agonist/antigonist

 Having determined the performance in the open race at the Eastbay Northeast regional "good enough," I tentatively decided to prolong my cross country season for two more weeks in hopes of additional recovery of the Achilles tendon and time to regain some fitness before the USATF club cross country championships in Tallahassee. Upon returning from New York, I signed up unattached for club nationals, essentially hoping not to get last place in the competition. Unfortunately, despite neither increasing mileage nor intensity the following week of training, the Achilles did not recover well following the race at Van Cortlandt Park. The Saturday before nationals, the situation was looking bleak: the Achilles was still not recovered, but I needed a workout to flash some fitness to myself and justify making the trip. Remembering the response I got from the C & O canal surface two weeks prior, I drove to Point of Rocks for a short tempo run on the gravel. While the pace was respe...

After a summer of mostly cross-training (almost exclusively road cycling) due to reactive Achilles tendonitis, I was cleared by my physical therapist to begin land running the first week in November. Although still on unstable footing training-wise (both literally and figuratively), I began looking for cross country meets to salvage anything resembling a competitive season this fall. There seemed to be only three reasonable options on the calendar for the immediate future: The NIRCA open/alumni race on 6 November in Shelbyville, IN The Trails of Miles race on 13 November in New York The open race at the Eastbay [Footlocker {Kinney}] Northeast Regional meet on 27 November in New York The first two options were both two soon after returning to land running, but the third option seemed reasonable and served an ulterior motive. The goal race for this season had been USATF Club Nationals in Tallahassee, and if my Achilles was able to handle a race two weeks out (and I was able to demonstrat...