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

Six Point Two is Fun!

With my marathon plans on the back burner, I have to divert my running energy to shorter races, namely the Get in Gear 10k and the New Prague Half Marathon in May.  These will provide an outlet for my running needs and provide a perfect bridge from my current marathon no-man's land to the official kick off of fall marathon training in June.

The Get in Gear was yesterday.  The days leading up to this race, including race day morning, were terrible.  I had no motivation and was very close to opting out Saturday morning.  I was extremely tired and irritable, but I had already paid the race fee, so I didn't want that to go to waste.  I drove to Minnehaha Park (in the sleet) parked about a half mile from the start and began my jog to the festivities.  It was cold and wet, but the weather was the least of my worries.  My warm-up jog was horrible;  I felt tired, run down and my foot hurt.  I checked my Garmin and I was laboring to maintain an easy 9:00 pace.  What am I even doing here?  What a waste of time!  I made it to the porta-potty line and jogged back to the van to shed my warm-ups.  My legs had loosened up and I felt a little better, but now I was having some GI issues and by the time I made it back to the start, the bathroom lines were too long and we are only 10 or 12 minutes from go time.  I continued my warm-up with some strides and was feeling much better.  In fact, in my warm-ups I was easily able to ramp up to 6:20 pace.  I heard someone call my name and it was Stan, from my marathon clinic.  I felt much better by then; chatted with Stan a bit, did one more set of strides and got to the starting line.  I thought I was close to the front, but when the gun went off I found myself stuck behind a bunch of slower runners, blocking traffic. (They start the half and the 10k together)  Things loosened up after a half mile and I checked my Garmin; 5:58!  Wow, how did that happen.  I settled in to a comfortable effort and finished mile 1 in 6:05.  I did not push in mile 2, as I knew that going across the Lake Street bridge was going to be a windy, cold challenge.  Mile two was 6:04, all is good and still am not laboring.  Made it over the bridge and the first set of hills without too much damage and mile 3 was 6:12.  Pushed just a tad on the hilly, east side of the river and managed a 6:08.  I ran mile 5 very conservatively and was pleased to see a 6:02 split here.  I spied a couple of people in my age group and passed them about half-way through mile 6.  I felt fresh and brand new crossing the Ford Bridge and mile 6 was 5:58.  Yippee!  This is fun passing people!  I ran the last two tenths at about a 5:30 pace and finished in 37:54, a full 1 minute and 15 seconds faster than last year and only 5 seconds from a PR (which was on a mush flatter and faster course)  Boy, am I glad I decided not to bail!  One thing I did differently in this race was to really focus on my cadence.  I've been reading that good runners have a cadence of 180 and elites up to 190 or more.  Every few minutes I do a quick cadence test, just to make sure I am at 180 and I find my pace quickens and with less effort.  I'm rather tall and gangly, so a quick cadence is kind of a challenge.

So, I'm pleased with my current fitness level and like where I will be at come my new marathon training cycle in June.  As long as I can stay injury free and build on the great foundation that I have created over the past two years, my sub-3 is well within reach.  Des Moines, here I come!

Happy Running!
Rick

Tune-Up Week

I ran pretty fast this week, a tune-up week of sorts before the Get in Gear next Saturday.  I'm signed up for the 10K and am pretty confident I can crush my time from last year (39:09) but am rather dubious that I can PR; kinda depends on the weather.  If it's cool like today, then we have a chance, but long-range forecast looks a little on the warm side.  It's a fast course, so 38 should be doable.

I ran 17 miles today and was able to crank out half-marathon in under 1:30 out in the trails.  I ran 12 miles consistenly around 6:45 pace, so I am feeling pretty good about my fitness right now.  I felt a little beat up by miles 16, but all signs point toward a pretty good half-marathon perfomance in a few weeks.

Looking ahead to the fall and I have my eye on a few marathons.  Des Moines looks pretty flat, with only a couple substantial hills early.  It will be nice to get the hills out of the way early rather than fighting them at mile 21 or later.  Whistlestop in Wisconsin looks like a good race as well, but the trail is all dirt, so may be a little slower than Des Moines.  Plus Des Moines is so exotic.  Hey, I can visit George the Chili King after the race!

I got schooled by one of my marathon clinic participants this week.  I have been introducing various interval and tempo work-outs every Thursday and this week I decided to pace each of them to see how fast they could run a mile.  Figured it was a good fitness test.  Stan was the last runner, and we agreed upon a sub 7 pace to start and see how much below that we could get.  We hit the lap button and Stan was off like a Hussein Bolt!  Now I can run several sub six miles in a row, but I really suck at going from really slow to really fast that quickly.  We were at a half mile and my Garmin was reading 5:56!  Holy crap Stan, what the hell is this?!  We settled down to a 6:20/6:30 pace and then he fired it up again in the hills and dipped down to 6:00 again.  I finally started to settle into this pace about three-quarters of the way in and we ended up around 6:20.  If you are reading this Stan, nicely done!  I didn't pace Stan, Stan paced me!

Happy Running!

One Big Fartlek

Now that I have written off any spring marathon plans, I can be so much more free-wheelin' with my running.  For those of you not familiar with the term "Fartlek," it is a Swedish term meaning speed play.  It's basically unstructured, unplanned interval work-outs.  If you are running down a trail, you eyball a fir tree a half-mile down the road and try to get there in 3 minutes.  Or you may be running in Uptown and decide to run as fast as you can until you pass the pair of hipsters walking ahead of you (just to avoid the cigarette smoke).  You get the idea.  So anyway, that has been my week.  I did lot of easy trail running, but mixed it up with some pretty speedy road work.  Tuesday I ran 11 miles, 5.5 easy and realizing I was running late for work, I raced the 5.5 back in well under MP.  Pretty much did the same thing on Friday and today, I ran 15 miles, my pace ranging as slow as 8:45 and as speedy as 5:45.  Good fun; fartlek; try it sometime.

I mixed it up pretty good on the music front as well.  I still listened to my regular stuff, but just for laughs I dug out INXS' "Kicks" album.  I think I was in my early 20's when this came out.  It really sucks; does not age well at all and I ended up skipping over most of it for more "grown-up" music.  Not that this is grown-up in any way, shape or form, but I want to get a rise out of any of the AC/DC fans who may happen to read this blog.  Blackburner's "Back in Black" Dubsteb.  Awesome!  Pretty hard not to run you 5K pace to this! (Make sure you listen at least until 1:02)  Great with fartlek!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJQRGi7rDX8

Happy Running!