7 OR 8

I decided to head out for an easy run around 9 this morning to help beat the heat a little. Kinsey said she wanted to come. Katie’s at the age where she usually wants to do what everyone else is doing. Given that I only have a single baby jogger (which is a good thing – I don’t think I could push both of them at the same time) they had to take turns.

I took Katie out for 20 minutes before dropping her off at home and taking Kinsey for 40 minutes (not counting the 2 stops to pick flowers for mommy). This is on of those runs that could have gone either way. I could have called it 8 miles at 7:30 pace (based on the effort, not the actual pace) or 7 miles at 8:30 pace. For no particular reason, I chose the latter. Maybe it was a subconscious decision based on the fact that 7 miles would give me exactly 10 more miles than last week, 47 vs. 37.

My wonderful mother-in-law (who doesn’t meet any of the typical mother-in-law stereotypes) volunteered to watch the girls this afternoon while Amy and I went to a movie. I can’t remember the last movie we went to, it’s been so long. We ended up going to Cinderella Man. We both really liked it – mainly because we didn’t know the story or what to expect.

FOUR FOR FOUR

This was a four day work week and I was able to get up early and run on each of those days. That’s going to be more and more important as we head towards the dog days of summer. This week started out great with temps around 60 on Tuesday. Each day after that, I swear, the temp went up exactly 5 degrees, so it was 75 this morning. I won’t be surprised if it’s 80 and 85 the next two mornings.

I was finally able to find the results from a local 4th of July 5 mile race that I’ve run in the past. It looks like my 31:22 from last year would have placed me 19th overall and 3rd in my age group, rather than last year’s 9th and 1st respectively. "Good thing" I didn't run this year.

While I was trying to find those results, I came across perhaps the most lopsided victory ever in a 5k. Chelle, it looks like this was a NYC race. Do you know anything about it?

Nothing too exciting on the running front today - just an easy 5 miles. That puts me at 40 for the week, with 1 day still remaining.

WEDDINGS, BABIES AND PROGRESSION RUNS

You know when you go through certain phases of your life, like getting married, having a baby, buying a house, etc. it seems like EVERYONE is going through those same phases. All you see on TV or read in the papers has to deal with wedding dresses, baby stuff, mortgage rates, etc. I’m sure I’ve mentioned how much I think my training needs quicker, up-tempo, progression runs to help boost my fitness. As soon as I start incorporating them in my training, an article pops up here. I’ll admit I didn’t go back and read the coolrunnings link and only skimmed this article, but I thought the author had some good points. However, I’m not sure why he needed 7 pages to make them. I kept thinking to myself “didn’t I just read a similar sentence.”

I’m sure the Old School crowd is cringing at the thought of giving these workouts their own terminology – progression run. And I’m sure we’ll eventually need another article to help define them, just like we did with tempo runs. In any case, I’ve basically been adding a few runs a week where I start out easily, then gradually pick up the pace. In essence I’m trying to negative split my runs. This is basically what I did today. After running a mile with Bailey, I ran an out-and-back 7 mile route with the 2nd half about 1:30 faster than the first. During this run I was reminded that this is basically how I did a lot of my training as a kid. Nearly every run was an out-and-back 4 mile course that I’d negative split. It’s like I’m 14 years old again.

FIRST HALF

I was able to get up at 5:20 for the second day in a row. 59 degrees was almost chilly when I took Bailey for a walk/jog. One of the reasons I like to run a mile with Bailey (before driving across town to work) is that it helps wake up my body and I’m able to go to the bathroom before my main run. Today I “took care of business” at home, but apparently it wasn’t enough. With about a mile to go, I actually had to walk for a minute to let the sensation pass. After that I was able to jog very slowly to the coffee shop where I park and relieve myself (again). I managed a very easy 6 miles for the day.

At the start of the year, I penciled in 3,000 miles as a goal. My calendar year PR (set in 2004) is 2,754 and the most I could find for any 12-month stretch (June 2004-May 2005) is 3,119. Through the first 6 months of the year I managed 1,540 miles. Since that included a measly 102 miles in June due to my injury/taper and recovery, I’m pretty confident (as long as I stay somewhat healthy) that I’ll be able to reach 3,000.

LE TOUR

If you’ve been checking in regularly over the weekend, I apologize for not updating my blog. It’s just very hard to find time at home to post an entry.

Yesterday I had thoughts of going to watch the local 5 mile 4th of July race. But then I started watching the “le tour” instead. I’m sure I didn’t miss much. Last year I ran 31:22 for 9th overall and first in my age group. The first 5 people were 18 years old or less. A 45 year old guy beat me, as well as an 18 year old woman, who’s a D3 all-American – gotta throw that in there.

I ended up spending most of the day playing with my kids and never “got around” to running yesterday. That’s not the best way to get consistent like I’ve been telling myself I need to do.

I’m happy to report that today I set my alarm for 5:20 and I actually got up. I went for an easy 5 miles before work. I was also able to make it out over lunch time for another 5 miles. This time I gradually picked up the pace every 10 minutes or so. It was an out and back route and I ran 20:40/19:05.

Normally I run with my team on Tuesday’s. However, I decided to get my runs in early today because I want to watch the team time trial tonight. I followed last year’s tour fairly closely on-line, but didn’t get to watch any of it. This year we have OLN, so I plan on watching as much as possible. While some of the stages can be rather boring, I find the team time trial to be fascinating.

BLOGGER MEETING #2

After failing to hook up with Evan last Thursday, we rescheduled for today. We met at Lake Nokomis and had no problems finding each other. We planned on going 6-8 miles, but if we felt good, we’d go 10-12. We decided to run along the Minnehaha Parkway towards Lake Harriet. That was a quick (in terms of time-flying, not pace) 4 miles. We decided to run the 3 miles around Harriet, which would give us 11 for the day.

It’s always interesting how easy the conversation flows when you’re with someone on a run – even someone you’ve never met before. Evan (2:45 goal, 3:05 actual) and I (2:55 goal, 3:09 actual) had similar experiences at Grandma’s, as well as similar thoughts on what went wrong. So it was interesting to compare notes.

This was my second blogger meeting. My first occurred at Grandma’s. I still have a ways to go to catch the number (at least 8) of runners I’ve met through message boards. Being an introvert, it’s interesting that I usually avoid people at races, yet have no problems meeting people on-line. It’s probably a small miracle that I didn’t have to resort to a mail order bride.

Update: I took yesterday off and enjoyed the parade in Hudson, WI. I ended the week with 37 miles on 5 days. Now I just need to build upon that.

FORE

I can’t tell you the last time I played golf – probably 2 years ago, maybe more. I like the sport, but just don’t have enough time (or money) to play very often. Maybe if I could go out and be happy with a 50-55 (for 9 holes) I’d play more often. However, I know if I played more often, I’d want to improve dramatically. It’s like I can’t do anything for fun, it always has to be competitive.

Anyway, a couple of my friends were meeting Friday afternoon for 18 holes. At first I said no. But then I realized no one was going to be in the office and it was going to be perfect weather, 75-80, sunny and low humidity. So I changed my mind and took the afternoon off. The course was in Menomonie, WI, which is about 1:15 from my house.

If this were a golf blog, I’d go into great detail about how think the rough was, how my slice (or is it a hook) was acting up, etc. But it’s a running blog and after finishing 9 holes (3 of which I actually kept score on) I went for a great run while my friends finished the back 9.

Menomonie (home of UW-Stout) is only about 20-25 miles from where I went to college. So I was well aware of the Red Cedar State Trail – a crushed limestone trail that runs along a river. It was nicely shaded, plus had mile markers posted. Since it took about 2:15 to play the front 9, I figured I could run for up to 1:45 before having to shower and meet my friends for dinner.

I started out fairly easy, then gradually picked up the pace. I’m not used to having mile markers and I decided to take my splits. The first couple were just under 8:00, then they dropped to around 7:45 until I reached the turn around at mile 6. My pace dropped to 7:30 and then 7:20 before having to go to the bathroom. After that, I couldn’t get going again and just maintained 7:45s the rest of the way. The weather reminded me a lot of Grandma’s; not a cloud in the sky, not sticky, a nice breeze every now and then.

This was, by far, the best my legs have felt since Grandma’s. No, I’m not tempted to jump into a 4th of July race, but it is reassuring to have a little spring in my step once again.

TWO PLACES AT ONCE

Tonight I was supposed to meet Evan for the first time and go for a run together. Unfortunately, I had a brain freeze. For some reason I keep getting Lake Nokomis (which is off of Cedar Ave) and Minnehaha Falls (which is off of Hiawatha Ave) mixed up.

As I was driving down Cedar to Nokomis I suddenly realized I was supposed to be at the Falls. Luckily I still had 10 minutes to drive the 1.5 miles. As I sat at the Falls I was thinking back to my last email to Evan and I know I mentioned something like “it’s easy to get to for me because it’s just of Cedar” (which is a straight shot from my ‘burb). So at 7:58 I sprint back to my car and head back to Nokomis.

By this time, I’m really confused. I kept thinking we’d run the Get in Gear course which starts right at the Falls, but I kept coming back to the “just off Cedar” statement. Needless to say, we never hooked up. I ended up running 2+ laps around the lake and called 6 miles. It was the best my legs have felt since the marathon.

WHAT'S THAT SMELL?

My second choice for a title today was “What time is it?” After reading, feel free to tell me which one you like better – a little inter-active blog entry for you.

Really, I tried to get up at 5:20 this morning to get my run in before work, but I couldn’t drag myself out of bed. The fact that it’s pretty slow at work and my boss is gone gave me an excuse to run at lunch, or more importantly, sleep in. It’s pretty muggy again today, but at least the rain took my mind of it.

I’ve discovered that there are no good routes near my office. Every road seems to be a busy two-lane road that either leads to construction or to a busier road. Luckily the two-lane roads have a wide shoulder. Unfortunately, they have a sharp slant to them. I guess it’s a good thing that I don’t run from work that often. I actually felt pretty good today during my easy 5 miles.

Back at my desk there was a funk in the air. I finally realized that it was my wet watch band, which is made out of hemp. I couldn’t stand it any longer and I had to take my watch off. Now I feel naked. Not as naked as I feel without my wallet in my back pocket, but pretty close.

BRUSH WITH FAME

Even though today was just going to be an easy run, I decided to meet my team at the track and at least warm-up (and possibly cool-down with them). The dew point, near 70, was oppressive and I (almost) felt sorry for the group as they did 16 x 400 while I jogged 6 miles with Mary.

After watching the last of the 400s, I decided to cool-down with Mary and Sue (who’s training for Ironman Wisconsin). We ran down Summit Avenue towards the University of St. Thomas. Or is it St. Thomas University? I can never remember. It’s not a big deal to me, but it’s probably a pet peeve for those with ties to the school. Anyway, there were lots of runners and bikers out tonight. As we were running, I looked up and thought the guy coming towards us looked familiar. He was cruising pretty well and was already by us before I realized it was Bob Kempainen. He is from this area, so I shouldn’t be surprised. Maybe he’s back for a long holiday weekend.

Speaking of elite runners, I failed to mention that Katie McGregor was standing near Lemon Drop hill on the Grandma’s marathon course. I don’t make it a habit of looking at spectators, I just happened to look over and see her. Again, it took awhile for my brain to kick in and realize it was her. I like to think I helped inspire her 10k victory the following weekend at the U.S. track and field champions. Ha!

I wonder how often elite or former elite runners get recognized when they’re out running or even just out around town. It’s not like they’re stars from a sport with a lot of exposure. I was running at Pike Island last summer with Eric and we saw Carrie Tollefson. He knows who she is, but at the time, he had no idea it was her. Okay, enough name dropping for today.

I had plans on riding my bike after the run, but by the time we finished our cool-down, I had run for 80 minutes. Being in recovery-mode, I thought that was enough for the day. I called it 9 miles, which is more than I had planned, but it was all very easy.

7-YEAR ITCH

Hard to believe, but it’s my (our) 7th wedding anniversary today. That means Amy and I have been “together” for about 10 years and have known each other for nearly 12 years. When Amy was a sophomore in college she roomed with 7 other women. I happened to be dating one of them. Amy was dating her high school sweetheart at the time, but for some reason we flirted – A LOT. Two years later we were both single and both in town for the summer and, as they say, the rest is history. Amy and my ex weren’t roommates at the times, so I’m not sure if George Castanza would consider that a roommate swap or not. There weren’t any ménage e trois involved, so I guess it doesn’t matter.

I decided to make an effort at getting back on an early morning workout schedule. I figure if I could do it in the dead of winter, I should be able to when it’s light outside. Besides, having to battle traffic twice a day is driving me crazy. Once is bad enough. Anyway, I got up at 5:20 this morning and it was already 80 degrees with a dew point of 66. I managed to make it 5 miles on my still tired legs. I blamed some of the heaviness on the weather, but I think most of it’s from the marathon.

LAZY WEEKEND

I had thoughts of biking on Saturday and running today. But that’s all they were – thoughts. I ended up sitting on my ass all weekend. Actually, the weekend was not a total waste. I spent a lot of time with my girls, plus I was able to get some yard work completed. I also finally got around to grouting the tile around our “new” fireplace. I say “new” because we’ve had it for a year now. It probably took me 6 months to get around to tiling it and another 6 months before I grouted it. At least I’m consistent – every 6 months I check something off my “honey do” list.

Congrats to Katie McGregor on winning her first National title with her victory in the 10k this weekend. I guess I don’t understand the inner workings of professional running. Carrie Tollefson ran the 5k and finished 5th. Less than an hour later she had to run the first round of her best event, the 1500, and she failed to advance.

Race directors: How do you get more runners at your event? Offer prize money. There was a local 10k last year drew 50 runners with the winner running 37:48. This year they offered $10,000 in prize money, including $1,000 to the overall male and female runners. That drew 264 runners and a 37:48 would have placed 7th – among women – and 33rd overall. After failing to advance in his 1500 on Thursday, Luke Watson came back home and placed 2nd in 30:40 to pocket $700. First place went to Mathew Chesang (30:36) with Vincent Topiwo and Shadrack Kimeli also placing in the top-7. Hmm, they’re all from Manhattan, Kansas. No wonder I’ve never seen their name in the local results before. On the women’s side Sara Wells and Dana Coons of Team USA Minnesota went 1-2 in 34:59 and 35:48, respectively.

HEAT vs. HUMIDITY

My mom sent me last Sunday’s Duluth News Tribune’s coverage of Grandma’s marathon. I thought the article on the elite men was funny. One Kenyan was complaining about the heat, while another was complaining about the humidity. I’m not sure if the writer interviewed them both at the same time or not, but I just picture these two scrawny Kenyan runners getting into it.

“It was hot out there.”
“No, it was the humidity.”
“Heat!”
“Humidity!”

The paper said it was 59 degrees at the start (7:30 AM) with 67% humidity. At the finish (10 AM) it was 57 degrees with 100% humidity. I guess I don’t understand the whole humidity thing. I thought it represented the amount of moisture in the air. If it’s 100% shouldn’t it be raining? I’m more of a dew point guy. I know if the dew point reaches 60, it’s sticky; 70 and it’s tropical.

Speaking of the weather; yesterday was a good day to be in recovery mode. It got up to 95 here. It seems like that came out of no where too. I think it was “only” about 85 the day before.

I am back to running. Wednesday night I went out for 3 miles. It’s no surprise that my legs were really heavy. At least they weren’t sore. Yesterday I jumped on the treadmill during lunch for 4 miles.

The thought of doing Whistlestop in October, along with Doubles comments recently have fired me up. Not the “I’m going to hammer a 10 miler this weekend” fired up. It’s more of the “sit down with a calendar and pencil in what I did in 2002 and see how I can incorporate it into 2005” fired up.

MORE ON GRANDMA'S DIET

SwampTiger emailed me a good question that I thought I'd post my answer too.

When I first read your race report the other day, I wondered how you ate the night before/morning of the race. Then I saw your comment about maybe cramming too much in the pre-race meal. So what did you do for your pre-race meal? Was it different than in the past?
------------------
SwampTiger,

What I was getting at with my post was worrying about trying to follow a certain diet (like the article I posted) to a "T". I was calculating exacting how many calories I needed race morning and during the race.

I basically ate pasta for lunch and dinner the last 5 days leading up to the race - but that's normal for me before a marathon. The night before we cooked pasta and garlic bread in our room and I drank Gatorade.

For breakfast I had 32 oz. of Gatorade along with 3 scoups of CarboPro, which is a powder that dissolves instantly and is basically all carbs. I can't remember how many carbs are in a scoop, but it's a lot (Edit: I just looked it up; 115 calories and 28.5 grams of carbs per scoop. So, pre-race, I had 585 calories and 145 grams of carbs just from fluids). I also had a bagel. I was going to have a banana too, but my stomach was spinning.

I think that's the last time I'll use the CarboPro. I used it before my Ironman and puked before the race even started. I don't have problems with it in training, just when I'm more nervous. I used it before the 30k without any problems, however that was a low-key race without any pressure.

During the race I was planning on taking gels at 3, 7, 11, 15, 19 and maybe 23. Since I felt bloated, I didn't start with the gels till 5 and took them at 9 and 13 too. Then I just stopped taking them after I "shut down".

I don't think I bonked at Gma's, it was more of a mental issue. That's why I think the "recommended" gel consumption is on the high side for me. Then again, if I'd been running 6:40 pace instead of 7:40s at the end, maybe I'd need those extra 2-3 gels.

MARATHON PHOTOS

My photos from Grandma's are posted here on marathonfoto.com. EDIT: Chelle gave me a little HTML lesson on inserting photos, let’s see if it works. The second photo is me with Jim, who I mention frequently.

I’m not sure if it was the massage (gotta plug my friend’s business since she gave me 2 passes) or not, but my legs feel a lot better today. I haven’t run since Grandma’s but I think I’ll lace ‘em up tonight.

Kinsey had her tonsils removed yesterday, so Katie and I went to visit around dinner time. The hospital is near the Macalester track, so we stopped by to see the team for a few minutes. Once the group went for their warm-up, I talked with my coach about my race. We didn’t come to any new revelations. He thought my report was an honest assessment of the day. He did mention that my foot injury could have led to me not being as sharp, mentally, on race day. I suppose that’s a possibility.

I gave him a list of races that I’m thinking about doing this summer. There are 8 races on it and 2 of those I’m not too concerned if I do them or not. The earliest one that I care about is a 10 miler on July 23rd. The two most important races to me are on Labor Day weekend, one of which is my college alumni race. For some reason their five-year age groups are a year off. So instead of having 35-39, they have 36-40. Don’t ask me why – it’s Wisconsin (jab, jab). Anyway, I’ll be 36 this year and in a new age group.

SMART RACE?

So I can run a marathon and not get a blister (other than the two that I always get under my 2nd toes). But I take the dog for a 10 minute walk in my dress shoes and I get a blister.

I went for a massage yesterday. No, that is not normal for me. However, a high school friend of mine manages a “parlor” near my job. I went to see her a couple of weeks ago and she gave me a free hour massage. Just before I got there the power went out. Luckily they had some flashlights lying around so we used those to light the room. I didn’t get the heated oils, the heated massage table or the relaxing music, but to a novice like me, it didn’t matter. My friend felt bad and gave me another pass for another hour massage.

I understand that the coolrunning and runnersworld forums have their place, but they’re not for me. Every once in awhile I’ll drop in and lurk, but the rah-rah spirit really drives me crazy. As an example, I was reading a Grandma’s report during lunch. The runner was shooting for his BQ of 3:14 (side note: I’m not sure where he got 3:14 from – maybe he was talking 3:14:59, which is actually 3:15:59 since the BAA “gives” you that extra minute). Anyway, he went out in 1:34 and struggled home in 3:49. No, that’s not what drives me crazy. It’s the comment someone left that stated something like “congrats on running a smart race.” How is that a smart race? Maybe it took guts to hang in there or survive cramps or whatever else happened to this particular runner, but I don’t think I’d call it a smart race.

RAMBLINGS

Some of this is from the comments that have been posted recently. I thought I'd turn them into an entry and add a few other things.

MAYBE…
Maybe after 8 months of solid training, I just expected a PR to be handed to me. I forgot what effort was still required on RACE DAY.

Maybe 30k at MP 6 weeks before my goal race is too much.

Maybe I need to worry less about maxing out my pre-race meal and focus more on nutrition during the race. My stomach felt funny the first 4 miles, then I ended up not taking any gels the 2nd half of the race. Maybe I don’t need as my carbs and calories as I think I need.

Maybe I need to look at every split and adjust each mile based on my goal pace. Set a realistic time goal, then just keep after it.

Maybe I was just not used to my coach’s program yet and I need to give my body more time to adjust to it and the higher mileage.

Maybe I need to stick to fall marathons.

Maybe I need a 12-week program instead of 18 weeks.

Maybe I need to focus on shorter stuff for the next year or two.

Maybe I need more marathons during the next year or two.

WTF…
What’s with the volunteer at mile 25? When I had a side-stitch I was trying to massage it out. She said something like “oh, someone’s got an ouie.”

IMPRESSIVE DOUBLE…
Elizabeth Yetzer won the National High School 2 mile in 10:15.73 and doubled up with a 4th in the mile in 4:43.12.

GRANDMA'S RACE REPORT

Man, where to start? I can’t blame the weather. I’m guessing it was about 50 at the start, sunny (too sunny?) and a very slight cross-breeze off the lake. It probably got up to 60 during the race. I never really felt comfortable during the race. I felt bloated the first 4 miles before feeling halfway normal during the 5th mile. The whole time I was more concerned with my goal time than I was about “just” running. I had been checking my splits (6:39-6:46) for the first 5 miles. They were a little behind my 6:40-pace goal, but not much.

During the 6th mile I told myself to stop looking at my splits and just run. I felt more comfortable after that. From miles 8 to 13 I thought I was running pretty well. I’d hook up with a pack and really feel the energy. But then we’d go through a water stop and the pack would splinter. Looking back at my slits, I see I was not running as fast as I thought during this section, basically running 6:55 pace.

I went through the half in 1:29:13 and was thinking about negative splitting. Even though I pretty much knew 2:55 was out of the question I thought I might be able to still PR. Just after 13 I passed Jim (for the first time). Two miles after thinking about a PR, I was thinking about a DNF. I took a pit stop at 16 and it cost me a little over 2 minutes (first time I've done that in a marathon). Basically I was done after that. I thought if my parents were at 19, like they were in 2001, I'd just walk off the course. "Luckily" they weren't there. During 19 & 20 I started talking with a guy that I had been running with earlier. He was hurting and told me to go on.

Just before 22 I caught Jim (again) and ran with him up Lemon Drop Hill. I thought I dropped him, but 2 miles later he came by me again. Just before 25 I had a terrible side stitch and had to walk for 30 seconds. When I got to 25 I saw 3:00:30 on the clock and decided I wanted to break 3:10 (I was actually a little surprised by my time. I hadn’t seen a split since mile 16 and I thought I’d be lucky to break 3:15, given the way I’d been running). So after running a bunch of 7:40s and low 8s I dropped down to 7:15 for the last mile. I passed Jim (for the 3rd and final time) with about half a mile to go and finished in 3:09:06, “good enough” for 299th place overall out of 6,885 finishers.

Jim came in 17 seconds later, which was good for 2nd in the 60-64 age-group. Jenna did awesome, 9th overall woman (68th overall) in 2:47:09, which is a 3-minute PR. With Mary’s recent hip problems, she was still able to get a BQ with a 3:37:21. Chelle ran a terrific 6-minute PR with her 3:02:52. The winner of the 30k I ran a few weeks ago ran 2:35:27, while the guy who finished 3rd ran another negative split race 1:26:07/1:24:28 for 2:50:35. A college teammate of mine (D3 all-American) was the first American in 16th with a 2:23:20.

I ran my last 10K in 47:51, but I wasn’t alone. 40 of the 100 people directly in front of me finished with slower last 10Ks. I find that shocking. What the hell happened to everyone? I’m not sure what happened to me. I think I’m just a total head-case. Had I gone out in 1:27 and crashed, I wouldn’t feel so bad. But I didn’t even “go for it.” I'M such a wuss! How the hell can I run 1:25 in Feb, put in 4 solid months of training and then go through the half in 1:29 and be “tired” 3 miles later? My last mile shows I had more left. I just wasn't into it mentally - especially after I knew my goal was out of reach. That’s something I have to work on.

3:09:07

Just thought I'd post my time for those that are interested. I'll write a report up later today or tomorrow. Obviously, it wasn't what I hoped for.

TOSSING AND TURNING

Not much to report today. For some reason I’ve been tossing and turning the last few nights. Usually, before a race I sleep well, at least up until the night before. I don’t know if it’s nerves or what. I don’t feel nervous during the day. At least my legs feel good. This morning I walked Bailey and I could feel a little spring in them.

I hate to admit it but I’ve been looking at the forecast a little. There’s a local weatherman who runs. In 2001 I emailed him a few days before Grandma’s and asked him the forecast. I think it was about 10 degrees warmer than he thought it’d be and there was a headwind instead of a tailwind. So I don’t put too much stock in the forecast until I stick my head out the door on race morning.

I’m only working (okay, “at work”) half a day today. This afternoon Kinsey and I are going to drive to my parent’s house. Then tomorrow I’ll drive to Duluth (about 75 miles). That way I won’t have to drive 5 hours the day before the race. Plus that’ll give Kinsey a chance to have a sleepover with Grandma and Grandpa. They haven’t decided if they’re going to come to the race or not. I kind of hope they decide to bring Kinsey since she seems to really like it when I take her to races. Plus it means we’d have a 2.5 hour drive on Saturday instead of 5 hours. If they don’t come I may decided to stay in Duluth Saturday night. I been to this race lots of times and have heard lots of good things about the post-race party. However, I’ve never stayed for it.

Anyway, this will probably be my last entry until at least Sunday.

WHISTLE STOP 2002 - RACE REPORT

As Grandma’s 2005 quickly approaches, I’ve been thinking about my race plan. I’d like to try to mimic how I felt when I set my PR in 2002. What better way to get in that frame of mind that to re-read my race report from that day?

So just to make it clear, this is from Whistle Stop 2002, not Grandma’s 2005.

THE COURSE: I decided to run this race 7 weeks ago, after plans for a winter marathon fell through. I chose Whistle Stop because it’s low-key, on a soft, forgiving surface, and it’s in the town I grew up in, so I’d be able to stay with my parents. The course is run on what’s called the tri-county corridor, which is an old limestone railroad bed that’s been converted to a bike, ATV, snowmobile, etc. trail. The first 8 miles are flat. From miles 8 to 22, the course drops from 1150 feet to 620 feet – there’s virtually no elevation rise during that stretch. During the last 4 miles there’s a “whole” 20-foot rise. The first mile and last mile are on blacktop, the other 24 miles are on limestone.

THE WEATHER: When I woke up it was about 45 and misty. By the time we got in the car to drive to the start there was a steady rain. Luckily it let up right before we got dropped off. Right when we got out of the car the race director was giving the forecast. He said the winds were supposed to be from the west at 10 mph, which would be a tail wind. Then he said, “however, the winds like to swing around Lake Superior, then head back from the east, so there could be a head wind.”

STRATEGY: My strategy consisted of 3 words, patience, patience, and patience. Having only followed a 7-week program, instead of my normal 18-week program I wasn’t sure what to expect. I still had some solid training this summer and my best races in 6 years, including a 1:23:05 half and a 29:15 5 miler. Since my marathon PR was 3:00:55, breaking 3 hours was my primary goal. Results from the past 2 years showed that about 10 people would break 3 hours. I figured most people go out too hard, so early on, if I were in the top 25-30 I would be alright. That would allow me to pick people off towards the end.

THE RACE: The gun goes off and I settle in quickly. The first mile does have a little up hill, so I don’t worry about the 7:16 split. We hit the limestone trail and a pack starts to form around me. One guy is trying to run 3:15 for a BQ. Michael wants to beat his wife’s 3:03 from Grandma’s. We’re chatting away having a good time and rattling off 6:45-6:55s. A couple of more guys join us and we have a pack of 6. One of the guys, Gary, is a 50 year old with a 2:34 PR from 20 years ago. He’s looking strong and says he’d like to break 3 too. I have confidence in Gary, but the rest of the pack seems to be working too hard, too early in the race.

As we hit the water stops I grab a cup and maintain my pace. Everyone else in the pack seems to really slow down and then they spend the next 2-3 minutes trying to catch me. This continues through about 12 miles, after which it’s just me, Gary and Michael. We hit the half in 1:29:43 and I’m feeling awesome. Still lots of small talk going on as Gary and I drop Michael. At 14 miles Gary and I are both feeling great. My mind feels great too; I’m relaxed and not worried about the pace, my energy level, the slight headwind or anything. I tell him if we can maintain our pace until 20, we’ll be in great shape.

At 16 we hit another water stop where I experience my first real hurdle of the day. Right before the water stop I put a gel in my mouth. I grabbed a cup from a gal that said “water.” I lift to drink and wash my gel down and see that the contents are bright green. Shit! By the time I realize this I’ve already passed the water stop. I take a quick sip to wash down the gel and hope I don’t cramp up. Gary must have really slowed down at this aid station because I was at mile 17 before he caught up to me. I tell him about the “incident” and he decides to take a gel too, which makes him slow down. That turns out to be the last time I’d see Gary until the finish.

I approach 18 feeling great and think to myself, “there’s ‘only’ 8 miles left.” I decide to squeeze the gas a little, rather than wait until mile 20. I run 6:33 and 6:31 for 19 and 20. So far I’ve only looked at my elapsed time at miles 1, 7 and halfway. At 20 I take a peek, see 2:16:02 and “do the math” – figuring I can run 7s for the last 10k and still break 3 hours.

Right after 20 I see my parents and tell them I’m feeling awesome as they hand me another gel taped to a water bottle. Since about the halfway point people have told me I was in 21st place. I see a few guys up ahead and decide to see how many people I can pass during the last 10k. By this time, there are also half marathon walkers on the course that I’m passing. I continue to roll, running 21 and 22 in 6:25 (fastest of the day) and 6:28, respectively. I still feel good during a 6:43 23rd mile. With 5k to go I start to feel it as I slow to a 7:01 for mile 24. I “do the math” again and figure I can run 8s for the last 2 miles and still break 3.

I continue to push and move into 16th just before mile 25, which is another 7:01. Now I know sub-3 is in the bag. Since I don’t see any other marathoners within striking distance, I just maintain my pace and enjoy running the same streets I used to run as a kid – knowing sub-3 was mine. I “kick” the last block to pass a group of walkers and cross the line in 2:58:10. After grabbing some refreshments, I see Gary cross the line in 2:59:32. Michael ended up running 3:11.

This is the first marathon (out of 7) where I’ve run negative splits; 1:29:43/1:28:27. My 5-mile splits were 34:31, 34:16, 33:50, 33:25, 33:38. 10-mile splits were 1:08:47, 1:07:15 with a 42:08 last 10k.

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Unfortunately, I had to re-type this whole thing and I don’t want to retype each mile split. However, their consistency is pretty “amazing” (if I do say so myself) I’ll post the short hand version.

(7:16 – slowest of the day, 41, 56, 50, 49, 46, 54, 55, 45, 40, 48, 45, 43, 50, 52, 52, 41, 33, 31, 25 - fastest, 28, 43, 7:01, 7:01, 8:30 – last 1.2)

LAST "QUALITY" RUN

I met my team at the Macalester track tonight for my last quality session before Grandma’s. Everyone seemed a little squirrelly – maybe it was because most of them raced last Sunday. For the marathoners, the workout consisted of a 2 mile warm-up, 3 miles at marathon pace and a 2 mile cool-down. Basically, everyone was supposed to run the marathon pace portion by themselves and think about/visualize their race. Since we all have different time goals, that wasn’t a problem. While my legs felt a little heavy, overall I felt good. It was one of those nights were I was able to focus clearly on what I wanted, as opposed to having my mind drift all over the place. Maybe that’s due to all the carbs.

Speaking of diet, here’s a great article that I like to read prior to each “big” event. I like how it breaks down the last week into “days out” and how it talks about how you may feel sluggish, due to the extra carbs and liquids.

Also on the topic of nutrition; can someone please tell me why races (like Grandma’s) offer Ultima? Is it a money issue? A recent issue of a tri magazine did an article on nutrition and it listed Ultima under “fluid replenishment” not “sports drinks.” I can’t remember the number of carbs and calories per serving off the top of my head, but it’s not much. A doctor I know describes it as water with a Flintstone vitamin dissolved in it.

FAMILY AFFAIR

Yesterday I mentioned Elizabeth Yetzer’s fast times at the state meet. Since I didn’t run today I thought I’d share the story about the first time I “met” 2 of the 3 Yetzer girls, including Elizabeth.

It had to be at least 3 if not 4 years ago. I used to live about 2 blocks away from a high school track. One evening I was taking Bailey for a walk and we came upon 3 girls who were cooling down from a track meet. I asked them how they did. The sisters said “okay” but their friend wouldn’t leave it at that. She said they (yes, both of them) had just broken the school record in the 3200 by running something like 11:03.

I was shocked and said something like “Man, I only ran 10:50 in high school.” They were very humble and said something like “wow, that’s really good.” I’m like “Yeah sure. A whopping 13 seconds faster than you two.”

The next week there was an article in the paper about the 3 sisters. I’ve been following their progress ever since. Actually, it’s pretty hard to not follow it. Rebekah now runs for Colorado State and Annie runs for Minnesota. It’ll be interesting to see where Elizabeth decides to go in a year.

FAST TIMES AT MINNESOTA HIGH...

…School – State Track and Field meet. In the first race of the meet, Elizabeth Yetzer (who’s a junior) set a state record in the 3200 with a 10:16.59 (2nd in the nation to 10:16.03). She beat Shannon Bergstedt’s (now at Stanford) state record by just over 10 seconds. On Saturday, Yetzer doubled up in the 1600 with a 4:47.12 victory, less than 1 second off her state record from last year.

On the boy’s side, Rob Finnerty established a record for a Minnesota freshman with his winning time of 9:06.80, which is 17 seconds faster than the old Minnesota record for a freshman, a 9:23.75 by Nick Schneider (Duke alumni). Actually he beat Schneider's time last year, when he ran a 9:23.65 — as an eighth-grader.

Last year was his first track season, and Finnerty remembers running the 3200 for the first time and finishing in 9:58.

"My coaches seemed pretty excited," he said of their reaction. Hmm, I wonder why.

Finnerty also came back to double in the 1600. His 4:16.95 winning time was also a record for Minnesota freshmen. He bettered the mark of 4:17.5 (converted from a 4:19.2 mile) set back in 1965 by “some guy” named Garry Bjorklund.

On a slower note, I ran 6 miles this evening. Decide to hit the local track for a mile at marathon pace, since I have not done any quality for nearly 2 weeks. It felt too fast. That’s alright. I’ll be ready to go on Saturday.

CONTINUING TO IMPRESS

I joined my team for my last “long” run before Grandma’s. We met at Lake Nakomis where the triathletes swam for awhile before practicing transitions. Most of them are racing the Manitou Sprint Triathlon tomorrow, so they only ran for 15 minutes. It’ll be the first tri of the season for most of them and I could sense their excitement.

I ran 20 minutes while they were swimming, then 5 of us headed out for another hour. The grand total was 10 miles. It was a comfortable pace – not really fast or slow. I feel like my legs and breathing are both coming around. Plus, no pain in my foot, so I’m confident heading into my final week.

Speaking of confidence, Jenna’s must be sky-high. Today she went “back home” for the Bellin 10k and ran 35:03. That’s 51 seconds faster than the PR she set on April 30th. Basically, she PRs everytime she laces her shoes up. I was thinking she's in 2:47 shape, but now I'd say 2:45 is possible. Note: It's always "easy" to come up with goals for other people.

Meanwhile, Jim ran a 31:08 5 mile race and won the 60-64 age-group by 55 seconds. I don’t think I’ve mentioned it yet, but I’m trying to convince Jim to join our team. I think he’s the perfect candidate for a coach. He’s highly motivated, driven and tremendously talented (not that those things are required to hire a coach). I just don’t think he grasps the hard/easy approach. He went to last Tuesday’s practice to check things out. Unfortunately, I wasn’t there due to my foot. We’ll see if he continues to show up or not.

OUCH!

I was just reading a regional running magazine. There's a diary of a guy who was training for Boston at the time. A couple of his comments jumped out at me.

1) "I don't have a specific goal, but I'm shooting for a 3:45. An ideal goal would be 3:30 to 3:45. I always shoot for under four hours, because you never know what the day will bring."

Yeah, I guess he didn't have a specific goal. Anywhere from 3:30 to 4:00 and he’d be happy?

2) "I find in my schedule, that if I go out less frequently, it helps me recover a lot faster. So I run three or four days a week and leave a day off in between each running day."

I'm all for following a hard/easy program, but do people really feel they need to be fresh for every run?

Maybe the lack of a specific goal and under-training contributed to his 4:38 at Boston, including a 2:50 second half. Ouch!

I ran an easy 6 miles this morning. I threw in some strides too, since I haven’t done any in 3 weeks.

TERRIBLE TAPERS

You often hear about how hard it is to predict the weather in Boston. Well, Duluth’s weather is just as screwy. For example, yesterday the high temperature in the Twin Cities was 85, while the high in Duluth (which is about 150 miles north) was 47.

I was thinking back to my previous marathons and I couldn’t remember having a great taper during any of them (especially the last 3). The chart below (sorry about the formatting, I having figured out how to insert an excel chart) shows my weekly mileage for each of the 3 weeks leading up to race day, along with my weekly average and the number of days off during those 3 weeks.

Spg ‘01 Fall ‘01 Spg ‘02 Fall ‘02 Spg ‘04
3 weeks 56 49 52 54 38
2 weeks 29 42 44 36 40
1 week 29 26 12 22 15
Average 38 39 36 37 31
Days off 6 5 6 8 7

The good news is that 3 of those 5 races resulted in PRs (Spg ’01, Fall ’01 and Fall ’02). Note: I ran 3 marathons in ’96 and ’97. The entire training cycle for those 3 races was screwed up, not just the taper.

I jumped on the treadmill for 3 miles (24 minutes) last night and felt good. I decided to take today off, even though I’m feeling good.

NO ILL SIDE-EFFECTS

I got to work this morning and the power was out due to a storm last night. While I was sitting around I took the opportunity to update my running log (the old-fashioned hand-written-type) – something I haven’t been doing since I got hurt. I figured if I didn’t focus on the time off, it wouldn’t “count.” Okay, it’d count, but it’d affect me less, mentally. Anyway, I noticed that my barefoot mile was actually run on the 19th not the 26th. Where does the time go? So maybe it’s not Nike’s fault after all. After sitting around for an hour they sent us home and told us to call back at noon to see if the power was back on. If it was, we were expected to return.

I’m in the process of re-finishing our kitchen table and chairs, so I used my free time to work on that. I was going to wait till after Grandma’s to start this project but since I haven’t been running I decided to get a jump on it. Unfortunately, the power did come back on at work, so I was only able to work on it for about 2 hours.

I’m happy to report no ill side-effects from my 10 minute run yesterday. I’m to the point where I don’t even think about it any more. Due to the injury, my coach only had me running 3 times during the last 11 days leading up to Grandma’s. I told him I was feeling a lot better and asked if I could increase that. He agreed, but obviously I need to monitor my foot closely. So I’m going try to run 3-4 miles tonight.

BORING

I'm feeling A LOT better. I spent 55 minutes pool-running last night. If there's a more boring cross-training exercise, I haven't found it. After warming up I did 10 x 3 minutes hard with 1 minute rest. It was really hard to get my HR up during the first few reps, so my coach suggested cupping my hands more to create more resistance. Before leaving, I swam 2 laps for the hell of it. It wasn't as bad as I remembered. When I got home I took Bailey for a walk. I felt really good and decided to run for 5 minutes. I didn't have any pain.

This morning I spent 10 minutes each on the elliptical, bike and treadmill. Again, no pain. I'm just going through that uncoordinated-phase that occurs after taking time off. My legs felt really heavy and I just felt awkward, in general.

Now Mary is having problems with her hip/pelvis area. Jenna is in chiropractic school, so she went to her clinic for some ultra-sound. She’s a little bummed, so I told her to keep in mind that she’s not going to lose 18 weeks of fitness within a week. I also mentioned that Matt and I were talking about people getting injured or sick a week or two before a big race then coming back to PR. I remember getting some tendonitis the week of our big home x-c meet. I ended up missing 3-4 days at the beginning of the week. But on race day I felt great because I was so rested and I went on to PR. Let’s hope that’s the case this time around too.

I'M BLAMING NIKE

Friday I went to the Institute for Athletic Medicine for an injury screening. I think the sports trainer was stumped. He thought it could be some inflamed cartilage or possibly a stress fracture. So I went to urgent care and had it x-rayed. The Dr. didn't see a fracture. He mentioned two possible tendons that could be inflamed. He gave a prescription for an anti-inflammatory and told me to ice as much as possible. If it’s not better by Tuesday, he said he’d refer me to the on-staff podiatrist.

One thing that came out with the sports trainer was a possible cause. He helped me remember that I ran a mile barefoot a week before. I’d think if that was the cause, it’d flare up sooner than 5 days later. In any case, I’m blaming Nike and their “build stronger feet” campaign surrounding the Nike Free shoe.

After 3 days off from exercising, I spent 65 minutes on my racing bike (I knew there was a reason I kept it) on Saturday and 40 minutes on my mountain bike on Sunday. Tonight my training group is in the pool, so I’m going to go and pool run. Then I'll re-evaluate and either try running or just workout on the elliptical machine.

Most of the swelling has gone down and it's starting to feel better. Shoes seem to really make a difference. I thought my Birkenstocks would help because they form so well to my foot, but I could really feel it in the arch. Meanwhile, yesterday I was wearing a pair of old running shoes that I now use for cutting the grass and it felt fine - even running a few steps in them.

I’m not really as pissed as I thought I’d be. I figure if it gets better and I run Grandma’s – great. If it doesn’t get better soon, I’ll skip Grandma’s, build back up over the summer and use this base for some fall races, maybe even a marathon. But right now I'm still approaching it like I'm going to run Grandma's.

15 MONTHS

Looking back in my log, I see I have not taken consecutive days off, due to an injury, in over 15 months. Now I’m just over 2 weeks from my goal race and my foot flares up. What timing!?

I’m not sure what Bailey’s problem was this morning (maybe it was because Amy’s brother spent the night with us), but she was up at 4:15. Usually, I can fall back to sleep after feeding her. However, given my “situation” my mind was going a mile a minute. Finally, after an hour of worrying if this was plantar fasciitis or not, I got up and looked in Noake’s Lore of Running. I don’t think its plantar fasciitis because the pain is around the inside ankle bone and down towards my arch – not on the bottom of my foot.

The Institute for Athletic Medicine is a local clinic that offers free injury screenings. I set up an appointment for this afternoon. My guess is they’ll tell me to lay low, ice and take an anti-inflammatory – things I’m already doing. Mainly, I want to figure out what the injury is and what caused it. Of course I’m a little concerned about Grandma’s. I figure if I can nip this in the bud over the next 4-5 days, I’d still have 10 days to get back into a groove.

WORRYING FOR NO REASON

I decided to take yesterday off too, just to rest my left foot. Tonight I was scheduled to run another 3 x 2 mile workout. The paces were supposed to be 6:15, 6:00 and 6:15. I knew those were a little fast, so I spent the day at work thinking about what pace I wanted to run. I also kicked around the idea of running 2 x 3 miles – just to mix up the workout a little.

It turns out I was worrying for no reason. 10 steps into my run and I could feel the pain shooting in my arch. I turned around and changed into a wider shoe and tried again with the same results. So I went back home, took some ibuprofen and iced my foot.

What’s weird is that it felt better when I walked around the office. But as soon as I started to run, I knew I needed to take this thing seriously. It’s not like one of the “phantom” injuries that seem to pop up around taper time.

MILE REPEATS

I forgot to mention yesterday that when I was pushing Kinsey before the start of the race we passed a porta-potty with about 20 people in line. Kinsey said something like "there sure are a lot of runners that need to go to the bathroom." I guess I'm used to it, but if you're seeing it for the first time, it probably does standout.

Throughout the day I kept noticing this pain on the inside of my left foot - near the ankle, running down towards the arch. When I got home from work I could see it was swollen. I iced it a little before heading to practice for our first track workout together. I told my coach that we had a nice turnout (probably 15 people), he said people always come for the track workouts.

We were split into 3 groups. Two marathoners and two Ironman triathletes were doing 4-6 x 1600, the other triathletes were split into 2 groups, based on speed, and were doing 4-6 x 800. Since Jenna raced yesterday she wasn't there. My schedule called for 6 repeats in 6:00 with 400 jog. I thought 6:00 might be a little fast, so I focused more on feel than trying to hit that pace. I ended up running 6:02, 6:08, 6:08, 6:02 (I got pushed along by the fast 800 group), 6:05, 6:06. I'm happy with those results. I felt very controlled and know I could have run faster.

For some reason our coach based our recovery on the first person to finish the rep. So while I finished in say 6:05 and had a 2:30 jog, Mary finished in 7:15 and only got a 1:20 jog. That didn't seem to make sense to me. Still, Mary handled it well and had a great workout. I think her 3:30 goal is well within reach.

I should mention that it was a really nice night, 75 degrees, low humidity and only a slight breeze on the back stretch. Maybe I can still get acclimated to warmer temps before Grandma's - just in case.

I felt my foot a little during the warm-up, but it didn't bother me at all during the repeats. I iced it some more once I got home. With 2.5 weeks to go, I'll be monitoring it closely and erroring on the side of caution.

MEMORIAL DAY

Ever wake up to perfect weather (60, sunny, calm and no humidity) and wish you’d signed up for a race? That’s what happened today. The Brian Kraft 5k is a little over 1 lap around Lake Nakomis.

Flat + no sharp turns + top local runners + perfect weather = FAST

I’m not sure what the hell the weather people were looking at last week, but they got it WRONG. They kept talking about the cool, rainy weather over the holiday weekend. I thought about taking Kinsey with me to watch the race, but given that forecast, I didn’t want to mention it to her. When I saw how nice it was I asked her if she wanted to go with. She said yes and was very excited. Unfortunately, we had to leave Katie behind because I only have a single baby jogger.

We got there about an hour before the start so I could get my run in. I tried to explain everything to Kinsey, so she’d have an idea of what to expect. I was thinking about running to the mile maker, then after the runners went by, we’d go back to the finish. However, Kinsey wanted to see the start of the race. So we watched that, then ran to about the 2 mile mark to cheer people on.

Jenna just continues to impress. She was the 2nd woman overall in 17:09 (16 seconds behind a gal that ran at the U of M). Jim bounced back from three less than satisfying longer races (including a 1:06:00 10 miler on Saturday) to run 18:42. Complete results can be found here.

ZERO

My schedule called for a day off this coming Wednesday, but I decided to take it today. We went to the zoo this morning, then everyone took a nap. As the day went on, the weather got better and better, so I ended up playing outside with the kids all afternoon. Not running just felt right. I don't even feel guilty.

3 WEEKS TO GO

Today's run was supposed to include a 4 mile warm-up, then 10 miles of progressively faster running - dropping the pace from 7:15 to 6:30 before cooling down for 3 miles. I thought about running a local 10 mile race for this workout, but decided to save my money and run with my training group.

Looking back, if I was really concerned with the specifics of this workout, I should have run the race. The group met at 9:30, but since they were only going 90 minutes, I started at 8:45 then joined them. Well that basically meant I did a 4 mile warmup and 1 faster mile by myself. Then I joined the group I ran another 4 miles before picking the pace back up for 45 minutes. I have no idea how fast I was going. It better have been sub-6:45 pace. I finished with a 10 minute cool-down and called it 17 miles. I believe that gives 71 for the week. That'll drop by about 10 mpw during each of the last 3 weeks leading up to Grandma's.

At first I was a little bummed that this workout didn't go like it was suppose to. However, given Tuesday's hard hills, Thursday's mile repeats and the fact that my race is 3 weeks away, 17 miles with 8 miles at sub-7 pace is probably "enough."

DRILLED & FILLED

For some reason I don’t really mind going to the dentist. I was there about a month ago to get a crown on a molar that chipped. While “digging around” my dentist discovered a cavity where I already had a filling. Now when your cavities start getting cavities, you know you’re in trouble. Actually, I haven’t had a cavity for probably 20 years. But I guess when you have as many filling as I do; there aren’t many teeth left that can get a cavity. Anyway, I got this cavity filled this morning. I like to practice my relaxation skills while I’m in The Chair. I figure if I can relax there, I can relax anywhere – even during a marathon.

Watching the weather this morning they said the National Weather Service predicts below average temps for Minnesota during the next 3 months – based on trends. I don’t care about 3 months from now, just as long as it’s cool 3 weeks from now. I’m not sure if today is any indication of conditions at Grandma’s, but the high in Duluth is supposed to be 45 degrees. It’s May 27th and I ran 5 miles over my lunch break in shorts and a long sleeve shirt. 3 minutes into my run it started to rain. It didn’t last long. 30 minutes later it was sunny. I wish it'd make up it's mind.

Yesterday I did my good deed for the day, hooking Chelle up with a room in Duluth. As my friend Mary said, “If I were in a bind, I’d want someone to help me.” And so we did. The last time I ran Grandma’s, I met “Doc” whom I’d only previously known through a message board. He’s a great guy. I had dinner with his family Friday night, then Saturday we ended up running next to each other, which was unplanned, for about half the race. We both went on to PR. I predict more of the same this year.

CRUISE INTERVALS

Somewhere along the line I migrated my Thursday morning runs to the evening. It probably has to do with 1) the “nicer” (and I use that term VERY loosely) weather and 2) switching from “up-tempo” runs to “pace” runs. Anyway, this migration was never really communicated to my wife. So when she said she wanted to run some errands after the kids went to bed, I was “forced” to run on the treadmill. It wasn’t a big deal. Speed workouts on the treadmill seem to go by really quickly. Plus I got to watch the Twins beat the Indians in 11 innings. The 3rd consecutive extra innings game between the two teams.

Jack Daniels would probably call tonight’s workout Cruise Intervals; 6 x 1 mile at more of a tempo pace, with a quarter mile jog. Since I’ve already mentioned that my treadmill is not calibrated correctly, my times don’t really matter. I basically ran between 6:00 and 6:10 with 1:45-1:50 jog. With warm-up and cool-down I got in 11 miles in 75 minutes. Next Tuesday I’m supposed to do this same workout on the track with my team. So I’ll see how much harder that will be.

ODDS AND INS

The tanker truck I mentioned yesterday closed the Interstate for the evening rush too. Like an idiot, I forgot to check the traffic before leaving work. I guess assuming the accident would be cleaned up after 12 hours was a mistake. So I spent 90 minutes in the car again.

I did an easy 3 miles this morning, just to loosen me up for tonight’s mile repeats. My quads were really sore – probably from running down Davern Hill. I ran on the grass during the downhill portion, so that had to help a little. Can’t imagine what they’d feel like if I had stayed on the road.

“We” hired a new Chief Marketing Officer about 2 months ago. I have yet to talk to him – other than saying “hi” in the hallway. Keep in mind our entire department is probably only 15-20 people. Anyway, today’s his birthday. Someone brought in bagels and a card for the occasion. I thought it was interesting that everyone who signed the card (including me) basically just said “Happy Birthday” and signed their name. I guess it’s hard to add much more than that if you don’t know the person.

Oh yea, I was checking out the results from the Green Bay marathon. This is cool, but kind of scary too. Look at all the splits they provided. Plus a “Map of runner location.” I wonder how well it worked during the race. I don’t know the runner personally, but I “met” her husband during a marathon once. His goal was to beat his wife’s time from Grandma’s earlier in the year (3:03ish, I believe). He didn’t.

EVERY ONCE IN AWHILE

Every once in awhile I have a run where the only thing I can think about is food. Today I ran a VERY easy 5 miles just before lunch. About 2 miles into the run I was starving and thinking about the taco salads they were serving for lunch. I’m sure it doesn’t help that all I had after last night’s run was some Endurox and a bowl of cereal. I know. I need to do a better job of re-fueling, especially after a hard workout. But there wasn’t anything in the house that I found appetizing.

This morning a tanker truck, carrying pesticides, blew up
on the road I take to work. So my 40-45 minute commute turned out to be an 80 minute commute. At first I was sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic on a different highway. Then I decided to take the “back roads.” It probably wasn’t any faster, but I drove along Minnehaha Parkway and around Lake Harriet and Lake Calhoun. It beat the stop and go of the highway.

LAST OF THE HILLS

What a beautiful evening; 70-75 degrees, sunny, a dew point of 45 and no wind. A great night for our last hill workout before Grandma’s. We met at Macalester College again and ran 8 times the dreaded Davern Hill. The hill is fairly short, but steep. It’s probably about 400 meters long and ¾ of that is steep, before leveling off a bit. It was kind of hard to tell how I was running, since I wasn’t used to that type of hill. I felt okay during the hills, nothing special.

Afterwards, on the flats, I felt really good. After 75 minutes we were back at the college. I agreed to add-on with Jenna, but only if she agreed to slow down. We ran for another 27 minutes. I’m not sure what pace we were going, maybe 7-flat. It felt fast, but controlled.

Usually Jenna’s way ahead of me so we don’t get much time to talk. Last night was probably the 4th or 5th time we’ve run together for an extended period. She’s also a fan of the sport, so it’s really fun to run with her. She knows a lot of the fast local runners, as well as some of the Team Minnesota people, so it’s fun to talk about them.

We ended up running 1:42, which I called 14 miles. It was probably a little shorter than that but I don’t really like to have halves in my log book. I always feel like I have to run another halve before the end of the week, just to “correct” it.

PEP TALK

Here's a letter I got from my coach today. The CAPS are his.


FUN and CHALLENGING sessions are scheduled for the next 2 weeks.

JUST THINK: only 4 weeks to grandma's!

KEYS TO YOUR RACE DAY SUCCESS:

1. EASY DAYS are short and EASY (heart rate under 140; effort @ 60%, and 45:00 or LESS of running on flat terrain)

2. FUEL your muscles right after KEY runs AND throughout the day to keep your energy and performance levels HIGH

3. KEY DAYS REQUIRE A KEY MENTAL FOCUS. plan for, expect, and make success happen for YOU

4. RACE PACE EFFICIENCY and STAMINA will be boosted by the TEMPO, PACE, and FAST endurance runs. DO THEM as written, and REST-UP for them, and REST AFTER them as well. GET TO KNOW YOUR RACE PACE GROOVE and POSITIVE SELF-TALK.

5. START TO REDUCE X-TRAINING, and increase resting time and non-exercise time to increase success on key days, and to prevent any lingering fatigue in the weeks prior to grandma's

6. ENHANCE YOUR RACE READINESS CONFIDENCE with YOUR successful performance in KEY sessions

enjoy it all
coach

I WONDER WHY

Just an easy 6 mile run this morning – nothing exciting to report.

At work this morning I got a meeting notice for 12:00-1:00 meeting. The organizer said “Sorry about this time but it was the only open time.” Oh really? I wonder why. Does it have anything to do with a thing called LUNCH? If this was the only time this has happened it wouldn’t be a big deal – but it seems to happen about once every month or two.

During the meeting she kept talking about flushing things out. I didn’t have the heart to tell her it is fleshing things out. I’m not sure where the saying comes from. Given some of the projects I’ve had a work lately, I’d like to flush them out.

DOES EVERYONE SUCK?

Or should I say “Does everyone think they suck?” I went for a nice 10 mile trail run today. The whole time I was thinking about this topic. It stems from a couple of things; watching last night’s track meet and reading through the Minnesota Runner’s Yearbook, which list (among other things) the top runners in each age group. I’m sure hanging out with Jim doesn’t help either. He thinks everyone can win their age group at every race.

During this run I was also thinking back to a post that I read awhile ago on letsrun.com. It was short and sweet; “I’m tired of sucking.” That’s how I feel sometimes. Granted, at races, I tend to beat 95% of the field, but it’s the other 5% that I compare myself to. Non-runners (and probably some runners) don’t seem to understand that.

More importantly than that other 5% is just 1 person – me. How do I compare to myself? Yes, last year was my best season of racing since college. And yes, I’m running even better this year. However, my college PRs are always in the back of my mind. It’s a little frustrating to run roughly 50% more miles/week now, then while in college, yet have slower times. Those results nearly make me want to go back to the days of 50 mpw and the 29-30 8k guys running “easy” days with the 25-26 minute 8k guys. I know that’s the “wrong” approach but I was sure a hell of a lot faster. Have the 9 years slowed me down that much?

But it’s not just me. The whole men 35-39 age group sucks in Minnesota. The editor of the Minnesota Runner’s Yearbook summed it up “…it’s still true that more men 40-44 meet the 35-39 standards than do the younger men.” Maybe everyone is busy with their career and family. Note: the men’s 35-39 standards have actually been loosened a little – the website just hasn’t updated them yet.

So here’s my thinking. In 4 years 2 months and 9 days I’ll be a Masters runner. (Does any other group of people, other than runners, actually look forward to turning 40?) If I stay motivated and keep improving maybe I’ll be able to approach the 40-44 standards (and possibly some all-time PRs). I just hope all those guys I used to run with in college don’t come out of “retirement” once they become a Master. Maybe I’m just dreaming, but I guess that’s what gets me to lace up my shoes every day.

FULL DAY OF RUNNING

Since I’ve had some Achilles problems in the past, I decided to take yesterday off. Today I planned my run around a local 5k that I wanted to watch. It’s an out-and-back course along the River Road and it’s a unique in that the men and women have separate start times. I ran for 90 minutes along the Mississippi River before heading out onto the race course where I was able to watch the women finishing up. I looped back to the start and talked with Eric and Jim a little then jogged out to the mile maker. They both went out a little fast (around 5:30 and 5:50). Eric ended up running 18:15, Jim ran 19:09. 81-year old Lloyd “Forever” Young ran 25:37. I knew this was a smaller event, but was a little surprise by the “slow” winning time of 19:28 for women, while only 2 guys broke 16.

I ended up running just under 2 hours and calling it 15 miles. For the week I finished with 67 miles on 6 runs.

This evening I went to the Minnesota Distance Invitational. Unfortunately, it was way too windy for any really fast times. But it was still great to see most of these local athletes compete. Results can be found here. And some of the best track and field photos I’ve ever seen can be seen here.

My wife is hot and I’m very happy and I don’t want this to turn into a letsrun.com “hotness” thread, but is there a hotter team than the Team USA Minnesota women? And is there anyone cuter than Sara Wells?

ONE THING IS FOR CERTAIN

I didn’t even run on my treadmill last night, but I hate it. After completing last Thursday’s workout (6 mile tempo run with the miles at 6:45, 6:15, 6:00, 6:15, 6:00 and 6:15) on it I felt really confident. However, after tonight’s run, one thing is for certain, my treadmill is not calibrated correctly.

I decided to do tonight’s workout on the track to make sure my pacing was accurate. The dirt track near my house tends to get soft and soggy and given all the rain we’ve had lately I decided to avoid it. There’s a high school about 3 miles from my house. I thought that’d be a little too far for a warm-up and cool-down, so I drove. Good thing because they had a track meet going on and I had to drive to a different high school.

Tonight’s workout originally called for 3 x 2 miles, alternating the pace for each rep, 6:30, 6:15, 6:30, with a mile jog between. After comparing it to last week’s workout, which didn’t contain any rest periods, I told my coach it was too easy. He suggested dropping the paces by 15 seconds.

After a 2 mile warm-up I started the first rep, going through 200 meters in 45 seconds. Oops. I let off the gas and settled in, finishing the first 3200 rep in 12:34 (6:19 pace). On the second rep I decided just to check my pace every 800 meters. Even though I was supposed to run 6:00 pace, I was a little surprised to see 3:00 and 6:02 for my first 2 splits. I slowed a little and finished in 12:09 (6:07 pace). The last rep was a mess. I thought 6:15-6:20 pace would feel easy after running 6:07 pace. It didn’t. My first lap was at 6:30 pace, so I picked it up. While I was happy to go through 1600 in 6:20, I had zero focus. I was thinking about stopping. Then they started to lock up the gates and I was thinking how I’d finish my last mile if they kicked me out. On top of that my stomach and my right Achilles were starting to act up. So basically I just went through the motions and finished in 12:48 (6:26 pace). Afterwards I did a mile cool-down in my bare feet. Who needs Nike Frees – at least this time of year?

Overall, it was a decent workout. I just think my treadmill workout last week set me up for “failure.” I should know better than to believe what my treadmill tells me.

1 MONTH

Grandma’s marathon is 1 month from today. It’s coming fast. After 3 nice weeks at the beginning of April, the weather has been shitty for the last 4 or 5 weeks. Noreen said it best last night. She checked the weather before practice and saw it was 66 and mostly sunny. She didn’t believe it and had to double check.

This morning’s run was an easy 6 with some strides. It started in light sprinkles but included 2 bouts of absolute downpours. I figure with the rain, sleet, wind and cold conditions I’ve trained in lately, the only weather I won’t be prepared for is hot, humid and/or sunny.

She’s only 4, but I don’t think I’ll have to “worry” about Kinsey becoming a triathlete. Tonight during dinner we told her we signed her up for swimming lessons this summer. She had a total meltdown that lasted 5-10 minutes. Now she knows how her dad feels about swimming. Actually, I think she was just really tired and that she’ll love it once she starts.

HILL REPEATS

Tonight my team met at Minnehaha Falls for a hill workout. So far our hill workouts have been running a hill 1 or 2 times and then running on flats for awhile before finding another hill to climb once or twice. Last night was pure hill repeats. We started with a hill that I didn’t even know existed. It went from the River Road, under the Ford Parkway Bridge down to the locks. It’s the hardest hill I’ve run with the team and we did it 5 times. Then we jogged closer to the Minnehaha Creek and did 4 repeats of a longer, more gradual hill. Afterwards we jogged over to one of the VA buildings and did an even longer, even more gradual hill 3 times. To be honest, I wouldn’t have even called the last one a hill.

It was weird because Jenna wasn’t there tonight. She’s probably staying on the flats after her half marathon last Saturday. Daniel looked really strong. I hung with him for the first 3 repeats, but after that I “let” him go. My legs didn’t feel that bad, but they weren’t their freshest either. Overall we ran for 74 minutes, which I called 10 miles.

TIRED LEGS

I just ran an easy 5 miles this morning and I think that’s about all I could handle. My legs were really heavy. I’d be surprised if I was running faster than 9-minute miles.

I don’t think I summarized last week at all. Since this looks like a short entry, I might as well do it here. I ended up with 60 miles on 8 runs with Thursday’s tempo run being “the best” of the bunch. So it looks like my mileage has dropped off a little lately. I have more 60-70 mile weeks, than 70-80 mile. At this point in my training, I’m okay with that. Right now I’m more concerned about having solid hard workouts and recovering quickly after an easy day (besides, 60-70 is still as good as, or better than my past marathon training). I’ll be interested to see how my legs bounce back for tomorrow’s hill workout. Usually I run my long run on Saturday and then have 2 easier days before running hills. This week I'll just have one easy day between.

On a non-running note, I was walking Bailey tonight and there was a kid shooting hoops in his driveway. It was great to see the youth of today outside on a dreary day. As I approach him, I noticed he had a BIG bag of something like cheese puffs in his left hand and he was shooting with his right. I just thought it was weird. At least he was “exercising.”

GOING SOLO

I had a 20 miler scheduled for today. Even with walking the dog, eating a light breakfast and drinking some coffee, I was able to hit the roads by 7:45. While I was walking the dog, my left arch was hurting. I figured I’d start the run and if it bothered me, I’d cut it short and go long next weekend. Maybe it was just a cramp because it didn’t bother me during the run.

I decided to head to my favorite trails and just wander around. I spent just over 2 hours on the trails and only saw 8 people (6 walkers and 2 runners). With about 30 minutes left I decided to head to the track just to see what pace I was running. I figured I was running between 8-8:15 pace. Mainly I wanted to make sure I wasn’t running like 8:30 pace. 4 laps later my watch showed 8:12. I used that mile to determine how long I needed to run to get 20 miles – 2:45. So I stayed on the track for another half mile before heading home and running for 2:44 – close enough.

This was actually my first solo long run in awhile, so I tried to keep moving as much as possible. When I do long runs with my team there always seems to be some standing around and waiting. Not a big deal, but I thought I’d make sure I could go long without the breaks.

Oh yea, I passed a RV park as I was leaving the trails too. If you owned a RV, why would you go “camping” in a suburb? Seems silly to me.

FRIDAY AND SATURDAY

Friday night I just jumped on the treadmill for 7 easy miles – nothing exciting. Saturday was the garage sale (actually it was Friday and Saturday) that caused me to rearrange my racing schedule. My wife was excited to make about $300. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that we probably spent $5,000 on those same items.

The weather pretty much sucked all day Saturday. The nice thing about that is they shut the garage sale down early and I was able to run during the afternoon, rather than waiting till the evening. Luckily, there was a break in the weather when I left. It had stopped raining, but it was still only 45-50 degrees and windy. I decided to run one of my favorite loops, which is 10 miles. I don’t care for the first 1.5 miles, but after that it’s not bad – even with the first half into the wind. This was one of those runs where you feel pretty good and pick up the pace a little. At first your breathing is a little hard, but soon it becomes easier than running slow.

About halfway through this run it started pouring – with some sleet mixed in. It didn’t last more than 10 minutes before the sun came out. Goofy freaking weather! At least by this time I was on the best part of the loop - a gradual downhill with a nice tailwind.

It sounds like the conditions were pretty miserable at that half marathon I had to skip this morning. Jenna came in 2nd with a 1:20:11. The gal that was 3 seconds behind her at Get in Gear ran the last 5k 26 seconds faster than Jenna to beat her by 9 seconds. So I’m sure she’s pissed. Debbie came in 7th with a 1:24:54. Jim had a miserable experience with a 1:34:38 that included a 25:13 last 5k. Maybe it was a blessing that I was “forced” to miss this race.

I'LL ADMIT IT

Okay, I’ll admit it, I own a pair of these. I like adidas and I like light weight trainers, so I thought “what the heck.” Given some of the comments and looks I’ve gotten since buying them (I shouldn’t be surprised) I think they’re better suited for early morning runs (especially in the winter, in the dark) or treadmill runs in my basement. That being said, I decided to wear them last night for my workout.

To be honest, when I saw last night’s workout (3 mile warm-up, 6 continuous miles at 6:45, 6:15, 6:00, 6:15, 6:00, 6:15, 2 mile cool-down) I thought it was going to be too hard. I ran on the treadmill and just decided to go for it, if it was too hard, I’d just back off. It turned out to be a great workout. The 6:45 seemed very easy, 6:15s were controlled and the 6:00s were comfortably hard. Actually, the 2nd and 3rd 6:15s, after running 6:00, seemed like a jog. Next week I’ll probably run a similar workout on a track, just to see the difference between that and my treadmill.

GOOD SLEEPING WEATHER

Sleeping is about all this weather is good for, that and maybe growing grass. That is if grass grows when it’s 36 freakin’ degrees – at noon – in mid-May. Since I slept in I decided to hit the treadmill at work over lunch. It wasn’t so much the rain that kept me from going outside as it was the temp and the winds. I just did an easy 5 mile on the treadmill prior to tonight’s hard workout. Unfortunately, (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) I’ll have to be on the ‘mill for that run too since my wife will be gone.

While I was running and watching the weather forecast, I remembered that I’ve run one race in each month, Feb-May this year. The race in February had, by far, the nicest weather of the four races. Remember, I’m in Minnesota!!!

They finally posted the results from last weekend’s race. Jim finished 9th in 2:12:28, and 81 year old Lloyd ran 2:57:43 (roughly 9:30 pace). I believe that’s an age group record by nearly 30 minutes. The guy (Mark) in 3rd has now passed me late in my last 3 races. He starts out very easy and then reels people in. I felt better after talking to him. He’s running Grandma’s too and is shooting for 2:52. Frank who finished in 6th was in 4th for about 16 miles. I was about to concede defeat to him and then all the sudden he started walking. I think he turned around and saw Mark and me behind him and it “freaked him out.”

Here’s a random thought I had recently. When you let kids put on their own shoes, 95% of the time, they put them on the wrong feet.

STUART SMALLEY

I just did an easy 8 miles this morning with some strides thrown in towards the end. Instead of just lumbering along, thinking of whatever popped into my mind, I decided to try and focus on things I’d like to think about during Grandma’s. Yes, I have a list of affirmations and images that I like to practice before my races, especially marathons. I find I run better when I “pre-program” my mind, rather than leaving my thoughts to chance once the gun goes off.

Of course, I let me mind wander too. But it’s always nice to be able to reel it in with some positive thoughts and images when I want to. Some of the affirmations are as simple as “Calm and confident, I run great” and “I’m in a position to strike and get what I like.” One of my favorites comes from a tempo run I was doing a year or two ago. I was probably running 6:15 pace and passed some kids playing outside. One kid said “he’s flying.” Some of the imagery I use includes picturing me as a well-oiled machine or a wedge (if I’m running into the wind). Given the conditions so far this Spring, the wedge might come in handy at Grandma’s.

MORE RECOVERY

Bailey was more squirrelly than normal this morning. She was up at 4:30 “asking” to be fed. If I don’t feed her, she goes over to my wife and whimpers. I didn’t want her to wake Amy up, so I got up and fed her. I thought about going for an easy morning run to help bump my mileage a little, since Sunday and Monday were low. Then I thought “30k is a long way, I need to recover” and I went back to bed till 6.

Our group met at the Lake Harriet Bandshell tonight. Located in Minneapolis, it’s the southern most lake that’s part of a chain that includes Cedar Lake, Lake of the Isles, Lake Calhoun and Lake Harriet. As you can imagine, these lakes are a popular place to run, bike, rollerblade, walk, etc. They are also the site of numerous races throughout the year and also part of the reason that the Twin Cities Marathon is known as “the most beautiful urban marathon.”

We stayed around Lake Harriet for awhile before heading down Minnehaha Parkway, which is also part of the TCM course. I think this was supposed to be a hill workout, but it wasn’t very hilly. I didn’t mind at all since my legs still felt tried from Saturday. I’m not sore at all, just a little tired. I kept the pace easy for the entire 73 minutes, which I called 9 miles.

THINGS TO WORK ON

I ran an easy 5 miles yesterday. Actually, it wasn’t easy it was slow - very slow. No surprise, my legs were really heavy. However, they weren’t too sore, so that’s a good thing. One of my concerns with doing a 30k instead of the half marathon I had planned was that I’d trash my legs and screw up the rest of my training. I ran 5 miles over lunch today and that felt a lot better. Still slow, but relatively pain-free once I got going.

Saturday’s race made it clear that there are a few things I need to work on over the next 6 weeks.

1) Calming my mind. While I didn’t really have any problems holding my marathon pace, my mind was racing faster than it should have been. I think if there were other people to run with, it’d have been easier to relax and focus inward. Even though this was a marathon paced run for me, the size of this race had me worrying about the guy in 4th and Eric in 3rd. I don’t think that’ll be an issue at Grandma’s since Eric’s not running and it won’t matter if I’m in 75th or 76th place or whatever.

2) Consuming gels during the race. I carried a flask with me that holds 5 gels. My plan at Grandma’s is to take a gel every 4 miles. Given the different location of water stops on Saturday, I had to improvise. I ended up taking a gulp of gel at 6, 9 and 12 miles. When I finished I noticed I only took 2.5 gels. The main thing was to make sure the gels didn’t bother me while running at marathon pace. Sometimes I try to convince myself not to take a gel, even though I know it’s the “right” thing to do. I gotta work on that.

3) Diet. I’m not going to obsess over it, but I think I can stand to lose 3-5 lbs before the race. Right now I weigh 148. At the end of last season I weighed 5 lbs less. So I passed on the Macadamia Nut cookies at lunch today.

4) Core. When my last cold hit I stopped doing ab workouts. If I can get back into doing them a couple of times a week, I think it’ll help.

I’m sure there’s more, but those are the things that come to mind immediately.

RUN AROUND WOMAN RACE REPORT

The Run Around Woman Lake 30k was a great tune-up for Grandma’s marathon. My goal was to run at my goal marathon pace (6:40). Temps were decent, 55 at the start, 60 at the finish and overcast. It was fairly windy, probably 15-20 mph. Luckily the trees helped block some of the wind. The course was similar to Grandma's with rolling hills throughout.

I tried to mimic Grandma’s as much as possible. Except for the McDonald’s I had for lunch on Friday, I think I did a pretty good job. I took Friday off from work and running and rode up with Eric and Jim. It’s about a 4 hour drive, so a little longer than it takes to get to Duluth. That night we ate at the spaghetti dinner and were lucky enough to have Lloyd “Forever” Young join us. I don’t know about other states, but Minnesota does a great job tracking age and age-group records for various certified distances. Well, Lloyd is 81 and every time he laces them up, he sets a record. It was really neat sitting there listening to his stories.

Saturday morning I woke up about 3 hours before the start and ate the things (bagel, jelly, banana and 32 oz of Gatorade with 2 scoops of CarboPro added) I’m going to have before Grandma’s. I also had a gel about 15 minutes before that start. I have to see how many carbs and calories are recommended before a marathon, but I think I did okay with 225 grams of carbs and 925 calories.

This was a really small race, maybe 50 people. I ended up finishing 5th overall in 2:04:24, which is 6:41 pace. My halves were 1:02:26 and 1:01:58. 3-mile splits were 20:14, 20:19, 19:43, 19:40, 19:51 and 20:08.

So, I was within 1 second of my goal pace. The effort was a little harder than I had planned and at first I was a little bummed about that. But after thinking about racing 10K last weekend, a hard hill workout on Tuesday, the windy conditions, lack of people to run with and lack of taper, I'm feeling more confident about sub-2:55.

Eric went out hard and held on for 4th in 2:03:21, which was just over 3 minutes faster than last year. He’s running really well this year. Jim was ahead of me the first 3 miles. He slowed some, but held on to finish under 2:13. All 3 of us won our age groups and door prizes, so it was a great weekend.

I’ll link to the results once they’re posted. And more details to come when I get some more time.

BLAH

I had my alarm set for 5 AM today. Bailey woke me up at 4:55, “asking” to be fed. Yes, that’s normal behavior. I decided to crawl back into bed after feeding her, figuring I could run tonight. Screw “living like a clock” I never should have mentioned it in my blog. However, by 5:05 I was wide awake. I decided to get up and get my run in - that way I can veg-out tonight to Survivor and CSI.

It was a pretty uneventful run. In fact, I felt pretty “blah” the whole way (8 miles). For the second day in a row my left hamstring felt tight. It didn’t seem to bother me too much though. I even threw in some strides at the end because I haven’t done any for over a week.

I’ve been at my “new” job about 8 month now. My last cube was decorated with a bunch of running posters, but I haven’t gotten around to decorating this cube. Last night I saw I poster from last year’s Boston Marathon that I’ve never put up. It’s a nice aerial photo that shows about a quarter mile of the road and it is solid runners. Over the top is a yellow “painted” box with an “inspirational” message from adidas. “Sweat, pain and exhaustion are all temporary. Finishing Boston is forever.” And “Impossible is Nothing.” Both statements have a box with a red check-mark in them.

Okay, that’s probably more than you cared to know. Anyway, I decided to take it to work. When I unrolled it I noticed the same photo on each side. I thought that was really weird. Then I looked closer and saw (in very small, “ghosted” font) the names of everyone that had registered for the race. It took two sides to list everyone, that’s why they needed the image on both sides. Now, thinking back, I remember they did this in 2002 too. However, that year the background was mostly a solid color so it showed up better. Looking at it a year after the race, I’m sure it lost some of its “excitement.”

DIFFERENT STRENGTHS

So much for getting back to “living like a clock.” Katie had another “episode” 2 nights ago, so I slept-in and just went for an easy 5 over lunch. The nice thing about waiting till lunch is that the weather was perfect – 55 sunny, blue sky, light winds.

Last weekend’s race and yesterday’s hill workout has me thinking about the strengths that different runners possess. I’ll use Deb and Eric as examples. On 4/9 they both ran a 20k. Deb ran 1:18:53 and Eric ran 1:20:00. On 4/30 they both ran a 10k. Deb ran 38:02 and Eric ran 37:14. Basically, Deb had to slow down only 13 seconds per mile to double her distance, while Eric had to slow down 26 seconds per mile. If you plug their 10k times into McMillan’s calculator, their 20k times should be reversed.

Another example, during last night’s hill workout Daniel was running about 5-10 feet behind me on all the hills. On the last repeat I thought “I’m going to bury him.” Instead, he came blowing by me and probably put 10 seconds on me within a half mile. However, during the cool-down, once I stopped dry-heaving, I was running comfortable hard with Jenna while Daniel fell off the back.

Granted these are just 2 examples, but I’m sure we all know people that run great 5Ks, but their marathon times don’t “hold up” or people that can whip themselves into racing shape quickly or run up hills effortlessly. I’m curious if this is due to training or genetic makeup or mental strength or something else.

I suspect a lot of it has to do with genetic makeup, meaning fast twitch vs. slow twitch muscles. Training’s got to have something to do with it too. If you’re doing tempo runs you’re going to be better suited for the longer races. I think part of Daniel’s “problem” is that he’s a triathlete and he hasn’t been doing some of the longer up-tempo runs like Jenna and I have been doing. He’s tough on the hills though – at least the last one.

CHANGE OF PLANS

After seeing snow flurries the first two days of May, we finally got some decent running weather – 53 sunny and fairly calm. I met my team at Macalester College again. In the past, I’ve complained about some of the smaller groups we’ve had and not having anyone to push the pace. Tonight was another small group but Daniel (one of the triathletes) was running hard and together we chased Jenna. We ran for 1:34 and I called it 13 miles. About 40 minutes of that included variations of the Twin Cities Marathon hills from mile 21 to 22.

After the last hill, Jenna, Daniel and I ran a 5-mile “cool-down.” That’s in quotes because we were probably going sub-7 pace. It was interesting to talk to Jenna about her Get in Gear performance. The race pays 3-deep ($1,000, $500 and $250). Last year Jenna was 4th. This year she was 3rd and the gal in 4th was only 3 seconds back. She talked about how this gal kept surging then she would fall back. Daniel watched the race and he said at the 6 mile mark he thought Jenna was going to come in 4th.

I was planning on running a half marathon on the 14th. However, a few logistical issues, family-wise, aren’t going to allow that to happen. Instead, I’m going to do a 30k this weekend with Eric and Jim. I’m going to run it as a tune-up for Grandma’s and try to mimic June 18th as closely as possible. At first I was a little leery of running hard for that far a week after my 10k, but my coach said if I wasn’t sore at all from my race, it’d be a good tune-up. Now I’m more excited about it than I was the half marathon I was planning – maybe because based on last year’s results, my marathon pace would place me in the top-5.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

This blog makes me feel like an author writing a story. And like any good story, you need a cast of characters. I thought I’d give a little more background into Eric, Jim and Debbie.

Eric and I “worked” together at my last company. We did not actually work together; in fact, neither of us did much work. Hmm, that’s probably why I got laid off (that’s another story). Eric has since left the company too, retiring at the ripe old age of 46. Anyway, at first, we both ran over our lunch hour, but not together. Then we bumped into each other at a 5k, got to talking and eventually started running together over lunch. At the time Eric was probably a low-19 5Ker on about 40 miles of easy running a week. Now he’s a sub-18 5Ker and I’d like to think all my hounding about increasing his mileage and adding speed work has contributed to his improvement.

Eric is very friendly and easy to talk to. At a race “up north” last spring he met Jim. If you’ve been following along, you know that Jim is the super stud whose goal is to set a state record for 60 year olds - every weekend. For those of you familiar with the WAVA age-grading calculator, Jim’s time from Saturday calculates to a 32:20. Plus, he is the nicest, most humble state record holder you’d ever want to meet.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from Eric, it’s don’t be afraid to go up and talk to someone at a race. Okay, last summer it took me 2 races to get up the courage but I eventually talked to Debbie. Both races were 4 milers and it was all I could do to hold off this first woman overall. While talking, we found out we live about 2 miles from one another. Deb is bubbly, full of energy and always smiling.

So what do you do during the summer with 4 people (2 retirees, a substitute teacher and someone who’s laid off) who run similar times? You form a training group and try to run each other into the ground. All right, it wasn’t that dramatic. But we did do a few track workouts together, some “easy” days and some races. Looking at the 4 of us, you’d never guess that we trained together. “Unfortunately” I’m back in the work-world and won’t be able to participate in our weekly track workouts this year.

OTHER WEEKEND RESULTS

While I was getting dressed for my run this morning I was watching the weather on TV. The weatherman said through the first 3 weeks of April we were on-pace for the warmest April ever. After everything was said and done, we finished in 11th. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather have the cold April weather at the beginning of the month. In fact, if there’s any month where I’d like the warm days at the end – it’s probably April.

I dragged myself through an easy 6 miles this morning. I definitely felt the race and my long run from yesterday. Hopefully I’ll bounce back by tomorrow night’s workout.

Lots of race results from the weekend that included people with ties to Minnesota or Wisconsin. This is not an all inclusive list. It’s mainly top names that people will recognize with a few that you might not.

STANFORD MEET
5K – Badgers – Matt Tegenkamp 13:31.98, Matt Withrow (red-shirt freshman) 13:35.32, Chris Solinsky 13:38.92. Sean Graham (former Stillwater high school and William & Mary star) 13:42.28. Garrett Heath (former Winona high school star and red-shirt freshman at Stanford) 13:56.40. Antonio Vega (U of MN) 14:10.01 and Forrest Tahdooahnippah (no, I’m not kidding - Stanford) 14:10.86. Women – Dana Coons (Team MN) 16:31.61.

10K – Badgers – Simon Bairu 28:04, Matt Downin (former Badger) 28:37. Andrew Carlson (U of MN) 28:56. Matt Gabrielson (Team MN) DNF. Women – Katie McGregor (Team MN) 31:25 (26 second PR).

DRAKE RELAYS
10K – I don’t know these guys but 2 freshman from D3 schools in Wisconsin ran 30:11 (Scott Mueller - LaCrosse) and 30:18 (Tyler Sigl - Platteville) in a race that D3 X-C champ Josh Moen (Wartburg) ran 30:14. Heather May (doesn’t have any MN/WI ties that I know of, she used to post on Beck’s Donnybrook) 36:18.

1500 – Luke Watson (Team MN), 4:03.67, Matt Grosse (UW-LaCrosse alum) 4:08:44, Toby Henkels (Team MN) 4:11:43 – PR. Women – Janelle Deatherage (Team MN) 4:22:77.

MAY DAY, MAY DAY

Well I’m glad I wasn’t racing today. I went for my run at 11 AM and it was 38, windy with flurries. The first 1.5 miles included Bailey, while pushing Katie. Then I dropped them off and pushed Kinsey for 6 miles. Finally I was able to run the last 6.5 miles by myself, on the trails. The nice thing about this shitty weather is that not many people use the trails in those conditions. As I thought that to myself, I looked up to see a walker. It turned out to be Deb. I barely recognized her with her hood up and big mittens on. I ended up running just under 2 hours and called it 14. That was probably further than I needed to go, but I felt guilty about not cooling down very much yesterday.

Last week’s mini-taper resulted in only 48 miles. That was my lowest total since I got the flu in December. I ended April with 279 miles. I ran 29 of 30 days, including 4 two-a-days. I actually thought I’d be over 300 miles. However, there were numerous occasions where I told myself not to worry about mileage and that the main thing was getting in solid workouts and recovering from them. Still, that was my highest April by 36 miles. 5 of my last 7 months have been all-time highs for those months.

Quick rant: I forgot to mention this yesterday, but they ran out of medium and large shirts yesterday. Apparently you could pick your shirt up before race day or even that morning. I’m still not sure how the hell that happens with a race that’s been around this long.