As I write this, I am sitting down on my couch with a very soft cushion under my rear. I just got back from a punishing but great session of active release technique (ART) to try and get my hamstring and glute feeling back to normal. I have been having 2 sessions a week since I started back running and it is really helping to make things feel almost normal. Today was the first day that I hit the track and there was no pain or tightness so we are going in the right direction with the treatment. I have actually been doing a lot of work to get my body back to a semi normal state with the ART sessions in Flagstaff, ART and Shockwave therapy in Phoenix, Deep tissue massage and lots and lots of foam rolling. It almost feels like I have been doing therapy as much as training. It's really worth it when you see improvements everyday so I'll be continuing to spend a lot of time on helping my body recover. I will be bringing all my tools with me to London at the end of the week as I will need to do a lot of foam rolling and stretching after I get off the flight back as it is sitting down that aggravates everything.

Training is going well and it feels good to be doing some fast workouts with the guys here. Last week was a mixed bag as the weather was playing up and it really put a damper on some of the workouts. I turned up at the track on Monday to do some light speed work but I ended up leaving before I even warmed up as the wind was already up to 30mph. I headed out to the forest and ended up doing the workout on a trail that had the wind behind me. I knew with the wind being strong for the rest of the week that I would have to be flexible with where and when I did the training and this was very true for Wednesday. I drove out to Woody Mountain Road to see if it was in good enough condition for a tempo run but with the hail coming down and then wind blowing all over the place, Scott and I decided to go to the gym and do it on the treadmill. Because we had spend a long time trying to find areas to run, I was tired as soon as I got onto the treadmill and ended up stopping after 2 miles of the tempo run as I was really suffering. I wasn't worried as I could come back in the evening or do it the next day so I headed home and had a good nap. Once I had woken up, taken the dog for a walk and had some coffee, I went down to the gym and got back onto the treadmill to attempt the workout. I felt fantastic this time around and had no problem running quickly. I'm really glad that I listened to my body and came back later instead of suffering through the workout in the morning.

Saturday's long run was only 105 minutes as I would racing the next week but I added in a hard 10 minutes towards the end to get my legs moving a bit. Aaron Braun joined me on this effort and it actually felt really easy. We ran just over 2 miles in the 10 minute effort and then jogged the last 5 minutes back to the cars. The rest of the weekend was spent off of my feet and hanging out with some friends as Julie headed down the mountain to go on a night out for her brother's birthday. I wanted to head down also but decided to be sensible and not have a late night. I will be getting up earlier this week to help combat the jetlag as much as possible when I head to London.

I'm back in the gym hitting the strength work pretty hard right now as I know I have certain weaknesses that I have to work on before I run my next marathon. Julie recently got back from a 2 day running injury conference so I got a lot of great exercises from her to help prevent injuries and work on my weak areas. It's all a lot of the same stuff I have done before but there are certain things I am doing that help to make the exercises either harder or more efficient. I have incorporated a lot of single leg work and balance exercises as these will really work on the strength of all the little muscles that are commonly ignored. I do a variety of workouts, some hard, some easy depending on the day that I am in the gym. I go there Monday to Friday and usually have the heavier days on my workout days so that my easy days are truly easy.

I'm looking forward to coming back to the London 10km and racing. I don't think I have been racing enough recently and I want to get back into doing some regular racing as I know this gets me pretty fit and most of all, I really enjoy it. I know I am doing a half marathon in Japan next month but other than that, I still have to decide what races I'll do in the lead up to the World Championships.