Progress

Progress on two fronts:

1) Running: Workouts have been going very well. Over the last few weeks I've done a couple of 10K specific pace workouts on the track and tempo workouts on grass. Two weeks ago I did 20 x 400 w/ 100 jogs and averaged 87/88 like clockwork. The following week I did 10 x 800 w/ 200 jogs and stayed at the same pace for twice the length, hitting 2:55/2:56 for my average. Before club nationals I'll do 5 x mile with 400 jogs at hopefully 5:50 give or take. If I can do this, I should hopefully be able to break 38 on the hilly Lexington, KY cross country course. My cross country workouts have been either 3 x 2 mile on a marked grass path at Lakewood Park (when I was in Portland I did 2 x 3 mile on some trails). I'm feeling comfortable with off road running and also feeling smooth at 10K effort work on the track. My next races will be a 5K tomorrow in Avon and another 5K in Lakewood on Dec. 1 as a final rustbuster for nationals on Dec. 8.

2) Writing: 2 weeks ago I started a fiction writing project that is turning into a full-blown novel. I've already written 15,000 words and feel like I'm maybe 1/3 of the way through. Working title is Velocity Boy, a play on the Primal Scream B-side, not the mediocre 90s band who took their name from the same song. The story is set in the mid-80s and chronicles the adventures of a mildly immature music-obsessed 20-year old who goes to England for his junior year abroad.  Will he find peace, love and understanding in a haze of soft drugs, hard alcohol, loud rock 'n' roll and not always safe sex?

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Still Alive

Apologies for the lack of posts lately. Here are a few updates:

1) Running. The running has been going pretty well. I had a solid 5K race on October 28 running 18:20 on a hilly course in extremely windy conditions. Sandy was just beginning to kick in that Sunday morning and the winds were already pushing 30+ mph. Like the 5K earlier in the month I ran a pretty even first two miles and had a strong negative split closing mile. I feel really strong but I think I need a few more 5K races to get the speed back so my new racing plan will be to do the Avon Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving and the Reindeer Run on December 1 as final tune ups pre-club nationals.

2) Rock 'n' Roll. I've written a few reviews for the forthcoming issue of the Big Takeover that I'll post on here soon.

3) Other writing. I've never written fiction before, just rock criticism and academic stuff when I was in school, but I'm playing around with what I think will be a novel length story about an Anglophile college student in the 80's who spends a year in England. Most of it's true but it didn't all happen to me! So far I've written 5,000 words that I'm pretty happy with.

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