FETZER 20K RACE REPORT

Subtitle: Who to believe? (or is it 'whom')

On Friday, Eric left me a message saying it would be calm for our race on Saturday. Then Evan left a comment saying that April was the windiest month of the year. Saturday morning, the first song I heard as I got in my car was “Against the Wind.”

I drove to Eric’s house and we carpooled about 70 miles to Rochester for my first ever 20k race. PR, baby – just for crossing the finish line. I’ve mentioned Minnesota’s racing circuit before that includes age-group ranking for meeting certain time standards. Well, odd distances, such as 20k, 25k and 30k, have much softer standards because there aren’t many races of those distances. Anyway, that means that while this was a fairly small (230 runners) race, lots of age-group studs come out in order to gain some points.

I have yet to reach any of the standards. The 20k standard for my age group is 1:17. McMillan calculates my last 8k to a 1:17:44, so I wasn’t planning on going after the standard today either. I mainly wanted to run a solid race and see how McMillan’s calculation held up for a longer race. As Evan said, a 20k is a better indicator of marathon performance than an 8k.

On the starting line, Dave (Jenna’s friend that I met 3 weeks ago) asked me what I was hoping to run. I told him 6:15-6:20 pace. He said that’s where he hoped to be too since that’s what he ran for 25k last weekend. Well, he went on to beat me by nearly 4 minutes.

So did I run well or not? Read on.

I’m happy to report that Eric’s forecast was correct. It was nearly perfect for April 8th; 40 degrees, sunny and nearly calm.

The gun goes off and we head over an overpass and people settle in pretty quickly. I plan on just running how I feel and not even worry about my watch. I never saw the first mile marker, so this strategy is already paying off. After reading Chelle’s report, I may never look at my watch again during a race. Just after 2 miles I pass the only guy that I’d pass all race. About this time, I finally start getting into a rhythm. At mile 3 I decide to start taking splits every 3 miles. I figure I want to have some sort of feedback afterwards to see if I went out too hard or too slow or to see where I died, etc.

At mile 4, the lead woman is about 20-30 seconds ahead of me. I figure if she’s still that far away at mile 8, I can reel her in. There is a little breeze on the course and somewhere between 4 and 6 there’s a nice tailwind and I push the pace. Coming back towards mile 7 into the wind, I back off a little.

I feel in total control, totally aware of what’s going on with my breathing, my stride, the wind, the gal in front of me and now the guy that’s coming back to her. I actually feel like I’m racing, whereas a typical half marathon is more like “hang on, hang on, okay now race.” It’s probably more mental than anything, but now I know I can be more aggressive in my future half marathons. And marathons?

At mile 8 I’m still feeling good and I start working a little more. The lead woman is still 20-30 seconds in front of me. She has now reached the guy in front of her and they’re working together. A half mile later I start to hear footsteps behind me. I admit, in the past I’ve let people pass me, unchallenged. I always seem to be happy with my race and convince myself to keep doing my own thing. Well today I tell myself that when this guys comes by, I’ll go with him

At this point the course takes a cruel turn. We have been heading back on the road we ran out on. It has an up and down hill section (obviously in both directions). Well, just when I got to the top of the hill and thought I was going to be heading back down, we took a right and kept climbing. Evan mentioned this to me when he described the course, but it was still cruel.

At mile 9 I sneak a peak at my watch. I figured if I was there around 55-56 minutes I could possibly get the 20k time standard. I see 56:44. Normally this would have been a letdown and I’d have given up. But I kept pushing and didn’t let the time phase me. Soon after 9 the guy behind me catches up and I go with him. I hang with him for about a half mile, but this guy is hauling. He’s not just going 5-10 seconds faster per mile than me; he’s going 20-25 seconds faster per mile.

With 3 miles to go, I back-off and let him go. He goes on to beat me by 69 seconds. He put 23 freaking seconds a mile on me and it wasn’t because I was slowing down. In fact, my final 3 miles were my fastest. My guess is that he was using the first 8 miles as a training run and then he kicked it in.

Nothing exciting happened the rest of the way. The lead woman continued to work with another guy and I never got any closer than 30 seconds. Here are my splits;

18:45
18:51
19:07 (including the cruel uphill)
18:32 (un-cruel downhill)
2:41
1:17:57 (6:17 pace)

So I missed my time standard by 57 seconds, but I’m okay with that. I’m really happy with my race and glad that I only missed my McMillan time by 13 seconds. That bodes well for my marathon. Eric ended up running 1:20:29. Complete results can be found here.

Quote of the day:
“I tell our runners to divide the race into thirds. Run the first part with your head, the middle part with your personality, and the last part with your heart.” Mike Fanelli, club coach

TONE IT DOWN

Just want to make it clear that my last 2 posts have been directed as much at me as anyone else. Hopefully they got people thinking. I’ll tone it down today.

I stayed up too late (10 PM) last night reading James Patterson’s Honeymoon. I was just going to read for 15-20 minutes, but ended up reading for 45 minutes. It’s weird. He gives you ample opportunity to stop reading, since his dang chapters are only 2-3 pages long. Yet you can’t stop reading. I guess that’s the sign of a good writer.

Anyway, 5:15 soon came. And went. I re-set my alarm for 6:15. That meant I had to jump on the treadmill over lunch, which limited me to an easy 5 mile run. Probably a good thing if I want to race well tomorrow. After lots of rain lately, tomorrow looks like a perfect day 35 to 52 with sun. Hopefully the wind will die down.

If anyone is interested in watching Pre “drop down” to the mile, check out this video. Marty Liquori “shows up” around 1200 meters.

I mentioned buying some new shoes a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t buy them online, but wanted to pass along this link to zappos.com. I haven’t done an extensive comparison of their prices, but they have, by far, the best photos of their shoes. They have 7-8 photos for each pair.

Quote of the day:
“Yet that man is happy and poets sing of him who conquers with hand and swift foot and strength.” Pindar, Greek poet, 500 B.C.

RAMBLE ON

Yeah, I know we live a quick-fix society. I guess some of the entries in this blog are my attempt to get people to demand more from themselves and push their limits a little. It’s no different than a teacher (like Sara) getting frustrated when a student asks what’s the minimum I have to do or do I get extra credit.

I want to qualify for Boston, what’s the least amount of work I need to do? So you run a 3:10, qualify and run Boston the following year. That’s great and all, but what if you really “should be” a 2:40 marathoner? Should I be more impressed that a 2:40 guy ran 3:10 or that a 3:11 guy ran 3:11?

I guess I assume if someone is into reading running message boards and/or reading/writing a running blog, then running is a fairly high priority in their life. If that’s the case, I would hope they would want to maximize their performance.

At least that’s one of the reasons I decided to ramp up my mileage. I’m passionate about this sport and want to see how far I can take my running. One of the “nice things” about not reaching my potential when I was younger is that if I work harder now, I believe I still have a chance to break my all-time PRs.

One other thing regarding the example in my last post; the ‘someone’ mentioned “knowing his body and that he needed a couple of days off a week.” Again, if you’re (relatively) young and fit and you “need” a couple of days off a week, something is wrong. Just think; 2 x 52 = over 100 days off a year. That’s 3 months of missed training.
Keep in mind I’m talking runners here. You triathletes are on your own.

Here’s a suggestion, go to Boston this year and interview everyone that runs sub-3:10 and ask them how many days off they take per week. If the majority says 2 days a week, then you’re onto something.

Of course that’s not likely, but you get the idea. After a race I always thought it’d be cool to talk training with everyone that beat me. How long have they been running? What’s their recent base, hill, speed, racing, etc. training been like? What are they training for? Blah, blah, blah. I mean don’t you want to learn from someone that’s kicking your ass?

With all that said, I took a day off yesterday. It was a combination of feeling a little beat up, not taking a day off in nearly 6 weeks and wanting to feel somewhat fresh for Saturday's race. I sat on the couch, ate ice cream and watched the Twins pound the Blue Jays, 13-4. And it was all good.

I felt great this morning, so that's a good sign. I’m still amazed at how my legs can bounce back after just one day off. Wow, imagine if I took two days off – every week! I’d feel fresh all the time – except when I raced, I guess.

Anyway, I wanted to get in a little work, but not sabotage my upcoming race. I basically did an 8 mile progression run with 2 mile splits of 16:00, 14:40 and 14:28, followed by a 7:05 mile and an 8:30 mile cool-down. I’m also amazed at how my form feels. I’d attribute it to hills, strides and ab work. Throw in fresh legs and a little tail wind and presto – a biomechanical dream. Not really, but I felt really smooth.

Quote of the day:
“You don't have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things - to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated.” Edmund Hillary

DEAD HORSE

Speed, speed, speed. Everyone wants to add speed. It doesn’t matter if they have a sufficient base or not. Quality over quantity – that’s the key. So and so is doing a track workout. I’m in.

Someone wants to get a Boston Qualifier and is “willing to do whatever it takes.” Then they add their own qualifiers; “I’m busy, so quality over quantity is a must. And oh yeah, my goal race is this fall.”

Well, which is it; are you willing to do “whatever it takes” or not? Are you willing to build your mileage up; week after week, month after month, year after year? Are you willing to skip certain races or at least train through them? Are you willing to focus on your own training and not someone else’s? Are you willing to train year-round (with structured breaks)? Are you willing to stick with this goal, even if it takes years to achieve?

Seriously, I think the Boston standards are something that every healthy adult, who puts their mind to it, could achieve in their life.

And it’s NOT about speed. The “someone” above needs to run 7:15 pace and says “I need sufficiently faster leg speed.” Meanwhile, they just ran sub-7 pace for 10 miles. Hmm, it sounds like they can handle the pace. What they’re lacking in the endurance to hold that pace.

If that makes sense, why would you focus on quality? Sure quality is important, but quality on top of quantity is much more important.

I keep hearing that mileage causes injuries. But how come I rarely hear that speed work causes injuries? Sure you can increase your mileage and get injured, but I think injuries are more likely to occur if you jump from easy miles into hard speed sessions.

Daws says it’s all about smooth transitions. There shouldn’t be any clear-cut lines between the base, hill, and speed phases. Towards the end of base-building you start adding in some hilly runs. The hill phase prepares you for speed, especially if you add in some strides. In the speed phase you start out with slow reps with short repeats and progress from there.

With all that said, I understand that I put a lot into my training. Running is near the top of my priorities. If it’s not as high a priority for you, then your results will vary.

Tonight was a beautiful 55 degrees, fairly calm and sunny. I re-joined my training group for a hill session. While it’s not springing, running with the group is more intense. We did 15 minutes of repeats on 3 separate hills in St. Paul. A nice cool-down with Jenna gave me 85 minutes or about 11 miles.

During the hills, coach Matt filmed us running and then played the tape back afterwards. For some reason all he taped was butt, boob and groin shots – no head or legs. It was kind of funny and a little disturbing.

Quote of the day:
“There is no telling how many miles you will have to run while chasing a dream.” Unknown

FINAL BORE

I woke up at 5 this morning and was still a little tired. I remembered that the NCAA men’s championship game was on TV tonight, so I reset my watch for 6 and went back to sleep. Why ‘do now’ what you can put off till later?

I ended up running 10 miles on the treadmill while watching Florida pound UCLA. I didn’t really care who won, but I kind of like Billy Donavon, so I was happy. After a great tournament, the Final Four turned into the Final Bore with 3 blowouts. Still, I couldn’t stop watching Florida, even though the game was basically over.

After running, I lifted a few weights and did some crunches. Call me crazy, but I almost see a little six-pack forming. Just like anything else, it’s nice to get a little positive feedback. It actually makes me want to workout a little more and do a better job of cutting out junk food.

Now that the base-phase is behind me and I’m almost finished with hills, I’ve been thinking ahead to the sharpening/coordination phase. Daws does a good job of explaining the progression of workouts;

A fair amount of volume, relatively slow with short rests (i.e. 20 x 400 @ 10k pace with 100 jog)

Less volume, faster speeds with more rest (i.e. 1k repeats @ 3-5K pace followed by jogging until HR drops to 100)

Even less volume, faster speeds with less rest

Fast with very little resting (i.e. stride/float 50s or 100s)

However, how to mix them into a schedule and for how long is a little confusing. I thought I’d look at Lydiard’s Running to the Top as well as some Lydiard info that Mike sent me. That just added to the confusion. The workouts even varied from one Lydiard article to another. And we wonder why people think his information is confusing.

Needless to say, a little more research is needed as I head towards my final 9 weeks. I think I have my race schedule nailed down. Evan and I discussed it during our last long run. I’m going to race a 20k this Saturday and a 10k on the 29th. May 13th (half) and 27th (30K) I’ll run at marathon pace. The week before Grandma’s I may race a 5k-8k, depending on how my training is progressing.

Quote of the day:
“Look, last year, you ran the best race of your career. Everything went right and you performed at your very best. Now, if you know why that happened and you put your training plan together properly to reproduce that peak performance again on the day of the first race you want to win this season, then I would say you know something about training. Until you can do that, you don't know a damn thing about it. You are just a good athlete who, one day, without realizing why it is happening, will run a good race.” Arthur Lydiard

SOCIAL BUTTERFLY

I’m just a regular social butterfly. Friday I ran with Scott, Saturday it was Peter and then I closed out the weekend with Evan this morning.

Saturday was a busy morning with 4 things planned – all before 11 AM; running, dentist appointment, building buddies with the girls at church, and a chiropractor appointment.

Nothing like getting up at 5:00 on your day off to go for a run with someone you don’t know.

I “met” Peter through the hillrunner.com forum, but Saturday was the first time we’ve met in person. I guess that’s one advantage of living about 10 minutes from the airport and Mall of America – when people come to town, they usually stay fairly close. Peter’s hotel was literally a minute jog from the trails that lead down to the Minnesota River. With all the snow melting recently, as well as the rain, I thought the trails would be in worse shape than they were. We managed a nice easy 10 mile run at 8:30 pace. That gave me 76 miles for the week in 7 runs.

Nothing too exciting to report with my other morning adventures. No cavities, we built bird feeder this year (after making a bird house last year) and I got another adjustment from the chiropractor. Then we went to McDonald’s for lunch.

Sunday’s theme was “Misery Loves Company;” 2 hours and 40 minutes, 20 miles, 38 degrees and steady rain. Not sure what would have happened if I didn’t have Evan along with me. Maybe I would have cut my run short, waited till later in the day or jumped on the treadmill. The best thing about this run was being done with it. Afterwards, I couldn’t get the shower hot enough. Luckily, Amy and Kinsey ran some errands while Katie napped – which means I napped too.

Quote of the day:
“When you do the little extras such as heat training, skipping, and springing exercises, you discover you can change things.” Ron Daws

SPRINGING, IT IS

I re-read Daws’ section on the hill phase and I am indeed springing. Bounding involves exaggerated knee lift AND stride length. I haven’t done any of that type of hill workout yet and I don’t know if I will. I need to go back and re-read Mike’s blog regarding his hill phase.

Speaking of Daws, Evan posted this bio on Daws the other day. Evan will also be running the Ron Daws Memorial 25K tomorrow morning. I’d call it a “race” but it’s unlike most (any) races around here. It cost a whopping $3.50 to run and it is limited to 160 runners. Hmm, sounds a lot like a 1970s race. Directly from their registration info;

This race commemorates 1968 Olympic marathoner Ron Daws. Daws, a '60's/'70's Minnesota running icon, trained over this same course. The race was renamed as a memorial to Daws the year after his death, in 1992.

The course runs over hilly terrain to the south and west of Hopkins. The race, begun in 1979, and now in its fourth decade, has proved to be a stiff challenge at a middle distance for those training for Boston or other spring marathons or who are otherwise looking for a testing workout.

Come prepared to run!!

The course is now measured in kilometers.

Faxed copies of the entry form will not be accepted. This was created to be a low key event-please keep it that way!

Today’s run was the same as last Friday’s; 1 mile with Bailey and 8 miles with Scott around Lake Calhoun. Just seeing an increase in walkers and runners is enough to know that warmer temps have arrived. It was 45-50 at 6 AM. Definitely warm enough for shorts, yet most runners (including us) wore pants. It’s like we know it’s warm enough, but we just don’t trust the weather yet.

This run means I finished March with 365 miles, a new all-time high – one more mile than January. I ran every day and had 7 doubles, all in the first 2 weeks of the month. None of my weeks were super high (92 miles), but none were super low (74 miles) either. I’m happy to report that I’ve gotten back into the routine of lifting and doing some ab work too, including 4 of the last 8 days.

Hills will continue for the first 2 weeks of April – sandwiching a 20k race on April 8th. I’m thinking about doing a 25k trail run for “fun” on the 22nd and then racing Minnesota’s largest 10k on the 29th.

Keeping with the Daws theme, here is today’s quote of the day. Actually, I’ve separated this paragraph into three separate quotes - each one awesome enough to be its own QOD, yet even better when you put them all together. If you haven't read any of Daws' writing, this gives you a good taste. I almost find myself mesmerized as I re-read paragraphs over and over.

“When you reach the 20-mile mark of a marathon feeling utterly spent, but finish somehow, you suspect you can conquer other seemingly unbearable events in life. After you discover you can set tough goals and prevail, you realize you can accomplish almost anything you put your mind to.”

“You don't have to look to the marvels of the Benoits, the Coes, the world-class to find your heroes; look inward to your own struggle and discover yourself. What you find may startle you, it may expose you to a whole gamut of emotions, but it will never bore you.”

“And, as Theodore Roosevelt promised, your place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” - Ron Daws, from Running Your Best, Epilogue

BOUNDING OR SPRINGING

Awake at 4:30 AM. $0
12 miles of hills and strides. $0
Done for the day by 6:30 AM. Priceless

Man, it feels so good to get done with a run, especially a hard workout, right away in the morning. Afterwards, sitting in traffic in the rain didn’t even bother me.

This morning I did a similar workout to Tuesday’s hills and strides. The only difference was that I added in another stride during each circuit. I thought I was ‘bounding,’ but I re-read an article that Mike sent me and it sounds like I’m ‘springing.’ I don’t know if it matters. I do know that it’s work.

During my cool-down I was calculating how much of this run was actually “hard.” Of the 96 minutes, only 12 minutes were spent on the hill and 8 minutes spent doing strides. Only 20 minutes of work, but it sure feels like more. The last two times I started this workout, I felt really good. By the time the cool-down rolled around, my ass was dragging. I could barely make up little hills in my neighborhood.

I need to keep this in mind when I look at my mileage graphs. What used to be 90-100 mile weeks are now 70-80 mile weeks. 31-day rolling totals that were 380-400 miles are now 340-360 miles. Fewer miles but more, harder miles.

This quote of the day probably should have gone with yesterday’s
post:

“Don't let a few minutes of discomfort lay to waste hours and hours of training.” Eric

Here's Eric trying to hold off Jim at the Human Race.

NO SUBSTITUTE FOR FITNESS

First off, congrats to Jim for winning his age-group last weekend at the U.S. National Snowshoe Championship in Bolten Valley, VT. It turns out he got “lost” the day before the race and ended up running 14 miles. Results can be found here.

I had a great 10-mile recovery run this morning. It really felt like my form had improved – overnight. My legs felt strong. I felt like I have “perfect” biomechanics. Every time I took a deep breath, it felt like my lungs would keep expanding as long as I wanted them to. Can the hill work and strides “kick in” that quickly? I don’t know, but if it’s a sign of things to come, I like it.

Things have pretty much just been about training around here lately. Kinda boring, even if I do say so myself. I thought I’d try to get a little more philosophical using a statement my friend Eric made to me a couple of months ago, after a year of kicking my ass in every race we entered;

Regardless of fitness, successful racing requires experiencing a fair amount of pain. You have to be willing to suffer. You have to, in a sense, embrace the suffering. My own opinion is that you're too analytical during the races. You're willing to run the race at a non-maximal suffering level. You need to learn to suffer. You need to be more like a football player, and less like a pool player.

While I don’t disagree with Eric, I wonder how much we can really “change our spots.” The last race we ran together, I beat Eric by 40 seconds. Does that now mean that he’s not suffering enough in a race? Does it mean I’m suffering more than last year?

I would venture a guess that we both suffered the same amount as we have in our previous races. After 25+ years of racing, I doubt someone is really going to change their approach to racing. Sure we may try different tactics, like going out hard, running even splits, surging, etc. But in the end, our thought process and the amount we’re really willing to suffer is probably already set.

If I just look at my last race, I don’t think I suffered any more than “normal” for a race. However, I’ve been more willing to suffer in practice this winter. No, not every day I step out the door. It’s more like a continuum of ever-so-slightly increasing the suffering; daily then weekly and then monthly - backing off where need-be.

Could I race better if I increased my ability to suffer during a race? Probably, but it’s easier said than done. However, there’s no substitute for fitness.

Quote of the day:

“So we're all together here, as usual, standing on the broad shoulders of those who have gone before.” Kenny Moore

BASS-ACKWARDS

I managed a very easy 6 miles yesterday morning. I had time for 8, but not the desire. My legs were as tired as they’ve been in a long time. It’s really no surprise given my last 4 days of training; 11 miles of hills, 9 strong miles, 14 miles of hills and 18 miles. I did manage to go to bed at 8:15 on Sunday night and 8:45 on Monday night, so that helped in the sleep department.

Even though my training group is running hills tonight, I decided to go by myself this morning. During this 3-4 week hill phase, I want to focus on bounding/springing up the hills, not just getting to the top. In addition, I’m adding in some 200 meter strides – something the training group doesn’t do.

It’s amazing what a very easy day will do. My legs bounced back nicely for this morning’s workout. I did decide to run from my house because there’s a great hill nearby. It’s in a park with a loop that’s nearly a mile long. The first part of the loop is about a 3-minute steep uphill, followed by a 5-minute gradual downhill. The hardest part of the hill took about 1:45 to bound up, then it leveled off a little, but I kept bounding for another 1:15. After running fairly hard down the hill, I did two 40-second strides. These were done on a gradual downhill – free speed – to help boost leg turnover. I managed 4 complete circuits for 11 miles in 88 minutes.

During my cool-down I was thinking about how I have things bass-ackwards. While I was in college (during my running prime), I was busy studying and trying to prepare for a career. Now that I’m working, I’m more focused on my running. Who knows what would have happened if I’d focused on running while in college and working afterwards?

Quote of the day:
“I was out training one black night when I heard a noise. I turned around and saw a leopard. I threw some stones at him and he went away, so I went on my way.” Filbert Bayi, on training in Tanzania

SOLID WEEKEND

I had a solid weekend of training, starting with a group hill workout on Saturday morning. We started out on the aptly named, James J. Hill library, stairs. After 20 minutes we ran on this other hill that is right near the stairs. It starts out gradual, levels off, then gets steeper near the end. Finally, we ended on Ramsey hill which basically goes from the Interstate up to Summit Avenue. I’d guess it’s a good 3 minute climb.

During the cooldown, I was trying to think of a harder group workout from last year and I couldn’t come up with any. The thing with this workout is that there’s no rest between the hills since they’re all so close together. Usually we run on a hill for awhile and then jog on the flats for awhile as we head to the next hill. All told, I ran 1:45 and called it 14 miles for the day and 74 for the week.

That evening our coach had a party at his new training facility in St. Paul. Jenna brought some friends including Dave, who ran at the U of MN in the mid-70s with guys like Garry Bjorklund and Steve Plasencia. A quick google search turns up this gem on Plasencia by Scott Douglas. The only problem with the party is that there aren’t any chairs – just bikes. So I ended up spending about 4 hours on my feet. That’s not ideal after a hill workout and before a long run. Neither was only getting 6 hours of sleep.

On Sunday there was this big yellow ball in the sky. It was bright, it was warm and I liked it. I hope it comes back again some day – soon. I was planning on a 20 mile run, but made the mistake of stopping by my house after about 18 miles. It was a little windier than I expected and I was a little underdressed, so I thought I’d run my last 20 minutes on the treadmill. Somewhere on my way to the treadmill I started to eat a snack, then I was in the shower and finally I was napping in front of the TV.

I wasn’t too heartbroken about cutting this run short. The adage says to finish the run feeling like you could have done more. Given the hills and lack of sleep, I don’t think I could have gone much longer. The fact that I needed a nap is usually a pretty good indicator to me that I’ve done enough.

Quote of the day:
“Hills: You entered a marathon with hills? You idiot.” Don Kardong

THE MYTH

Thursday = hill workout. I went to a different neighborhood that had a shorter (75 seconds versus 90 seconds) but steeper hill than Tuesday’s workout. To make up for the shorter hill, I ran two repeats during each circuit. After the two repeats, I ran to the bottom and did 2 x 40 second strides. I did that circuit 4 times for a total of 8 hills and 8 strides. The total workout ended up being a 30 minute warm-up, 42 minutes on the hill and an 18 minute cool-down for 11 miles.

Again, these hill repeats are a bounding motion rather than just “normal” hill repeats where you try to hammer up as fast as possible. I focused on driving my knees up, pushing off with my toes and moving vertical, not horizontal.

I still think I need to find a bigger hill. Adding a second repeat helped, but with the rest in between, it’s not quite the same as a long repetition. There’s a perfect hill near my house. I think I’ll try that next week and then just sit in traffic if I have to.

Friday = strong run with Scott. I had a nice run around Lake Calhoun with Scott this morning. Spring must be in the air because there were a lot of runners and walkers out this morning. I just wish it’d warm up a little. We’ve been stuck in this pattern of 25 degree mornings and 30-35 degree afternoons. It’s March 24th already – LET’S GO!

I’ve probably mentioned this numerous times, but I like running with Scott because he keeps the pace honest. It’s not so fast that it counts as a workout or so fast that I can’t handle the pace the day after a hill workout. But it is faster than I’d go by myself. Had I been alone, I’d probably just run 8:00-8:15 pace and call it a day. Instead, we got in 8 miles (plus 1 with the dog), probably around 7:15 pace.

Quote of the day:
“The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.” Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus

8 MEASLY SECONDS

All those cold, dark mornings - waking up before 5 AM to get in mile-after-mile, hour-after-hour, day-after-day, week-after-week, month-after-month - for what? 8 measly seconds per mile faster than my time from last year.

And do you know what? I’ll take it. 8 measly seconds per mile faster has me excited.

I’m not sure how do you do a cost-benefit analysis that includes the euphoria after a good race, the good-spirited emails the following week, the anticipation of what the season might bring, etc?

But I do know that all that time spent training was worth it.

Just based on those 29 minutes and 15 seconds, I can safely say this “experiment” has been a success.

As you can imagine, it was hard for me to control myself during this morning’s run. But I had to. The way my schedule works, Mondays and Wednesdays must be easy recovery days. Today that meant running 10 miles at about 8:15 pace, even though I wanted to open up the pace a little. However, with a hill workout tomorrow, a run with Scott on Friday, hills with my training group on Saturday and a long run Sunday, I needed to hold back.

One of the nice things about the hill phase is I get to cut my mileage back a little. So rather than shooting for 90-100 miles, I’ll try to get in 80-85 miles. I figure the best way to do this is to just eliminate my doubles. It also means that I’ll have to get back into the habit of getting up at 4:40 every day.

Quote of the day:

“The introduction of resistance in form of sand and hill is too important to be ignored.” Percy Cerutty

NOW WHAT?

I keep forgetting to link to the race results. Click the “results” button, make sure you have 2006 and 8k selected and then hit “display results.” This is one of the more competitive races around; 10 guys under 5:00 pace, 54 under 5:30 pace, 128 under 6:00 pace, etc. I finished 110th out of 1,168 overall and 11th out of 81 in the 35-39 age group.

So I ran one good race. Now what? I spent a winter of base-building. Races are starting to pop up left and right. It must be time to hit the track. Right? Actually it’s time to go vertical with a hill phase.

I’ve been doing some hills once a week with my training group and they’ve helped. But I view those sessions as mainly transitioning from base work to hill work; making that smooth transition that I keep repeating. Besides, the group hill sessions are mainly about getting up the hills quickly. The hill phase I’m referring to has more to do with bounding and building strength, along with including strides; making that transition into the anaerobic phase.

Today I took my first crack at a hill workout and it went okay. Last week’s snowfall allowed me to explore some of the neighborhoods near my office and find some hills. The hill I ran today probably wasn’t big enough, as it only took me 90 seconds to bound up. But I figure it was good enough for my first hill workout, 2 days after a race.

After bounding up the hill I jogged around for about 30 seconds at the top before running down fairly quickly. I tried to take the brakes off, but that’s going to take some practice. At the bottom I included 2 x 200 meter (I used 40 seconds) strides, with a similar jog in between. I did a total of 4 of these circuits. I’m going to try to include 2-3 of these a week for either 3 or 4 weeks.

Two weeks ago I was in a little funk. Having a nice race definitely helps in that category. Now I’m “oozing” (as Seebo would say) excitement and anticipation for the season. It’s hard not to. That freaking McMillan calculator, puts my 8K time at 2:53 flat. Granted, these calculators haven’t really worked for my longer races in the past. However, with the added mileage, this is the year. Heck, even if I fall short and run 2:55 or 2:56, it’s still a PR.

But I need to temper this enthusiasm. I still have 3 months of training. Some of the things I really need to work on (again) are core strength training and diet. I’ve gotten out of the habit of doing core exercises and I need to get going again. As for my diet, if I could just snack better when I’m at home, it’d be a huge improvement. Right now when I get home from work I grab a cookie or a handful of candy. What do you guys do when you just grab a snack? Any suggestions?


Finally, here's one of the reasons I still like triathlons.

You guys are welcome. Heck, even the women get a cheek to look at.

Quote of the day:
“The best way to get something done is to do it.” Jim’s mom

RACE TIPS

My coach sent an email prior to the race with some tips (green for St. Patty's Day). I thought I’d share a few that I thought were really good;

Look forward to the challenge; it IS a blessing to be able to push yourself in a fitness event.

Save-up some passion & spirit to UNLEASH on race day.

Get to KNOW the course and visualize yourself running well. Before the race, use success imagery to 'see' yourself attaining your goals.

Plan to run EVEN PACE (Do not go out too fast! It is UPHILL for parts of mile 1) the entire race, @ 85%+ effort, and finish the last 1/2 mile with an extra push to the line. Listen to your breathing and 'discomfort' in your mind & muscles, to know that you are pushing evenly and persisting for 100% of the race distance. Do not listen to splits (as course terrain & wind & measurement effects them) as much as to your internal cues. Rely on your 'race management skills' that you learn in challenging P2 sessions. It helps to get into a pack that flows the first half of this out-and-back race, then look ahead and see how many people you can catch and pass on the returning 2.5 miles. The course is HARDER on the return, with more uphills, and more fatigue. EXPECT to be mentally strong.

When the race is over:

FIRST look within yourself and ask, "Did I push as hard as I could? Am I satisfied with my effort?" THEN look at the results for place, time, division place. REMEMBER, it is the PLACE that matters more than the time, as times change with environmental conditions. HAVE FUN RACING FOR PLACE.

Lots of good advice that I tried to follow as closely as possible. One thing that really stood out to me is just like everything else (hills, form, breathing, etc), visualization is easier during the first few miles. As the race progresses, it gets harder. Therefore, going forward I need to really focus my mental strategies and practice on the 2nd half of the race.

Here’s a quick recap of my recent training. Saturday I ran an easy 6 miles. After the race I joined Jenna and some of her friends for a 6 mile cooldown. While that’s longer than normal, my legs felt great during this morning’s 6 miles. Granted they were tired, but there was no soreness. That’s a little surprising since Sunday was the first time I’ve strapped on racing flats in 5 months. Usually my calves are beat up pretty good after that.

Speaking of flats, I made a decision on marathon shoes. After trying on a pair of adidas (Supernova Comp – I think) and Asics Gel-DS Racer VII, I settled on the Mizuno Idaten. I have a pair of cushion inserts that I’ll throw in them, as well. I was tempted by all the good things I’ve heard about Brooks recently, but no one carries them locally.

Quote of the day:

“Believe in yourself, know yourself, deny yourself, and be humble.” John Treacy’s four principles of training prior to Los Angeles 1984

HUMAN RACE - RACE REPORT

I need to add an asterisk next to yesterday’s post. I looked at my old logs and it turns out I ran 29:02 on this 8k course 10 YEARS AGO. At the time I was a senior in college, between the indoor and outdoor track season. I also looked back at my 2002 log to see what I was doing when I ran 29:20. That year, Boston was only a month away and I had been doing more hills, speed and strides, so I was rounding in to peak shape. That makes me feel even better about running 29:15 (chip) off of base and hills.

The weather was really nice, about 35 degrees, partly sunny and (most importantly) fairly calm winds. A little warmer would have been nice, but the lack of wind was great. Before the race I spoke with Eric and we decided to shoot for a 6:00 first mile. After about a 15-minute warmup I changed into my racing clothes and flats and headed to the start for some strides. This race is a little unique because it starts on Summit Avenue which is actually a boulevard. The top men and women start on separate sides of the road. After about a kilometer everyone merges into 1 pack. Since I’m usually near the front of the women, I like to start with them. Plus I can get closer to the timing mat on that side of the street. And, of course, the scenery is better over there.

Here’s a brief description of this mainly out-and-back course; the first mile is mostly a gradual uphill. Mile 2 is a gradual downhill. The 3rd mile includes four 90 degree turns, the only turns on the course and then has some gradual uphill. Early in mile 4 there’s some gradual uphill too. The last “mile” is gradually downhill, especially the first 100+ meters. This is one of the rare races where splits are read at every mile marker. I took my splits too, but didn’t look at them till afterwards. The splits I mention below are what I heard being read, so they’d be gun splits not chip.

My first mile felt really controlled, just like I wanted. Eric was right with me as we went through in 6:00. Soon after that we hooked up with a pack of 4-5 runners. About a minute later, I realized Jim was leading the charge. We stayed together for close to a mile. One of the guys I was following seemed to be rolling along better than anyone, so I just stayed with him. That second mile felt really comfortable, so I was surprised when I heard 11:45. Afterwards there was some talk that it might have been a little short. Again, mile 3 has four turns and we run on some side streets that don’t have the best footing. Nonetheless, I stick with “my guy” as we head back on Summit.

We are a little over halfway through the race. I’m hoping to pick up the pace and reel in some people, including my training partner Joyce who’s about 10 seconds in front. We pass a couple of runners including one of the top local gals, Bonnie, who I can’t remember ever beating. At 3 miles and I hear 17:30-something and quickly calculate that that was a sub-6 mile. I figure that two more 6:00 miles will get me to my goal of 29:30. This little lapse in concentration is enough to create a gap between me and “my guy.” I re-group and don’t let the 2-3 second gap get any larger (yet).

We’re still moving well, yet we’re not really reeling anyone in. I’m focusing on quick strides and driving off my toes. Just before mile four we crest the “hill” and now Joyce is about 2-3 seconds in front of me. I hear 23:30 and know sub-29:20 is possible. As usual, I don’t have any closing speed. Besides, I’m not going to sprint during the first race of the year. A couple of guys pass me and I make no real effort to go with them. When the clock comes into view I see it turning from 28 to 29 minutes. I cross in 29:17 and feel great. I’m not hacking up a lung or crawling around on the ground dry heaving.

My splits looked like this;

5:58 5:58
5:45 11:42 (short?)
5:57 17:39 (long?)
5:49 23:28
5:47 29:15

Joyce pulled away a little to beat me by 7 seconds. “My guy” had a great last mile or two of the race. I’m not positive of his time, but his jersey is a group of master runners and the next master in front of me ran 28:59. I did hold off Bonnie by 6 seconds. In addition, Jenna ran 27:37 and was the 2nd woman to Kristen Nicolini. Jim and Eric both finished in 29:55. I spoke with Evan briefly afterwards and he wasn’t happy with his 28:53. He probably ran 120 miles last week, so I’m not too worried. He’ll have plenty of great races this summer.

Given that my last short race was a 39:02 (6:16 pace) 10k, it's safe to say that running 5:53 pace off of base and hills has me fired up. And while I’m really pumped about my 41 second improvement over last year, I’m even more pumped for my teammates. Jenna’s time was 57 seconds faster than last year. Jim (keep in mind he’s 61 years old) ran 40 seconds faster than last year. Joyce didn’t run last year, but if you look at her 1:29:56 at the Winter Carnival half marathon just 6 weeks ago, her improvement may be the most impressive.

A couple of weeks ago there was some discussion in the comments about how someone running higher mileage would feel. I told Yvonne that they’d probably feel stronger, not faster. That’s exactly how I felt. I didn’t feel like I was moving any faster than “normal” but I felt really strong. Best of all I feel like I can really build on this performance and that I’m no where near my peak.

Quote of the day:

“Everyone in life is looking for a certain rush. Racing is where I get mine.” John Trautmann

COURSE RECORD

Just a quick update to say I ran my best time for this course; 29:14. Felt great. Nice day. More to come later - gotta go sliding with my girls.

Thanks for all the good luck wishes too.

CONSISTENT

With an 8k race two days away, I really have no idea what to expect, especially with this drastic change in mileage. My guess is that I could be anywhere from 28-31 minutes. Like a bell-shaped curve, the chances of running 28 or 31 are pretty slim while the chances of running around 29:30 are probably pretty good. I’d be happy with that time. I’ve run this race a lot, so I have a decent history;

2005 29:56
2004 30:44
2002 29:20
2001 29:52
2000 30:09
1999 34:19
1997 32:14

I just averaged those times from 2000-2005 and it comes to exactly 30-flat. I guess I’m nothing, if not consistent. Sunday looks to be a little chilly; 10 degrees in the morning with a high of 32. Since we start at 1:20, I assume we’ll be closer to 32 than 10.

I agreed to run with Scott this morning, but only if we kept the pace easy. We’ll it was probably a little easier than last Friday, but not much. We ran for 66 minutes which was probably closer to 9 miles than to 8. Throw in another mile with Bailey and I had close to 10 miles for the day. So much for a mini-taper. That puts me at 72 miles for the week and I will probably end with 77-80 miles.

I’ve been trying to find some decent light weight trainers which could possibly be used for marathons. I like the New Balance 833, but they’re being replaced soon and you never know what you’ll get with a new model. I have a couple pairs of Nike Skylon’s too, but they’re being replaced too. Maybe that’s just a name change. I like the Asics Speedstar that I tried, but after 250 miles I was through the tread and down to the white section. I just bought a pair of Mizuno Precision. They’re pretty nice, similar to the Skylon. I’d like to find something a little lighter though. The Brooks Burn are on my list, but I haven’t pulled the trigger and bought a pair yet. Any other ideas?

Quote of the day:
“Racing teaches us to challenge ourselves. It teaches us to push beyond where we thought we could go. It helps us to find out what we are made of. This is what we do. This is what it’s all about.” Patti Sue Plumer

REPEATING THE SAME THING

Yesterday I decided to sleep in, so last night I ran an easy 8 miles on the treadmill. I knew more snow was expected over night, so I was “forced” to get up early and beat the traffic. Since I had a stronger aerobic run planned, I decided to just run on the treadmill at work. I woke up to 4 more inches of snow with another 2-4 inches expected before noon. Getting to work took about 10 minutes more than normal. That’s not bad, considering when I turned on the TV, I saw how backed up the roads that I was just on were. My legs were a little tried from Tuesday’s hills, but I still managed 11 miles. I spent the first 6 miles dropping from 9:00 to 7:00 pace and the next 4 miles dropping to 6:30 pace before cooling down for a mile.

There was a comment on Mike’s blog the other day about marathon pace never feeling easy until race day. That’s how I feel. And it’s why I get frustrated when I see someone running 7:30 pace everyday, but running their marathon at 8:00 pace. Something seems out of whack there. Anyway, the 4 miles of 6:30 to 7:00 pace weren’t too bad today. I definitely feel better when I gradually ease into the pace. Then again, I only ran 4 miles near MP, not 8 or 9 like I had been running on Thursdays.

I’ve kind of gotten away from writing about the mental aspects of running. There’s only so much you can write about relaxation exercises. After relaxation, the next step is adding visualization. With a race coming up on Sunday, I’ve been trying to visualize that. The only problem is that relaxing usually puts me to sleep. I tend to do a better job of visualizing while I’m actually out running. I have come up with a couple of more affirmations for the race;

“I’m in a position to strike and get what I like.”
“Expect success, I’m one of the best.”
“Centered and strong, I run right along.”

I particularly like the first one since I tend to run my best when I go out controlled and track people down in the second half. An out-and-back course, like the one on Sunday, is perfect for this strategy.

If you enjoy reading articles on “every day” runners, here’s a good one on a local studette, Kelly Keeler. If only we all could improve so rapidly.

Speaking of Grandma’s marathon, I have a spare bedroom in the apartment I’m staying at on the College of St. Scholastica. So if anyone needs a room or knows of someone that needs a room, let me know.

Quote of the day:
“I also enjoy satirizing the folks that spend money or throw money at running, thinking that the good old American way of paying for things will make you better at a sport that just requires repeating the same thing over and over again.” Duncan Larkin

APPLES AND ORANGES

I go through these stretches where I don’t have much to write about, then all the sudden I have a bunch of topics and they usually don’t intertwine. I’ll pick a couple today and save the others (or spare you entirely). I mentioned in a comment that this weather isn’t terrible, but the timing sucks. Spring was here. The snow was gone. Warmer temps should be coming. Then all the sudden the snow and cold are back.

This morning I managed an easy 6 miles. My trail wasn’t plowed yet, so I just ran through various neighborhoods to pass the time. Wind chills in the single digits in March suck. This evening I joined my training group for a hill workout in downtown St. Paul. Most of the run was spent focusing on dodging glare ice, rather than worrying about running. I managed another 84 minutes which I called 11 miles.

Running these hills got me wondering if I’m pushing hard enough during my group training sessions. There were 4 people ahead of me, 3 of which I could probably beat in a race. Based on the effort I’m putting out, I feel like I’m where I should be. However, maybe I’m not putting out enough of an effort. I think, “What sort of effort are those other people putting out?” I feel strong. I don’t feel totally spent after a hill workout or long run. I guess I can justify the slower pace because of the higher mileage. The one day I was rested for a hill workout, I ran awesome. I just need to keep telling myself that.

I found an interesting comment on Tri Mike’s blog for a week ago or so. I believe the comment was from a triathlete who has a runner friend that does high mileage. He mentioned that said runner only beat him by 3 minutes in a 10k and 15 minutes in a marathon. I don’t know what other people’s standards are, but 30 seconds per mile is A LOT, especially if you’re talking about someone running Boston Qualifying times or faster. You don’t just bump you mileage for a while or hit the track for some speed and shave off that kind of time – unless you weren’t very fit to begin with.

Granted, comparing runners and triathletes is like comparing apples and oranges. Even if the triathlete just focused on running, there’s no guarantee that he could catch his friend. Or maybe he’d smoke his ass. In the end, we can only try to maximize our own potential. Whether it involves one discipline, two or three doesn’t really matter.

Quote of the day:
“Hills are speedwork in disguise.” Frank Shorter