Landscapes, Professional Observers, Mr. Ream

I've put together a short video of some of the landscapes I see while running here. The first place you see is near Pine Creek and Mt. Tom. The second location is Round Valley where a lot of cyclists and runners gather to escape Mammoth when it is stormy/snow covered. The last location is at a nice vista overlooking Mammoth Lakes at sunset.



I just finished my first week working under a new coach. His name is Andrew and I'm pretty excited to see what kind of results we can get working together. He's joined me for a few workouts and we're at a similar level, but he never leaves any doubt on our last rep that he could put me in the dust if we were actually racing. He's focusing on my speed and taking my mileage down a little. I've already been scolded for putting too much distance on after Saturday's 5X1.

Speaking of the 5X1, I felt really good during this workout. My times weren't amazing. But I stayed consistently right at 5:30 for all reps at 4,500 ft. My buddy James joined me and we ran back and forth near Round Valley. The road is part of a 15k loop that is often used by Running USA. The portion we ran on is marked with blue paint every 100 meters which is helpful during repeats.

On our 2nd mile we noticed a new crowd of cars had arrived (the white van in the video is a Running USA van) and a batch of runners was warming up. It made me a bit nervous to know that the pro's were there while I was doing mile repeats. On the third mile Sarah H. rode alongside us on a mountain bike briefly offering us encouragement. We must have appeared to be crawling at 5:30 considering her husband runs 10 mile tempo runs sub 5 pace. And for that matter, she has run a 4:35 mile.

During the 3rd repeat we crossed paths with Ryan following Sarah on the bike and shortly after that a group of about 12 pros all looking smooth. I have to admit it felt good to have some of them encourage me by name. On my cooldown after my 5th rep I crossed paths with many of them again and was caught off-guard when Deena offered verbal encouragement about my morning's workout.

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Finally, I discovered tonight that my friend and running buddy Jason has started a little one of these bad boys himself. Check out what he has at Unyielding Crossroads.