Great Statement from Michael Phelps

"The point of competition is to compete. It's to take on the biggest challenge. When you compete against the very best, it makes you better; I don't care if someone is twenty times better, or one-tenth better. I want to race the best. I hate to lose. But I was not afraid to lose. I am never afraid to lose." Michael Phelps

Just a few weeks ago I raced at the Hog Jog and it was great. My competition was amazing. I had such a great time talking with them after the race. I felt luck to run with college runners and the winner of the race just went professional in running. I had a BLAST. I did not win the overall race but I won my age group and I learned so much.

Working out with an Elite Athelete....

Tuesday September 28th, 2010 is a day that went down in MY history book. I was able to participate in a work out with Josh Baker, 30 year old working to go to the Olympic trials for the Marathon. I went to meet the group of runners from Fleet Feet that do a regular workout at the Lenoir Rhyne track. This past Saturday I saw Josh Baker at an invitational at Freedom High School, where I placed 6th (17:40 a PR) in the high school 5k championship race. We had a great conversation and he invited me to train with him at the Lenoir Rhyne Track. So this was the day I had been waiting for. It was an explosive work out and it truly hurt. I felt the pain and the excitement all at the same time. I got to see just how much it would take for me to make it to this elite running status. It was great to be so close to a man of this talent. To give you and idea... we did 800 repeats and he kept them in the 2.20 range. Killer.

As I race thought this season I am meeting the goals I have set for myself, but I also see the new goals over the horizon. I am meeting other runners and looking at other running styles and techniques and I am learning that my freshman year of running will be my first real running performance. It has been great to do the invitationals to run the courses, but the road races have allowed me to run with college talent and grow as a runner this season. When I look at the national rankings I know that I want to be hitting the 16's when I am a Freshman and it is within my grasp. Running is all about me all I have to do is dig deep inside to find these "Josh Baker" workouts and strive to make them easier. When I am a junior in high school I fully intend to be putting down runs in the low 14's.

Keep up with my progress and I will keep running. I have also seen allot of cool statements on t-shirts as I run around the country and I am going to spot light them each time I post. The new one is at the top of my site. "trample the WEAK and hurdle the DEAD."

Keep running!!!!!

Cross Country Dreams

Well, it has been a great start to my final school year at Concordia Lutheran School. After my 8th grade year I will go to high school. I had hoped to run cross country my last year at Concordia, but they could not get a team going for my final year. Never the less I have been running and it has been a pretty good year so far. I have been to a few invitationals but I had to run with the middle school program which is okay but I feel like I was running against kids that were to young for me to run against. I LOVE running against the talent that comes out for a road race. Normally, they are all college cross country runners and I have to dig deep to keep up but that is what I like. I love the hurt it causes and yet at the end I find myself right with the pack. You never improve unless you run with faster and better runners. As I race this year I realize that I am approaching my first full race year. It will be a year this December that I ran my first 1/2 marathon. My focus is on 5k's at the moment, but distance running is something I really love. When I do a middle school race they only let us run 1 1/2 miles, which is harder for me because I have to put in a mile or two before the race just to get my legs.

I am going to post my race details in a few weeks. I am proud of myself and realize that I have so much more inside of me and every race I run makes me want the next race that much more. I have my sights set on running cross country my freshman year in high school like no other freshman ever did. Keep me in your prayer and I will keep you posted on my journey as I run.

New PR (personal record)

Today at South Side park in Newton I did a time trial with coach. I ran a my first real PR for a 5k with a time of 17:59 . I finely broke 18 it was an epic achievement. And I cant wait for the next race.

Working HARD

I have been working hard with my coach so I have not had posting time. Hope you are all missing me. Here is a picture that says it all. See you all soon.

UP DATE!!! Work hard or go home!!!

Well it has been a good while since an up date. I ran my final 1/2 marathon on March 20th and finished 35th overall and ran it in 1:35. Just about the same as my last 1/2 marathon. This one was in High Point and the course was very hard. I am now going to focus on my training with my coach. We started working on the 16th and again on the 22 and he is going to challenge me. I had a tough day on Monday but I loved it. Coach Crowe is giving me allot to think about and has a plan for my training. I am very excited and I leave my training day with the coach looking forward to my next training day. I have a blast with it even though it is hard. I have another training day on Friday and I can not wait to work hard.

Day OFF

Today was a well needed DAY OFF!!! It rained so I had to take the day off. I did put in a work out it was just not running. I had to do it!! Did my push ups, sit ups and bicycle and core work. I really need more work in all of these areas.

I am running tomorrow!!!

My 1/2 Marathon March 6th 2010

Saturday was my 1/2 marathon in Charlotte. I really trained and worked hard to be ready for this day. The bottom line is I ran the 1/2 marathon in 1 hour and 35 mins and when I finished I felt terrible. This was a terrible 13.1 miles. I got confused when I started the race, because I could not tell which guys where running the 1/2 marathon or the 5 K or the relay. All the bids looked the same and by the time we hit the 5K split I had paced to fast and ran with the 5k RUNNERS. Right after that the race changed for me at about the 8 mile mark my legs turned into mash potato and I had cramps in my calves. I had no leg turn over. It was terrible. I struggled all the way until I crossed the finish line. I really wanted to make much better time and I know that I could have. I think I could have been 1:20 had things not taken such a bad road. I struggle with the bad running days. My mind was ready to run a great race and my body let me down. I know that this is part of running and I have read the stores about Olympic athletes that have missed the Olympic trials due to a bad day. I just do not think I will ever get use to the bad runs. I reallly work hard and want the training to pay off on race day. My next race is on March 20th and I really want a great race. I have my first training with my Coach on the 16th and I know this will make a big difference. I am ready!!

I took Sunday off and then Monday ran with Joe White andwe did a 6 mile tempo. That run was great I felt wonderful. Tuesday, I did 2 miles for time run and then a 1 mile time run and the 4 1/2 miles for time and 2 100 yard sprints. Not a bad day! Today, I went to Lenoir Rhyne track field and ran 1- 1/2 miles for a time run and 4- 400 meter runs 8-800 meter runs with 400 rest in between. I was a great day.

I am taking the day off tomorrow!!!

Night Before half marathon

Today is a break for me it is the night before my half marathon.I am looking for ed to this half marathon it is in Charlotte nc. I am looking for a fast time and hoping to break the tape

LR 5K run this week.

Today was a beautiful day to run so I went to Lenoir Rynne to run on the track. I did a 5k because I have a half marathon on Saturday and I just needed an easy run. I am ready for Saturday and really excited about this run. I want to get a top finish. The guy last year that placed first did it in 1:13 and he was 31 years old. I do no know if I can do that but I am going to press it hard to see how much I have in me. Wish me luck!!!!!

snow day

OK on Tuesday it started to snow in the middle of school. So we got out early I did not mind the snow as much as I usily do. I was taking a break on Tuesday anyway so it was a good day for the snow.

fleetfeet tempo

Monday at fleet feet me and Joe white did a six mile tempo.And the tempo felt great win i was done i did not fill tiered . And i thank i found the pace i can run for the half marathon.So I'm ready to go race.

Last long run

Today I had a day off because yesterday I ran my last long run before my half marathon. I ran with Ben and his brother Luke, which are great runners. We did 10 miles on Saturday and I felt great. It was an OK run to begin with the first did 6 miles then we did an 11 min tempo then after that we ran the last couple miles. I did not feel as fresh after the tempo run. I took a break today and road around on my bike a little. Tomorrow I will do a slow easy pace with Joe white around Hickory.

A great Run!!

I took the day off yesterday because I was tired. I went to Lenoir Rhyne today and ran around the college. I only did a 4 mile short run. It was a great day and my legs turned over well. I have an 11 mile run tomorrow and that will be my longest run till my 1/2 marathon next weekend. I am ready to go and cannot wait. Had a great week and I am looking forward to next weekend in Charlotte.

Running with Josh Sparks!!!!

Did a work out today with Josh Sparks. He is going to Lenoir Rhyne and is a student teacher at Fred T Foard. He was great and he ran the Boston Marathon. That is the Marathon I want to run one day. It rained and it was cold but we did have a good workout. Short and sweet work out. Tomorrow I am going to the park with Pop and I will have an easy day with a 5-6 mile run. I have 10 days until my 1/2 marathon in Charlotte and I am ready for the run. I cannot wait to get back to Charlotte to see how I have improved my 1/2 marathon time.

My new COACH

Today I went to Fred T Foard to talk to a man by the name of Colonel Crowe. My mom and Dad wanted me to talk with him about being my running coach. I was very excited and I really liked him. I want to make it to the Olympics and he is going to help me train and work on my speed and times and I cannot wait to start. I have one week of training left after this week before my 1/2 marathon in Charlotte and then I get to start training with my NEW coach. My new coach reminds me of Steve Prefontaine and has a great back ground. I will keep you all posted as to how my training goes. I have a day off today. This poster is exactly how I feel at this moment. I cannot wait to start my training with colonel CROWE

Fleetfeet Run with Joe White

Today I ran with the group when I say group it was me and one other guy named Joe White he was every nice new to Hickory. We are going to try to run every week. Today I ran about 7-miles, but I don't now how fast we ran. It feltvery fast. We ran all over Hickory.got lost so many times I could not count. Finally we found our way back to Fleetfeet.

Great training continues

Today my training continued on a strong note. I did 4 miles in 21 min and 12sec, which was about 10 sec quicker than normal. After that I did 3-half miles in 2 min and 60 sec, a 3 min and a 3 min and 1sec run. I was feeling very strong and good today. Yesterdays improvements seemed to be taking hold. My overall pace has picked up and I can hold it. After that I did 2 steep hill climb intervals. The first interval was on pavement up the hill and my time was 60 sec up the hill and 30sec on the grass and my time up was 60 sec up and 30 sec down, so both was where the same. I am trying to run on different surfaces to get ready for a cross country team. I want to find a coach and or a team to run for soon. I finished up my day with a half mile in 2 mins and 50 sec. Today was a great day. Tomorrow I will be going to Fleetfeet to run with the group for a 6 mile run. Fill you in later.

My fastest MILE todate....

Today I ran my fastest mile at 447. A pace of 4 min and 47 sec is my best effort yet. I was so surprised because my legs felt like mashed potatoes and the first 30 mins of my work out was terrible. I could not find a pace to work out and almost called it quits for the day. Mom was with me pushing me and she got me moving and then I wanted to see how my pace was and she did the timing. That was the quickest mile I have ever ran. I also worked on my half mile pace and came in 2 min and 38sec 2 times in a row. We also worked on my sprinting and pushing myself at the finish line to get that last bit of energy to practice beating the guys at the final run to the finish line. We did allot of stretching today and my legs feel pretty good. I will be running a long run tomorrow and I am looking forward to it.

first run at lr

today i ran at Lenoir Ryann university at there track. i did a 5k with 8 400 meter repeats. and i thank i will go back to the collage to do my intervals.

Trainning for my 1/2 marathon in Charlotte

Training right now is on and off for me. Right now I am training for three half marathons 2 in March and 1 in June. I can tell my training is really dependant on how much I eat and what I eat. Sometimes I do not eat enough and my legs would not turn over like I needed them to do. It caused me to stop because my legs would felt like rocks. That is not a good feeling especially when I have to be ready for my first 1/2 marathon on March 6th.

My snow run

Yes! I got up this morning at 6 am to run 5 miles. With snow still on the ground it was probably crazy because there was no grip this morning. As I would take a step I was not sure if the snow was slippery or not. The pace that I was running was two minutes off of my half marathon pace. For my that's really bad but with the conditions what they where I felt pretty good about the run. I worried about getting hurt so I ran a little bit cautions. So tomorrow I'm going to do intervals. Make sure you watch the Olympics, it on tonight so show the support.

Day of rain

Today it was raining and that's good and bad. I do not like rain, but I am really sore from the Fleetfeet run I did yesterday.so I'm glad I did not get to run. The whether man says it going to be Sunny and Warm tomorrow and maybe windy, but I am looking forward to running tomorrow. See you then for a better post day.

running with fleetfeet

Today was my first run since I have been sick. Iwent to Fleetfeet to meet up with the Mizuno reps were they brought all of the latest Mizuno running shoes. I got the chance to run in the new Mizuno Wave Elixir 6. Talk about great. I know what I want for my birthday this year. These shoes are not even on the market right now they are so new. We ran a 6 mile run and I found out quick that these shoe had great redound and was a bit more narrow than the older model. The fit was better for my foot. It had a very light feel even thought the shoe was not that much lighter in true weight than the old model it sure felt like it.

For my first day back on running it was a good brisk pace and my partners on the run where just as excited about the shoes. In all I think today was a great day for a run. I am already looking forward to tomorrows run, but it is to bad it will not be in the New Mizuno Wave Elixir 6.

my first blog post

Today is my first post to my running blog.  My favorite pasttime is running.  I eat sleep and drink running.  I ran my first 1/2 marathon in Dec 2009 and I have two more in March of 2010.  My ultimate goal is to be in the Olympics.  I want to compete for the US and take GOLD.

I plan to post my running experiences as I have them good bad or otherwise.   Over the past 8 months I have tracked my trainning, eating and my workour preformace, but I run into so many areas that I need another runner to bounce an idea off  or ask how to handle a trainning issue and so many other things and It needs to be someone beside my Mom. (sorry Mom) 

For instance today was a terrible training day.  I fell right out after a few intervals.  I was so desperate  to run today I ignored the way I felt and ran anyway.  You have to know that here in NC we have had snow and rain all weekend and then all week until today and I was dying to run, so I pushed myself to run.  I am so worried about getting out of shape with everyday that passes. 

Does anyone know how long it takes to fall out of shape?


So this will be my blog tracking all of my expriences on my way to winning the GOLD!!!!  Looking forward to sharing.