#coach l

Went to my old high school's winter break track practice with a friend, and it was just good fun. My old coach ran with us, and he's an awesome guy. There was a period after I graduated in which he was a slight jerk (I think because he thought he was super cool), but he's toned it down now and he's a great guy.

We had a good group running together, and we did 5 pick-ups in the middle of the run. First off, the run itself was at a good clip - low 7s I'd say. The pickups were like low 6s or high 5s, and they were tough! I really should do some of those during my runs. They were only a minute long, and there weren't that many, but I still feel like they were great for the run. 

Also, my legs felt kind of better. The deadness was to a lesser extent and was more dulled, so I think the foam rolling and close to 24 hrs between the runs REALLY helped.

I had been running 45-55 mile weeks, and my quads were getting just DEAD tired. I tried stretching, but they weren't tight in the least bit. So I texted my high school coach and asked what he thought.

I told him about my poops and he said bad stools is a sign of overtraining.

He said I should take some more recovery time, do some yoga, and run short and easy. 

I was eating lunch with my friends in high school, and my coach walks up to our table to chat.

He saw that I had an oreo in each hand (I am known for my love of oreos) and he said, "You double fisting those oreos, Bigman?"

I replied, "The only thing I double fist is your mom."

Wellllll, he got kind of mad and walked away disappointingly. I went up to him to apologize, but he said that was inappropriate and I should talk to him later. He eventually got over it.

I attended my old high school's track practice at 9 am in order to do a long run with the boys. My goal was to run 10 miles, and a couple of them were supposed to go 70-75 minutes, so that was perfect. It's always nice to go back there since I truly miss running with a team SOOOOOOOOOO MUCH. The club team at my school just doesn't cut it for me (everyone goes on their own runs and doesn't attend practice that much).

So we set out, and my old coach joined us! He's seriously one of the most awesome people I've ever met, and he's been pretty influential in my life. He was a real chatter throughout the run, but that only made it much more fun. We ran out to some rail road tracks just over 4.5 miles away. There was 6 of us in the pack, and it felt oh so good. Coach taught us some songs and we ended up singing quite loudly this tribal sing and repeat song which was a bunch of fun.

Towards the end of the run, he suggested I get my masters in exercise physiology at VCU (a university near my hometown) and assistant coach the team with him. He said he could hook me with the job and that I would get some payment. Though I wouldn't like to live in Richmond as there are no mountains, it's quite tempting!