I had a whole nice post all planned out about my goals for my 10K this weekend. I'll get to that eventually, but first I'm making a quick plea to the University of Maryland, our athletics department, whoever the heck makes conference decisions:

Don't move to the Big 10! The quality of play in the ACC is so much better in the sports that matter at Maryland (aka basketball and soccer) than in the Big 10. I will cry myself to sleep every night thinking we left the best soccer conference in the country to go to....well....the Big 10 (or 16 or 24 or however many teams are really in it now). Oh and I'll be pissed that I'll have to pay more money to get the stupid Big 10 Network.

This post from the Bleacher Report has Terp fans everywhere in a tizzy. Seriously, you should see my Facebook news feed. It's ridic.

Side note: That report has changed a ton since last night. Last night they reported it as a done deal. This morning it's all about how it's not really a done deal at all. Oh, journalism.

Alright enough sports rant for today.

Race goals:

It's going to be a hot and humid one Saturday morning when the Crofton 10K kicks off so I know that's going to affect my times. I'm hoping there will be enough shade and I can keep myself cool enough that I'll be able to snag a good time.

A goal: Set a new PR, which means running faster than 56:13. That was set in the winter on a very flat course. Not sure if the heat and hills of this course will have a PR in the cards.

B goal: Finish in under an hour. This seems like it should be do-able even if it's warmer.

C goal: Maintain a 10-minute per mile pace and finish strong.

D goal: Don't overheat and die.

I think the B and C goals are my most realistic, but if things go really well, I'd be thrilled to set a new PR. It'll be a game time decision, based on weather conditions, how hard I'll be pushing it on Saturday.

My Terps are soccer national champions and I am super freakin' excited about it. I was thisclose to buying a plane ticket to Texas after we beat St. John's in the semifinals Friday night, but the cheapest I could find was about $350 and I'm a little too poor to be able to drop $350 bucks like that. So needless to say I had to watch it on TV, which was a huge let down. After we won all I wanted to do was go jump into the arms of my two friends on the team and give them the world's biggest hugs ever. But we won and I'm so excited!!!!

Sorry for the lag time between posts. I haven't had much free time lately or well I guess I have, I've just been using it to get my life together. (i.e. working on completing the switch from the old computer to the new computer, trying to figure out why half my music disappeared in said switch, etc., etc.)

I'll do a quick update bullet point style:

• Wednesday night my soccer leauge started back up. Because we had a ton of defenders, I saw a little action at forward in the first half. That was an interesting experience to be sure. I haven't played forward since I was in like 6th grade. I was able to switch back to my normal defensive position half way through the first half though. Unfortunately we lost 3-0. I guess that will happen when you play a high school team that just joined the league to keep in shape in the off season.
• My doctor has me taking melatonin to help me sleep better and maybe figure out the cause to some of this fatigue stuff. I should mention that melatonin is a supplement that helps your body sync to natural circadian rhythm and isn't one of those addictive sleeping pill dealies. I've been taking it for three days so far, and I definitely feel like I've been getting more quality sleep. So score one for the doc!
• I'm meeting a co-worker for tennis during my hour and half lunch break today. I think it will be the first time in the eight or nine months since I started working here that I will actually use the full hour and a half. Usually I only take an hour at most.
• I'm heading to Maryland again this weekend. My soccer boys play Boston College in their ACC opener. It should be a good and close game. Tomorrow Terps football plays Cal. That unfortunately, has every potential to be a blow out in the wrong way. Tailgating tonight for the soccer game at 5:30 p.m. Tailgating tomorrow morning for football at 6 a.m. Oof! I hate noon kick-offs.
• Maybe getting free tickets to Saturday's D.C. United game. A guy my friend knows apparently has two he might not be using! That would make for an awesome, sports-filled weekend.
  

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend! I'm taking my running stuff with me to Maryland again, we'll see if I have time to cram in a run at some point.

Remember how I said I was finally packing work out clothes to take to Maryland so I could run?

Right, well Tropical Storm Hannah had other plans. Plans to the tune of five inches of rain on Saturday. Needless to say, I didn't run.

Instead my friend Sam and I camped out on her sofa and watched Notre Dame football, followed by Maryland football, followed by D.C. United soccer. (W-L-L...not so good!)

Sunday the weather was beautiful so Sam and I played a little bit of tennis before I headed back to College Park for another Terps soccer game.

The Terps were awesome this weekend, winning 3-0 on Friday and 4-1 on Sunday. (You can read more here.)

Got some mixed news back from the good ol' doc today. No diabetes (whooo hoo!!!) but most likely I have a sugar intolerance so I have to be extra careful about what I eat. Still no sugar, but carbs are OK as long as they are the whole grain/whole wheat, high fiber version.

I also have to write everything down, as well as all exercise, and my energy levels so we can monitor it and then I go back in six months for a re-check.

So some good news and some just plain annoying news because I wanted an answer for the sluggishness and stuff and didn't really get a solid one. Oh well, at least it's not diabetes!

I didn't get any runs in this week, which is frustrating, but I've just been so run down. I get home from work and literally collapse. I had every intention of running on Tuesday and Wednesday, but I just feel dead tired.

I'm looking forward to getting the results of my blood work re-test back on Monday so I can finally figure out what's going on with everything.

I'm spending another weekend as a hobo living out of my duffel bag in MD/D.C/VA, but this time I packed running stuff because I'd like to try to get a run in sometime.

Two soccer games this weekend. Tonight against Hartford and Sunday night against Davidson. I'm super excited.

P.S. If you've got two seconds, check out www.terpsoccer.com. My soccer buddies and I finally decided we were sick of not being able to find a quality Maryland soccer blog/site so I built one for us. It's still a work in progress, but I'm happy with the way it looks so far.

Happy weekend to everyone. Good luck to everyone racing! Can't wait to read your reports!

I hate sitting in traffic on I-95, but that's pretty much what I did this weekend.

My Terps had a pre-season game against Virginia Commonwealth in Richmond, Va., so my friends and I hopped into some cars and headed down for our first soccer road trip of the season.

We didn't get very far out of D.C. before we hit massive stop-and-go traffic on 95. The trip is about 115 miles. It took us more than three hours. Ew.

The worst part though is that game ended in a 0-0 draw. After sitting in all that traffic, we didn't even get to see a goal scored. (We had two really good chances, but our player pushed the ball wide both times...should have been two very easy goals.)

No I take that back...maybe the worst part was having to pay $3 for parking and $5 for admission...for a pre-season game. I mean...really?

I got in a four miler on Saturday morning. Ran the first two and had to walk the second two because my calves were really tight and because it was mighty warm outside. (Guess that's what happens when you sleep in.)

Friday night I saw Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 with a girl from work. It was cute. I was a bit confused at first because I didn't realize it was mostly based on the third book. I had expected it to be based on the second, but I must have missed that memo somewhere along the line.

And of course, I've been watching tons of the Olympics. We made it home just in time Saturday night to see Phelps swim his last race. There was lots of fist pumping and in general cheering at the television involved.

The first parts of my new computer came (mouse, keyboard, some software) but not the actual computer yet. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping it gets here soon!

But one U.S. Men's National Team jersey richer.

I have a soccer problem...I know....

(I got Robbie Rogers' number 14 jersey...gotta represent my MD boys!)

That's all for now. Going to try to get a run in later tonight.

Well it's official, I am now a successful graduate of Drayer Physical Therapy. Whooo to the hoo.

To celebrate, I baked choc. peanut butter chip cookies to give me my PT's on Thursday (I kept a few for myself...they were yummy.)

Then after work I promptly went home and took a nap at 7 p.m. that turned into going to bed at 7 p.m. That's kind of embarrassing lol.

I blame it on getting up at 5 a.m. to blog live about the U.S. men's Olympic soccer game for work. (You can check that out here.)

As a general side note I'm really excited about the Olympics. Here's why:

Left to right: Robbie Rogers, Maurice Edu and Chris Seitz.

I'm in a futbol frenzy.

Could be because three of the players on this year's roster, Chris Seitz, Robbie Rogers and Maurice Edu, are all former Maryland Terrapins like me.

These three guys were a huge part of the reason Maryland won the 2005 College Cup my sophomore year, and I'm looking forward to watching them bring it on the pitch in Beijing.

The team won its first game Thursday, beating Japan 1-0. Robbie and Mo got the start, which rocks. The next game is Sunday at 7:45 a.m. You know I'll be waking up to watch.

Hope everyone has a rockin' weekend. I'll be home in Allentown, where my mom and I are hoping to get some tennis in now that I'm all PT graduated! (I'm going to try to get a run in too!)

(Thanks to the DBK for the photo!)

Under Armour's going to release its running shoes in the beginning of 2009. I'm kind of pumped to see what they look like.

I like my homeboy (MD alumn and CEO of my fave running apparel company ever) Kevin Plank's quote in response to this:

One analyst questioned how Under Armour was going to win over customers who were loyal to other brands.

Running shoes are the second-largest category of athletic shoes, with $4 billion in sales, according to SportsOneSource.

Plank said they would target a consumer who doesn't necessarily have an allegiance to a particular brand. He also said they would target athletes who run as part of their training. He noted that running apparel is one of the company's best-performing categories and that they would promote the shoe's technology.

"Our goal is not for people to trade one shoe for another," Plank said. "We believe we have a better shoe."

Interesting, interesting.

P.S. Peeps, please check out my post below and leave me some advice on bikes. I know next to nothing and could use all the advice I can get!

Last night I did my first ever interval workout at the track. I have to give some props to my friend Josh (no blog to link too) for setting me up with the workout.

Josh is another runner who was on his high school track and cross country teams and still runs a bunch in college. But now he's laid up with a broken leg and it's going to be a little while until he can get back to running. In the meantime he's taken to helping me out with my training.

I'm pretty grateful for the help because I didn't know the first thing about doing a track workout. I mean I know the basics. Run a mile warm up, stretch, do some intervals, mile cool down, stretch. I also knew that a mile on the track is four laps. But that was about the extent of my track knowledge.

So Josh and I fiddled with my times and he suggested I try 6-8X600 on a 2:50 to 3 minute interval and recover for 200 meters in 90 seconds.

Here's how things went. I did six of the intervals and finished the first five in the three minutes. The last one I think took me a little longer. My problem was the recovery. Josh suggested I walk the last 200 meters so my legs wouldn't burn out too bad, but I couldn't walk it in 90 seconds. So instead I walked it in 2-2:30 minutes.

I also skipped the mile cool down because I wanted to get home in time for the soccer game. My D.C. United was playing the Chicago Fire on ESPN2. Both United and the Fire are home to a few Maryland soccer alums (see here, here and here) so I was pretty pumped. (Unfortunately DCU lost 2-0. I'll chalk it up to seriously uninspired play and a ton of injuries, including one of my favorite players.

Shame on me for skipping the cool down, but I stretched really well.

My legs felt dead during repeats five and six. It's been a really long time since I pushed myself in my running. Usually I just go out for a run and if I go faster than normal so be it. I've never really made an attempt to work at it. But I think it's something I'm going to try to fit in once a week or so.

Josh's suggestion for next week was to try 8X400 in two minutes, but I forget how much rest he suggested. I'll have to double check that.

ORN:
4 miles total in intervals, total time somewhere around 45 minutes

Here's a quick tid-bit about my favorite sports apparel brand.

At a meeting yesterday, Under Armour said it has a prototype for a new running sneaker. I mean this isn't news exactly, I'd read before that some running groups in the Baltimore area were getting to test it out.

What is kind of newsy is that after the very successful launch of its cross-trainer over the weekend, Kevin Plank, a Maryland alum and CEO of Under Armour, said he eventually expects shoes sales to exceed apparel sales.

As a runner who has already found shoes that work for me, I don't really see myself switching brands just because the new shoes bear the UA name unless the shoe is super fabulous and far out performs my Mizunos.

I don't know. What do you guys think?