Yesterday was the Mountain Regional XC in Salt Lake City, Utah - about 5000ft (1600m) above sea-level. Going into the race my goal was Top 15. My coach and I believe my last 1km is as good as anyones so the plan was to be around 20th at 9km and then try and close into around Top 15. It's easy to fear what you don't know or haven't done before - but once the race started something went off in me and I immediately put myself in it. For the whole race I was never outside 15th-25th and I fought hard all the way. Unfortunately, a few guys ...

A couple of weeks ago I wrote that hopefully this weekend I'd have a good result to write about, and thankfully I do! On Friday I finished 7th in the Mountain West Conference 8k crossy, finally showing the form I knew that I was in this season. To be honest, I wasn't really sure if I would be able to make the Top-7 as our Conference has over the last two years become really deep. Last year at the NCAA indoor 5k our Conference had 4 guys in the final, 3 of them All-Americans and on Friday all but one of them were ra...

So far this xc season everything has almost gone exactly according to plan. Taking the lessons that I have learnt since I have been here, in particular the formula I used to get from being physically and mentally spent to running 14:11 in just over a month - I am fitter and more confident than ever. Our first major race of the season was the Roy Griak Invite. I was in 'ok' shape, but only had three-weeks of training in me since my return from Europe. I had a few 2:00' runs under my belt, hills, and one 8-mile tempo - so earl...

With the start of the NCAA XC season only a week or so away I thought this would be an appropriate time to get back into some blogging and fill everyone in on what has been going on. After the 1st Round of NCAA's I began another break from training (I had already taken a week off before heading to Texas) which lasted around 2 weeks. I then proceeded to slowly get back into some running, beginning at around 40 miles in that first week and building up ever so gradually.  I always planned for this summer to be very different from the last. Th...

Back in Colorado now which means I am officially on my break after the season... again! The race in Austin was pretty rough. I remember getting through 1km in just over 2.50  and I probably managed that pace for about 2.5km but by 3km I was in the shit-box. I think I remember seeing around 8:47 when I went through and it only got worse!!! I knew that going into the race it was either going to go great or shit, unfortunately I got the latter but it was a great experience nonetheless. I got to feel what it's like to run at  a huge meet ...

Am into my 3rd day here in Texas and still don't race until tomorrow night. So far am enjoying my time here in Austin. It's hot but I've only been jogging so far so not too bad, racing in it will be a different story but I've run in the heat plenty of times before so not dreading it like some of the other guys seem to be. Haven't done much but run, eat, and hang around in the hotel but I watched a few races yesterday - the track is absolutely awesome. It's massive and has a  sweet view over down town Austin.  Looking forward to racing...

Well it's lucky I didn't write a blog right after Conference (last weekend) as for the last 5 days I thought my season was done and haven't run a step, but today I got the news that my 14.11 was good enough for the National Qualifying meet in Texas which are the  prelims for Nationals that are now going to be straight finals in Eugene.  After Oregon we had accepted that I wasn't going to get in to the meet as my 10k was shit and I was ranked like 70th in the 5k with only 48 going to the National Qualifier. With that  in mind we w...

It's been about 10 hours since I ran the 10k in Oregon and I'm now in Washington (Just over the border) as we fly out very early tomorrow morning from Portland which is only 5 miles away.  The pace went out as planned but from the gun I wasn't feeling it. Just felt flat. Frustrating as I didn't feel terrible, just couldn't "go". I was sharing the pace with another guy for the first 5k and went through in 15.02. That would have been fine it I was feeling good but unfortunately I wasn't. My final result was 5th in 30:27. Bit of a bummer but ...

What's up NZRun fans.. Am currently in Eugene for the Oregon Relays this weekend where I will be running the 10k. The race was supposed be tomorrow night but has been changed as G-Rupp is going for the US record and Alberto reckons conditions will be ideal on sat night, so the Gods have spoken on that one.  No dramas though, doesn't change much at all - just meant that today instead of just an easy 30-odd minutes I did a 20min warm up then a 1k in 2.57 then half mile cool-down.  Was nice and easy but good to get in something a little ...

Well am back from the Mt.Sac relays in Cali where I finally nailed a decent 5km. Have been fit enough for a while but after tweeking training a little bit it finally came out. We had spent  indoors nailing track workouts thinking it was going to get me faster, when in reality all it did was make me tired so we went back to some very basic stuff that I seem to run well off. For  3 weeks after indoors I ran 90miles a week with a basic longer race-pace track session once week, Hills, and 2 long runs. We also introduced a couple of tempo ...