Bimibatoo 26.2

Boston Marathon Race Report

2011-05-27T15:04:00.000-07:00

This race report from Boston Marathon is long overdue, but I've been too tired and sick of training to even get to it. Now that recovery is well underway and I'm actually running for fun again, here it goes.

A few years ago when I started running, then training a bit more competitively, then racing and then finally racing some longer distances, I had set a goal for fun to try to break 3 hours in the marathon. My first marathon I did 3:01. Then at Grandma's I had a great race for 21 miles, crashed and came in at 3:17. Then Chicago had an OK race but struggled to come in at 3:13. From Grandma's forward I had increasingly difficult issues and injuries with my hips, glutes, etc. that made competitive running difficult and impossible sometimes. Knowing that the trend was worsening, I decided to use my Chicago time as my Boston qualifier and just do it, in the back of my mind not knowing if I'd get another chance. So that's why I registered for Boston in the first place.

Winter training was wicked this year. Often times I'd need to get in an 18-20+ mile long run the day after a storm, the trails in poor condition most of the time, needing to skip workouts, deal with my worsening hip issues, etc. In a nutshell, it was only into March that I was able to even get my mileage up to above 40+ per week and the long runs were slow and painful. About 3 weeks before the race I did my last long run, 23 miles, and it was not pretty. In the 2-3 weeks leading up to race day, I had at least 2 good weeks of taper with speed work, hills, yoga, nice walks, etc.

So in the final days leading up to the race my mindset changed day-to-day, one day thinking I'd just go easy and enjoy it, the next day thinking I'd race it and try to break 3 hours. I'd go from being super motivated and ready to race one minute, and just wanting to get it over the next.

I ended up going out to Boston myself -- the guys I had run with at work all missed out on the registration. I booked a B&B type place in Cambridge on the Harvard campus and it was OK, it was just a hassle getting from there to all the events downtown on the subway.

Day before the race I did the routine at the Expo, took the subway out to Heartbreak Hill to have a little psychological chat with that thing and then ate early at the pasta dinner. I was back at my room early enough, took a few hours to get things together, then had about 7 or so restless hours of sleep before the 5am wakeup call.

Race day weather was perfect, start temps in the 40s with a decent wind from the West. After the usual breakfast routine of draining the system, proper nutrition, getting the right things in order, etc. I had to take the subway in to the Finish line at Boston Common where the Buses were waiting to take us out to the Start in Hopkinton. The hour ride out there was kind of cool, everyone talking about their running situation, qualifying, race strategy, etc. Hopkinton was an amazing feat of logistics - thousands of runners needing portapotties, water, etc. and needing to be staged and herded to the starting line.

The whole scene was a blurr and quite a sight that I can barely explain. I was in Wave 1 corral 5 and was surprised at how many runners were staged ahead of me. It was cool and windy at the start so I had to shed a lot of clothing as things got started. As the gun went off I think it took me about 3 minutes to even cross the starting line and I distinctly remember how slowly we were going at that point, like 7:20 miles and there was nothing I could do about it. People were packed in all around me and all you could do was go by that same pace. The first 10k was steep downhills with some uphill as well. I was consciously going conservative, really holding back and settling into a slower pace.

We wound our way through wooded hills and small towns, eventually through Wellesly and into Newton. Wellesly was about the half marathon point and I came through there at a pretty slow pace, about 1:33 I think which might be 7:15 miles at best. My hips were tight at that point but nothing else was wrong and I was thinking that I'd be able to hold on. As soon as we got into Newton the hills began. My pace crawled into the 7:30s on the major uphills and then I'd to back into the 6:50s on the downhills. By the last of the Newton Hills, Heartbreak Hill as it is known, I struggled to crest the hill, made it and then started to pick it up around Boston College. This is right around mile 21.

As I got past Boston College, that's where I had the first of 3 crashes with total body-seizing cramps. On Heartbreak Hill my calves and feet started to cramp up but I could keep going. At BC I went into total convulsing full body cramps and I had to pull over. After 10 minutes I am guessing, with spectators massaging my calves, quads and arms, people feeding me oranges, etc. I was off again for another 1-2 miles before it all hit again and I was on the sideline another 10 minutes. After that recovery I went again another mile before the last cramping session, recovered yet again and hobbled my way across the finish in well beyond my target time. Its a bummer that I probably lost 30 minutes just standing with cramps. All I could do those last 5 miles is shuffle stiff legged and it seemed like there was nothing at all I could do about the cramps. I just put my head down and ran as much as I could.

The crowd was totally amazing despite the cramps. People came out of the crowd to help me along, some people yelled at me to get my ass moving and that worked I have to say. I was pissed off and pretty happy all at the same time.

After the race I felt completely awful physically. Emotionally I was relieved to have it over and be done. I was exhausted, not just from the day but from the winter training through the injuries and hip pain and the time commitment.

As far as what I will do next, I have no plans to do any future marathons or any races of any kind in the near future. I will however, after recovering and getting healthy again, continue to run for fun and likely for shorter races, do yoga, do other sports again, be with my family like a normal person again, etc. I am in no way ruling out a future attempt at that 3 hour barrier again either.

I'm not sure if there's any wisdom in any of this, but this is my race report and story about Boston Marathon.

Pre-Snowstorm Long Run 5 of 9

2011-02-19T11:52:00.000-08:00

Today was long run 5 of 9 in training for Boston Marathon, now just 2 months away. These long runs are still slower pace than I'd like to see but right now its all about getting in the base miles. It was cool and sunny when I left the house finally, after stalling and dilly-dallying around for at least an hour, about 9am. The trails were nearly free of ice and debris, a welcome change from the last 2 months. This morning's route was around L. Harriet, along Minnehaha Creek, across the Ford Bridge into St. Paul, north along East River Road to the Lake Street Bridge with the return route south along the Minneapolis side. 21 miles in total, 2 hours 52 minutes, no hydration and no carbs. I think progress was made compared to the last run, I don't think I switched over to burning fat until about 18 miles this time.

Next weekend will be one more long run to end the peak mileage for this cycle. It will then be 1-2 weeks of lower mileage before the next and final phase, which will consist of 3 long runs (> 20 miles each) over 4-5 weeks, with tempo runs, LT runs and speed work built-in.

Boston Marathon Training Motivation

2010-12-18T09:03:00.000-08:00

After 6 weeks of absolutely no running, I finally started again in late November, although very slowly. In many ways it was kind of depressing not to run, and in other ways it was kind of nice just to loaf around and cycle, hike, kayak, go for walks, etc.

On the now infamous registration day, after about 15 refreshes of the submit screen, I was very fortunate to be able to register for the 2011 Boston Marathon, to be held on 19 April 2011, Patriot's Day.

During the time off I also consulted with one of Minnesota's top orthopedic surgeons about my hips. After reviewing digital x-rays, I was told that I have a condition called FAI, or femoroacetorial impingement. Essentially this is a condition in which the head (ball) of the femur is slightly bulged or oddly shaped so that it does not rotate perfectly inside the hip socket. Official diagnosis was acute glute pain/stress injury secondary to FAI.

Now what? Basically no, idea. I probably will not do any kind of surgery but I want to keep running. So in a way I guess it's back to the drawing board wit core work, hip and glute strengthening, stretching and yoga, etc. to just manage the condition. I was given the name of a PT who could help with strengthening so will probably get around to seeing her sometime soon.

In the meantime, it's now roughly 4 months out from Boston Marathon, I'm not all that motivated at the moment with 8,000 inches of snow in the ground in Minnesota, but I'd better get it together. With that in mind, here I sit typing this blog post when I should be out getting in my 10 miler on the snow packed trails around the Lakes.

OK, now signing off to do my 10 miler.

2010 TCM 10 Mile Race

2010-10-03T11:35:00.000-07:00

The 2010 Medtronic TCM 10 Mile road race held on Sun 3 Oct turned out to be much more than I could have every asked for. Even though I had continuing hip and glute injuries before the race, which were made a lot worse by an in-line blading marathon a few weeks earlier, I was just a few second off from a PR with no additional or worsened injuries. My goals for the race were to finish in one piece, have fun, enjoy the weather and see friends.

Breakfast was a cup of strong green tea, 1/2 banana and 1/2 granola bar. Bike ride down to the dome along Lyndale, through Loring Park along Nicollet Mall was super easy and un-eventful. No other pre-hydrating or other special arrangements.

At the start line I knew it was going to be a perfect weather day and was loving every minute of it just being there at the race scene. I was probably about a dozen runners deep or so back from the start line and went out at about 6:30s with friend for a while. As we headed down to W River Road on the downhill I was in about the 6:05 range for the first 2-3 miles and OK with that pace. I remember fingers of fog floating in the river valley, heard birds chirping at one point and several times I almost started laughing at how fun it was.

My mood changed a bit once I was around the top of the hill onto the Lake Street Bridge as pace slowed into the 6:20s. By the time I approached the hill at St. Thomas, roughly 5 mile mark, I was really feeling it in my quads and hips, not pain thank goodness, just fatigue. The long slow incline up Summit was pretty brutal at times but was surprised to see that I was still mostly in the 6:20s or 6:30s through that stretch. A few people passed me around mile 8-9 before I got a second wind at that point and was able to bring pace back into the 6:10s and 6:20s.

I'll admit being happy to be done, yet with great memores of the race/pace. I have to say that this was one of the most perfect races for weather in my book. Post race I got out of there pretty quick (men's changing tent this time) so I could meet my family along Summit to watch M racers. Saw friends Eric, John and Mike at the finish.

1:03:57 was my total official finish time which I am more than happy to take given all these hip issues.

Miles according to GPS were:
6:05
6:04
6:27
6:11
6:25
6:34
6:35
6:23
6:32
6:14
6:07

I'm going to take 4 weeks off now to re-boot and also register for Boston M on Oct 18.

Oktoberfest Long Run

2010-09-19T16:58:00.000-07:00

Friday 17 Sep was my first workout of mile repeats in maybe 18 months and it was not pretty. Barely able to do 8 miles with 3 x 1milers @ 6:00 pace, in fact the miles were 6:11, 6:12 and a difficult 6:24. Felt like a total train wreck.

Today was not really a true long run, just a 13.1 miler, a practice run of sorts, at nearly marathon race pace this morning before Oktoberfest activities. Perfect training conditions, partly cloudy temps in the 50s with little wind, leaves just starting to change around the lakes. Glutes were a bit sore and even somewhat painful from remnants of last weekend's blade race. Total pace today was 7:03 with mile splits of 7:25 7:12 7:16 7:07 7:01 7:06 7:10 7:13 6:56 6:28 6:23 7:02 7:01. It's now 2 weeks out from Twin Cities 10 Mile and the plan this week is some 10 milers with some of those miles @ target 10 mile race pace.

October 18 is registration for Boston Marathon.

2010 North Shore Inline Skate Marathon

2010-09-13T10:57:00.000-07:00

Our 3 man team of 40-something endurance/outdoor sport enthusiasts survived a rain, mist and fog soaked running of the 2010 North Shore Inline Skate Marathon with all skin surfaces, elbows and knee caps in-place and un-damaged.

Finish times this year were at least 10 minutes slower than our planned 1:25:00. DC came in at 1:35:44.4 #166/1900, JB was 1:35:37.3 #158/1900 and me (Bimibatoo) at 1:35:41.5 #163/1900.

According to my GPS our first few miles were nearly on-target for breaking 1:25 as follows:
mile 1 > 3:36
mile 2 > 3:21
mile 3 > 3:27
mile 4 > 3:22
mile 5 > 3:36
mile 6 > 3:19
mile 7 > 3:43

However, we lost a lot of time in the middle miles 10-18 when at times our draft lines nearly came to a complete stop with some people in those lines moving at a snail's pace. The main issue for us this year seemed to be no racers other than the 3 of us willing to continue at the 3:20 or so pace needed to break 1:25.

It was actually pathetic to some extent how racers performed in Wave 1. There were huge long line of racers drafting, but only a handful of people willing to lead the pace. Absolutely no trading off and no team work whatsoever. This in fact was our limiting factor -- we definitely could have take on a 3:20 pace but we would have needed at least 5-6 additional racers to go along with us. Despite several breakaway attempts to do this no one else went along. To some extent, every racer is limited by how fast the fastest pace line in his/her wave goes.

The roads were mostly totally soaked along the whole route from Two Harbors to Duluth. In some places, most notably the water stop past the half marathon mark, the footing was literally like butter and I thought I would spin out.

As we entered Duluth just across the Lester River I got a third wind and tried again to make a major break and push from the pack. To no avail, no one went with me and I ended up back in the pack going up Lemon Drop Hill. 35E was a total catastrophe with new grooves cut into the concrete, it made for very difficult blading conditions where we lost additional speed. The last climb up the hill I was finally able to let things go, and JB and I were able to drop most of the remaining pack of wave 1 racers at that point.

However, the drop down the hill toward the harbor was another disaster waiting to happen, with a sharp left hand turn covered with giant puddles waiting for racers barreling down the hill. At that point I threw up my arms and my race was for all intents and purposes over -- there was no way I was going to go flying into that turn and risk major wipeout. In fact, as I was finishing the first turn, several skaters completely crashed into the cement/chain link fence barriers and it was not a pretty scene.

Post race assessment is a potential upgrade to real racing boots/100 or 110 wheels and a bit better preparation for next year as we go for sub 1:25 again.

Rutabaga Fest 2010

2010-08-29T16:29:00.000-07:00

Once again nearly perfect weekend weather for the Rutabaga Run 12.4 miler in Cumberland, WI. This year I was in at 1:19:24 / 6:24 per mile pace according to my GPS, which is at least a minute off from 2008 but at least what I was expecting. However, I think the actual final results will show my final time at around 1:21:something due to typical Brian style starting line issues.

Week before the race I was in Toronto for work and just doing very easy short runs Mon-Tues-Wed-Thu with rest on Fri. Two of this nights I just did not sleep well so I arrived home sort of exhausted. Friday evening after dinner at home I drove up to Cumberland to stay with an aunt and uncle and it was such a cool drive, huge orange moon was rising in the east with the windows open and great music. After catching up on things with my aunt and uncle I slept absolutely like a rock that night.

Saturday morning I was up at 6:45 with just a granola bar (which turned out to be too much) and Gatorade. Arrive at Cumberland H.S. to register at about 7:10 and then took the car to main street to drop a bag of dry clothes for after the race. Kind of took too much time doing that and ended up leaving the car there and jogging back to the starting line at the H.S. As I came back to the start people were still milling about so I thought I had plenty of time to hit the can one more time and offload some extras, so that's what I did.

As I was finishing up in the bathroom inside the school then gun went off! And as I was running out of the bathroom the second gun went off as I was still getting my GPS turned on to track. Anyway, needless to say I started off way behind and spent the first mile just catching up to the main mob of runners in the 5k. By the time we were through downtown and the 12 mile runners were separated from the 5k runners, the pack really thinned out but there were at least a dozen or more people ahead of me and probably more that I could not see.

By mile 3 or 4 I was slowly passing people and it seemed like I was settled into a 6:30 or so pace. And by mile 6 or so I had settled a good quarter mile behind a woman runner who seemed to be at a solid pace, so I just made it my goal to try and catch her by the end. It was tough going and I really had to push things just to stay the same distance behind her, let alone make up time. By about mile 11 I had made it to within yards of her with another runner maybe 30 yards behind me. So we traded positions several times before I finally dropped the pace a lot as we came into town.

For the last mile and a half I was well under 6:00 per mile and I never saw either of those two runners until after the finish line. Post race was really relaxed recovering, sipping water and sports drink and watching the other runners come in. My friend Tim, originally from Cumberland does the race nearly every year and was there again this year with family. We did the pancake breakfast afterwards as the final runners came in.

And most hilarious is that I'm able to still place in my age group, despite the pre-race goof up. After the race I took a good long dip in Beaver Dam Lake at Eagle Point, before exploring the new Straight River State Park near Luck, WI on the way back home. Another totally great place that I will explore again sometime soon.

Cumberland and this whole area of NW Wisconsin is a great area and would like to figure out a way to spend more time up there on the lakes, on rides through the countryside on all those small paved roads, exploring the parks and the small towns, etc. It's definitely God's Country.

Lakefront Days Triathlon - Prior Lake, MN

2010-08-07T11:41:00.000-07:00

Last time I did a triathlon Bill Clinton was half way into his first term and the Internet was just starting to get up and running, 1995. With literally no swimming training, a few long rides under my belt and some running training, I was roped into doing the Lakefront Days Triathlon this morning in Prior Lake, MN. Definitely no regrets, it was a total blast and I highly recommend this event.

5 days ago my sister was in town and pressed me into signing up. The issue is that the limit was already filled by the time decided. After an email response from the race director, we decided to take a few open slots in the elite wave (though I by no means consider myself an elite triathlete).

Race was a 400m swim, 13 mile ride and 3.3 mile run. Conditions were literally perfect for me, mostly cloudy, cool for August, with some light rain falling at the start of the swim. It really was fun setting up my gear, figuring out how I would transition and just getting everything ready.

I had a few goggle issues at the beginning so right away I was behind the entire wave beginning of the swim. By the end of the swim I had snuck past at least a few people and was just happy to still be within sight of most of the pack.

Transition into the cycling leg of the race was pretty smooth, the ride went well as I passed a few other competitors the last half. All was good until I missed the last turn onto the paved trail re-entering the park and I definitely lost some time on that mistake.

I was able to quickly get changed into running shoes and was able to make up the time on the run. I was fortunate to be able to pass at least a half dozen people on the run and my run splits were 5:50 6:08 and 6:34.

End of the race was very nice, with a great food buffet and a hilarious announcer. My family was all there to greet me at the end and my sister had a great time of it as well. Now I'm looking for the next one. Turtleman?

Kolacky Dny Sportovní a Bouře

2010-07-28T06:36:00.000-07:00

It was a weekend of sports, storms, Czech food and relaxing for Kolacky Days in Montgomery, MN this past weekend. Friday night started with Jaternice, dumplings and beer down at the park followed by a raging thunderstorm, high winds and nearly constant lightening.

Saturday morning was the Tour de Bun which I thought was going to be a 50 mile bike race, but it really was a "tour" as advertised. The tour headquarters was the city garage where about 100 tour riders were milling about listening to a guy play old polka songs on accordion. I was fumbling around with my bike when the announcement came that the local police had headed out and would lead us out of town and on our way, so that was it. I ended up riding with 2 couples who both rode tandem road race bikes so I basically drafted off them for 20 miles until they ducked into the first aid station. I never saw another cycler again until I returned to the last aid station in Cordova which I had missed a few minutes earlier. In the end it was a nice 55+ mile ride even though it would have been nice if it had been a real race.

Sunday was the annual Bun Run, a 4 mile road race at 10:30am each Sunday morning on Kolacky Days weekend. This race is usually very warm and sun baked, though this time it was bearable. Because of my hip and glute injuries over the past 18 months and inability to train much I was really just hoping for a good workout. So I ended up about 30 seconds total slower than last year at 6:18 miles which is really better than I expected, though that pace is roughly my normal target pace for 25k. My wife ended up doing the race and the kids were motivated enough to duke it out on the kids' half mile race right before the start of the parade.

Next race is probably the Rutabaga Run Half Marathon in Cumberland, WI later in August.

Resuming Tempo Runs

2010-05-19T09:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was first tempo run in quite some time. 8 mile tempo with faster pace on each successive mile, starting with a 7:07 mile and ending the eighth and last one at 6:15. It felt really difficult and I can tell that endurance has fallen apart. Piriformis and sciatic issues are still there and will likely follow through with some PT to see if I can get this healed once and for all. I've now altered my training frequency, rarely running 2 days in a row, instead limiting running to every other day with alternate things like core work, yoga, blading or cycling on the non-running days. I may end up keeping it this way ongoing.

Last week's TCM 1 Mile was both a boondoggle and an OK result at the same time. I had no expectation of any kind of pace going into it since I had not been able to do any decent training, so I'll take it for the experience. As for the race itself, I shot out of the corral like a rocket and when I found myself out ahead of the pack by at least 30 meters at the 1/2 mile mark I knew I was in trouble. All I can say that I barely made it to the finish line and my performance the last half mile was less than stellar to say the least. However, now I know how to pace that thing for future one milers.

Chicago Lakefront 10 Mile

2010-04-27T12:41:00.000-07:00

Training since my last post has been chaotic. First, as my glutes got progressively worse and more painful due to weekly speedwork, I added minimal footwear (Newtons and Vibram 5 Fingers) to my running gear. I also decided to crew for a friend in the Zumbro 100 Ultramarathon for a few loops. 12 days before the Chicago Lakefront 10 Mile race I decided to completely rest from running to try to get the glutes calmed down. So for 12 days before the race, there was no running, only cycling, blading and core work/yoga.

With a weekend getaway planned with old-time friends from grade school-high school, the Chicago Area Runner's Association race held on Sat 24 Apr fit the schedule well. Race day there were about 1500 runners, little wind, overcast/drizzle about 60 degrees. For the race, I just wanted to finish without being near death and have fun. The rest helped but I started too fast. Miles were roughly 5:56 6:12 6:18 6:31 6:35 6:31 6:35 6:47 6:35 6:27 total time right at 1:05+ a few.

Post race I am extremely sore but will resume easy running within the next few days. Will also gradually add speedwork in prep for the TCM 1 Mile coming up in a few weeks.

Change in Training to 10-day Cycle

2010-03-24T16:48:00.001-07:00

I'm running an experiment to change to a 10-day (vs. the traditional 7-day) training cycle. This gets tricky training for both a 1-Mile and Half Marathon PR rod race at the same time.

Here is roughly how each 10-day cycle looks:

Day 1, tempo run, 7-10 mi. w/ last half tempo run @ HM race pace (6:15)
Day 2, rest or XT
Day 3, 6-8 mi easy
Day 4, speedwork, 8 x 1/2 mi. repeats @ 2:45 (5:30 pace) or 8-10 x 1/4 mi. repeats @ 75 sec. each (5:00 pace)
Day 5, XT
Day 6, 6-8 mi. easy
Day 7, 6-8 mi. easy
Day 8, long, 10-14 mi. w/ last half @ lactate threshold pace (less than 6:15)
Day 9, rest
Day 10, 6-8 mi. easy

Today was a speed day, 8 x 1/2 mi. @ roughly 5:55 pace to get used to the speed work again. Intervals were:

3:00 (6:00/mi.)
2:57 (5:56/mi.)
2:58 (5:58/mi.)
2:58 (5:57/mi.)
2:59 (5:59/mi.)
2:55 (5:54/mi.)
3:00 (6:00/mi.)
2:53 (5:42/mi.)

Long run on the weekend and 1/4 mile repeats next week. About 1 month to go to the CARA Lakefront 10 Mile in Chicago, about 7 weeks out from the Medtronic TCM 1 Mile.

Training 15-21 March

2010-03-21T09:08:00.000-07:00

Recovery week after last weekend's 10 mile race was decent, with clear trails, no snow and mostly very nice weather. And more importantly this was the first speed work I have done at all, save for races, in at least 18 months. Here is how the week looked:

Mo. 15 Mar. easy recovery 7.6 mi.
Tu. 16 Mar. easy short 4 mi.
We. 17 Mar. speed: 6 x 800m @ 5:55 pace / 2:50 embedded in 7.6 mi. run
Th. 18 Mar. easy 3.5 mi.
Fr. 19 Mar. easy 3 mi.
Sa. 20 Mar. just a plain old run with some hills on grass, 4 mi.
Su. 21 Mar. long, 13.25 mi. loop around The Lakes

Next week looks much the same, a few 7-8 mi. general runs, at least one day of speed work with 8 x 800 m. @ 5:50, long run again next weekend. So far it feels great to be able to add speed work again, its been a long time.

100% Irish for a Day TCM 10 Mile

2010-03-14T09:13:00.000-07:00

Race day for the 2010 100% Irish for a Day TCM 10 Mile was foggy and raw, roads were wet but it was a great time as usual. I intended this as another training run and was hoping to cruise in at about 1:06:00 or so and not over-do it. I ended up at 1:05:26 or thereabouts with no major blow-outs and no lingering side effects.

Race start was 9:00am at the Lake Harriet bandshell so I had plenty of time for pre-race preparation at home. After getting race gear on and organizing some post-race change of clothes for my family to carry down to the finish for me, I took an easy mile shuffle down to the start for some last minute stretching and just a bit more warm-up which was perfect. Roads were definitely wet and pothole filled and I was a bit worried about that.

I did a bit of light stretching inside the bandshell itself, dumped my sweats and then did a few strides in front of the start line in the few minutes before the start. Starting line itself was jammed with people but it was pretty easy to slide into the front. I was feeling good at the start, which can be dangerous and I shot out of there like I was racing 400 meters in the Olympic Trials ... which meant a 5:30 first mile for me, totally not what I planned to do for the day. So I backed way off to my target pace, and even then it took probably another 5 miles before I was back into a tempo run, my original intention for the day.

The rest of the race is kind of a blurr and really do not remember much until the last mile or so when I was thinking that I was ready to be done for the day and get some post-race water and snacks. My GPS was not tracking very well during the race but here are my mile splits: 5:30 6:28 6:34 6:38 6:32 6:27 6:38 6:41 6:48 6:22.

Next race? Not sure. 10 Mile race in Chicago is end of April and I may try to find a shorter race in the meantime. Otherwise its time to start adding intervals and tempo runs to weekly workouts. Some time in May it will be time to start racing.

Gasparilla Marathon & Half Marathon Tampa, FL

2010-03-01T18:25:00.000-08:00

Short version: Although a rabbit nearly took me out 4 miles into the Half Marathon, the rest of the race was as smooth as a southern Florida white sand beach in the morning. Goal was just to have fun, have a good workout / burn off some steam and slide into the finish line in easy fashion around 1 hour 30 minutes. Done.

Long version: Sunday 29 March 2010 was the last running of the Gasparilla Marathon in Tampa, FL, though the Half Marathon, 15k and 5k will live on. I was in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area for work the previous few days and since I could not get a flight home on Saturday anyway, just decided to turn it into a race weekend. My plan going in was to make it a fun race / tempo run in under 1 hour 30 minutes and that part went totally fine.

Saturday after I finished work in St. Pete I moved over to my new hotel in downtown Tampa next to the Expo / Convention Center and just blocks from the start line. It was rainy, windy and raw -- and I was very concerned about the weather for the race the next day. The Expo was cool, fairly small and easy to manage -- and Bart Yasso, a well known distance runner for years, spoke for a while and told stories about the crazy races he has run, including the Badwater 100. Very interesting guy, not the sit-around-the-tube kind of person that's for sure.

After the having picked up my race number/chip and all the other goodies you get at these races, I scouted out the start and finish areas and tried to figure out how to handle logistics for the 6am start. I pretty much decided that I would simply leave the hotel at 5:30 with only my race gear on plus anything else I needed to wear that was disposable.

Race morning I decided on arm warmers, singlet, wind proof shorts and disposable socks for gloves with an old long sleeve race shirt I could dump at the start. By 5:40am I was at the start line and the crowd was already huge. I went out ahead of the start line to jog around, stretch and warm up. At about 5:50 I climbed the fence into the front of the start line and that was it. I remember being very excited to be there in a race again, though wondering how I would hold a tempo run type of pace since I hadn't been able to do any kind of speed work or tempo runs since probably November.

The national anthem was sung, the gun went off and before I knew it the race was one moving blurr of motion. It was still dark and had no sense of pace, plus the course was turning all over the place. Up and over some bridges and onto another island we went for about 3-4 miles before the runners really started to thin out. I was not going all that fast in the big scheme of things, but a lot of runners seemed to drop and a few surged ahead. I found myself all alone through dark but marked residential neighborhoods with the occasional spectator, flute player or clapper making noise as I passed. Then out of nowhere comes Mr. Rabbit literally right through my feet and it nearly sent me sprawling onto the pavement. That officially adds rabbit to my squirrel, deer, wild turkey and moose attacks while running.

As we headed back again into downtown Tampa, the full moon was rising to the east and the Half and full M courses split. That thinned the runners even more as we headed back through the finish line area and out to the final turnaround. This was the dead spot in the race and all I remember were a few difficult miles with some people passing me before my energy came back and I passed all those runners plus a few dozen more in the final 2 miles.

Official time clocked at 1:28:03 and chip time 1:27:58. GPS tracked miles were 6:34 6:43 6:39 6:38 6:30 6:29 6:33 6:33 6:43 6:56 6:41 6:48 6:13.

After I collected a few goodies at the finish I waddled back to my room, showered and was back out at the finish in plenty of time to see the lead marathoners finish. I believe winning time was about 2:20:xx or so, not anywhere near as fast as some of the big events that draw the fastest elite runners.

All in all it was a great event, cool to race in a new place and had a great workout with only sore glutes and a bit of a tan as a result.

Valentine's Day TC 5k

2010-02-13T17:08:00.000-08:00

Frost on the trees, sunrise temps around 10° C and just a little light snow falling as we prepared to lightly run down to the start of the Valentine's Day TC 5k @ Lake Harriet. Everyone was just a little crabby around the house this morning and it was a nice quiet warm up mostly in silence.

We arrived on the scene less than 10 minutes before the start. Of course my glutes were sore from playing hockey the day before and I needed to stretch. By the time I did that stretching, changed into race gear, hid the bags, finished a last minute BM the race was about to start. And I literally made it to the front of the start line, turned around and the gun went off.

It really was an uneventful race. I basically ran very moderately for over 2+ miles and then picked up the pace near the end. It's ok, it was just a fun run but I can tell I have a long way to go to get back into full race form. I need to probably drop a good 12 pounds and get speed and tempo runs going again as soon as the ice is gone from the trails.

Post race was pretty mellow and I found my wife already near the warmup tent when I was still watching the course for her to come in. She did well. Its great to be out again at local races instead of doing 20 milers all the time -- and I plan do do my full share of 5ks, 10ks and half marathons this season as I have absolutely no marathons on deck - save for Boston M in 2011.

Early February Ice Run

2010-02-11T18:10:00.000-08:00

A planned 8 miler early this morning turned into an 11 miler even as the temperature was a balmy 1 degree at the start. An amazing number of people were out on the trails, most completely frost covered. Trails were mostly hard packed ice.

Glutes are beginning to heal up now with more yoga and core work, so I will slowly increase mileage as winter winds down. No tempo or speed work until snow and ice are gone from the trails. Decided to sign up for the Gasparilla Half Marathon in Tampa Bay, FL on Sun 28 Feb. This one will have to be a tempo run instead of a race -- just to ease into things.

This Sat 13 Feb is the Valentine's 5k around Lake Harriet. Another tempo run if the roads are clear.

Running in Slush

2010-02-06T10:07:00.000-08:00

Morning reports of trail conditions around the lakes were not promising - basically slip-sliding slush was the rumor. So I was not really all that motivated to get going on my 10 miler. Once I got through the unshoveled sidewalks and onto the lake trails, it really was not that bad. Only about 1/2 inch of stick slush covering the ice.

Going was slow, but as I rounded the bend on the southwest side of Calhoun and passed a few people, I started passing a huge dood in a gray cotton hoodie with his iPod on. As I passed he picked up the pace. So I picked up the pace again, and sure enough he picked it up to stay just ahead of me. This went on for about a minute or two until we were basically at a half marathon race pace. I glanced over a few times to see if he was just joking around, or maybe if I know him -- but he was all business. When he started wheezing and coughing I figured his tempo run was about over.

Anyway, that was fun, no fights, no harm done -- and as most runs usually end, glad I was able to be out there running, no matter how slippery and slushy.

The Birkie Trail

2010-01-12T18:49:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was a very humbling experience as I put on some skate skiing miles on the Birkie Trails around Cable/Hayward, WI. Very cold nights gave way to bearable days, lows around -10 and highs about 10-15 with light winds. Day 1 was a roughly 15 mile freestyle ski slog from the OO trailhead north toward the start line at Telemark -- out on the Classic trail and back the Birkie trail with major killer climbs and descents both ways. A measley 15 miles that day wiped me out, apparently not having skied the previous 10 days or so really dropped my endurance.

Day 2 was a bit of a fiasco. We drove 45 minutes from the cabin to the Fish Hatchery trail head, when I realized I left my GPS at the cabin. So I drove back while my friends skied another 15k or so that day. Their weekend totals were at least 100k. I got back to that trailhead just as they got in so was able to hand off the cabin keys and head out myself. 22 miles later I arrived in one piece back at the trailhead and satisfied with the workout, thou my V-2 offset for the hills needs a lot of work if I am ever going to keep up with my raving lunatic nordic ski friends.

Frigid Long Run @ -8

2010-01-03T07:37:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I debated nearly all morning about whether to venture out on a 10 mile long run, given the wind chill warnings and temperature of -8. Eventually I decided to layer up and head out with the following gear: home-made studded running shoes, wool socks, windproof undies, base layer tights, wind proof running pants, ski gloves, base layer t, poly long sleeve, another base layer running shirt, hooded fleece, wind proof gt hooded jacket, neck warmer, poly face mask, poly running hat. Turns out I was way over dressed but I certainly did not get cold.

I'm always amazed at the hard core people out there in Minnesota around the lakes, on the trails and in the parks doing their thing in every weather condition and at every time of the day imaginable. Yesterday I ran into another runner who was just beginning to train for Boston Marathon 2010 -- we ran together along parts of Harriet and Calhoun, traded running stories and then went our own way.

The rest of my run took me around the north end of Lake of the Isles and then eventually back to Harriet. It was slow and plodding on icy trails but I will definitely take the 11.5 miles on a day that could have easily been spent just stuck inside.

Reindeer Run 5k

2009-12-05T10:23:00.000-08:00

It was a beautiful 21 degrees and sunny this morning as I woke up to get ready for the Lifetime Fitness Reindeer Run 5k around Lake Harriet. After a very intense week of work related activities I was so looking forward to one of my favorite things - running. My intent was to make this a decent workout and tempo run -- run hard but not race and just mainly have fun. It went perfect in that respect.

It was again great just to bundle up and hop on my bike to ride down to the start. The bandshell area was totally packed with people in all kind of great outfits, including one dood who decided to run in just a marble bag, sans any other clothing. I went out at a pretty fast pace, not sure at all what it was as I purposely left my watch/gps at home. I eased off a bit in mile 2 and just went with how my body felt, which was generally relaxed and in a nice rhythm. Mile 3 I picked it up again and had a strong finish. The race was not chip timed but I crossed the finish just as the clock hit 19:00. Recovery was instant and I felt like it was a pretty good workout and just a good fairly easy run.

I'm not sure what is next but skate-skiing season is here if we get some snow. If we don't get the snow then I'll get into a few more road races, potentially the Edina race on the last Friday of December. Other than that I'm looking at the Winter Carnival Half Marathon as well as the Mora Vasaloppet 56k freestyle xc race in Feb 2010.

2009 Drumstick Dash 10k

2009-11-26T10:27:00.000-08:00

This morning, Thanksgiving Day 2009, was perfect for a road race. Having run very little, and certainly with no tempo or speed work since Chicago, I was really not sure what I would do on this day except go easy and have fun.

My wife and I had lined up a babysitter for the kids, planned to ride our bikes down to the start and meet some family there as well. wake up weather was cloudy, a bit windy with temps in the mid-30s. Original plan was that I would run the first loop with my wife and then open up the final loop. But when I saw the people at the start that plan sort of evaporated and we agreed to meet at the finish.

As the gun went off I definitely went out very reserved and held back quite a bit. I think my heart rate stayed in the low 100s but still felt my hips a bit. I sort of just stayed in groups that first half and when I got bored I would surge ahead to the next group. This was the first race I had run in years without a GPS or watch and I have to say it was kind of liberating. I had no idea of time or pace and just kind of went along with it.

As we passed the original start then I really picked up the pace but with the same strategy. I kind of just worked my way up from group to group and after each recovery I would simply surge up to the group ahead. By the last mile I was really passing a lot of people and feeling pretty good. Last 1/2 mile there was a lot left and I really jammed it down to the finish.

Not a great 10k time overall for me but I am definitely happy with this being the first race since Chicago with little to no prep.

No idea what is next ...

Chicago Marathon Post-Mortem

2009-11-26T10:00:00.000-08:00

I'll get this right out on the table and am not happy about it. I failed to break the 3 hour mark in the 2009 Chicago Marathon. That said, there is a lot to be thankful for and I would highly recommend this event to anyone considering it. It was amazingly well coordinated and the entire 26.2 miles was lined both side with spectators.

Long version:
6 month of pre-marathon training was abysmal with a lot of career related stress, changes in my training and sleeping routines, nagging glute and hip injuries to name a few. A 6:52 pace 23 mile long run 3 weeks before the race gave me hope that I could still break 3 hours.

After a long week in Spain just before the race, my wife and I drive down to Chicago and had a pretty decent place to stay just blocks north of the start line. We arrived Friday afternoon and dropped our car at a friend's house in the western suburbs and then took the train into the city. Friday night we met friends for dinner, Saturday took an easy morning run through the start area and then again met friends for dinner Saturday night.

Sunday morning, race day, I was up at 5:30am getting rid on any unnecessary organic material that had worked its way through my system, took in some carbs, protein and last minute sports drink and then headed to the start line by about 6:20am. Once I got to the start corrals I then realized how cold it was and new I made a mistake by wearning only shorts and not brining enough pre-race cover.

I dropped my bag at the drop point by 6:45 and was in the start corral area just a few minutes later. I was very lucky to have been able to get seeded into Corral A. Basically there were about 200 elite runners slotted into the Elite Corral ahead of me, 1500 runners in my Corral A, and 35,000 people behind us. Waiting for the starting gun was wicked cold. I had a plastic garbage bag over me to keep some heat in, self made arm warmers from old tube socks on my arms, and a basball had that I found on the way into the starting area all just to keep warm. Seconds before the gun went off I tore off the garbage bag and the hat but kept the arm warmers but all I had on was shorts, a singlet and those arm warmers, which I kept on the entire race.

The start was incredible. About 30 seconds before the gun the ropes that separated the corrals were pulled back and I was basically right up behind the elite field. It was super cool. I remember going out very easy, really holding back as the race headed north across the river, wound around teh core of the downtown area and then headed noth toward Lincoln Park. From that point through the half marathon point all I remember is passing cheering friends a few times along the way which was super cool, passing the 10k point, and then before I knew it we hit the half marathon - timing was about 1:28:15 at the half and I was feeling good.

But less than a mile later, at about the 14 mile mark, I really needed a satellite. After another mile I finally found one, got the job taken care of and was back on the road after about 45 seconds. But I never recovered my previous pace and from about 15 miles onward each subsequent mile was more and more difficult.

By about 22 miles I was eeking out a painfully slow pace, almost embarassingly slow and was just doing all I could to finish. The last 6 miles were really just a painful blurr though I did see my friends again at around the 24 mile point and again at 25. After all of that I barely remember the finish, except that I felt so relieved to be done.

A running buddy from work came in just behind me and we were both happy to be done yet irritated by not breaking 3 hours. After inhaling several bananas, a beer, countless chips and junk food we finally made it back to the gear drops. I was totally freezing by that point and just went as fast as I could to get changed.

Post race I felt like hell for the rest of the afternoon and simply could not warm up. Next day though all was well, no harm done and a totally great time had by all.

The sub-3 will just have to wait for another day.

Spanish Taper

2009-10-05T03:36:00.000-07:00

I've very poorly documented the last few weeks of training, but basically did a nice 23 mile long run 3 weekends ago, a painful 18 miler 2 weekends ago and am now in total taper mode in Spain, doing really short trail and beach runs in between work sessions. Glutes are feeling OK but this is my main concern for the race -- and the fact that I basically did no speed or tempo work at all during training. In general, training for this race was nearly wrecked due to a career change situation and a lot of work related travel/late nights.

Anyway, the plan is still to basically run 6:48-6:50 pace miles for 26.2 miles to break the 3 hour barrier. I will at least do the first half at that pace and listen to my body to see if I can hold it. With a cool day in store, good sleep and stretching for a few days, good pre-hydration and carbs + electrolytes during the race I still think there is a chance do make it happen. If not it will still be great fun!

Final Chicago Marathon Long Run

2009-09-20T09:02:00.000-07:00

This morning marked my final really long run before Chicago Marathon, which is now exactly 3 weeks away, 11 October 2009. Yesterday I was totally dreading this run, particularly the last 3-4 miles when my quads are usually fried. Last nigh on the way down to a family gathering in Montgomery I stocked up on 5 bottles of Poweraid, drank 2 of the bottles over the course of the evening and placed 2 of the others at a strategic location by Lake Nokomis on my training route.

We got home late last night and I was totally exhausted from the work week and from nearly 40 miles of running this week before this long run. So I woke up pissed off at the world. I didn't get going until 7am, my right hip was sore this time, and so on. Anyway, my route took me first around the north end of Lake Harriet and by the time I hit the paths along the lake I was feeling the love again. The Minneapolis Distance Bike Race was on at the same time, so I knew that would help distract me along the way. Pace was about 7:40ish from the start but I was wondering the whole time how I could keep that up.

From Harriet my route took me along Minnehaha Creek to Nokomis, where I broke off and basically followed the Twin Cities Marathon route our around Nokomis. On the east side of Nokomis, about 8 miles into the run, I took a gel. About a mile later I hit my strategic Poweraid cache and downed about 1/2 a bottle, then back onto the Minnehaha Creek trail to the Ford Bridge, across the Mississippi on the bridge and into St. Paul. The St. Paul side of the river was jammed with runners in both directions and I was still hanging on to a 7:45ish pace most of the miles, definitely getting no cardio workout, but mindful of my glutes, quads and all of that. These days nothing any slower than a 5:50 pace gives me much of a cardio workout, which is kind of wierd. The rest of the St. Paul side up to the Lake St. Bridge was uneventful and pretty easy, as was crossing the bridge and the Minneapolis side back down to the Minnehaha Falls area.

At Minnehaha Falls I took another gel, which was about 14 miles into the run, and I did not stop. By the time I got to the top of the hill heading back west along the creek from the falls, I was full into M race pace. At Nokomis I literally ran into the woods to grab my last bit of hidden Poweraid, slammed it on the run and kept going. From Nokomis back in it was simply will power to keep on M race pace and I was totally surprised to be able to do it no problem. I stopped 23+ miles into the run just a few blocks short of my house and honestly wondered if I had even done a long run. WTF.

From here out on is is a serious taper. This week will be pure recovery, perhaps with some speed work toward the weekend and maybe some tempo run work next week, but definitely my high mileage is done.

I have to also document my first outright, uncontroversial win in a 10k race. I have not outright won any race that I can think of (not counting masters age groups) probably since I was a junior in high school back in the 1800s. Despite total lack of any speed or tempo work I was able to hammer out a win in the Bovey Farmers Day 10k last weekend on a quite challenging course -- just a few seconds off my PR which I was definitely not trying to beat. Another WTF.

Maybe I will just chalk it up to the wacky year of 2009 ...

Sleep Running an 18 Mile Long Run

2009-08-03T11:39:00.000-07:00

As noted in previous posts, I've been through a pretty wrenching career transition since late May. Needless to say, I have not been sleeping, eating or running well and I still have a sub-3 Chicago Marathon on my plate. This past weekend I finally slept well. And Sunday I decided to pull out an 18 mile long run.

The route was basically Lake Harriet - Minnehaha Creek - Ford Bridge to St. Paul - Lake Street Bridge back to Minneapolis and then home the same route. I went very slow, did not even track the miles. 18 miles was 2 hours and 13 minutes. My left glute and left calf was very sore and I need to do some core work today. Plan from now on out is to get back into marathon form and focus on being ready for Chicago despite the career turmoil.

My only planned race pre-Chicago is the Rutabaga Run Half Marathon later in August and maybe City of Lakes 25k.

New Job & New Training Program for Chicago Marathon

2009-07-13T11:36:00.000-07:00

After a very up and down 5-6 weeks of career changing events, I am fortunate enough to have found a new home for my career. The stress of this period really took a toll on my running and training due to stress, inconsistent sleep patterns and inconsistent eating habits.

Now that things are settled I will put together a new training plan and get it underway. Yesterday was a 7 mile run through the farmland of Pine County, MN at 6:50 pace, very slow and easy. More to follow ...

Grandma's Marathon

2009-06-27T07:05:00.000-07:00

Despite major changes in my training patterns over the last 4-5 weeks, the Garry Bjorkland/ Grandma's Half Marathon in Duluth last weekend was more than I could have asked for. Because of inconsistent training, I showed up at the start line hoping to simply finish the race and break 1:30 as a fun run. I ended up at 1:24:22 chip time, only a few seconds off my previous PR!

The last few weeks have been very difficult as I find myself facing a major re-organization in the company I have been with for 10 years. I loved my work and colleagues as well, so it has been particularlt challenging to work through the uncertainty. But I remain hopeful and have met tons of really cool people in the process!

Last Friday, one day before the race, I finished a series of great interviews and headed for Duluth to pick up my race packet. My family headed out the previous night with friends to set up camp at Tettegouche State Park. After picking up the race packet at the Expo, which I always enjoy doing, we were off again up the north shore to camp, about 40 miles north of Two Harbors.

After a week of interviews and navigating that whole situation, what a relief to be with friends and family at a camp fire on the north shore! Pre-race logistics were interesting. I was required to be in Two Harbors on race day between 5:00-5:20am in order to board the buses that take runners to the start at Knife River. I had organized my gear the night before and was up and out of the tent by 4:00am, then on the road by 4:15. The crescent moon rising over Lake Superior that morning was totally amazing, the edges back-lit by the coming dawn.

I was one of the first ones to arrive at the Super One Foods lot so I took my time changing and getting my supply bags ready. Boarding the bus and the ride to the start was smooth, no issues and few chatty people at that time of the morning. The scene right before the start was organized pandemoneum. The backpack I stuffed inside the plastic gearbag actually ripped the plastic and I had to scramble to find duct tape to pull it all together. The comes the never solved problem at every race, timing for the portapotties. Lets just say that the first trip to the portapotty helped, though there is always a need just minutes before the start. I was lucky to find a geographic location out in front of the starting line to take care of that.

Start line temperatures were warm, not exactly sure but likely in the upper 60s. I saw a few running friends before the start, all who were excited to be there like me. As the gun went off I remember telling myself to go easy, hold back and just make it a fun run. After 4 miles of 6:20 pace, feeling pretty good, I thought it could actually be a half way decent run. Miles 5-9 seemed like slight up-hill. so I did back off the pace quite a bit and just held in the 6:40s. In Duluth itself, particularly around Lemon Drop Hill, I definitely started to fatigue and the heat was taking its toll. I was taking sport drink roughly every other stop which I think was perfect.

By the time I came out of downtown and was headed toward the water, I was definitely working very hard just to maintain 6:40s pace. Last half mile I was again passing people and the final 200 yards was a blazing sprint across the finish. I was pretty wiped out and really took my time getting re-hydrated and refueled right after the race, including a great massage and the ritual jump into Lake Superior.

After I got dressed I spent another good hour or more, watching the rest of the Half runners finish as well as the elite marathoners, including the marathon winner -- a Minnesotan! Bus ride back was long, and it was really comforting to be back at camp with friends and family again. I slept like a baby that night.

I will certainly never forget this short adventure and am so thankful to be able to experience events like this.

The summer remains a bit uncertain, but my goal is still to train for Chicago Marathon and to break that 3:00 goal.

The Reset Button

2009-05-31T08:28:00.000-07:00

Well, I've had to push the reset button on my original Chicago Marathon training program. As noted in previous posts, my original plan was to ramp up twice -- the first phase this spring as if I was going to do a full marathon, only I'd do Grandma's Garry Bjorkland Half, and then the second phase for Chicago itself in the Fall.

Between remnants of the H1N1 flu and a very stressful workforce reduction situation at my employer, my original plans have come to a near total crash. I was just getting in really good shape as the reorganization situation started to pick up, and just ended up under great stress and poor sleep, which just killed my training. And then the flu hit me, more of just a high fever, severe body ache type of flu, which further dampened the training.

I won't even both to recap all the runs and so-forth, but basically I have reset my expectations to just try to run Grandma's Half and my full marathon race pace, or about 6:50 pace. If I could just do that it would be a salvage.

This morning was a nice 11.5 mile run from the Lakes to downtown Minneapolis and back to watch the new Minneapolis Marathon and Half. I was going to do the race but decided that $80 was a bit steep at the moment. Even with all the stress and uncertainty I did manage to get in 42 miles this week, none of the miles at any kind of pace though. Next week I will try to repeat and just get the miles in and enjoy the warm weather and hopefully some thunderstorms and good storm watching weather.

Training Volume & Pace

2009-04-15T07:16:00.000-07:00

Last week I was finally able to put in a decent amount of distance for the week, topping out at 46 miles. I will eventually get the high mileage weeks into the mid 50s, last week it took quite a bit of motivation just to get into the mid 40s. As noted in this blog over the last year, I've been working through a seemingly endless series of minor hip and pelvis issues, some of which have kept me away from running of any kind for weeks at a time. Even after a few hard runs the last few days, I feel like I am coming out of the injury period and getting into half way decent shape.

The highlights of last week were a 17 mile long run on Sat 11 May and a pretty intense tempo run yesterday. Saturday was perfect weather in Minnesota for a long run. Glutes were a bit sore the previous 2-4 days so I was a bit worried about how this first long run of the season would play out. Weather was brilliant, nearly calm winds, clear skies, start temp around 40 degrees -- these are perfect conditions for me. At 6:30am I already saw other runners on the trails along Minnehaha Creek heading east toward the Mississippi. Crossing the Ford Bridge into St. Paul I really started noticing a lot of runners and quite a few groups. Quads started to tighten on the St. Paul side approaching the Lake Street Bridge, which is a bit early in this route compared to the past, but I figure this was the first long run. Back on the Minneapolis side same thing, even more runners, many groups headed both ways, what a great scene. I saw quite a few familiar faces along the way. Leaving Minnehaha Park and heading back west along the Creek was mostly uneventful but by the time I was back at the 35W bridges my hip flexors and quads were pretty fried, I know this feeling well. This is the feeling you get at mile 24 of the marathon, nothing left and just doing everything possible to bring your body in to the finish. Mile splits on this first long run were 7:20 7:22 7:26 7:20 7:25 7:26 7:14 7:10 7:00 6:55 7:12 7:22 7:26 7:27 7:11 7:31 7:58.

Yesterday, after a Sun 12 May recovery run and a day of easy yoga on Mon 13 May, I headed out for what I planned to be a pretty easy general cardio run of 7 miles with some Quarters embedded. Instead it turned into an ugly brawl of a tempo run with the madmen I run with at work. I was slow getting out of the locker room and so went out at 6:30 pace right out the door. After about a half mile I caught the group and just kept my 6:30-6:40 pace for the first 1.5 miles. At that point some of the guys dropped the pace below 6 minutes and I was not disciplined enough to stay behind. So the next 3 miles were 5:58 6:08 and 6:11, after which I totally dropped back. After mile 4 I was completely fried and I'm sure I was not well recovered from Saturday's long run. My quads were completely wiped out by the end, so my plan is to skip running today and just recover. I may end up doing a marathon pace run tomorrow with no speed (6:48 easy pace) and just leave it at that. No long run this weekend. This week is a pace week and my plan will be do do a 13 miler, first half very easy 7:30 pace, last half at target marathon race pace.

Missouri

2009-04-08T07:35:00.000-07:00

I'm in the middle of a planned 52 mile week and feeling like it will be a daunting task. Here is a recap of the last few days:

Sat 4 Apr 8 miles around Lake Calhoun
Sun 5 Apr 13.7 miles @ Grandview/Kansas City, MO in a freezing mist hurricane
Tue 7 Apr 8 miles @ Big Cedar / Ridgedale, MO + hiking @ Steel Creek / Buffalo River near Jasper, AR
Wed 8 Apr 8 miles @ Big Cedar

The Buffalo River area of the Ozarks National Forest is quite a gem and I definitely plan to return. Jasper, AR is also a very cool little town, I could hang there for some time. Rest of the week plan is to try another basic 8 miler tomorrow, an 18 miler on Sat and then an easy recovery run of about 4 on Sun 12 Apr.

Moab & Chicago Marathon Race Trainng

2009-04-02T17:16:00.000-07:00

Chicago Marathon race training began officially for me on April 1, giving me roughly 6 months to get ready to go 2:59:59.99 or less, after several weeks of inconsistent at best base training. Today was a nice longer type of tempo run, 7.3 miles at a very comfortable 6:40 pace, with miles at 6:49 6:40 6:45 6:48 6:38 6:33 6:34.

The previous 4-5 days were spent in Orlando, FL where I did manage to squeeze in several very moderate pace general conditioning runs of 7-9 miles each.

March 20-23 were in Moab with friends and a bit of a break from the base training, where I only managed a few cross country runs across the desert.

I have not yet built out my entire training schedule, but basically plan to double peak, once in June just in time for the Grandma's Garry Bjorkland Half Marathon and then in late September about 2 weeks before the Chicago Marathon itself. The general idea is to never do long runs 2 weekends in a row - will alternate long weeks with speed weeks. And emphasize lactate threshold and tempo runs over speed work.

Race plan is pretty scaled back. I may do Get In gear 10k in 2 weeks, then followed by New Prague Half Marathon where I will just try to be 1:24:00 or less and keep it pretty mellow. Garry Bjorkland is where I would like to Half Marathon PR and be in great shape through the summer to be ready for peak buildup number two, which will be a lot more miles at target marathon race pace of 6:48 per mile.

Slow Build

2009-03-09T17:29:00.000-07:00

Last week was pretty solid, consistent build-up of miles and pace, as follows:

M Mar 2: Yoga & core work
T Mar 3: 7 miles moderate pace Mounds View
W Mar 4: 4 miles easy Harriet, Yoga pm
Th Mar 5: 7.3 miles tempo run Mounds View-Shoreview, 6:50 pace
F Mar 6: Core work
S Mar 7: 5 miles easy
Su Mar 8: 10.65 miles almost long run, 7:15 pace

It looks like about 34 or so miles for the week. Thursday's 7.3 mile tempo run was the best I have had in quite a while. I kept the pace roughly at my target marathon race pace of 6:50 per mile or so, it was just fast enough pace to be a bit uncomfortable, but pretty easy to keep over 7 miles.

Had planned to do a 14 mile long run instead on Sunday but was too tired for some reason so took it easy. This week plan roughly the same routine though will need to work around a few scheduling issues. Still debating whether to do the 100% Irish 5k or 10 miler this weekend.

Winter Base Training

2009-03-01T10:53:00.000-08:00

This past week was week 3 of base training build up after a few weeks off from running altogether. The pattern for the last 3 weeks has basically been as follows:

Mondays: yoga + core work, no running
Tuesdays: 7-8 mile run + light stretching
Wednesdays: 3-5 mile run early morning + yoga
Thursdays: 7-8 mile run + light stretching
Fridays: more intense core workout + light yoga, no running
Saturdays: early morning 3-5 mile run
Sundays: long run, 10-15 miles

Over these 3 weeks I have started to slowly build back my base mileage, from maybe 20 miles max per week in January to about 36 this week. This morning's long run of 14 miles went pretty well with very little glute problems until about the 12-13 mile mark, and then it was just a little fatigue. Pace this week and today was nothing speedy at all, today I ranged between 6:50 and 7:50 miles, with average around 7:45.

The next few weeks through the end of March will follow the same pattern as above, the purpose is just to build a solid base of 35-45 mile weeks leading into more intense Chicago Marathon training that begins in April.

Schedule-wise it look like my first real race will be New Prague Half Marathon where I will target 1:22-1:23.

Chicago Marathon Wave A

2009-02-04T15:35:00.000-08:00

Registration for the 2009 Chicago Marathon opened on Sunday 2 Feb and I am lucky enough to be seeded in Corral A, which as I have posted elsewhere, should get me out ahead of the failing masses of earphone-iPod-wearing joggers. Don't get me wrong, I love my iPod, but its place is not in serious road races in my opinion. The goal for this marathon, still 8+ months away, is 2:59:59 or less, as it was for me at Grandma's 2008 and California 2007.

I'm still a bit sore from the City of Lakes Loppet but not too bad. Yesterday was a decent 7.2 mile run in frigid, windy conditions, with a few miles at 7:15 or so pace and a few miles at 6:40-6:50ish pace on the ice.

My general plan the next few weeks is to continue to skate ski 1-3x per week and gradually build into running again 3-4x per week, while continuing some yoga and some core work as well. By 1 Apr I'd like to have a solid base and be un-injured, so I can begin more serious training for Chicago over 6 months.

City of Lakes Loppet Freestyle Recap

2009-02-02T09:06:00.000-08:00

I'd call the 35k City of Lakes Loppet freestyle ski race held yesterday a success. I made it through alive, with no major injuries. The sunny, mid-20s start at the Wirth Park Chalet was near perfect and it was just fun chatting with other racers before the start, watching the classic racers go by, and then watching wave after wave of freestyle skiers go out ahead of me.

The final waxing plan was 1 layer of Swix Molyfluoro Base + 2 layers of Fastwax Tan High Fluoro. After Saturday's meltdown the Loppet trails were icy in spots, with other wind blown spots piled with several inches of mini ice crystals. Race day start temps were perfect in the mid 20s. I tried to convince the race organizers to let me into a higher wave but no dice. So I started in wave 6.

Going into the race I was worried about crashes on the narrow, technical trails with many switchbacks and hairpin turns -- and with good reason. And sure enough, no more than 2 minutes into the race, just over the top of the first hill from the starting line there was a major pole-breaking crash right at my feet, not caused by me this time. I got really lucky and veered off the trail and into the powder about 5 yards off to the side, only to tip over at a standstill because I was stuck at an odd angle. No harm done for me but it took me about a minute to get back up out of my weird tangle and when I got back onto the trail I saw all the broken poles, broken glasses, hats, gloves, etc. from the crash carnage.

Within 5 minutes of the start I was passing some wave 5 skiers. Within about 15-20 minutes I started passing wave 4 people on the front 9. By the time we got into the last big hills in the the southwest section of Wirth Park near the Floating Bog, me and the small group of wave 6 people I went with started seeing the stragglers from wave 3. I was very conservative on the sharp turns and technical parts of the course in order to avoid a major crash, so I lost some time in those sections. Many of the steep inclines were buried in piles of ice crystals with glare ice underneath and most of the major turns were complete ice from the previous waves of racers. The groomers did a great job recovering the trails from the previous day's meltdown.

Once back on the lakes and flats south and east of Wirth Park I was totally flying on the last 5-8k. I believe the wax choice was pretty good. The finish was a nightmare coming up off the lake, with man made, dirty snow, about 6 inches thick with slushy ice crystals. I had to just power my way through the finish.

Total time was 2:15 at 4:11 pace and to be honest I'm not sure how to assess this except that going into the race I can say that I just wanted to finish in one piece and get the experience.

I'd highly recommend the race as it was a total blast.

City of Lakes Loppet Training

2009-01-26T07:38:00.001-08:00

I changed my mind again and now do plan to do the City of Lakes Loppet 33k freestyle ski race this Sunday 1 Feb 2009. In preparation I was able to get in a fairly decent ~28k of very cold condition skiing at Hyland Park yesterday. The old snow is getting a bit icy in patches and seemed a bit slow doe to the cold conditions by my new layer of Teal Fastwax on the skis definitely helped. I am feeling it a bit today but not as bad as I thought, and yoga later today should help. My plan is to get in 2 additional skate workouts during the week and then rest up on Friday and Saturday.

Since this will be my first Loppet I am sure I will be placed in the last wave, wave 7, unless I can convince them to move me up. Race strategy will simply be to have fun, finish and not get injured.

Week 3 Almost No Running

2009-01-24T09:22:00.000-08:00

My intent really was to not run at all until at least Feb 1. I like the time off, the rest feels great, my hips and pelvis generally seem to get better every day, I'm only sleeping 7-8 hours a night again, etc. But after more than 3 weeks I'm missing it. Skiing is great, and for sure an even better workout than any run could be, but it is very logistically challenging. And when it comes down to it I just like to run, wherever and whenever.

So this week in was some yoga, core work, weights and more stretching, different workouts every day ... until Thursday when I completely caved in and went for a run. As soon as I got out the door, I yelled out Thank God!

It was just a very, very short test run of a couple miles at most, but it did the trick. Friday was a 30 minute "run" on the treadmill, set at the 5:56 per mile pace which I do not believe. I got my heart rate up into the 160s at that pace but it did not seem like a 5:56 pace for the road.

Anyway, plan going forward, even as I still have a few hip and pelvis tweaks, is to gradually bring running back into the picture until I am up to 4-5 days per week. Once the snow is gone I will start to add longer miles and speed work.

I will not do the City of Lakes Loppet this year as I am worried about straining my hips. The Mora Vasaloppet is also out due to schedule conflict. Which leaves the Birkie -- I will try to do the Korteloppet this year rather than the full Birkie. Today will be a short windchill run, tomorrow I will try to do 30k skate skiing in the frigid conditions with a new layer of cold wax on the skis.

Week 3 No Running

2009-01-19T08:51:00.000-08:00

It's the beginning of week 2 of no running and I am still planning to not run at all until at least Feb 1, basically to give the running body parts some time off. Last week was perfect to be off, since it was extreme cold in these parts of the country. And I basically put in a lot of yoga, core work and weights -- and felt great.

Saturday was a long skate ski, about 12 miles, on the loops at Hyland Park Reserve. Sunday was skijooring for the first time on Lake of the Isles, followed by a bit of light skating and ice hockey with family.

I must admit that my right glute and deep hip flexor get a bit stiff and sore from skiing and skating, the stretching and yoga do seem to help. This concerns me and I hope I don't have to end up completely dropping any and all of the endurance sports to let even these issues heal. I hope that is not the case and was banking on the break from running to be in good shape to begin the long ramp up to Chicago Marathon on Feb 1.

Week 2 No Running

2009-01-13T19:04:00.001-08:00

Now into the middle of week 2 of no running and I have to report that it feels really good. Each additional day I go without running or slipping on ice, my hip and pelvis issues get better and better. At this point I am toying with the idea of abstaining from running until Feb 1. This might be the opportunity to really let things heal up.

Today was actually too cold to ski, so it was core work indoors instead. The routine today was 2-3 sets each of the following:

walking lunges with weights, 22 reps
Bosu ball crunches/flexes
one-leg exercize ball pushups, 20 each side
leg presses
adductor compressions
pull ups
mock running lunges with weights
Bosu ball squats
crunches

After this workout I had no hip or pelvic pain for the first time in months. I will likely just do additional core work during the week this week followed by some long xc skiing miles on the weekend.

Loppet Tweak Recovery & Weekend Skiing

2009-01-11T19:28:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to send myself a few images of the skiing at Wild River SP from today but so far no go. Last week was simply easy recovery yoga and core work, trying to let the race injuries heal up. I still have not connected with a physician for diagnosis but will continue working on that.

Saturday afternoon I decided to do a very easy 6 miler around the City of Lake Loppet course around Lake of the Isles, Cedar Lake and into Wirth Park. The full moon coming up over the city with the glow off the snow on the lakes was just very cool.

Today I was up very early for a long, nearly 19 mile skate ski at Wild River State Park, from the Trail Center out and back on the Sunrise Loop. Snow was a little soft and sticky with about 1" new, and trails were a bit narrow, but it was a perfect day for skiing and the trails in the park are fantastic. 19 miles for me is about 2 1/2 hours at a fairly easy pace. Not sure how many k this is but City of Lakes Loppet is 33k so I still have that hanging over my head in a few weeks.

Pre-Loppet, Wipeout & Injury

2009-01-06T18:04:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately I am writing to report that I am on the running and skiing sidelines again due to a spectacular crash at the Pre-Loppet freestyle cross country skiing race this past Sunday. The race itself was a total blast but the crash (actually I wiped out twice) refreshed an old nagging pelvic injury.

Race day was cold, about -5 degrees with a strong north wind. Race start was about 2k from the Wirth Park Chalet, out in the middle of Wirth Lake. About 150 people braved the wind and cold. I knew right away that I chose the wrong wax. My skis squeaked and stuck to the snow, but I was going to gut it out no matter what. The first 5k was slow and tight through narrow twisting trails and a few minor hills, no big deal. I passed a few crashes along the way the first 8k. I made it to the half way mark of the 18k course in pretty good shape and only briefly stopped for sports drink at the Chalet. The second half on the front 9 of the golf course was a totally different story. The hills were killer. I gunned it up the first major hill after the chalet and passed several people on the way up and at the top, only to crash on the downhill. That crash shook me up but I had no injury at that point.

It was the second crash that did me in. It was another huge uphill, so long and steep that I had to herringbone up instead of V-1, followed by a major downhill with a turn that did me in. My legs were shaky on the downhill from all the previous hills and I hit a patch of powder too fast, and basically I did the splits with a face plant. I felt that old pelvic/groin injury stretch and tweak and knew right away that it was not good. At that point I still had about 8k or more to go and just got re-oriented and kept right on going.

The rest of the race was all major ascents and descents with some harrowing turns and high speeds but I was very cautious. In the end I did finish but sure came in with my tail between my legs. This is a contact sport.

Anyway I will not run or ski for at least a week while I see what my body deals me in terms of the injury or tweak. It could be as bad as another full groin pull or as little as a tweak of one of the pelvic ligaments or muscles. I'm doing light yoga, light resistance and light core training in the meantime and may also need to consider sitting out for an extended period to let this heal once and for all.

I may also see a physician as I do not want this to turn into a chronic condition. This hip/groin/pelvic series of injuries has hung around on and off for a year now and I think it's time to chill out until it heals. More later after I can diagnose.

10 Miles @ Elm Creek

2009-01-02T08:45:00.000-08:00

Yesterday 1 Jan 2009 was a perfect skiing day at Elm Creek. For the first time since I got them, I waxed my skis, not with a hot wax, but with a product called FastWax (Blue 12-28 F). What a huge difference. I did a 5k loop in 18 minutes with only a moderate amount of effort. It made the skis so slick that I was literally standing with the skis on, flat surface at the entry point to the trails at Elm Creek and the wind was able to push me along.

We did several loops around the main loops for a total of 10.65 miles in just over an hour, with some rest stops in between. As I mentioned in a previous post, skate skiing is not as hard on my body in terms of the jarring one gets from running, but it is a serious hard core full body workout and I always finish totally exhausted. But it is a different kind of fatigue than running. It is a total cardio, upper body and quads workout.

I still seem to have some minor hip fatigue and soreness but the pelvic injuries seem to be gone for now. That was one full year of pelvic muscle and tendon pain, nasty.

Tomorrow my plan is to race the Pre-Loppet 15k freestyle race at Wirth Park and if I can finish under 1:10 for my first race I would be happy with that. The full Loppet is 33k so I need to be able to do many more miles in preparation for that race in 4 weeks.

Running & Skiing On Ice

2008-12-31T08:15:00.000-08:00

The last 2 weeks or so have been very sketchy and icy conditions for running. And the snow meltdown the day after Christmas completely wrecked the skiing trails basically anywhere south of Minneapolis. I really struggle to run decently on the ice despite my new home made spikes. Every step and push-off is basically a slip, and those thousands of slips add up to sore hips and glutes for me. The least 2 weeks have been the lowest running mileage weeks I have had in years except for times that I was completely off.

Here is a summary of the last few days:

19 Dec 2008 5 mile snowy run with 4 x Quarters + 6 miles skate skiing @ Elm Creek
20 Dec 12k skiing @ Elk River in snowy conditions
21 Dec easy 4 mile run around Lake Harriet
22 Dec 7 miles skiing @ William O'Brien SP, soft trail conditions + Yoga
23 Dec 8.25 miles run around Lake Calhoun, 2" snow on slick surface
24 Dec 6 miles night skiing @ Hyland + Yoga
25 Dec just a walk around Harriet on the ice, some core work
26 Dec 5 miles skiing @ Sakatah Lake SP, very poor conditions, had to ski on snowmobile trail, its a cool park though for classic skiing and hiking in the summer
27 Dec another long walk, no running or skiing due to the weather meltdown and ice
28 Dec nada
29 Dec slow, icy run, 7.3 miles on the trails around Mounds View and Shoreview + Yoga
30 Dec good solid core work + 7 miles skiing @ Elm Creek
31 Dec Yoga planned for today

This weekend I will be trying my first ever nordic freestyle race, the Pre-Loppet at Wirth Park in Minneapolis. Basically I have no idea what I am doing and will use this race to figure out what to do for the City of Lakes Loppet to be held 30 Jan 2009. The only other race I have on the books is the St. Paul Winter Carnival Half Marathon on 24 Jan 2009 and my goal there is to simply run an easy 6:45-6:50 pace the entire race and not kill myself.

Financial Meltdown

2008-12-30T08:58:00.000-08:00

Today I am going to deviate from the original subject of this blog to add commentary about the U.S. and Global financial meltdown of 2008 that began more than 30 years ago. I am doing this because I am not at all happy with my fellow American for our collective behavior and because I am seriously worried about the country. There have been a few times I can remember being seriously worried about the direction we were headed, most of them recently: 1) when GW Bush II was appointed President by the US Supreme Court 2) the September 11 attacks 3) the US Invasion of Iraq 4) all of George The Incompetent Bush's second term and now this massive financial crisis.

I am very, very disappointed in the decision making, ethics and financial behavior of my fellow Americans, which includes Government, Business and Voters/Consumers. Government, at the local, state and federal levels is not transparent and continues to spend beyond its means and pushed massive amounts of debt onto our kids and grandkids. Government reacts to crises and does not pro-actively deal with the future. Our government acts like incompetent idiots, wildly swinging from one crisis to the next.

The Business community is bullshit. The American Business community, including the Chambers of Commerce, Industry Trade groups and lobbysists, and businesses themselves, pour millions and millions of dollars into so called conservative political candidates and the Republican party, preaching about the free market as a religion and never ending tax cuts for the wealthy. And what we really get is legalized money laudering, legalized gambling the stock market, ponzie schemes, a near complete lack of ethics, bribery, scandal after scandal and it just goes on and on. I assumed until recently that banks only lent money to people who could pay it back. That was sure a bad assumption. Our financial institutions and the agencies that monitor the financial system have completely let us down to the point of treachery, illegality and outright treason.

American voters and consumers have allowed all of this to happen and I place most of the blame on all of us voters and consumers. For 30 years people have over consumed well beyond our means, in terms of the planet's available natural resources and environmental capacity and in terms of peoples' ability to pay back what they borrow. The whole culture of debt, greed, materialism and over consumption by American consumers, citizens and voters is truly at the root of all this and I have totally had it with people who are losing their homes because they can no longer make the payment on their 3rd sub-prime mortgage and their 8 maxed credit cards.

So that is my financial rant for the day about this crisis and I will likely add more as this unfolds. I guess when it comes down to it I am very concerned that few people seem to have learned any lessons at all about consumption, debt and maintaining a healthy, sustainable lifestyle. Everyone wants to blame someone else and not themselves for their own decisions. Until that reckoning happens, and the media is not helping, any taxpayers bailouts of practically every business and government agency you can think of, is simply postponing and worsening a looming financial collapse.

Snowy Running & Skiing

2008-12-18T15:08:00.001-08:00

It was a snowy, slippery mess for running this week with at least some new snow every day, making the trails a challenge. Here is how the week has actually turned out so far:

Tu 16-Dec-2008 6.2 miles short, easy, snowy run
We 17-Dec-2008 yoga + core work, evening skate skiing with sticky snow conditions
Th 18-Dec-2008 7.3 miles intense run, some 6:20 miles on snow packed trails, ouch
Fr 19-Dec-2008 5 mile fun run today, 20k skiing afternoon, evening snowboarding
Sa 20-Dec-2008 morning xc skate skiing ~2 hours planned
Su 21-Dec-2008 snow storm forecast, not sure

Below is the latest approaching weather and I hope we get hit with a huge dump of snow.

Winter Motivation

2008-12-16T07:46:00.000-08:00

For the first time in a long time I failed to even get started on a planned run. I was supposed to get up early and run a fairly easy 8-miler around 2 lakes, even though it was -15 below zero. I have the gear and the layers to make this no big deal but I was just not motivated to do it. Instead I will xc skate ski tonight and may do a very easy run from work this afternoon.

On the one hand I feel lazy. On the other hand, maybe the rest is a good thing.

Plan for the rest of the week is as follows:

Tu 16-Dec-2008 xc skate skiing, about 20k + maybe a short run
We 17-Dec-2008 yoga + core work, maybe a short run as well
Th 18-Dec-2008 8 mile run, xc skate skiing pm 20k
Fr 19-Dec-2008 long xc skate skiing ~25k location TBD, pm snowboarding
Sa 20-Dec-2008 morning xc skate skiing
Su 21-Dec-2008 long run 10-13 miles

The next races planned for me are the St. Paul Winter Carnival Half and the City of Lakes Loppett at the end of Jan-2009.

Winter Mix

2008-12-15T07:57:00.000-08:00

We finally had enough natural snow last week for my first real xc skate skiing ever. I did 2 nights on skiing under the lights at Hyland Park Preserve in Bloomington with near perfect skiing conditions as far as I could tell. My first time out I did one very short mini-loop and I seriously thought I was going to cough up my lungs.

Now I'm in pretty good cardiovascular shape, but skate skiing totally kicks my ass. That same first night I was able to recover and did 2 more 3.3k loops on the lit trail around the lake there at Hyland. Two nights later, after the kids were in bed there I was again at Hyland, ready to tackle another heart rattling workout. This time I managed 3 very solid paced 3.3k loops and I could definitely see a gain in efficieny.

I have no idea if my technique is good as I have had no lessons, but watching the other skiers I don't seem to be too far off. The hills are difficult. The fast skiers seem to still ski up the hills, while I seem to step ski. I also noticed that while my balance was always a bit off and somewhat unpredictable the first night, by the second night I could smoothly shift weight from one side to the next without any glitch, which makes it a lot easier to skate nice and smooth and not waste extra energy.

I did manage 3 short runs during the week, really just barely maintenance runs and nothing of consequence, which is OK right now. This week I don't seem to have any shin, hip flexor, pelvic or groin issues, but my hips are quite sore. It's so wierd how these injuries just seem to hang in there and move around no matter what I do. I was able to get in 2 rounds of yoga, a good day of core work and snowboarding on Friday night.

By late Friday the weather forecast was calling for a major winter storm with Winter Storm and Blizzard Warnings posted to the north and west of the Twin Cities and the potential for an ice storm for Sunday. So I decided to do my long run Saturday. I started out the run around the first lake with my wife, who said she was ready to be done running with me anyway because I was crabby. The rest of the 13 miler was pretty quiet and uneventful and again really just felt my hips near the end of the run. I just wonder what this is? I don't get it.

This week is very cold and blustery. I'm not sure what the mix of running, skiing and yoga will be. It is -5 right now with strong winds, so I'm sure I will just do yoga today. I might try to get out and ski tonight. Will try to get at least 2 other 8 milers in during the week. Some guys from work have organized a short trip up to the UP of Michigan for some skate skiing and I'm still seeing if I can get in on this. If not then I will do a long run on the weekend with plenty of skiing around home.

No other races or anything looming at this point.

Reindeer Run

2008-12-06T10:59:00.000-08:00

We woke up this morning, Saturday, 6 Dec with about 2 inches of new snow, just enough to make the roads an utter nightmare for a 5k road race. I decided to do a little experimenting and ended up putting some screws in an old pair of lightweight trainers to give me better traction on the icy roads. It worked perfect. Here is a shot of the my new winter racing spikes. The race was at 9:30 am and I was not pre-registered -- and of course I was so tired from the week that I slep until 8:15. I took some green tea and a bit of granola, packed my layers of stuff into a duffle and rode my bike down to the start. I had a lot of changing to do when I got there, had to register, then had to scramble to do a last minute BM in the woods, so as usual I literally ran up to the start line from the front and got there just as the gun went off.

Anyway the race was ok, I have no idea what my pace was but I ended up in 7th pace with a time of 19:00 flat. I definitely did not push the pace at all and generally felt ok. A little sore from snowboarding and that's it. My friend JB met me at the end of the race and that was cool too. It was a cold, snowy blast of a race and again most importantly fun with no harm done.

Tomorrow I had a 13 miler scheduled but will probably back off to 10 miles instead. I'm hoping next week is back to normal with 2-3 days of yoga/core work and 2-3 days of moderate pace 8 milers. Skate skiing probably starts now as well.

Toronto & San Francisco

2008-12-06T10:51:00.000-08:00

I spent this past Tuesday and Wednesday in Toronto, then Thursday and Friday in San Francisco and was at least able to sneak in some runs in Toronto. Tuesday after work I did an initial exploratory run from my hotel downtown to Lake Ontario, along the lake for a few miles and then back Queen Street to my hotel. It was a night time run at about 5:30 pm and the wind was absolutely raging straight off the lake. No snow yet but the spray from the heavy surf was hitting me even though the path was at least 50-100 yards from the drink.

Wednesday, 3 Dec after lunch I was able to get in a bit of a longer run, about 9 miles, though it was very slow. I felt tired and very lethargic and really not that motivated. I also got in at least some basic core work and a few laps in the hotel pool.

I thought I could squeeze in a run in San Francisco but was just too tired. I had to wake at 4am in Toronto to catch my flight and all and it was just a nightmare. All I could do by the time work was done in San Francisco was some lame core work in the hotel workout room, which kind of sucked.

Friday, 5 Dec was snowboarding during kids' skiing lessons and it was a total blast. A lot less of the total hip and groin pain than I had last year, which made it all a lot more fun.

Slow & Snowy Long Run

2008-11-30T09:26:00.000-08:00

I woke up at 6am today to a half inch of powder, though we were all hoping for a lot more than that. It did make for a very peaceful and quiet, yet slow 10.4 mile long run around the lakes. I maybe should have taken the day off as I was very slow and lethargic, I just did not feel at all like pushing it, so I didn't. The thin sheet of ice that was on the lakes yesterday had all blown to the south side of the lakes and tinkled in the waves as I passed by. Even at 6:30 am I bet I saw 15 or more runners just within the first few miles, which is nice to see.

I may only get to run twice during the week this week due to work, but that should be enough to keep going until next weekend's Reindeer Run 5k. My plan for that is to just use it as a tempo run, maybe go 6:30, 6:20, 6:10 or something easy like that. And have fun mostly.

Thanksgiving Week Recap

2008-11-29T08:51:00.000-08:00

The past week was another low mileage but actually very enjoyable week of running:

Monday 24 Nov: yoga
Tuesday 25 Nov: 5 mile run with a 3.5 mile embedded tempo run at 6:43, 6:30 and 6:20 miles, very nice
Wednesday 26 Nov: yoga
Thursday 27 Nov: Drumstick Dash 10k race
Friday 28 Nov: easy hike with family
Saturday 29 Nov: 6.5 miles around Lake Calhoun, perfect weather, easy run

The Drumstick Dash was a somewhat new experience for me, as my wife asked me to run for a while with her and her running buddies. Now this is no offense to any runners of any pace, including those 8-9 minute per mile runners -- but I simply cannot run, let alone run in a race, at that pace for long. I just physically and emotionally cannot do it.

So I ran the first mile at 9:00 pace. I was actually speed walking for a while which could have been interpreted as mean spirited, though I was just having fun. Then the next mile was 8:30 pace and I was shuffling behind packs and packs of people. I literally could not take it any more. Then I saw my neighbor, I will call him Wilfred, peeling by me and that was it. I said 'see ya later' to my wife and her friends and proceeded to run four by 5:50 miles. My overall 10k time was not that fast but I was at least happy to string together a few decent race pace miles.

Today was another perfect running day for me, partly sunny start, very light winds out of the southeast, daybreak temps about 25 degrees. A thin layer of ice covered most of Lake Harriet and Lake Calhoun. Tomorrow's plan is for an early morning 10 miler at moderate, sustained pace.

Sunday Long Run

2008-11-24T14:46:00.000-08:00

Sunday was a plodding, never ending 13.35 mile long run around Lakes Harriet, Calhoun, Isles and Cedar. I went slow, 7:30 - 7:55 pace, particularly slowed by the trails and my frequent stops to look at various things around Cedar Lake. It was kind of a meandering, exploring kind of run with no purpose other than to be outside. My hips and pelvis areas really did not start to get sore until around the 10 mile point.

Today the yoga felt really good on sore hips and I came away from class feeling really good. I added just a bit more core work after class.

Tomorrow I am debating whether to run or not. I'm kind of feeling like an extra day of rest might be good, but then I know that we have so few days left with dry trails before winter really sets in that I am sort of trying to run every day I can now. Thursday the 27th is a race day and I'd like to be fresh for that race, on the other hand I really do not plan to run any faster than 6:30 pace to keep in a pretty easy day.

Typical Core Work Day

2008-11-21T13:25:00.001-08:00

Here is my new routine for a typical core work day, now trying to do this 3 times per week.

3 sets x walking lunges
3 x half ball crunches
3 x running form lunges
3 x pullups
3 x ball pushups
3 x rubber band hip flexors
3 x quad squats
3 x inner thigh machine

2 days per week of power yoga which really seems to be helping a lot.

This weekend plan is an easy run Saturday and a moderate 10 miler Sunday morning.

Lastly, the Minnesota Runner of the Year qualifying races are in, here are the Male 40-44 qualifiers. A lot of familiar names and running friends in this list. I only made it in one race, damn.

LA

2008-11-18T19:58:00.000-08:00

Most of last week was spent in warm and sunny southern California. Running weather was perfect. Wednesday Nov 12 was an easy 7.5 mile run from my hotel in Pasadena up and around the Rose Bowl on residential streets, bike trail and dirt trails heading up into the mountains. Thursday was a similar but shorter run and both were definitely on the easy side of things. The tweaks are still kind of there in my hip flexors and glutes but the pelvic issues are definitely improved and I think finally going away.

Back in Minnesota I scaled back my planned 13 miler into an easy 8 miler on Sunday instead. All in all it was a pretty easy low mileage week around 30 miles total.

I've been pretty consistent now getting at least 2-3 days of core work, weights and yoga into the mix. This will be critical to keep doing from now on if I want to race competitively for years to come.

Today was a very moderate 7.3 mile run from work at 7 min. pace and it felt OK. Everyone said it was so cold and windy out, but I thought it was perfect conditions. I will do an easy 4 mile recovery run tomorrow, another 7.3 miler Thursday, 4 miler easy on Saturday and probably a 10 mile more intense on Sunday.

Next week is the Drumstick Dash 10k around Lake Harriet and plan is to run a pretty easy 6:30 pace to get a workout but not hammer myself unnecessarily.

Still deciding on my skis between Fischer and Madshus. But I have the Birkie, Mora Valsaloppett and City of Lakes Loppett on my mind for the core of ski season.

New Mexico

2008-11-08T10:04:00.000-08:00

The week of Nov 2 - Nov 8 has been pretty mellow. Last Sunday Nov 2 I did a 13 miler around the 3 lakes and hips felt OK later. Did 2 interesting runs in Albuquerque, NM on Nov 6 and 7. The run from Old Town along Route 66 and then up the east bank of the Rio Grande was a bit of a test of will in the cold and high winds that morning, but quite a few other runners were out and about with the same ideas. The run the next day was around the tractor and cattle trails surrounding Sandia Pueblo, a gaming casino on the north side of town. Sunrise was spectacular but the wind was wicked. It has now been over a week since I last played hockey and my hips feel a lot better. For some reason the hockey really irritates my hips and I may stop playing until it feels better.

Tomorrow I plan to do another easy 13 miler and I'm now into a fairly simple recover pattern of 2-3 runs during the week and one long run on the weekends of either 10 or 13 miles. The only race planned is the Drumstick Dask 10k on Thanksgiving and I will likely go very easy on that one.

Cold Front

2008-10-26T17:59:00.000-07:00

This was, I believe, week 3 of post season recovery. I managed a 7.3 miler from work on Tuesday Oct 21, followed by a 7 miler in Denver along Cherry Creek on Thursday the 23rd, with an easy 10 miler today around lakes Harriet, Calhoun and Isles. A cold front had moved through overnight, but it was still relatively warm and sunny when I got going at around 6:30. The fall colors, whitecaps on the lakes and blowing leaves really made the run enjoyable.

10 miles, while not that far in the big scheme of things, really wiped me out today and I fell asleep several times during church as a result.

The plan this next week is still recovery, with runs of 7 miles Oct 28 and 30 and then 13 on Nov 1, with core work, biking, yoga and hockey in between. I may keep up this minimalist running schedule until the hip and pelvic injuries are totally gone and will simply take it week by week. I still aim to get all these issues resolved and come back next year for another run at a sub-3 hour in Chicago 2009, followed by Boston 2010.

Finally, there will be another new twist to keeping in shape this winter. Skate ski racing. More on that later.

Rocky Mountain Butt Kicking

2008-10-20T10:20:00.000-07:00

Saturday was a totally crazed 25 mile mountain bike ride along brutal single track "trails" in the Roosevelt National Forest around Nederland, CO about 18 miles west of Boulder. We hit steep rocky inclines, tree stumps, mud, snow, ice, sand pits over the course of 3 hours before biking back down into Boulder on switchback dirt roads in the dark.

Sunday was the 5.75 mile Coal Creek Cross Country Challenge in Louisville, CO complete with stream crossing, crawling under barbed-wire fences across open prairie and running over hay bales. The first few miles I managed to overcome the altitude and soreness from Saturday with a decent 6:20 or so pace. But by the half way point I was worked over pretty good, my lungs and quads were screaming. So I stopped at the water stop, stretched a bit and then went back at it for the second uphill half of the race. In the end I was second in my age group even with the stretching break, which was hilarious because I had given up at that point. It was a blast and I look forward to more trail and XC races.

Officially I am still in my injury recovery period and I am not officially training for anything. I cannot start any training until my injuries are healed. So at this point I am still taking things one week at a time.

Kind of Back in the Saddle

2008-10-14T19:01:00.001-07:00

After the TCM 10 Mile I didn't run for at least a week ... as I promised my wife. I really want to heal these nagging hip and groin injuries without going cold-turkey. So a week off was actually really nice though I was climbing the walls after about 3 days.

Yesterday all body parts felt good, no pain at all, so I went for a run with the BoyZ at work. We certainly do not jog, and as that first mile came to a close I could see that I started up right where I left off, a 6:40 mile on a recovery day. The 6 remaining miles were then all negative slpits, 6:35, 6:31, 6:29, 6:28, 6:19, 6:07 for a very healthy run. I only felt a minimal amount of hip issue late in the run and actually eased up on that last mile to make sure there would be no trouble.

Today was recovery and just did some core work and weight training. Tomorrow I will run 8 miles by myself early and not go any faster than 7:30 pace no matter what.

The plan here is to ease back into maintaining a solid base of conditioning over several weeks. I'm in pretty good shape aside from the hip issues and plan to get back to a routine 32-50 miles per week, with a 10 mile max long run one weekend and a 13 mile max long run the next. That will be my winter base training in addition to x-country race skiing, hockey and snowboarding.

I've also been dumped into a 6 mile trail race in Boulder this weekend and will report back later on how that goes.

Twin Cities 10 Mile Analysis

2008-10-06T06:56:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling pretty good about the Twin Cities 10 Mile yesterday. My goal going in was to hold a 6:25 pace and come in a little faster than last year. Actual was a 6:20 pace with official chip time of 1:03:44 which put me 4th in my age group and less than 100th overall out of 5574.

My GPS mile splits were 6:14 6:22 6:26 6:08 6:24 6:31 6:31 6:21 6:22 6:02.

I'm pretty happy considering the fact that I could not even do any workouts at all the last 4 weeks because of my hip/groin injuries.

Anyway I will take it and now it is time for several good weeks of recovery from running - core work, walking, biking, swimming, etc. Or maybe just sit on my butt a bit.

Here are the official results of the TC10Mile. By the way Kara Goucher was seriously moving in this race, she was unbelievable.

Twin Cities Marathon & 10 Mile

2008-10-05T10:27:00.000-07:00

This morning was the Twin Cities Marathon and 10 Mile. I did the 10 mile and I did hit my target race goal despite a nasty nagging deep tissue injury in my hip. I took 4 Advil before the race and that numbed the hip up pretty good. Start conditions were good, cool and about 48 degrees no rain at the start. My goal was just to run a steady easy 6:20 pace and that is a bit slower than I would go if I did not have this injury.

The 10 mile course starts at the dome then heads right to the river, along west river road, then to the Franklin Bridge where it meets up with the Marathon course. Goes across the river on Franklin to east river road and then up the hill to St. Thomas where it heads right down Summit to finish at the Capitol. It's a tough course, basically up hill all the way from the Franklin Bridge to the Cathedral.

First 5 miles were good pace and pretty easy, the big hill at St. Thomas was brutal. My brother met me around the University of St. Thomas and paced me for a bit there, and then again by the St. Paul Cathdral. At times I pushed my pace a bit and I could easily handle ir energy and cardio wise, but I felt it a lot in my hips, so really could not go faster than 6:10 even though I wanted to.

I ended up at a little over 1:03:00 which is about 2 minutes faster than my PR last year, so I'm feeling OK about the race. I'm bummed I'm injured. I haven't seen the official times yet.

One last funny thing, after the race I got my drinks and food, talked trash with my running buddies and went to change. I popped into the changing tent and started to take off my shorts, when I heard a whole bunch of women chattering and laughing. It was the women's changing tent. Typical move.

Now I plan to back off for a few weeks and let these injuries heal, this was my last big race for a while.

Pain in the Arse

2008-10-01T07:07:00.000-07:00

It has not been a particularly pleasant couple of weeks since the City of Lakes and the Northshore Blade Marathon. I thought that the blading would have been a nice break from running but I must have really strained muscles and tendons in my lower back and glutes. Some of the days have been so painful that I was not even sure I could finish some very slow pace jogs. Last week we ran the Twin Cities 10 Mile course and I got bored with the pace so I ran up ahead to do repeats on the St. Thomas hill -- that run was OK but my glutes still hurt. I have been considering dropping from the Twin Cities 10 Mile race but think now that I will at least go through with it. If I bike today, easy run tomorrow and then rest Friday and Saturday, then Sunday race day I just take my Advil, stretch well and I should be good to go. If I can eek out a 6:25 pace or a 1:04:00 then I will be more than happy with that. I'm just barely hanging on to the edge of this running season. After this race I plan to take a few serious weeks off and away from running to let my hips and groin fully recover.

I want to be fully recovered going into 2009 as I plan to do Chicago Marathon in the Fall of 2009 followed by Boston Marathon Spring of 2010, followed by Twin Cities Marathon Fall of 2010. That all should feel really good on the hips.

North Shore Inline Marathon

2008-09-16T06:52:00.001-07:00

Note: The names of my skating friends have been changed to protect their ID.

Short version: It was a total riot. We did better than planned. 1:28:40 or 3:22 pace per mile. Chip time had Clingon 1st, Bimibatoo 2nd, Floppy80s 3rd. Actual physical crossing of the finish line was Bimibatoo 1st, Clingon 2nd and Floppy80s 3rd. Clingon is a snaky little clingon and started crying during the race. The finish was very exciting. Will do it again next year.

Just joking about Clingon. He and Floppy80s were stellar and performed brilliantly. The plan was perfect.

Only things I would change are a) not slow the pace at all during middle miles, keep the pace at 3:00 b) find a pack of skaters at our same skill level to help share the lead and make a faster overall pace c) start to surge the pace earlier, drop the pace below 3:00 starting as we get into Duluth. With all that I think we can do around 1:20:00 ish.

Results are at http://www.onlineraceresults.com/event/view_event.php?event_id=2919

Long version: The North Shore In Line Marathon in Duluth along the Grandma's Marathon course was a smashing success and surpassed all my expectations. Clingon and Floppy80s can report back, but here is my race report. I've added a bit of detail beyond just the basics because I want to remember some specific things for next time.

First of all, I think all 3 of us did pretty minimal training for this event. I bladed once every few weeks with 1 x 22 miler 2 weeks before the race. Next time I would do at least 3-6 long blades in the weeks leading up to the marathon, to be fully prepared to hammer on this thing. As it was we did pretty well but I think we have a good chance to break 1:20:00.

The blades/wheels/equipment are key. Old blades with small wheels are bad, you have no chance in this race with those. You need at least 85mm wheels, probably the 100mm wheels in mint condition are the best. Floppy clothes like Floppy80s' are no good. You need tight fitting race cycling duds that show off your Johnson, although in Clingon's case the tight shorts would show off his camel toes.

Our race strategy was perfect. Before the race the 3 of us settled on going a 4 minute/mile pace until the home stretch in Duluth where we would re-evaluate. Going into the race I believe we were thinking realistically 1:30:00-1:45:00 range for a decent finish, with an outside chance at breaking 1:30:00.

The night of the carbo load pasta dinner we met a goofy guy from Rhinelander, WI who really gave us the low down on race strategy. He taught us all about the pacing lines that form, how to share duties at the front of the pack, how to draft, etc., which was all key.

The 3 of us shared a room and they made me sleep on the floor. It was OK though, I had a great night sleep. I had at least 3 nice, fullfilling BMs in the morning and we walked down to the convention center to pick up our bus for the drive out to the start. Start conditions were beautiful, a little warm, perhaps in the mid 50s with very little wind. No rain. The starting area was a buzz with energy, people were psyched, you could see all different levels of competitors, from dudes in cut off PBR T shirts to hot mammas in spandex all decked out.

The most memorable part about the start is Clingon Mr. Dilly Dally, its like 3 minutes before the start and the guy has none of his equipment on, and then goes to take a crap. He then comes back like he's been reading poetry, moving like a 100 year old man putting his stuff on. I could not believe it.

To top it off, once Little Daisy got his stuff on we skated up to our wave and Clingon and I both skated right past the trucks where you drop your personal items to be taken to the finish. That cost us some time. Needless to say, we got to the start line just in time.

I think the start was key. I told those guys that I planned to go out very hard and establish the front pack right away. We had a very fast pace right from the start, which was hard but key to our success. I remember being out there all alone for a long time, with Floppy80s and Clingon right there in our line. It was great!!!!!!! We did a 2:50 pace the first mile and definitely took the lead. It was not long before we started passing people from Wave 2.

As far as waves, I think we started too far back for our abilities. Wave 3 was too slow for us and I think if we started in wave 1 we would have found more people at our speed to form a stronger line.

That said, our pace was 3:22 per mile overall which took us well under 1:30:00. More on that later.

Racing itself was a blast. It was so much faster than running, yet it was fairly easy to keep in the line and draft. I remember a few times after taking the lead for a while I would drop back too far and have to scramble to get back into the line. I also remember a lady trying to move from a slower line into our line, she came in at me and I basically pushed her out and told her she was going too slow and to come back in at the end when she got more speed. She did not listen and came back into our line a few people back and I saw her completely wipe out.

I also remember at about the half way point we had been pushing the pace a bit all of the sudden I hear crybaby Clingon in the back Oh my god, Oh my god, I can't Make It, I can't Make It.

Waa waa waa. I heard him doing that and I was totally mocking him, waaa waaa waaa. Not sure if he heard. It was hilarious.

By the time we got into Duluth starting at about 19 miles, I was just starting to feel warmed up. That stretch was awesome and fast. We passed a lot of people, both individuals and groups, by that point. As we were flying by I heard a lot of people comment about Wave 3 people catching up. I also started to see the first groups of people from Wave 1 we were passing.

Next time around, it is at this point that I would personally like to pick the pace up a lot more. I had a ton of energy left and think I could have really sped up quite a bit to maybe 2:50-3:00 per mile pace along that stretch. Lemon Drop hill was nothing for me at that point.

As we turned onto 35W the road was really rough and not sure that this is a good place to pick up any time. It was fun doing my Nepali yodle in the tunnels though Clingon was not a happy camper at this point.

Our agreement at this point in the race was to get to 5th street and then every man and Clingon for himself. We kept our rotation, changing leader every minute or so and that worked perfect.

On the last hill of the course, the 5th street ramp off 35 is where the whole race changed. I was in the lead and we were half way up the hill when my time to change came up. I dropped back again way too far, and just as I lost total momentum, I saw Clingon take off like crazy, faster than he had every gone the entire rest of the race. Within a second Floppy80s was gone too. It took me a while to react and I could not believe it. By the time I did react they had 25 yards on me and I struggled to gain any speed back. By the top of the hill they were well beyond the corner and heading down the final stretch.

I was not pissed off but I am also very competitive in these situations and was not going to let this happen without a bruising assault. So I literally put into into another gear and then at least another 2 gears. By the time I was at the top of the hill I was in total lean-in hockey sprinting form around the first corner at the top of the hill. I did not let up down the hill and for a few seconds I was terrified of my speed as I came to the 2nd to last turn. I had so much speed going around that turn that I am surprised I was able to stay standing around it. On the straight away I went into a complete total sprint and could see that I could catch Floppy80s. But thought no way I could catch Clingon until I saw him take a wide turn.

Then I knew I could catch him. I started yelling at people to clear my way and I had a path and literally sprinted completely all out around the last corner and through the finish line. It was a finish maybe a few feet between Clingon and I with Floppy80s right there too.

All in all it was just a total rush and I hope to be back next year and get close to 1:20:00 or 3:00 per mile pace.

Our mile splits in minutes/mile according to my GPS are

1 2:50

2 3:10

3 3:13

4 3:18

5 3:06

6 3:23

7 3:03

8 3:25

9 3:16

10 3:54

11 3:46

12 3:17

13 3:57

14 3:26

15 3:26

16 3:29

17 3:23

18 3:22

19 3:28

20 3:21

21 3:01

22 3:26

23 3:38

24 3:23

25 2:51

26 3:21

.2 2:02 >> this was my sprint at the end

City of Lakes 25k PR

2008-09-07T11:51:00.000-07:00

It's been an interesting few days since the Victory 5k. There was a point last week that I simply felt wiped out. I can't even remember now. It must have been hangover from the Rutabaga Run and the 5k. I did no speed or tempo workouts last week, just did not feel very good. Mainly hips, glutes (sciatic?) and groin as usual. So I just did moderate duration, easy runs with some days off and core work. Also did a 22 mile blade on the Gateway Trail in prep for next weekend's North Shore In Line Marathon.

The 2 rest days before this morning's City of Lakes 25k definitely helped me recover. I went into the race hoping to try and break 1 hour 40 minutes but given the injuries and fatigue I felt earlier in the week I was worried that I would crash and have a bad race.

It turns out very well though. I did not quite break 1:40:00 but very close at 1:40:12 or 6:25 pace GPS/6:27 pace official results. Mile splits were 6:36 6:21 6:23 6:14 6:20 6:20 6:26 6:22 6:24 6:26 6:26 6:27 6:29 6:39 6:33 6:14. I took a glass of HEED and 1 Endurolyte the night before. No alcohol or caffeine on Saturday. Pretty light eating Saturday as well. Good night sleep about 8 hours Saturday night. At least 4 BMs Sunday morning. Small bowl of oatmeal + 1 glass of HEED at breakfast. A Hammer Gel about 15 minutes before the start and then again at about the 8.5 mile mark. Sport drink at every other water stop.

Race day was moderate temperature and humidity, mostly cloudy 55 degrees. Sun came out during the race and started to heat up. I was about 1:04:00 at the 10 mile mark and 1:24:20 at the Half Marathon mark, not far off my PR for both. I again paced with a few of the top masters runners until about 13 miles then could not quite hold the 6:20 pace.

All-in-all it was a near perfect race for the condition I am in and don't think I could have done anything else at this point to break 1:40:00. The 1:40:12 is almost a minute and a half faster than my previous PR from 2007 so that is pretty nice. It's great to be back setting PRs again.

So next weekend is the North Shore Skate Marathon and then Oct 6 is Twin Cities 10 Miler. That then may be the end of the season this year as I take several weeks off, scale way back on the running and try to heal the pesky hip and groin injuries. It may be a winter of running every 3rd day, with cross country skate skiing, easy hockey and core work instead.

Victory 5k

2008-09-07T11:38:00.000-07:00

When I woke up to a warm and humid sunrise on Monday 1 Sep 2008 I knew it would not be a PR 5k day. Not only that but I had an absolutely horrible sleep the night before. It was probably 75-80 degrees by 9:30am with gusty south winds at the start of the 5k. I jogged out along the race course before the race to watch the 10k runners come back on the final stretch, did a few warmup surges on the grass and stretched a bit.

I remember being very calm and ready to go when the gun went off. I followed the top masters women for about the first 1.5 miles then pulled ahead of most of them at that point. GPS mile splits were 5:54, 5:57 and 6:03. Total time was 18:44, not even close to a PR. Still ended up 1st in my 40-45 age group and a nice gift certificate to Marathon Sports.

Post-Rutabaga Training

2008-08-28T08:05:00.000-07:00

The Rutabaga Run took a bit out of me but I think I've mostly recovered now. Sunday and Monday were easy recovery runs with a 14 mile blade in addition to the run on Monday. Tuesday was core work followed by mile intervals yesterday which were brutal. It was a mild but humid day yesterday and I could not quite hold the third interval. Miles were 5:54, 5:57 and 6:19 with about 3 minute light recovery jogs in between the intervals. The hip and pelvic issues are still there but seem to be less pronounced. Today is a recovery day with a cycle ride and core work. Tomorrow is a long run of 13-14 miles, with recovery and rest Saturday and Sunday.

Monday September 1 is the Victory 5k/10k in North Minneapolis and I'd like to slide in just below my time from last year of 18:31, 5:57 pace. 17:59 would be nice. The week will be a nightmare from Hell in the Twin Cities with the Republican National Convention here. I will not be participating in this event and will be on total news blackout while the Oil Mafia is here in town.

Next weekend September 7 is the City of Lakes 25k which will be a big deal again this year, I believe it is on the USATF Championship circuit so should be a great crowd.

Rutabaga Run

2008-08-25T07:15:00.000-07:00

August 23 was a picture perfect race day in Cumberland, running mecca of Barron County, WI. The 12.4 mile Rutabaga Run started at Cumberland High School, turned on Highway 48 then onto main street, through town along the north end of the lake and back into town to the finish behind main street inside the festival. Here is the course on MapMyRun <http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/united-states/wi/-cumberland/167213434088>

Race start was about 55 degrees, partly cloudy with a gusty wind out of the northwest at times. The course was gently rolling at the start with some major hills the last half.

Going into the race I thought I would try to hold about a 6:25-6:30 pace. I ended up with a total time of 1:18:31 or 6:19 pace. Some of the last miles were a real struggle with the hills and my hips/pelvis fatigue. Overall it was a pretty good race for me, I was 3rd or 4th overall and first in my age group.

Cumberland is a super nice little town and I would highly recommend this race for something different.

Next race for me is probably the Victory 5k on Sep 1, followed by the City of Lake 25k the following weekend. This wee the big workouts will be mile intervals at speed tomorrow, with a 13-16 miler on Thursday.

Hennepin-Lake Classic

2008-08-03T08:58:00.000-07:00

As part of my comeback and recovery from Grandma's I was hoping do end up with a respectable 10k today and it turned out OK at the Hennepin-Lake Class 10k & 5k at Lake Calhoun. Weather was humid but mostly overcast, a bit of a breeze out of the southeast. Many of my running friends and familiar faces were there for the start. It was nice to ride my bike down there to the start no parking hassles, no carbon emissions and a nice warmup included.

The race was OK and I met my training goal which was just to be under 39:59. Miles were 6:06 6:08 6:12 6:14 6:23 6:26 5:50 which is sort of the reverse of what I wanted. I felt OK for 4 miles and then my quads and pelvis sort of gave out a bit. Anyway I ended up at 39:00 or 6:13 pace.

On days like this I'm very happy to live in the 'hood. The race was a 5 minute bike ride away, I watched a championship 10k swim race in Lake Harriet on the way back and saw many of my neighbors out for their morning walks, runs and bike rides.

The next few weeks will be increased mileage and concentration on lactate threshold workouts building to a 6:15-6:20 pace goal for the upcoming 12 mile Rutabaga Run on Aug 26.

Marathon residual

2008-08-01T07:00:00.001-07:00

It is just now starting to really sink in how much the training for California and the Grandma's took me off track the last 9 months. It was perfectly clear yesterday when I did a speed workout, a 7.3 mile run with 6 x .5 mile intervals built in. I could do the first 3 fairly easily at about 5:40 pace. But I really struggled to complete the last 3 and was just wiped out after the run. Last weekend I ran the Montgomery Kolacky Days Bun Run and my legs, groin, pelvis just did not feel very good - I ended up running fairly easy to squeak out a 24:46 or 6:11 pace. Still not near where I want to be.

I think the marathon training, the long run training on ice, the winter injuries and then the after affects of Grandma's have all taken their toll on me and I am just tired.

I will likely still run through the end of the Fall season but will probably re-adjust my expectations to use this time simply to recover and get back to where I was at this point in 2007. In many ways I am in much better shape, but I am not in shape to PR 5k, 10k, Half Marathon.

The big races coming up the rest of the year will be Victory 5k where I will try to get back to close to 18:00, the City of Lakes 25k where my goal is 1:39:00 and Twin Cities 10 Mile where I will aim to be under 1:03:00.

This coming Sunday is the Hennepin-Lake Classic 5k and 10k. I will do the 10k and simply aim to have a respectable 6:15ish pace or anything in the 38-39 min range. I will take 2 days of rest before this race.

Summer heat & electrolytes

2008-07-20T12:18:00.000-07:00

I'm still thinking about my crash at Grandma's and trying to make sure I do not let that happen again. I'm not at all happy with a 3:17, especially the way the last 5 miles of the race went.

Anyway for the last 2 weeks I have been slowly ramping up the miles and have finally built in some speed work and tempo runs. Last weekend I squeezed in a 10 mile long run with the last 4 near M race pace, same thing today with a 13 miler, again the last few near M race pace. Next weekend in Montogmery is the Bun Run 4 Mile race and it would be great to sneak in just under last year's time. I'd need a 6:12 pace to do that and would be a nice comeback after a disaster of a winter running season and Grandma's.

In the big picture I loved these last 2 marathons but think that the prep for the races really took me off my path of continuous PRs. My plan right now is to not schedule any more marathons for a bit and concentrate on getting my 5k times back down to about 17:55, 10ks to 37:30 and Half Marathon to under 1:23:00.

Once I have some speed back and groin/hips all feel solid again, then I will register. It could be California again in December, it could be Napa in March, it could be Twin Cities or Chicago Fall of 2009. For now though it is just a matter of acclimatizing to the heat and bringing back the speed and dropping the LT.

Recovery & race schedule

2008-07-01T06:41:00.000-07:00

Recovery is proceeding nicely. I ran 4 miles Saturday easy, first run 1 week after the marathon. Everything felt OK except calves, they were still quite sore, the outsides specifically. Used a heart rate monitor to not go over 150 bmp and that was easy, I went about 7:30 pace at 125 bpm. My chronotropic response to exercise does not seem to be the problem with my running. Resting pulse is now 36-40 bmp most days, BP 118/64, weight 168-170.

Sunday was a longer 13.1 mile blade around the lakes, was trying to see what kind of pace I could keep blading, as I have an In-Line Marathon scheduled in September. Pace was 4:45, did the 13.1 miles in 59 minutes. Could have easily kept that pace for another 13 miles. Lower back and hips were sore after, not used to blading so long. But relatively easy compared to running, heart rate never above 110 bpm even at 4:45/mile.

Plan going forward is:

Easy runs every other day until muscle soreness is gone
Core work and blading on non-running days
Introduce some speed & tempo work as soreness and hockey injury fade away
4 mile race, the Bun Run, Montgomery, MN Jul 27
An early Aug half marathon, maybe Urban Wildland or Mora
12 mile race, Rutabaga days, Cumberland, WI late Aug
Victory 5k/10k early Sep
City of Lakes 25k Sep 9
Twin Cities Marathon 10 Mile Oct
A late Oct half marathon, target 1:22
Experiment with proper hydration, electrolyte balance & in-race-nutrition

Once I hit under 1:23 and or closer to 1:22 I will think about another marathon.

Hyponatremia

2008-07-01T06:26:00.000-07:00

I'm not happy about a 3:17:15 marathon time, but I can live with it grudgingly. What I cannot live peacefully with is the way I crashed during the race at 20 miles, leaving a painful and ugly shuffle to the finish. That's just not right.

So I have been scouring everywhere for answers to the cramping and how to prevent. After looking through everything, I think the cramps came from a combination of heat, fitness level, pace and over-hydration/electrolyte dilution.

3 weeks pre-race I had an intense workout week with a long run, 5k race and half marathon race. I did mildly cramp during that half marathon and think that I did not replenish electrolytes during that week.

2 days pre-race and pre-hydrated with 50/50 sport drink/water. I believe that significantly thinned my supply of electrolyte in my bloodstream. Some argue that the simple sugars in sports drinks and gels actually do more damage by triggering a glycemic reaction in the body, further preventing use of electrolytes for the race (i.e. they get recruited to help digest the sugars).

During the race itself I consumed 1 cup of water and 1 cup sport drink at every stop. The sport drink was Accelerade and was very watered down - so basically I took 2 cups water at every stop. I think I induced what is called diluted hypernatremia, which is a thinning of the electrolyte balance in the bloodstream.

This is all just a theory but the best one I have at the moment. The lessons

Replenish electrolyte balance weeks pre-race
Do not over hydrate pre-race, but be properly hydrated with right electrolyte balance and glycogen stores
Easy on the pre-race meal, very basic, nothing different, not too much
Race morning consume 300-500 calories of easily digested complex carbohydrate plus about 20 oz. carbo/protein drink to top off glycogen and electrolytes
During race, especially in any heat, take an electrolyte supplement
During race go easy on the water, maybe it's 1 every other station
Take carbo/protein gel at 13, 16 and 19 miles

I pretty much screwed up on every one of these.

Road kill

2008-06-27T08:16:00.001-07:00

Four days of post Grandma's camping at Tettegouche State Park was a perfect way to unwind from the race. Despite what happened the last 10k of the race, I would highly recommend Grandma's and do plan to do it again.

Overview
My goal was to be under 3 hours. I was 3:17:15, way off my target by a long shot. I ran well under my target pace for 20 miles and then bombed. I never considered dropping, but cramps and painful spasms got so bad at some points after 20 miles that I literally slowed to a crawl. I almost started bawling at the 25 mile mark because I was so pissed off at my legs for not moving. I barely crawled across the finish line at the speed of lichen xanthoparmelia.

The whole Grandma's event itself was awesome. Family and I stayed at a little water park hotel and they loved every bit of it. They rode their bikes from the hotel down to Canal Park and the finish line to see me come whimpering in with my tail between my legs, hobbling across the finish line. I would highly recommend the whole thing however and we plan to do it again some time.

Details
Winter hockey/running injuries never really healed, even through late May, so was not able to do any real speed or tempo work until a few weeks before race day. Training was mostly limited to longer, easier pace runs and weekly mileage was 45-48 max a few of the weeks. Sub 3 may have been an unrealistic goal with a 1:24:00 half marathon time and that level of weekly mileage.
4 weeks out from race day had a week where I did a 22 mile long run, a 5k race and then a half marathon race, which again tweaked the old injuries.

Taper was well done and helped recovery and being ready for race day. 3 weeks of taper may have been a bit too long, next time would limit the taper to 2 weeks.

Race prep was OK, did pre-hydration with half sport drink/half water 3 days pre-race. Good sleep the 2 weeks leading up to the race, but poor sleep the night before the race. Really worked myself up into a lather about the race itself. Drove and ran very short parts of the course the day before which was helpful.

Morning of the race got up at 5am. 4 Advil, water, oatmeal bar, everything else morning of the race went well. No bathroom issues, except lots of bathroom time before the race. Did warmup out in front of the start line which worked very well.
I felt better than before any previous race I could remember. Race day was sunny and cool to start with a light side wind. I went nearly to the front of the line, then settled back to the 3:00 group before the gun went off. I basically went 6:40 pace for 20 miles and took water or sport drink at every stop. I forgot I had carbo gel and did not take one until it was too late at mile 22. I felt perfect until about mile 19 as we came into Duluth city limits then my legs started to get heavy. The cramps started very soon after and then the spasms and painful seizing cramps started after that. There were points I was screaming out in pain as my lower back, quads, hams and calves convulsed. I slowed to a mere shuffle on every water stop the last 10k.

I don't think I overheated and my mind was ok the entire time, it was just the cramps and spasms. I was 41:44 at 10k. 1:28:41 at the Half. 2:18 at 20 miles. And 3:06 at 25 miles. I literally did crawl across the finish with a little whimper.

Here are the splits:
6:41
6:43
6:37
6:46
6:47
6:43
6:46
6:46
6:41
6:40
6:46
6:44
6:39
6:42
6:44
6:46
6:50
6:47
After this point my GPS was full so it did not track any more laps.

I should have done gel at 10, 15 and 20 but forgot until it was too late at about 21 or 22.

So lessons for me are as follows: if the goal is sub 3 hours then the weekly peak training schedule needs to be 55-65 miles per week, not injured with normal amount of tempo, speed work and long runs. Follow target race pace no matter what. Do carbos as planned. For me I probably need to lower my half marathon time to 1:22:00 or less.

My plan now: I will do more marathons but taking some time off and nothing planned. I will register for another marathon as soon as I am close to 1:22. I plan to fully recover from this race over next few weeks and be back in full gear for the City of Lakes 25k and the TC10Mile. And run for fun as I have been.

Final prep run

2008-06-18T09:29:00.000-07:00

Today is my final prep run before the race and it will not be much. I'm thinking a 4 miler around Lake Harriet, with 2 of the miles at M race pace.

When I rose this morning, all kinks and aches seem to have gone. At the moment I feel no groin, shin or hamstring tweaks. Knock on wood.

I believe I have all the supplies I need for the race: earplugs for the night before, Advil, some breakfast bars, Accelerade to pre-hydrate, 2 carbo gels and all my race gear.

The plan is to head toward Duluth Thursday and get to the hotel Friday afternoon. Do the packet pickup and then check out the course. Will probably do a super easy jog along parts of the course. And then examine the winding areas of the finish line.

Weather still looks OK, race start about 50 degrees, hopefully not warming too much during my 2 hours and 59 minutes on the course.

The countdown

2008-06-16T14:36:00.000-07:00

Race day start in Two Harbors is looking nice according to the National Weather Service forecast, 48 degrees race start, with a high of 71, light winds from the west. Sounds great if it happens.

The time since my last post has been spent in taper and recovery, with a few pre-marathon massages, easy short runs, core work and stretching. I was really wiped out at the time of the last posting. Since then the recovery has been beautiful, though I do not want to jinxx anything. My longest run has been 8 miles with some of the miles at half marathon pace.

Today I did a short 6 mile run on the normal course from work and I was just out having a good time in the sun, looked down at my GPS and I was at 6:10. Whoaaa boy. I needed to really slow it back. I'm about to explode from lack of running and need to be careful.

I believe I will run another short easy 6 on Wednesday and then run a mile or so of the course up along Lake Superior on Friday. And take in the finish line which could be confusing. I will post one last time before the race on Friday if I can with my final pre-race thoughts.

2:59:59 is pretty much the only thought right now.

Recovery in the heat

2008-06-07T15:46:00.000-07:00

This past week was all spent recovering from the long run, 5k race, speed work and Half M race, which all took their toll. Tue Jun 3, Wed Jun 4 and Thu Jun 5 were all 7.3 mile slow runs though each was an improvement over the other. I really tweaked my groin again that previous week and it didn't set in until a few days later. Fri was a rest day and a great core workout. Today, Sat Jun 7, I purposely waited until the heat of the day to do my medium-long 13.5 miler, 2x around Harriet then all the way around Calhoun, Isles and back. I included a few race pace miles but otherwise it was a tough run in the heat and humidity and I wanted to simulate worse case scenario conditions in case Grandma's turns out to be hot and humid race day.

Next week will be even more of a taper, with Mon, Wed and Fri easy 7.3 milers and a 10 miler easy on next Sat. Race week is only a few short runs and a lot of stretching.

Anarchy & hills downtown

2008-06-03T07:19:00.000-07:00

I'm on day number two of recovery from the Team Ortho Downtown Half Marathon (and 10 Mile and 5k). My pelvis area is still a bit sore from the pace, this time more confined to the right side. I will likely take the entire week this week to recover with easy runs and follow next Saturday with a 13 miler with 3-4 x 1 mile surges at VO2MAX pace.

My wife and I rode our bikes down to the start at 7am. She did the 5k, me the Half Marathon. The staging area was at The Depot in Minneapolis, starting line along the river by the Guthrie Theatre. It was a warm day right from the start. I got to the start line barely in time, in fact I was talking to someone with my back turned to the start and the horn went off. Yikes! Crap I said. Or worse. Some f-ennheimers went around I think.

Anyway I went out at a very do-able 6:00 pace for a while when I kind of looked around me and no one else was there! F-ennheimer again ... did I go the wrong way? No, I went the right way it turns out. I soon started passing 10-Mile Race runners and knew I was on course, but no other Half Marathoner followed me. I was all alone for 11-12 miles with no other Half runners in sight. The course was several loops along the Mississippi River, Harriet and Boom Islands, the Stone Arch Bridge and a monster, killer of a hill by the Guthrie. Apparently there was course confusion as the 10 Milers, 5K-ers and Half-ers wound around the route but I got that part OK. I remember and my GPS confirms the first 4+ miles at about 6:00 pace and then the last miles back to my original intended pace of 6:45.

At mile 11.5 a girl went flying by me in a major way, so I went with her to the last hill and then remembered this was supposed to be a training, prep race and backed way off. She was moving! Anyway she took first overall and I had to settle for first male. She deserved it, she was doing well under 6 minute miles at that point.

So the summary is that it was a great prep race, I probably over-did it a bit and I thought the anarchy and all was kind of fun. Results are on Anderson Race Management. Now I need to recover properly.

Grandma's runner tracking is up and running now too.

Rest

2008-05-31T08:58:00.000-07:00

I'm on 2 days of self-prescribed rest. I'm kind of not sure what to do with myself. But all of the sudden I'm very productive around the house, painting windows, cleaning windows, folding clothes. I'm not tired!

Last week was difficult: a 22 miler, followed by a 5k race and then a brutal speed workout. I needed 2 days off even though it took down my mileage for the week. Tomorrow is a Half Marathon race, but will only do it at M race pace as a good workout.

Taper with Speed

2008-05-28T11:56:00.000-07:00

Monday's Brian Kraft Memorial 5k was a blast. Minnesota running is pretty impressive, you needed to be under 18:30 to even crack the top 100. This is the first 5k I can remember doing as a fun run. I just ran it at about 6:00-6:10 pace. I tried talking to some people as the race went along but for some reason no one wanted to talk. I just don't get it. Anyway it was fun just going easy for once, here are the race results. I'm happy with my 19:00 or so fun run.

Today however was one brutal speed workout. We did a roughly 7.4 mile loop, with 6 x .5 mile surges/intervals at under 5k speed, which for me was 5:40-5:50 pace. This one worked me over, but I feel great now!

Quads, hips and shins are just a little sore from all the long runs but generally feel good. Tomorrow and Friday will be 2 very easy pace days, with rest Saturday. Sunday is the Team Ortho Downtown Half, which I plan to run at no faster than my target Marathon race pace of 6:45/mile.

I just checked Grandma's Marathon web site and the runner tracking feature is not yet up and running. Will post that as soon as I see it is ready.

Long Run Peak #2 & Taper!

2008-05-25T11:45:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was my last planned long run before Grandma's, at 22 miles and just over 2 hours 45 minutes. For some reason I only slept a few hours the night before and was not sure how the run would go. Average pace at 6:39, really started to feel this run at about the 18 mile mark. I think the long runs are now catching up to me. I was not able to keep the last 10 at M race pace but got close.

Today, day after the long run I feel a bit tired with slightly sore quads but not too bad. Earlier in the week was finally able to pull together a decent tempo run with three and a half by 5:55 miles.

Here is how the week went:

Mon 19 May - easy 7.4 miles
Tue 20 May - moderate 7.3 miles @ 7:10 pace
Wed 21 May - planned tempo but too tired, 4 miles easy
Thu 22 May - 7.3 miles with 3.5 mile tempo run @ 5:55/mi
Fri 23 May - rest
Sat 24 May - 22 miles, long run @ 7:39 steady pace with a few surges last few miles
Sun 25 May - rest/light bike

Tomorrow I plan to do the Brian Kraft 5k at Lake Nokomis as an easy sort of tempo run. Rest of the week will be easy to very moderate, next Sunday is the Monster/Team Ortho Half in downtown Minneapolis. I plan to run this race at no faster that target Marathon race past as a workout to break in my new racing flats.

From this point forward it's Taper Time and Race Prep, with long runs no more than 13 miles and tempo work during the week each week until race week. Race week will be 4 -5 days of running, but very short and little to no speed work.

At this point I am feeling like sub 3 is still within reach.

The Marin Headlands

2008-05-21T06:17:00.000-07:00

Last week was quite a brutal one recovering from the Half Marathon, working at a major healthcare conference in San Francisco and trying to squeeze in training. Luckily San Francisco is a fairly running-friendly city. Monday was an easy 10 miler back in Minnesota, followed by 2 increasingly difficult 8 milers along the Embarcadero, basically out-and-backs from the financial district toward the Golden Gate.

The my Saturday 20 miler turned into a bit more than expected. I was on the road at 4:30am, back along the Embarcadero, over the Golden Gate Bridge and into Marin County and off-trail into the Headlands. One thing led to another and pretty soon I was quite deep into hiking country and the views of the fog rolling off the Pacific into the green hills and along the bay just kept getting better. Anyway it ended up being quite a bit more than a 20 mile run and by the time I got back to my hotel I had 5 minutes to shower up and get over to the convention center to work the booth for 4 hours.

Lastly I was dumb enough (or smart enough depending how you look at it) to rent a road bike and do it all over again, across the bridge into Marin County, through Sausalito and up to Muir Woods for some peace and quiet. I was totally fried and am still paying for it today.

I had planned an 8 miler today with an embedded 3.5 mile tempo run but am pushing it off until tomorrow. This coming Saturday is my last 22 miler and the plan is to run 12 of the miles at moderate training pace and the last 10 at M race pace.

I can now tell that the long runs are starting to catch up with me as my legs are dead tired and exhausted on the recovery days.

Spam Blog Detection Spider

2008-05-12T13:09:00.000-07:00

I'm up and running again after Google's Spam Blog Detection Spider identified this site as a possible Spam Blog which it is not. I may end up moving this site because of this action.

Anyway, this past Saturday's Half Marathon at New Prague was an indicator of my current likelihood to go sub-3 at Grandma's, which is now only 5-6 weeks away.

It was a near perfect race day at 45 degrees race start, the only flaw being a quite intense headwind out in the countryside out of the southeast. The wind kept me back in a pack of runners the first 5 miles but my stomach did not feel all that great anyway. After we turned the corner at about mile 7 I left the pack and everyone bumped the pace and all spread out. My GPS shows the first 6-7 miles at about 6:30 - 6:35 pace and the last 7 or so at 5:55 - 6:20 pace, with mile 12 the 5:55er.

I thought I needed to be under 1:26:00 in this race to be on target plan and actual time was just over 1:24 at 6:26-6:28 pace.

Next up is a new 3 week ramp up to another 22 miler with more miles at target marathon race pace, plus more tempo work during the weekdays now that the groin injury seems to be gone. Based on this race I will now alter my target marathon race pace to 6:45.

Long Run Peak #1

2008-05-04T12:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's long run of 22 miles at just under 2:45:00 went pretty well I thought, until one of my people suggested I pick up the pace a bit more and make the last part of the run faster than race pace. OK then.

According the the finish time calculator at Runner's World this run would (maybe) have put me in at a 3:16:30 marathon finish time. Whatever - this was a training run. A training run.

The past few weeks I have gradually ramped up the long run 16, 18, 16, 20 and now 22. I was intending this to be the first of two peaks, where I would simply build the mileage and endurance up to 22 with a few of the last miles closer to race pace.

Next week is a race week so the mileage will not be high. The following weeks I will start the long run at lower mileage but increased intensity with more of the miles at target race pace and peak again in about 4 weeks at 22 miles, with more of those miles at race pace. When I think back to training for California, this long run went significantly better than what I remember last Fall. Last 22 miler in Nov 2007 I caved at about 16 miles. This time I did not cave and felt strong through the finish and was surging faster than race pace in many sections.

Here are yesterday's splits: 7:45 7:37 7:28 7:38 7:34 7:24 7:35 7:34 7:37 7:52 7:40 7:49 7:51 7:53 7:47 7:41 7:30 6:56 6:59 6:51 6:57 7:20. Formula was the same as before, a couple BMs, 2 cups of sport drink, a granola bar before the run, no gel or carbo during the run on purpose. I never really hit a wall and don't think I changed energy systems, I think I was still burning glycogen at the end and never changed to burning fat. So maybe my friend is right, it's time to pick up the pace a bit more. Easier said than done.

More miles at race pace I guess ...

Better Tempo

2008-05-01T06:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's tempo went a little better than the week before, 3.4 miles in about 20-21 minutes, 6:15-6:25 pace. I'm still not back to my 10k race pace for these tempo runs which would normally be about 6:05 but its getting better and need to get these tempos down into that range to have a decent chance at being under 3 at the Mary.

This weekend coming up is a long 22 miler, followed by the New Prague half marathon next weekend. I hope to be under 1:25:00 and it would be best to be in the 1:23 range.

20 in Sleet & Wind

2008-04-26T08:48:00.000-07:00

Got a good night sleep last night. 2 Advil, 2 glasses of water, some sports drink, a granola bar and a couple of BMs before the run and I was ready to go. There was snow on the ground when I started, hurricane force wind gusts off Lake Harriet and white-outs along the way but it was another solid run, 20 miles at just under 2 hours 3o minutes.

Miles were 7:49 7:35 7:28 7:43 7:38 7:42 7:27 7:40 7:32 7:39 7:32 7:41 7:34 7:33 7:41 7:34 7:36 7:25 7:40 7:04.

I originally planned to do 2-3 of the last miles at M race pace but the winds were too strong to do it (or I'm getting lazy) so will try that next weekend.

Here's a MapMyRun view of the route .
Lake Harriet - Minnehaha Creek - St. Paul - Lake Street Bridge - Return
Find more Runs in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Blizzard or Tornado Long Run?

2008-04-25T14:48:00.001-07:00

My 22 mile long run is planned for tomorrow morning 5:00am. This is the latest imagery from the National Weather Service. We are surrounded by blizzard warnings, winter storm warning, flash flood warnings and tornado warnings. Most importantly, my run must go on.

Yesterday was a rest/recovery day, today was an easy 7.3 miler with some XT and circuit sets before the run.

Tempo Shmempo

2008-04-23T14:01:00.000-07:00

The big picture is as follows:

now- 10 May: Weekday core work + lactate threshold + weekend long runs with last miles at M race pace with 1 build to 22 miles
11 May - end of May: Weekday core work + VO2Max + weekend long runs with surges and last miles at M race pace with final build to 22-23 miles
1 May - race day 21 June: Taper and weekly speed, plus core work and recovery

The next 3-4 weeks are planned as weekend long runs, weekday tempo runs and core work. Today was my second tempo run post-injury period and it was as brutal as the first one. The route we do for the tempo has one steep downhill and multiple never ending uphills, 3.5 miles. I wanted to do an even 6:20 pace without too much pain. The 3.5 miles took 20:43 for about a 6:14 pace but my actual pace was all over the place and it was not pretty. The tempo run is embedded in a 7.3 miler so its a good training run, but obviously need a few more weeks of this to be ready for any kind of decent LT.

The deal for the weekend is another 7.3 easy on Friday, with a 22 on Saturday, ramp down a bit the following 3 weeks, then one more 22 miler on 24 May.

From Ice to Mud to Nice

2008-04-22T14:34:00.000-07:00

Working backwards here is what is planned next few days and what has happened last few days.

This coming Saturday: Long run 20 miles, first 15 at 7:45 pace, last 5 at 6:45 pace.

Wednesday: 7.5 miles with embedded 20 minute tempo run at 6:20-5:50 pace.

Today was a double, with an easy 4 miler at 5am in Philadelphia from the Independence Hall area along and around Penn's Landing.

Then back in Minnesnowta around Lakes Harriet and Calhoun again at easy recovery pace.

Last weekend was a wicked killer of a hill workout on Saturday at the Trail Mix 25k, run on mud caked, waterlogged trails in Hyland Nature Preserve in Bloomington. I have no idea what my real pace was as the course length was off and I forgot to turn off my GPS at the end, but guessing it was around 6:50 pace. I'll call it a PR for my first ever trail race.

Training for next 2 weeks focuses on tempo runs to build LT in prep for the New Prague Half Marathon June 10 in New Prague, MN. I don't really know where I am at but goal at the moment is to be 1:22 - 1:24 which is about 6:18 - 6:25 pace.

Prague

2008-04-11T04:23:00.000-07:00

On business now in a few different places in Europe, the jet lag is just killing me for some reason on this trip, I'm way off. But I have managed a few good runs.

Wednesday morning was a 6 mile run along Lake Geneva at Morges, about 3 of the miles at easy 7:40ish pace then the last 3 back at or below M race pace.

Today was an 18.12 miler in Prague which was an awesome route from Old Town Square (Staroměstské náměstí), along Pařížská, across the Čechův Bridge (Čechův most), left along the Vltana River to Charles Bridge (Karlův most) back to the Old Town (Staré Město) side, and south along the east bank of the Vltana as far as somewhere around Praha 12.

It was an awesome route at 5:30am, few people except other runners and walkers, following most the A2 bike path once you are back on the east side of the river. Mile intervals were 7:55 7:43 7:43 7:45 7:33 7:39 7:37 7:38 7:37 7:39 7:31 7:30 7:47 7:33 7:21 6:54 6:59 6:52 6:48.

5 hours sleep before the run, some Czech granola bar and Gatorade before the run.

Here is the MapMyRun view of the route.

Back in the Saddle

2008-04-11T04:18:00.000-07:00

The ice from 24-26 March almost put me out again and really did not feel good on any runs all last week, despite perfect running conditions in California. Here is how the last few days stack up:

24 Mar 7.3 mi bad ice in Minnesota
26 Mar 7.3 mi slushy ice in Minnesota
28 Mar 3 mi putz run in San Diego, felt awful
29 Mar 13 mi trail runs in SanDiego, ok
30 Mar 10.1 mi from Poway toward the coast on the Dan Something highway bike path
2 Apr 5 mi on Poway horse trails, ok
Apr 13.2 mi on the same Dan Something bike path
5 Apr 15.08 mi back in Minnesnow&iceta in Highland Park Reserve where the Trail Mix 25 k will be held

The 15.08 run on Sat 5 Apr was a bit painful as well but glad I did the run with a few doods from work. We ran more or less the 25k course and its brutal hills, mud and ice. I'm up for the hills, mud and single track but not the ice which I hope is gone by race day. Pace was fairly easy but I felt it in hip flexors.

What gets me is that yesterday 7 Apr I ran the best training 10 miler in a long time. No fatigue even after 9-10 miles, no pain. The pace was 7:16 over 10 miles with the following splits: 7:52 7:29 7:34 7:21 7:17 7:17 6:56 6:57 6:53 7:03 7:40. Goal was to bring back close to M race pace again in training runs. This is it, back in the saddle now.

Plan this week is an 8 miler Wed in Lausanne and then an 18 miler in Prague before hiking somewhere in Switzerland.

Ice & Glycogen

2008-03-25T07:50:00.000-07:00

Monday the 24th was another day of nasty ice covered trails as we struggled to get in a 7.5 miler at what turns out to be just a bit slower than my target marathon race pace. We managed roughly 7:05 miles but it really sucked. Every stride was a slip, and for me that meant probably 6,000 tiny groin pulls.

Today is core work and sometime soon I will post about what that core work is.

Target for Thursday is a 16-17 miler with the last 3 at target marathon race pace of 6:48. The goal for this run is to use no gels, no food, minimal liquid to purposely run low on glycogen the last few miles. It's not an exact science and I am certainly no expert marathoner, but the theory is that by running your body low on glycogen during certain key runs in training, you train your body to store more glycogen in the future. This is not a one time thing. You need to do it over several training runs leading up to the marathon.

At the beginning of the year last year I needed gel in half marathon races. After my glycogen depletion runs I find that I no longer need carbo bombs during half marathon or less.

You probably need to be careful doing this. If you run too low on glycogen during a long run, you will not finish. If you do not run low enough, you do not teach your body to store more/use it more efficiently.

Still Snowing

2008-03-23T09:41:00.000-07:00

I was a little stiff after Saturday's run so today ended up as a short, slow run around Lake Harriet up to Calhoun and back just under 5 miles. The un-freaking believable thing is that it is still snowing. What the %&$#?

The upcoming week looks like:

Mon 7.3 easy
Tues 7.3 speed
Wed 7.3 easy
Thu 16 with 4mi at M race pace
Sat easy
Sun easy

It's a Miracle!

2008-03-22T11:25:00.000-07:00

One week of real running. No groin pulls, no hip flexor decay, no influenza and only one snowstorm! Today was the only snow issue, and I needed a slow run with some miles anyway. It was a beautiful running morning, all the trees were full of snow muffling the sounds of the occasional airplane landing at MSP and the chatty-pants runners who babble in packs, they sound like geese coming. But it was slow, covering 13 miles in 1:42:something. Did I mention it was slow?

Last week was a disaster. Influenza, out for 8 days. That was brutal.

This week is looking ok. Almost 40 miles total as of today, with a planned easy 6 tomorrow to finally get over 40 for the first time in many weeks. This is how the week turned out ... even got in some near-lactate-threshold runs.

No running again!

2008-03-10T10:59:00.000-07:00

I have influenza type B. Probably no running again this week and likely no 10 mile race this weekend. What a bummer ...

Sunday 9 Apr 2008

2008-02-01T15:52:00.000-08:00

It was another in a string of up and down weeks trying to kick off training for Grandma's.

Here is a brief history of this boondoggle:

2007 was a year of continuous new PRs from 5k to 25k
In October 2007 decided to do California International Marathon
Missed my race goal of 2:59:59 by just over a minute
Started running too far too often too soon after the race
Injured my hip flexors and adductors from overuse and lack of core work
Eased back and started to recover only to more seriously strain my adductors and pelvic ligaments during ice hockey
Worked with a PT to build in core work and work to recover from the injuries
Was recovering nicely again until a wipeout snowboarding in Colorado re-stressed the injuries
Week later did an OK 15k in San Diego but still not back to form

Now just as the weather in Minnesota starts to clear (it has been arctic frigid with terrible trail conditions and nasty windchills more or less since December), I come down with a nice bronchial viral infection. Brilliant. I was all set to do a 14 miler today. No dice.

Here is what I will do for the week:

Monday 14 miles with 5 @ marathon race pace
Tuesday rest/core work
Wednesday 7.3 miles from work @ LT pace
Thursday 8 miles easy-moderate
Friday rest/core work
Saturday 10 Mile race Irish for a Day @ Lake Harriet in Minneapolis
Sunday 8 miles easy recovery

Will post again next Sunday hopefully with better training news.