This is a post that has been years in the making. Way back in grade 11 after I ran a big breakthrough race with an 8:38 3km while I was sitting in the infield catching my breath my coach came up to me with a rare big smile pasted on his face. Yes he was shocked I made such a breakthrough from a previous PB of something like 8:55 but he seemed to of known something I didn’t about myself. This highlight of this conversation came when he told me he thought I could one day run 3:46 for the 1500m, not right then, but eventually. That was huge for me, to have someone believe in me like that, he was so proud of me that day that he gave me this navy blue meet t-shirt he was holding, this seemingly meaningless piece of cotton became the most meaningful material “thing” I’ve ever owned. Ever since that shirt has hung in my closet collecting dust awaiting the day that I could live up to his expectations.

These days I train with a pretty surreal group of people, they are good, really good but I have run with good runners before, and these people are something else, something more. It’s almost impossible to explain their level of capability to you in words so all I can really do is share with you some examples of my interactions with them. Fortunately my last week of training was probably one of my best and each of my three workouts I had a different experience with a different runner but in each case I left the track wondering what I had just witnessed.

And the waiting continues… I raced again this past weekend and I once again tied my personal best in the 1500. No breakthrough just yet, so the grind continues as I push forward and test my patience as I wait for my time to come. It probably will happen, I hope, everyone around me including my coach seems to be convinced that when it does occur it wont be just milliseconds off my time but instead a handful of seconds. This may or not be true, I’m inclined to hope that it is but for my own sanity’s sake I would like to physically do it, just so I can confirm that I am not delusional.

And so it begins… The long grind over the past year has been all about getting myself ready for the summer track season, months of endless miles behind me now and I feel like a new man. The trials of miles over the past year have been true tests not as much of my body but instead of my soul. So while I do feel like a new man on the inside I found out this weekend that I am still wearing the shell of my former self on the outside.

Thyroid Medication was a hot topic recently thanks to a WSJ article on the subject which highlighted a physician and his beliefs that many elite athletes develop the hypothyroid condition through training and thus need to be treated accordingly for their health’s sake. It’s a complex subject and a massive grey area in regards to endurance sports so as we all try to sort out the truth, information and morality of the situation here are the most informative & interesting articles worth sharing on the subject I found that can help us to form our own opinions.