My journey as a marathoner...

Hello everyone! I'm so glad to be able to blog again and bring you some great news. Daegu, no doubt, was a tough experience to handle mentally. After a much needed rest, I got back on my feet feeling more motivated to train. They say "once you are so down, the only place to go is up". Well, since then, instead of feeling sorry for myself, I got back to training as if nothing happened. I've been enjoying seeing the improvement and changes week by week, month by month. I've been on a good routine of what I'd like to refer to as "sustainable running" - doing what I know I can handle for years and years to come. Being able to balance work and training is an important undervalued part of being an athlete. Not only looking at how much quantity and quality of training, but also paying attention to how much racing I should be doing to stay fresh. I've also come to make some difficult decisions. One of the decisions I've made recently is to continue...

Fellow blog readers, sorry again for the late update. I've been doing a poor job of keeping you informed, but I promise from now on to give me more details. Since leaving Boulder a lot has happened. On Aug 6th, I jumped in the 10k at the well known Beach to Beacon 10k in Maine. As a New Englander, that's a race I've always wanted to do. At Beach to Beacon, although I struggled with the humidity, I finished a decent 11th over (2nd American) in a personal best 29:57. A week later, on Aug 14th, I ran the Falmouth 7.1 mile road race in Massachusetts. The race did not go well as I found myself early (2nd mile) in discomfort after running a quick first mile. Perhaps I would have done better knowing that the first mile was the toughest one and the rest was flatter. I finished somewhere around 35min even though due to a computer chip problem my name did not appear in results. A week after Falmouth, I left for the World Champs marathon in South Korea. After a long travel and a few...

Time has flown by really quick and I can't believe I have less than a week left here in Boulder. Honestly, I'd rather stay longer for many different reasons. As an athlete, sometimes you just want a little space from everything to focus on your training goals. The mental and psychological benefits are huge if you can stay focused for a long period of time. With a non-commitment-like schedule you can have more flexibility with recovering and training. This sport can be selfish because it's very individualized in terms of input and output. You have to find optimal ways of maximizing your performance but also not jeopardize other aspects of your life. On the other hand, Boston will be great preparation for the World Championship. Although it's been about 90+ degrees in Boulder for the last 2 weeks, it is less humid than Boston. I tend to not get too bothered about the heat as much as other people, but I need to face the worst possible scenarios so that I can be ready fo...