GUMPTION

One of the great things about running and racing is that even if you have a shitty year, you can take a little downtime, rebuild your base and start the following year with a clean slate.

While I wouldn’t say all of 2006 was "shitty" for me, there was a point I went from running “great” (April 8th) to not being able to run (April 18th) at all.

Eleven days, that’s all it took.

While last summer didn’t go has I had planned, I did manage to battle back and run a decent marathon in the fall.

Now it’s time to do it all over again.

Heading into winter, I never know how things will come out on the other side. Of course, I want to run as many miles as possible and put myself in position for a great year of racing. However, there’s a lot of time between November and March and there are a lot of factors that are out of my hands.

Well, the other day I was thinking, “I made it. I’ve survived winter and put in some solid base-building.” With the spring racing season right around the corner, it’s time to see what all my hard work corresponds to.

A few weeks ago a friend of mine said, “I think it’s going to be a great year.” I have to agree. That’s the sense I’ve been getting lately too.

I hadn’t been able to put my finger on why, until I came across something in a book last night. The author was talking about gumption and its role in racing well. He talked about building momentum, as in having your training and racing build throughout the season. For example, he talked about doing a baseline workout 3-4 times during the year. That’s nothing new. However, you only do these workouts when you know you’ll run better than the last time.

The same goes for races. If 5K is your key distance, you don’t do it every week. You jump in some shorter races to get faster and some longer races to get stronger. Then when you know you’re ready, you jump in another 5K. That way your gumption is always high and you’re always building your momentum.

If you’re not sure what gumption and momentum are, check out this race report. I think it’s safe to say that Thomas’ gumption and momentum are very high this week.

Unfortunately, my interview gumption has been low lately – too many other things going on. In the meantime, check out this interview of the D-III National Champion in the mile. Speaking of National Champions, I do hope to have an interview ready to post soon of a Minnesotan who just became a D-I National Champion. Stay tuned.

Quote of the day;

“How fast, or where you finish, doesn’t necessarily count for everything. But how you raced against yourself counts for almost all. Inevitably, most runners eventually conclude that the race is against themselves – and how you conduct yourself in the face of adversity, or how you bounce back from defeat, can often mean more than a time or place.” – Mark Will-Weber

A-TEAM

As Colonel Smith of the A-Team would say; “I just love it when a plan comes together!”

That’s how I felt about last week, especially my long run on Saturday. Coming off of last week’s 81 miles, I was able to get in some quality on Tuesday and some hills on Thursday. All I needed was a nice long run on Saturday to finish out another strong week.

Of course, I’ve been in this position before and then something won’t quite go right. For example, it’s 20 below zero, I wake up to 2 feet of new snow, I have family commitments and/or my legs just feel like crap.

Well not last Saturday; the weather was a beautiful 45-50 degrees, sunny with just a slight wind, the family was at a show all afternoon and my legs felt good. So I pulled on my shorts (for the first time this year – at least, for a run outside), laced up my shoes and hit the road for a 20-miler. I’m not worried about pace right now, but it seems to be coming along. I think the first 13 were right around 8:00 and then I picked it up to 7:30 pace for the last 7.

That run gave me another 81-mile week. Now I’ll cutback a little this week, before racing an 8K on Sunday.

Yesterday I ran a little earlier than on Saturday, so I didn’t get the full affect of the nice weather – it was “only” 40 out when I ran. I figured I’d be pretty tired and have to drag myself through 12 miles. However, I felt pretty good once I got going and found myself running some 7:30 miles and feeling pretty comfortable. For me, on a solo run, the day after a 20-miler, that’s pretty good.

I rewarded myself for the solid weekend (and back-to-back 80 mile weeks) by sleeping in this morning. I figure that will; 1) give me more time to recover, 2) let me gradually transition into daylight savings and 3) force me to do some ab and strength work tonight after an easy run.

Quote of the day;

“It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.” – John Wooden

ALIBIS

This is nothing new, but I read somewhere recently about how running opens up the mind and allows thoughts to flood in. I’d agree with that, because some of my most creative thoughts occur to me when I’m out running. However, I’d also say that this doesn’t occur all the time and you can’t force it to occur. It just sort of happens.

Today was one of those days for me. I only did a 6 mile recovery run, but I had tons of ideas rush into my head. Hopefully I’ll be able to turn a few of them into articles. I’d better because I was beginning to worry that I’d used up all my good ideas.

Here are some of the ideas;

1) A list of all the things I’ve (finally) learned about running. Most of these probably aren’t new, like “Listen to your body.” But they’ll have “my take” on them.
2) A review of some of my favorite running books, websites, on-line articles, blogs, etc.
3) Things I love about running.
4) And a list of common excuses that we “all” use. Maybe it'll be something like when people decipher the personal ads. For example, "great personality" means, "I'm not much to look at". For running, it'd be something like, "I was 'training through' this race" means "I haven't been training at all."

The last one came to me after listening to the local sports talk radio station on the way home. They were running down a list of the top-50 alibis used by the local sports teams. This list will have a lot more meaning if you’re familiar with the Minnesota teams. If not, maybe you can come up with your own list.

Quote of the day;

“Even when I went to the playground, I never picked the best players. I picked the guys with less talent, but who were willing to work hard, who had the desire to be great.” – Magic Johnson

GUESS WHO

I posted yesterday’s entry a little earlier than normal because I wanted to stop by the running store over lunch. Not that I wanted to buy anything – I just needed to get out of the office for awhile. Plus, the local store is under new ownership, so I thought I’d swing by and wish the new owner (a guy I run “with” sometimes) well. Anyway, guess who’s working.

Yep, Katie McGregor.

I told her about my dream the night before. I think I caught her a little off-guard, but she recovered well. I think she was happy with her new 8K “PR”.

I probably should have mentioned to her that I read her journal recently and that’s why I probably dreamed about her. I don’t want her to think I’m some letsrun-hotness-thread-reading-college-aged-loser. You know, I’d hate for her to think I were still in college. Oh well, it’ll all become clear once she reads this.

Not sure if it’s because I limited myself to a single 8 miler, instead of two 5 milers, yesterday, but my legs felt really good today. I felt pretty springy, as if I had the best running form in the world.

For some reason, the springy feeling didn’t carryover to the hills. I felt okay, but not as good as I did on the flats. After the first hill repeat, I almost blew off the rest of the hill workout because I knew I’d have a more enjoyable run on the flats. But sometimes “more enjoyable” is not the goal. I need a hill workout – even if the hill was snow-covered and slippery. I managed two sets of four reps during the course of 10 miles.

I always think of this, but never post it – until today; it bugs me that “they” plow the paths with some huge 8-foot wide machine. As a result, they usually end up leaving about 2-3” on snow on the path. I’d rather see them use a smaller machine and get down to the surface, leaving a nice clear 3 or 4-foot wide section.

Quote of the day;

“In all of my years of running, it seems that most, if not all, of my competitors have become my close friends.” – Carrie Tollefson

IN MY DREAMS

Last night I had a dream that Katie McGregor and I were hanging out. It was a typical dream in the sense that I didn't remember the whole thing when I woke up and what I did remember didn't really make sense. For example, it was like Katie was making an appearance somewhere and we were chatting backstage. Then all the sudden I was at my daughter's birthday party and her and her friends were lining up to have their picture taken with Katie. After getting the girls lined up, I went to get Katie. By the time we got back into the room, the girls were outside playing soccer. I guess they thought that was more important than a photo op with one of the country's best female distance runners.

Then there was the part where Katie was disappointed because she wanted to run an 8K in about 25:00 but she ran "too hard" and finished in 24:30. Note: Katie's PR is 25:36.

Speaking of Katie, you can find her new journal entry here. And if you ever wondered what elite athletes think of their competitors, check out Carrie Tollefson's journal here.

As for training, I jumped on the treadmill last night for some up-tempo work. I ended up running 10 miles, including 7 miles at 6:43 pace (or about what I'm calling marathon pace). While my legs didn't have a ton of zip, I'm starting to feel "normal" after being sick 2 weeks ago.

Today I decided to just run a single 8 mile run, instead of two 5 mile runs - not because singles are better than doubles or anything "scientific". It's because that second run in the evening doesn't allow for anything other than putting the girls to bed, running and putting myself to bed. I have two projects I'm working on and if I don't make any progress in the next few evenings, I may get "fired".

One week into March and I'm at 83 miles. I'll take it.

Quote of the day;

“Things turn out the best for those who make the best of the way things turn out.” – Daniel Considine

ACCURACY ISSUES

I saw an article written by the local running beat writer the other day and I thought about blogging about it. It looks like Evan beat me to it.

As I commented to Evan, my issues are; 1) He said Carrie Tollefon ran 5K in 19:30 (which would be about 6:15 pace – for an Olympian), when she actually ran 6K. 2) He said the U.S. women were 2nd by 16 seconds, but a few paragraphs later he gives the times; 2:14:48 to 2:16:04. I guess those other 60 seconds don't count. 3) Finally, and probably my biggest pet peeve, I’m pretty sure all "his" quotes came from other sources - he's just repeating them.

Oh well, what can you expect from someone who published the wrong URL for the Minnesota Distance Running Association’s website a few weeks ago? I guess we should be thankful that running is covered at all in the newspaper.

Speaking of writing, does anyone else ever get tired of the whole “blogging scene”? Ever wonder if typing up all these thoughts, feelings, ideas, etc. are worth it? I seem to go in these spurts where I wonder if my time and efforts could be put to better use. I guess it depends on what each of us hopes to get out of it.

If I just want to put my thoughts down on “paper” for myself, then this is the way to go. If I want to “reach” people with my writing, I probably need to shift my focus. It’s not that people can’t be reached through blogging, but I think that requires a lot of “marketing”. And I don’t have the time or energy for that.

As for training, last night I ran an easy 5 miles. This morning I decided to avoid the -3 wind chill and the icy paths. Instead, I opted for another easy 5 miles on the treadmill. Tonight I’m planning on an up-tempo workout too.

Quote of the day;

“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches, but to reveal to him his own.” – Benjamin Disraeli

RUNNER'S LOW

I guess about half of Minnesota stayed home or left early on Thursday because the commute was a piece of cake. We were allowed to leave around 2, so I was able to hang out with my daughter on her birthday, as well as get in another 5 mile run in the evening.

Seeing how “everything” was closed on Friday, I slept in – figuring I wouldn’t have to go to work and I’d be able to run whenever I wanted to. When I called the office at 6:45 there was an automated message telling people the building would be open and that we should “drive carefully.” So much for running whenever I wanted to. I ended up hopping on the treadmill in the evening for a 10 mile run.

Ten hours later I was back on the paths for a long run. I ran the first 4-5 miles solo and then joined Evan for 13-14. When it was all said and done I called it 18 miles in 2:26. Spring marathons season must have kicked off because there were tons of groups out training around the Lakes and along the Parkway.

So I ended up with 81 miles for the week on 9 runs. I’d like to stay in the 80-85 mile range this week and then throw in a mini-tapper before an 8K on the 18th.

Yesterday my wife returned a video case to the library – without the video. I volunteered to return the video during my run. I put the movie in the waistband of my pants and 4 miles later I dropped it off at the library. Even though it was in a plastic zip lock bag, you may not want to check out The Rescuers Down Under from the Eagan library. Heck, with inter-library loan you may want to check that one off of your list for all of Dakota County.

I added on a few more miles and ended the day with 12. When I got home, guess what was sitting by the TV? The video’s case! Apparently she didn’t return it like she thought. Oops.

This morning was the opposite of a runner’s high. I was wide awake and had time to get in 9-10 miles, but everything (legs, weather and paths) was pretty miserable, so I stopped after 5 miles. I guess, with 30 miles in two days and 40 in two-and-a-half days, I should not be surprised that my legs were tired. Temps in the low 20s with about a 50 mph wind (okay, I’m exaggerating a little) and lack of plowed paths didn’t help matters either. I guess the city of Bloomington has spent their budget for plowing sidewalks and paths as the lake I run around was down to a single track packed down by pedestrians. Plus we’re at the time of year when the sun will melt the snow during the day, only to freeze at night. So the clear paths are usually covered with glare ice.

Okay, that’s enough bitching for a Monday.

Quote of the day;

“My responsibility is to get my twenty-five guys playing for the name on the front of their uniform and not the one on the back.” – Tommy Lasorda

IN LIKE A LION

First off, Happy Birthday to my wonderful 6 year old daughter, Kinsey. 6 years ago it was a beautiful 50 degree day – a classic “in like a lamb” day. Had Kinsey been born today, it may have been in the backset of our car, as we would surly have been stuck in rush hour traffic – made worse by a classic “in like a lion” day. Gotta love March!

Normally, I’ll write my post and then grab a quote book and add a quote of the day. If possible, I try to tie them together. Given that all I’ve been talking about lately is the weather, it’s not always possible to tie them together.

Yesterday I just wrote down the next available quote and didn’t really think much of it. Then I read Mike’s comment and I started to think a little more about my post and the quote. In my post I wrote about not being worried about running 51 miles less this February, than last February. Then I quoted something about “daring mighty things” and “winning glorious triumphs.”

Did I seriously put that stuff in the same post?

If I analyze the two side-by-side it seems like they’re complete opposites. In the first two months of 2006 I averaged 82 mpw. So far this year I’ve averaged 66 mpw. That’s a 16 mile per week difference. Over 2 miles per day difference!!! Am I really “daring mighty things”?

Does playing it safer than last year, in hopes of producing consistent quality training for the entire year count as a “glorious triumph”? Or should I be cranking up my training, even if it means that two seasons in-a-row could be “checkered with failure”?

I know these are just rhetorical questions with no right or wrong answers. And I know that anything can be justified if you try hard enough. I just hate to come on here and post things that are so blatantly opposite.

Anyway, today’s morning run consisted of an easy 5 miles through about 2 inches of new snow. If I’m able to make it home before midnight (due to the blizzard) I’ll get in another easy 5 miles today.

Oh yeah, speaking of the blizzard, I don’t know why but I thought it was funny yesterday when a local weatherman blamed the storm for “being late.” It wasn’t that his forecast was wrong – it was the storm’s fault.

Quote of the day;

“Don’t just learn the tricks of the trade. Learn the trade.” – James Bennis

EVERY POSSIBLE REASON

Sure, we bitch when it’s below zero for two weeks straight. And we piss and moan when a snow storm cancels our plans. But last night was a reminder of why we live in Minnesota; 30 degrees, calm, clear skies, sliding in the backyard with the girls before dinner, etc. Pretty nice!

Today the alarm clock went off before I wanted it to. I ran through my head every possible reason why I should roll over and go back to sleep. None of them were very good, so I got up and went for a run. Of course, once I was done I was really glad I got my ass out of bed. Similar to last Friday, I wanted to get in a hill workout before a new batch of snow comes our way.

I managed to get in a 10 mile run with 9 hill repeats. That gives me 275 miles for the month. That’s way down from last year’s 326 miles, but I’m not too worried. As I’ve said, I’m looking to take a more conservative, but longer-range, approach this year by running fewer miles, throwing in some quality earlier in the year and keeping it rolling longer than April.

Speaking of hills, I looked at Lydiard’s schedule and he has a 4 week cycle that starts 14 weeks out from your goal marathon. I’ll have to think about that a little more in the near future.

Anyway, the weather from last night carried over to this morning’s run; 25 degrees, calm, clear skies, etc. Plus the sun is starting to come up during my run. Yay! The nice weather got me thinking about what’s the best weather for winter running. Of course anything above 40 is great, but let’s be realistic – that doesn’t happen too often around here. A few weeks ago, I was pretty pumped when it was 18 and calm. After this morning’s run, I’m not sure there’s much better weather for this time of year.

Quote of the day;

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered with failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory or defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt

DONE FOR THE DAY

Yesterday entailed a couple of easy runs, 6 in the morning and 5 at night. While I’d like to eliminate some of these second runs (while keeping my mileage the same), that may have to wait until spring gets a little closer. I don’t even know why, really. But I keep thinking, “Once spring gets here, I can get ‘serious’.”

I did pull Pfitz’s Advanced Marathoning off my shelf the other day. I’m thinking about jumping into one of the programs pretty soon and using it for Grandma’s. First, I want to refer to Lydiard’s schedule and see when he suggests adding in the hill phase. I think that really helped me last year (before I got hurt) and I’d like to include it this year too. While I’ve been running hills once a week, I’m thinking more of a 3-4 week ‘phase’ that includes 2 workouts per week – maybe even a little bounding. I’m still 16 weeks from Grandma’s, so even Pfitz’s program would basically be base-building at this point, so I have some time to figure things out.

I had a fairly nice 11 mile run this morning. After finishing I got in my car and my first thought was, “It’s nice having that done for the day.”

During the run I saw some guys out for an early morning x-c ski. That’s one of those things I wish I were able to do more often. Last year, I skied a handful of times. This year I haven’t been out at all. Not having snow till mid-January is probably part of the problem. Then it melted by mid-Feb. Now we have snow, but it’s practically March – I’m ready for spring. Besides snow, you have to worry about waxing, driving to trails and technique. Since my technique isn’t very good, I struggle going uphill. And if you can’t go uphill while skiing, you’re in trouble.

It’s easier just to go for a run!

I'll end with this great photo (courtesy of Team USA Minnesota) of the women's silver medal team at the Yokohama International Women's Ekiden in Japan (left to right; Deena Kastor, Carrie Tollefson, Katie McGregor, Amy Rudolph, Jen Rhines, Jenny Crain and Elva Dryer).


Quote of the day;

“To be a champion, you have to believe in yourself when nobody else will.” – Sugar Ray Robinson

SNOW DAY

It’s nice when you can come to work Monday morning, send a friend an email describing your weekend and then just copy and paste that email into a blog entry.

I had a lot of plans for the weekend – most of which were cancelled due to snow, or should I say the threat of snow.

Friday night, right before going to bed, the weather forecast called for 2-5” of snow in the morning. Since my parents were flying out for a cruise in the morning, they were all worried. Saturday morning we woke to no more than a quarter inch of snow, so they were able to get out okay.

Later in the day Saturday and into Sunday the snow got worse. I had plans to drive 90 minutes to Wisconsin to meet some friends – those plans were cancelled. Reports of spinouts and accidents even “forced” me to stay away from a 30th birthday party in St. Paul. I guess I’ll just have to catch the 40th!

I’ve heard reports of 8"-15" across the metro. And it sounds like it’s supposed to snow/rain off-and-on all week long.

After dropping my folks off at the airport, I decided to get my run in since the conditions weren’t too bad. I guess I’m not used to doing a hill workout on Friday because my legs were trashed. I doubt I was running faster than 9:00 pace. I cut my 8 mile loop short and finished with 6 miles. In the afternoon I hopped on the treadmill for 5 more miles. This time my legs felt much better. That means I finished the week with 66 miles.

One thing I need to focus on is the positives. There have been some weeks where I haven’t hit the mileage I’ve wanted. However, if I look at my logbook since recovering from Chicago, I’ve been between 49 and 90 miles. That’s a stretch of 16 weeks where I’ve averaged just over 70 mpw. For me, that’s pretty solid.

With all the snow, Sunday was a treadmill day. I ran 11 miles and threw in two sets of 3 miles at marathon pace, with a two minute jog in-between. This run made me realize that my cold from last week still lingers a little.

Finally, I’ll close with another interview.

Quote of the day;

“I focused less on the outcome of each race and more on the pure joy of running and the process of training. By that I mean I really focused on making sure my training was going well and I was hitting my key workouts. I also reconciled that I was not going to PR at every race. I focused on doing well at a few races per year. Once I started doing all of that the results took care of themselves. I had not set a PR between 2000 and 2004. I have set all of my PRs since 2004.” - Tony Kocanda

HILL WORKOUT

I’m starting to feel a little better. Yesterday I ended up running two easy 6 mile runs. This morning my legs were feeling really good, so I decided to throw in a hill workout. Lately, I’ve worked up to 2 sets of 4 hill repeats with about a 10 minute jog in between. Today I thought about doing 2 sets of 5, but after the 5th rep I decided just to keep doing repeats. I ended up with a total of 8 repeats during the 10 mile run.

It was nice to get in that workout because we’re supposed to get dumped on with snow – starting tonight. Who knows what the footing is going to be like for awhile? It’s hard to do a hill workout when you’re battling a foot of snow – unless you’re Rocky Balboa.

Anyway, I’ve heard reports of “The largest storm of the year” and “The largest storm in 8 years.” I don’t know about you, but when “the year” is only 7-8 weeks old, hype like, “The largest storm of the year” doesn’t really mean that much. Now, “The largest storm in 8 years” means something! We’ll see…my parents are supposed to fly out tomorrow morning. Let’s hope they make it out – otherwise they’ll be stuck at our house.

Here’s an interview that I wasn’t sure if I’d get back or not. I submitted it to the team’s admin rep about 6 weeks ago. Without any direct contact with the athlete, you never know what will happen. I’m happy that I got it back. Hopefully the other two I submitted will get back to me too.

Quote of the day;

“It is quite the paradox to be a runner that hates pain, but is most successful at the events that cause the most pain.” - Emily Brown

WE MADE IT

I decided to take the day off from work today. Looking back, I should have taken yesterday off from work. If I wasn’t sneezing, I was coughing. If I wasn’t coughing I was blowing my nose. I felt bad for my co-workers. I did manage to sneak out of work an hour early and get a little rest.

I was smart enough to put a zero in the logbook yesterday. No sense stressing the body, even with an easy run, when it’s crying out for rest. Since I’m feeling better, I ventured out for 8 miles today. I had thoughts of running 11 miles but, not surprising, my energy level is down. So I cut the run short.

While I was low on energy, the weather (40 degrees, partly sunny) helped alleviate my lack of energy. It was one of those days where you think to yourself, “We made it. We survived another winter.” Sure we could get snow dumped on us – as early as this weekend – but with each passing day the chances of more sub-zero temps continues to diminish. Besides, any snow we get probably won’t hang around too long.

Alright, enough about my sickness and the weather. Go checkout this Katie McGregor interview. Hmm, I guess there's no reason for me to interview her now - at least for awhile.

Quote of the day;

“It makes it a lot harder to make teams when so many women are running well but it also helps us because we are able to push each other. We are all really motivating each other.” – Katie McGregor

COUGH COUGH

Maybe a 20 mile run and 85 mile week weren’t the wisest things do to when I felt a cold coming on. But, you know, “I gotta get my miles in.” I set my alarm for 5:15, but this morning I figured another hour sleep would be better for me. That turned into 30 minutes, as my sick kids decided to crawl into bed too.

Normally, if I’m sick, I feel my best when I’m out running. It really clear things out and is usually the best I’ll breathe all day. Maybe I’ll hop on the treadmill tonight. I guess I’ll just play it by ear.

In any case, I don’t have much to report, so I’ll leave you with another interview. It’s a little more unique that the other ones I’ve done.

Quote of the day;

"Yeah, I can get a little anxious before her races. I think it’s a combination of knowing how hard she’s worked, the importance of every race in this sport and just knowing that she has the talent to win every time she steps to the line." - Charlie Peterson

ROLL WITH IT

I feel like I’m doing a pretty good job of balancing my running workload, both within the week (alternating hard/easy days) and across weeks (with the use of cutback weeks). Friday I just ran an easy 5 mile recovery run (following Thursday’s hard effort). Saturday I met a group for 14 mile solid miles. Overall the pace was probably 7:20-7:30, but I’m pretty sure there were a couple of 6:50-7:00s in there too. That gave me 81 miles for the week on 9 runs.

Ever get where your mind is telling you you're hauling ass, but if you just listen to your body, you’re actually feeling comfortable? That’s kind of what the second half of Saturday’s run was like. When we were running sub-7:00s, my mind was saying this is too fast. However, my legs felt fine and my breathing was controlled. So I just tried to relax and roll with it. That’s something I’ll have to work on in races too. I’m thinking 2007 may be the year of ‘no splits’ while racing. Instead, I’ll just focus on listening to my body.

A week ago, my long run switched to Sunday, so I thought I’d roll with it this week too. The girls had a sleep-over at Grandma’s, so that made it much easier to be gone for nearly 3 hours as I ran 20 miles. If tired legs and a general lack of energy mean that you've put in some quality training the previous days, then I must be doing something right. This run gave me 85 for my "unofficial" week.

This long run was one of those long runs where you want to be alone because you don’t want to slow anyone down. I doubt I ran any of the miles under 8:00 pace. The ultimate test came at mile 16 when I swung by home to get warmer gloves. I was tempted to call it a day, but I got a drink, downed a gel and ventured back out for another 4 miles.

This morning my legs were still incredibly heavy, but I managed to slog my way through 5 miles. I doubt I was moving faster than 9:00 pace today.

Right now I’m think I may take an extra day or two recover early this week and then just focus on a Wednesday or Thursday workout, rather than trying to squeeze in two workouts and a long run. I’d rather err on the side of caution with too few workouts at this point.

For all you Minnesotans that were bummed by the lack of Runner of the Year honors this year, check out these rankings. For those of you not familiar with the process, each different distance has a qualifying time (see the “Qualifying Performance” section) by age group. People in that age group that meet the time standard are then ranked accordingly. The top 10-20 (depending on age group) performances earn points. If you’re good enough to run multiple top times then you can bump others in your age group down. For example, if I run the top 3 times (yeah, right), I’ll max out at 10 points. However, the next place in my age group would get 7 points instead of 9. Also, they only count your 5 best scores. Roll it all together and you have the RoY.

Quote of the day;

“From high school to college, you went from running 30 miles a week to running 60 or 70. Your body adapted. You improved. Throughout college, I experimented with higher and higher mileage. It followed, then, that making the next leap to the national scene would require higher mileage and even greater adaptation. Well, it worked for a while. I improved a lot…My endurance was phenomenal. But what I lacked was the ability to understand and implement elite-level training and/or I lacked the guidance of a coach who understood. I had this tremendous foundation off of which I built very little.” - Joey Keillor

PAT, PAT...

Pat, pat…

That sound you hear is me patting myself on the back.

I was hoping to get in 10 miles last night – preferably as an up-tempo workout. I ended up getting in 12 miles with 9 of them at 6:46 pace.

As a result, I rewarded myself by sleeping in this morning. I laid out my clothes and said if I was wide awake, I get my run in. If not, I’d sleep-in and run tonight.

I slept in.

While the interviews I’ve been doing have been entertaining, I also try to get more out of them than just that. Last night I was thinking about Joey’s comments regarding cutting his mileage, but focusing on his workouts;

I was mostly in the 50-60 mile-per-week range. Notable was the fact that almost every workout I did was a home run. I may not have been running much volume, but I was fresh enough to attack each workout with vengeance.

While I wouldn’t quite say I attacked this workout with vengeance, I was pretty excited to get it going. Prior to the half marathon, 6 miles at 6:48 pace was my best up-tempo workout this year. So I’m pretty happy with 9 miles at 6:46 pace. A workout like that will erase all negative thoughts regarding not doing any up-tempo runs in the two-and-a-half weeks since the half marathon. If nothing else, the extra rest was probably a good thing. Besides, I’ve run three solid hill workouts in that timeframe, so it’s not like I’ve been sitting on my ass.

Finally, I’ve been meaning to post that Kristen Nicolini has updated her journal.

Quote of the day;

“I’m a believer in evidence-based results. You either run a particular time for a particular distance, or you don’t. There’s no “I’m in shape for a 2:19 marathon”. You either do it, or you’re not in that kind of shape.”– Joey Keillor

THE REAL TEST

This week’s rolling right along. Yesterday was an easy 6 mile run. That put me at 45 miles with 3 days left. I guess my mini-slump is over. Then again the real test is tonight. I ran 5 miles this morning, but have an up-tempo run planned for tonight. Getting in 10 miles would set me up for 80+. But I said that last week around this time, so we’ll see.

Lately I’ve kept telling myself that THIS will be the last sub-zero run of the winter. If I can believe the forecast, it looks like that may actually be the case, tomorrow. Heck, even if we have a cold snap later, I wouldn’t mind. I just want THIS one to be done with.

Last night I posted a new interview. I “joke” about having favorite male and female runners. This project definitely makes that difficult. Every time I interview someone, they become my new favorite. This one is no different.

Eric should be thanked for tying Joey to one of my previous interviews, which kind of got the ball rolling for this interview.

Quote of the day;

“Knowing nothing about distance running, the splits were meaningless to me. What I felt, though, was my pounding heart, flaming lungs and burning muscles and a sense that I could compose myself and keep that discomfort under control — and still push myself to go faster. It was a great feeling…riding the line at the edge of disaster.” – Joey Keillor

8 POUNDS

Over the weekend, while my mini-motivational meltdown was taking place, I had a bunch of thoughts I wanted to blog about. Then yesterday I started talking about the cross-country meet and all those thoughts went out the window.

My main thought dealt with being an analytical numbers-type and how that comes into play with my confidence when I know I’m not running as much as I was last year at this time. I tend to think (for the most part) more is better. And the numbers for the first six weeks of 2007 don’t lie, when compared to 2006; 385 miles vs. 456 miles.

As I’ve said before, ideally I’d like to remain healthy past April. Then I could easily make up that mileage difference. However, that’s still 10 weeks away. I need to get (and keep) my act together. Grandma’s Marathon is only 18 weeks away.

Luckily I know I’m fit (due to my weekly up-tempo runs), based on my half marathon results. However, I haven’t really done any up-tempo work since the half marathon two-and-a-half weeks ago. I need to get back to doing one of those workouts each week. If I can’t do that and I can’t keep my mileage consistently “high”, I’m really going to be screwed.

The good news is that this week has started of really well. After 16 on Saturday, I ran two easy 6 mile runs yesterday. This morning I made it 11 miles, including two sets of four hill repeats.

While it looks like temps will be below zero the next two mornings, it’s supposed to warm up to 20 degrees on Friday and Saturday. Hopefully I can motivate myself to a 20 mile run too.

Oh yeah, this doesn’t really go with anything, but I weighed myself before and after putting on my -10 degree running outfit; 143 pounds vs. 151 pounds - eight pounds of gear. I thought about adding up the dollar amount of gear, but thought better of it. I’d like to at least THINK running is an inexpensive sport.

Quote of the day;

“Other people may not have had high expectations for me…but, I had high expectations for myself.” – Shannon Miller

CABIN FEVER

Last week was a rollercoaster of motivation regarding running. On Wednesday, I really thought I was going to get back to the 80 mile range for the week. However, things went downhill in a hurry. I only managed 49 miles for the week.

Wednesday night I ended up staying up till midnight trying to start my brother-in-law’s car. He and his wife went on a trip and left their car at our house. We ended up getting it going, but not until I “lost” 3 hours of sleep. I made half of that up by not running Thursday morning.

No problem, I’d just run in the evening. Wrong. I’ve been unmotivated about getting on the treadmill in the evenings lately. By 8:30 I was asleep. That means I put a big goose egg in the log book for Thursday.

Friday I was able to get out in the morning, but only managed 6 miles. No problem, I’d just add another run in the evening. Wrong!

Luckily, everything was lining up for a nice, long solo run on Saturday. I’ve wanted to get back in the 18-20 mile range and Saturday I had the time to do it. I just didn’t have the desire and I’m blaming it on the weather. Due to family commitments I had to start my run at 8:30, when it was still 10 below. I’m getting so fucking tired of 10 below. I read that we’ve had like 12-13 days in-a-row where morning temps have been below zero – the longest stretch in 8 years. I’m to the point where I can only handle 8-10 miles before going crazy. Saturday it was 8.

Sunday afternoon it actually got up to 20 degrees, but it felt like 50. So what did I do? I ran for 2 hours. ON THE TREADMILL. Don’t feel bad, I was watching Track & Field, along with highlights from the national x-c meet, so the 16 miles went by fairly quickly.

Speaking of the national meet, congrats to Elliot Heath for winning the junior race – the same day his brother broke 4 minutes for the mile - and Jason Lehmkuhle for securing the final qualifying spot on the world team. My favorite male and favorite female runners just missed qualifying. Andrew Carlson just missed qualifying too, here he shows how muddy the course was – in case you couldn’t tell from the previous photos.

Finally, here's a photo of Katie and two of Jason that were sent to me for posting. Thank, Heidi.

Quote of the day;

“There is always room for improvement, you know – it’s the biggest room in the house.” – Louise Heath Leber

SLOW PATCH

More of the same. Another 10-mile run this morning - just without yesterday's hills. The weather still sucks. It’s finally warming up to nearly double digits in the afternoon. However, that does me little good when I’m running at 5:30 AM. At least it wasn’t snowing today.

My string of interviews has hit a slow patch. I guess I shouldn’t have posted 3 interviews within a week. Oh well, I could sit on them to space them out, but that doesn’t seem right either. With cross-country nationals this weekend, I may try and contact some of the Team USA Minnesota runners again – especially if they run well. I think the key with them is going to be keeping the interviews short-and-sweet. 15 questions is probably a little over-the-top. They’re probably more likely to respond to 5-10 questions. At least that’s my new theory. Or would it be hypothesis?

Since I don’t have anything else exciting to talk about, I thought I’d share a new project I’m working on. Here’s the introduction;

In the last issue of RunMinnesota I posted a “want ad” seeking runners with interesting stories that I could track throughout 2007. Think of it as Reality TV, in print. What my in-box was lacking in quantity of respondents was more than made up for by the quality of the respondents.

Each of the seven runners that replied has a unique story that is unlike the others in the group. We have a new mom, first time marathoners, Olympic Trials hopefuls, college students, triathletes, etc. You name it and I think this group has it. This article serves as a quick introduction of these runners and their stories I’ll be tracking throughout the year.

It’s not uncommon for runners to miss a race here or there due to injuries, but how about missing an entire racing season? That’s what happened to Amanda, 27 of Circle Pines, MN in 2006. We’ll track her physical and mental recovery, as she plans on running two marathons this year, Grandma’s and Twin Cities.

While Karen, 45, of Moorhead, MN has been running for 33 years, it took her 31 years before she ran her first marathon. In her second attempt, she qualified for Boston. This April she will toe-the-line in Hopkinton for her first Boston Marathon.

Last July, Marc, 41, of Fargo, ND was “stricken with adult-onset athleticism.” At the time he tipped the scale at 295 pounds. He has since lost 50 pounds and plans on losing another 75 pounds. Along the way, he’ll be running his first marathon.

Keenan, 23, of Mankato, MN is looking to “take steps toward getting back to a decent level” of running. We all know “a decent level” is relative from runner to runner. For this college student, it means sub-15 and sub-32 for 5K and 10K, respectively.

After giving birth to her first child last August, Kerry, 26, of Oronoco, MN feels in “better shape than ever.” She will be training for two half Ironman events and two marathons this year. Her biggest challenge will be time management, as her husband is also a triathlete who’s training for Ironman Wisconsin.

Speaking of triathletes, Braden, 40, of St. Louis Park, MN is training for his first Ironman in August. The newly minted masters runner is also a Clydesdale, weighing in at 205 pounds. In the fall he will be looking to garner his first Boston qualifier in 14 attempts.

Last but not least, Angie, 30, of Minneapolis, MN would like to qualify for the 2008 Olympic Trials Marathon by running 2:47. That means the UM medical student will have to shave 11 minutes off her personal record. We’ll follow along to see if her “ambition outweighs her talent”, as she has said.

There you have it, the seven runners that I’ll be tracking throughout the year. We’ll laugh. We’ll cry. We’ll vote people off. Oh wait, we won’t be voting people off. However, we’ll do our best to chronicle their unique, ever-evolving stories throughout the year. Stay tuned.

BIO
Chad Austin, 37, of Apple Valley, MN has never given birth, never weighed more than 160 pounds and has never had a shot at qualifying for the Olympic Trials Marathon. He has run Boston, he has completed an Ironman and he has been injured.

Quote of the day;

“Sports is life with the volume turned up.” – Barry Mano

PROPER ATTIRE

Last night I jumped on the treadmill for an easy 5 miles. I watched CBS’s uber-hyped “Rules of Engagement” and actually liked it. Of course, all the funny lines were used in the commercials, so we’ll see if they can keep it up.

This morning I was back outside for a 10 mile run, including 2 sets of 4 hill repeats. While I find it difficult to do up-tempo runs in this weather, I have no problem doing hill workouts – probably because I’m not focused on speed at all, just strength. Plus, I find the miserable weather (-20 windchill with flurries) and the misery of hill repeats kind of cancel themselves out. When I get tired of the weather, I think about the hills. When I get tired of the hills, I think about the weather.

I think I figured out part of the problem with running in this weather – I don’t do it enough. Not in the sense that I enjoy it and want to do it more, but in the sense that I don’t do it enough, so I haven’t figured out the proper attire. Believe it or not, this usually leads to being overdressed – except for my face. I’m really not a fan of facemasks, so my body tends to be toasty while my face just goes numb.

This morning’s attire included wind briefs, two pairs of pants, half tights, two long sleeve shirts, my thickest jacket, a vest, two hats, socks and shoes (duh), and mitts. Or should I say MITTS?

I’m happy to report that I’ve finally figured out the glove/mitt situation for negative temps/windchills. I wear a pair of fleece running mitts under a pair of rawhide choppers that include a liner – a total of 3 layers. I tried a fourth layer last Saturday and it was too much. But if I ever run when it’s minus forty or minus fifty, my hands will be set.

Quote of the day;

“I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape – the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it: the whole story doesn’t show.” – Andrew Wyeth, American painter

SILLY ENOUGH

Friday I ended up running two easy 5 mile runs. I thought for sure I was only going to get one in. After putting the girls to bed, I started to get comfortable in front of the TV. At 9 PM I started watching a new show and just said, “Screw it. If I’m going to watch this, I might as well be on the treadmill.” As an added bonus, if I run on the treadmill at night, I’m usually pretty good about throwing in some crunches and strength work afterwards. Now I’m not going to win any Mr. Olympia awards, but it beats “wishing” I were doing strength work.

Saturday, Jenna and Kim were silly enough to join me (or maybe I was silly enough to join them) when the windchill had to have been at least -25 degrees. We ended up running 16 miles at a hair under 7:20 pace. Given all the clothes I had on, I was surprised by the pace. At least we were smart enough to run into the wind at the start of the run – giving us a nice 8 mile stretch with the wind (mostly) at our backs. We all agreed it wasn’t that bad, but we also agreed that having company definitely helped.

That gave me 74 miles for the week on. I just can’t seem to get over the 80 mpw hump – it’s been 5 weeks now. Hopefully this cold snap will pass early this week and I can get back into that range. I need to get my long runs back to at least 18 miles too. I had two 18 milers in December and one 19 miler in January.

I started this week off with 10 miles on the treadmill while watching the second half of the Superbowl. I thought the game was entertaining, although I never really felt Chicago was really in it. As for the ads, I thought the CareerBuilder ads were the best; “Last man standing gets THE promotion.” All you Garmin owners should write a letter to the company and ask where your hard-earned dollars are going. They’re certainly NOT going to the advertising department. The guy turning into a robot and blowing up the “map monster” was the absolute worst.

Quote of the day;

“The cool wind blew in my face, and all at once, I felt as if I had shed dullness from myself.” – Burl Ives, American musician

UPDATED JOURNALS

A bunch of the Team USA Minnesota runners have updated their journals recently;

Andrew Carlson

Brad Lowery

Katie McGregor

Carrie Tollefson

$64,000 QUESTIONS

Well, I think Bart and Richard asked the $64,000 questions yesterday;

Bart: “How do you interpret running 39 seconds faster than last year? Do you feel you're in better shape this year and ready for a great racing season, or do you feel the tempo runs have you closer to your peak earlier in the season?”

Yes, I feel I’m more fit than last year and that I’m ready for a great racing season. One of my initial thoughts after the race was, “Let’s not fuck this [the 2007 racing season] up now.”

I’ve been willing to give up some mileage this winter, if it means making it past April healthy. For those new to my blog, I was running record mileage last year and racing very well in the spring. I got injured in early April and missed Grandma’s Marathon.

One thing I’ve seen a lot lately is that there’s a difference between “running” and “training.” I know during the winter I get into a rut of training. I’ll go months with a lot of miles, but zero quality. By quality, I’m talking about tempo/steady state/strong aerobic – whatever you want to call them – runs. I get into this comfort zone where all my miles are done at 8:30-9:00 pace, which is MP + 2:00. Granted there’s weather and clothing to deal with, but that’s still relatively “slow.”

This year I actually felt stronger during the last 5K of the half marathon than I did last year, when I was running more miles. Mike’s been talking about muscle fiber recruitment lately and maybe that’s what happened; while I wasn’t running as many miles, I was recruiting different muscle fibers by doing harder runs once a week.

No, I don’t think tempo runs have me closer to my peak. It’s February 2nd, I had better not be close to my peak yet!!!

Richard: “Do you think from year to year 39 seconds can be chalked up to training, luck, attitude or perhaps just mentally being in the right place at the right time?”

I don’t know if people think 39 seconds is a big deal or not – heck it’s only 3 seconds per mile. That’s why I think it helps to have some non-time goals. When I take into account the weather, how strong I felt the last 2-3 miles, negative splitting, etc., I’m pretty happy with where I’m at.

I’m trying to decide if my consistency (1:24:55 in 2002, 1:24:27 in 2005, 1:24:45 in 2006 and 1:24:06 in 2007) is a good thing or bad thing. I guess it’s good that I haven’t slowed down from age 32 to age 37, but I haven’t had a “breakthrough” either.

I’m reminded of a comment I made to the first group of older guys I interviewed. I said something to the affect that, “It sucks to train your ass off and only run 40 seconds faster than the previous year’s time.” One of them said, “Wait till you train your ass off and are HAPPY to run 40 seconds SLOWER than the previous year’s time.” I guess that puts it in perspective.

Quote of the day;

“Unless you perceive yourself as someone who is going to be a good runner, you’re never going to be one.” – Gary Elliott and Allison Roe, Every Runner’s Companion

POST MORTEM

I think I have to stop watching the weather reports. The local weather people keep freaking me out with their “Operation: Winter” graphics and talk of a cold snap. To listen to them you’d think zero degrees was the coming of the next ice age. I nearly talked myself out of running this morning because of it. Luckily I was wide awake at 4:45, so I got up and went for a 10-mile run – despite the weather.

I was going to post this yesterday, but I thought answering Mike’s question was a little more exciting. About once a year I get a wild hair…and focus on the mental aspect of the sport. I usually grab a book on the topic off the shelf and dust it off. One of the books has an exercise where you answer a list of questions after each race. I’ve done it in the past and find it beneficial, especially the parts on what did you do well/poorly. So, since I raced last weekend, I thought I’d answer the questions here.

Name of race: Winter Carnival

Date and Time: 1/27/07, 9 AM

Location: St. Paul, Sheppard Road out-and-back

Distance: Half marathon

Competition: Road Race

Weeks (months) since last race: 3+ months

Weather and course conditions: 15 degrees, Mod NW wind, toughest from 5.5 - 6.5

Goals: Time - 1:24 + or - 1 minute. Non-time - Run smart. Don't give up at the end of the race.

Race strategy and possible mishaps and contingencies: Run smart/controlled first half, then pick it up.

Mental preparation strategy: Relaxation, visualized race.

Duration of warm-up and cool-down: 2M w/up and 0M c/d.

Arousal level (1 low, 10 high) on the starting line: 4

Finish time: 1:24:06. Overall pace: 6:25.

Place: 19th out of 1311 overall (1.4%), 19th out of 788 men (2.4%), and 9th out of 233 in 30-39 age group (3.9%).

Splits: 42:25/41:41. 6:20 first mile and 1:04:00 thru 10M.

Things I did well in the race:
Didn't let the weather or the "false start" psych me out.
Great pacing early on (6:20 at the mile). Felt controlled.
Didn't worry about splits, just ran.
Hooked up with Melissa and another guy by mile 2 or 3 and worked together until mile 10.
Ran my own pace up the hills at miles 5 and 10. Didn't worry about the gap that formed – just regrouped on downhill.
Didn't let the first half split of 42:25 bother me. I was confident I could run negative splits.
Passed 8-10 runners during the 2nd half, including 4 in the last mile or so. No one passed me.
"Normally" I'd have been content to finish where I was at, but I kept pushing and passed 4 people at the end.

Things I need to work on:
Found it hard to get a good draft when heading into the wind.
A few negatives thoughts creep in towards the end.
Need to add some affirmations.

Performance rating (1-10). How close did I come to what I was capable of running that day? 8-9
Mentally playback the best parts of the race. Check here___X___

Other comments about the race: 39 seconds faster than last year on less mileage, but more tempos. Dressed just right; long sleeve shirt, arm warmers, fleece vest, thin pants, hat, gloves and mitts. I also usually list times of key competitors and people I know in this space.

Quote of the day;

“Goal setting is not a mind game. It is a process of developing the internal willpower to accomplish what you have set out to do.” – Joan Benoit Samuelson

DON'T TELL A SOUL

I’ve just been focusing on recovering from Saturday’s half marathon. Sunday I ran an easy 5 miles. Monday and Tuesday I ran 6 miles in the morning and 5 miles in the evening. That allows me to get in some “high” miles, yet still recover. This morning, I was back to double-digit runs; 11 miles with 2 sets of 3 hill repeats.

So January is in the books with a “measly” 284 miles, which is down from last year’s 364 miles. Damn, that’s a lot. But like I posted earlier in the month, I’ve been listening to my body and I haven’t been afraid to cut some of the fluff from my schedule. The good news is that I feel good about my fitness. However, I’d still like February to be a high mileage month for me.

In a recent comment, Mike asked if I’d share Erin’s secrets that took her from 3:04 to 2:53.

1. I increased my weekly mileage to a high of 80 miles, which I hit three times this summer. Otherwise I probably averaged about 70 per week. My average in the past was 50-60, so this was a big increase for me.

2. In addition to my weekly long run of 18-22 miles, I also did a mid-week 14-16 mile run at close to goal marathon pace.

3. Once a week I did mile repeats, usually six, at close to 10K race pace with two minutes recovery between repeats.

4. Very early in the season I did some hill workouts and some 1000s and 1200s on the track, but I wasn't good about doing these later in the summer. Nevertheless, I do think track workouts at under 5K race pace are beneficial.

5. I also race quite frequently, and, depending on the distance, this race replaces one of the workouts.

6. On the day of the marathon I got up at 4 a.m. (instead of 5:30) and had a good-sized breakfast. Being up for several hours before the race gives the body much more time to “wake up”, and also gives the breakfast a chance to digest.

7. Finally, I was given an elite number this year, which allowed me to prepare my liquids the day before and have them waiting in water bottles on separate tables during the race. This allowed me to a) drink much more than I have in the past, because I could carry the bottle with me and not slosh it all over myself and up my nose, and b) mix in some GUs with the Gatorade to take in more calories. I haven't actually heard of anyone doing this mix before, so this was a bit of an experiment for me, but it seemed to work! I took in so much liquid and GU during the race that I felt full the whole time, a strange feeling for a race. I am convinced that the proper hydration and caloric intake were the biggest factors in my good race.

Finally, if you have any interest in running history and the pioneers of the sport, check out my latest interview. Just be forewarned that it’s loooooong.

Quote of the day;

“These runs were not pleasant, but I think they were invaluable.” – Erin Ward, talking about adding mid-week 14-16 mile runs at close to goal marathon pace

OH-SIX

As I mentioned Friday, I could pretty much pencil in a 1:24 for this race. Now just add an oh-six to the end and you’re there; 1:24:06, course record (for me), 39 seconds faster than last year, 19th overall (out of 1,300 people), 9th out of 233 in the 30-39 age group. Complete results can be found here.

I think I could have run about a minute faster if the conditions were a little nicer. It was probably 15-20 degrees, which isn’t bad, but the winds were pretty stiff and gusty. It was hard to get a read on it too. This is an out-and-back course and I thought the entire second half would be a tailwind. However, there was quite a bit of crosswind to deal with during that stretch.

Overall, I’m really happy with my race. By about 2-3 miles I had hooked up with the women’s leader and another guy. We went through the halfway point in 42:25, which means I “blazed” a 41:41 second half. The three of us worked together until about mile 10. At that point there’s a pretty good climb and those guys gapped me. The guy must have been feeling good, because he kept extending his lead the rest of the race. Meanwhile, I was able to keep Melissa, and a few other guys that were coming back to me, in my sights.

Awhile ago I wrote about common excuses that I find myself using, like getting content towards the end of races. Normally, I’d get to mile 11 or 12 and I’d just want to be finished. I wouldn’t care about catching people in front of me or holding anyone off. Saturday was a different story. With about 2 miles to go, someone cheering said I was in 23rd place. I wouldn’t say I had a “killer instinct,” but I just kept working and was able to pick off 4 more people during that stretch. I think I passed about 10 people in the second half of the race. Not bad when you’re moving from top-30 to top-20.

Anyway, now I know where I stand with my base training. I’m happy with the results of this race, but I need to get back to focusing on mileage a little more. January will be below 290 miles and my next race is still like 7 weeks away.

Hmm, if I doubled my time from this race, I’d barely beat my latest interview. I have lots of work to do.

Quote of the day;

“I was doing my best to stay with the 2:47 pace group—I knew that if I dropped behind, it would be too easy to slow down, so I just forced myself to keep up for as long as I could.” - Erin Ward

DRAGGING

About this time of year, winter starts to drag, base-training starts to drag, work starts to drag (wait, that’s year-round)...anyway, you get the picture. That’s one of the reasons I always look forward to the Winter Carnival Half Marathon. It’s a week earlier than normal this year, but it’ll still provide a nice benchmark as to the level of my current fitness. As you can tell from past results, I can almost pencil in a 1:24 and change.

2/4/06 1:24:45
2/5/05 1:24:27
1/31/04 41:40 – shortened due to weather
2/1/03 1:27:59 – different (tougher) course due to construction
2/2/02 1:24:55
2/5/00 1:32:03

However, in reality I’m not so sure what I can run. Training has been going rather well, with 7 of the last 10 weeks being between 76 and 90 miles. However, last year at this time, I was busy stringing together 95 and 97 mile weeks.

Comparing last December/January and this December/January, one thing jumps out at me; I’ve done a ton more tempo runs this time around – everything from 3 miles at 6:20 pace to 8 miles at 7:10 pace. For that reason, I won’t be surprised if I run a minute (or two?) faster. As with any race, a lot depends on the weather – especially since we’re talking about 13.1 miles in January in Minnesota.

In any case, this race should give me some feedback as to whether I need more mileage or if “low” miles with tempos is working.

Quote of the day;

“My whole feeling in terms of racing is that you have to be very bold. You sometimes have to be aggressive and gamble.” – Bill Rodgers

NO TIME

I really try not to let work get in the way of blogging – especially two days in-a-row. But I’m out of luck. Lots going on – a half marathon coming up, met a new runner through my blog, got a new “hickie” – but no time to report on any of it.

A quick training update; an easy 6 miles on Monday, 11 yesterday and 7 this morning.

A short blog entry leaves more time for you to check out my recent interview.

Quote of the day;

“I had two voices in my head; one telling me to hold back and the other telling me to go.” - Jenna Boren

NEARLY UNBEARABLE

Since my last post talked about being interviewed for this article on winter running, I thought I’d start by posting the story. I think the author did a really good job of tying things together – even though one of the interviewees is a self-described “fair-weather runner” in the winter. Sorry HKM, I couldn’t resist.

One of the guys said that you can’t overheat in the winter. I beg to differ. Saturday the weather channel said it was -7, so I got all bundled up. On the way to my group run the radio said it was 3 above. Plus I forgot to into account the pace that this group runs, which can really heat a person up. Anyway, I was so overdressed it was nearly unbearable.

I’m not sure if it was because I was overdressed or what, but 11 miles into this 16 mile (rounding up from 15.5) run, I was done. I fell off the pace and the last 5 miles were a miserable slog. I guess that’s what you get when you run with people who all have marathon PRs that are 20 minutes faster than your own.

Throw in a 10 mile run on Friday and I ended up with 78 miles for the week.

Sunday, I literally spent 3 hours straight, ice skating. When I was a kid, I went ice skating nearly every night I loved it so much. This is really the first year my oldest daughter has tried it and she absolutely loves it too. She would go into the warming house for a drink of water, but she never took a break – other than sitting in the snow bank to eat snow.

I got in an easy 5 miles Sunday night and frankly I’m surprised I got in any miles, since I was so tried from skating.

There’s another guy in town who runs and does triathlons. I usually bump into him at a few races during the year. Yesterday I actually bumped into him at the rink. Of course we talked running/tris. He’s always wondering if I’m training for another Ironman – even though I tell him I haven’t swum in since 2003.

He’s also always curious about my running mileage. When I told him I was running about 75 mpw he said something like, “Why? You’re not training [for Grandma’s] yet are you?” I never know how to respond to this. Am I supposed to sit around and do nothing until something like 12 or 16 weeks out from the marathon? We’re runners, that’s what we do – run!

I mentioned something about winter being the ideal time to build my base. Again I got, “Why?” These questions are coming from someone who’s teaching beginning running classes and marathon training classes at a local health club.

I’ll end with an updated journal entry from my favorite (male) runner.

Quote of the day;

“The problem with big kickers is they often lose to other big kickers.” – Harry Groves, Penn State coach

WINTER RUNNING

Quick training update; yesterday I ran an easy 6 miles in the morning. I've also been trying include some type of tempo run during the week. I'm been trying to mix it up a little by varying the distance (anywhere from 3 to 8 miles) and the speed (anywhere from 6:20 - 7:10 pace). Last night I ran 10 miles on the treadmill, including 2 x 3 miles (6:30 and 6:20 pace). This morning I had thoughts of sleeping in, but I was wide awake so I went out for a very easy 6 mile run.

The other day I was volunteered to answer some question for an article on winter running, by the Gear Junkie. I figured the Q&A might make for an interesting blog entry. If you're local, be sure to check out this Sunday's Star Tribune for the complete article.

1. How do your running habits change once the snow falls and the air gets cold?

Since the racing season is over, I use winter for my prime base-building season. I tend to slow down and just focus on mileage. My best months during the year, mileage-wise, are usually December-February.

2. How many miles do you run each week in the winter? What's your
average loop to run? Do you run on sidewalks, trails, or where?

This winter I've been averaging about 75 miles per week. Not all of it is outside. I have a treadmill at home too. I use that more for a second easy run on some days or tempo runs. The treadmill allows me to get in some quality without worrying about slipping. I'd say my average loop is 10 miles, but some days are 5 mile recovery days and some days are 18+ mile long runs.

I mainly run wherever I can find a clear path. Prior to this latest snowfall I was doing a lot of my running on the paved paths in Hyland Park (Bloomington). However, I don't think they get plowed, so I've just been running on plowed sidewalks. It's pitch black out, so it doesn't really matter (scenery-wise) where I run.

3. Do you enjoy wintertime running? More than other seasons? Why or why not?

I guess I enjoy it, but I wouldn't say I love it. It can be very frustrating at times, like when it's 20-below for days on-end or if we get a bunch of new snow and the paths aren't plowed yet. I'll take 10-below over, 90 with a dew point of 70, any day. And 30 and flurries is way better than 35 and rain.

A lot of it comes down to race results. The base training I do in the winter will pay off the rest of the year. So, I'd rather struggle through a few tough winter days and race well, than sit inside because it's "too cold" and end up racing poorly.

4. Do you race in the winter months? Where?

Not really, I mainly just work on base-building. I do usually run the Winter Carnival Half Marathon - more as a benchmark to see where I'm at.

5. What kind of equipment do you need to run in winter (special shoes, clothing, etc.)?

I don't think you need anything special, just lots of it. Obviously, wicking shirts for your base-layer. Every running store is going to sell "technical" clothing. I have 2-3 jackets and 2-3 pants that vary in thickness. I just choose what to wear based on the temp/windchill.

For me, the main thing is keeping my hands warm. I'll splurge on a nice pair of gloves/mitts because if my hands get cold, I'm done for the day.

For my face, I grow a beard in the winter and if it gets around 0 or below, I'll rub Vaseline on too.

I bought some Yaktrax last year and they're great for trail running. It helps if the trail has been packed down.

I always tell people that the key is to continue running as the temperature drops, then just add another layer for every 10 degree drop or so. You can't run a fall marathon in 50 degrees and then wait till it's 10 degrees for your next run. Of course, that's going to feel cold. But if yesterday was 20 and today it's 10, that's not so bad.

6. What are the advantages/disadvantages to running in winter?

I think the key advantage is that it "forces" us (Minnesotans) to slow down and focus on base-building. We get off the track, stop doing hard workouts and racing every weekend. Plus it makes us mentally tough. Sure yesterday's hill workout was tough when it was -10, but races are tough too.

A disadvantage would be that our winters are 6 months long. Base-building is great, but by about mid-February I'm ready for it to be over.

7. Are there popular running groups that meet in the winter to run?
Who? Where/when do they meet?

Check out the river road or the lakes on any Saturday morning and you'll see groups of people out running. Obviously if it's 20-below you might not see as many. Matt Haugen's P2 group runs all winter, usually meeting in St. Paul. There's a group of "Old Timers" that meets every Saturday at 7:30 at various locations for a 2+ hour run. I'm sure MDRA, Lifetime Fitness, Minnesota Reds, etc. all have groups that meet throughout the winter.

8. Is winter running a rising or sinking trend in your experience?
It seems like the number of runners, in general, is on the rise, so I would guess that the number of winter runners is on the rise.

Quote of the day (Editor’s note: “poor guy”);

“I don’t drink. I don’t kiss girls. These things do an athlete in.” – Suleiman Nyambui

CONTENT

It’s kind of hard to explain, but I feel as if I have a better sense of my training this winter. I’m not following a schedule, per se, but I am trying fit in a tempo run, hill run, strides and a long run every week to 10 days. Mileage-wise, I’m content to take what my body and Mother Nature will give me.

So when I woke up to 4-6” of new (unplowed) snow yesterday, I had no problem shutting it down, after struggling through 2 miles in 22 minutes. I figure it’s better to sit around and drink coffee than to worry about getting in 2-3 more miles. In the evening I jumped on the treadmill for an easy 5 mile recovery run.

Being content with my body and Mother Nature doesn’t mean being lazy. Even though it was -10 degrees this morning, I managed a 90 minute run, including 5 hill repeats. Luckily the winds were calm. While I could probably go a little colder, I’m getting near my limit – mainly due to my hands. I just can’t keep them warm. I could probably buy some warmer mitts for $30-40, but since I’d only need them a handful (pun not intended) of times during the year, I can’t justify buying them.

I took a slightly new approach for my latest interview, by interviewing a husband and wife who both run. That makes it kind of long, but still interesting. I have a bunch of other cool interviews that I’m currently working on too.

Quote of the day;

“Yeah, I'm obviously very pleased with how the race went. In hindsight, I wish I would've got out a little faster in the first half, but I wanted to play it a little conservative.” – Michael Reneau, who ran negative splits (1:09:16/1:08:30) at Houston on Sunday.

WE HAVE LIFTOFF

After Saturday's run I had a blog entry in my head - talking about how fit I am. But it's really hard to talk about myself after what happened in Houston on Sunday. Most impressive, Ryan Hall ran 59:43 for the half marathon, beating the old American Record by 1:12. Team USA Minnesota runners ran well too, including Andrew Carlson and Jason Lehmkuhle who both PR'd with sub-1:03 performances to finish 4th and 5th, respectively. Another Minnesotan in the race, Kevin won the 45-49 age-group by 3:20 with a 1:13:25.

In the marathon, Michael lowered his PR by nearly 3 minutes to 2:17:46. Jason missed the 2:22 Olympic Trials qualifying standard with his 2:24:14.

On the women's side, Minnesota runners dominated the 30-34 age-group, claiming the top-3 spots. Most impressive from that group was Erin's 2:48:18. While she missed the 2:47 Olympic Trials qualifying standard, she ran nearly a 5-minute PR.

Finally, because she's THAT good, she gets her own paragraph. Jenna was the 5th woman (1st American), lowering her PR by 3:12 to 2:42:39. How's this for splits; 1:23:01/1:19:38? If it's easier for you to understand "pace," she ran 6:20 pace for the first half and then dropped down to 6:05 pace for the second half. Sweet!!!

While we've had a very mild winter so far, usually this is the time of year when winter really starts to drag. I haven't raced for 3 months, the "real" racing season is still 2-3 months away, it's the coldest part of the year, it's dark, the holidays are behind us, etc. etc. Motivation can really start to suffer. Seeing yesterday's results were definitely a shot in the arm.

Alright, that's enough ass-kissing for today.

As I started to mention at the beginning of my post, I'm feeling fit. Not 59:43 half marathon-fit. Probably not even sub-3 fit. But definitely mid-January fit.

This sense of fitness hit me Saturday as I ran a solo 19 miler at 7:45 pace in 10 degree weather. This run gave me 76 for the week on 8 runs.

Sunday (after reading the Houston results) I headed out for a nice 12 mile trail run. I felt really good, especially for running 19 miles the day before, and had to keep reigning myself in.

Right at the end of this run it started snowing. This morning I woke up to about 6” of new snow. It’s about time we get the brown grass covered up. Let’s hope they’re out plowing the paths today.

Quote of the day;

“I certainly don't read much or have any scientific basis on my training...I just like to run.” – Jenna

GETTING SOFT

To listen to the local weather forecasters, you’d think we were in the middle of an ice age. Sure the temperatures “plummeted” overnight. However, when temps are 35-40 degrees in mid-January, dropping 30 degrees shouldn’t come as a shock. Sure it sucks, but we were still above zero (4 degrees) this morning – and we’re supposed to get up to 14 degrees today. So what’s all the hype about? Yes, the wind chill is about 10 below, but even that’s not too bad. I think we’re just getting soft.

I won’t lie. The first 5-6 minutes of this morning's run – into the wind – were a bitch. My forehead was cold and it kind of felt like a brain-freeze from eating ice cream too fast. (Which reminds me, I just read somewhere that when that happens, you’re supposed to press your tongue to the roof of your mouth.) But within a mile, I was feeling toasty warm. About that point into the run I decided to throw in some hill repeats. Last week I did 3, today I managed 4. These aren’t bust-a-gut repeats. They’re just controlled repeats designed to get my body ready for future bust-a-gut repeats. After the hills, I continued on and got in 10 miles.

I’m happy to report that my knee is feeling pretty good. There was a comment from “Getwell” yesterday regarding being “careful of how you rate your injury.” Yes, that’s good advice. Right now, I wouldn’t call this an injury. It’s more of a nuisance. If I ran to the doctor every time something like this flared up – like some articles suggest – I’d be better off being a doctor or at least being married to one. Since that’s not going to happen, I’ll just make due the best I can - through trial-and-error – like everyone else.

On a “National” note, the Houston Marathon and Half Marathon, which serves as the U.S. Championship, are this weekend. There are quite a few local runners participating, including some of the people I’ve interviewed recently. Here’s wishing they all have great races.
Eric sent me another New York Times article. It’s not really running related. It’s about “happiness” and running makes me happy – so there you go. It’s kind of long (6 pages) and I’ve only read the first page so far, but it’s interesting.

Finally, since some of my readers are triathletes, I’ll throw this new blog out there. I think it’s safe to say that Curt is a very good local triathlete. Stop by and encourage him to post more often.

Quote of the day;

“I don’t want to plead that it’s the life of a monk, but I can’t think of a sport – with the possible exception of swimming – where people train as hard.” – Sebastian Coe on distance running

FLUFF

As I build my mileage, I gradually add in more-and-more miles as I adapt. I can do this a number of ways; add a little mileage to some of my runs, double-up my easy days, double-up my hard days, increase my long runs, etc. With my knee acting up a little, I’ve decided to eliminate some of the “fluff” from my training.

So yesterday, rather than running 5 easy miles in the morning and 10 miles in the evening, I cut the 5 mile run from my schedule. I still managed 10 miles, including 6 at 6:48 pace. Again, the knee felt “fine.”

I’ll cut a little more “fluff” today. I figured running an easy 5 miles just 9 hours after finishing last night’s run might not be a good idea. So I slept in. I’ll get that run in tonight.

These changes won’t make a huge dent in my weekly mileage, but I’ll probably be closer to 70-75 miles, instead of 80-85.

Speaking of injuries, here’s an interesting article. Thanks to my friend Eric for sending it. Since I know the New York Times requires registration, here are some highlights;

The usual advice in treating injuries is to rest until the pain goes away. But a number of leading sports medicine specialists say that is outdated and counterproductive. Unless it’s something as serious as a broken bone or a ripped ligament or muscle, stopping altogether may be the worst thing to do.

“We want to keep you moving,” said Dr. William Roberts. “Injured tissue heals better if it’s under some sort of stress.”

“The easy way out is to say, ‘Don’t exercise,’ ” said Dr. Richard Steadman. That advice, he added, “is safe and you probably will have healing over time. But, if the injury is not severe, resting it will probably prolong recovery.”

I don’t want to post too much of the article, but it goes on to talk about some new ideas regarding icing and taking ibuprofen for treating injuries.

Finally, I just posted another interview. It’s kind of a new twist on things.

Quote of the day;

“You are here to learn to be an adult and I want you to grow at all levels. I want you to grow from being a scared 18 year old freshman into being a self reliant, confident, strong young woman who can go out into the world and make a difference professionally and personally.” – Gary Wilson

ANOTHER WAY

I haven’t run yet today, but I wanted to write a short post based on an article I read the other night. Back in my dark day – when I was doing triathlons – I had a coach. He’s since moved to Colorado, but he still writes training articles for a local bi-monthly publication. His latest article talks about the benefits of low intensity training – an effort that feels just a bit more intense than a strong walk (i.e. 2 hour runs and 5 hour bike rides with heart rates around 120-125).

Sounds “fun.” Of course, heart rates vary between individuals, so what does he really want us to accomplish?

Well, we’re trying to workout at the fastest pace we can maintain while still burning fat.

Ah. I’m not sure about you, but I don’t know when I switch from fat-burning to carb-burning.

No worries. The best way to find the “correct” effort is through a fuel test in a lab.

That sounds “fun” too.

Luckily, there’s another way. We can also use perceived exertion. He suggests using the effort at which you can no longer comfortably breathe through your nostrils while exercising.

Here’s my favorite part. If you’re an oral breather then you can;

Find this optimal fat burning threshold by evaluating the moment you notice a significant increase in breathing rate at a training level that is well below the threshold you would begin to feel the burning of lactate accumulation.

I’m glad he cleared that up

Quote of the day;

“In general, any form of exercise, if pursued continuously, will help to train us in perseverance. Long-distance running is particularly good.” – Mao Tse-Tung

LOTS OF MEANING

As Sara pointed out in a comment, describing my knee as “fine” doesn’t really convey lots of meaning. The good news is that it doesn’t hurt. It just feels “funny”. There’s a “spot” on the outside of my right knee that’s not on the outside of my left knee. Of course, it’s possible that it’s been like that for 37 years and that I’ve just never noticed. Now that I’ve had some soreness, I’m going into over-analysis. I can’t really justify backing off, since it doesn’t hurt. So, I’ll just keep cranking until it gets worse (or better).

Mondays are recovery days and yesterday was no different; 6 easy miles in the morning and 5 very easy miles in the evening. During my evening run I watched as Ohio State laid an egg. At least there was no point in staying up for the second half of the game. I still don’t understand how the teams can put up 48 points in the first half and then only 7 in the second half. I know strategies and game plans change, but still…

This morning I ran 11 miles and included some strides. It turns out my normal running route (which I didn’t run on, during my cutback week) isn’t as clear of snow and ice as I thought it was. There were 3-4 stretches that were very icy and slippery. That makes me wonder if they’ll even plow that path if we ever get any more snow.

I’m sure most readers are sick of hearing about the Minnesota running scene. If you’re not, check out the new blog that’s being written by a couple guys from USATF Minnesota. This group also puts out a bi-monthly magazine and they’ve contacted me about including excerpts from my interviews in future magazines. So make sure your answers are witty and interesting.

Quote of the day;

“The marathon is a contest between your will and your resources.” – Jeff Galloway

HERO WORSHIPING

On Friday, I figured; “What good is a cutback week without a day off?” So I took the day off.

Saturday was a nice 14 mile group run from Ft. Snelling to downtown St. Paul and back. That means I finished my cutback week with 50 miles on 6 runs.

Funny story of the run; we stopped at a hotel to use the rest rooms. One of the guys flushed the toilet and dropped his keys at the same time. Luckily he’s a better runner than basketball player and the keys bounced off the rim and landed harmlessly on the floor.

It was also during Saturday’s run when I got to meet one of my boyhood idols, Todd. When I was 13 or 14 I lived in northern Wisconsin. Given that there weren’t that many road races to choose from, we’d basically run everything within an hours drive. Todd lived about an hour from my hometown and he would often show up to the local races and just stomp everyone. At the time, it seemed like he was running 28-minute 10Ks. I don’t remember his exact times, but given that he was a 2:17 marathoner, I’d guess he was running 30-minute 10Ks.

Anyway, it was nice to be able to run with him a little on Saturday. I told Doug, who was running with me and Todd about my hero worshiping and he said it reminded him of a Jack Nicholas story; Jack said, “Everyone used to wish they could golf like me. Now they can.” While I might be able to run with Todd, at least a little bit, it’s not because I’m now running 30-minute 10Ks too.

Sunday I ran 11 miles including 4 miles at 7:10 pace. During that 4-mile stretch I just tried to keep things controlled and comfortably hard.

The knee is “fine.” It’s not hurting at the moment, but it sure sounds like a bowl of Rice Crispies with all the snap, crackle and popping going on every time I stand up. The only thing I can think of – other than running 80+ mpw – is that I started taking Glucosamine about two weeks ago. I don’t know if that’s the cause or not, but I’m going to cut out the Glucosamine and see what happens.

Quote of the day;

“Your body, no matter how you train it, is only capable of standing so much stress, then you have to let it rest.” – Frank Shorter

NOTHING FANCY

I either have writer’s block or I’m just unmotivated to blog. I guess that means I’m sticking to the first half of my New Year’s resolution to blog less. Now I just have to interview more runners in order to fulfill the second half of my resolution. I’m finding that it's a lot like running – if I don’t get it done in the morning, when I have all the great ideas floating around in my head, it doesn’t seem to get done. I have four people I’m trying to write questions for, but I’m struggling to come up with questions that are unique and interesting.

Part of the “problem” is that I received some old (1972-1975) newsletters from the local publication I’ve been writing for, and I can't put them down. I was going to write a “scathing” article comparing and contrasting Runner’s World from 1977 to 2007. However, I think I’m going to take that concept and apply it to this publication. Here are some things that jump out at me;

The 1 hour race used to be popular.
They seemed to race odd distances, such as 1.3, 4.3 and 6.6 miles.
There were only about 50 runners per race, but 75% of them ran sub-6 pace.
They’d run a 6 mile race but also have a 2 mile women’s race.
Prediction runs were a lot more popular.
While guys like Steve Hoag and Ron Daws were studs, they didn’t totally dominate the local racing scene – like I would’ve thought.
It’s fun to see the names people (or relatives) that are still racing 35 years later.
Finally, we’re spoiled and we take for granted things as simple as up-to-date race schedules, the number of races available, certified courses, race directors, etc.

After some unexpected expenses, my wife told me to watch my spending. So yesterday I went out and bought some new running shoes. Hey, they were 30% off. Besides, I’ll cut back on a lot of things, but I’m not going to cut back on running shoes – especially with my knee acting up. I figure $63 is better than visiting the doctor.

Speaking of cutting back, this is now officially a cutback week. Wednesday I ran an easy 6 miles. I’ve been meaning to add in a hill workout during the week, so I decided to ease into that yesterday. I ran 7 miles and included 3 hill repeats, which were about four-tenths of a mile each. Nothing fancy, just trying to make that “smooth transition” while adding something new to the training mix.

Quote of the day;

“For me, more does not equal better. I try to focus on good quality miles so I can run as little as possible throughout the season.” – Emily Brown, University of Minnesota All-American

RIGHT KNEE

I’m not sure to expect this week – running-wise. My right knee has been feeling weird, off-and-on, lately. After Sunday night’s 13 mile run w/ 8 at MP, it was sore.

Yesterday my knee felt better as I ran on the treadmill. I was thinking I could get in an easy 10 miles. However, I stopped to use the bathroom just after 5 miles and when I got back on the ‘mill, my knee was sore. So rather than be a slave to the logbook, I pulled the plugged and called it a day.

This morning, a number of reasons made me just run another easy 5 miles; 1) my knee, 2) back to work, so I already had to get up an hour earlier than I had been, 3) I didn’t know what shape the trails would be in with the resent snow, and 4) my knee.

During the first half of the run I was cursing the city of Bloomington for not plowing their paths. I was literally off the path for 10 minutes before returning to find them ploughed. Pretty weird.

The good news is that my knee felt fine. However, the recent flare ups have me wondering if I can’t handle 90 mpw AND tempo runs at the same time. I keep thinking back to a recent interview where the guy could handle 150 mpw, but “only” ran 120 mpw if he was doing quality.

My New Year’s resolution is to blog less and interview more. I posted another interview yesterday. After reading her responses, Julie thought that she should have provided more in-depth answers. However, I think she does a great job of showing that you don’t have to worry about running 24/7, memorize all your PRs and splits or follow the “perfect plan” to be successful.

Quote of the day;

“In the ‘70s, I was a schoolteacher and I trained at 5 AM and 5 PM. During the wintertime, I never saw the sun.” – Tom Fleming

BY THE NUMBERS

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, er, I mean white New Year. We finally got some snow yesterday afternoon - just in time for a bunch of drunks to be on the slick roads. Makes me glad I have kids and just stayed home. I almost made it to 11 PM - even with a nap in the afternoon.

Back to work tomorrow, so blogging may get back to "normal." For now I'll recap my training, the month of December and 2006.

Friday afternoon I squeezed in another easy 5 mile run in the afternoon.

My wife made plans to go to the zoo with some friends at 9:30 on Saturday morning. That meant getting up at 5:30 in order to get in 18 miles before we left. The first 10 miles were in the dark. Sure it sucked, but it was nice to have it over with by 8:30 AM. This run gave me 90 miles for the week.

It's kind of interesting, for the first week of 2006 I ran 88 miles and wrote in my logbook, "Great week. Highest week ever - previous high was 84 miles." I'm sure that was a big deal at the time. Now I'm running 80-90 mpw and don't really think much of it. Alright, I do think about 90 - but next year I won't.

Last night I ended the month and year with a 13 mile run on the treadmill, including 8 miles at 6:52 pace. I would have run outside, but in the morning it was my least favorite weather; about 35 degrees and rain. Instead, I elected to watch Favre's last game (?) and get in some quality.

Last year I had mileage PRs for December (316) and for a year (2,793). I sort of shattered those this year with 350 in December and 3,205 for the year. We'll see what 2007 brings...hopefully fast race times

Quote of the day;

"Happy New Year" - Dick Clark