. In the last couple weeks, I've been trying to run a little more with my Vibram Five Fingers. That usually chills it out, but no such luck yet.

This shin issue needs to go away if I'm gonna ramp up with any quality and intensity. Clearly I need a day off and some recovery.

That said, I'll run the Terrapin 5K tonight and press on through the end of this week. I'll take a day or two off next week and get that much needed cut back. Hopefully that puts me back to an even keel.

I head up to the cabin next weekend. That'll give me 2 very big weeks on the hills. My ADK training and September running likely the balance of my year.

With September comes racing season. Stretching through November, I have the Chicago Half Marathon, Park Ridge 5K, Chicago Marathon, Palatine 5K, and NYC Marathon......
Yeah, that's right... I'm racing 2 marathons in 3 weeks....