Rarin' and Ready to GO!

My Des Moines Marathon training cycle doesn't officially start for a couple of weeks, but I am ready to get this rolling.  I raced the Brian Kraft 5K this morning and set another PR, beating last year's time by 24 seconds!  I ran an 18:07 with mile splits of 5:52, 5:50 and 5:49.  I knew I had a good shot at sub 18:30, but I was surprised I came as close to 18 as I did.  Now I have a sub-18 5K on my mind!  A 17:XX would look good on the PR line.  Racing is going well and as long as I stay healthy and don't do something stupid, I have a great shot at sub-3 in the fall.  I love to plug my new times in the MacMillan Racing Calculator to see what time it will spit out.  New MacMillan time is now just north of 2:56!  Woohoo!

The crazy heat continues to raise havoc with people's marathon times this spring.  After pulling the plug on Green Bay last week, Madison was cancelled a week before race day.  The Rochester Med City Marathon went on as planned, but not without extra medical staff and water stops.    I am not a good heat runner, but know enough to cut back the pace significantly when the temps get over 70 and the humidity is over 80.  Good luck to all the runners out there and stay safe.  This is supposed to be fun, remember!?!

Happy Running!

It's Official...

I was pretty fired up over my performance in the New Prague Half-Marathon last week-end, so fired up I signed myself up for the Des Moines Marathon on October 21.  It is official, as I have plunked down my entry fee, made hotel reservations and pre-paid for the pre-race pasta feed.  I am, as the kids say these days, "all in."  Well at least, I think that's what the kids are sayin'!  Also,  I have recruited a roomie and running cohort for the week-end, sparing my wife a week-end excursion to Des Moines.  Looking forward to this, Kurt!    Why Des Moines?  Well, outside of a smallish hill from miles 4 to 6, it is mostly flat and/or downhill.  It is late October, so the weather should be moderate AND it is inexpensive.  I am super excited about this sub-3 attempt and looking forward to officially starting my training in early June.

I am glad that I didn't sign up for the Green Bay Marathon, which was held (partially) today.  It was 68 to 70 at the start (warm, but not dangerous) and they stopped the race at 9:25 with the temps in the mid 70's.  Seems like they pulled the plug too early, but there were reports that the medical tents were getting overwhelmed.  Really?  You are a little over two hours into a run in the low to mid 70's and you need medical attention?  Humidity must have been higher than reported on Weather Underground.

A non-eventful running week for me.  I'm in maintenance mode for the time being, but I do plan on racing the Brian Kraft 5K on Memorial Day.  A flat, fast course and I will attempt a sub 18:30.

Happy Running!

Nothing So Satisfying Like a PR at 50

I have to admit, I couldn't wait to write this post.  I'm very excited about my New Prague Half Marathon results; not only was it a massive PR, but as a fitness measurement it demonstrates that I finally am within striking distance of going sub-3 in the marathon.  Let me indulge myself with a brief race report:

As all of you local Minnesotans already know, yesterday was a picture perfect day; one of a handful we get every year.  The race started at 8:00 and the temps were a a comfortable 49, dry, calm and sunny.  I was feeling good at warm-up, but not particularly confident.  I was determined to go out fast and hold on for as long as possible.  I tend to go out on the half too conservatively, so I was going to get to goal pace (6:30) as soon as possible.  Of course, the first two miles were 6:45, but lots of hills, so not too bad, but I was a little mad at myself for being so careful.  It wasn't until mile 5 that I recorded my first sub 6:30.  This course has no big hills, but is one medium-grade hill after another.  Steep enough to slow your pace going up, but not too steep to stop you from really flying down the other side.  So it would be 6:50 going up and 6:12 going down.  I hit the halfway point at 43:30, which was kind of disappointing and was thinking that a 1:25 was not going to happen.  I took a gel at mile 7 and something happened.  The next few miles were going to get faster and faster.  Mile 7 was 6:26 (blah) mile 8 was 6:22 (WTF) mile 9 was another 6:21, mile 10 was 6:19.  Now here is where it really gets good.  I hit the 10 mile mark at 1:05:21 and realized that I needed a sub 20 5K to make my goal.  I can remember that running a sub 20 minute 5K was an admirable goal in itself, now I was about to attempt this within a half marathon!  I knew at that point I could do it.  I passed a guy and asked him, "are we going to break 1:25 today?"  He thought I was being a smart-ass and kind of grunted at me, so I moved on.  Mile 11 was 6:23 (uh-oh this isn't going to be as easy as I thought) and hilly mile 12 was 6:26.  Damn this isn't going to happen after all.  But mile 13 is a downhill, so I opened up with everything I had and ran a 6:05!  I could see the finish line and the time read 1:24 something!  I was about to break 1:25!  I ended up with a 1:24:45 (6:28 pace) 3rd in my age group, 10th overall and a brand new PR at 50.  Cool.

I've been at this sub-3 quest for a long time.  Building off of each previous training cycle, learning by my mistakes and logging lots and lots of miles.  Just one more smart and injury free training cycle and I can finally do this!

Happy Running!

Rick

Rock and Roll Running

I started out my week with a little bit of self-motivation.  Sometimes this is needed when you switch from an evening running schedule to early, early mornings.  Nothing like a little Ramones to get the blood pumping on a Tuesday morning at 4:30 a.m.!  It was a great 10 mile tempo run and I really enjoyed myself.  This worked so well, that I used the trick again for my Thursday 12x400 work-out.  System of a Down is just the right mix of speed and anger to get you through a tough work-out like this. 

Then of course there was the news of the death of Adam Yauch on Friday.  Beastie Boys is always a welcome companion on many of my runs and I added a little more than usual to my week-end runs.  Now, I'm a 50-year old suburbanite and probably have no business listening to hip-hop of any kind, but I just can't help myself; the music is too darn fun.  Licensed to Ill came out in 1983 and at the time I was manager of a local video arcade, so many of the mall rats were listening to Beastie Boys.  At the time I had not time for such nonsense.  I didn't know what it was and figured it was only for angry 15-year old boys. (Which it was!)  Over the years I've started listening to them and found them to be more than obnoxious, punks simply trying to shock concerned parents.  Pretty talented dudes.  The fact that they were still relevant 29 years later is testament to this.  Anyway, RIP Adam Yauch.

Happy Running!
Rick