This week was two giant steps back, but today was a quarter step forward. I was able to run today with minimal pain in my groin and got back a few minutes ago feeling pretty positive about the whole thing. I'll have to see how the next few hours and days play out before I get too excited though. I exchanged quick emails with my high school coach "Abu," who told me very simply in his Abu like ways that progress is not linear. Always knows just what to say.  

So I'm going with that linear thing from now on.

My first goal this year in terms of competition was to race the Market Square Day 10k in Portsmouth in June. That was one of my favorite moments from last year and it really feels like my hometown race right now. It tends to be competitive too. I ran 30:31 there last year and only won by 10 seconds with Jonny Wilson (Falmouth, ME) behind me. Coming out the other end of a vicious marathon training cycle that winter and spring, I was primed to run fast at any distance, but I wasn't necessarily focused on 10k training, which admittedly would look a little different than the full 26.2. I was hoping this year I could train hard for that distance and try and better my time from last year-- maybe even run sub 30. I guess what I'm getting at is I don't think that's a super realistic goal anymore. Getting to that level would require me to be ready to run fast right now, which is currently my biggest hinderance with my groin. The sooner I can wrap my head around the idea of skipping the race entirely, or being ok with a much slower time, the better my recovery will be long term.

Some other really exciting news for me: my name (and a few quotes and brief paragraph about my training) appeared in the magazine Running Times yesterday. I knew it was going to be in the article about "The Long Run" but I had no idea in what capacity. When they were delivered to the store I tore open the box like it was Christmas. Turns out my little paragraph is the freakin' OPENING PARAGRAPH of the whole feature article! I dropped off a copy at Shawn's (my current coach who got me to that "level" of long running) house and he was stoked to see his name in print as well. I thought that was the coolest thing! The article isn't online yet but is out in hard copy (it's the May/June publication). I'll post it later.      

Positive thoughts!!!

AH