Hi Seth, love the channel and your videos are an inspiration.
QOD: I'm kind of the "big deal" running guy at work (self anointed sure, but I was also a former walk on at Community College) and had been telling everyone in my office that I had entered a race and was planning on taking down a bunch of pros there. Training was going great. BIG mileage weeks averaging around 9 minute pace, really building that base. Some people (i.e. Gary from accounts - I went deep on his Strava. Dude pr's than me at EVERY distance [he never mentions it either which is a bit strange - why keep that quiet Gary? Why not mention you ran D1 XC? Very weird (shady even?) but anyway, I think he was only able to do that because he has pretty thick/muscular looking legs and from a deep dive into his FB, apparently he grew up on a farm and had chickens growing up so I assume he had a steady flow of "good" eggs]), so yeah, Gary off handedly told me that I'd be better cutting the mileage down, resting more and adding some speed-work (probably because I've fallen asleep numerous times in meetings and have received an official warning about from HR). Anyway Gary is an idiot, I'm not listening to him... where was I..?
Oh yeah, QOD, c'mon now! So I'm deep in my training block (as charted out on some cardboard just like you Seth), and decide to fly to Romania for a (swear I didn't know at the time but it was a charity walk) 5K in Bucharest. Looked like a really fast course and I like to seek out the best competition around and we know the Romanian's bring it! Anyway went over there hoping to take it out and nail a sub 15 5K. Had some issues though, not going to lie. I'm honest Seth! Ended up I just missed it though but hit a PR of 21:05. Happy with that though! A PR is a PR right? RIGHT? I do think I need to work on the lactic acid. Oh, and my stomach. I downed 3 GU tutti frutti gels beforehand and they did. Not. Sit. Right. Maybe the huge bowl of beef goulash I had for breakfast didn't help either, I don't know because I've never eaten it before. Something wasn't right but would I do it again? You betcha! That lactate though, oof, that was something else. Really seems to kick in around the 11 minute mark. Yeah, 11 mins in I was definitely feeling the, you know, like I was lactating heavily. Interesting.
Anyway, I had 4 connecting flights home through eastern Europe (shout out to all the DGR fam in former Soviet block!) Finally get home and ooh boy. I felt it. There it was. Big old hammy twinge. I recall it vividly, I'd been sitting for a good 30 minutes, an hour maybe, and my butt felt a bit sore. I got home three days later and hopped straight onto google and from the sounds of it, quick search... I've torn the hamstring off the bone on the flight somewhere over Albania. Don't need to go to the doctor to confirm that. No sir. When you know you know. Off the bone! C'mon! Need to get some K tape now to put on my ankle, should fix it up but that race I mentioned way back at the start, it's off. Will really hurt to tell everyone at work (except Gary, to heck with that guy), and I can see how disappointed they're gonna be, but as you say, onwards and upward. Still running every day though. Got to keep turning that door knob. Today I did 26 miles at a solid 12:30 clip with a torn hamstring. That hard is what makes it great.... Pure butter baby....