Here's another visual nugget for you. I've mentioned before that one of my college roommates is an assistant coach with the National Champion Badger cross country team. G-man (in the gray suit) is one of those guys that falls into the category of "the nicest guy you've ever met." As I've mentioned in my "Welcome" post, his son is responsible for the name of my blog. Anyway, this photo was sent to me recently.Right now I’m just trying to recover from Saturday’s race. I’m not sore, just tired. Yesterday we were treated to unseasonable temperatures as we reached a high of 80 degrees. I ran an easy 5 over lunch when it was 60. Then around 7:30 I went out for another 5 and it was still 75.
I want to start bumping my mileage back up. I haven’t been above 80 miles in the last 4 weeks due to adding in hills. This morning I ran another easy 5 miles. Tonight I met my training group for a session of hills. Like I said, I’m tired, so I had no intention of pushing the pace. I stayed way in the back of the pack.
I did manage to follow Daws’ advice on heat training tonight. Even though it was 70 degrees out, I wore long pants, long-sleeve shirt and a t-shirt. I wasn’t as miserable as I thought I’d be, but then again I wasn’t running hard. I believe this all but guarantees that it will be nice at Grandma’s.
I thought a little more about my race and came up with these “findings;”
I like my new flats (Mizuno Idatens). I think they’ll work great for the marathon.
I don’t mind being alone in a race. Just seeing a person 20-30 seconds in front of me is enough to keep me working hard.
The better I get, the better those around me are. I can’t expect that people will come back to me late in the race.
Focus on your own race. Dave told me he wanted to run 6:15-6:20 pace too and then proceeded to run 15-20 seconds faster per mile than me. That could have really messed with my head, if I had let it.
Today’s quote of the day kind of ties to one of Duncan’s recent posts:
“At some point in their life everyone has to be at their lifetime best. This could be that time for you. Enjoy it.” Eric, prior to Saturday’s race
5 comments:
Hmmm, do you like TriMike or NikeMike or MikeNike or just Mike?
whoa- nikemike? that is scary...mike or miguel will do!
With all these high mileage weeks, how often do you trade out shoes? Do you just wait to hit a certain mileage marker or can you actually "feel" when you need to replace them? I always wonder about you high mileage guys...at 70-100 miles a week, are you getting a new pair every 3 weeks?
Mike, I have about 8 pairs of shoes with various miles on them. As they get above about 500 miles I start to use them for shorter runs, like 5-6 miles. Also, if I'm running on trails or grass I'll wear my older shoes - figuring the softer surfaces make up for the lack of cushioning.
Daws says if you are going to race in the heat, you need to train for it. One way to simulate heat training (remember, I'm in MN not TX) is to wear extra clothing.
Daws said when he got to the start line on a hot day and saw that his competitors were nice and tan, it gave him a mental boost because he had trained for the heat.
Benji Durden was also famous for this kind of training, and he ran a 2:09 at Boston of all places. Good stuff...
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