Life In A Glasshouse

AM: Trainer, 20 min WU, 15 Sec on/off 6 Minutes, 20 Minutes CD

One of the sessions prescribed by Johnny Mack, It was just an intro into leg turnover. I was going to do a second set but my knee didn't like what I was doing so I had to back off. Nice session on the bike all the same and another day of XT in the bag. I had meetings all day at Reebok today. It was long, but very productive. Lots of good stuff happening this year.

I'm off to bed because I am tired. I didn't listen to any music today. Even on my workout this morning my iPod ran out and since it was 6:30 I couldn't exactly lash the tunes so I just watched the news.

Peace and Love,

Kel

Sweet And Tender Hooligan

AM: 61 Minute trainer ride.

I just got myself a basic program from my good friend Johnny McCormack. Johnny is a cool cat from Cambridge, ON and a general bike nut job who continues to inspire me with his lust for life everyday. Th program is pretty basic and involves some light interval work to get the legs turning over and the muscles bike friendly. I need to throw myself into biking because I get depressed when I think about running.

I appreciate the recent emails and feedback/comments here. The eyes are on the prize for Euro XC, nothing is changing that goal, nothing.

In the meantime I suggest you go out and buy Its Blitz, the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album. I was talking to Fagan the other day about the songs I heard and we both agreed that the new Direction is fantastic. Mulvey, get on this album, its fantastic!

A lot of traditional YYY's fans believe this is too much of a departure from their garage/punk roots. However I embrace the move and I know many other people that will agree. They have started to use new instruments and bring in aspects of electronic music. At times they sound like Crystal Castles. The album is a far cry from Fever To Tell but Karen sounds better than ever in my opinion and I am truly excited by the direction they have taken. Check out the youtube below for one of their tracks.

Peace and Love,

Kel

Seasick, Yet Still Docked

"I am a poor, freezingly cold soul, so far from where I intended to go. Scavenging through lifes very constant lows so far from where I'm determined to go"

-Morrissey

Yesterday I rode the bike for an easy 34 mile spin in 1:56. I rode with Lee Cox and we kept the rpm high and the speed down. It is so easy to get on the bike and crunch big gears and cover lots of distance but with this being my first ride and my first XT session I decided I would stay in the small ring on the front and just spin. It was lovely riding and although still cold I felt the conditions were almost perfect. Today however is a different story. It is freezing and lashing rain. Just as well because I am suffering with the mother of all colds and I can't clear my head at all. 

Last night we saw Morrissey in Concert down at the MGM Grand at Foxwoods. It was a great gig although one of the oddest Moz shows I've been to. The MGM is an amazing concert hall but it is not suited to this kind of gig. Its all seater for starters. Also they have rules that you don't get elsewhere. No opening act for a start. Whats that about. We arrived during "This Charming Man", and I count myself lucky because some people arrived with about 3 or 4 songs to go! He played 4 Smiths songs, lots of old Morrissey, and a good portion of the new album and songs from Quarry. The band came out for an encore after 90 minutes but the MGM grand literally pulled the plug. All the amps were off and Moz clearly looked impatient. After waiting around for a minute he said goodnight and stormed off. Moz is notorious for throwing these hissy fits but in all fairness the whole show seemed mismanaged. Moz kept poking fun of the fact that right outside the doors of the theater were miles of slot machines. All the crap aside the gig was worth it to hear Moz sing "Seasick, Yet Still Docked", one of my all time fav Moz tracks. It was not nearly the best of the 7 Moz shows I've been to but it was not the worst either so all in all for 25 bucks t'was a lovely way to spend Saturday night.

Nest up on the gig front for me is Bat For Lashes in April. I can't wait for this one. In the meantime I am getting back on the bike for lots and lots of easy miles to get in touch with my fitness again.

Well Done to Mark Kennelly who finished 68th at the World XC yesterday. I cant help but feel a slight sense of envy and frustration because I know that if I never got hurt I would have improved an awful lot over the last few weeks but thems the breaks. Kim Smith also had a great run to finish 13th after battling up front for the first half of the race.

Tomorrow is Monday and it is back to regular Blogging. The training has started so watch this space.

Love Kel

The Sanest Days Are Mad

Today I was supposed to depart for the World XC in Jordan but rather than join the team on the journey to the Middle East I am sitting on Humboldt Ave writing this blog. Now I very deliberately avoided this blog because there is no room for too much negativity.

Thank you all for the wonderful comments and emails, facebook messages, and phone calls. Its amazing to have gone through this with other people and a true feeling of camaraderie. I've been injured so many times before but I always had to weigh all my feelings on Francines shoulders and now I don't feel that sense of need to unburden, rather i've been inspired to focus and keep believing.

At the ripe old age of 31 I have more confidence in my ability than I had at any point in the last 6 years. I now I will come back from this knee pain and I know that I will be fitter, happier, and more productive in no time at all. But all that hinges on following the right course of treatment. I must admit, I have completely let myself slide over the last 10 days but it was a necessity, a sense of cleansing and getting rid of all the emotion. I was back in Ireland at a friends wedding and I really didn't think much about the negatives and the fracture, I just had a great time with Frankie and all the PC crew.

So now I am ready. I am ready to start this thing that people call cross training. I did a little biking last summer and I have no doubt it contributed to my return so now I will polish off the bike and start again. I still have to wait to the weekend, Doctor told me 2 weeks of inactivity before I start and I intend on following his word.

I will blog the comeback part deux starting with my cross training. It will have the same emotional outpouring and honest feedback. And I believe it will lead to some great performances and a spot on that Euro XC team. 

To all of you who are in the same boat as I am, I reserve a part of my energy and thoughts for you. It sucks, but holding onto belief is very important and I for one am holding very tight. Training, racing, and being very fit is what I live for. This is what I am meant to do, I just have some bigger obstacles than others.

Peace and Love,

Kel

I Wear Black On The Outside Because Black Is How I Feel On The Inside

Ok, the lyrics are Morrissey from a song called "Unloveable", and although I don't really ever wear black, I just feel really down right now and this lyric is very apt given the report I heard from the Ortho this morning.

Where to start? Well first things first, I need to put a plan in place and I need to contact a few people, namely the AAI and Pete Reilly. My plans have been forced to undergo a major reorg. 

Since I am in poor to desperate spirits I will keep this short. My knee, for want of a better term, is wrecked. The adjective that the Dr kept using was 'Screaming'. On that note, I was very fortunate to get in and see Dr Brian McKeon who works with the Boston Celtics. It gave me confidence to know that in the morning before I had my consultation the Dr was with Kevin Garnett. Not that NBA or any professional sports players are more important than Joe Soap, rather it means he has a clear understanding of the desire to compete and push the body beyond where it wants to go. I believe the surgeon that scoped my knee last year had little understanding of how serious I was when I told him that it would take A LOT to stop me from training extremely hard again. Dr McKeon is the opposite, he was very straight to the point, he was very quick to present me with the situation, and he was very quick to give me the simple scenario without a care to whether he was offending me or not. I love this. Don't give me any bullshit about how too much running is bad for the knee. Tell me exactly what my options are because you know I want to get back to the very best I can be.

So here is the quick bullet point layout of my diagnosis:

- 1cm x 1.5cm piece of cartilage dislodged and floating in my knee

- Major bone contusions on the surface of my femur and tibia.

- Stress Fracture on the surface of my tibia

- Lots of swelling and general mess

Here is the quick bullet point of the doctors recommended plan:

- No Run for 3 months

- Synvisc injections every Friday for 4 weeks

- Wear a special brace that will relieve pressure on my medial joint line

- Aggressive PT to strengthen my quad

-Reintroduce weight baring on Alter G after 3 weeks

-Follow up MRI in 7 weeks to determine if Surgery is necessary

I asked for Surgery now but since the knee is in such a mess he refused to go in now. I am confident in his plan and I am viewing the situation with some optimism. The reason for this is that I only trained 15  weeks after 6 months off and went from 10 pound overweight to winning a national title. If I can get back training by the summer I will still be flying by Euro XC.

The downside of all this is that the DR said that from initial viewing of the MRI it looks like I am going to have to deal with chronic knee pain for the remainder of my career and that I will only be able to run the bare minimum moving forward. I'm thinking about 50 MPW with the rest of the time on the Bike and Alter-G.

The depression is related to being injured again. I thought I did everything right during this build up but again I get a serious injury. I really don't know what I did to deserve this. I barely averaged 50 MPW for the last 15 weeks. Only 2 weeks over 75. Only 3 races. It sucks ass big time and despite the Doctors plans I have to ask myself whether or not I am ready to deal with the cycle again. I told everyone who reads this Blog that one more serious injury and I am DONE. But something inside me won't let go.  I will enjoy bike riding for a while but I will look at the pics from the National XC and remind myself, 15 weeks of training. 

More thoughts to come but that is the gist of it.

Thank you all for the support and lets believe that "There Is  A Light That Never Goes Out"

Love Kel

Sing Me To Sleep

AM: 7 Miles Easy to Steady running outside on blvd.

I am almost to depressed to write anything. Lets just say I am waiting to hear the results of my MRI tomorrow morning. I am not confident because this morning I did a 7 mile loop easy and my knee is still screaming in pain. You may be asking why did I run outside. Well I figured since I am getting an MRI I may a swell really get the injury hot to make sure the radiologist gets a thorough reading. Of course I have no medical evidence to support my reasoning, it just makes sense to me.

Fantastic run by Pat Tarpy winning the New Bedford half in a solo 63:27. Looks like the boy has found his wheelhouse. Expect big things from the Tarpskin and check out Cutting Shapes for his wonderful thoughts on training and life.

If you noticed a reduction in content on my blog it is because of this injury. My heart is a little black these days and I am listening to The Smiths and recently some New Order to help ease the darkness. I just need to get the results of this scan so I can move on with the next stage.

Thanks for the support,

Love Kel

Reckoner

AM: 8.5 Miles, Alter-G, 50 Minutes, 85% Weight

PM: 65 Minutes Bike trainer, w/ 2 x 3 min, 5 x 2 min, 3 x 1 min Hard

Tomorrow I take a trip to Shields MRI to get a scan on my knee. I am not racing tomorrow much to my disappointment but this is crunch time and I need to know what is going on. I have been cross training so its not like I have dropped fitness at all. Positive energy going to the MRI tomorrow. I get results on Monday morning.

Liverpool beat Man United 4-1 today, away at Old Trafford. A moral victory for the reds. You'll Never Walk Alone.

Love Kel

Martin Fagan

Pier-City-Pier Highlight Video

Check out Fagan rubbing shoulders with Geb and the boys at City-Pier-City Loop half marathon today in Holland. Martin broke John Treacy's Irish Record running 60:57. World Class and much respect to the boy.

Kel

I'm Not Here

AM: 12 Miles, Alter-G, 1:02:20, 75% body weight, 2% grade

Another day on the Alter-G and even though my knee felt ok as soon as I got off it was back to square 1. Good news is that I am lined up for an MRI on Sunday. My man Mike Silva at Foundation Performance hooked it up and I will have the results on Monday before I leave for Ireland and thus World XC.

I want to thank you for your comments and many emails. Having support like this is simply more important than the running itself. I have proved I can get my act together in 15 weeks so if I have to miss 8 weeks now I will still have a great summer of running, biking and Alter-G ahead.

Tomorrow morning Liverpool play United at Old Trafford. I'm nervous for this game.

Peace and Much Love

Kel

Alter-G

AM: 10 Miles, 56 minutes, Alter-G, @ 75% weight, 3% grade, Ave 5:34 pace

Finally had the chance to get on the G-Trainer and it was awesome. I reduced my body weight 25% so I was about 120 pounds. I didn't feel any knee pain at this weight but once I went up to 85% I started feeling it so I returned to 75% and upped the pace. It is pretty easy to run fast so tomorrow morning I will run an hour and hopefully hit about 12 miles.

The news is not great however. My knee is still very sore and inflamed. I am going to try and line up an MRI tomorrow to rule out a stress fracture. The surface of the femur and tibia are definitely hitting off each other and causing stress. I personally don't think its a stress fracture but I think I'm on the way to getting a stress fracture. Where I am confused is not so much with the pain, I have been dealing with that for the last 3 weeks. I am confused as to why its happening and how I am going to deal with it moving forward. I am not training very hard, I am putting the bare minimum of stress for someone trying to run at a high level. If I have no meniscus left and I have a chronic ailment well then it may be back to listening to The Smiths and sinking into depression. I am looking forward to seeing the Ortho in the next few days to get to the bottom of this pain and on a practical journey on how to fix it.

Right now I am still planning on running my races but I am a few days away from pulling the plug on the season and taking 6 weeks. I have proved to myself that I can fit with little training and this was coming off a 7 month lay off. Coming back from a 6-8 week lay off will be nothing. The weather is getting better so I will be able to get out on the bike. Maybe I should stick to the bike but running is like a drug to me. 

Peace and Love

Kel

Used To Be Alright

PM: 5.5 Miles, Easy Running, No Time

I did my run today with Kevin Adams and Lee Cox. We ran an easy loop around the Blue Hill Trails. It was not a good run for me. I have a big engine right now but it sits in a horrible chassis. My knee will not give me a break. It was hurting from the first step to the last. It basically feels like the head femur is bouncing off the head of the tibia. I know I have little meniscus left but whats there is not working so I need to do something. Suggestions Welcome!

Tomorrow I am seeing Doctors and getting treatment at Foundation Performance. My concern is that if I keep running I am going to develop a hairline fracture on the surface of one of the bones. There could already be a stress reaction or some bruising but it makes no sense to me as I was able to run a hard 12k of XC on it 9 days ago. Last night I ran 10 miles on the mill and it really wasn't bad. Again, another concern is that I have dealt with so many injuries that I tend to think of injuries on a different level then many other runners. Maybe if someone with more sense had this same pain I feel they would consider themselves injured and take a month off. I don't want to take time off until after Word XC and my goal is to maintain fitness until then. I also don't think that time off is going to fix it if it is bone on bone. I will need more treatment or maybe an injection of some sort. Resting will only prolong the root cause. 

Enough with the speculation. I am on a minor injury that could be bad. I need to weather the storm for two weeks in which time it may go away or it may get worse. Its a gamble I am willing to take. Tomorrow is Alter-G so that will be a great test to see if it really is bad.

Peace and Love,

Kel

Everythings Amazing, Nobodys Happy

Monday: AM 10 Miles, T-Mill, 63:50, BSC

Tuesday: PM: 10 Miles, T-Mill, 65:00, BSC

My computer started acting the jock and wouldn't connect to the internet on Monday night so I missed my post. Basically I just hit up the gym and ran a steady 10 mile on the t-mill. My knee feels bad but not any worse. I am stuck dealing with this bone on bone action on the medial side of my knee. I had all the meniscus taken out of the inner part of my knee and right now it feels like I have no cushion in there. However, running on the treadmill is so much better than running outside.

Today I visited with Dr Alan Sowa for a chiro adjustment to my back. It really helped and on my run tonight I felt so much better, except for the stabbing pain on the inside of my knee. I am running through a considerable amount of pain right now but I missed WXC last year and I am not missing this year. I am improving everyday and as long as I stick to easy miles with no sessions I will be alright. 

On Thursday I am running my workout on the Alter-G down in Foundation Performance I am super excited to try out this wonderful machine that I hear so much about. Basically I am doing everything I can to get rid of this knee pain. I am concerned that I may earn a stress fracture for my troubles but I really think its just inflammation that I feel along the joint line. It does not hurt walking, only when I am running steady. I may break tomorrow up into 2 easy runs and see if that is better for the knee. 

With a lot going on in my life I have been lacking on the new music search but that will resume tomorrow. I did get a suggestion for Tilly And The Wall, and I enjoyed them very much. Bad Education is a really smashing pop song so long as you can stomach the flamenco guitar intro. Check it out.

Peace and Love

Kel

The Smiths Were Just A Band

PM: 45 Minutes Steady Spin Bike

As promised I took a day off and as I imagined my leg felt much better and continues to feel better. Clearly there is something off in my pelvis that is causing my left leg to act up. Its been this way since the Ras and has worsened since the National Champs. I know it can be easily remedied and I have faith in my treatment plan and sticking to the Treadmill for a few days.

My week of training this week looked like this:

Monday: OFF

Tuesday: OFF

Wednesday:AM: 10 Miles, T-Mill, 63:50, BSC. Core Work.

                         PM: 35 Minutes Spin Bike with 6 x 1 minute at 90% effort.

Thursday: AM: 10 Miles, 63:20, Treadmill, BSC

                      PM: 35 Minutes Spin Bike, 30 Minutes Core

Friday: AM: 8.3 Miles, 49:30, Fruit Loop, Blvd

                PM: 5.8 Miles, 36:50, Blvd

Saturday: AM: 14 Miles, 1:19:30, Fruit Loop - Blvd - Pawtucket

Sunday: 45 in Spin Bike

Week Total: 48.1 Miles, 5 Runs, 1:55 Biking, Core , Yoga

Solid week considering I took three days off running. It is time to look forward at the big races I have coming up and that means getting healthy and straightened out.

Being without a phone is somewhat liberating but its time I got back on the horn. Francine is going to run out of patience with me so hopefully I will be back in contact by tomorrow night. Big shout out to Mary Cullen who snagged bronze at the Euro Indoors today. Brilliant performance.

Peace,

Kel

Shellshock

AM: 14 Miles, 1:19:30, Fruit Loop - Blvd - Pawtucket

The weather today was truly fantastic. Spring was in the air and it was most welcome by the active community of P-Town. Lots of people out running early this morning and I was personally fired up for some training. I have no schedule for my next segment since I am running as I feel. I figured I would do some uptempo stuff today, just in the training shoes and part of the run rather than a formal tempo run. I warmed up about 4 miles and then ran 41 minutes at a hard effort covering about 7.6 miles, 5:23 pace. I stopped at this random time because I actually planned on running 40 minutes but just mistimed it. 

All in all it was a great session and the perfect reintroduction to training....HOWEVER since the run my leg has been killing me. My knee became inflamed within the hour and an old nagging nerve pain that I sometimes get decided to drop by and say hello. All day I have had a dead leg feeling and my knee keeps giving out on me. I am a little depressed because I would never have run 14 miles if my knee was sore before hand. I didn't feel it during the effort, although I did feel some dodgy nerve sensation and some dead leg action. It is not uncommon for me to feel soreness as I rarely have pain free runs but usually it ends once the run stops. This is the opposite, it has gotten much worse since the run and that tends to mean there is something off. My body has been beat up since last Sunday and I need to nip this in the bud and get myself straightened out.

Here is the brief plan of attack. Day off tomorrow followed by appointments to see Dr Alan Sowa for adjustments. I will get a couple of these back cracks to get things straight. Also some visits to Mike Silva at Foundation Performance so he can do some physio and work on getting rid of the joint swelling. I will hopefully get back running on Monday but I will do more treadmill and may even do my workout on the mill this week. I need to race on Sunday, not only is it worth a few quid but it is important for me to get in a hard effort before I go home and further interrupt my training prior to world XC. Thats the plan and I will be sticking to it.

Listened to a lot of New Order lately. I watched the excellent documentary "Joy Division" again when I was at home and it triggered a New Order buzz for me. However my current mood calls for some Ian Curtis. Misery loves company!

Well done to Ro McGettigan who finished 4th at the Euro Indoors today just missing out on a medal by tenths. And much good energy towards Mary Cullen and Deidre Byrne who contest the 3k final.

Off to bed in a very somber mood,

Love Kel

Two A Days

AM: 8.3 Miles, 49:30, Fruit Loop, Blvd

PM: 5.8 Miles, 36:50, Blvd

Tonight

AM: 10 Miles, 63:20, Treadmill, BSC

PM: 35 Minutes Spin Bike, 30 Minutes Core

Another morning visit to Boston Sports Club and another 10 miler on the mill. Had Paddy Moulton next to me so it was nice to have a bit of chat prior to iPod zone. I did feel pretty good and more importantly my knee was not bothered at all. The treadmill really helps. My man Jay R reckons that the mill encourages mid foot strike which puts less pressure on femur head against the tibia head, the main cause of my pain. The weather was great and the temptation to run outside was overwhelming that it took a lot of will power to go to the gym. 

Once again rather than run a second 5 mile I opted to get on the bike for the same duration. I also did a 30 min core class with lots of joe soaps that are much stronger than I am. It was great and right now I am in agony.

I listened to the above album several times today. Lykke Li is a Swedish singer who is fantastic. Some really great songs and her contributions to other artists work is also phenomenal. The music is poppy, soulful, electro, and melancholic all rolled into one. Check out the video below for the track "Tonight", which was released as a bonus track on the US edition of Youth Novels. Its really lovely and will put a smile on your face. You can download, on the secret chapter icon for free from her website. 

Another great day of training today and a fantastic buzz in general. I am getting back into the roll of training but I am not over doing it. The goal is to get to Jordan with a healthy knee and lots of good energy.

Peace and Love,

Kel

Waiting For The Sirens Call

AM: 10 Miles, T-Mill, 63:50, BSC. Core Work.
PM: 35 Minutes Spin Bike with 6 x 1 minute at 90% effort.

The roads were clear but it was freezing and since I have a couple of dodgy knees I thought it best to hit up BSC for some Treadmill action accompanied by my trusted iPod Shuffle and some Bat For Lashes mixed with Sunset Rubdown.

The run was fine and my knee felt the best it has since Armagh. I think the Treadmill actually helped because of the even surface and the additional shock absorption. The hour went past very quickly and I had desires to run for an additional 20 minutes but elected to stop at the 10 mile mark. Tonight, rather than go for a second run, I jumped on the bike and did the same duration I would on an afternoon run. It was lovely.

So back to the routine and it feels good. I will be checking out the music scene tomorrow and getting some new albums including the new U2 and a few post-rock records. I have already listened to "No Line On The Horizon", and I think it may be a grower. One or two songs are really strong but there are a few very ordinary moments on first listen.

I was up at Reebok today discussing my future with the company. More to come on that. Right now I have no phone so I am unable to contact anybody. It should all be remedied by Friday.

Peace and Love,

Kel

Somewhere Between Pain And Bliss

NO RUN

PM: Yoga, Eyes Of The World

My knee felt better today but I decided to take another day off and just do yoga. A wise decision given the snow and ice that still lines the road. I believe the State of RI has no money left for satisfactory snow removal. Tough times indeed.

It is great to be back in routine and I am looking forward to tomorrow morning when I start running again. I have decided to run World XC. I was opposed to this initially but given the fact that my knee did not worsen after the 12k and given that my opportunity to race at this level is dwindling I thought why not. I can compare myself to the US and UK boys along with some Europeans that I will hopefully have to race in December.

The national champs was a real confidence booster for me. I did not run the three days prior to the race and did very limited running before that too. After Armagh my knee started bugging me and it got significantly worse after the Ras. I knew that I would feel it in the 12k but my tactic was simple. Go out and run hard, get the blood pumping and the head spinning so that knee pain or any other pain would be non-existent. The only pain I would feel is oxygen debt and that is exactly what happened. I went hard from the gun and I was in some discomfort early. Vinny took over the lead after a lap and a half which allowed me to catch my breath. I moved back in front after about 800m of Vin pulling us into lap 3. I then lead for the next 2 laps before Mark Kennelly passed me. Again I sat in for half a lap to gather my thoughts and to prepare for a final long run for home. So with 3 to go I passed Mark and put in my hardest lap opening up about 8-10 seconds. We stayed this far apart for the rest of the race until about 800 to go when Mark really put the moves on. I was hanging on but I knew that I would not allow anyone to pass me. It made for a great race and the crowd was really into it, especially considering Mark is a Clonliffe Harrier and the race was run at their club. I hung on for a 3 second win. Mark ran really tough and is coming into good form under the tutelage of Mark Carroll. He will fly this year.

I know that the Irish champs are not exactly NCAA's but for me it is a real high to run and win at this level. Its a pretty big deal back home and great for my small running club. Obviously if Fagan was there he would have destroyed me. I think Andrew Ledwith would also have taken me down. Cragg is a class act but I am not sure if he likes 12k in mud based on his run last year. Maybe young Dave McCarthy would have posed some problems and Mark Carroll is in great shape but really thats it. I still think that for where I came from 4 months ago I am in a great position to say that had everyone run I still may have hit the podium placing. I have developed the ability to hurt myself more than I used to. I think pent up frustration over years of injury has given me this new found pain barrier.

My next race is the Boston Ras Na hEireann 5k. Myself and Carroll will run it and a nice snappy race 2 weeks out from World XC is perfect. After Jordan I will run a 10k in Dublin before returning to the States for another training block. 

Tomorrow I am going back into Reebok for an interview of sorts. I have a Job offer so I am excited to hear more about it. The boys at RTE got it wrong when they said I was back working at Reebok. I told them that I MIGHT be back but with all the good energy and talk coming out of my mouth it was construed as positive and they published that it was a done deal!

Finally, a quick word about the guru, Ray Treacy. I am not bragging about my coach but what a month he had in February. Briefly, here is a list of his athletes accomplishments over the past 30 days,

Ro McGettigan, Mile 4:30, Irish Indoor Record

Mary Cullen, 3k 8:44, Irish Indoor Record

David McCarthy, 3:57 Mile

Hayden McClaren, 3:57 Mile

Dom Channon, 7:58 3k, NZ Junior Record

Kim Smith, 5k 14:39, ridiculously fast time, 4th fastest indoor woman in history

Not to mention my own good running, Danette Dotzel putting together a fantastic Big East and everyone at PC running great. Well Done Ray!

Peace and Love

Kel

I Only Hear What I Want To

NO RUN - TRAVEL ALL DAY - RACE REPORT TOMORROW

Thank you all so much for your kind words and support. I like to think of this journey through the blogosphere as a way to share the emotion of racing, training, life, and music. Everything I write here is completely sincere and to know that people take positives from it make every little success that much sweeter. 

I got home last night and internet was down. Today we got hit by a NorEaster storm and the journey back took many hours longer than expected. I am going to bed to rest my knees and the onset of a cold. Tomorrow I will post the feelings after the race and the plan moving forward. Stage one is complete and tomorrow marks a new training and life phase in the build up to Dublin 09'

Again, from the bottom of my heart your emails and messages keep me so motivated and I want to thank you.

Love Kel

PS, Thanks Keith for the great Pics. I am the furthest from cocky there is but I thought I'd include one!