Running for Fun

Trust me, I enjoy my margarita....

2011-05-20T17:33:00.007-05:00

Kelli, the nutritionist I consult with, has put together a great article on alcohol binges. The article does a good job of keeping the subject simple, and describing the physical effects alcohol has on impacting weight loss and fueling the body. Trust me, I enjoy my margarita (or multiple margaritas) just as much as anyone, but here are a couple of good points that she makes -

1) Drinking a sugary mix drink (like a margarita) can have as much as 600 calories in it - have about 5 of these (yes, on a binge - 5 sounds about right!!) will wipe out the calorie deficit accumulated that you worked so hard to achieve the previous week!!
2) Alcohol, converted to acetate in your bloodstream, will be the first use of fuel your body uses. Taking up to 3+ days to burn instead of the fat/current carb fuel you could be using for fuel.

Basically, with the calorie deficit from the hard work done in the previous week wiped out plus the lingering effect of acetate in the blood stream, you lose about a week to a week and a half to help sustain or reach your weight goal. Ouch.

At the end of the article, she reminds us that "Your body is a machine. Give it what it needs and it will run well. Fill it with junk and it will break down."

Here is the article - take a look!
Drop the Drag Wednesdays: Alcohol Binges

Not just about the running

2011-05-17T15:32:00.007-05:00

What's up?

With spring here, my wife and I are keeping smiles our face leading our "full and abundant" family life. We've been keeping busy with lots of this:

And end of the school year activities such as this:

We have had lots of baseball; the weekend of the piano recital, we also had watched (and the kids played in) 7 baseball games. Oh yeah, it was Mother's day with both of my wife's and my mom in town! Whew - somehow we made it through!

I've planted my garden, which I've vowed to keep in good condition this year. So far, plant in the ground are broccoli, onion, garlic, strawberries (planted new this year!) and cantaloupe. Yea - I can't wait for the fresh food from the garden. (However, the bunnies are threatening the broccoli and cantaloupe crop - I'll be reinforcing the bunny fence soon!)

The week before Mother's day, I was at a conference for work in Boston. I really enjoyed running there as well. Not my pic, but this was what I remember:

As for my running, I've been going really strong lately and getting in 60-80 miles per week. I think the "going" has been "good" because of my added attention to proper fueling and generally developing better eating habits. With all the baseball lately, my long runs on Saturday have started no later than 5 am. Yes, 5 am on a weekend. I don't get up that early to go to work!!

I'm still generally following a 3 week build-up cycle, then a rest week. During these 3 weeks build ups, I've really incorporated lots more hills and trails and this seems to be paying dividends in my running world.

For example, today, I went out to a do an easy 12 mile run which ended up being at a 7:06 pace - 7:06 is 9 seconds per mile faster than what I think I could run a road marathon at this point. This last weekend, I did 20 miles with a couple of buddies at a 7:55 pace and not only did I feel comfortable running this, I felt really good after the run!

Also - I'm trying to bike to work more and today was day one of that goal. May is bike to work week, so if you haven't already - try and bike to work!

Take it easy and run far!

Free State Race Recap

2011-04-27T16:29:00.007-05:00

Free State Trail Marathon

Sprint recap – 3:21:13. The race had great weather and great trail conditions. It was an excellent mid-west trail race that I would recommend and do again.

Marathon recap

Training
I stepped on the scale – it read about 8lbs over my normal weight. Wow, the off season had been good to me. It was time to recommit, so I began to search the calendar - it was hard to find to a race that did not conflict with the kids’ events. However, the Free State Trail run was over Easter weekend, and not much was happening that weekend for us – okay, I’ll chance it. I know the race is well run by the Trail Nerds out of KC, and the course and race organization would not be a disappointment.

I designed a running plan that basically consisted of a long run on the weekend, speed work/tempo runs twice a week, a midweek long run, and a couple of recovery runs. I incorporated a bunch of hills into the workout along with hitting some type of trail at least once a week. I developed a four week cycle, where weeks 1-3 get progressively tougher, with the 4th week an easy recovery week. With the help of Kelli, a nutritionist at http://www.apexnutritionllc.com/ who specializes in endurance athletes, I was able to recommit to healthy everyday eating, and getting the proper fuel for the level of running (60-90 miles a week) I was doing.

Just prior to race day, I stepped on the scale and was about 9lbs under where I was at the beginning of spring. I was right in my goal race day weight. Looking back at my plan, I had hit many of my tempo goals. I had capped off my training with an 18 mile sub 7 minute run just two weeks prior to the race. I had hit the hills and trails hard. I was feeling confident where I was at, but was still unsure how fast I could run the challenging course. In the best of conditions, I was anticipating a 3:40 finish.

Race Day

With a change in plans from a running buddy, and not much on the family calendar, my wife and kids decided to come down for the race. However, hotels were slim pickings in Lawrence and we decided to stay about 30 miles east in Bonner Springs, KS. It was going to be a long morning for my wife if she had to leave early with kids, drop me off at the race, then head back to the hotel and let the kids swim, then head back out to the finish line – oh yeah, and pack up the kiddos. However, by some sort of luck, I saw that a high school friend’s husband, Cliff, was heading down to race as well. After a couple of emails, Cliff had agreed to take me to the starting line and let my wife and kids sleep in a bit, which also resulted in some more pool time for the boys. (Thanks Cliff and Ann – Melissa and I truly appreciate what may seem like a small act of kindness, but the ride really did mean a lot to us! BTW – Cliff rocked a 4 hr marathon on the trail for a 13th place overall finish – GREAT JOB!)

Cliff and I left the hotel and I had a nice and relaxing ride out to start line. The ride was beneficial to me, Cliff had run this race a couple of times and gave me the details regarding the trail. It was great information to go over just prior to the race. We arrived, and headed to the check in tent. There was some sort of mess-up with my race registration, but the race volunteers quickly took care of me. Although there was hiccup, a well run race with volunteers who are knowledgeable and capable of handing these types of issues made this a non-issue. As we were waiting for the start, Cliff began joking around with someone from the Mich Ultra team. At one point, he wondered if in order to join the team, you had to fill your camel back with Mich Ultra and show you could finish the race. Not a bad concept, but the rumor was debunked and the race rep let us know getting on the team seemed to be either being a good runner or dependent upon who you know. Before I knew it, it was time to get to the start line.

The Race

We toed up to the line; and Bad Ben (the race director) let us the marathon start was a half mile out and back on the road before hitting a prairie loop, then heading down to the single track trail.

With that, we were off on the race! The weather conditions were about perfect, no wind, about 50 degrees and overcast. The first half mile went by quickly; I decided I wanted to hang with lead pack for bit as long as no one was blazing a trail. A quick glance down at my watch and a 7:20 pace on the road, I was already in the lead pack with a few runners. I settled in behind a guy in a blue racing singlet and a guy who appeared to be an experienced masters runner. I was running in 3rd place at this point. Little did I know exactly how much of the morning I would spend with these two guys. The prairie loop was in good condition, damp, but not muddy. The three of us kept together as we headed down to the trail. We were moving at a steady pace that I thought I could hold most of the day.
About 5 miles in, it was time to get to know these two runners – I was hoping to be apart of this train as long as I could. I started chatting with the young guy in the blue racing singlet. We talked about if each of us had done this race before (“no”), and where we were from. I mentioned I was from Des Moines, and he mentioned he was originally from Boone, Iowa (close to Des Moines), and had relocated to KC within the past two years. Immediately in my head, he was now known as Daniel Boone. I talked with the master runner, he was a local who ran the trails quite a bit and was also the coach of the local high school cross country team. He was now known as coach. I know I’m very creative when naming people at races. (Sorry guys, even if we did ask each other’s name, your name were quickly replaced by your new nick name!)

Coach knew the trail like the back of his hand. Somewhere between miles 10-12 is a great wooden arch. Coach let me know that the local art teacher started putting one stick on the arch each time he rode under it. From what I could tell, the art teach had rode his bike under that arch about 2000 times.
A short while longer and we hit the dreaded boulders/rocks by the river. John (my running buddy who didn’t make the trip had run the race before) and Cliff had mentioned the boulders and how difficult they were to run on (picture from a previous race)

The rocks were difficult, however, I did my best to keep up with the train. Luckily, I only tripped once and caught myself before face planting. Whew! Way to close and I made it out of the most technical part of the trail without too much damage.
At about mile 15, coach had fallen off the pace, and it was now Daniel Boone and me. We stayed together for the next 3 or 4 miles. Daniel Boone was beginning to speed up and I stayed right with him – until mile 18.
We came to an aid station. In this race, there were no pre-filled cups. You had to carry your own water bottle for hydration. We came up to the aid station and I quickly began to fill up my water bottle. Daniel Boone did the same thing. I really wanted to keep on top of my racing fuel, the only chance I really had against Daniel Boone was hoping he would hit the wall. I had to get a banana. Instead of grabbing and going, I stopped and tried to peel my banana. I couldn’t get it. Daniel Boone took off and after struggling to get the !@#$ peel off, I finally was able to take off – about 30 yards back. Daniel slipped into the trails and every once in while I caught a glimpse of his blue shirt and shorts.

It was a bit early to waste energy to try and catch-up – as long as I was keeping him in sight, I felt like I could still pick up the pace to try and catch him. With about 4 miles left in the race, I thought I better start to try and reel him in. I picked up my pace only to stumble on the rocky path. And stumble. And stumble. Then as I decided to speed up – I tripped and crashed onto the path. A quick assessment and nothing damaged. I pulled myself up and began to run. I then realized that I was trying to do too much at a pace that I couldn’t race at on the technical, rooty, rocky trail. I decided to continue to run hard, but I could not go too fast and out of control – another spill and I could really get hurt. I decided it was his race to lose, and my race to not let anyone come up behind me. A 2nd place finish overall for me 3:21:13.
(Ethan doing the free Easter egg hunt – all about the candy! I will admit – the coconut Hershey Kisses tasted great after the run!)

Umm..yeah, blogging taking a backseat to busy life...

2011-04-12T14:49:00.003-05:00

We are all busy. I'm quite sure of it. When I run into people that I know, the conversation usually starts out with "I've been busy doing....." or ends in some form of "well, nice talking to you, I've gotta go do ...." I am in that camp. My roles as a dad, husband, runner, cub scout leader, chauffeur, grocery buyer, cleaning crew, various asst coaching and coaching positions seem to keep me pretty busy. Oh yeah, and working - did I mentioned I changed jobs in November? Yes after being with the same company for 10 years, it was time for me to make a change so that happened as well. Melissa and I have decided that being busy with a 6 and 9 year old should not be a bad thing. We are taking a new approach and appreciating and enjoying each moment with our kids. We've had a busy winter and hence the limited blogging. Also, quite frankly, this blog is mostly about running. After Equalizer, I had some down time running (my wife would not agree) but I wasn't really training for anything. I really was just running for the joy of it. Not training for anything too specific, I now know that I'm runner that needs that next big goal, so I signed up for a race... However... I had Post Oak in Tulsa on my list for an early spring run, however, the sad loss of my wife's grandmother interrupted those plans. (Yes, I'm in the results, but a running buddy, took my spot - we did re-register, but apparently it didn't make it into the updated results.) Now, in a couple weeks, I'm heading to KS to do a trail marathon. Not an ultra, but a solid trail run to get me ready for a few summer races. I'll make sure to have a write up for the race. I will say that I'm running stronger than I have in the past at this point in the calendar year. For training runs, I recently pounded out an unofficial 1:29 half marathon time; an 18 mile run at 7:01 pace, had a couple 90 mile weeks, and hit the hills and trails hard. The only thing that I haven't had is a run over 4 hrs. When I sign up for a longer race than 26.2, I'll need to cross that bridge - but feel confident when the time is right. Good luck to all my running buddies doing Boston next week - enjoy the experience!

Equalizer - Round and Round I go...

2010-11-01T08:29:00.005-05:00

The Equalizer race is set at Gray's Lake just south of downtown Des Moines. The 1.905 mile path around the lake allows for a nice flat runnable loop. It reminds me of one of my favorite places to run, the chain of lakes in the twin cities. Usually, I can head out to Gray's over lunch and do a nice, easy 5 mile recovery run or I head there to do a few laps of speed work during the week. At most, I think I've run 4 consecutive laps at Gray's - that is just under 8 miles for the mathematically challenged. Really, after a couple of consecutive laps, it can get a little boring.

This weekend was a different story. I ran 20 laps plus a couple of out and back quarter mile segments at the end for an official total 40.35 miles at the 6 hr Equalizer event. (Unofficially, I had 40.68 miles)

Actual miles, I came in second - equalized miles I came in 5th. For those of you not familiar with the race, yes - one could actually run more miles than you, but because of age/gender, they could beat the snot of you on equalized miles.

It is an interesting concept - a male at 36, my factor was 1.02.

If you are a 50 year old female, your factor is 1.351 - so you every 3 miles you run, you get credit for just over 4 miles.

Yes - Des Moines has many companies devoted to the insurance business. A by-product of that is a bunch of actuaries sitting around wondering about how age and gender have a factor upon miles. Apparently, they believe the factors listed on the entry sheet is the key. I'll leave it up to someone else to verify for me. Race info and factors can be found here.

The race director and volunteers did an outstanding job. Just for kicks, I noticed this under the entry fee section:

"Any entries received after that date may not receive a race shirt, however, race entry is permitted up until the start of the race. It is preferred that you give us some time to prepare, but if, like BP or the government response to the Gulf oil leak, you have trouble with decisions, you have until 8am on 10/30/2010 to commit."

Nice.

Not much to say about the race for me - I trained the past few months to run a faster 50k. I did - at 4 hrs and 8 min - I hit a "PR" for the 50k distance -although a little flatter than the 50ks I normally run.

At 4 hrs and 20 min, I had slowed to a walk, and kept walking until close to the end. With about 15 minutes left, I found out I had 38.35 miles. At that point, I decided that I could run out the clock and try to get over 40 - that sounded good.

I did not stick to my hydration/nutrition plan which I'm sure was my downfall in the race. Simply, I did not stick to the calories and water I needed to get through the run.

Thanks to all who came out - Dave, Steph and her dog, cousin Matt, Bill, Jean and others - especially to Dave who tried to keep my spirits up around that 4:30 mark. Sorry I couldn't keep up Dave!

Not to mention tough as nails Beth, who ran 105.87 miles in the 24 hr event - who when she saw me walking let me know to "keep moving forward until the end!" Congrats to her for reaching her goal - 100 miles in 24hrs is outstanding!!

That place...

2010-10-26T07:28:00.006-05:00

I called up Melissa to remind her about something.....

"Honey, I'm taking the day off of work tomorrow to go run."

"Great. You are crazy. Are you running around town?"

"Nope, I'm going to THAT PLACE with John."

"Although you are crazy, try not to pull John in on being crazy with you."

"Okay" - however, for the record, I think it was John's idea.

John and I headed back out to eastern Iowa to run on a piece of land where rolling hills are plenty and the smell of cows is abound. This is about the best training for me in the area, the hills are long and steep, but provide a spectacular view when reaching the top. For me, the training run itself is probably one of the best workouts that I can do; going slow, with long tough hills on nice soft grass.

Being from Nebraska, the rural setting is one where I feel at home. The cows provided a calming effect, they all just watched us in silence, their heads slowly turning keeping an eye on us as we ran by them. Sometimes, I wish these were the spectators at races, where they don't say much, but encourage you to keep going (instead of that guy who has never run more than 5 miles, who at mile 20, tells you that you look good).

John and I hit about 16 miles over 3 hours. Yes, only 16 miles in 3 hours. The hills were tough, but it was one of the best runs I've ever had.

Picture from one of the top of the hills...

One of the long steep hills, John is only about a 1/4 of the way up on this....

Oh the cows...John and I talked about how much a head of cattle was worth? We had no idea....

Our start and finish line...The weather was near perfect on this day!

Northface 50k

2010-09-22T16:23:00.005-05:00

NorthFace 50k
Milwaukee, WI
September 18, 2010

5k version: 4:23:19; 8:27 pace; 9th overall, 3rd in age group. Great trail, great support and aid stations, and would definitely run again.

Ultra Version:

PRERACE

The last few weeks of training leading up to the NF 50k went well – especially since the last two falls I sat on the sideline with a stress fracture. This year, the training went without too many hiccups and I was able to execute about 95% of my training plan. Over the last few weeks, I spent time running long, doing tempo runs, up and down the hills in the south of grand neighborhood, and running on single-track trails behind the Des Moines Art Center. I had been running fast and was looking for a sub 4:30 50k dependent on the trail difficulty and weather conditions.

My wife (and kids) decided to come with me to the event to see some friends that have relocated out to Milwaukee. My kids were excited to add Wisconsin to the states that they have visited. The trip up was pretty uneventful, and as we passed into Wisconsin, Ethan let everyone know that the Badger state looked way different than the Hawkeye state.

We went straight to the sporting good store to pick up the race packet. The volunteers were awesome. I had no idea where the start of the race was, and without hesitation, the lady drew out a map and gave us what would turn out to be perfect easy to follow directions. The race swag for the 50k included socks, technical shirt, a couple water bottles, and a nice reusable bag. After doing some quick browsing through the store, and checking into the hotel, we were off to the Delafield BrewHaus. I ate a great pre race supper of grilled chicken parmesan with whole wheat penne noodles. (Thanks to Melissa for pointing this out to me on the menu!)

With a short trip back to the Holiday Inn Express, the boys and I changed and we were off to the pool for quick swim. After that, Gabe pointed out it was the season premier of STAR WARS:CLONE WARS so we sat back and watched. Everyone was sleeping by 9:30. Perfect relaxing evening for the day before the race!

RACE DAY

The race started at 7 a.m., so I set the alarm for 5:15 to get something in my stomach (banana and cliff bar) and get dressed and prepared for the race. At 5 a.m. I woke up to booming thunder, lightning and heavy rain. Well, at least I wasn’t running the 50 mile that started at 5. Yuck - It looked like the storm was moving pretty fast, but the rain would make the trail course a bit sloppy for everyone.

Melissa got the boys up and we headed out the door for the 20 minute drive around 5:50. We were heading down the stairs to our car when we bumped into someone in the hall. It was a narrow hallway. With a polite “excuse me” offered, we moved on. Once we got into the car, I asked me wife if she knew who that was who we bumped into in the hallway. “No – should I know him?” “That was Dean Karnazes – Ultramarathon Man!”

After the quick drive, we pulled up to start of the race. With it being chilly and raining, I left the family in the van, not sure if I would make it back to the van to wish them a good morning. They wished me well and decided to hang out for bit. I worked my way over to the start line, used a restroom one last time, and began to walk toward the start line with the skies once again opened up. It poured for a few minutes and started to taper off. I walked over to the start line when it let up and decided to camp under one of those portable patio heaters.

With a couple minutes to the race starting time, I found myself in the front of the crowd. Dean magically appeared and wished us well on our endurance run. I also looked over and saw my wife and kids at the start line! I’ll take those smiles over Dean’s any day! (Sorry Dean!)

The start of race went out about a ¾ mile stretch of flat road. I started out fast (marathon pace 7:16) and it was quick to see a couple of groups form at the front of the pack. Three guys went out really fast, and then there was another group of about 6 including me. The trail was in better shape than I anticipated but it was sloppy in places. After the fast start, I was about 7th in the placing up to the first aid station.

The first aid station was set up with water on the table first as you ran up to it, then the GU electrolyte drink, then the food and gels. I stopped at the water and handed my hand held water bottle to be filled. As I drank from a cup, the guy who was running 8th, shoved me out of the way to get to the electrolyte drink. I’ve never been pushed aside in a race like this before. Very UNCOOL. He passed me at the aid station along with another guy. I was mad. I decided right there that this guy was not going to beat me today.

I still wanted to run my race and kept his lead in front of me in check throughout the race; keeping him within a couple minutes of him if I had to turn on the jets.

I had one guy from the 40-50 age group pass me and I let him go. He looked strong, experienced, and was carrying plenty of fuel to get him through the race. I describe the type of body he had as one that is built like a shark in water – he had long legs, no body fat, and was built for speed.

The timber lined trail turned to marshland/prairie. I slogged through a couple of spots where there was ankle high water in spongy grass. Another area was pretty much mud with no footing. The miles passed as I fueled myself on GUs, water, heed, and S-Caps.

The race began to turn interesting around mile 24. I had kept behind “shover” for long enough and decided to make my move. I ran up upon him on a hill. He was walking and didn’t look like he had much left in the tank. I passed him and now regret that I didn’t give him “the look” made infamous by Lance Armstrong.

I continued to run and eventually was caught by another 40-50 age grouper. He was running strong and we ended up running together for quite some time. He started the conversation when it started to rain for about a half hour with some lightning “This is F..ing great.” I hinted some sarcasm in his voice. From there, his conversational style only became a bit rougher. Yeah, I think three words were the limit before he must felt the need to insert some type of swear word. And I think he hit that limit twice during our 20 minute conversation.

As we talked, some guy came ripping by us. We both looked at each other in amazement and wondered where this guy came from. We found out that he was a 50 miler and ended with a time of 6:15 minutes for 50 miles. Crazy fast… Anyway, the guy I was running with ended up about 30 seconds ahead of me and ran a great race.

The rest of the race was pretty uneventful. I slowed a bit during the last 10 miles, but at that point, was concerned about hanging onto my place in the race versus trying to get too beat up along with making sure I stayed ahead of “shover”. I came into the finish and was happy to hear the announcer state “It’s dad!” as my two boys were cheering loudly for me.

Overall, it was a great race, a PR at the 50k distance, a well supported trail run with great volunteers, and one that I hope to do again – OR maybe try the 50M distance…..

FUEL
1 hr prior to the race – banana and peanut butter chocolate crunch cliff bar
15 min prior – Vanilla Bean GU
During
60 oz of water
40 oz of HEED (orange flavor)
GUs – 3 Vanilla Bean, and 3 Espresso Love
S-Caps – 3 caps (1 per hr)
Handful of pretzels at the last aid station

Recovery
Electrolyte Lemon/Lime Drink – 20 oz
Water
Turkey Sandwich on a wheat hard roll
Cranberry walnut salad
2 monster cookies

Splits -

1 – 7:17
2 – 8:05
3 – 8:13
4 – 8:02
5 – 7:41
6 – 7:47
7 – 8:33
8 – 8:08
9 – 7:53
10 – 8:27
11 – 7:51
12 – 8:51
13 – 7:43
14 – 7:46
15 – 7:59
16 – 7:36
17 – 8:52
18 – 7:39
19 – 7:38
20 – 9:40
21 – 10:05
22 – 8:13
23 – 9:27
24 – 8:53
25 – 9:01
26 – 9:14
27 – 9:34
28 – 10:19
29 – 8:52
30 – 9:52
31 – 7:44

Idiot Runner!

2010-07-14T14:03:00.003-05:00

Whenever I see runners in extreme heat or extreme cold or in lightning, I think to myself, "WTF are they doing???"

However, I can't count the number of times I've actually been an "idiot runner." Today was one of those days.

I went at 10 am because it was much cooler at 10 am that at 11 am (NOT!). Slow long run was the plan for the day. I quit at 1 hr and 25 minutes instead of 1:30 scheduled. My coach thought it was a good idea to call it early (did I mention I now coach myself?). I ran 9.66 miles or about an 8:48 pace over all. I carried water and stopped at a Kum and Go to refill (local gas station, and yes the name barely passes Iowa's decency laws!) . People can be really nice when you look like you are about ready to pass out due to the heat; or maybe they were just thinking IDIOT RUNNER!

Heat Index at the end of my run = 104.

YTD miles - 1496.7

Aftron Trail Run - Race report

2010-07-06T17:16:00.002-05:00

Afton Trail Run (ATR) – 50k
July 3, 2010

Ultra-short:
4:49:58, 4th in the men’s open, 8th Overall.

It was hot at the start (73 degrees) and at the end (85 degrees). There were hills – lots of them; more than I remembered. The down-hills were quadbusters….

Ultra-long:

The day started early, about 4:30 and uneventful. My brother, wife, and kids were planning on coming out for the end of the race and so I was on my own for race day morning. As I drove out to the race, I ate my pre-race meal of a cliff bar, banana, and about 30 oz of high quality H2O.

I arrived at the race site around 5:30, about an hour before the race. I seem to get a little anxious before big races, and this was no exception. The check in process went smooth – no lines that early in the morning. On the way back from check-in, I met John and Beth in the parking lot, and it helped ease my pre race jitters. They were on their way to check in and I told them I would meet them back at the car. I had some last minute race preparations.

I double checked my “fuel” within my Race Ready Shorts which has enough pockets to hold 2 small pill bottles filled with HEED, 3 GUs, and 4 S Caps without any problems. After my pre-race GU, I found Beth and John and we headed over to the start line.

The warm morning started off as usual at this ultra. It was low key, a small gathering of around 150 runners. There was a minor agenda prior to the race – an award to the ATR for over $25,000 in donations over the 17 year history of the race.

With a couple of announcements such as “Keep the flags at your left – there are many trails, but only ONE course!” and “Run as hard as you can for as long as you can!” and the traditional – “Go!” we were off.

The first five miles of the race were much hillier than I recall from previous races. It was hard to get into a good rhythm, as I would run solid about ¾ of mile at a sub 8 minute pace, only to go straight uphill the last ¼ mile making my splits around 8:30 for the first part. No one really caught my attention besides one guy who could really run downhill. He passed me on every down hill for the first 4 miles; the problem was he was going way to slow on the flats and up hills. I thought to myself that that guys quads were going to be a mess at the end of the race.

As I was running the first five miles, the thought about how tough this race really settled in. I could not find a solid pace to stick with; it was terribly warm already and without doubt was going to get warmer. From the start, I thought there were around 20 people in front of me. The people that were running around me started tor drop, but I never really could tell how many people were in front of me. It annoyed me to not know where I was in the field, but I thought I was probably where I was at least year’s race – just at or right inside the top twenty. At that point, I decided I just needed to forget about the people in front of me and just run my race. About mile 6, I started to feel better.

I stuck to my nutrition plan, having a GU every 40-45 minutes, refilling my water bottle with my HEED mix every hour – topping off with water every chance I had to get the 24-30 oz of water/heed mix per hour.

I was beginning to feel more in the groove – I still believe the toughest five miles out on that course are the first five (and then again from miles 16-21).

About 7 miles into the race and after a long decent, you hit one of, what I call, the big 3 hills. Although this hill is a long gravel road, it must be about a half mile long in total with a slight “runable” incline in the middle of the hill. This hill just seems to torment me each year, just knowing that it is the first of three hills I detest, and then knowing that I was going to have to climb it again in the 2 loop course.

I soon found myself basically alone through most of the last half of the first loop. The course led to another open prairie section at that time, I counted about 8 people in front of me. I wasn’t going to catch them, and figured there were quite a few more people in front of them. Nothing else too much happened the miles clicked on by. The second and third “bad” hills came and went.

I pulled into the halfway point at 2:14:20. I was on target, but with the warmer weather, I knew I was going to have to slow down a bit so I wouldn’t risk heat exhaustion. I decided I would shoot for 4:45, just a bit faster than last year.

I started out on the second loop after restocking and fueling up once again. This time around, I grabbed my Ziploc bag that was filled with 3 more GUs, cliff bar, 2 pill containers of HEED, and a few more S –Caps. I refilled my HEED, ate ½ the cliff bar, and had my 4th GU of the day at the half-way point.

I ran through the terrible first 5 miles of the course basically solo. I came out of the wooded area to a prairie and noticed I had 2 people I could catch about quarter mile ahead of me. I focused on them and caught them on an incline that I ran and they decided to walk. One guy in my age group and one woman; I passed both with a runner’s “Keep it up”. They were both struggling. As soon I passed them, I had another guy, in my age group, pass me from out of nowhere. He went pretty fast by me, but then slowed, sped up, slowed and eventuality we were passing one another every quarter mile or so. We hit that first hill again, and we walked up together.

I found out his name was Rob, and this was a training run for a 50 mile event in the fall. He wanted to make it through the 31 mile race and feel pretty good. He started with a buddy, who was struggling during the first loop. Finally, he decided to drop his buddy at about mile 13 and he had picked up his pace. We chatted for bit, and were running together for about a two mile period. We hit a flat space and we both ran well. He was a bit in front of me at that point, but we came to an aid station and I passed him as he walked in. I was quick through the aid station and did not see Rob again, but I was just sure he was going to catch me all the way up until the finish line.

With about 6 miles to go in the race I came upon an aid station. I first spotted my wife’s beautiful smile, then my boys bopping around, and my brother, all looking in a different direction down a different section of the trail (this was a two sided aid station). It was great to see them, and finally I was with reach and had enough energy to yell at them. I came in and had my water bottle topped off again, and gave the boys high fives. My wife and brother both said that I was doing really well, and both said that I was likely in the top ten. What?? Top Ten?? No way. My time was similar to last year at this point, and last year I came in 19th.

At this point in the race, the down hills really had torn up my quads. It hurt more to walk than run, so I simply just ran as much as could. I passed one more guy shortly after the aid station on the last really bad hill. He was struggling and I didn’t think he had the fuel to catch me in the end.

Overall, I was happy to be up in the standings 11 spots. With the heat, I was happy with just coming in faster than last year’s time given the conditions.

Food/Fuel consumed
Prior: Cliff Bar, Banana and 30 oz of water (1.5 hours before); Espresso Love GU (15 min prior)
During: HEED refill topped with water every hour (dumped out each hour and started new if some mix was in there) 5 total – approx 30 oz water/heed mix every hour; GU (either Espresso Love or Vanilla Bean) every 40-45- total of 7 GUs, ½ cliff bar at 15.5 miles, 5 S Caps, and pretzels at 21.6 aid station.

1 - 8:18
2 - 8:37
3 - 7:50
4 - 9:06
5 – 8:47
6 – 7:53
7 – 7:58
8 – 8:50
9 – 7:38
10 – 9:53
11 – 7:49
12 – 9:11
13 – 8:10
14- 10:09
15- 9:57
16 – 8:21
17 – 10:04
18 – 8:17
19 – 10:08
20 – 10:00
21 – 8:57
22 – 8:23
23 – 11:11
24 – 8:18
25 – 10:12
26 – 10:34
27 – 8:58
28 – 10:38
29 – 10:55
30 – 11:12
31 – 10:20
.1 - :44

Total Time running – 4:47:16 (official race time was 4:49:58) difference due to “auto pause” set on Garmin during aid station stops.

At the start of the race…..

Out on the prairie trail…

At the half-way point – 2:14:20 on the clock!!

Quick results from ATR...4th in the men's open, 8th overall - 4:49 and still sore!

2010-07-05T09:46:00.001-05:00

With 10 days to go.....Taper!

2010-06-24T20:03:00.000-05:00

Finally - after a few weeks of really hitting the running hard, it is time to start to lay off a bit!

Maybe I'll have to kick back and one of these to celebrate:

On Friday, I ran a 50k in about 4 hrs and 24 minutes. It was a great run to have under my belt with two weeks out. I followed up the 31 mile run with a 6.5 mile run on Saturday. The back to back days helps with the feeling of running on legs that are shot (muscle fatigue). Yes, my legs were shot. It was 31 miles the day before after all!

The past week, I did one last tempo run, where I had 8.5 miles in 60 minutes. Not as fast as I would like, but with the high humidity and temps in the 90s, it was a solid run in hindsight (while running it, I thought it was way to hard and way to slow!).

I know go pretty easy until race time, letting my legs feel rested for the race. I've started my pre-race rituals - checking the 10 day weather outlook, looking at past results to see where I should pinpoint my goal time, etc.

For the ultra running geeks, this weekend is shaping up to be a great race weekend at Western States 100. There is great competition at WS100 this year and it will be fun to see how it plays out. Just to call out the men's race picks - Geoff Roes or Hal Koerner - it is a toss up - slight edge to Roes based on what I've read.

6/17 - 5.5 miles

6/18 - 31 miles

6/19 - 6.5 miles

6/20 - OFF

6/21 - 9.2 miles

6/22 - 10 miles (8.5 @ 7:03)

6/23 - 10.6 miles

YTD - 1370.6 miles

Training, Training, and More Training

2010-06-17T07:55:00.005-05:00

It has been a while since my last post. If you ask what I've been up to, basically, the title sums it up.

With two younger boys in baseball, finishing up school recently, and now all the summer activities, it has been about a full time job being a scheduler, chauffeur, and athletic supporter (ha!).

I have had a few longer runs built into my training plan for 50k Afton Trail run on July 3rd and have actually managed to get them in. One run recently involved me getting up at 3:30 am to be running by 4 am. With a 4 hour run, and some stops, the total run finished up around 8:30 am. Then off to work - but I did get the run in!!

With all the training, I feel pretty good moving toward the 50k. I have a couple more hard workouts left, including a 4.5 hour easy run and a 60 minute tempo run, then begin to taper around 10 days out from the race.

A few random take aways from some runs over the past month -

1- Proper fueling does help!! At Ice Age, I ran out of gas and I decided that I would focus on proper fueling for Afton. So, I found that I really like GU. Seriously, I have started to use these and I can really tell they help. I rarely feel like I'm running out of gas during my runs by using the GUs to help provide the proper nutrition. I have two flavors that seem to work for me: vanilla bean and Espresso love.

On longer runs, I try and space these out about 45 minutes each. On a three hour run, that means about 4 of them. With a 4 or 4.5 hr run, this means 5 or 6. I try and use the vanilla bean for most of the run, and when things start to get tough or I feel like I'm going to hit the wall, I'll use the espresso love with 2x the caffeine to help get me through it. Along with using HEED, there really is no excuse to run out of gas like I did at Ice Age.

2- I recently upgraded my phone to a myTouch android phone. I'm not that different than others in this category, moving to a smart phone, but I did find out about the versatility of the phone and apps that I can use. For my runs less than 2 hrs, I feel comfortable using my phone for both music (through Pandora app) and GPS distance and time (through Cardio Trainer).

3 - I've recently started to follow more blogs regarding "elite" ultra trail runners. Geoff Roes, Karl Meltzer, Hal Koerner and the likes. My biggest takeaway is the difference in training each one of these elites do. Some do just over a hundred miles a week, others do 200. It amazes me that there is this much difference in training for these elites. I have always thought the more mileage the better, but after reading blogs, it really does come down to 2-3 long runs a week, mixed in with some solid tempo running, and some hard hills. Each one also stresses the importance of recovery and feeling strong. It will be interesting to see how Western States pans out this year - my two picks are Geoff and Hal in that order.

Okay - here is the list of daily workout runs - (I have also linked my new web based training log at the top of the blog!)

5/20 - 7 miles

5/21 - 16.6 miles

5/22 - 8 miles

5/23 - 5.2 miles

5/24 - 8.2 miles

5/25 - 7.4 miles

5/26 -11.6 miles (Progression)

5/27 - 8.4 miles

5/28 - 17 miles (trail)

5/29 - OFF

5/30 - 4 miles

5/31 - 7 miles

6/1- 9.1 miles (54 min @ 6:50)

6/2 - 13.1 miles

6/3 - 8.25 miles

6/4 - 20 miles

6/5 - 14.2 miles

6/6 - OFF

6/7 - 7.51 miles

6/8 - 7.51 miles

6/9 - 10.89 miles

6/10 - 5 miles

6/11 - 28 miles

6/12 - OFF

6/13 - 7.33 miles

6/14 - 8.25 miles

6/15 - 12.41 miles (4 X 15 min at 6:40 pace)

6/16 - 12.46 miles

YTD - 1297.8 miles

Ice age 50k race and nutrition report

2010-05-19T14:11:00.009-05:00

Summary -

Solid race, if you took a look at the results, 1 1/2 minutes was the difference between 13th (4:29:38) and 8th (4:28:04). I didn't use a watch at all for the race, my Garmin lost its charge overnight and my non-GPS running watch battery died last week. I had no idea about time while I was out on the course. That led me to be off regarding my fueling plan; I took too long to take my gels and not enough lytes. I was stuck holding two GU's at the end of the race that I should have used.

I ran out of gas the last two miles. I was well trained and had a good plan, I just didn't fuel properly and I had nothing left in the tank for the short steep up hills at the end. I was pretty much 14th the entire race, up to 13th about mile 20; then as high as 11th in final 4 miles. I gave back two spots in the final half mile - I hate getting passed that late in the race.

Overall a solid race, just a bad taste in my mouth regarding my watch issue, missing out on my fuel plan, and getting passed in last half mile. I'm thrilled to get a 4:30 on this tough of a course.

More details:

Although there were cool temps and a forecast of 30 mph winds, the winds were really not a factor as the course was shielded from the wind throughout the race. There were a couple of sections where it was "open" and wind was a cross wind vs. a head wind - it just made it chilly at those spots.

The first big decision of the day was about the shoes. Which shoes do you wear for a race on a trail - trail shoes or road shoes?

I went with the trail shoes..... My Garmin mysteriously lost its charge overnight and my regular non- GPS running watch battery died the week before. I ran the race without a clock attached to me.

Here is a picture of the start line - sorry for the blurry pic - best I could find! I am just to the left of the guy in the bright yellow shirt on the left 1/3 of the picture - I am wearing the navy running baseball style hat!)

I figured a good start would be under 2 hours for the out and back 13 mile section. Started hard and ran a solid. I found a "pacer" and decided to stick with him for a while. After the turnaround, I saw John on the way back in - he mentioned something about 59 minutes - I was about 7 miles into the 13 mile out and back - okay, I think I was on target....

(From the picture below, you can see the out and back section followed by the loop which we did - twice!)

The 13 mile out and back section leads us back to the start line - I was expecting my first glimpse of a clock. There was none to be found. I thought I was running a little fast, but I felt good, so I kept pace. About a half mile into the Nordic loop - I settled into a pace next to someone who was running the second leg of the 50k relay. He let me know the official time was 1 hr and 54 minutes. WOW - I was way ahead of where I thought I would be and realized I had a good shot of running a 4:30 trail 50k.
The loop was pretty uneventful, but I noticed a few steep up hills. I realized these would not be fun on the second lap. Also, I forgot where the aid stations were, I thought the aid station was about 4 miles into the loop - it was six. I thought I was never going to get there!! I finally saw a sign that said the next aid station was a short 97 trees away... (It was short; imagine counting trees in a dense forest...)

After the first loop, I saw the clock for the first time. 3:05:??... Wow, I just had to run 9 miles in hour and 25 minutes to get under 4:30?? I could do that!!

I ran next to a guy who said this was his first 50k. I mentioned he was doing a great job, keep it up, although it can and will likely get harder, it will end. He mentioned to me that he knew, he ran on the trail before – a 50 mile run and a 100 mile run (different races). Nice Sturm-Smith (duh!) – (I should have learned my lesson a few years ago when a guy asked me during a 10k what my 10k PR was. I said I didn’t have one – I never ran a 10k before. Oh yeah – I went to Boston earlier that year and had done about 8 marathons at that point – just never ran anything shorter than a 20k. Just as an FYI – I came in 3rd at that 10k race and the guy who asked me the question came in 4th.)

It was a struggle the last two miles, I walked quite a bit of the up hills - I just ran out of gas.... Without my watch, my fuel plan went out the window and I was stuck holding a couple extra GUs that I should have taken on the race. I passed a few people on the first and second loop only to give back two spots in the final mile. 13th overall and with a time of 4:29:38.

Running a sub 4:30 on that was a great accomplishment for me!

I headed back to car to change and get warmer. While I was changing in the car, it started to rain - HARD. Then it started to HAIL (pebble sized, but still hail!!). My thought was 1) that sucks that John is still out there; 2) I'm sure glad I'm done!

Nutrition Plan Review

Pre-race - Bottle of Water + Clif Bar + Banana.

The Race -

I detailed out my fuel plan prior to the race as follows:
GU every 45 minutes
HEED (20oz) + HEED (yes, they provided HEED!) from aid station (4-6 oz)
1/2 Clif bar at mile 13
1/2 bottle of ensure at mile 22.
S caps at mile 13 and 22.

MISTAKE #1 - Forgetting the S Caps.

Oops, I'll have to come up with something else at the aid stations...Pretzels??

I was running with a guy and I asked him how long we had been on the course. He said 38 minutes; I waited for the next incline and took my first GU.

For the water/heed mix - There was an aid station I planned to hit just before an hour. My plan was to start with a full bottle of HEED. I carried a pill bottle with 1 scoop of HEED in it and planned to mix up another batch at the first aid station.

MISTAKE #2 - Turned around without actually stopping.

I drank almost all of my HEED mix at that point, but did not refuel. After I turned around and ran about a half mile - I thought - "THAT was stupid, you needed to reload!!" I missed out not only on my 20 oz HEED refill, but also the 4-6 oz of additional HEED I would have been able to get from the aid station.

MISTAKE #3 - Not having a watch.

I lost track of time, took my second GU around hour 2. Not too bad, but I was behind from what I though I might need. I stopped at the drop
area/cooler and picked up new handheld bottle of HEED and ate 1/2 cliff bar.

MISTAKE #4 - Ran the loop - didn't drink enough HEED.

Stopped at the AID station about mile 19 (2 hrs 40 minutes into the race??) Grabbed some HEED off the table and had them top off my hand held with water. It was only about half empty. Grabbed 4-5 pretzels (is that a substitute for S caps??) and a quarter of a PB and jelly sandwich because it looked good.

MISTAKE #5. Ran by the drop area without stopping with 9 miles to go. The plan was to stop, dump my water/heed mix and fill up with a bottle I had mixed prior to the race. I didn't stop - I only had 9 miles to go!(Funny how the mind works!!)

I did grab some more pretzels, I felt much better after having those from the last aid station. I also grabbed a cup of heed, and had my water filled once again with water only.

Drank the rest of water/heed mix, - took third Gel about 3 hrs and 10 minutes. That was my last GU that I took, but I still had one in my Race Ready shorts and one at the drop bag that I was suppose to pick up at the drop bag...

With 4 miles left in the race, I grabbed a few more pretzels and decided to just run hard and be done.

I ran out of gas with 2 miles to go. I made it through 1 mile okay, but the last mile I had nothing in the tank.

Overall - here is what I had:
50-56 oz of HEED

20-30 oz of H2O
3 Clif Mocha Gels
1/2 Clif bar
1/4 PB and Jelly sandwich
18 small pretzels
Part of me didn't want to stop to fuel up out on the race - I knew there were a few guys around me pretty close and all I could think about was the "time" I was losing by stopping at the aid station/drop bag. In the end, it would have better to stop for 30 seconds and been able to run harder at the end.

Since it has been a while since my last posts - here is the quick version of miles ran by day -

4/26 - 5 miles

4/27 - 7 miles (30 min @ 6:30)

4/28 - 10 miles

4/29 - 7.2 miles

4/30 - 6.5 miles

5/1 - 9.2 miles

5/2 - OFF

5/3 - 5.5

5/4 - 5 miles (2 miles easy - 1 mile @ 7:10, 1 mile at 6:05, 1 mile at 7:10)

5/5 - 5.1 miles

5/6 - OFF

5/7 - 3.1 miles (Strides)

5/8 - 31 miles (RACE)

5/9 - OFF

5/10 - 5 miles

5/11 - 8 miles

5/12 - 10 miles

5/13 - 10.5 miles

5/14 - 11.75

5/15 - 3.1 miles (10K Race with family!)

5/16 - 8 miles

5/17 - 6.3 miles

5/18 - 10.7 miles (50 min at 6:39 pace)

5/19 - 13 miles

YTD miles: 1032.9

The running week and a bloody nose...

2010-04-26T07:19:00.006-05:00

The weather decided to cause havoc on my running week. Okay, I caused havoc on my running week and blamed it on weather.....

After the trail race (race report to come shortly!), an easy week of running was planned. Well - let me rephrase that - it was a week without speed work but some nice long slow miles.

All week, I heard it was going to rain on the weekend. I got really worked up about it, and sliding my Saturday run to Friday morning (also kids schedules played a role), and my Wednesday run to Tuesday. Tuesday run was a success. On Thursday, one child was sick, so it was my turn to stay home. No issues, I had planned to take the day off of running, and run Friday morning. Well, Thursday was a gorgeous day, Friday called for rain, and I didn't want to take more time off of work for running since I just took time off to take care of the kiddo....

Hmm....I could do the long run on Thursday night. My wife was going to be home around 7. I could start at 7 at night, end around 11. Okay - I can do this.

I ran 9.5 miles. Called my wife to drag the kids out with her and and come and pick me up. Bonk. Working around the house all day, not eating right, and doing a nigh time run were not for me.

Okay, long run had to wait until Sunday - it was suppose to rain.

So, yesterday, I went out - ran long, and had a really good run...some of it in the rain. Nice run in prep for the 50k in less than two weeks. Clif bar and Clif Mocha gels were used along with 40 oz of HEED. Probably not enough while I was running, but it was good enough and I felt fine after the run....

Well, until later that day...

When I was playing catch with my son and wasn't paying attention (yes, me, not my son) - he nailed me in the nose with the baseball. Hard. I think I've had two bloody noses in my life. The amount of blood that came out yesterday was nothing like I had ever seen. I could have ran to a blood bank and someone could have used the pint of blood I lost....

Anyway, all good. Next time, I'll be paying attention to the ball.

The week that was:

4/21 - 8.3 miles

4/22 - 9.5 miles

4/23 - 7.14 miles

4/24 - 5.77 miles

4/25 - 27 miles

YTD - 851.95

Running weather, kids, and the Twins!

2010-04-20T14:03:00.006-05:00

The weather has been great here the last couple of weeks. The trees and flowers are blooming and it feels great to get outside and run. Getting out and running is really fun when the weather is as nice as it has been!

My oldest son's under 9 baseball team rocks. My son throws the baseball harder than I have ever thrown a ball - yes, even today he can out throw me!

My other son is playing tee ball. He gets bored and doesn't understand why he can't play "big boy" ball. Why does he want to grow up so fast? Tee ball is the best - there are no losers, everyone hits, and everyone is always safe!!

Just so I don't forget to log the miles - here are the past couple of weeks of runs. There is a race in there and I'll do a race write up soon.

4/9 - 10.33 miles - 10 x hill workout

4/10 - Easy 6.5 miles

4/11 - 7.5 miles

4/12 - OFF (Taper for race week!)

4/13- 8 miles

4/14 - 7 miles

4/15 - OFF

4/16 - 4 miles

4/17 - 16.5 miles (1 mile warm-up - 15.5 mile race - 1 hr 51 minutes and change - 7:11 pace for the trail race - write up soon!)

4/18 - 6.5 miles easy

4/19 - 7 miles easy

4/20-13.15 miles easy

YTD - 794.24 miles.

Oh yeah - after the race on Saturday - I was treated by my rock'n bro to this:

What a great afternoon!! By the way - the Twins won this game against the Royals! Twins are the best!

2010-04-09T05:10:00.000-05:00

Be careful what you ask for.

As most of you know, I have a running coach who puts together my running plan. Basically, it works like this. I email coach and tell him I what races I want to run. Coach provides me a training plan that includes 5 to 7 running days a week, and includes a mix of one or two days of speed work, a midweek shorter-longer run, a weekend long runs and a few days of easy recovery runs.

(A shorter-longer run is a run greater than 10 miles but not nearly as long as the weekend run- see, I have lost it....)

Nothing too much out of the ordinary for any plan you might pick up from Runner's World, Running Times, or a book such as Advanced Marathoning or from legendary coach Jack Daniels in his book - Daniels Running formula. There are plenty of them out there but all of the long distances basically have the same formula as above.

So why hire a coach? I ran a 3:06 marathon without a coach and haven't run one faster since. For me, it basically comes down to three reasons.

Injuries - I know have a history with stress fractures. Books don't exactly do the best job of making adjustments on the fly when my shin problems rear their ugly head.

Going beyond the 26.2 marathon. Like I mentioned above, a plethora of choices for 26.2 training but going beyond seems to narrow down the training guides and books quite a bit. And even then, the message is not nearly as consistent as it is for the marathons. Some plans do not include speed work, others really rack up the mileage, etc.

Keeps me accountable. I send a report to coach weekly.

I was taking a look my plan and noticed with my 50k coming up in May, on my schedule, my longest run was "only" 3 hrs and 15 minutes.

So the email looked like this...

I was just taking a look at my plan between now and the two upcoming racing (4/17 & 5/8). It looks like this weekend’s (4/3) 3 hr and 15 minutes is my last long run. This seems a little far out from the 50k to start to shorten the training plan, at least mentally. I trust your plan, just now sure about me mentally to go the distance of a 50k. Longest run so far this year was 22 miles. Thoughts?

I was hoping for an email to just run longer on the weekend of 4/24 - maybe 25 miles or so. Here was his reply...

4/3- 3 hrs. 45 min. ~27-28 miles
4/10- 60-80 min, EASY
4/17- Race 25k-- Warm up 3 miles, race 15.5, cool down 5 miles-- ~23 miles 4/24- 4 hrs- Easy- ~28-29 miles

Wow!! Serious mileage.

During the 4/3 run - it ended being on 4/2 due to traveling on Easter weekend, and I came in right at 3:45 with 27.66 miles. I've decided to pay attention more to my nutrition on these long runs. So I decided to track what I was eating just prior and during the run. I had a pre-run snack of a Clif bar and 12 oz water. Over the 3 hrs and 45 minutes – I had 40 oz of Heed (.75 scoop per 20 oz of water) and 6 fig Newtons (2 per hour at 1 hr, 2 hr, and 3 hr). After running that long I was a little nauseous. I went home, and had some chocolate milk for recovery.

After some review, I don't think I hit my carb target right. Basically, I'm aiming for 40-60 grams of carbs per hour and the above worked out to 25.6 grams of carbs per hour.

I don't have many long runs to experiment with, however, I did have a 90 minute progression run (30 min easy, 30 min at 7:12 pace, and 30 earlier this week. For the first time, I used a HEED and Clif Mocha gel together. I drank about 5 oz of heed mix after the easy warm-up, 10 oz along with the gel at the 45 min mark; and the last 5 oz with the 35 min left. I felt great through my run. Here are the products I used:

On a side note - I was running along a gravel road for an easy 6.2 miles one day. It looked like this. The road had recently been flooded so I expected some rough spots.

Looks like a pot hole coming up.....

Wow - this pothole is bigger than my car! Yes, I believe that a car was lost in the pot hole - do you see all that is left is a tire???

Anyway - the week of running that was:

4/1 - 6.2 miles - easy

4/2 - 27.66 miles in 3:45

4/3 - OFF

4/4 - 7 miles - EASY

4/5 - 5.2 miles of tech trail

4/6 - 40 min tempo run - 6 miles at 6:47 pace - total of 8.7 miles

4/7 - 30/30/30 min each of easy, race and threshold - 12.15 miles total

4/8 - 6.2 easy miles

YTD - 707.76 miles

Trails...

2010-04-01T08:24:00.002-05:00

I hit some trails yesterday. We've had some flooding issues, and usually some of these trails are well underwater. However, yesterday the trails were in good shape.

The first picture is one of three "water" crossings. I went over these twice, for a total of six small water crossings. I know, not really a water crossing, more of a running through puddle....

The trails were pretty technical, lots of turns and switchbacks, so it was hard to get an even pace. However, the small ups and downs and quick turns are great training for the Afton Trail Run 50k in July.

I was out for a total of 1:45 and ran 12 miles. Not a great run, but after Tuesday's hard interval work, I was happy to enjoy the trail running. It was a windy and warm spring day - about 80 degrees and decided to carry water. During the run, I went through 20 oz of water and HEED mix.

3/26 - 14.5 miles

3/27 - 6.5 miles

3/28 - OFF

3/29 - 8.15

3/30 - Split day - 8 X .5 miles @ 3:06; .25 X btwn with a warm up and cool down of 2 miles each at 7:10 pace - total 10 miles. 4 miles easy in the PM - total for the day was 14 miles

3/31 - 12 miles - 6 miles of tech trails.

YTD = 634.65

New Kicks, out in the middle of nowhere, and other random items...

2010-03-25T22:05:00.001-05:00

Okay, after figuring out I had about 440 miles on my pair of shoes, I decided to switch it up. I read about these....Brooks Cascadia 5 Trail running shoes. These were designed by a fellow heel striker and ultra runner - Scott Jurek. (More on Scott here: http://www.scottjurek.com/#/bio/ )

Okay, Scott is in a different league than me, but still, a PT who designed a trail running shoe who is a heel striker? Sounds like some one who knows what he is doing.

I hit the trails over the past couple of weeks with John K to try out the shoes. Nice ride. I'm hooked.

John and I ran some land out in the middle of nowhere Iowa (I'm still not exactly sure where I was at). After "scouting" the land for about 4.8 miles, we came up with a 5k course. We ran it twice - once forward and once backward and came up with an even 3.1 each time.

The hills were killer. This was a tough 11 mile trail run. However, for some odd and likely unreasonable reason, the challenge was worth the 2 hour drive and the run was refreshing. I hope to get back there a few time before the summer races.

Here are a couple pics of the land

Rolling hills was basically all we ran, if you weren't going up, you were running down. Lots of good elevation change. Through the run, it was good to get in a 10 min mile. The change up in pace and terrain was a great way to mix up the normal pavement running.

While out on the run, we decided that we could hold a race out there. It would be an extremely challenging race.

I've recently switched back to drink heed during my runs. The mix seems to work best for me. Also, one item that is growing on me is this yogurt as a snack -

Also - I saw an ad in Ultra runner Magazine about Jason's Nut Butter. Organic peanut butter that I ordered and will try. It sounds yummy and it might be a good alternative to a GU pack on the run. Once I get it and try it out, I'll let you know my thoughts.

My running past for the past couple of weeks

3/11 - 5 miles - easy

3/12 - off

3/13- 21.2 miles in 2 hrs 50 minutes

3/14 - 5 miles

3/15 - 5.6 miles

3/16- Split day - 4 X 3k @ 7:10 with 5 min between - 10.75 miles; 3.6 miles easy

3/17 - 30/30/30 min E/R/T which worked out to e=8:30, R=7:10, T=6:40 = total miles was 12.2 miles

3/18 - Off (elliptical)

3/19 - 3 hrs with the last 60 min at race pace = 22 miles

3/20 - off

3/21 - trail - 7 miles

3/22 - 11.5 miles trail/pavement mix - easy

3/23 - 10 miles total - 1 mile warm up and 9 miles @ 6:47 pace

3/24 - 11 miles trails (HARD!)

3/25 - 5 miles easy

YTD total - 585.5

Sisyphus took my stone....

2010-03-10T21:55:00.001-06:00

I've had a few great runs over the past week. While I was able to hammer away at my runs, it has been such a great change to get outside consistently to run. Spring is definitely close - I'm glad that John decided to officially pronounce winter over back on Friday, Feb. 26th at 11 am. I haven't touched a treadmill since. After this winter, the next time I'm on a treadmill for any reason will seem to soon.

Last Friday, I had something new on my running plan:

8 x hill?

60-70 seconds up

20 min warm and cool

Huh???? I understood the 20 minute warm-up and cool down - what was the whole hill thing - how hard should I run?

In an email - here is what my coach provided for an explanation - "For Friday's hill workout, depending on the hills that you have access to, ideally a hill that takes 2-3 min. to climb, moderate grade of uptempo, sustained running, probably T pace or slightly faster effort/breathing. Run the hill and jog down very easy, low impact and then run the hill again. You should fully recover on the downhill. The purpose of the workout is to get a harder, nearly anaerobic, strength stimulus while not beating your legs up too bad."

So I took off and found a hill. The hill is about .15 miles long and has an elevation climb of 250 ft. That is about a 30% grade. Although short, the hill is pretty ominous when standing at the foot and looking up.

I ran up the first time - 70 seconds, hard.

I do this again, and again, and again until I reach 8 times total.... and I am noticeably working harder to get up the hill in 70 seconds.

Afterward, I realized that I must look like an idiot just running up this steep hill over and over again. I guess it could have been worse if Sisyphus wouldn't have stole my rock....

After last week, I have a scheduled easy week this week. The highlight of this week was a 40 minute tempo run. I had a 1.5 mile warm up and 1.5 mile cool down with the middle 6 miles fast. (Bring it Tony!!)

Also - just cause I made it, a sample of this week's supper....

Grilled Chicken seasoned with Jamaican jerk and pepper served with brown rice and a few chips - and yes - the salsa and guacamole is homemade.

Yummy!

Runs since my last post:

3/2 - 9.15 miles (5 X 5min at T pace with 3 min easy between runs)

3/3 - 12.15 miles

3/4 - 5.5 miles

3/5 - Hills - see above - 5.4 miles

3/6 - 21 miles (3 hrs)

3/7 - OFF

3/8 - 7.1 miles

3/9 - 9 miles total with 40 min @ T pace (6:40)

3/10 - 10.1 miles am; 5 miles pm

YTD - 455.65 miles

Feb in the books

2010-03-02T16:49:00.000-06:00

Inside my Franklin Covey Binder [and the answer is yes, I still use a paper binder to compliment my blackberry (work), smart phone (personal), and various Google calenders] is my scribbled upon half sheet action plan and running log.

Really - do I need all those things to stay organized??? I once heard only keep one calendar for everything and you'll stay organized. The calender in my Franklin is the key - but I do have a family calendar I check with, work calendar I check with, baseball calendar, etc.

Back to running....

Taking a quick review - the biggest highlight - or maybe more accurately non-highlight was missing the Run Toto Psycho Run on Feb 13. With the bout of injuries I've had lately, better to sit one out and live to run another day.

Coming in a close second was the full week of the 21st through the 27th. I was hitting most of runs on target - and feeling good. Basically, it felt good to go at the 7:10 pace for a lot of the runs during of the week. I ended the week with a 3 hour run, with the 6 miles at the end at that 7:10 pace. I'll take it for February.

I've let my nutrition slide, but will try to get back track in March.

New Race - I've recently signed up for the Trail Mix 25K on April 17 - just three weeks out from Ice Age.

Bring on the March madness!!

26th - 21 miles (2:49)
27th - 7 miles
28th - Off
March 1 - 5.1

YTD - 371.25

Pick it up Tony!

2010-02-25T08:39:00.007-06:00

A high school pal, Tony K. posted a pick on Facebook of his "easy" running day back on Feb 16. Ever since than, I've been looking for a good opportunity to run some speed work on the dreadmill just to see if I could crush it. (His picture shows a display of 8.01 miles in 58:27 or a pace of 7:18 a mile.)

Yeah - call me competitive.... I know, totally one sided here as I'm sure Tony could care less what I'm running.

Funny how these one sided rivalries seem to exist in running. I have many one sided rivalries that keep me motivated. I have also heard many stories from some of my running buddies about other runners who they wish to beat in runs that just seem to edge them out in races. However that runner who they are trying to beat has no idea that someone is trying to beat them.

Another example from me is Helen - you can visit her blog - Live Life. Be Passionate.- on the links to the side. She crushed me at Afton last year (20 min) and blew me away (1 hr) at Lean Horse. She has no idea who I am, yet I'm going for her. In fact, she recently posted her goals for the 2010 Afton Trail run is a sub 4:30. I told my running coach, I'm going for a sub 4:29.

Funny, really when it comes down to it, for me, it is a matter of testing my limits and seeing how much I can push myself. Other runners provide me with a "measuring stick" of sorts. For example, with Helen, it is a matter of where I compare to her after each race. Do I seem to be falling behind? Or improving?

So Tony, pick it up. Post your picture. I'll be gunning for it.

Monday - easy 40 minutes - 5.15 miles

Tuesday - 10X3 min @ 6:44 pace, with 2 min easy - 7.5 miles (with warm-up and cool down)

Wednesday - 25 min E,30 min R,30 min T,5 min E - E =8:15, R=7:13, T=6:44 - total 12 miles (yeah Tony - I ran 25 minutes prior to the picture above AND I continued to do the 6:44 pace for the additional 4 minutes)

Thursday - a planned (and needed) day off.

Upcoming - Friday - 3 hrs with the last 60 minutes at R pace.

YTD - 338.15 miles

Yuck - more snow!

2010-02-21T22:23:00.001-06:00

I know this picture is blurry, but you'll get an idea of how the roads were on Saturday morning.

I arrived at 6:40 for the 6:45 am departure time. From our running group postings, I thought we would have a nice small group at 6:45 for the first 7 miles before meeting with the Capital Striders' group at 8 am for the remaining 7 or 8 miles. Well at 6:44, I was the only one in the parking lot, and the world's greatest minivan pulled up next to my VUE.

John hops out of the van ready to go and says "It's just us till 8 - everyone else bailed (because of the weather)." Yuck - the day before we had received another 3-4 inches of the powered stuff - and this was really made the roads more of a sand like consistency.

We tried to imagine running on the beach for about 3 seconds, than realized if we were running on the beach we wouldn't be wearing stocking caps, mittens, and 10lbs of other running clothes.

I'm ready for this to be over! Bring on the 90 degree heat instead of the snow!!!

A quick review in the week that was:

My ankle seems to be healing fine and I'm pretty much back to normal running. I went a little hard this week, likely in response to being mad about missing the race last week.

Wednesday - TEMPO run - 7.5 miles - 30 minutes at 6:50 - 7 min mile pace with 3 miles of warm up and cool down. Yes, outside on the ice.

Thursday - 8 miles on the treadmill just under an hour.

Friday - 7 miles easy

Saturday - 2:15 about 15 miles. See pic above for explanation about slower pace.

Sunday - 8 miles in 59 minutes - Outside on semi hilly modified Drake half marathon course. The roads were much better......

YTD - 313.5

I know I have posted much about nutrition lately - basically, I get hungry and start eating so fast that I forget to take a picture.

The Run that wasn't....

2010-02-16T22:48:00.003-06:00

Even with the ankle, I was determined to run.

My body had other thoughts though. Even with RICE, my ankle was only about 50% on Friday Afternoon. I decided to bag the race, call it quites before it even started.

Although the right decision, this was one I did not like to make, especially this race! PsychoWyco will always be a special race for me. About three years ago, John asked me if I wanted to do a trail race, something a little different than the road marathons that I had become so familiar.

Why not? Getting out on a trail seemed like a good challenge. I wasn't going to have to worry about speed so much - just finish. It was a novelty that I had wanted to try, and running a trail race in February wouldn't mess up my spring and fall marathon plan.

Well, fast forward a few years later and if I had to choose between a marathon and trail run, trail runs win hands down.

For me, it is about running on those 4 foot wide bridle trials, those single track mountain bike trails, the challenge of the different terrain, all those ups and downs, and basically; the beauty of the run.

Here is what I missed:

miles of running smiles!Reminding yourself that "it's all just training for Ice Age" (John and I started saying this about two years ago - since we actually signed up for the Ice Age this year, we'll have to come up with a new race to train for...."
Missed out on running with this Living Running Legend:
FYI - I emailed Kurt to let him know I could not run due to the bum wheel and it being the size of a grapefruit on Friday - Kurt's response was "That sucks. I’ve been trying to get mine to swell up like that all week."

Oh yeah, and I what did I miss the most - getting this muddy!!

Friday - 2/12 - attempted to swim, but ankle was causing too much pain and had to to quite after 400 meters.

Saturday 2/13 - my ankle was still swollen, so I did the elliptical and some spinning. The ankle was pain free as long as I only moved it up and down and not side to side.

Sunday - 2/14 - the swelling went way down, I hopped on the treadmill for 7.5 miles and all was good. No ankle pain.

Monday 2/15 - 10 miles, easy treadmill.

Tuesday 2/16 - 7.5 miles, hills

Ankle is about at 90%-95% with little swelling. Definitely not a 100%, but making progress to full recovery.

YTD miles: 268 miles

Seriously - ankle sprain??

2010-02-11T08:44:00.011-06:00

I'm getting ready for the Psycho Race this weekend. This was a planned light week for me. I've done pretty well this week. I've cut back on the amount of running I'm doing to let my body heal, more so than I have in the past and I've been eating right - For example, here is what I had for supper on Tuesday night....

Grilled sliced chicken breast apple sandwich with a side salad. I had about 3 oz of sliced chicken breast, two pieces of whole wheat bread, 1/2 apple - sliced, and about a tablespoon of natural organic apple butter. The side salad was 3 cups organic spring leaf mix with almonds and a clementine orange with 2 tablespoons of Newman's Own Sesame Ginger Salad . This was filling and satisfying....

In prep for the race, I've contacted my coach and nutritionist, and have a solid plan for both the run and fuel intake needs. My running plan consists of running the inclines, flats, and downhills - walk the steep uphills. My running coach recommends I push it a bit on the second loop and try to run it all. I told him, this is tough race, but I'll plan to give it a shot. My nutrition plan consists of 16-32 oz of water along with 40-60 grams of carbs per hour.

The planned week of running was Sunday - off, Monday - easy 5, Tuesday - speed work (8 X 2 min on, 1 min rest with warm-up and cool down, Wednesday - easy 5, Thursday - off, Friday 20 min with strides, Saturday - 20 mile race.

Everything was going to plan until yesterday's (Wednesday's) easy run. I went outside and although icy, the ice had nothing to do with it, I hit some uneven pavement and took a spill. Second fall within a week. All seemed well so I got up, walked off the pain, and carried on my 5 mile easy Wednesday run. Although falling down is not something that occurs regularly, it does occasionally happen, so I really didn't think twice about it.

Here is what my view was from my work computer earlier today....

Yes, an ice pack taped to elevated ankle. This ankle is sore. My "ankle bone" is about the size of a small grapefruit or large orange. I've contacted my PT to get some quick solutions to stop the swelling and he recommends RICE. (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation). Yikes, in the almost 8 years of running, I've never had this amount of swelling for a sprained ankle.

Hopefully, the swelling will go down, and I'll be able to take some ibuprofen to minimize the swelling/pain on the run this Saturday!!

2/7 - off

2/8 - 5.15 miles

2/9 - 5 miles with warm-up/cool-down and 8X2 with 1 min rest at 6:40 pace)

2/10 - easy 5 miles

2/11 - planned and now ankle sprain day off.....

YTD - 243 miles...

Turning a bad run into a good run

2010-02-05T12:48:00.004-06:00

Do you want to know what running looks like at 5 am in the morning in the winter in Iowa?

Here you go!

I started out at 4:50 AM for an easy long run of 18 miles from work. I know "easy" and "18 miles" probably don't go together, but it is much better than racing 18 miles. I had quite the week of speed work, so running long a day earlier cut out one day of a easy recovery run. Basically, it was a sucky 18 mile run that turned into a sucky 20 mile run.

Huh? How do you plan to run 18, have it be a not so good run, and then end up with 20? Let me try to explain....

Today was just one of those days where my running was, at best, out of sync. I believe, like many sports, running is mental. When I was out running my planned 18 miles, it was not going well. I wasn't running as hard/fast as I wanted and I wasn't hitting my timing marks/miles like I wanted.

At mile 16.75, I attempted to jump from a street to a bike trail. Too bad the street decided to play a joke on me. It put a patch of ice right where I pushed off for the jump. After a few seconds of assessing that all my bones were still attached and together, I got up and brushed the light snow off. No rips on the clothes - I seemed to be okay. Too bad the bus full of kids saw me take the spill - I'm sure they thought it was funny and likely a short video will show up on YouTube in the near future.

Okay, the run was now officially "not a good run". I was going to head back to work and call it day for running. Than I thought 18 miles is good, but 20 is a solid long run. By running just two more miles, I can get a 20 mile run completed, something I haven't done since August. Okay, how bad could 2 more miles really be? In today's case, it wasn't any worse than the first 18. If it going to be bad anyway, at least, mentally, 20 miles is a huge accomplishment.

I finished at 20.2 miles at 2 hrs and 50 minutes without stopping my watch (I guess I had about 5-8 minutes of stop time due to traffic, water, etc.)

I'll take it for an easy long run. First 20 mile run back from injury - yeah for me!

2/3 - Progression run 20,20,20 min at Easy (8:20), Race (7:01), and Threshold (6:38) - 9.25 miles with warm-up and cool down

2/4 - 7.5 miles - easy

2/5 - 20 miles - easy long run

YTD - 227.85

two in one day

2010-02-02T21:55:00.003-06:00

Today's workout called for a split workout. In the AM, I hit some speed work with 4 X 5 min with 3 min recovery. The 5 min speed work was done at the following paces: 6:45, 6;45, 6:40, and 6:35. Total with warm up and cool down was 6 miles. In the PM, I did an easy recovery 32 minute run - 4 miles even. Total miles for the day - 10.

With the two workouts today, nutrition was a top of mind. Planning out meals through today was important as I now see I need to plan my proper fuel for my body throughout the day. I give myself a good rating for the day - it would have been better if those work meetings didn't get in the way!

I started out the day with a bowl of oatmeal and a two egg white omelet with bell peppers . I was busy in meetings today, so a quick mini bagel with natural PB was my mid morning snack. I hit my morning run around 11 am and grabbed a clif bar for recovery. I had a smart ones cheese and chicken enchilada along with spinach and fat free dressing and yogurt for lunch. My afternoon snack was an apple with PB. I then hit my afternoon 30 min run around 5 pm, and ate a hamburger and salad for supper. With all the running, I wanted to make sure I was getting enough protein. So for my after supper snack, I made a chocolate shake with this and ice cubs. This chocolate shake always hit the spot for me.

2/1 - 6.55 miles

2/2 - 6 miles speed work and 4 miles easy (split) - 10 miles total

YTD - 191.10

I'm a put it on the list and cross it off kind of a guy

2010-02-01T07:48:00.004-06:00

Recently, my wife posted a list on the side of the fridge. It simply stated "To Do in 2010". Some of items were doable, others I consider a stretch goal to get done. These are items like "Clean upstairs closet" which I'm sure through the mountains of old clothes and an assortment of items likely lead to pine trees and then Narnia at some point.

I must say, the list gives me direction and clarity. If something is on a list, I attack it. I like the sense of crossing things off my list. This is why I like planned running. It is my list of daily dose of running to get me to my longer goals. What do I have to do today to get to my running goal?

Don't get this confused that running becomes a daily task for me, it isn't, it is a great escape - a self induced running high like no other. However, knowing I got in a run for the day allows me to cross at least one item on my DTL (Daily Task List).

January was a great month for me. After coming back from injury, I was able to cross off runs on my calender basically exactly as planned. Here is my printed customized plan (Thanks to Zach at summitrunnercoach.com) and my handwritten notes.

1/27 - 10 miles (inside)

1/28 - 5.05 miles

1/29 - 5 miles

1/30 - 16 miles

1/31 - 6.65 miles

YTD - 174.55

Chewable Tablets???

2010-01-26T17:59:00.000-06:00

A pretty uneventful couple of days of running. Yesterday was an easy 5.25, and today was a 20 minute race pace. Here is the breakdown of today's run:
10 minute warm-up - 8 min pace
10 minutes at 7:08 pace
5 minutes at 6:58 pace
5 minutes at 6:53 pace
15 minutes cool down - about 8 minute pace
-about 5.95 miles total.

Running at race pace helps me to go faster. Recovery and nutrition are key to help keep this speed.

After the run, for my recovery snack (needs to be consumed within 30 minutes of an intense workout), I had one of my favorites - Cliff Bar - Oatmeal raisin walnut

Also, I have a nutritionist who recommends that I take fish oil in addition to a multi-vitamin. I have some issues swallowing large pills, so I take children's chewable multi-vitamin aka the Target brand that look a lot like Flintstones vitamins. I have been looking for some good fish oil tablets as well. My nutrition suggested these for me:

I had to order these online - but will let you know how these taste when I get them. They are strawberry flavored. Hopefully, they won't taste like strawberry fish.

1/25 - 5.25 miles

1/26 - 5.95 miles

YTD - 131.85 miles

Yummy - more pancakes!!

2010-01-25T08:02:00.009-06:00

Saturday morning was a scheduled long run - well, long when you are coming back from an injury - 13 miles.

The 13 outside was actually nice. I managed to do about 8 miles on my own before joining a few people for 5 miles. I was able to run a sub 8 min pace on the first 8, then eased up to 8 and half min pace with the group.

3 weeks to Psycho. I signed up for 20 miles. With the event so close, I thought it was time to hit some trails.

John and I decided Saturday to hit the trails on Sunday to help prepare. Well, the first mile was hard. The trail was rough, mostly snow with ice on the top. Just enough that you could run on top of the snow, but about every three steps, your foot sinks about 8 inches into the snow. It was great high knee running. Since the first mile took 13 minutes, we decided to hit the roads after 20 minutes.

Yikes - hopefully Psycho won't be this bad. John and I had a discussion about which is worse to run in - Mud or Snow? Neither is good.

After the trail run on Sunday, I came home to find this:

Yummy!! Dutch Baby Pancakes with Blueberry Compote - This is from the cookbook:

About 310 calories, 11 g of protein, 53 g of carbs, 3 g of Fiber.

In the book, it calls for peach compote. I'm really happy Melissa made it with the blueberries. Just what I wanted after the cold snow packed trail run. Thanks Melissa!

Sat - 13 miles

Sun - 6 miles

YTD - 120.65

Easy run with Matt and Carla

2010-01-22T16:35:00.008-06:00

Easy 6.2 miles today with a couple of running buddies - cousin Matt and Carla. We circled around the capital and then headed up and down the east side of the river today.

They crack me up. We talked about a wide range of topics - it ranged from nutrition (or lack there of), to a church retreat, to Carla's new running pants. Of course, to get into specific details of certain topics would break the running code.

The running code is similar to the Las Vegas theme - what is talked about on the road, stays on the road. The only exception to the code is if there is a subsequent run where a previously absent runner needs to be caught up on a topic. If you want to hear all the juicy topics, just run with Matt and Carla.

I forgot my camera, otherwise I would have taken a picture of me laughing at the duo. I'm trying to take the camera with me on a few more runs to get some pics up.

Instead of pic of them, here are my new shoes:

Recently I bought these - if nothing else, at least they look fast. Having a new pair of kicks makes me happy as well. These are the Asics GT-2150. A physical therapist let me know these shoes have the Duomax middle section of the shoe, which may help dampen the impact of foot on the road, which can help reduce the chances of a re-occurring stress fracture.

Let's review the fun run items that I have learned over the past few runs -

1. Make each run fun - somehow

2. Do something on a run that will make you smile (like window knocking)

3. Run with people that crack you up
4. New shoes

Today's run was 6.2 miles

YTD: 101.65

1/21 -

2010-01-21T13:20:00.005-06:00

It has been a fun week of running since I last posted!!

I am really starting to get back into running and I can tell - I have a really good attitude which I'm sure makes my wife and boys happy (not having a grumpy dad!).

Look at the smile on my face in the picture below!

This is just one of a series of pictures. I was sending my wife a picture about every 5 minutes showing her that I was on my way to knock on her window. It had been a few months since I had the privilege to do this due to my time off from the stress fracture.

My wife works at Drake which is only about 2 miles from my work. For the easy 30-40 minute runs, I'll head to Drake, knock on her window, waive, and head back making a big loop. It makes me smile, and makes her smile as well. Sometimes, she'll have a student meeting with her, and they'll ask who/what was that. She simply replies - just my crazy runner husband. One time, she had another co-worker in there, and I knocked, waived, and ran off. After about 5 minutes, her co-worker asked - "Is your husband waiting for me to leave before he comes in?" My wife's simple reply was - "Um no, he just knocks on my window and keeps running....he's kind of strange."

Anyway - have fun with your running!

Here was my week of fun since the last posting:
1/15 - 4.5 miles - easy run - window knocking

1/16 - 7.25 miles - easy group run with major hills

1/17 - Off - Jillian Michael's 30 day shred video

1/18 - 5 miles - easy - treadmill hills

1/19 - Speed work - 6 X 3 min on, 3 min off @ 6:40 pace - 7 miles

1/20 - 6.5 miles easy

1/21 - Progression - 45 min - 15 min each of Easy (8:00), Race (7:13), Threshold (6:40) with 5 min warm-up and 10 minute cool down. - 7.75 miles

YTD miles - 95.45

Running for Fun?

2010-01-14T17:08:00.002-06:00

Have you ever had one of those moments where you believe there is a higher power trying give you a hint, or two, maybe three?

For some cosmic reason, the most mundane day all of sudden because a day that you can't forget? A day that you capture a feeling of awe, wonder, and happiness? It is the type of feeling that you want bottle up, and be able to use it for a long time.

I think I had one of those days yesterday in my life.

Basically, I'm being told to have fun and pursue happiness.

Here is how the "everyday" day started. I got up early. Ate a good breakfast. Arrived at work at 6:15 am. I sent some emails, had a couple of meetings, and did some work. Around 11 am, I set out on a 7 mile run with John. The run itself was a planned tough hill run through the bowels of Des Moines -not just hills, but monster hills on route affectionately known as "Pain". This is pretty much a normal day for me.

However - I received my first hint from John. Our run was dominated by our usual discussion of, well, running. But for one moment today we strayed a bit. John talked of someone he knows who, until a couple weeks ago, was a regular guy middle aged man. But then a blood vessel burst in his head. He is now in a coma and his family and friends do not know what type of quality of life he'll have. I hope and pray for him and his family that all turns out well. It did make me remember as many others have often said - you never really know what is going to happen from one day to the next. Enjoy the day you have.

The rest of the run was not mundane. I let myself enjoy the monster hills. I enjoyed being outside, feeling the warm air as it melted away the snow. I enjoyed the company of a wise soul on the run. I smiled and I was happy.

I wanted to continue this feeling through the rest of day. I came back to work - Emails, phone calls, meetings - falling back into the routine - I was thinking - I must try and hold on to that happiness feeling!! Okay, forge ahead.

I headed out from work to pick up the boys. Shoot - forgot to tell my boss to have fun on her vacation. Called her from the car and said - "Have fun!" Okay - before today, I wouldn't have called back into the office, but today was different and I wanted to keep that feeling. I'm sure my boss thinks I was out of mind for calling her and telling her to have a nice time on her vacation.

I picked up the boys from school. My youngest, a small 4 year old, was bundled up in twice his weight with snow pants, overstuffed coat, hat pulled down so he could only see out of one eye, and soaking wet mittens. Just the way you want to pick up a kid in a nice clean car. He was also wearing a great smile on his face. Mundane day - treasure the young smiles. (hint #2)

I pulled up to the driveway and boys wanted to play outside immediately. I also had a couple of loose end emails to finish up on the BlackBerry. I let them out of the car and texted my responses. I looked in my rear view mirror - an unexpected visit from my nephews and two of wife's sisters!

The house was a mess, I had a list of items I wanted to get done. My kids are laughing and the only thing you can think about is cleaning off the driveway??? Those can wait - enjoy the moment I reminded myself.

The UPS driver pulled up and delivered THE book. Okay, not the bible, but subtle hint #3 that really may not be that subtle. I knew my wife ordered a couple of items from Amazon.com, but I didn't expect them to come yesterday. I opened them up. There sitting in front of me was the book - "The Happiness Project". I picked it up and browsed through it. I read a little bit of the story and realized this was me. The author mentions "The days are long, the years are short" Her epiphany was on a bus ride. Mine was on a run - a run that I have been on a hundred times.

As I read the book - I'll try to see what I can do as a trail runner to make running and life for me fun. If it is okay with you, I'll report back. Consider this the first day of an experiment for me.

1/12 - 5.25 miles with 10 minutes at Race pace (6:55).
1/13 - 7 miles - hills - and a fabulous run
YTD - 63.95 miles

1/11 - Day off (of Running)

2010-01-11T17:54:00.000-06:00

Rest days are important to build into a schedule. I know this because, well, I've heard it like a million times. As John would say, if you would get faster by just running, you would actually speed up during a run. It is the rest and recovery which allows those running muscles to get stronger.

So - today, a day off.

In my training schedules, every 3 or 4 weeks is a "light" week to help rest/recover from training. I haven't been all that consistent lately, but this week is a scheduled light week. One short tempo run, a few days at 40 min or less, and a 60 min weekend run. Prior to the stress fracture, I would have done a bit more during the week this week; however, I now know my body needs this time to recover, so it will remain a light week.

I haven't been writing much lately since most of the time has been on the treadmill. Nothing special, just running along. This past week was a great week of running for me - the first solid week in a long time. Here is what I did since 1/6.

1/7 - 4 miles
1/8 - 6 miles
1/9 - 5 miles
1/10 - 11 miles

51.7 miles - YTD

1/6 - Not so easy 8

2010-01-06T17:14:00.001-06:00

For the non long distance folks, 8 miles of running seems like a long ways. For some of us who run long, or "ultra" long - 8 miles is suppose to be an easy day - a solid hour run. When comparing this to say a 6 hour training run day, an hour sounds short.

Any way, I once again stayed inside, used the "variable" setting on the treadmill to get in some hills, never below an incline of 1.5 to mimic wind resistance outside. I ran at a solid 7:41 pace and did 8 miles in about 62:30.

About six months ago, I would feel refreshed and energized after a nice easy run such as that. Ugh.... not so much today.

8 miles kicked my butt. However, getting a midweek 8 mile run under my belt felt good and is quite a confidence builder. Now, if I could just take a nap.....

YTD - 25.7 miles

Happy New Year! 1/5 workout

2010-01-05T18:05:00.000-06:00

On the treadmill due to the cold weather. I think the high today is like 8 degrees. I think instead of keeping track of temps, the weather people should put together an alternative gauge for runners. For example, it would be nice to know how long before a finger will have frostbite if wearing running mittens. Or, if wanting to go an easy run, how many pairs of socks you need for 5 miles.

Anyway, I needed to stay inside because of my very first speed work of the year!!

My workout today was 10 minute warm-up, 6 X 2 minute fartleks at a 6:40 pace with 3 minute recovery, then a 10 min active cool down and then a 5 minute slow cool down/walk.

I missed a couple of days, but I'll do my best to keep track of mileage this year. So far....

1/2 - 5.5 miles
1/3 - 5 miles
1/4 - 60 min of elliptical (cross train + GS/Core)
1/5 - 7.2 miles with speed work

Total running miles - 17.7 miles YTD

With the new year, I have also started to pencil out some longer runs. I'm going to try and do some shorter trail runs this year as well. As for the "big" races - here is what I have
Feb 13 - PsychoWyco Run Toto Run - 20 mile warm-up race
May 8 - Ice Age
July 3 - Afton Trail Run
Second of the year TBD....

12/30 - Inside Run- Easy

2009-12-30T17:45:00.000-06:00

Last night, I was packing my trusty blue and grey North Face backpack up for my run today.
Hat - check
Gloves - check
jacket - needed to be washed
pants (all three pairs) - needed to be washed
cold weather underwear - needed to be washed

Laundry sounded like a lot of work last night in order to prepare for an easy 40 minute run. Okay, change of plans - easy on the dreadmill, weights, and stretching.

Easy 40 minutes turned into a 5.5 mile 45 minute easy run. I did my core body workout and did some arm/shoulder/back free weights. My arms already feel it.

Long run outside planned for tomorrow!

12/29 - Hill Running in snow

2009-12-29T13:51:00.003-06:00

Okay, this is my buddy John running with me over lunch today. Do you see how many layers he is wearing?

Some people are not so bright. I was in the locker room getting ready to run in the 4 degree weather today and had a similar set of clothing to what John has pictured above. I was pulling on my running pants, and had two long sleeve tech shirts, a turtle neck, and a running jacket piled up on the bench that runs through the locker room. Next to the pile of clothes, was my winter hat, running mittens, and sunglasses.

This guy changing next to me asks: "So, are you going outside?"

Hmm, how should I respond? Should I say, "No, I'm just putting on these clothes to go run on the treadmill." Or "Do you think I should wear shorts instead?"

Instead, I opted for the gentle nod of the head, and responded "Yep, I just have to bundle up a bit."

Then, again, he responded with "Geez, you must love to run."

Okay, here I was taking 10 minutes to get dressed to run in the really cold weather. I thought he was the one with the dim light, but now that he said it that way, maybe I am the one that is not so bright!

Today's run was the hills labeled "Pain". Enough said. These are 7.5 miles of killer hills. Mix it up with the snow and ice, and you get a perfect training run for an upcoming trail run.

If you take a look at John's shoes from the previous picture, you'll notice one way not to slide. Simply just put screws in the bottom of your shoes. (You can see where the snow/ice gathers around the head of the screws on the heel of shoe in the close up picture below.) John mentioned the screws were beginning to wear down. Instead of "unscrewing" the old screws, he opted to add some more. At least 15 screws in each shoe.

Okay, so let's recap. Who is not so bright? A guy who states the obvious or a guy who takes 10 minutes to get dressed and puts screws in the bottom of running shoes? In this situation, I'd like to think there is an option C.

12/28 - Run inside!

2009-12-28T17:24:00.001-06:00

After some periodic running , I'm back at it. To summarize where I have been the last couple of weeks, let's just say I was running in T-Shirt and shorts outside, and had the opportunity to run by Cinderella's castle!

Last week, we were up in Minnesota celebrating Christmas with my in-laws. I was able to get in a couple of decent outside runs, including a solid run on the trails and a 10 mile run. It all felt good and I'm now getting focused for a hopefully decent race at Psycho in KC on Feb 13.

With the hills of Psycho, I'm stepping up my hill training. Because we got back late last night, I didn't have time to prepare to run outside today, so I was inside on the treadmill. I did the following workout which lasted about 46 minutes with a few minutes of walking after the cool down - All at about a 8 min pace.

5 minutes warm-up (slightly slower than 8 min pace)

incline at 5,6, and 7 (slightly faster) minute each;3 min recovery (slightly slower); incline at 6,7, and 8; 3 min recovery; incline at 7,8, and 9; 3 min recovery; incline at 8, 9, and 10; 3 min recovery, incline at 9,8, and 7; 3 min recovery; incline at 8,7, and 6; 3 min recovery; incline at 7,6, and 5

5 minute cool down + walking.

A solid Monday run.

12/12 and 12/13

2009-12-14T09:02:00.002-06:00

Back to outdoor running!

This past weekend, I headed out on two back to back outdoor runs. With all the snow we have received, it was slow going for me, but just what I needed!

On Saturday morning, I headed out with the Saturday morning group. It was great to be back with the group. However, it was difficult to stop after only 6 miles. Many of them were headed out for 10 more miles when I had to depart. I forgot how much I miss the long run, it gives me a chance to challenge myself each week - there is nothing like being done and looking back at a 15+ mile run and giving yourself a pat on the back for the accomplishment.

Sunday was an easy 6.5 mile run with John. Sunday mornings are usually designated for trail runs, but since there is like 3 ft of snow on the trails, we decided to best stay in town.

A twelve mile weekend? I'll take it. Patience and progress is my mantra at this point.

I did set myself a goal - I recently signed up for the Psycho Wyco trail run in February. The race offers a 10 mile, 20 mile, and 50k option. I signed up for the 20 mile run and will shoot for it. One of the hardest courses ever but run by a great trail running group out of KC - the trail nerds.

The plan is take today off of running (likely elliptical and some strenght training today) and hit a couple of easy runs on Tuesday and Wednesday.

12/11 - Elliptical

2009-12-11T14:02:00.003-06:00

60 minutes on the elliptical today. My shin is at 100% after the small amount of running I did yesterday. I'll head out tomorrow morning with the group for an easy 5-6 miles to see how it goes.

The elliptical was fine - 60 minutes burned around 900 calories for me; or at least that is what the machine said!

While on the elliptical, I was watching one of my guilty pleasure shows - Rachel Ray. I really like Rachel - and today, I found out that she is starting to run everyday - at least 3.5 miles and will start to increase her miles. Yep, I'm sold - I'm signing up for the Rachel Ray fan club.

One of the segments today talked about these woman who started a lunchtime running group in Chicago. They meet 3-4 times a week and run over lunch anywhere from 3 to 7 miles.

I've long been an advocate of the lunch time run, many reasons where the same as the woman in the group. It rejuvenates the mind and body and it is a great break in day. Also, it is "soul warming" to be able to run with people over lunch. I rarely "not" smile and laugh with my lunchtime running buds, and truly enjoy the company of my running friends.

I can't wait to get out more often with my running lunch buddies as I start my road back to everyday running!

12/10 - Cycle and Run

2009-12-10T12:53:00.002-06:00

Well, today was a split day between running and cycling. I hit running pretty hard last week and my shin was a little ache on the last half of the weekend. I decided to take it easy from running for a few days and see how it felt. Originally, I was going to take Monday, Tuesday off, run Wednesday. However, Mother Nature blessed us with 16 or so inches of snow. Instead of a normal workout, I did the "Rocky IV" old school workout and shovelled a hell of a lot of snow. A few hours worth.

So today was a welcome normal workout - 45 minutes hard cycle class (Kari was brutal on the hills today) and 20 minute run. I was a bit apprehensive on the run because I thought for sure my shin would hurt. It didn't get worse, in fact, after a bit of loosening up, it felt really good. No pushing it though, I stayed within my 20 minutes. I did change the speed, start at 8 min miles, then after 5 minutes, moving to 7:43. I left the incline at 1.5 and left both there as it felt really comfortable. I pushed it a bit with 5 minutes remaining, increasing the speed to 7:30 pace. Instead of going faster with 4 minutes left, I increase the incline each minute, first to 5, than to 7, then to 10 and held it at each for 1 minute before bringing it back down to 5 before settling into a 4 minute walk to cool down. I finished with the general strenght workout out and some stretches.

Today my thoughts while running centered on having passion - about challenging yourself to do something and believing that you can do it. It came from watching the movie Julie and Julia - which I recommend. I believe the movie represents two incredibly strong but struggling woman trying to find a place for herself. I, of course, relate this running. I think about all the souls who start to train for their first marathons, and after a few months of training, the tears and smiles they display at the finish line. For many people, the story ends there - and it is a great story. For others, it is the start of something more. It becomes their passion.

Run on!

11/30 - Running Rocket

2009-11-30T16:21:00.003-06:00

I hit my noon run today. 50 degrees in December, I'll take this running weather any time of the year!

It felt good to be back. My shin seems fine, but the 5 mile run was hard. Simply put, I'm not used to running. I think just about 3 months ago, I won a 50 mile race. Not any more. Other runners are telling me how quickly I'll come back - we'll just have to wait and see.

It is funny how the small things are noticed on the run. I was going over a wooden bridge - and sometime between the last time I ran and now, the city replaced some of the old boards on the bridge. The city has still not fixed the large gaping hole on the bike path - but maybe that is slated for next summer.

The 5 mile run was an easy run done in about 38 minutes. A little bit fast, but it didn't feel that fast.

After the run - I spent about 15 minutes doing some general strength training along with stretching. This is new to me - instead of running a mile or two longer, I now know the importance of a proper warm-up and cool down in order to keep me healthy and running for a long time.

For the general strength training - it was a pedestal routine. It goes something like this - all 8 to 10 reps:
1. prone hand stand, single leg raise
2. supine hand stand, single leg raise
3. prone elbow stand, single leg raise
4. supine elbow stand, single leg raise
5. lateral elbow stand, single leg raise
6. lateral hand stand, single leg raise (these are hard!)
7. prone flexed knee elbow stand, hip lift
8. supine flexed knee elbow stand, hip lift
9. crunch with low reach
10. crunch with low reach and twist

You can find a video about it here:
http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=12755

Enjoy!

11/23 - Return to Running!!!

2009-11-23T17:55:00.002-06:00

It has been a long time. Period.

After I picked up running 7 1/2 years ago, I haven't taken a break. Part of the reason for not taking a long break was worrying about my weight. Well, through this time period off, I really have learned about proper nutrition. I lost about 8 lbs while NOT running. I did this through making conscious decisions about what I was eating. Even when I was running, I wasn't getting the proper nutrition. My calorie imbalance was way too weighted toward fats and carbs, and not even close on the protein scale.

I've learned to be a smarter runner through this period of not running. Hmm...I guess sitting on the sidelines for bit does have some benefits??

WHY should I spend this much energy on running even when I'm not running???

Simply put, I love to run. There is nothing like it. Just like with many things in life, there is a certain amount of discipline that comes with doing what you love.

On the outside looking in, it may look easy to lace up shoes and go run. The fact is it is quite a bit of work. But when I'm on that trail, 30 miles into a race, I have the biggest smile on my face!

Okay - returning to run. Today, I started with 15 minutes outside! It was great! I worked quite a bit on my stride and hand position to open up my hips. I then completed the hour workout with 45 minutes on the elliptical.

As for supper last night - Here is what my beautiful (and unfortunately sick with a cold) wife made for Sunday night's dinner. This was recently in Runner's world. The chicken was yummy, the sauce was a bit salty (not my wife's doing, just the recipe in general). I added the 2 cups of mixed veggies along with some acorn squash.

Here is the link to the recipe: http://recipes.runnersworld.com/Recipe/crispy-parmesan-chicken.aspx

This is a "keeper" recipe. We'll use it again!

Oh yeah - I also did this on Sunday.....

2009-11-20T09:29:00.002-06:00

Okay, posting about the pancakes from the Highland Grill made me hungry for those again. I recreated them last night. The pic is dark, but if I think the comparison between the two is good. I was pleased with the outcome.

Here is how I made them:

3/4 cup oat flour
3/4 cup old fashioned oats
1 cup skim milk
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
4 egg whites
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions: Heat milk (can use water) until hot, stir in oats and set aside. Beat egg whites into a stiff peaks with hand mixer, and set aside. Mix all the dry ingredients and stir in oatmeal/milk mixture. Fold in egg whites until mixture is well blended.

I cooked on a griddle at 375, brown both sides. This makes about 10-12 pancakes - a serving is 5-6 pancakes or half of the recipe.

For the toppings, last night I used:
1/2 banana
tablespoon unsalted peanuts
tablespoon craisins
sprinkle of homemade granola
1 serving of sugar free syrup

These were good!! Served with two scrabbled eggs made this a filling supper.

Nutrition information for the meal: 639 calories, 89 g carbs, 20g fat, 36 g protein. The toppings added a solid 150 calories, but they were worth it!

(5 pancakes were 313 calories, 49 carbs, 5 fat, 20 protein).

You could trim down the toppings if needed. Also, use better n'eggs instead of real eggs for the protein on the side and you can still have a 500 calorie meal.

I had a bigger supper because of spending 60 minutes spinning on the bike yesterday pretty hard. My calorie count for the day was around 2200. This even included a glass of milk and a chocolate chip cookie at the end of day (desert with the boys watching Colorado blow the upset against OK state.)

For the day, my calories came from the following - 35% protein, 42% carbs, 23% fat. My protein percentage is still a little high, but I'm not yet getting in a longer than 60 minute minute workout. When I start going above 60 minutes, I'll increase my total calories and begin to put those extra calories toward carbs - shooting for somewhere around a 50% carb, 25% protein, and 25% fat diet.

Jack Cakes

2009-11-19T11:53:00.004-06:00

Simple said, these are the best pancakes ever. This is from the Highland Grill in St. Paul, MN. These are the "Jack Cakes". As stated in the menu "Three oatmeal pancakes topped with peanuts, house made granola, banana, blueberries, raisins and honey. Meets your daily requirement for everything." If I die and go to heaven, I hope St. Peter's cafe has these available.

My running is still not happening, however, I'm just a few days away from lacing the shoes up again. I'm looking forward to this.

However, I admit, I have become exactly what I never wanted to become, someone obsessed with running. When I started running, I enjoyed it for the fun of running, being outside. Along the way, I became more passionate about running and more serious.

Now, I live for running. Don't get me wrong, I live for my wife, kids, and family as well. I live for good friendships and great experiences. But I also live for running.

So somewhere along the way, I decided that I need to invest in my running to keep it enjoyable. First it was just the perfect shoes, then better gear, then challenging and races that show off great parts of the country. Is there more? Oh yes.

Then it became the running groups and running friends. It became that my sports doctor became my primary physician. Then I couldn't figure out how to plan/train for ultra runs; so I hired a running coach. I wanted to run longer, faster and maintain good healthy habits. Okay, I could use a nutritionist. I should probably work on my bio mechanics and injury prevention so my stress fracture doesn't come back and I can stay a healthy injury free runner for a long time. Enter my new friend, the physical therapist who evaluated my running stride and now wants to get a closer look at my bio mechanics.

Hmmm... is this still fun? You bet. All for the run of it.

10/28 - Swim and swim

2009-10-28T17:06:00.002-05:00

Today's workout was a long swim. It has been close to a week since I was in the pool. Swimming is boring. Let's face it, following the black line on the bottom of the pool lap after lap gets old after 5 laps.

Today's workout consisted of 64 laps or 3200 meters. So, about 59 of those laps allowed my mind to wander a bit. I thought of things like how much I miss running, how much I'd like to be running, and when I can run again, how much will I be able to run?

I guess I had running on my mind.

Anyway, to kill the time; I broke up the swim routine into the following, taking a 1 minute break between each:

200 meters

400 meters

800 meters

200 meters.

repeat set.

I did the set twice, except my final two hundred, I did 3 x 50 meter sprints on the 1:10. This gave me about 25 seconds of recovery between sprints. I than finished with an easy 50 meters with the kick board.

Food: Right now, I'm trying to increase protein consumption to help me heal. Over the past three days, my calories split by carbs, protein, and fats is about 40%, 40%, and 20%. Eventually and gradually, I'll work to 50%-25%-25% before high mileage training. Right now, I'm focused on becoming leaner, hence more protein and less fats.

I was going to take a picture of the really good salmon sandwich I had today for lunch. But I was too hungry and ate it before I remembered to take the picture!!

10/27 - Oops, no postings in two weeks!!

2009-10-27T14:00:00.001-05:00

Sorry, I seem to have been absent for a while, but I wanted to let you know that this blog is not forgotten. Life is busy and there is no excuse for not posting, so I'll catch you up to date to what's been up with this "recovering runner".

My shin is really good, I had to ref a game for my youngest son's soccer team (in addition to coaching at the same time) this past week, and absolutely no pain or "feeling" anything in my shin. Another 4 weeks until I start running, so I'm optimistic that it is healing well. I cycle/swim/elliptical 6 days a week for at least 60 minutes, and do one long workout (90 min) on the weekend - by combining two of the three - (example 45 min swim/45 min elliptical or bike).

I hired a nutritionist to help me out. She specializes in endurance athletes. So far all is good.

I started out on a restrictive diet to lose a few pounds that I recently put on because of the lack of running. I'm already back down to my goal weight, so now it is a matter of increasing the amount of protein to help my body recover and heal and cutting out the junk food. Currently, I'm at a 2000 calorie diet. When eating lots of plants (I now know what Mark Bittman is referring to here) - they can be filling. For example, for lunch today I had 6 oz of chicken and 3 cups of veggies which came in at less than 300 calories for lunch. I've increased the amount I eat in the morning as well to start my day off on the right foot. Instead of my usual what bagel with natural peanut butter, my mornings have recently included a big egg omelet with veggies, along with a cup of oatmeal. That was a big breakfast, but it keeps me full for the morning.

However, my meals have not been my downfall - it is the snacking that has always been problematic. She has given me many options for snacks - and that is going well. I'll start to take some pics of my food and post them out here.

I really miss running this time of year - if you can, get out and enjoy the beautiful colors of the trees - it is the best!!

10/13 - Spinning/lifting

2009-10-13T17:59:00.001-05:00

Today was a spin day after my day in the pool. I lifted before class (upper body only at this point due to the stress fracture), and started out spinning 15 minutes prior to the 45 minute class. Lisa, one our wellness consultants here at work, taught the almost full class. Lisa does a great job of keeping me motivated through the class - she always makes me give an extra 10% effort beyond what I tend to think is my all out effort. Nice class Lisa!

Prior to class, I lifted - I'll admit - my lifting is not great, so I'm open if anyone has any thoughts on how to improve my routine. Here is what I did today - all three sets of 10 reps on the following on machines:

lat pull down
bicep curl
chest press
lateral raise
row
triceps push down
fly
shoulder press

Between class and the upper body workout, I ran out of time to do my core routine. I'll do that tonight as I watch the biggest loser.

Food is becoming more and more important to me - I am really starting to get into a habit of eating whole foods as best I can. For example, today I made a salad for lunch. Salads can be tricky, but I found this handy container where you put the dressing in the top and it keeps is separated from the salad until I'm ready to eat. I like this container!

As you can tell - yes, I do eat at my desk!!

As far as what was in the container, it was a pretty easy. I used about a cup and half of baby spinach, about three large strawberries sliced, a tablespoon of light balsamic vinaigrette, and about 1/8 of a cup of feta cheese. This is one of my favorite salads. Sometimes, when I need a bit more, I'll put some grilled chicken or some turkey from deli on this. Yummy! Also, I'm going to try this with beans instead of meat sometime - like red kidney beans!

Along with the salad, I had 4 oz of 2% cottage cheese to help get the protein count up, and a handful of grapes for the sweet taste I need at the end of lunch!

10/12 - Swim and Run

2009-10-12T19:32:00.001-05:00

Today was a swim day and aqua jog day. I had about 55 minutes in the pool. Here is what I did to pass the time:

Swim:
200
1 min rest
400
1 min rest
800

Aqua Run:
5 min warm up
1 min hard
1 min easy
2 min hard
1 min easy
3 min hard
1 min easy
4 min hard
1 min easy
3 min hard
1 min easy
1 min hard
1 easy

Overall - 52 minutes in the pool. 8 minutes short of my daily goal - but I have soccer practice tonight - so chasing around a group of 4 and 5 year olds, as well as then chasing around 6 and 7 year olds right after that should get me to that hour.

Seriously, the pool is boring. I need a waterproof mp3 player or something....

Homemade granola

2009-10-12T17:50:00.001-05:00

I have been on a bit of cooking/baking binge lately. By watching my nutrition more, I have really started to look at what goes into the food I eat.

One of the items I do miss is granola bars. Well - here is a home made version! Not a bar, but granola!

I took this from Mark Bittman's Food Matters. I used:

5 cups of old fashioned oats

3 cups of walnuts

1/2 cup of shredded unsweetened coconut

3/4 cup maple syrup

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

2 teaspoons of vanilla

Baked it at 350 for about 40 minutes. After I pulled it out of oven, my wife added about a 1/2 to 3/4 cup of blueberries.

It is now stored in the fridge and is ready to eat!

Yummy!!

10/10 - Swimming and ellipitcal; 10/11 - 45 min spin

2009-10-11T22:28:00.006-05:00

On Saturday, like many others in the central Iowa, I woke up to a ground that was lightly covered with snow. Hmmm....might be tough to see those soccer lines to see if the ball is in or out for the boys' games.

About three hours later, the games were finally called off. I was happy to have a Saturday without running the kids around, but now starts the process of trying to fit in and reschedule those games into an already busy weekday schedule.

However, with how much my boys giggle, laugh, and smile; I know all of my "trouble" is worth it.

Anyway - as for the workouts lately - I'm still doing okay without running, but it is tough. I spent 35 minutes on Saturday doing the elliptical before swimming for 55 minutes. The 90 minute workout was my longest in a long time.

Today - I spent 45 minutes on the bike. Solid workout, but a little light after yesterday's longer workout.

Just in case you are wondering how I spend my 45 minutes spinning; here is the routine I follow:

Warm up 5-7 minutes

Set 1

2 min. seated climb

2 min. standing climb

1 min. RC

Set 2

1 min. seated climb

1 min. jumps (on seated climb tension)

1 min. standing climb

1 min. sprint (seated)

1 min. sprint (stand)

Do this set 2x

Set 3

30 sec Hover

30 sec Sprint (seated)

30 sec. Vertical

30 sec. Sprint

30 sec RC

Do this set 3x’s (last one will get a 1 minute RC)

Set 4

30 sec seated hill (med. hill)-30 sec. stand sprint (on seated hill tension) x5

RC 1 min.

Set 5

2 min. seated climb

2 min. standing climb

Cool down

My nutrition plan this last week is going well. I have reduced the number of calories by about 600 a day in order to take off a little weight I have gained since I stopped running. Since Tuesday, I have dropped about 4 lbs. I have eliminated all "processed" junk food from my diet, loading up on the veggies and fruits. I have tried to increase the percent of protein I'm taking in but it is tough to move that needle when I'm trying to maintain a "vegetarian" diet until supper.

I've adopted Mark Bittman's philosophy of "eat more plants". When I get hungry for snacks, I reach for whole foods - such as apples, bananas, and grapes instead of granola bars or protein bars. If it comes in a package, it is likely not on my list to eat.

People thought I ate well before, crazy how there is always room for improvement!

10/7 - What is your goal....

2009-10-07T08:06:00.004-05:00

It has been a while since my last post - without running, not much for me to blog about. I'm still keeping up the cycling and lifting routine on one day, and swimming and aqua jogging/elliptical on other days. 60 minutes a day, at least 6 days a week. Just do it, like brushing your teeth. Make it a routine, and don't question if you have to do it, just do it.

I did have an interesting meeting yesterday with a nutritionist/runner. She had some really good suggestions for me, and I'm anxious to see her proposals about moving forward. More on that in another post....

One question she asked me was "What is your goal?"

An interesting question. Of course, I do think there is value in having A goal, but really, I look to add bang for my buck - so having a few goals in mind help me maintain focus. For example, here is how I responded to the question -

First - I want to maintain some good physical condition while I can't run for the next 7 weeks. I don't want to gain extra pounds while I'm out.

Next - When I return to running, I want to position myself to be a better, faster, and stronger runner. If I can begin healthy eating habits now, I should be able to continue them while I return to running.

Long term - I want to be able to better understand how nutrition helps my performance - what/when I should eat. While I train for a marathon/ultra run, I usually need 3000 to 3500 calories just to maintain my weight per day. Many of those calories come at the end of the day when I am hungry and in the form of ice cream or junk food. Probably not ideal - but I never was taught how to eat during these training periods.

Overall long term goal - I've been reading books about making decisions about what to eat that is not only healthy, but also good for social/environmental reasons. I want to be able to start to make good food choices, that in the long term, may be beneficial for generations to come. For example, buying food from the local food coop, eating more plants - less animals, etc and reducing my carbon footprint.

So - there are my goals. This is one area where I look to set goals in area of short term and long term. I'll reset or adjust my short term goals when needed, while keeping in mind my long term goals.

9/30 - 30 min Swim/35 minutes elliptical

2009-09-30T17:26:00.001-05:00

Solid workout today - 30 minutes in the pool followed by 35 minutes on the elliptical followed by a 10 minute ab workout.

I decided to break up my pool lap swimming today. I like to swim, but going back and forth gets boring pretty quickly. I tried to keep my focus by doing smaller intervals instead of one big swim. I ended up with doing 3 X 400 - all under 7:30. I never said I was fast, but for a non-racing swim time, I'll take this. I finished up with 4 X 50s on the minute (the swimming takes me about 45 seconds, then a fifteen second recovery), and then did a 200 cool down. Total = 1600 meeter in under a 30 minutes.

The elliptical is the elliptical. I did a cross training workout for 30 minutes with a 5 minute cool down. Total calories burned about 525 calories.

I did the elliptical workout at Drake after my swim. I feel a bit out of place - since it is a college campus in the aerobics room, there are not many, if any college men - just women. I think most of the guys are too busy bulking up versus getting a balanced aerobic and strength training program. So today, it was me and about 10 college women. I'm sure the college women working out look at me and think "What is that old creepy guy doing here working out?"

Oh well!

Anyway, last night we had a great mac and bacon recipe found here: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1918488

Melissa, once again, did the cooking. It turned out yummy. We substituted regular penne past with whole wheat pasta - which is what we usually always do at our house anyway. We served it with green beans.

Here is a picture of the plate - however - this is the magazine picture - I forgot to take a pic of my actual plate.

I would also like to report that it took almost all of my will power, but I did not "snack" excessively last night. After 8 pm, no eating for me. After viewing a couple of tips about emotional eating, I decided if I wanted to see if I could make it through my craving time between 8-10 pm. The above meal filled me up and I was not hungry. I had used most of calories for the day so I knew that I shouldn't be too hungry going into the evening. I'm sure there will be times that I will need to eat in the evening depending on my calorie count for the day, but yesterday was not one of those days.

9/29 - Still getting used to being a non-runner

2009-09-29T15:54:00.004-05:00

Okay, I have a few updates.....

Yes, I have not run in almost two full weeks. And yes, I smell like chlorine from the pool.

I have been doing quite a bit of swimming and cycling. On Sunday, I went out for a 30 mile bike ride. I was wiped at the end of cycling 30 miles, I can't believe there are people out there who like to run that far....oh wait a second!!

I have started to take a closer look at what I can do outside of running to make sure I come back from this injury in reasonable running shape. So, I have started to watch what I eat among other things.

I watch what I eat, I really haven't changed what I eat, but I do watch the Little Debbie Cosmic brownie get unwrapped and get into my mouth.

I know that I need to eat better.....

I'm not sure how many calories I actually burn through when I run, but I'm guessing my average 60 mile running week burns an additional 6000 calories or so a week. You can see how the absence of running might effect my diet.

I'm still trying to hit 60 minutes of cardio a day, 6 days a week, with swimming, cycling, and yes, elliptical. I've also started to water jog (yawn). Even with all of this, I seem to have put on a few pounds. I think some of the stress of not running is getting to me and, since I'm an emotional eater, the less I run - the more I eat. Hence - me and Little Debbie getting closer over the past couple of weeks.

So - to recap - less calories burned due to decreased exercise PLUS an increase in "junk" food calorie intake = a bigger Doug.

My wife is great - she is really supportive of helping me through this stress fracture. For example, she prepared a great meal below, and this is hopefully the first of many entries about trying to eat right...

We recently had the Cooking Light's Barbecue Sirloin and Blue Cheese Salad for supper. You can find the recipe here: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1918481

This is what our salad looked like.

It was a great meal. Melissa did a fantastic job recreating the dish. She did substitute a baby greens salad mix for the bib lettuce. For only 269 calories a serving, it really hit the spot. According to Melissa, the preparation of the meal was easy and the whole meal was prepared in about 20 minutes.

That was Sunday evening. Last night was a crazy schedule night with kid activities and I ended up with a Turkey sandwich followed by some brownies and banana bread. Okay lots of brownies - Hey....I'm still a work in progress.......

9/24 - elliptical - 45 minutes

2009-09-24T21:26:00.002-05:00

Seriously - the elliptical??

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the elliptical. I admire people for getting to the gym to workout and put forth a strong effort on these machines. But for an ultra runner to use a machine like this? He must have a stress fracture.....

I received an email from my running coach. I wanted to know what I should do while I'm sidelined from running. I was looking for some advice on what to do for general strength training. He mentioned to me to watch the video "building a better runner" available at runningdvds.com.

I sent a copy of the email to my buddy John asking if he ever heard of this obscure video. He replied with a note of "I have a copy at home, you can borrow it for a bit."

John has everything related to running. I secretly think he has some sort running museum in his basement that has a history of running.

It sure is nice to have a friend like John!

9/22 - Update

2009-09-22T14:34:00.002-05:00

Okay, the last few days, I have facing a runner's nightmare - Stress fracture. I continued to workout with spinning, elliptical, and swimming so I have still been working out, however, I don't get the same amount of joy from those workouts as I get from running. I guess there is something about a runner's high???

Okay - now for the updates on the MRI. My doctor has reviewed these results. It appears I have a high grade III stress fracture. I'm out of running for 8 weeks. Yikes. That puts me right up against Turkey Day. Even when I return to running, it will be a slow methodical return. In other words - no competitive running until late spring/early summer of next year.

There are many factors contributing to the stress fracture.
1. Nutrition - with the amount of calories and protein I need to maintain for the ultra distance training, I am likely not getting the proper amounts at the key times. Think pre/during/post race nutrition here.
2. Core/General Strength/Flexibility - nuff said - don't do enough of this.
3. Bio mechanics - the front of my tibia is taking more than its share of the workload than needed.

I'm taking a look at options on how to proceed, but likely get some help with all three of these items.

It should be an interesting 8 weeks. Oh yeah - I can still cross train and do some strength training.

Looks like a lot of indoor training for me with the exception of an occasional bike ride.

9/17 - One hour of spinning - eating

2009-09-17T18:27:00.001-05:00

I always think spinning sounds funny. Like I sit on one of the kids toys, I think they are called "Sit-N-Spins".

So no, I didn't sit on a sit-n-spin for an hour. I cycled hard for one hour. I actually attended class. It was not easy, a good challenging instructor, and lots of time in zones 3 and 4 made for solid workout.

I've started to pay more attention to what I eat. Missing out on 60-80 miles of running a week due to shin injury means no more milkshakes and pop tarts as a bedtime treat to maintain calories.

Also - I have been reading more and more lately about foods that not only healthy but also good or "green" for the environment.

I picked up a book by Mark Bittman titled "Food Matters". I am not sure if I agree with Mr. Bittman a 100%, but he at least makes me think about what I eat and the "cost" of that food - not just the price I pay, but what impacts the food I could eat cost the environment around me.

Anyway - My MRI for the shin is tomorrow, not sure when I'll hear from Dr. Chad and crew regarding results, but my shin is feeling fine. I would normally be running, but I'll wait until results come back. Swimming against Shaq, cycling, and lifting seem to be distracting me enough at this point not to run.

I may start talking more about my nutrition since I'm not running. There is only so much I can think about while spinning in a room for an hour.

9/16 - Swim - Shaq vs.

2009-09-16T17:03:00.000-05:00

Okay, since I'm off of running for the immediate future, I have to focus on a new challenge.

I think I found it. I want to beat Shaq in the water.

Did anyone else see Shaq vs. last night when he took on Michael Phelps?

Okay - I really don't set the bar all that high, but I wanted to go to the pool today to see how I could compare to Shaq, at least in the pool. I'll admit, he didn't look pretty in the pool, and he looked slowed compared to OLYMPIC athletes. Don't get me wrong, he is not a pro, but his times were decent.

For his 25 meter race, I believe he raced it in 18 seconds. For the 50 meter, he swam it in something like 38 seconds. (I can't seem to find his actual times on the Internet). Nothing too fast here - but than again nothing too slow.

I figured, I could go to the pool today and beat that time. No such deal. I did swim a half mile before attempting the fast swims, but still, I do occasionally swim and in my mind, look faster than what Shaq did on ABC.

I did two 25 meter runs - 20.1 second, and 19.08 seconds. I did one 50 meter swim fast - 40 seconds. It was hard and I was flying. Crazy a guy as big as Shaq can move that fast in the water. I'm sure he was using all his upper body strength but hey, if it works.....

Okay - new goal for the next couple of weeks - a 37 second 50 meter swim and a 17 second 25 meter swim.

Thanks for giving me something to shoot for Shaq!

9/15 - Biking for 45 minutes

2009-09-16T08:23:00.002-05:00

Okay, my shin needs help. I went to see the doc for some guidance. Bad news is it may be another stress fracture. Good news is he'll allow me to swim, cycle, and aqua jog during recovery. As for the workout, since the shin is being looked at, I went cycling/spinning for 45 minutes inside today. It was a nice hard 45 minute cycle, almost like running repeats. Almost.

Just to get people caught up - it is either a level 1 or 2 stress fracture (MRI will determine treatment and how long I'll be out) OR it is something with my tendon/muscle irritating my bone - which doc thinks can be corrected with orthopedics and I can still run this fall. Only a MRI will give him a definite answer. He suggested that we could do a trail and error - for example, get fit for orthopedics and see if helps (although it would be up to me if the pain was getting better) OR no running till Jan (assume bad stress fracture and let it heal for 3 months) and start running again; if the pain returned than it is likely not a stress fracture.

Either way, I'm not sure I like this medical elimination approach.

FYI...Our health care system is a mess. Try calling around and getting a quote on "lower extremity without contrast MRI". I received an answer of $991 (after about 3 hrs of calling about 6 different imaging labs, I only received this one answer). That price is before my insurance carrier discount; which I called my insurance carrier and they didn't know what the final price would be. I received somewhere between $700 and $900. Why can't I shop around for MY MRI????

9/14 - Swim 45 min

2009-09-14T19:18:00.000-05:00

Okay, maybe I should rename this blog to "Not so Regular Guy Runner". Or maybe that means something else....

Anyway, after the run on Friday, my shin was not happy with me. I took the weekend off, cycling on Sunday for 60 minutes, and decided to swim today.

After a couple of email exchanges, I decided it was time to go in and get the shin looked at.

I'm not optimistic regarding the outcome of the Dr appt, my guess is it will be take some time off (4-6 weeks) and some stretches etc.

I'll continue to run through others, keeping track of all my running friends and their journeys to whatever their next race for me.

Oh well, I'll be a regular guy runner soon!

9/11 - 13 miles 8 min pace

2009-09-11T20:15:00.000-05:00

It was a warm and humid run this afternoon. I ran a 7 miles before picking up Carla for 6 miles. All the miles were right around 8 minutes. It seemed pretty hard - amazing to me that just three weeks ago I completed 50 miles and now 13 feels hard to do at the 8 minute pace.

For the first 7 miles, I ran around the Marriott hotel for a couple of laps, headed out for 6 miles, and came back to finish up around the Marriott while waiting for Carla to start the last six.

Why? The Circus is in town; specifically, Britney's Circus. There were about 5 different tour buses surrounding the hotel, and Britney was likely somewhere inside.

The first thing Carla asked was "Did you see her?" Nope. We headed out on the the remaining 6 miles of my run. I was hoping Brit might come out and want to run a quick 5 miles with Carla and I. After meeting us, she would comp us tickets for tonight's circus show and be her special guests since we are just that cool.

No such luck. Apparently it is a strength training day for Brit.

Dave Mathews will be in town in a couple of weeks - anyone know if he is a runner?

9/10 - 30 min swim, weights

2009-09-10T18:22:00.000-05:00

Today's swim rocked. It was a furious swim, where I finally hit 1600 meters under 30 minutes. Okay, not going to win a gold medal, in fact, I think if I had a 75 meter head start on a 100 meter race, Phelps would still kick me to the curb.

After the swim, I went to lift weights and do my core workout. All was good, a solid 1 hr cross training effort for the day.

I am learning to appreciate running more as I haven't been running everyday lately. I really look forward to runs, and having cross training days such as today, makes being away from running palatable.

9/9 - 9 mile run with 4 miles at tempo pace

2009-09-10T08:32:00.002-05:00

The run was one of my three favorite routes. Park loop. Basically an 8 mile loop that is mostly trail after heading up a large incline, then down it on a semi-busy road (Grand Ave).

Carla wanted to get in a tempo run today - my thought was to try and push a temp run - 2 X 2 miles with a 2 mile warm up, 2 mile cool down, and 1 mile easy run in between the 2 miles of tempo. I did not have my trusty Garmin with me today, but according to Carla we hit the faster 2 mile sets at a 7:05 pace. It was fun to go that fast again.

After the run, I sat down to stretch and do my ab routine. I noticed the shorts I was running in had a huge rip in the seam along with a big hole. RATS!! I really liked those running shorts! In fact, they were to be slated to be used at Lean Horse until I decided I need some shorts with more pockets.

My wife usually is the one to throw away "over used" running items for me. I hang onto them way to long, almost like an emotional attachment for me. However, today was different - I simply tossed them after the run. I really like those shorts, there was no hard feelings toward them, and I simply told those shorts (in my head, not out loud); Thanks for all the great runs!

9/8 - Swim

2009-09-08T13:35:00.003-05:00

Okay - like my last post said - no pushing the shin recovery. Today was a swimming day. It was a 40 minute lap swim.

Just for the record - I'm amazed at the different builds of people who swim and at which speed some people can swim.

I was between to people today - a young guy who was thin, likely a runner doing some cross training, and an older woman, medium build, who looked like she was totally comfortable in the water.

I was amazed at how skillful the woman was in the water - each stroke was propelling her toward the other end of the pool. As for the young man next to me, his arms were going through the air faster than I could see them but yet he seemed to be swimming in place - not really moving forward at all.

It reminded me to slow down, take it easy, and enjoy what I'm doing. Sometimes it is not about how fast you get to the other side, it is about how you get there and sometimes trying to move too fast just seems to slow you down.

9/7 Trail Run

2009-09-08T13:20:00.000-05:00

What a run! John and I headed out to Jester Park for an 8 mile trail run. the 8+ miles took about an hour and 20 minutes - I think it was like a 9:30 pace, but it was exactly what I needed.

I have never really felt like John and I get into a good running rhythm at Jester Park. The trails don't seem to flow together, we usually need to stop and turn around; or figure out which area to run again.

However, today was different. It was a great 8 mile loop that flowed well. We ran through hills, along the lake (or river? I think it is a lake??) and today the loop worked out well.

My shin is getting better - I have ran twice now over two weeks. I'm going to still take it easy though - no need to push the recovery as I don't have a race planned at this point for the late fall or winter.

But the trails just felt right. Maybe I'll skip a marathon this fall and try another trail race before the year's end??

9/4 Run - easy 5 - Rocket

2009-09-04T18:11:00.001-05:00

Today was my first run since the 50 mile race.

It was like having a conversation with a friend who you haven't seen in a while.....

Or tasting ice cream on a hot summer day....

Or hot chocolate on a cold winter day.....

In other words, it was comforting to me. I don't know when this happened, but running is so much a part of me, that running actually sooths my soul. It makes me a calmer person, a a patient dad, and (although my wife may disagree) a more understanding husband.

Today's run was an easy 5 miles. I wanted to see how it went. No lies, I even thought running 5 miles after the 50 mile race should seem easy. It wasn't - my two week hiatus from running caused some struggle in the 5 mile run.

Like that first awkwardness of saying hello to that old friend, or eating the ice cream too fast that a "brain freeze" occurs, or you burn the roof of your mouth because the hot chocolate is not "just" hot, but scolding.

Yes, a little bit of uncomfortable is okay, but in the end, you just feel better. When you finish that conversation, eat that last bite of ice cream, or finishing up that list sip of hot chocolate - you sit back and smile.

Those items felt so comforting, you can't wait to do it again.

Yep - me and running - can't wait to do it again.

Post Lean Horse

2009-08-27T19:53:00.001-05:00

Okay, since the race, I have been taking some time off of running. I know, it is hard to do.

I am pretty sure I have an addictive personality trait. I'm glad this is being used for running and not something else.

However, it is a struggle for me not to run. I have been having a little problem with my shin over the past 6 weeks and I need to let it heal. I decided I would get through Lean Horse and then take some time to let it mend.

It is a bit sore today, but I feel like I could run an easy five miles. GRRR!!!

Anyway, I have been working out, just not running. I did take Sunday and Monday off after the race. But since then:

Tuesday: Swim 35 minutes
Wednesday: Upper body lifting/abs
Thursday: Swim 40 minutes

My arms are sore!!! Maybe I should give my arms a day off and run????

lean horse update

2009-08-22T19:45:00.000-05:00

Hot day out there. I ran a 8:42:30. Good enough for first male, 1st age group, and 2nd overall. Congrats to the woman who showed the men up.

Full race report soon.

Eating before Lean Horse

2009-08-21T20:26:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting in the local Best Western waiting for Lean Horse to begin. It has been an intertesting trip and I'll share more later.

One thing I can share is what I ate today in prep for the 50 mile adventure.

WARNING - lots of food

Breakfast:
2 pieces of PB toast
Waffle
Cup of instant oatmeal
OJ
Bowl of raisin bran cereal

Brunch:
Banana
Ensure

Lunch:
Grilled Chicken Sandwich
Cottege cheese
1 slice of strawberry rhubarb pie

Snack:
Clif Bar (brownie)

Supper:
Speghetti with meat sause
Breadsticks

Lots and lots of water, lemonade, and 1 diet coke

I'll be burning about 8000 calories tomorrow. I'm just filling up the tank!

I'll check in tomorrow with race results.

2009-08-20T14:22:00.004-05:00

- I'm likely out on the road right now heading off to Lean Horse. Since I won't be running today, I've posted an entry from our group's running site about my running shoes. This is from March of 09....enjoy!

Top Stressful Events for a Runner

As most of us have read or heard before, there are many stressful events a person can come upon in their lifetime. There are many top stressful events people mention, and in no particular order, some of the events repeated in different articles are death in the family, marriage/divorce, new family members, loss of job, and variations of each. No doubt even many reading this can attest to these as top life stressful events. For each of us, running is possibly part of the solution or our way of coping with life’s large or even not so large stressful events.

I have found that life likes to play a little joke on each of us. Just because I am a runner who uses running as a way to help cope with life’s stressful event, running itself triggers some additional stressful situations. I would consider these a “second tier” of stressful events. Here are some that I have come up with, in no particular order:
• Determining a race to run
• Changing Shoes
• Weather related issues on important running days
• Health as it relates to running

I could easily go into depth regarding any one of these items. Lately though, changing shoes has been on my mind. For many, including even some runners, changing shoes is not a big deal. Then, for some runners like me, changing shoes is a HUGE deal.

When I first started to try and lose some weight back in 2002, I remember slipping on my old indoor soccer shoes. I started with a run/ walk program and eventually worked my way up to two miles. Once I started to run a bit more, I bought whatever cross training shoes that seemed to generally work. After a couple of months, I would head over to Kohl’s and search out the cheapest and nicest looking shoe to fit my need. Then I started to hit about 5 miles at a time and going more than 20 miles a week. Although I had already made a commitment to running, it was time I stopped playing the field of shoes a settle into a long term relationship with my sole’s mate.

The new friends I made through running suggested I go to Fitness Sports. After spending what seemed like the entire afternoon of trying on shoes, I slipped on a white and royal blue Saucony Grid Omni 3 shoes that provided a sliver of heaven for my feet. The heel cushioning was soft, the weight of the shoe was light, and the fore foot toe box fit my feet like soft leather gloves.

Some romantics let you know they found their true love once their eyes met their future partner for life. I did not experience this with my wife and thought that I never would (for the record, I dated my wife’s roommate, and pulled off the roommate switch, another story for another time). However, once I laced up that Saucony Omni shoe, I just knew I found that shoe; or maybe THE shoe for me.

I spent much time over the next few years with my beloved Saucony shoes. Like any relationship, it evolved over time. For me, I was running faster, longer, and more often. She went through some color changes and fabric updates (Omni 4 and 5). The changes each of us were going through seemed to compliant the other. We began to think nothing of setting new PRs as each race we seemed to just get stronger. The ultimate goal was beginning to become clear and it was time to shoot for a Boston Marathon qualifying time.

We kept up our intensity of the training and soon began to realize our goal could be attained. After many hours of emotional high and lows through training in cold, hot and damp weather, we decided to make a run for our goal at Grandma’s in 2006. I remember it well, as the black flag of death was placed out that day due to intense heat in the early summer run. However, without doubt, I knew that I and my Saucony Omni could do it. Through the heat and many water stops, I remember crossing that finish line while fist pumping as the goal became a reality. I remember after the race, although surrounded by many volunteers, I sat on the ground to slip off the “more than good friend” that led me to my goal. We did it.

After that run, we had a great summer. With the pressure of getting a Boston Qualifying time off our shoulders, we ran just for the love of running. Later that year, we smashed our Boston qualifying time by 4 minutes; setting my ultimate marathon PR of 3:06.

Then, we both seemed to change, this time, we didn’t change together. My miles began to increase, and the comfort she once provided wasn’t there any more. She changed her colors, and went to a new “Pro” grid instead of the “regular” grid. She must have thought this to be an improvement; however, to me it only made matters worse. My shins began to feel the effect. I tried to hang on to what we had built over the years by ignoring the new changes and focusing on the old items that once made us click. However, it just was not met to last.

After a good six years, I needed to move on. Since last fall, I started to try out some various shoes. Nike, New Balance, even a pair of Asics as a rebound shoe; but nothing seemed to fit as well as those Saucony shoes. I even came across a new pair of the old shoes in my closet. I occasionally wear them, but I know there is no future for me and this shoe.

Last week, I went to the Running Room and slid on a pair of Addis SuperNovas. Uh-oh, what is this I feel? A sliver of heaven for my feet.

8/19 - Easy hills 6.2 miles

2009-08-19T19:45:00.004-05:00

Today's run was a rolling hill route known as Spook. Part of the route is on a obscure gravel road that leads into the back of Water Works Park. The road is in town, but is one of only a few gravel roads left. I choose the route for this purpose, I'm running a good portion of the 50 mile run on gravel this weekend and wanted to get as much time on gravel as I could.

My mind began to wonder about "Spook"....

There is a particular 1/2 mile stretch where the route gets its name. Legend has it a popular Des Moines chef was murdered on the side of the gravel road sometime around the middle of the last century by the Mafia. Runners have since claimed strange happenings along the stretch of the road. For example, one of the runners was out on a hot 80 degree day but when he reached this stretch, it was so cold he could see his breath!! Another claims instead of taking the normal 4-5 minutes to this stretch, he seemed to lost a half of time.

Anyway, the story and runners' stories went through my head during the run today. It was a nice break from thinking about the impending 50 mile run.

What?? A 50 mile run?? Maybe, I need to think about that a bit......

8/18 Speed Work??

2009-08-18T19:28:00.002-05:00

Yes, I have big race coming up. Yes, I am tapering. So what to do on a Tuesday before the big race??? How about a little bit of speedwork!!

I know the philosophy is to keep the intensity of the runs going into the race while scaling back on the overall number of miles being ran. In short, go run hard, but not long.

But this close to the race? I buy into the run hard, not long philosophy, but only so close to a race. Generally a week before a race (marathon or ultra), I stay off my feet as much as possible. Ask my beloved wife, who knows the grass rarely gets mowed a week prior to a race, there is no browsing at stores or window shopping at a mall; I play baseball with the kids from my chaise lounger, and there is a noticeable increase in my Wii time.

So today's run goes against what I've generally done in the past about tapering the week before a race.

The workout was 8 x 2 minute at threshold pace (6:45) with 1 minute recovery. Today, these went easy, in fact, these were really easy. I ended up going quite a bit faster - 6:20's for the first few and really had to watch my pace to slow down for those two minutes. For my cool down, I ran 1.5 miles at a 7:45 pace, which was feeling like the effort of a 8:45 pace. Overall, this was 6 mile run with 3 miles at a fast pace.

This is very good. A great mental boost with a few days until the big race. Like I said, this goes against what I normally do for an ultra race, but than again, I don't normally run a 50 mile race.

8/16 - Easy run and 8/17 Off

2009-08-17T18:28:00.002-05:00

Not much going on in the actual running area right now. I only have a couple short runs left before the big race.

Sunday was an easy 40 minutes. My wife had wedding shower/bachelorette party on Saturday night. My very responsible wife drove the restaurant but than carpooled with others, I'm sure to save on gas and NOT for any other reason (yeah, right?). Since I run all over, I mentioned to to her no need for both of us to go pick up the car, I'll just run to it. Then off I went, with my wallet and key. Hmmm....maybe I do have a running problem.

The Heed subtle Mandarin orange was the winner of the taste test. I bought a canister at Scheel's this weekend and am now getting prepared for the race.

I am a huge nerd, I put together a spreadsheet with detailed drop bag information, what I need to do at each aid station, what and when I need to eat, when I need to change clothes, etc. For example, in case anyone was wondering, I plan to change by shirt and socks at mile 33. I plan to also take an electrolyte supplement, mix my Heed, refill my water bottle, eat real food, and reapply sunscreen.

Really - is it race time yet????

90 minutes easy run

2009-08-15T14:09:00.003-05:00

Today's run was an easy 90 minutes, it was an easy 10 miles for me as the taper is in full effect for Lean Horse. The Saturday morning group was in full force today including Wes, but unfortunately not Bill. My running buddy's wife put together a breakfast for the group to wish John well on his 100 miles. The breakfast buffet was awesome - a post run dream with chocolate mile, fruit, bagels, egg casserole, and much more!

If you asked me how I decided I was running or racing 50 miles, I don't know that I actually ever decided. I know at some point I had to register, but even then, not sure I had much of a decision.

The discussion originally came up when John was thinking about running a 100 mile race. From what I remember many months ago, the discussion went something like this:

John - "I'm thinking about running a 100 mile race in the fall. There is one in August that might work out well. The only problem is it is a long ways away. I can't go by myself and drive back that far just after running a 100 miles. I think I may need a driver."

Me - "Huh, do they have anything shorter than a 100 mile race, if there is, I could maybe help drive back."

John - "yes, there is a 50 miler, that would work out well for both of us."

So there you have it - that is how I am running 50 miles. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited about the adventure, I am up for the challenge, and there is nothing like running a full day. I am passionate about running, and am looking forward to it. But if John didn't need a driver, I'm not sure if I would be doing this crazy thing!!

One week to go!

Help! Lean Horse 1 week away (40 Minute Easy run)

2009-08-14T17:33:00.001-05:00

The 40 minute easy run was just that. 5 miles without the Garmin so I could just run without looking at my pace all the time. It was hot, but the run was relaxing.

1 week and a day to until Lean Horse!

Most of my thoughts during the run today were about planning for this 50 mile race next weekend. I would like to think I could just show up and run 50 miles, but unfortunately, there is lots of planning to do. I have three columns across a spreadsheet regarding mile splits. The forth set of times is a bit different, as it show a pace between aid stations, but than adds 2 minutes for each aid station for walking and refueling. I then have sections titled: Packing List, Aid station list, Drop Bag 1 list, Drop Bag 2 list, and shopping list......The planning for this race has been just about as hard as the training!! I know you can't read the picture below, but if you have any suggestions about anything to inlcude, please let me know!

By the way, the drawing in the lower left hand corner is a duffel bag. The duffel bag has three various sizes of Ziploc bags inside of it. The three bags are: a small bag of must grabs at each aid station (Clif shot blocks, pre-measured electrolyte mix, sunscreen wipes, etc.); the second bag is a change of clothing (Socks, Shoes, shirt, etc.); the third bag is a what if bag (band aids, toothbrush, athletic tape, etc.) Yes - a toothbrush - if I have to puke, I'd like to be able to brush my teeth - especially since I'm wearing braces right now!

I noticed I forgot to list my (wife's) Ipod and have since added it to the list. If anyone has any suggestions regarding some good workout songs, let me know. 50 miles is a long ways, and an eclectic mix of music may do some good. I can listen to anything from country to hard rock to classical.

8/13 Easy run - 6 miles - tough hills

2009-08-13T13:00:00.002-05:00

Today was scheduled to be an easy run on tough hills. I didn't want to go too long as the schedule only called for 50 minutes of running. I went on the route that is affectionately known as "Pain".

It is about as hilly as you can get in Des Moines. The winding hilly run through the South of Grand neighborhood is always challenging.

Today's running route reminded me of a couple of guys who showed me the route about 7 years ago, and whose company I miss as I haven't run with either of them in a long time. These two guys played a significant role in my life - they introduced me to the "long run".

I remember when I first started running to lose weight. One of my co-workers noticed I had lost a bunch of weight, knew I was running over lunch, and one day asked if I wanted to tag along for an easy 5 miles.

He was tapering for an Iron Man. Remember when your mom or dad told you to not "run with the wrong crowd?" I think my mom had something else in mind, but I started my long distance training with a small group of guys who thought the half iron man distance was barely worth doing.

Next week, I'm heading off to attempt my first 50 mile run. I have a problem, I run way to much, and probably should blame these two guys.

Thanks guys!

FYI.... Yesterday, I tried the Cran-Raz Clif drink. Too sweet, it has been tossed. Today, I mixed half a packet of HEED sublte Mandarin Orange with 20 oz of water. This half mix is about perfect. It is now a strong contender to win out and be used at Lean Horse.

8/12 Progression Run

2009-08-12T13:18:00.003-05:00

After yesterday's hard interval work, today's scheduled run was a 20/20/20 progression run. This is 20 minutes easy, 20 minutes at marathon race pace (7:15) and the last 20 minutes at Threshold pace (6:45). Tough, especially after yesterday's run and today's temps felt like the low 90's during the run.

After the usual morning emails between the downtown running folks, Carla and Matt wanted to do at least part of the run with me.

We all started together at the 8:30 pace and decided to run to the State Fair grounds - the day before the state fair begins, it always provides some interesting sight seeing. Each year I play a little game - this year I counted 8 mullets along with 12 guys who cut the arms off of their newer cotton T-shirts in the 8 minutes I was running through the state fair grounds.

Matt and Carla were actually running a bit fast at the beginning for me. Matt wanted to keep the steady pace, and Carla wanted to get in a few miles at a faster tempo - 7:15 to 7:30. After the first 20 minutes, Carla and I were off - Carla did a great job and we hit the first mile right at 7:15 pace. After that she maintained her tempo pace between 7:15 and 7:30 and I continued on around a 7:13 pace. After the 20 minutes, I was wiped - it was hot and I thought - really, will the next 20 minutes really matter in my training???? (um...I think asked myself a similar question yesterday???)

It does. I'm currently reading Lou Holtz's autobiography Wins, Losses, and Lessons. There are many parts of the book I really like, and as I'm reading the book, now have a better understanding just how wise Coach Holtz is. In it, he reiterates to his coaching staff and players to expect nothing less than doing your best all the time. There is never a moment where anything short of doing your best is good enough. I know, it sounds cliche, it is cliche, but sometimes I need to hear things about 100 times before it sticks.....

I'm not going to change the world by running for 20 minutes at a 6:45 pace. But in the small sense, I think by not doing this, I would not be doing my best. There is no reason to not run hard as my running schedule showed.

I ran hard. My pace ended up being a 6:48 pace for the 20 minutes - just short of the 6:45. I missed it by 3 seconds. As in the book, Lou reminds his players that as long as you did your best and gave it your best, you have nothing to be ashamed of and everything to proud of.

Okay, so at the end of the run, I finished up and started to walk for the cool down. Carla came in a couple minutes behind me and did the same thing. We were walking back toward our meeting place downtown, and then Matt zips by us still running and not stopping - still at his 8:15 to 8:30 pace.

I'm not saying Matt represents the tortoise and I'm the hare, but Matt's nice and steady pace made him look quite a bit better than me as I was still gasping for air. Aw well, I knew I gave it my best. Never give up. Do your best - and most importantly - do not become a statistic in the mullet or armless t-shirt counting game.

8/11 Run - Interval work and thoughts

2009-08-11T13:35:00.005-05:00

Today's run was hard. The scheduled workout was 5 X 10 minutes at a 6:45 pace; 3 minutes easy in between sets. In addition to the tough workout, it was 84 degrees; but with the humidity, felt like 92.

Let's be honest, with 10 days to Lean horse; this was the last significant workout. Although I know this workout would probably not affect my performance at Lean Horse, I realized I needed to nail this workout if just for mental reassurance. As I was running this, I knew I could do it, but it was hard. Then I thought, how easy is running 50 miles? I can surely put up with 50 minutes of running today because in a couple weeks, I'll be needing to put up with a quite a few hard hours of running.

I checked my Garmin for my splits. I ended up running about a 1 1/2 miles each interval, with paces coming in at 6:43; 6:42; 6:44; 6:45; 6:44. I hit it. After my last split, I gave myself an imaginary pat on the back and thought "a job well done - a great confidence booster!"

On a side note; I was out running for about an hour and twenty minutes today. People ask me, "What do you think about on your runs for so long?"

I think many different things. Today, I gave some thought to coaching my two sons' soccer teams, I thought about some of the stuff I needed to get done at work, that my garage needs to be cleaned out, and my tools need to get organized in my basement.

However, I'll admit, I'm a "simple minded" guy. I usually think about things as I'm in the moment. For example, when I'm at work, I think about work stuff. When I'm coaching my sons' soccer teams, I think about soccer; when I'm home, I think about the stuff that needs to get done around the house. SO, while I run, the majority of my thoughts are about, you guessed it, running...

Today's time was spent thinking about hitting those pace marks, if I was running too fast, too hard, or too slow. I thought about how good it felt to go fast, and how easy an 8:25 pace felt compared to the 6:45 pace. I thought about keeping hydrated and staying in the shade as much as I could to keep cool.

Sorry - nothing too dramatic here - like I said, a simple guy with a simple mind!

FYI...I tried the Clif Crisp Apple with caffeine electrolyte replacement drink mix today. Let's say is has been "tossed". The HEED subtle strawberry flavor so far is still the pick.

8/10 Run

2009-08-10T14:30:00.003-05:00

Easy 5.5 miles today as the taper begins for Lean Horse. No issues with the run, all good.

My thoughts have been on Lean Horse though. I've bought the sample sizes of the different electrolyte replacement powder mixes: 4 from Clif and 4 from HEED.

Some people may think I should have had this figured out weeks ago. Yep, they are right. However, I have determined that sweet drinks, like Gatorade and G2, seems to cause me some stomach issues. This only took me a few years to figure out and became apparent over the last couple of weeks. Therefore, I know need to try something different during crunch time to Lean Horse.

I drank some of the HEED Strawberry today. It was actually pretty good. Not too sweet at all. For Lean Horse, I plan to premix which ever electrolyte replacement flavor wins in my own reality elimination show of "Drink or Toss: Which electrolyte supplement can go the distance?" I'll place the winning flavor into small plastic baggies and carry a couple of them at a time an have some in my drop bag.

I'll post the winner in a few days.

8/9 Easy Trail Running

2009-08-10T08:14:00.002-05:00

There is nothing like a nice trail run. In the urban city, (Des Moines is urban, right?) the pounding on the concrete and asphalt streets, sidewalks, and bike paths takes its toll on this regular guy runner with a running problem. It feels great to get out to the wooded areas for some trail runs along the lake.

John and I ran an easy hour run on the trail. Of course, the topic of Lean Horse dominated the conversation. We discussed, once again, the amount of time it would take me to run a 50 mile race - calculating pace while running is not an easy thing to do. We discussed logistics of drop bags, hydrating, eating, and ipod usage. In the two weeks prior to the race, John also reminded me that rest is a good thing, that if you got faster from running, your speed would actually increase on your long run.

We discussed that we need to quite our full time jobs and somehow see if we could make running our full time jobs. We thought we could do clinical trials regarding hydrating, but than John brought up the fact that it only take one clinical trial "fail" to have serious consequences, like not breathing anymore.

As we were running and talking, I was thinking to myself, this is why I run. I run to get outside, enjoy the surroundings, and enjoy the company. There is nothing like a trail run.

8/7 Long Run in the rain

2009-08-07T09:38:00.002-05:00

Earlier this week, I had a discussion with my running buddy John about doing the weekend long run together on Friday instead of Saturday. We decided to run, along with others from our running group. We had a nice size group for the day, a total of 9 runners, with a few people just running their normal daily run to others running 20 miles.

I'm training for the 50 mile race at Lean Horse, 20 miles to me should be easy. John is training for the 100 mile race at Lean Horse, 20 miles to him is barely worth getting out of bed.

Yesterday, I emailed John and let him know it was suppose to rain and it could get pretty nasty with some storms.

His reply was simply - "It's only 3 hours, how wet can we get?"

Okay - there are a couple of things wrong with this question. The first part of the statement/question is "only 3 hours". Ummm...ONLY 3 HOURS of running...seriously, we have a problem and probably should seek help.

The second part of the question/statement is "how wet can we get?" Yeah, we got wet. It was the kind of wet you get to your core. The rain was a nice novelty when we started....it cooled us off, kept us smelling better (vs. stinky sweat), etc. By the time we were done, my shoes had that "squish, squash" sound to it, the sound that only occurs when you carry 5 extra pounds of water weight in your shoe.

At one point, I turned to John and asked him a question. He turned back to me and said "What? I can't hear you because your shoes are too loud!"

To which my reply was "Huh, how wet can we get??"

Two weeks until Lean Horse!

8/6 Run and other thoughts

2009-08-06T13:44:00.003-05:00

Okay - today was an easy 5+ miles on the Rocket Run. Basically an out an back with a slight loop at the end that goes by an old slide that is in the shape of, you guessed it, a rocket. 5.25 miles at 8:10 pace.

Nothing special today about the run, but on the way to work, something odd happened. Actually, when I left the house this morning, I didn't even think I was running today - instead a cross training day with a planned swim. However, the thought had crossed my mind, maybe I should run? Okay, I'll follow my instincts, take the day to swim.

However, you know how some people people say things happen in 3s? Well, today, it happened to me on the way to work:
Car #1. I was behind a car, there was a sticker in the window - it was of a stick runner with the runner surrounded by the words "Never Quit"
Car #2. After Car #1 turned off my route, car #2 was in front of me. The vanity license plate stated "RUNKATH". Not sure what this meant, but I did know what the first three letters did.
Car#3 - just prior to pulling into my parking lot, another car had one of those little round oval stickers in the window. The oval simply stated "26.2".

By the time I stepped out of my car, I decided I better just run over lunch. The question is, did I want to change my mind so I just noticed these things, was it really fate or some other higher power that put those items in place for me to see, OR am I just that passionate/delusional about running that I notice everything running?

8/5 Run

2009-08-05T14:19:00.002-05:00

I got out today with Carla. She is fast. Not just kind of fast, but the fast that gets me into trouble.

Our usual running group was emailing about weekly group runs and Carla mentioned she was getting out today over lunch. I let her know I was getting out as well and could use the company, but that my plan was to run an "easy" 70 minutes today. My easy pace is about a 8:30 miles. Carla replied back with "your easy is my tempo run!" With that, I decided to run with Carla over lunch.

We decided to run park loop in reverse. The route would take us up an incline of about 2 miles before a 1.5 mile descent. Not a hard route, but just enough inclines to give a solid workout. We began to chat and, 8 miles later at an 7:50 pace, I discovered my easy run was no longer easy.

I'm trying to strictly follow my running plan as Lean Horse gets closer. With a 50 mile race just ahead, it is important to follow the planned runs.

Oh well - it felt good to go that pace - isn't that what running is about?

Carla told me a funny story over the run. Quick background: Carla is beginning to run over lunch more and more and is introducing herself to some the usual downtown noon runners. Matt (another usual downtown runner and my cousin) spotted a couple of women that are fast and told Carla to introduce herself to see if she could run with them occasionally.

To paraphrase the story, it went something like this:

Carla: Hi, I'm Carla - I'm beginning to run more over lunch and notice that you get out quite a bit. Are you training for a marathon?

Lady: Honey, I'm always training for a marathon.

Carla: Oh, okay....well I'm training for one and was just curious about your training. Do you have any goals for an upcoming race?

Lady: At my age, honey, I don't run for time anymore.....are you training for your first marathon?

Carla (a little uncomfortable now, decided to lay out her credentials to show the lady that she is a dedicated runner) Oh no, I've done a few. I ran Des Moines last year to qualify for Boston, and ran Boston this spring. Not as fast as I would have liked, but a still a pretty good time.

Lady:I'm hoping to get to Boston in 2010. It will be my 5th Boston marathon. I've completed 73 marathons and 6 ultras.

Moral of the story - be careful who Matt tells you to introduce yourself too.

8/4 Run - Temp

2009-08-04T14:44:00.002-05:00

It's hot out there. Normally this time of year in the midwest, I have no problems with running in 90 degree weather. This year, has been different though. With the cooler temps, my body is not even close to being use to the hot weather runs.

I was scheduled to do 40 minute tempo run with 10 minute warm-up and 10 minute cool down. I went out to follow the plan. At 10 minutes, I picked up my pace and my first mile was right at a 6:45 as planned. Second mile - 6:44, third mile 6:45, fourth mile - 6:44, fifth mile 6:50. Whew - that was hard! Water break! Now time for the cool down. What?? No way do I have another mile left???? Forget it, too $#%^* hot!

Okay, it is important to listen to your body right? My body was telling me to forget it. This time, I acutally did. A 16 minute cool down is no problem. I'll take the run in this heat. What is tomorrow's forcast???

Race update from Afton Alps

2009-07-08T14:15:00.000-05:00

This is way late being posted:

Afton State Park Trail Run – 50k – Ultra trail run
4th of July 2009

Ultra Quick Summary – 4:52 – 19th place overall. Extremely pleased with results.

Ultra Long Summary – Read on…

Pre-Race

The weather called for possible showers, high in the mid 70’s, overcast sky for the morning. All played out, the race was humid and there were a couple of periods where it was sprinkling, but thankful the sun stayed behind the clouds for the majority of the race.

Start Line

You gotta like the race directors at ultras. They give new meaning to “laid back”.

Beth, John, and I started to gather in front of the race start line along with about 150 50k racers. In summary, here were the pre-race announcements:

“We are about ready to go. Make sure you keep the flags on your left. If you don’t, you’ll get lost. Some of the single track trail is overgrown. Okay, we are doing something new this year – chip timing. We are going to give everyone a minute to make sure that you have a chip attached to your shoe.”

About 5 seconds past.

“Okay, everyone have their chip? Everyone ready?” (I was thinking to myself - hmm..haven’t heard this one at a start line before!)
No objections from the runners were heard, so I guess everyone must have been ready...

“Okay, well, if everyone is ready, I guess we’ll get started. Run as hard as you can for as long as you can”

“On your marks, get set, go!”

With that, and a “Hey Doug, good luck, we’ll see you at the finish line!” from John and Beth, I was off.

Miles 1-7 – Scenery Miles

The first few miles of any long race, I like to take it easy, get into a comfortable pace and actually enjoy where I’m at. This race was no exception; and a race such as this one reminds me why I started running in the first place, to be able to enjoy being outside.

It was crowded at the downhill start of the race, and probably kept me at a nice easy pace. I wasn’t able to pass much, and I kept my pace in control going down the first big hill. A few of over eager novices blazed down the trail. I tried not to get caught up with letting them pass me and kept repeating to myself “I planned the race, now race the plan!”

The hills came and went, both up and down, and I maintained a comfortable pace. I wasn’t paying much attention to the runners around me, and in a race through the trails with how crowded the first downhill was; it was amazing at how quickly the race field seemed to spread out.

At mile 6, I noticed I was in a small group of about 4 runners. At that point in time, I decided I would stick with this group. They were in no particular order – “Leprechaun man” -red hair and beard, along with a green shirt; “Blue shirt guy who looks like Dave (from the Saturday morning running group)”, and “shirtless Michigan man” (due to the navy blue and gold shorts). Blue shirt guy who looks like Dave was out in front by about 50 meters, Leprechaun man, just behind him, then 25 meters in front of me was shirtless Michigan man.

Since it was early in the race, at this point just under a marathon to go, I thought this group could set the pace for the next few miles so I’ll hop on the end as the caboose of the train, and let them pull me for a bit.

Miles 7-13

Shirtless Michigan man didn’t want to play my game. I think he wanted to crush Leprechaun man and Blue shirt guy who looks like Dave. At about mile 7.5, He started to speed up, and I kept pace. This part of the race was one of two spots where the trail is pancake flat, and I thought I could handle going a bit faster. I felt like we were running pretty hard; I checked my reliable Garmin, and noticed I was running at a 7:10 pace – faster than race marathon pace??? - Probably not a good thing.

It was time to let shirtless Michigan man go. I eased back to a 7:45 pace on the flat and had a feeling I would see him in a bit. Shirtless Michigan man went ahead of the other two runners and I stayed as the caboose behind Leprechaun man and Blue shirt guy who looks like Dave.

The group, now with a new leader, headed up another long half mile hill at about the 8.5 mile mark. Leprechaun man and Blue shirt guy who looks like Dave slowed way down on the uphill. I walked past both on the uphill. However, on the downhill side just past mile 9, both came barreling past me almost out of control.

We were then running pretty close, only a total of 10 meters between the three of us as shirtless Michigan man must have been way out ahead. Then I spotted shirtless Michigan man coming up on the side of the trail inspecting the bark of a tree. Oh wait, he was peeing. All of a sudden, all four of us were within 10 meters.

We hit the second flat, this one about ¾ of a mile long, and shirtless Michigan man and I hit it hard again. We were pounding along at 7:30 pace and left Leprechaun man and blue shirt guy who looks like Dave behind. We were well ahead of the duo when we started up the hill named “Meat Grinder.” I did not see the Leprechaun man and blue shirt guy who looks like Dave again.

I came alongside shirtless Michigan man after the uphill and through some rolling hills. Since I was passing some time and feeling good, I decided to initiate a conversation.

“We are running at a pretty good clip, we should hit the half-way point around 2:20” I stated.

“Aw, I’m just hoping to break 6 hours, if I run the first lap under 2 ½ hours, that gives me 3 ½ for the second loop.” Shirtless Michigan man replied with a condescending tone.

“What – you don’t believe in negative splits?” I asked jokingly.

“I did when I did my Ironman last year”.

Okay, for the record, there are two types of Ironman out there, the first I typically don’t get along with and the second are some of my best running mentors. First, from my experience, most are “Type A” personalities, who have an ego the size of Godzilla. The second type is the good guys, who I respect for their knowledge and wisdom of endurance races. (If you are an Ironman and reading this, you know which one you are.) This guy went immediately into the first type.

“Which Ironman have you done?”
“Arizona” was his one word response.
“Oh really, I know a few guys headed to Wisconsin this year. Do you have any races coming up?”
“I’m doing that one this year. This is just part of the training for me.”

After the short exchange, I decided to add to this guy’s name, it was now “Arizona-Wisconsin-Michigan shirtless man with extra ego.”

We then ran without an exchange of words and I decided it was time to cut the rope. At mile 12, just before the aid station, I left him behind on an incline. I was truly afraid this man was going to tackle me from the back, so after the aid station, I headed into the single track prairie and woods with some extra hop in my stride.

Miles 13-27

The single track trail through the prairie and woods was extremely tight. I think the path to run on was about 18 inches wide at best. The prairie grass came up to the middle of my mid-section. Remembering back to the race director’s comment at the beginning of the race, I thought, why yes, the single track is overgrown.

This part of the race made me dizzy. I was trying to stay on the path, watching the footing in front of me, hoping that “Arizona-Wisconsin-Michigan shirtless man with extra ego” would not catch me. I was running hard although my splits didn’t reflect it. This was a pretty technical part of the trail, lots of short ups and downs, large rocks, and the winding trail.

I emerged pretty much in tact as I came upon the end of the first loop – no where in sight was extra ego man (I never saw him again). My brother was at the drop bag location to help me out. I refilled and refueled with some Cliff Shot blocks, water, and pretzels.

My watch was at 2:22, and the official clock was around 2:24. I had a couple minutes worth of aid station stops and some slow up hills that my trusty Garmin must have went into “auto pause” mode.

My brother stated: “I saw John at the (third) aid station. He asked if you were already 30 minutes ahead him at that point.”

I replied jokingly “Was I?”

He replied with “You weren’t then, but are now!!” “You seem to be doing well.”

For a moment, I actually believed my brother and though I was doing okay. However, thinking back to the first loop, I knew I went fast on the flats and was afraid it was going to cost me on the second loop. At best, I was hoping to match my first loop time.

The next 11 miles seemed to be uneventful. I occasionally peeked over my shoulder to make sure extra ego man wasn’t there, but there was no one around. I remembered another item the race director mentioned, “keep the flags to your left or you’ll get lost” I just kept the flags to my left and ran when I could. I managed to pass three people in this long 11 mile stretch. No one caught me from behind.

The down hills began to take their toll on my quads. I ran them fast, and knew I was going to feel it over the next couple of days. Other than my quads, I was actually feeling pretty good. I ran the flats fast again and found myself in good shape for the last 6-7 miles.

I saw my brother at the second to last aid station with about 6 miles to go. “You are in 21st position.” Hmm, that was pretty cool. “I wonder if I could get in the top 20,” I thought to myself. He mentioned there was virtually no changes in places in the top twenty spots, everyone seems to running well and staying in their position. “Okay, maybe 21st isn’t so bad I thought”

Miles 27- 31.1

At mile 27, I spotted a couple of runners ahead of me. I quickened my pace as I thought my chances of getting in the top 20 just improved. I flew by two older ladies still working their way to finish the 25K that started an hour after the 50k start. My bubble burst. Oh well.

I started to pass many of the walkers still hoping to complete the 25k. I had a good idea that most were in the 25k race, but I was still hoping to see someone from the 50k.

I then saw a blue sleeveless shirt guy ahead of me; he disappeared around a corner in the trail. I passed a couple more 25k walkers and thought for sure that I must be catching this guy. I then looked up one of the days many steep hills. I was headed up a big incline and the guy was less than 50 meters in front of me! However, he was running up the hill and I was walking. With still about 4 miles to go, I couldn’t spend the energy to catch him on the uphill, so I walked. As I walked up the hill, I noticed I was still catching the blue shirt. He was running up the hill slower than I was walking it. At that point, I knew it was just a matter of time until I passed him. When I passed him, I thought he was going pretty slow, maybe a fit guy doing the 25k at a slow pace. I was mad as I thought that I just caught another 25k walker.

I stated a friendly “Keep it up, just under 4 miles to go!” runner to runner acknowledgement; he replied back with a “Just under a mile to the aid station at mile 28.” At that point I realized he was in the 50k and I just moved up to spot 20.

With less than 3 miles to go, I started to pick up the pace. The 25k walkers were kind enough to do their best of moving to the side of the trail as I ran by them. It was a great feeling to be going so fast compared to the walkers. Any small victory, I’ll take.

I was beginning to just hope to hold onto my place when I saw a redshirt in front of me at mile 30. I can still get him. I must be part bull, when I saw red I hit it hard. With about a half mile to go, I passed the guy. There was no way he was keeping up. I felt bad for a moment, he ran a great race up to that point and I almost considered just running in with him. Nope, the bull won out in me and I passed him. A friendly “we are very close, good job, and keep it up” from me and a “great race” reply back was all that said. I ran to the finish line and came in at an unofficial 19th place somewhere around 4:52. About a half hour better than last year - I’ll take it!!

Technical Items:

Mile - Mile split

1-9:19
11-7:47
22-8:38
2-8:51
12-10:01
23-9:59
3-9:03
13-8:21
24-8:58
4-8:48
14-10:24
25-9:49
5-9:02
15-9:52
26-8:12
6-8:19
16-7:52
27-10:41
7-10:56
17-10:27
28-9:30
8-7:52
18-7:51
29-10:36
9-10:30
19-9:08
30-10:54
10-7:59
20-9:32
31-9:37

21-8:45

First loop - 2:24
Second loop – 2:28
Total Time - 4:52*

*Actual Running time was 4:47:24 on the Garmin. Difference in time was due to some slow uphill walking and stops at aid stations for water, cookies, pretzels, strawberries, bananas and other food items (it was like a great snack buffet!).