Track and Field Blogs - Ryan Warrenburg

The last time I wrote we had just finished racing the Club XC National meet. Since that time I have been home to Indiana, out to New York, and down to Florida.

For most of the past few weeks I have been at my parents house in Indiana. It is always nice to go home and spend some time with my family and friends I don’t get to see for most of the year. However, the training in my hometown is not optimal, but the weather held up well and we didn’t see much in the way of snow or ice, so I can’t really complain.

I took a couple of weeks down in mileage without workouts following clubs and then I jumped right back into things. It was great to have some of my old high school teammates back in town to train with, and things went relatively smoothly.

I was fortunate to spend New Years in New York City racing the Emerald Nuts Midnight Run put on by the New York Road Runners. The race atmosphere is a really good mixture of fun and chaos. It is difficult to describe racing through Central Park in the dark with fireworks crashing right overhead, but it was a rush. The race itself didn’t go exceptionally well, but it was a really good experience, and evidence that the New York Road Runners are the best around.

Right now I am writing from my hotel room in Tallahassee, the site of our winter training camp. I’m pumped to be healthy this year and training hard down here. Granted, I did get in some really good cross training here last year, but this running thing is better for my sanity. However, the real exciting news is that we switched hotels this year. We are no longer at the infamous Travel Lodge, but we have moved next door to the Days Inn. Apparently they are tearing down the Travel Lodge this spring and the owner has “really let the place go.” I don't really know how they could let it go anymore, maybe they fired the maids or something.

We will be here for about five weeks leading into the US Cross Country Championships in San Diego. Things have gone well here the first few days, the facilities really are great, and there really is nothing else to do but run, and play guitar hero, our Christmas present to ourselves. It is a mundane existence, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.