World XC recap and onto the track

I realize I've missed a couple of weeks with the training log, but unfortunately China blocks all Google services, including Blogspot. This was particularly disruptive as my wife and I are in the process of closing on a house, and Prevail Coaching uses Google Drive for training calendars. Fortunately we made it through without any major setbacks.

Hopefully most of you saw the results for the 2015 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Guiyang. If not, the US Team finished 7th overall, and I placed 34th individually. This certainly appears disappointing after our 2nd place team performance in 2013, but this year was a very different story. The conditions in 2013 were perfectly suited to the US Team as it was cold, snowy, muddy, and hilly. This year in Guiyang we had dry and warm conditions along with a bit of altitude (somewhere between 3,500-4000 feet). The conditions were much more suited to the East Africans this time around, and there were 6 strong teams mostly from this region. The US Team can't have it our way every year, so it is crucial to capitalize on moments like Poland two years ago. With that said, I think overall it was a solid team effort in China. Throughout my 5 US Cross Country teams, this is the best we have finished outside of 2013. We ran intelligently and were strong through 4 scorers, but we needed to each catch more bodies that last two laps to secure a top-5 team finish. All 6 US team members ran tough and did our best to help each other out during the race. I hope we can use this as a learning experience for 2017 when World Cross Country will be in Uganda and we may well encounter similar conditions.

Bobby Curtis, myself, and our wives stayed for an extra 5 days after the race to explore a little more of the surrounding area and try some more exotic food. We were able to visit a minority village in the surrounding mountains, experience a traditional tea room in old town Guiyang, and visit a large National Park full of waterfalls and interesting rock formations. I am glad we had the opportunity to experience a little more of China outside of the bubble that was our hotel, but I was honestly ready to be done with the food by the end of the trip. I had some delicious meals during my time there, but everything served was incredibly oily without a ton of variety. This takes a toll on how you feel after eating it 3 times a day (yes, even for breakfast) for almost 2 weeks. I've traveled to many exotic countries for longer periods of time, but I have never craved a fresh salad more than after 12 days in China.

As for training, Dave and I had planned an easy week following the 12km cross race as I haven't had much downtime since returning to training in November following the NYC Marathon. This worked out well with my travel plans which forced me to run easy and low volume. I returned to the US on Thursday night and was feeling ready to workout by Saturday with one last mile repeat session on the grass. We will now start focusing on getting a bit more aggressive on the track over the next few weeks in preparation for the Payton Jordan Invite 10,000 meters on May 2nd where I, along with a large and deep group of Americans, will be going for the IAAF 'A' Standard of 27:45. I will talk more about that race as it gets closer.

Thanks again for reading. Feel free to check out last week's training below, and follow me here on Twitter for more updates.

Week 19	AM	PM	Strength/Drills	Mileage
Monday	11	off		11
Tuesday	5	off		5
Wednesday	10	off		10
Thursday	13	off, travel from Guiyang to PDX		13
Friday	11.5	5 + drills and strides	45 minutes	17
Saturday	6	6 x 1 mile on grass (4:39 down to 4:26) w/2:30 rest		18
Sunday	18	off		18
TOTAL				92