First 5k out of the Way.

This week was a super easy week filled with race prep and ended with my first ever 5k! The race went well, I'm really happy with it for my first one. I ended up in no-man's-land and kind of had to time trial. I was able to hold on to 70s pretty consistently with a few slip-ups in the middle laps.

I'll be running another 5k in two weeks at the Sun Angel. I think now that I have the first one done and have a feel for it I'll be able to be a little more aggressive and get after it a bit more in this next time.

I'm not going to lie guys, I'm super tired and completely unmotivated to write a post right now. I just wanted to put up a quite note about the race. Maybe I'll put one up mid-week this week. There should be lots to talk about. There is a development camp in town this week and there is going to be about 25 people at the track every day. Going to be nuts.

On a side note, I've decided to give twitter a try for one month and see if it grows on me. Follow me at @pcorrigan89

Don't Talk to Stranger.

Well, not a whole lot to report this week. Other than one hard workout I had a fairly easy week filled with long(er) runs. On Wednesday I did 3xMile which was the workout I had kind of been dreading. It turned out to not be as bad as I was imagining. Other than that I just had 75min runs and one set of 3x500 on Saturday. I also learned not to run too far away from the Scottsdale Community College track. It is surrounded by a native reserve which can be slightly sketchy. I quickly found out that many people have vicious dogs that will chase you. And not just run up and bark, but follow you for a good 800m(half mile) bearing their teeth and barking. I had to eventually stop, turn around lunge at and yell loudly at the dog to make it stop. Anyone that knows me knows I have a big soft spot for dogs. I won't lie, I was slightly scared for my safety and when it almost got ran over when it tried to chase me a second time on my way back past the house, I did not feel bad for it. These longer workouts are still somewhat foreign to me. The pain they produce is just totally different than anything I have experienced before. I need to start getting used to it if I'm going to be a 5k runner though.

Speaking of 5k running. It has been confirmed that I will be running my first 5k this Saturday at ASU. It sounds like the race will be a good intro for me to sit in the pack get pulled around and just race. Geoff Martinson won the race in 14:2x last year, which would be perfect.

I finished the week off with a nice little road trip yesterday. Nicole Bush, a steepler from Michigan came here for two weeks to get away from the Michigan winter and train with some people for awhile. We fairly randomly decided to jump in the car and start driving north. We ended up making it all the way to the Grand Canyon, my second time this year. I used to do mini road trips back in Victoria all the time, granted I usually only drove for an hour or so in one direction, not 3+ hrs. We were gone for almost 12 hrs,  it was a good thing we ended up getting along really well. Got to the Canyon, explored, walked down the "Bright Angel Trail" for a bit, which is kind of the main hiking trail. I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again, words just can not express how truly amazing the Grand Canyon is. Even though I saw it two weeks ago, it still took my breath away as if I were seeing it for the first time. It was really cool to see it in the dark too, first time I had been there after the sun set. It was really fun to get totally out of my routine, step away from running and spend some time with, well, with a stranger, haha.

Oh ya, and I'm moving back to Calgary!

Good, Bad, and BIRTHDAYS!

Well, this week was a mixed-bag of good, bad, and BIRTHDAYS!

BIRTHDAYS

Thursday was my 22nd birthday, which I happen to share with Justin Marpole-Bird. He turned 23. I wish I could tell you I had a really exciting and fun packed birthday, unfortunately that was not the case. It was nice, but fairly low key. We had a workout in the morning, strength in the evening and then we went for some birthday-rittos (Birthday Burritos), and then treated ourselves to some frozen yogurt. I wanted to go to the Flames v. Coyotes game, but by the time we sorted everything out all the decent tickets were gone. Turned out to be not that bad of a thing seeing as the Flames got shut out 3-0. Thanks for the birthday gift Flames...

Good/Bad

The workouts this week went from not so good, to much better. Our training changed quite a lot this week, 3 workouts in the AM and strength in the PM and then just single run days otherwise. Started the week with a 1mile, 10min SS, 1mile on Tuesday. Aaand, that was terrible my miles were hardly faster than my 10mins SS. Thursday was a bit quicker of a workout, 600, 400 for the first set and then 500, 300, 200. That workout was good. I got after the 600 which resulted in a kind of slow and painful quarter, but the second set was all really good. I then finished the week with 4x1200. I felt strong, relaxed and in control the whole workout while running good times. I was really happy to end the week on feeling good in a workout. The long run today was a little bit of a different story. The week had definitely caught up to me a little bit, we still rolled, but just went a little shorter than normal.

I've already received the plan for next week, and other than the 3xMile workout, it looks pretty good. I race in two weeks so I think Wynn is starting to bring the intensity down a little to prep for that. I won't complain.

Ghost Rider.

Well, truthfully I just have no been motivated to make a post lately, but I will do my best. It's been almost a month and sadly, not much has happened really.

Training has been going really well. I have had about 4 weeks of really solid training.  I had a bit of a tough go when I first got down here. Getting back onto the track and training hard was causing some aches and pains. For a few weeks I didn't have a single run that felt really good. I was always sore and tight and achy all over. That has all changed, and for the better. Runs and workouts finally feel good and I'm even starting to feel kind of fast.

This past week most everyone went back to their respective homes in Canada. I stayed down here in Scottsdale and my parents came to visit. I hadn't seen them since Christmas so it was nice to have a visit. On Monday we took a tour up to the Grand Canyon. We flew out of Phoenix, flew over Sedona, Flagstaff, and did an air tour of the Canyon before landing and doing a ground tour as well. I had been to the Canyon before, but I had never seen it from the air like that. Words and pictures could never describe how truly awe inspiring the Canyon is, but here are some photos anyway.

We also attended a Coyotes hockey game while they were here. That brings my total to 4 games for about $58, about half of one ticket to a Flames game.

In other running related news, my parents got me a Garmin for my birthday and I am completely in love. I always kind of made fun and said that they were unnecessary. I now retract all of those statements. I really am not sure how I got through life before.

My season opener is approaching rapidly. I am pretty excited about that. After changing my mind about 6 times I have finally decided that it will indeed be a 3k here at ASU on March 27th.

I'm going to try and keep these updates weekly, at least, even if there isn't too much to say. I'll just slowly fade off otherwise and kind of forget about it.

Now if you'll excuse me, I must get back to watching Nicholas Cage in his blockbuster hit, Ghost Rider.