Introduction

I have tried writing running blogs before, but for one reason or another it's been hard to keep up with it. Maybe it was because the limited audience, or just my previous inability to perceive any interest in my training. However, over the past few years as I have progressed as a amateur runner I seem to have gotten more interest and inquiries from other runners on my training. Also, with my goals of qualifying for the Olympic Trials within reach and feeling like this would be a good way to document the process, now seems as good a time as any to give this blogging thing one more shot.

Quick background on who I am: I have always been a fairly active Asian kid who lacked the coordination to convert his above average energy level into any sort of success in team sports. In middle school I played for a rec league basketball team where I scored 3 points the whole season. The only sort of success I had in athletics was winning my middle school intramural ping pong tournament (sort of by default since I was only one of 3 kids of Chinese descent in my grade) and "winning" the mile run in PE class in 7th and 8th grade.

Then one day the summer before my freshman year of high school I received a letter in the mail encouraging me to try out for the high school cross country team. (little did I know that letter went out pretty much to any incoming freshman that wasn't signed up for another fall sport already). I loosely followed the sample training schedule, showed up, ran my first workout with the top returning runners on the team and found myself as the #3 runner on the team. My freshman year I had a small amount of success, running 17:54 for a full 5K (also 17:20 on a short course) and finished 14th at the county meet as well as 16th at the state meet. (We were a 1st year school, so we ran "1A", or the smallest of 4 classes). Throughout high school I improved steadily, and achieved the following annual personal bests:

Freshman year - 17:54 XC, 2:13 800, 4:43 1600, 10:22 3200.
Sophomore year- 17:27 XC, 2:01 800, 4:28 1600, 10:12 3200.
Junior Year - 16:45 XC. (no improvements in track times).
Senior Year - 16:12 XC, 2:00 800, 4:27 mile, 9:54 3200.

I had no plans to compete for my college team, but was approached by the coach and gave it a shot. I ran off and on for a few seasons and struggled with injuries, finally quitting out of frustration halfway through the indoor track season my junior year. When I hung up my flats/spikes for the last time I had achieved some modest personal bests:

1500 - 4:05 (freshman year at the conference meet)
5000 - 15:52 (junior year indoors)
8K XC - 26:50

I ran off and on to stay in shape, and had plans to run a marathon shortly after college before I somehow got a neuroma in my foot the fall after graduating college. I saw a few doctors over the next year and a half but somehow none of them were able to provide a correct diagnosis. Finally, I came across a sports medicine specialist who not only diagnosed it correctly but gave me pretty much a miracle cure and I was back to running pain free in a matter of days. (turned out I had a pretty mild but persistent case so I was able to use a foot insert/pad to separate my toes a little bit and alleviate the pain)

After a few weeks of training I decided to enter the Chicago marathon that fall. My life then promptly became pretty busy and I basically "forgot" to train. When I moved to Chicago at the end of August I started a 8-week crash course program and got hurt on a 22-miler 4 weeks into it. I ran 3 times in the last 4 weeks but decided to toe the line anyways because I felt "fairly close healed" on my test runs the week before the race. Long story short, I went out feeling pretty comfortable and came across halfway a little under 87 minutes. I then decided to speed up before hitting the wall spectacularly at around 20 miles and "ran" my last 10K in 55 minutes or so. First marathon - 3:07:47.

It was a couple of months before I could run again. (I suspect I had a stress fracture or torn ligament of some sort, but I was also too sore for do much more than hobble around for the first month or so anyways). I tried to make a comeback in 2007, and got my butt kicked one race after another before a case of plantar fasciitis sidelined me for the year. I then spent the next 9 months or so ballooning up to about 200 pounds before I saw a picture of myself from a trip my girlfriend (now wife) and I took to Las Vegas that summer and realized something had to change. This would be the last "comeback" (or at least latest) that I would make to running.

In early June of 2008 I headed out my apartment and ran to United Center (a 2 mile run) in a little under 20 minutes, and every step of the return trip hurt. Somehow, I stuck with it this time, by that winter I ran a 29:50 8K and a 16:40 3-miler and considered myself in decent shape. Then over the next few years I posted the following annual PRs:

2009: 16:47 5K, 34:51 10K, 1:15:36 HM, 2:52:29 marathon.
2010: 16:23 5K, 33:31 10K, 1:14:42 HM, 2:46:31 marathon.
2011: 16:07 5K, --:-- 10K, 1:12:52 HM, 2:42:49 marathon.
2012: 15:40 5K, 32:32 10K, 1:10:34 HM, 2:37:22 marathon.
2013: (injured between March and July, ITBS, no PRs)
2014: 15:29 5K, 31:59 10K, 1:07:44 HM, 2:28:22 marathon.
2015: 2:22:43 marathon.

What started out as just a way to become fit and healthy again (and actually for those that know me, to counter my above average appetite) slowly evolved into me chasing my unfinished dreams as a runner. At this point there is really no mystery what my next goals are - sub 65:00 HM or sub 2:18:00 marathon, which would qualify me for the 2016 Olympic marathon trials. I have less than a year to do it, but with the training partners and support I have and the knowledge I have gained over the past couple of years about training and about myself as a runner I have confidence that this is more than just a pipe dream.

I guess this will do it for the first post. Sort of a hurried introduction, but more so because  I want to write out my race report from last weekend's Houston marathon while I still remember most of the race. Next up -  Houston marathon race report.