I AM A RUNNER

If you're a long-time reader of my blog, you probably realize I like to read running books and often include the passages that I find most interesting within my posts. I've included a lot of Dr. George Sheehan's thoughts along the way. For me, his writings cover a wide spectum and usually lead to one of two reactions; 1) I'm throughly engrossed and I end up reading sections over and over - trying to soak it all in or 2) I'm bored out of my mind and barely able to keep my eyes open - because he's way over my head. Anyway, I cracked open his book, Running & Being, again and thought I would share some of those statements, paragraphs, pages, etc. that I found myself reading over and over.

I am a runner. Years ago that statement would have meant little more to me than an accidental choice of sport. A leisure-time activity selected for reasons as superficial as the activity itself.

Now I know better. The runner does not run because he is too slight for football or hasn't the ability to put a ball through a hoop or can't hit a curve ball. He runs because he has to. Because in being a runner, in moving through pain and fatigue and suffering, in imposing stress upon stress, in eliminating all but the necessities of life, he is fulfilling himself and becoming the person he is.

I have given up many things in this becoming process. None was a sacrifice. When something clearly became nonessential, there was no problem in doing without. And when something clearly became essential, there was no problem accepting it and whatever went with it.

From the outside, this runner's world looks unnatural. The body punished, the appetities denied, the satisfactions delayed, the motivations that drive most men ignored. The truth is that the runner is not made for the things and people and institutions that surround him. To use Aldous Huxley's expression, his small guts and feeble muscles do not permit him to eat or fight his way through the ordinary rough-and-tumble.

That he is not made for the workaday world, that is essential nature and the law of his being are different from the ordinary and usual is difficult for everyone, including the runner, to comprehend. But once it is understood, the runner can surrender to his self, this law. And become, in the Puritan sense, the "free man," the man who is attached only to the good.

In this surrender, the runner does not deny his body. He accepts it. He does not subdue it, or subjugate it, or mortify it. He perfects it, maximizes it, magnifies it. He does not suppress his instincts; he heeds them. And goes beyond this animal in him toward what Ortega called his veracity, his own truth.

The finished product is therefore a lifetime work. This giving up, this letting go, the detachment from attachments, is an uneven process. You should give up only what no longer has any attraction to you, or interferes with something greatly desired. That was Gandhi's rule. He advised people to keep doing whatever gave them inner help and comfort.

I have learned that also. Whatever I give up, whatever innocent indulgences, ordinary pleasures or extraordinary vices, I do so from inner compulsion, not in a mood of self-sacrifice or from sense of duty. I am simply doing what comes naturally.

For the runner, less is better. The life that is his work of art is understated. His needs and wants are few, he can be captured in a few strokes. One friend, a few clothes, a meal now and then, some change in his pockets, and, for enjoyment, his thoughts and the elements.

And though he's on the run, he's in no hurry. Concerned at times with tenths of a second, he actually responds to the season, moving through cycle and cycle, toward less and less until body and mind and soul fuse, and all is one.

I see this simplicity as my perfection. In the eyes of observers, however, it appears completely different. My success in removing myself from things and people, from ordinary ambition and desires, is seen as lack of caring, proof of uninvolvement, and failure to contribute.

So be it. A larger view of the world might include the possibility that such people are necessary. That the runner who is burning with a tiny flame on some lonely road does somehow contribute. And while a world composed solely of runners would be unworkable, a world without them would be unlivable.

IN THE BALL PARK

I figured the chances of my entry form getting to New Prague in a day were slim, so I decided not to use that race as a marathon paced training run. Instead, I was able to convince Jenna to run with me for 2 hours on Thursday night before watching the TC-1 mile. I don’t think we quite got down to my marathon pace, but we were definitely in the ball park. Besides, it was 70-75 degrees, windy and sunny – conditions I’m not used to seeing when I normally run at 6 AM.

I came back 2 days later with another 16 miler at 7:30 pace. That gave me 67 miles for the week. Best of all, I’m still feeling good. This is the point prior to my last marathon where I screwed up my calf. It was during a 22 miler, 5+ weeks out. I basically missed 2 weeks of training, not to mention what it did to my psyche. Well, with a 22 miler on tap for this weekend, my goal is to avoid getting hurt and to keep my psyche in check. I gotta get through another mid-week medium-long run and my last LT run first though.

Less than 6 weeks to go...

Quote of the Day;

“Today’s work does not make us the persons we can be. Work is simply the price to be paid. Having earned our daily bread, we can turn to our daily play. Having paid our dues for survival, we can pay attention to the more serious business of living. Having taken care of our bank accounts, we are now ready to take care of our bodies and the minds that go with them.” – Dr. George Sheehan

IN THE THICK OF IT

Now that I think about it, I am in the thick of Pfitz’s program for the next 3-4 weeks. I should be tired.

It turns out I need to do a better job of registering for the races I plan on running. The half marathon I’m thinking about running on Saturday jumps from a preregistered fee of $30 to $50 on race day.

Ouch!

Maybe I can still get it to them by Friday. If not, I may have to recruit some fast friends for a MP workout.

I finally got around to posting another interview.

Quote of the Day;

“I’m going to take the easy way out and just say I consider myself a runner. I have the versatility to move up or down.” - Josh Moen, when asked whether he's a 5k/10k runner or a marathoner

PATHETIC!

One thing I think Pfitz does well with his program is gradually ramp up mileage and tempo runs. It makes me wonder why he doesn’t do that with his VO2 workouts. Today was the first such workout for me and it consisted of 5 x 1200 meters. My next VO2 workout two weeks from now is 5 x 600 meters. Is it just me or are those in the wrong order?

Given my recent 10K pace of 6:18, I was planning on running these around 6:00 pace – or 4:30 per 1200.

Well, I wasn’t even close.

I’m talking 25 – 30 seconds SLOWER than I planned. Not only that, but the 4:55-5:00 times I was running are basically equivalent to the pace I’ve been running for my tempo runs.

Pathetic!

Of course, I have a ton of alibis regarding why I was slow, but I’ll just keep them to myself.

In college I probably had the speed to run low 2:40s (for the marathon), but not the strength. Now I’m a lot stronger, but I don’t have any speed. That may be my “project” for the summer.

Quote of the Day;

“A runner must run with dreams in his heart, not money in his pocket.” – Emil Zatopek

F-MINUS

Thanks to Eric for sending me this comic – it’s for all the bikers and triathletes out there. I’ve never heard of the strip before, but it’s called F-minus. That may be the best name for a comic ever.



It seems like the marathon season is in full swing now as the inaugural Eau Claire and LaCrosse Marathons were held over the weekend, along with Flying Pig and Eugene. Locally, Green Bay and Fargo are coming up quickly along with more inaugural races in Minneapolis and Stillwater. Still 7 weeks 'til Grandma's.

I’d love to hear from anyone that ran either EC or LaX, especially EC since that’s where I went to college. Leave a comment or shoot me an email. Congrats to Nathan on his 2:51 PR and 3rd place finish in LaX. I know facebook is cooler than blogging now, but maybe he’ll share a race report with us.

I finished out last week with an 8 miler on Friday with Scott and a 20 miler with my Saturday group. 18 of those miles were on the trails at Lebanon Hills, so it felt like I ran more like 22 miles. I closed out the week with 67 miles. A little shy of Pfitz’s 70 miles, but I’ll take it. “Cross-training” yesterday turned into hauling 5 yards of mulch in a wheelbarrow.

I don’t remember mentioning it, but I finished April with 249 miles. That my most since last August – which also happens to be the last time I ran 67 miles in a week.

Quote of the Day;

“I realized I don’t have to race, but I do have to run.” – Don, who’s been battling injuries, during Saturday’s long run

MISERABLE FOR SURE

Get in Gear was probably my first real deviation from Pfitz’s plan. It’s another month before he starts including races in the plan. He likes to plan a long run the day after a race, but I just couldn’t bring myself to run 17 miles the day after Get in Gear. The fact that it was 45 degrees and rainy didn’t help either.

I ended up taking Sunday off and then running an easy 5 miles on Monday. That meant I was well rested for Tuesday’s 15 miles through Hyland Park. Yesterday was an easy 8 miles with some strides. Not sure what was going on, but my stomach was spinning all day long. I nearly took the afternoon off, but didn’t – although I was in bed by 8:30 last night.

This morning I had another LT run planned. I thought for sure it was going to be miserable. My stomach still felt weird and I try to think of every possible way I could adjust my schedule and still get in all my runs this week. Being Thursday already, my options were really poor, so I forged on.

As a reminder, 3 weeks ago I ran 4 miles at 6:50 pace and last week I ran 5 miles at 6:47 pace. Last week my first couple of miles were like 6:55 pace, so I was prepared to see 7:00 on my watch today. I was pleasantly surprised to see 6:39 for the first mile. From there it was 6:42, 6:41, 6:31, 6:41 and 6:50 – for a total of 6 miles at 6:41 pace. That’s still not quite as fast as McMillan says to run (6:30 pace) based on my 10K time. But as long as I’m getting faster AND adding a mile each time, I’m happy.

Speaking of McMillan, he predicts a 3:04 marathon for me based on that same 10K time. Since I’ve just been trying to get back into running shape, I really haven’t been thinking about a goal for Grandma’s. However, as the saying goes, “A goal unwritten is a wish.” And since “A written goal is a dream with a deadline.” I’d better put some thought into a goal.

Of course, what comes to mind immediately is sub-3. Last year I ran 3:12 at Boston and 3:05 at TCM. I don’t want to fall into a routine of always being close, but never dipping under again. And while I initially thought sub-3 would have to wait until the fall, I think I’m seeing enough improvement week over week to take a crack at it on June 20th.

Quote of the Day;

“I know only two things. One, I will be dead someday; two, I am not dead now. The only question is what I shall do between those points.” - unknown

GET IN GEAR RACE REPORT

I made it.

Barely.

No I'm not talking about meeting my goal for the race, I'm talking about the race itself.

The start time for this race changed this year, but I couldn't remember if it changed from 9:30 to 9:00 or 9:00 to 9:30. Their website said 9:00 in one spot but also had a countdown clock that calculated to 9:30. For some reason I thought 9:30 was correct - I was wrong.

Normally this wouldn't be a problem because I typically arrive about an hour before the start of a race. Even if I was wrong, I'd still have a half an hour. However, since I picked up my race packet last night, there really wasn't any reason to get to the start so early.

The race is about 20 minutes from my house and at about 8:20 the logical side of my brain kicked in. I thought, "Why would they add a half marathon and make the race later?"

Hmm, I bet the race starts at 9:00.

I jumped in the car and arrived at the far south end of Minnehaha Park, near the off-leash dog park around 8:45. I changed into my race outfit and ran the 10 minutes to the start. As I approached the park I could hear the National Anthem.

Time for stride or two.

With probably 4,500 runners starting the half marathon and 10K at the same time, I was a little worried. Luckily I was able to jump a fence just as the Elites were starting - two minutes before the masses.

"Perfect" timing.

Race conditions were pretty good, especially for Get in Gear; 40-45 degrees, cloudy with a sight north wind, which meant a head wind for the first 2.5 miles or so.

My plan was to run the first mile in 6:20 +/- 10 seconds. I figure 6:10 would be a little too hot and 6:30 would be a tad slow. I ended up running a fairly comfortable 6:17. We started to get strung out a little during the second mile, so I tried to tuck in and relax. That was another fairly comfortable 6:17.

Given that I wanted to run faster than my Human Race pace of 6:23, I was starting to feel pretty confident. I know the 3rd mile has some uphill as we cross the Lake Street Bridge. I'm prepared for a slower split, so the 6:27 I see on my watch doesn't bother me.

A few seconds later I pass the halfway point in 19:37. Barring a complete and total meltdown, the sub-40 I wrote in my logbook is in the bag. I thought about writting sub-39:30, but didn't want to go "crazy".

Right after the 5K point we take a hard left and head up the hill towards St. Thomas University. If you've run TCM, you know the hill I'm talking about - it's around mile 22. The good news with GiG is that at the top of the hill we turn right and are rewarded with a downhill. Mile 4 passes in 6:20 and I'm happy that it's faster than the 3rd mile.

Did anyone read McMillan article in the last Running Times? He talked about race pace strategy. His advice is to break the race into sections and then mentally prepare yourself to "go for it" during some point in the race. He suggested working really hard during the third quarter of the race. At mile 4, this was what I was thinking about - along with my recent discovery that I need to focus on a quicker turnover.

It must have worked because the 5th mile ended up being my fastest of the day; 6:14. That means I ran 8K in about 31:20 or 23 seconds faster than Human Race. Not much happened during the last mile. I was able to maintain my pace with a 6:21 mile and 1:19 last two tenths.

39:15 with splits of 19:37 and 19:38. That's 6:18 pace or 5 seconds per mile faster than my pace for 8K five weeks ago. It also calculates to a 3:04 marathon.

So after all these years of trying to run faster at GiG than HR, I finally figured out how to do it. I just needed to let myself get really out of (running) shape during the winter.

Seriously, it's really great for the psyche to see the times going in the right direction.

ODDS & ENDS

Just a few odds and ends before the weekend.

I ran a solid 8 in Hyland with Scott on Thursday. Today I ran an ass-dragging-slow 5 miler this morning around Jensen Lake in Lebanon Hills. Tomorrow is the Get in Gear 10K.

Surprisingly – given that it’s Minnesota’s largest 10K - I’ve only run this race 3 times; 2001, 2005 and 2007. Each of those years I ran the Human Race 8K in March. Each of those years I always think I’ll run a faster pace for 10K than I did for 8K – because it’s 5-6 weeks later in the season. Each of those years I’ve been wrong. I’ve been 16, 2 and 8 seconds slower per mile, respectively. Based on my 31:43 (6:22 pace) from this year’s Human Race, McMillan says I should run 39:58 (6:25 pace) for 10K. I guess I’d take that, but really I’d like this to be the year where I do actually run faster at GiG than HR. Given my training between the two races, I think I can make it happen.

If you haven’t seen Nike’s running camp video, be sure to stop by Kurt’s blog to see it. Be sure to watch all the way to the end or you’ll miss the Gouchers.

I think I’ve used this QOD before, but it’s all I have handy – and it’s worth repeating.

Quote of the Day;

“I had reached a juncture at this point in the run: either I could get discouraged with the reality that I am not able to think myself into sprinting up the hill or I could accept, and even relish, in the pain and discomfort running throughout my body embracing the pain as part of my mission. Then something happened that I have never experienced during any painful running session: a smile slowly crept across my face. It was kind of a weird reaction to have, but for some reason I felt very alive and there was a new joy that I found in simply going all out. It was a great feeling to know that I was pushing myself to the max, that at this moment I had looked deep into myself for strength and used whatever I could muster.” – Ryan Hall

GETTING THERE

Frequent commentor, Double, always says he knows he’s rounding into shape when he can run a 20 miler at the drop of a hat. I’ve always countered that I know I’m getting fit when I can get through Pfitz’s medium-long runs in the middle of the week without even thinking about them. On the whole, there's probably not much difference in those two statements. While I’m not quite to the point of either of them, I’m getting there.

A week or two ago I mentioned that every hill during a medium-long run felt like a struggle. Today I spent 1:55 in Hyland Park and only half of the hills felt like a struggle. Maybe even less than half because it felt like I was cruising pretty good today. I often feel guilty for running my recovery days at 9:00 pace – I can’t think of any other runners that run 2:00 per mile slower than their marathon pace on their recovery days – but if it makes me run better during my tempos and medium-long runs, I’ll take it.

Looking at Pfitz’s plan as a whole – it seems amazingly simple. I’ve only done 2 tempo runs so far, but there are only 2 more on the plan. Then I’ll throw in 4-5 interval workouts, along with a couple of races and 1-2 MP workouts. It continues with the medium-long and long runs and that’s it – it’ll be June 20th before I know it.

I spent most of last Saturday’s long run with Jared. He’s the guy with quotes like, “I’m hurting pretty good, but I think I can hurt a lot more.” Well Saturday’s run provided a glimpse into where Jared gets this philosophy. Jared shared his father’s advice the first time he went out for organized football. It’s today’s QOD.

Quote of the Day;

“Never let them see that you’re injured and never let them know that you’re tired.” – Jared’s dad

RIGHT DIRECTION

Well, I seem to be heading in the right direction. Two weeks ago I ran my first tempo run and averaged 6:50 pace for 4 miles. This morning I made it 5 miles at 6:47 pace. It definitely helped having that first one under my belt. I’ve been running these on my old stomping grounds, the LTR in Hopkins. I like it because it’s flat and I can get into a rhythm, as opposed to running these around Braemar Golf Course, like I did last year.

After opening the tempo run with splits of 6:55 and 6:50, I noticed that my leg turnover didn’t seem very quick. I’m thinking it’s because of skiing where I focused on getting longer glides. Anyway, after that, I focused on a quicker stride rate and rattled off 6:40, 6:38 and 6:45 for the last 3 miles.

It looks like more strides will be in my future to help with my turnover.

I was also a lot more calm and focused for this tempo run. Again, I think just having one under my belt helped a lot. Whenever my mind started to race in a hundred different directions, I was able to calm down and focus on my stride and breathing. Thinking about this weekend’s 10K helped too.

Overall, it was a pretty good workout – especially being two days after a 20 miler.

Quote of the Day;

“I don’t train as much as the men do. But I train to the best of my ability and do not feel inferior to men in ability. I sometimes train with the men and this gives [me] confidence.” – Dire Tune

RIGHT ON TRACK

Wow, has it really been 10 days since my last post? I've been super busy at work, but am happy to report that running is still right on track. With 6 weeks of 45 -63 miles, I'm actually starting to feel like a runner again.

9 weeks to go!

I finished last week with 54 miles, including a nice 15 mile solo run in Lebanon Hills. This week was my biggest week in a long time - probably since last summer. I ended up with 63 miles on 6 runs. Yesterday I ran my first 20 miler of this cycle. Then I proceeded to rake the yard and help my neighbor haul some landscaping rocks from his yard to mine. I probably over did it, but it was just too nice, not to be outside. Today is a scheduled day off and it looks like rain - so hopefully I'll be able to recover nicely.

I think in this day and age of well-established marathons, it's easy to forget (or not care about) where they came from our how they got their start. The TCM recently sent out an email with notes from the first-year race director. I thought it was kind of interesting to read, you can check it out HERE.

Maybe this will be a good read for the race directors of all the new marathons that seem to be popping up in the area. Today's QOD might strike a cord with this year's inaugural Minneapolis and Stillwater marathons which happen to be a week apart.

Finally, good luck to those running Boston on Monday, including, Reneau, Rocco, Bill, Carly, Ryan, etc. If you guys figure out how to run that course, please let me know.

Quote of the day;

"The upshot was the Twin Cities hosted two marathons in 1982, one in Minneapolis and the other in St. Paul, and on consecutive weekends. As president of the MDRA, I found this embarrassing at best, and also threatening. The number of races these days makes it impossible to avoid some scheduling conflicts, but back-to-back marathons in one area looked like war. And I seemed to be one of the combatants." - Jack Moran

INITIAL TRADE-OFF

There is one thing I forgot to blog about last week. As I was running on the trails of Hyland Park for the first time this year it occurred to me that runners – or at least me – probably don’t realize when they are fit. However, they definitely realize when they aren’t fit. This thought came to me as I was struggling up some of the hills in the park. When I’m fit, I don’t even think about those hills. I took for granted my ability to run those trails for 2 hours in the middle of the week last year. Now 90 minutes is a struggle.

I was flipping through a book the other day – I can’t remember which one now – and I came across a line that made me feel a little better. It basically said that running a certain time in a race, year over year, is no indication of how the rest of your year will turn out. I took it to mean that just because I ran 1:40 slower than last year at the Human Race 8K, it doesn’t mean that I can’t get better results than last year as the season progresses. Granted, I have a long ways to go – but I guess that’s part of the whole ski/run experiment. Of course there’s an initial trade-off in running specific fitness, but at some point does being fresh and motivated to run counter act the effects of skiing?

Another indication that I have a long ways to go was seen with Tuesday’s workout; 9 miles with 4 at Lactate Threshold. Being my first such workout in this training cycle, I wasn’t too concerned about hitting exact paces, but I still wanted to have a ballpark idea of where I should be. I punched my 8K time into the McMillan Calculator and it spit out 6:31 to 6:48 pace for tempo runs. I was a tad slow, averaging 6:50 pace for the 4 mile stretch, but I’ll take it. It’s just a little frustrating that my marathon PR is faster than that pace. I just have to remind myself that it’s a long season and that I don’t have to be in PR shape for Grandma’s.

Yesterday I followed up my tempo run with a 12 miler and then this morning was a very easy 5 mile recovery run.

Finally, here’s my latest interview. Thanks to Adam for the suggestion.

Quote of the Day;

“Not sure I have any one fondest memory. There is a common feeling though. On the good days I feel like I have super powers – like I always have another gear I can tap into if I need it. I love those days!” - John Munger

JUST MIXED UP

If you’re interested, here’s a nice set of photos from Saturday’s race by Wayne Kryduba. I’m in 11, 33 (along with Nate and Jared) and 77 (with Nate).

On Sundays, Pfitz says to cross-train or rest. Yesterday – after waiting for the snow to melt (no, I'm not kidding) – I jumped on my mountain bike for a nice easy 45 minute spin to help loosen up the legs. Today I made a deviation from Pfitz. He said to run 9 miles with 4 at LT. Of course, he didn’t have a hilly 18 miler written in 2 days before that. So, I’m flipping that workout with Wednesday’s easy 5 mile run. I’ll still get in the same workouts, just mixed up a little. I figure recovering from Saturday, before my first LT workout, makes the most sense.

Quote of the Day;

“Now I wish I had crawled the rest of the way on my hands and knees. It is difficult to live with the fact you’ve quit. It’s like having a prison record.” – Hal Higdon

GLORIFIED TRAINING RUN

I finished week #1 of Pfitz's 12-week program with a nice 18 mile day (and 58 miles for the week) that included the Daws 25K "race" - or as the race director called it "a glorified training run." Being the 30th annual event, the organizers used our $4 entry fee to bring in Lorraine Moller, the 1992 Bronze Medalist in the Olympic Marathon, who was married to Ron Daws for awhile. She and Steve Hoag spent a few minutes before the race talking about Daws and his impact on their lives. Good stuff!

I ended up running the whole race with Nate, who I met for the first time at last Saturday's group run. He's training for the Green Bay Marathon, which is 6 weeks away. We started easy - I think our first mile was 7:50 - and then gradually picked up the pace. We were chatting away and before I knew it we were already 8 miles into the race - rattling off 7:00-7:30 miles, depending on the terrain. This is basically a 2 loop course and around mile 10 we hit the hills for a second time and things got quiet as our focus increased and the effort picked up. We brought it home pretty good with a couple of (barely) sub-7 miles and were able to catch half a dozen people in the last 2 miles.

I think if I didn't meet Nate last weekend, we surely would have met today because our pacing and strategy for the day was exactly the same.

We finished in 1:52 which is 7:13 pace - or about 4 minutes slower than last year. Of course, last year Boston was only 2 weeks away. With Grandma's still 11 weeks away, I think I'm on the right track. Tonight I was looking back at my Boston build-up and it's really no surprise that I ran so poorly (3:12). In the last 12 weeks leading up to the race I only had six weeks over 50 miles. It's no wonder everything ached by mile 16.

Obviously, I don't know what June 20th will bring, but I feel pretty good about where I'm at and the road ahead.

Quote of the day;

"Chad, you made me a better runner today." - Nate

PRICELESS

Probably not that big of a deal, but I’m still on track with Pfitz – after 6 days. The last four days have been alternating 11 miles at a moderate pace with 5 miles as a super easy recovery run. Being spring in Minnesota means I’ve experienced rain, snow and even a beautiful morning or two during that stretch. Even when it’s beautiful it’s still only about 30-32 degrees at 6 AM, so I’m still wearing long pants. I’m definitely looking forward to donning some shorts soon.

Yesterday was my first trail run since last fall and the trails at Hyland were in spectacular condition. It was still a little too dark at the start of my run, so I wore a headlamp. The first few times I wear a headlamp always remind me of what the Blair Witch Project must have been like. It’s a little scary, but I get used to it. Besides, within a half hour the sun is coming up.

40 is fast approaching. I have no problem with becoming a Masters runner. However, I still feel like I’m only 25-years-old. I was wondering if other people felt that way too. Then I was reading the April issue of Outside and there was an article by a 60-something guy talking about how he still felt 25. He then went on to explain why 60 was better than 25.

Anyone else out there feel a lot younger than they actually are? Maybe it has something to do with 25 kind of being that age where you’re finally out of school and on your own – so our minds kind of get “stuck” there.

I'll close with a little April Fool's trick my daughter played on my wife. Actually it wasn't so much the trick that I like, as much as how my daughter told me about it. Anyway, she simply took 2 cereal boxes, Raisin Bran (which my wife eats) and Frosted Flakes, and then switched the bags between the 2 boxes. I just happened to come into the kitchen as she was getting off of a chair next to the cabinet and I asked what she was doing. She looks at me very seriously and says, "If you want Raisin Bran in the morning, grab the Frosted Flakes box."

It was one of those priceless moments.

Quote of the Day;

“We’re not the 13:10 [5K] guys. We’re the 13:30 guys trying to run 13:20. It’s just as sweet.” – Matt Gabrielson

I NAILED IT

Saturday’s 16 miler gave me 56 miles for the week on 5 days of running. It helps the weekly mileage category when you run long on Sunday and Saturday – the first and last days of the week. Yesterday was my “official” start of Pfitz’s 12-week, 70 mpw program. How can you not like a training program that starts with a day off or a day of cross-training?

I nailed it!!!

Now if I can just nail the next 83 workouts, I’ll be all set come June 20th.

Although Pfitz doesn’t have any hill specific workouts in his program, I included 6 hill repeats this morning, along with 6 strides. That’s 4 weeks in a row with at least 1 hill/strides workout. I’m also trying to be consistent with my strength/core training. Normally I’m pretty good for about 3 weeks, before totally forgetting about it. Maybe if I include it in my blog, I’ll be a little more motivated to keep it going.

I’m a coffee lover, but rarely drink it before I race. Thanks to Eric for sending this article. I may have to reconsider my pre-marathon ritual, since it sounds like a cup of java may help my performance more than the quart of Gatorade I’m used to chugging. I’ll have to take the pee factor into account though. When I used to run at lunchtime, a morning cup of coffee would lead to two stops during a 6-mile run and three stops during an 8-mile run.

No, I’m not kidding. You can ask Eric, since we used to run together.

Quote of the Day;

"The marathon destroys talent, doesn't create talent." - Greg Meyer

12 WEEKS

I actually did go back and re-read all my Human Race reports since 2005. Last year I ended my report with this;

Anyway, normally I bust my ass all winter, have a great Human Race, and then slowly get worse throughout the year. This morning I was looking through my old logbooks and came across one instance where that didn’t happen. In 2003 I did triathlons. In 2004 I switched back to running and really struggled early on. I ran 30:44 at Human Race then ran 3:50 in the heat at Boston. While that was my worst marathon ever, I ended up having a great summer of road racing.

Well I don't have to worry about Boston this year. Since Grandma's is in June, I have an an extra 2 months that I didn't have in 2004. Of course after the marathon it means I have less time to recover.

Speaking of Grandma's, we're 12 weeks out as of yesterday. I finally sat down and laid out Pfitz's 12-week plan. I'm going to try and hit the 70 mpw program. I figure it starts with 55 mpw, which is where I'm at right now. I'll just have to adjust things as I go for the races I want to run.

I guess the good news is that I put storage wax on my skis and now I'm motivated and focused on running. I had a nice 16 miler yesterday - by far my longest sustained run since TCM.

Quote of the day;

"I cannot name one individual heroic workout that will take someone to the next level, but there are a few workouts that, when done consistently and repetitively as part of a training schedule, can lead to substantial progress for the majority of runners." Joe Rubio, from Run Strong

HUMAN RACE REPORT

I doubt there is another race around that I am more loyal to than the St. Patty’s Day Human Race in St. Paul. For me, it’s usually the first race of the spring and everyone is buzzing after not racing for 4-5 months. Looking back, I see that I’ve run this race 10 times in the last 12 years;

Race History Date Time Pace
Human Race 8k 3/16/1997 32:14 6:29
Human Race 8k 3/28/1999 34:19 6:54
Human Race 8k 3/19/2000 30:09 6:04
Human Race 8k 3/18/2001 29:52 6:01
Human Race 8k 3/24/2002 29:20 5:54
Human Race 8k 3/21/2004 30:44 6:11
Human Race 8k 3/20/2005 29:56 6:01 – 116th
Human Race 8k 3/19/2006 29:15 5:53 – 110th
Human Race 8k 3/18/2007 29:33 5:57 – 104th
Human Race 8k 3/16/2008 30:02 6:02 – 108th
Human Race 8k 3/22/2009 31:43 6:23 – 162nd

If it’s a slow Monday and you’re really bored, you can even go back and read my race reports from 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. Or just keep reading for a recap of yesterday’s race.

I guess the big question going in to the race was; how is skiing going to affect my running? Just looking at the averages from 2004 – 2008, it looks like it “cost” me roughly 1:30 – 2:00 and about 50 places. Now the big question becomes; how does the rest of 2009 turn out? Normally, Human Race is one of best races of the year – often my times don’t improve much between now and September. This is the year to change all that. Hopefully, skiing has left me fresh, recharged and ready to attack the 2009 racing calendar.

As for blow-by-blow details, we had great weather - probably 50 degrees. There was some wind, but it was during the first half when we had more people to tuck behind. Then there was a nice tailwind during the second half of the race. As usual, my splits were very even with my first mile being my slowest and my last “mile” being my fastest; 6:31, 6:22, 6:21, 6:30 and 5:58. If I had to guess, I’d say mile 4 was a little long because it didn’t feel like I slowed down at all. And the last .96 might have been a little short because it didn’t feel like I sped up that much.

Training-wise, I’ve put together back-to-back 45 mile weeks, added hills and strides. And the long (7 mile) cool down – which I bitched about the whole time – gave me my longest day (14 miles) since TCM. It also means I’ve run 59 miles in the last 7 day. Now I just need A LOT more of that.

If you’re interested in the full results, you can check them out HERE.

Quote of the Day;

“People always blame the shoes, but a lot of time it's the training." - Kevin Paulk

HAPPY SPRING

The author of one of the blogs I follow recently pulled the plug, saying something about simplifying their life. I like the idea of simplifying things. But while I’m not ready to pull the plug completely on this thing, I have been gradually cutting back on the number of times I post a week. I figure after 4 years of blogging, I’ve probably spewed all the things I can think of – twice. I’ll continue to post links, race reports, articles and stuff that I think is blogworthy, but I’d like to cut out all the mundane writing that no one really cares about.

I’ve talked about not understanding why people I haven’t seen in 20 years want to be friends on facebook. We never talked in high school, why do you want to know anything about me now? However, the other day I became friends with a gal I used to run with in high school. We’ve been able to catch up through emails, which has been really cool. She’s run 35 marathons, 2 ultras and an Ironman. So “thanks” to facebook for re-connecting us.

A little while ago, I posted a link to a site that contained interviews with older runners. They even posted an interview with a guy who runs and skis. The guy also has a blog. I haven’t checked it out yet, but since Adam says he can’t find many ski blogs, I thought I’d throw the link out there.

Quote of the Day;

“It's hard to say if I'd be a better runner or skier if I focused solely on one or the other. But in a big way, that's not even the point… The truth is, I'm just as enthused about running during summer as I am about skiing in the winter.” – Roger Sayre

TOO MODEST

Because he is too modest to say something himself, I’m going to post this Person of the Year link regarding my good friend Jim. I don’t know much about snowshoeing, but I’m sure they couldn’t come up with a more deserving person if it were the most popular sport in the world.

Here’s a recap of the National Championship race. Congrats to Kelly Mortenson for his 2nd place finish and to former Minnesotan, Brady Erholtz, for her victory. And if you like stunning photos of snow, mountains, trees, etc., check these out.

Quote of the Day;

"The faster I got, the faster I wanted to get. I was a greedy runner." - Claudette Groenendaal.

CAN'T PROMISE

I can't promise that this will be the last thing I mention regarding skiing - at least for this ski season - but it has to be near the end. I came across this 3-minute video of the Birkie. It doesn't matter whether you ski or not, I think it's worth viewing. Just look at how smooth the leaders are and look at the incredible rolling wooded terrain. I'm tempted to drop $25 for the 2 DVD set.

RESULTS AND PHOTOS

Just look at this "flawless" form. Maybe if I got one of those fancy lycra ski suits, I could shave 2-3 minutes off my time.

I couldn't find the results on the race's website or the website of the company that did the timing. Good thing we have skinnyski.com Apparently, the results that were posted in the chalet left off the top 11 finishers.

The results online make a lot more sense. They show that I finished 13th overall and 2nd in my age group. If anyone knows Jason Midgarden from Golden Valley, tell him I have his 1st place 30-39 medal. Out of 43 individuals, I was 26th in the ski, 17th in the bike and 8th in the run. I don't know if I should be surprised that I was so far back in the ski or so far up in the bike.

What's up with my helmet? Maybe it's off center because I never worn it with a winter hat underneath it.


Here I am heading out for the run. Yes, the day was as beautiful as this photos make it look; about 30 and sunny at the start. Later in the day it got up to 52 degrees - finally! A great day for my last ski and first bike ride of the year.

If you're local and wished you could have participated in this event, you have another opportunity next weekend with the trinNordique.

POLE PEDAL PANT

It seems like year after year I end up doing a lot of the same races. Around here you've got your Human Race, Get in Gear, Hennepin Lakes, Victory, etc. Well so far this year I've completed 3 races and they've all been new to me.

This morning I became a triathlete (again) when I participated in the Pole Pedal Pant winter triathlon. While this was the 20th annual race, it's been held in 3 different locations. Today's event was held at the fabulous Elm Creek Park Reserve and was made up of a 10K x-c ski, 7K bike and 7K run. The bike and run were along the same "packed" snow trail. At least it was packed before a bunch of bikers and runners went over it. Just look at this transition area. Does it get any better? Seriously, replacing wetsuits with skis may be the best idea in the history of triathlons.

Overall, I had a great time racing. One of the things I love about skiing and these kinds of events is that I don't have any preconceived notions about how fast I should be going or who I should be in front of or behind. It's a race and I just listen to my body and go as hard as I can.

I continue to be amazed by how fast people are on skis. We skied four 2.5K loops and I was only about 8K in when the leaders were mounting their bikes. I'm not sure what place I was after the ski leg, but it sure felt like I was at the back of the pack - or at least in the middle of it.

The bike was really interesting due to the combination of rutted snow and stretches of ice. I couldn't take my eyes off the trail in front of me for fear of wiping out. Even though we were really spread out by now, it was still a little difficult getting around people at times because they were swerving all over due to the terrain. Somehow I managed to pass probably 10-15 people during the bike.

Coming out of T2 I was a little worried because the guy who was about 30 seconds in front of me didn't really look like a runner, but he was hauling ass. I finally caught him after about a half mile and then when we got to the first hill, he started to walk. Go figure. After that I settled in and focused on finding the best footing around. Before the race I wasn't sure if wearing my Yaktrax was legal or not. Then I saw some guy with medal studs in his bike tires and I figured anything goes. Besides it's no different than applying top of the line wax to your skis. I'm not sure how much they helped - definitely not as much as the 30 years of training - but I was able to pass another 10-15 people during the run.

After finishing in around 1:44 I walked out onto the course a little ways so I could talk with one of my all-time favorite runners, Dick Beardsley. I'm not sure if any of the skier and biker-types even knew who he was. That was great for me because I was able to speak with him for probably 15-20 minutes. He's super nice and super easy to talk to. He travels to races all over the place. If you ever get a chance to talk to him, I highly recommend it. And I recommend listening to his speeches at marathon expos. He's an awesome motivational speaker.

Looking at this photo, you can tell this was a pretty small race, but not as small as the results would have you believe. When I returned to the chalet I was SHOCKED to see that I finished 2nd overall (less than a minute out of first) and that only 2 relay teams beat me. To be honest, I don't believe the results. Given that they didn't use chip timing and that everything was being written down by hand, also makes me a little suspicious. Plus they only had like 23 individuals listed along with 9 relays. I'm telling you, there are more than 32 bikes in that photo. I know that I'm a decent runner, but I rarely ride a bike - and never on snow packed trails. I find it hard to believe that I caught up to the people that skied probably 6-8 minutes faster than me. It'll be interesting to see what gets posted online.

Finally, I have to give a shout out to my neighbor, Jason, for tuning my bike. If you like anything about bikes, especially mt. bikes, stop by and check out his blog. And if you happen to be in the market for a new bike, check out the bikes he makes at Salsa Cycles.

PRO WASH

I’ve mentioned some of the emails I’ve received from time to time from companies wanting me to test their products and write a review. Well, it’s that time again and this time it’s ProWash activewear detergent. It looks like they’ve been busy collecting reviews from other bloggers too.

One thing you may notice with these reviews is that they’re nearly all written by women. Not that guys don’t do laundry, but possibly because guys don’t notice the difference between detergents. I wish I could come on here and rave that this detergent “thoroughly cleans without sacrificing the performance of a garment” but honestly I don’t pay that much attention. Do my dirty running clothes smell better after washing them with ProWash? Yes. Does ProWash “work better than ordinary detergent on my activewear garments”? I can’t say for sure.

I mean the high-tech clothing of today has come a long way since the early 80s. I remember the first lycra shirt that I ever owned. It was a blue, skintight long sleeved shirt that probably only smelled good when I first bought it. I think the more I washed it, the worse it smelled. Now if I could put that to the ProWash 100% guarantee, that’d be saying something.

If you’re interested in this product, but would like more in-depth reviews, check out Amazon.com and the 103 reviews for ProWash. Also on Amazon, you’ll see that you can get three 24-ounce pouches for $26.64. I have no idea how the price of this concentrated detergent compares to other products on the market.

If nothing else, hopefully this post makes you aware that there are products out there specifically designed for all our high-tech exercise clothing. You may want to check them out for yourself to see if you notice a difference.

BELIEVE IT OR NOT

Things seem to be coming around slowly for me. I’ve run 6 days in a row. Believe it or not, that’s a tie for the most since August. My lungs feel great, but the legs aren’t very strong. I’m thinking about adding in a hill workout once a week to help with that.

Yesterday I told the TCM that I wouldn’t be back this year. Last year I volunteered to write press releases and collect runner bios for them. While it was an interesting experience, I think the time and energy I use to cover the local running scene are better suited towards my interviews, helping out on DtB and writing articles for MDRA.

Speaking of interviews, I just posted a new one. And thanks to Tim for sending me a link to this site with lots of good stuff. I gave him a hard time that it was “cool, if you’re old.” We’ll I was either wrong or I’m old. Probably old because I liked the Greg Meyer interview, but I doubt that most runners know who he is. Anyway, if you’re into that kind of stuff, check it out. Oh, I just noticed a profile of Ed Whitlock. If you don’t know Ed, he ran a 2:54 marathon – AT AGE 73!

Finally, I got an email about a new documentary coming to town. It’s this Thursday and I can’t make it, but I thought I’d throw the info out there for others that are local and may be interested.

“Beyond the Epic Run”, which is a documentary about a man who runs around the world and his wife who follows behind him and films their entire journey.

We are hosting a screening at the University of Minneapolis on March 12. The screening is free, and please feel free to bring whom ever and as many people as you wish.

Here is some more information about the film:

In February, 2000, a couple left home in Switzerland to run around the world...alone. A small crowd of friends and family gathered in the morning hours in the shadows of the Matterhorn in Sion, Switzerland. They were there to send Serge and Nicole Roehteli off with great fanfare to begin what would be an epic journey. With Nicole as his sole crew support, following him on a motorcycle towing a small trailer, Serge was setting off to run over 25,000 miles, on six continents and through 37 countries. Here is the trailer.

If anyone does go, let me know what you think.

Quote of the Day;

“Even the things that are hard to learn are worth the experience of getting it wrong sometimes.” - Helen Lavin

ROLL THE DICE

After one visit to Jenna’s office and a couple of ski outings, I’m back to running. Things are very slow and I’ve stayed under 45 minutes – but at least I’m running. So I have a lot of work to do before this;

Thank you for submitting your entry for the June 20, 2009 Grandma's Marathon.

I’ve been really wishy-washy regarding whether or not I should run this race. Everything I’ve read and heard from other skiers basically says not to run a spring marathon. However, I just have to find out for myself. Maybe I’ll run another mediocre race like at Boston last year, maybe not. There’s only one way to find out. So I’m going to roll the dice and see what kind of shape I can get into during the next 3+ months.

For those of you that know Chris Lundberg or if you checked out his blog from my post last Friday, there’s good news surrounding his possible amputation(s) due to frostbite. You can read the updates HERE.

I just realized I missed my blog-iversary. March 2nd was the 4th anniversary of this blog. That’s hard to believe. Lots of blogs have come and gone in that time. Even my blog reading habits have changed significantly. I can’t remember the last really fun blog that I recommended. But lately I’ve been checking out Steve in a Speedo. Even though he’s a triathlete, I find his blog really entertaining. I have no idea where he gets all his images – or at least where he finds the time to find them – but they is always something to make me laugh.

Quote of the Day;

“The doc was unequivocal about the fact that there will be NO amputation with respect to my body.” – Chris Lundberg

OVERKILL

2009 skiing-related injuries: 0

2009 running-related injuries: 1

One week back and my right calf has already flared up. When our snow melted three weeks ago I was able to run 35 miles in the week along with a 10 miler. I had another 10 miler the following week. So I wouldn’t think 30 miles last week would be overkill. As I transition from skiing to running, it’s hard to get too worked up over this set back. However, it does make me leery of signing up for a spring marathon. And if I continue to get beat up, my “seasonal” sport may become my “new” sport.

Hmm, I wonder if my Saturday morning running group would mind if I roller skied next to them.

I guess the good news is that skiing doesn’t bother my calf and the trails are in fantastic shape. The bad news is that trail conditions can deteriorate in a hurry this time of year.

I finally got around to posting another interview. I would have done it sooner, but when my home computer crashed, I lost everything. I also lost a bunch of email addresses, so if you’re used to getting email updated of new postings, you’re out of luck. I figure with the new year, it’s time to break that chain – people can get a google reader account or something similar.

In other interview news, a week after I interviewed Scott Chapin he experienced heart problems while out training. Here’s an update on his story.

I guess that puts my calf injury in perspective.

Quote of the Day;

“Kempainen was someone I really admired, and still admire. I remember watching him place second in the New York Marathon in 1993. I was a high school runner then, and it was the greatest thing I had ever seen. Then they interviewed him, and I can’t remember what he said, but he was of course extremely humble.” – Chris Lundstrom

NEVER AGAIN

Just a few more things on the Birkie. Here’s the freestyle winner’s race report, along with the classical winner’s race report. If you’re not familiar with Bjorn Daehlie, think the Haile Gabrselassie of skiing – but a little passed his prime.

I took 2 days off after the race and am now trying to get consistent with my running. The problem is that an hour of running seems to beat up my body more than 3 hours of skiing. So I’m trying to be patient and gradually work myself back.

I will say that I feel like I’m in the worst running shape in probably 8 years. It’s funny because during that stretch I always felt like I was in the kind of shape needed to run a 30-minute 8K or a 3-hour marathon. After awhile, you kind of take that running fitness for granted. Now I’m realizing that a lot of work went into being able to do that. When the topic of weekly mileage comes up in the future, I’ll never again proceed it with “just” or “only”. I can remember having a conversation last winter where I said something like I was only running 70 mpw. Right now I’m not even able to comprehend that figure.

Finally, I’ll close the week by throwing out a link to Chris Lundberg’s blog. He's one of the top local runners and he moved out west last summer. He was severely frostbitten on a back-country ski trip last week and there's still a chance he could lose his foot. If you know Chris – or even if you don’t – stop by and wish him well.

Quote of the Day;

“For 2k I skied nearly as hard as I could. I was passing skate skiers like they were standing still. Spectators and road crossings whizzed by. Suddenly, the vast openness of the lake appeared before me. I decided to have a peek back behind me. No sign of Mike, no sign of Geir, and Bjorn Daehlie is standing on the back of my skis. Crap.” – Gus Kaesing

BIRKIE VIDEOS

HOW TO IMPROVE

Of course, now the question becomes; “How can I improve upon my performance?” Or as Adam asked; “What would I do differently with my training?”

I guess the first thing would be to get some lessons to help me with my technique. Given how I felt at the end of the race, I definitely think technique is slowing me down more than my engine. I mean I was passing people that looked like they had great technique, but they were exhausted. One guy in particular looked really smooth. He kept pulling away from me but I seemed to catch him on the hills or at the aid stations, due to the traffic. Towards the end of the race I thought for sure that he dropped me. However, I was surprised to catch and pass him on the lake.

I think simply replacing an easy run with an easy roller ski once a week will help too. And then once the fall marathon season has passed, I can increase that frequency until we have snow.

As for specific training ideas, one would be to take what I know about marathoning and apply it to skiing. I’m thinking something as simple as MP skis and tempo workouts.

I always tried to end my long ski sessions by including some hills towards the end. I think that really helped prepare me for the Birkie. However, the race does finish by crossing Lake Hayward for the last 2K. So throwing in a hard tempo effort or two at the end of those long skis would probably pay dividends on race day. I’d say doing the City of Lakes Loppet race also helps with that because it finishes by crossing a bunch of lakes.

One other technique that I could work on too is the Herringbone. I didn’t use it in training much, but when some of the Birkie hills get congested and the snow is like mashed potatoes, then the Herringbone seemed to work best.

As far as strategy goes, I’d probably get to the start earlier and make sure I was near the front of my wave and then try to get out hard. Given I had no idea what I was getting into, I went out conservatively. The problem with that strategy is that you use more energy trying to get around people when the course narrows or you just get stuck behind them on the hills. I think getting out hard and then settling in would be a better strategy.

I’m sure I’ll come up with more ideas, but these are what come to mind right away.

Quote of the Day;

“Skiing down Main Street was a highlight of my life--looking back across the trail and the 51km, I knew I had tamed both the Birkie trail and my own personal demons; it was truly a wonderful moment.” – Martin Gibbs

THE BIRKIE

I don't think most people want to go through life with a bunch of regrets. Luckily, I think I've been pretty fotunate in that regard. Quitting high school basketball, instead of waiting to get cut, may be my biggest regret - at least until this weekend. Now my biggest regret is that I didn't start skiing earlier in life so that I could have more Birkies under my belt.

Now I'm not going to say this is the absolute greatest event I've ever participated in - mainly because I don't think it's fair to compare the likes of a Grandma's, an Ironman or a Birkie - but it's right near the top. I do think all these great events have a couple of things in common, namely a leader with a vision - whether it be Scott Keenan, John Collins or Tony Wise - and unique, albeit small, beginnings that have grown into international events.

The Birkie's humble beginnings included 35 classical skiers making a 55K trek mainly using a trail in the ditch next to the highway. 36 years later the weekend of events consists on nearly 10,000 skiers making their way along the most beautiful and challenging trails I've ever skied. Along the way there are such landmarks as the Powerline - a series of hills within the first 5K, Bobblehead Hill - a long downhill with a 90 degree lefthand turn where a bunch of snowmobilers (the bobbleheads) gather to cheer, jeer and wait for skiers to wipe out, Bitch Hill - a long, steep hill 42K into a 50K race - think Heartbreak Hill, and a great finish on the streets of downtown Hayward.

It was difficult for me to think of a time goal for this race. It was only my third ski race ever and it was the longest by 17K. I thought 3:20 seem pretty reasonable - plus or minus 10 minutes depending on whether I was have a good or bad day. For a non-time goal I was hoping to ski well enough that next year I'll move up from this year's 3rd wave.

When it comes to running marathons I've talked about 2 distinct races depending on what I'm thinking around mile 16. If I think, "Damn, I still have 10 miles to go." I'm in for a long day. If I think, "Damn, I only have 10 miles to go." I'm having a great day. Since this was my first skiing marathon, I have no idea if they follow similar criteria. I do know that I didn't want my first Birkie to end. I felt great the whole way and seemed to feed off of passing people from waves that started 10 and 20 minutes in front of me. I ended up crossing the finish line in 3:12 - a time that should definitely put me in wave 2 next year.

After changing clothes and grabbing a bowl of soup I walked 2 blocks to a great coffee shop that was playing Neil Young. Does it get any better than that? Well maybe if I knew some other skiers.

While I didn't come out and proclaim the Birkie the greatest event ever, I will pay it this compliment - with apologies to Jack Nicholson in "As Good as it Gets". The Birkie makes me want to be a better athlete. The Birkie makes me want to work on my core strength. The Birkie makes me want to eat my fruits and vegatables. The Birkie is enough to make winter my new favorite season. The Birkie is an event I can see planning my entire season around. And maybe the best compliment of all; I can't see not doing this race in the future.

BETTER THAN SEX

Good news…

HAYWARD, Wis., Feb. 17, 2009 – With just 4 days til the 36th anniversary American Birkebeiner in Cable and Hayward, Wis., Executive Director Ned Zuelsdorff today announced Birkie skiers will ski a full race with finish on Main Street, Hayward.

“The trails from the start line to Lake Hayward are in excellent ski conditions, very firm, clean and fast," reports Zuelsdorff. "In preparation for a Main Street finish we have a crew who will be finishing the route across Lake Hayward on Wednesday.”

Now my only concern is that this event won’t live up to the hype. Given all I’ve read and heard about this event over the years, if it’s not better than sex I’m going to be extremely disappointed. All right, maybe my expectations aren’t quite that high, but it’s close.

I think a good comparison would be when a movie gets a ton of hype which makes you expect great things from it. But then once you see it, it’s just okay. That same movie without any expectations may in fact be great.

That’s what I’m hoping to avoid this weekend. Somewhere between Grandma’s Marathon Weekend and sex would satisfy my expectations.

Quote of the Day;

“I skied across the lake yesterday and anticipate that skiers will have very good trail conditions over their final kilometers of the race.” – Ned Zuelsdorff

STRANGELY SATISFYING

The problem with spring melt we had a week ago is that now everyone thinks winter is over. However, we still have a good 4-6 weeks left of cold and snow. And with “all” of the snow gone, skiing isn’t much of an option. I did manage to make my way to Hyland Park on Sunday and ski on the manmade snow on their downhill ski area. Going into this Saturday’s race without being on skis for 2 weeks would not have been a good thing, so now I feel a little better. I will say that there’s something strangely satisfying when you ski to the top of a hill used for downhill skiing. Granted this is Minnesota I’m talking about, not Colorado, but it was still pretty cool.

I also managed 35 miles of running last week. While everything seems to be a little sore – especially my hamstrings – it feels like my running legs are coming around a little. And if, like me, you needed a little extra motivation to get out and run, be sure to check out Ryan’s blog and congratulate him on his first sub-3. This is a guy who’s path to sub-3 is fairly similar to mine; “had to” give up a sport he loved (hockey for him, basketball for me) to make it happen, kept adding mileage to his programs, and had a bunch of near-misses. His training since running 3:06ish at TCM has been amazing and he definitely earned his sub-3.

Quote of the Day;

“I achieved my goal and made personal running history this morning at the Austin Marathon.” - Ryan

IN SHOCK

I am seriously still in shock by how quickly the snow has disappeared. If my computer worked at home, I’d take a picture to prove it. Since I can’t, you can check out a photo or two on Jean’s blog.

Here’s the official report from the Birkie office:

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009 12:00:00 PM

The weather in Northwest Wisconsin has not been cooperating or making it easy for the event. The weather has cooled since Monday and the rain is no longer falling. The high on Monday night reached 44F. A first assessment of the trail was done this morning and a second will be done on Wednesday morning.

The trail base remains strong and frozen with 4"-7" of good base. The crews will begin tilling on Wednesday night or Thursday morning. We anticipate that the trail will groom up nicely and conditions will be very good again. However, the trail is becoming icy as temperatures drop and we ask that people not ski on the trail until we've been able to re-groom.

A couple of sites I visit say it’s not a lost cause yet and that they can do amazing things with their high-tech grooming equipment. Probably the biggest problem is that as the race comes into town, it crosses Lake Hayward, which I’m sure is just a sheet of glare ice now. So I’m guessing we’ll probably be racing, but it may be on a shortened course. Who knows, maybe that’s a good thing when you consider that I might be heading into this race without touching ski to snow for over 2 weeks.

I have been running more and will actually be over 30 miles this week. Woot, woot!!! Thinking about my last post and checking out a calendar, I see that Grandma’s Marathon will be 18 weeks away on Saturday. Hmm, that seems to tie in nicely with a Pfitz plan.

I’ve mentioned that my (nearly) 8-year-old has taken an interest to skiing the last 2 years. We usually just go to the local county park and rent skis for her. I’ve been thinking about getting her some skis and mentioned to my wife, who wasn’t as gung-ho. I see her point, financially, it’s like $7 to rent versus probably $100 or more to buy. And since she’s growing like a weed, it makes even less sense. However, I think my wife only sees it as money out the door, where as I see it as laying a foundation to exercise that will last a lifetime. As someone who started running at age 10, I can’t even imagine what my life would have been like without that introduction to endurance sports. Sure we can continue to rent, but I think she’d have more opportunities if the two of us could go whenever we wanted. Sounds like I have some convincing to do.

Quote of the Day;

“As my girls get older I've realized my workouts aren't only for my own benefit. They benefit my children too because I am (along with dad) their role model for fitness. When your kids include triathlon in their creative play you know you're doing something right. I've read that studies show if parents exercise, children are likely to grow up exercising too. That's very important to me. Fitness is a family value in our house.” - Kara Thom

SUCKS FOR EVERYONE

I think it’s safe to say that 40 degrees and rain sucks for everyone. Our awesome ski conditions have basically disappeared overnight. I guess the good news is that most of my “training” for the Birkie is complete. The next two weeks would have been maintenance anyway. However, if we don’t get any more snow in the next 10 days, the whole thing could be off.

The thing I’ve been struggling with the most lately is whether or not I should sign up for Grandma’s Marathon. Based on my experience at Boston last year and on what other skiers have told me about transitioning from snow to a spring marathon, I’d be smart to skip it. However, it’s very hard to skip your favorite marathon. I mean, they only come around once a year.

I think one of the cool things about endurance events is that they’re a whole different creature than the every-weekend 5K and 10K. All our training focuses on one or two events a year and we get really fired up for them. One of the things I wrote about last winter was how skiing would allow me to add to the number of these types of events, so I’ll be able to do three or four big events each year, instead of one or two. With that in mind, it makes skipping Grandma’s even less of an option.

I guess the lack of snow will “force” me back in to my running shoes a little earlier than I was planning. In fact, Rick dragged me out for a 10 miler this morning – my furthest run in 3.5 weeks.

Quote of the Day;

“The only problem is that you end up being really fit in March and you have to be really careful getting back into running to make sure you don’t get injured.” - Jan Guenther

CAUGHT UP

Well, the Birkie is less than 2 weeks away. Maybe after that I’ll get back to talking about running. I ended up taking the day off from work on Friday in order to get in one last long ski. Taking the day off served 2 purposes; 1) it allowed me more time at home with the kids during the weekend and 2) it allowed me to beat the heat wave.

Warm-weather running = great.

Warm-weather skiing = not so great.

I ended up skiing for just over 3 hours and covered 44K. Chris joined me for about half of that and it was great having the company – although skiing together is not the same as running together. It’s not like you’re side by side having a conversation the whole time. It’s more like ski for awhile, regroup and talk a little, ski, regroup, talk, etc.

Saturday was my first run in 2 weeks - and it felt like it! 4 miles felt like 104 miles. With our current above freezing temps and rain in the forecast, I’ll probably end up running more than skiing this week.

Since I haven’t blogged much lately, here are some high-level things that are new;

Bailey, our dog, turned 10 years old.
Katie turned 5 ½ years old, which is a big thing when you’re that age.
Kinsey now owns 2 guinea pigs; Shadow and Cocoa.
Recent parent-teacher conferences went really well.
I “PRd” at Wii bowling with a 244.
We had a power surge 2 weeks ago that fried our computer (even though it was plugged into a surge protector) and screwed up the readout on our treadmill.
I’ve subscribed to the Food Network magazine, which I really like – although no one else is too fond of my cooking.
We’re thinking about going to Disney World this year but can’t decide between June, October, or just waiting another year.

Now you’re all caught up on my life.

Quote of the Day;

“I knew I was the top returner from 2008 so there was some pressure to win the race.” – Emily Brown, after winning her first national title over the weekend

CITY OF LAKES LOPPET

What an awesome weekend! I’m sure the City of Lakes Loppet organizers were thrilled to have temps above 40 on Saturday for more of their family events and then in the low 30s on Sunday for their main races.

This was only my second x-c ski race. As soon as I got off the bus I was literally looking around and listening to people – trying to get a lay of the land and gain some insight from some of the more experience skiers. Scott did the 10K as his first race ever and he summed it up perfectly;

I was like a fish out of water pre-race. It was so close to something I've done a million times but so far.

For me, it’s weird to go from running races where you see tons of familiar faces, to a ski race where I might recognize 2-3 people – if that. But I think that is just something that adds to the uniqueness of this whole experience. And it’s definitely a unique experience when you train by yourself or with a handful of people on perfectly groomed courses and then try to race 800 people on narrow trails through mashed potatoes. That’s the best way to describe much of the course – especially the hills.

I was a little worried that I had the wrong wax on. I based wax on Friday’s forecast and then it got warmer than expected on Saturday, so it wasn’t as cool on Sunday. But I stuck with what I had, FastWax LF Blue, and it seemed fine.

Just before the start, I decided to use my stopwatch even though there aren’t any mile markers like in running. I know with wave starts that sometimes it can be hard to figure out your final time because the race clock starts with wave one. Now I’m glad I did this because it appears I was given the wrong chip. At first I thought it was a little odd that my name wasn’t read off, like all the others skiers, as I crossed the finish line. It wasn’t that big of deal and I proceeded to change clothes and grab some soup. 15 minutes later I hear my name being announced. Sure enough, the results have me finishing in 2:17 even though my clock showed 2:02.

Obviously, I don’t have a lot to compare those results to, but I seemed to be moving up on a lot of people in the wave ahead of me. So I’ll take that as a positive. Also, I averaged 3:46 per KM or like 6:05 per mile, which seems pretty quick compared to my training paces.

With that said, I still have a ton of work to do. Going from the top 5% of running races to the top 40% of skiing races is very humbling. I did find it kind of interesting that this race was made up of 81% men. That seems disproportionately high. Where are all the women at?

Even though I had a great time during my race, my favorite part of the weekend was taking my (nearly) 8 year old daughter with me on Saturday. After picking up my packet she participated in the kids’ carnival as well as the Minne-Loppet. She earned her first blister and her first medal. It makes me super proud to see her out there.

Quote of the Day;

“Skiing the Birkie was an amazing experience! I feel the best I have ever felt in my life.” - Mary Krook, First-time Birkie skier

JUSTIFICATION

I always thought becoming a Masters runner would be enough to motivate me to train hard and achieve new heights – or at least better than average heights. However, with my 40th birthday still 6 months away, I’m not feeling motivated at all. I’m not sure if it’s because of skiing, 30 years of running taking their toll, or something else entirely. Maybe it has something to do with having a birthday in August, which means the first half of the season I’ll still be 39.

I don’t know what it is, but I do find myself thinking more and more about trying different events this year and focusing on having fun rather than performing at my best. Maybe these are the same thoughts that have led to less consistent training lately. I find myself skipping workouts more readily lately. For example, last week was solid, but this week I’ve slept in on 2 occasions and cut one workout short because I couldn’t warm up my hands. Of course, I’m able to justify all this by claiming that it’s a taper for this weekend’s race. However, if I “taper” much more, I won’t remember how to ski. And 6 miles of running in the last 2 weeks doesn’t bode well for tearing up the roads as a Master.

Stuff like this has me contemplating whether or not I should sign up for Grandma’s Marathon. Part of me wants to, just because it’s such an awesome event. Plus, I want to see how my skiing fitness will transfer to a spring marathon. However, even with 17 weeks to train between the Birkie and Grandma’s, it doesn’t seem like enough time – at least not to get into top shape.

I still feel like I have more marathon PRs in me, but not if I don’t find some motivation soon.

Looks like a bunch of Team USA Minnesota runners are not lacking motivation. You can read their journals HERE.

Quote of the Day;

“When I first started running, I was so embarrassed, I’d walk when cars passed me. I’d pretend I was looking at the flowers.” – Joan Benoit Samuelson

NO WORSE FOR THE WEAR

I’m still trying to figure out the similarities/differences between training for a running marathon versus a skiing marathon. Normally, I don’t like to increase my long runs by more than 2-3 miles at a time. Well, on Friday I was able to bump my longest ski from 32K to 40K or roughly 5 miles – and I feel no worse for the wear. That gives me a lot more confidence with the Birkie only 4 weeks away. And it doesn’t hurt that I skied 128K last week. Doesn’t that sound more impressive than 80 miles? Maybe I should start tracking my running mileage in kilometers too.

All this talk of the Birkie has nearly made me forget about the City of Lakes Loppet which is THIS SUNDAY!!! With all this training, I’m so looking forward to getting out and competing in my second x-c ski race ever. Just for a refresher, here’s my race report from last year’s Korte.

One thing I haven’t figured out yet is how to consume calories while skiing. The good news is that since skiing doesn’t involve bouncing up and down like running, anything works. The bad news is that carrying, opening and consuming everything is exponentially more difficult while skiing. If you’re not familiar with the latest in ski pole straps, they now wrap around your wrist with a Velcro strap – you no longer just put your hand through a loop and grab the pole. Trying to do anything with your hands, while they’re attached to 5-foot long spears is a challenge. So one goal for this weekend’s race will be to try and figure out my nutritional options a little more.

I did video tape some sledding over the weekend. However, the power supply on our home computer crashed, so it’ll be at least a week before I even have a chance to look into YouTube.

Quote of the Day;

“When you add in the terrain and having to dodge people, on top of the speed, pounding heart, and oxygen debt, it’s just a different kind of fun than a running race.” – Me, after last year’s Korte

CAN'T COMPREHEND

I really don’t understand how people can live without snow. Of course, I’m mainly talking about the ability to ski during the year. But I’m also talking about going sledding in our backyard with the kids, building snow forts and snowmen, going skating, etc. Getting out and playing in the snow is so much fun, that I really can’t comprehend not having winter.

There’s a small hill in our backyard and every winter we build a cool little sliding hill on it – complete with a built-up starting area, a “jump” and a big “bobsled” turn that is banked. My only complaint is that we only have two round saucer sleds – one for each kid. Every now and then they’ll even let me take a turn. I’m not sure who has more fun.

I’m tempted to bring out the video camera and see if I can figure out the whole YouTube thing.

Anyway, I’m off the rest of the day and I’m going skiing. I’m looking to get in 35K-40K at Theodore Wirth before the next cold snap arrives.

Quote of the Day;

“Three hours slow is better than two hours fast.” – Pete Gavuzzi, marathon coach in the 1940s, on how to train

ALREADY WORRIED

Well I survived the cold snap. And as Adam predicted in a comment, there’s been some great skiing lately.

Even though it had been four days without skiing, I decided to go for a run with my Saturday morning group. I guess I missed them more than I missed skiing. I ended up with a nice 12 miler around the lakes – and 39 miles for the week.

Sunday started a nice string of skiing; 32K on Sunday, 13K on Monday and 16K today. I’m feeling a lot better about my Birkie prep after that 32K outing. But I do need to keep in mind that I still have another 18K to go. If I were training for a marathon and my long run was a comparable 16-17 miles, five weeks from the race, I’d be a little – okay, a lot – freaked out. But the long skis don’t beat you up like the long runs, so I think I can still get in at least 3 more of them. And I don’t know anything about tapering for a 50K ski race, but intuitively, I think the “normal” 3 week taper I do for a marathon would be too long. We’ll see… one month from tomorrow!

Quote of the Day;

“I'm already worried about the snow next year.” – Scott LaFrenz

NINJA WARRIOR

I admit that yesterday’s -40 degree windchill scared me off. I crawled back into bed after seeing that. I was “rewarded” with an hour commute – double what it would have been if I had gotten up to run. Once at work, Eric emailed me a photo of him after his run – standing next to the thermometer that read -20. Of course, that made me feel guilty

This morning it was just as cold, but the windchill wasn’t as bad. I dressed similar to my last post – I just added another long sleeve shirt and ditched the feet warmers. It is really amazing how much heat your body can put out as I felt comfortable – albeit slow – the whole time.

These aren’t the conditions where you bump into a lot of people along the way. So I was a little startled when I came around a corner and saw 3 guys – at least I think they were guys – coming toward me. For a moment, I thought we were in some type of Enter the Dragon movie. We all had on dark clothes and all you could see were our eyes.

I managed an hour run that included 6 trips up the Bush Lake Road hill. I’m not sure if running hill repeats will help when it comes to the Birkie hills, but I figure it can’t hurt. Besides, the hill repeats take my mind off the weather.

Anyway, the warm-up has started. We should be above zero any minute now. Now, hopefully, everyone can stop pissing and moaning (and blogging) about the weather – including me.

Finally, here’s part 2 of the interview I conducted with Olympian Van Nelson.

Quote of the Day;

“First, we never missed a day. It didn’t matter if it was cold or raining. We just dressed appropriately, but we never missed a day. I ran two-a-days all the time.” - Van Nelson

TOASTY WARM

I realize yesterday’s post made me sound like a wuss. Plus, I’m sick and tired of having other people tell me how cold it is outside. I’ve decided that I’ll determine what’s cold for me – rather some weatherman on TV or a co-worker. Just because the thermometer happens to go from +1 to -1, doesn’t mean it all the sudden becomes brutally cold outside. It’s all about mindset and I think the “weather terrorist” have it all wrong.

As I tell my girls, if you can’t get outside and enjoy our winters, you’re going to be miserable.

Of course, starting this new hobby in my late-30s makes me wish I had started earlier. I did ski a little as a kid, but it was mainly back-country blaze-your-own-trail sort of skiing – not competitive skiing. On Sunday I was all pumped to get in another nice ski in the afternoon. However, when my daughter said she wanted to go to skiing at the county park, I happily traded a solo ski for a father-daughter outing.

Anyway, with all that said, I was bound and determined to get out and exercise this morning. Last night I re-waxed my skis and laid out all my clothes. This included, from bottom to top;

Thin socks
Toe warmers
Thicker socks
Shoes
Wind briefs
Old running pants cut into half-tights
Thick pants
Thin pants
Long sleeve mock turtleneck
Long sleeve shirt
Thick jacket
Thick vest
3 pairs of thin mitts
Hand warmers
Face mask
Hat

With all this on, -7 degrees with a wind chill of -15 were no match. I was toasty warm.

Unfortunately, there were 2 problems when I got ready to ski. 1) I bought some new skis and I couldn’t get the back hook on one of the bindings to snap into place. I had a little problem with them the first time I used them, but eventually got them to work. Today I couldn’t get them to work at all. 2) I tried skiing anyway and there was absolutely no glide. Luckily, as I was leaving the house, I threw in my running shoes and I was able to get in an hour run.

So today’s question for the skiers out there is, how does a wax that claims to work from +10 to -25 degrees not work when it’s -7? Is it a grind issue? I’ve had problems with warm weather waxing too. It’s really going to be a bummer if I can only ski when the temperature is between 5 and 25.

Quote of the Day;

“I wish I learned to ski really early, so I could have taken it further than I was able to take it.” - Jan Guenther

CRUELTY

Cruelty = 4-6” of fresh snow, immediately followed by a cold blast.

Sure I could have re-waxed my ski today, put on every layer of clothing I own, throw in some feet and hand warmers and gone out for a ski. But I didn’t. I guess I’m getting soft when it’s -15 degrees and the wind chill is -25.

I’m sure running would be even worse given the fresh snow.

I guess the good news is that the conditions will “force” me inside where I’ve been trying to run harder workouts on the treadmill. My training plan for the Birkie – and I use the term very loosely – is to focus on technique and distance when I ski. Then I use running workouts, like tempos and marathon paced efforts, for my aerobic conditioning. I figure trying to do harder workouts on skis could lead to poor habits. Also, hopefully running harder workouts will make for a smoother transition back to road racing.

Quote of the Day;

“The key to making a commitment you can keep is to be realistic. It also helps if you ease your way gradually into a program that advances slowly enough to leave you eager for more rather than dreading each workout.” – Alberto Salazar

ONE PROBLEM

I’ve talked in the past about having those perfect training days when everything seems to come together. You know, you have a key workout planned, say a long run, and the weather is perfect, the kids are away so you have all the time in the world, you’re physically and mentally prepared, etc. Well that’s what happened on Friday – sort of.

With the 50K Birkie only 6 weeks away and my longest outing only being about 25K, I had plans to get in a long ski after work on Friday. The weather was great, the kids were at a birthday party, and I was ready to go. There was just one problem.

I forgot my skis!!!

Usually, I leave them in my car, but I took them out to wax and never put them back in my car. Given how far my office is from my house, I couldn’t just zip home and get them. By the time I got home I ended up just going for a run.

What a total bummer?!

Saturday I did get in a nice ski of about 24K – notice the conversion to kilometers when I talk skiing. During this outing I was eager to compare my V1 and Open Field techniques that I talked about in my last post. My experiment consisted of skiing a 6K loop of V1 and then skiing the same loop using Open Field - only using V1 for the hills. The first loop ended up taking about 24:30 and the second loop took just under 23:00. I wasn’t wearing a HRM to measure my level of exertion for each technique, but I’m guessing I was working about the same. If so, that means I can ski about 15 seconds/K faster using Open Field, which translates into 13 minutes over 50K. The 24K ended up taking about 1:40 – or 6:40 pace for those of you that like minutes/mile.

Now if I could just make those kinds of improvements to my running, I’d be set.

Under the category of “How did you spend your holiday break?” we have a little twist on my interviews. Working in conjunction with Down the Backstretch, I was able to sit down with 1968 Olympian Van Nelson over the holidays and talk about the good old days. Part 1 of that discussion can be found HERE. Part 2 will appear later this week.

Quote of the Day;

“I felt strong. I was strong. I was ready to get a medal. I just couldn’t withstand the conditions. We thought we were doing the right thing by training for the altitude, but we didn’t take the other conditions into account.” - Van Nelson

GRANNY GEAR

2009 is here and I’m struggling to get into any sort of routine – whether it’s exercise, blogging, working, etc. This week has been hectic at work and, yes, if you can believe it, my social calendar. It seems like I’ve either done 2 workouts a day or zero. Hopefully next week I’ll get back into the routine of working out every morning. If I can do that, everything else should fall into place.

Obviously, I’ve been writing about skiing a lot lately. As a blogger, one of the cool things is that everything is so new. I have tons of questions regarding technique, waxing, ski flex, training, etc. As someone who’s been running for 30 years, it can be very difficult to remember what it was like when everything was so new and exciting. So being able to capture these thoughts and feelings along the way is pretty cool - at least to me.

Of course, being new to the sport can be very frustrating too. I still constantly find myself confused by all the different techniques, along with all the different names for the same technique – depending on who you talk to. It appears I’m still getting V1 and Open Field mixed up. Well, not necessarily mixed up, but my Open Field technique was such that I assumed it’s slower and more leisurely than the V1. Then last weekend, Chris showed me I was planting my poles at the wrong time. With this slight correction, Open Field “should be” faster than V1. Thinking back to last year’s Korte, I basically used V1 the whole way because I thought that was my best/fastest technique. Another indication that V1 might not be the fastest technique occurred to me when I read an article where it was described as the “granny gear” of skiing.

So it appears I still have a lot of work to do as I prepare for the Birkie. One thing I’m trying to do along the way is enjoying the journey. I know this can sound cliché, especially this time of year with all the resolutions floating around. However, too often, with marathons, I get so caught up in all the numbers and a time goal that I don’t enjoy all the cool things that go into each marathon build-up. Even when I trained for Ironman Wisconsin, it was more about just doing the training in order to get to the finish line. Looking back, I think I could have enjoyed that journey a lot more.

Quote of the Day;

“The problem for a 37-year-old athlete is they’ve probably been doing it for 25 years. At that point the mind goes, ‘Let’s do something else here. This is enough.’” – Lance Armstrong, talking about the challenges he faces, compared to younger riders, during his comeback

HARD TO DO BOTH

Not even a single “Yeah, baby!” for Giada? My readership must really be down.

Obviously, my blogging has been next to nothing lately. That’s what happens when you have 12 days off in a row from work. I could definitely get used to staying at home – if only I could convince my company to continue paying me.

With all that time off, my main goal was to ski as much as possible. I think I got about 8 hours on my skis and was able to increase my longest outing to 1:45. I did manage to get in a few runs too, although my 88 miles for the entire month of December makes it my lowest month in a very long time. I still managed to seek over 2,500 miles for the year with 2,515.

I’ve mentioned how an inch or two of snowfall can leave runners in a bad mood, but makes skiers extremely happy. Well, I discovered the opposite situation. A day of 35-40 degree temps makes runners happy, but it really does a number on the mood of a skier. The warm conditions make skiing really slow one day and then turn everything to ice the next. So goes the life of endurance athletes in Minnesota.

Quote of the Day;

“If you end up really loving skiing, you make a ton of time for it. And there are a lot of runners who’ve done that. But you do end up not running because it’s hard to do both unless you have a lot of free time.” - Jan Guenther