Running

USA Cross Country

2012-02-13T17:07:00.001-05:00

To start -

WHO FREAKING CALLED IT!!??

"If I had to pick a winner, I'd pick the All-American boy, Bobby Mack. That's not even because he's a friend of mine. He's by far the strongest XC runner in the race."

I am quoting my own blog post from last week. Bobby is the American Sergey Lebid. Cross Country specialist, and best in crappy conditions on tough courses.

Enough about others, more about ME!

I was bib number 666 and placed 13th. I guess it was cursed from the start.

Trish and I left Minneapolis with a -20 degree wind chill and expected something better 9 hours south in St. Louis. I guess it was better, but the sleet and 30mph wind that greeted us at the course was still not what I was hoping for. On raceday, the sun came out, but the air temp was still in the low 20's with a single digit wind chill when we were starting the race. The men's race was the sixth of the day, and coupled with the sun and melted snow from the night before, the ground became muddy and slippery, while still being cold as hell.

I got out well and dangled at the back of the lead pack for the first few k. For style points, I forgot that I had my awesome Merino Wool Buff around my neck when I shed clothes to race, so I was looking pretty awesome until I threw it off, carefully in a place that I could come back and get it later. I'm not hollywood enough to just buy another one. Perhaps this isn't the best thing to be worrying about in a championship race.

I've known since college that real cross country racing is not my strongest skill. I'm not coordinated on slippery mud while trying to run fast. I'm not that good on short, steep hills, and for some reason, I'm just kind of a puss in XC races. I was trying to prove to myself that I could do better, and I probably did. I was able to split faster through 8k that I ever finished a college 8k race. Still, the slipping in the mud thing did me in. I faded back from the lead pack, but held a solid gap pretty much alone. A few runners died off and I picked them off. Unfortunately I was run down by an Air Force guy (that has happened to me in XC a number of times) and a University of Colorado runner (that has also happened a lot) I floundered around trying to kick down some guys and get in the top 10, but I just kept knocking my knees together and flailing around. Today, I actually have bruises on the insides of both knees from hitting them together so much and with such force. What a pansy!

Meanwhile, (well, about a minute earlier) Bobby was manhandling the front of the field, pushing hard in the last k to get the win. It was really cool to be there to see a friend get a national championship and get the cred he deserves.

Now my XC season is over. I think I may have a 1-2 race indoor track season this month, then get back on the roads once they are more thoroughly thawed throughout the country. Right now I'll (probably) be racing the Iowa State last chance meet, the Gate River Run, and any early outdoor meets that will have me.

Also, a big thanks to Craft, who gives me clothing. The nordic ski inspired stuff may have saved my life while standing around in the freezing cold. I very nearly ran the race in the fleece-lined tights and wind shell jacket.

No Worlds

2012-02-09T15:53:00.000-05:00

'Tis another week of long distance running training.

I've really only had three workouts between the Trials marathon and the USAXC race. I figure that's ok, since the 26.2 mile threshold probably gave me some good fitness.

Last Friday I went over to Lake Harriet to do a threshold run. The lake is about 3 miles around, so I planned to speed up each time around, going 16:00/15:30/15:00. This was a little too ambitious, as the previous four days averaging 21 miles a pop caught up to me. I went 16:00/15:37/15:37. I didn't overwork the run, I was just pooped and had to settle into 5:12s to keep up a manageable pace.

Tuesday I got up and it was 8 degrees with a -4 windchill. I slogged down to the lakes to gut out a fartlek, but decided to bail and come back in the evening with another workout at the Metrodome. I decided to do 8x640 (1 lap) with a 640 jog in between. my goal pace was about 2:08 800m pace. I managed to hit just a little under that. I felt pretty quick and smooth, even while slipping around a little on the shiny concourse floor. I've had good workouts at the dome, but sometimes I feel like I'm pushing my luck.

Blerrrrrrrrr

The creative juices aren't really flowing today. It doesn't happen very often anyway, so, just like a terrible workout, sometimes you have to know when to throw in the towel.

Or when to push on to embarrassing failure! O Fortuna!

So, we're driving down to St. Louis for the cross race tomorrow. This race is so weird. None of the "big" names are there this year. And nobody seems to be that interested in the race since there's no World Champs this year. The race is also in a location that has real February weather, so that scares a lot of people away too.

If I had to pick a winner, I'd pick the All-American boy, Bobby Mack. That's not even because he's a friend of mine. He's by far the strongest XC runner in the race. So, the odds are pretty good that we'll leave St. Louis in decent spirits.

Of myself? I don't know. My last few workouts have led me to believe that I'm in great shape. Recently I've done better translating good workouts into good races, so maybe I have a shot. They take 5 to Trinidad for NACAC, and some people probably will decline to run, so if I can sneak in somewhere in the top 10, I'd have a shot. But this is cross country. I could have an amazing day and get 5th. Or I could have an average day and get 40th. I don't know where I, or anyone else stands right now.

Big River Running Company will undoubtedly put together a good race. You can watch it on Runnerspace on Saturday afternoon.

stuffstuffstuffstuff

2012-02-02T16:28:00.000-05:00

Some things have happened.

Not necessarily enough things to warrant a blog post, but I've got the time.

So, The MDRA somehow worked it out to get the Metrodome open in the evenings for people to run on its 640m to the lap upper concourse. Since I don't have any connections here and can't get on an indoor track, I figured this is my next best bet.
I live about a mile and a half from the dome (which you can see from everywhere, it's like a huge pillow in the landscape) So I ran over there Tuesday night to see what was the deal.

I decided to do a 6x1280m (2 laps) workout. The concourse was divided in two parts to allow faster runners an alley. Unfortunately the faster runners have to run on the inside, making the turns tighter. There really isn't any way to avoid this, since the entrances are from the outside and people would have to be darting out in front of me to get to their alley. Beggars can't be choosers. I got started and was way under my intended pace. In fact, I stayed under that pace quite a bit the whole way. I was really encouraged to still be in ok shape. This gives me a lot more confidence going to USAXC.

In other news, I joined PowerBar Team Elite, which is pretty awesome. Now all the money I blow on PowerBars I can save to blow on something stupid. This is a good deal especially because PowerBar makes tons of different stuff. Should be sweet.

Also, I've been logging all my miles in my new Karhu shoes, and have done enough to give an accurate analysis of three models

Flow - my favorite shoe by Karhu. It's super light for a trainer and very responsive. I don't understand how their patented "fulcrum" technology works, but I like it.

Fast - A lightweight neutral trainer. It's a little stiffer than the Flow and a little more like a a normal shoe. The heel seems cut back a little to try to get you from heel-striking, which is probably good. I like the hardness of the fulcrum and midsole, but some might not. You might want to try the Forward.

Racer - I love these flats. They are similar to the Flow but lighter. I wore them for my Metrodome workout and they offered a good responsive feel with enough cushion and low-to-the-groundedness to keep me safe on the tight turns on the concrete of the concourse.

So there are some plugs. I don't normally like trying to sell stuff on my blog, but I can salvage some integrity by promising that I use all of this stuff and like it. Karhu is a pretty small company in the U.S. so I feel good about promoting them in this word-of-mouth kind of way. They make good stuff, dammit. PowerBar makes a lot of good stuff and they invest in athletes. Even though they are a big company, they do a lot to support athletes like me. They deserve praise for that especially.

collar::color

2012-01-26T17:21:00.000-05:00

For some reason, I feel the need to talk about myself again.

Listen.

We all want attention. Some people want it in greater quantities than others, and some just get it by being outstanding in some way. The rest of us troll for it in blogs, facebook, etc. Sometimes that bothers me. The need to be considered. Sometimes (presently) I don't mind. LOOK AT ME.

So I have been thinking a lot about collars. An unnecessary part of a upper body covering that seems to mean a lot to many folks. The White/Blue/No collar thing at its most recognized. For some reason this is applied to a certain type of person. I won't explain that, because, we're all Americans here. We understand how to arbitrarily group ourselves so as not to have to think outside the box.

This is applied on Letsrun.com, which is also where all your dreams become reality. There is frequently a debate between "blue collar" and "white collar" runners and training groups. I don't think this is unfair for a second. Honestly, the debate is quite interesting, and really a lot of great conversations happen on letsrun, interspersed with narcissism, racism, misogyny and some latent homosexual comments.

Often, the Hansons training crew down in Michigan is the prototypical blue collar group. I'd agree with that. They all work at a running store and train in crappy weather in a crappy town. Occasionally a story comes along about the next blue collar tough guy who works full time and trains full time and kicks ass and also takes names.

The groups training in Oregon can be generalized as white collared - with the money flowing like a river from Nike. They might have a better financial situation and lots of equipment, but I don't see a real reason to bash them since they are the ones that always wind up on our olympic teams.

So what is the point of blogging about this???

I did start the post by pointing out that this is all about me-

So, where do I fit in?

What sort of collar am I running in? As a fully human person I'd really like to be able to classify myself. Type A/B, Myers Briggs, etc. I have to lean toward the blue collar side, obviously because of my lack of wealth, and the fact that 2 of the 3 places I've lived as a serious runner were freaking terrible training environments, weather-wise, and concerning access to good racing. (props to NC). But none of this is a choice of mine. Blue collar running gets the respect on forums, but white collar gets the medals.

I'm not really complaining. I kind of enjoy the minimalist, grungy running lifestyle. If running is my major pursuit though, I'd like to accomplish more. That is what I'd really like to figure out.

So, I haven't earned a collar yet. I train and race hard and occasionally have a small breakthrough. I also don't work that hard at anything else. My wife is a genius and will always be able to cover for the fact that I bring very little to the table financially or otherwise. Training hard saps my will to do much else, it always has, that's why it took me 5 years to get a mostly useless college degree. I'm not sure if I'm in pursuit of a particular collar color, or if there is a need for one at all. I mean, I'm wearing a permanently stinky race t-shirt right now. The collar is kind of a gross brownish-yellow.

upper/downer

2012-01-23T15:55:00.000-05:00

I obviously just discovered instamatic

This kind of looks like a frame from the Zapruder film

So now that my face is down to a manageable size, I'm back out on da streetz. Unfortunately those streetz are covered in snow and it's colder here than I have experienced previously. EVER. I have a wool neck gaiter that I pull over my face when it's cold enough. The thing froze solid on Saturday. Trish just told me that the Metrodome is open in the evenings to run laps. I think I should do that, mostly because I want to go in there before they blow it up. Apparently it's more economical to have four separate arenas all over the place for your sports teams instead of having all of them in one huge, central location with a nice big roof on top. I'm sure this was all negotiated by the likes of our past and present political all-stars such as - Jesse Ventura, Al Franken and Michelle
Bachman.

What is going on in this freaking place? Has our cerebrospinal fluid frozen from living here?

Ok, I'm getting somewhat off-topic here. Have I mentioned that I have a B.A. in Print Journalism?

So, without anyone to tell me not to, I've signed up to run the US Cross Country Championships next month in St. Louis. I usually have pretty good luck racing shortly after marathons, so why not push my luck? The only downside is the recovery time I've had to endure from toothmaggedon and the meds I had to take to keep my face from getting more infected. I'm completely convinced the anti-inflammatories I took kept my quads from healing up quickly enough, but, 9 days later, I'm pretty sure I'm back to fighting condition. If I can get a few decent workouts in and not get stabbed here in the 'hood, I think I'll be ready to go.

The real plan is to see if I can sneak in the top 10 or 15 (who knows?) and maybe get to go to NACAC. Nobody seems to want to go to that race, but I DO. I'm also banking on not a lot of people doing XC, since it's an Olympic year and everyone is afraid to do any sort of race without at least 8 months to recover.

The Olympic Trials

2012-01-16T23:01:00.001-05:00

Full disclosure: I am currently high as crap on Vicodin. I'll explain that at the end.

So - I wandered down to the start a little early and decided to go outside to warm up, which was nice because nobody else was out there. I happened to find my parents setting up camp, I'm sure my dad decided they should get there extra early and find the perfect spot. I was remarkably calm, even though I had no delusions of making the Olympic team, and no serious race plan. I felt limber, light, quick. I got back to the staging area and changed shoes, did some drills, and headed down to the start flanked by scores of other hyper skinny white kids with bad haircuts. After the nervous strides and standing around shivering from nerves more than cold - we jogged to the start, and then, like every other race, they shot a gun (well, Frank Shorter shot a gun) and we all started to run. I started in the back, but kind of got up into the middle of the pack in the first mile and hung with some of the Hanson's guys, and a few others that I recognized, putting seed times and names together, guessing who I should run with. I felt like I was jogging along, hoping the first mile to be really slow. Unfortunately it was a 5:16, so I had started on pace more or less. 8 miles later we were running about the same pace. At this point I passed my father, who told me to "run my own race". I never take his running advice. For some reason I was sure he was right. I slowed down a little. The group ahead pulled away. I would see most of them again. So I found myself alone. Just like most of my recent races. I had a peaceful feeling for several miles. I'm so used to running alone. I reached halfway in 1:07:50, much faster than I've gone through a first half of a marathon before. I still felt smooth and untired. Shortly thereafter I notice that the runners ahead of me were coming closer. People were dying off already. for the next several miles I picking people off. Many whom I recognized as much faster runners. This kept me charging along. I started to feel the first signs of a slowdown at around 19 miles. I was feeling fine, but my quads were starting to solidify and my IT bands were slowly hardening. I knew though that I wouldn't bonk. I knew I'd get there, and I'd still run a decent time. Even as I slowed, I was still catching runners. I got back into downtown and through the 26 mile mark and knew that I'd at least run a PR. A guy came out of nowhere in the last 100 meters or so, but I had no intention of racing anymore. We looked at each other and congratulated one another on a solid race. I crossed the line in 2:20:31 getting 56th place. I walked around and realized this was the least terrible I'd felt after a marathon. I was encouraged that I'd made another step in figuring out how to run a marathon. That maybe I'll be able to keep progressing and work my way into faster and more prestigious races.

Later that day my knees swelled up huge. I hobbled down to the elite hospitality room and grabbed some terrible pizza and a coke. Halfway through the can of coke my back tooth started aching. This happens to me all the time since I haven't had dental insurance or much money since I was a dependent. This time it didn't just go away after a few minutes. I didn't sleep more than an hour or so that night. Sunday was a long day. I wasn't able to eat anything either. I was so tired. The pain became excruciating. Finally this morning I got to an ER (everything else was closed for MLK day) and got some antibiotics and some pretty potent pain relievers. All I can think about now is getting out and training. The Vicodin is only helping a little bit, and I was able to suck down some soup. All I want to do is get out and run. The high temp tomorrow is 9 degrees and I can hardly speak from the pain killers, all I want to do is get out and run - just to move and let everything else sit still.

Obligatory pre-olympic trials blog post

2012-01-10T16:22:00.000-05:00

I'm not going to get too saccharin-pollyanna with this post, but everyone seems to be bloggin' about the trials race coming up, and I can't help but jump off the bridge right after them.

It is nice to realize that other runners (faster ones, too) suffer the same psycho-physio-bizzaro thing that I do when in the waning stage of marathon training. People get so introspective, and their true nature comes out in online rambling. Kind of like this.

So.

The training is going great/My coach thinks I'm in the best shape ever/I'm wishing everyone out there the best

Actually,

my training is ok - I'm probably much more rested than usual before a marathon/ I am my coach, and I've probably been in better shape before, but maybe overtrained/ I hope everyone else out there does terrible so I can go to the olympics. I mean really, we can't all have the best race of our lives.

In summation - I AM excited about this race. I DO want to run very fast and place very high. Right now though, I have succumbed the taper-doldrums. Luckily the race is only a few days away, and nothing that is going on now will matter Saturday morning.

So, chapeau! to everyone running the trials race. It's taken a lot of work and self-control to get here for most of us. Be proud of that.

Truncated Training

2011-12-29T17:12:00.002-05:00

I've been challenged as a self-coached runner (not by choice, being self coached - that is) by my recent training situation. I ran two half-marathons in less than a week, the latter one coming about five weeks before the Olympic Trials marathon. Deciding how to walk the tightrope between trying to do too much and not getting in the best shape possible has been the dilemma. I think I've done it well though, but of course, the only way to find out is to run the race. That happens in about two and a half weeks.

I've been hitting between 80-90 miles a week in 6 day weeks, which is lower than usual, but I am getting in the same runs, just taking afternoons off and letting my parts heal up. I've done a few long fartleks and a nice 24 miler starting slow and then hitting around 5:30s for the middle ten miles or so. I think I'll be prepared and relaxed going into the race. My number one goal is running a respectable PR. I'd really like to get under 2:18. 2:17:xx just looks faster, plus it will give me a little confidence going into the next trials when the standards look like they'll get dropped again. The second goal is making the olympic team. You have to have things prioritized you know. (this is sarcasm for anyone going straight to LetsRun after reading this)

Lets watch this video to get pumped up:

Watch more videos on Flotrack

Manning Up -or- Surprising Oneself

2011-12-12T12:48:00.000-05:00

The last week has been totally nuts.

I went to Vegas for the RnR half there last Sunday (12/4). The race was a complete and total disaster. The course and wind sucked. The race organization and information sucked. And I ran poorly and like a wuss. Getting to the start was an adventure in itself, but we made it there, and eventually found the VIP area to get our mess together and get ready to race. Once the thing finally started, I went out way too fast. The leaders went out super hard and the 1:05 guys went out super safe. I was alone and there were 44,000 people in the race. I had planned to have lots of dudes to race with. Anyway, I managed to ease back the right amount and keep on the right pace until about 10 miles. At that point the course kicked uphill, albeit slightly and a stiff wind (it FELT stiff) hit us in the face. All I needed to do was to run my last 5k in 15:30, but I couldn't. I started vomiting with about a mile to go, and really let fly in the last couple minutes. At the line I just dejectedly walked across, dry heaving at this point. I had a decent time in Vegas after that. I lost an entire $1.76 on slots and helped my friends stage a fake wedding that freaked a lot of people out on Facebook.

When I got home though, I still felt like I had unfinished business. I knew I could run much faster, and should have at Vegas. I began to scour the internet for races, knowing that I had another weekend to get in. I found a small half in Point Clear, Alabama, (on 12/10) which is where my wife's brother and his wife live. Jackpot. Flat course, good weather, cheap entry fee, free lodging. I took most of the week off or easy and hopped right back on a plane to give it another go.

The Holiday Half Marathon is conducted by the Port City Pacers out of Mobile. They put on the Azalea Trail Run, so they know their stuff, and the course is certified. I took out on pace from the gun, running alone as usual. I was hovering between 4:56 and 5:00 pace most of the way, at least letting myself stay close. I hit 10 miles in 49:45 and decided that I wanted it THAT bad. I gave every little bit I had and got to the line in 1:04:58, winning by seven and a half minutes and getting my OTQ finally.

Now my plan is to decide how to train for this OT race. I was doing high mileage a while ago and had tapered slightly for Vegas, and have now had a really low week of recovery. I suppose I'll keep mileage low and make sure to get in solid long runs the next couple weeks. As far as the OT race - I'm very happy just to get in, but I want to do well there. I plan to go out slow and try to negative split, hopefully picking off a lot of guys along the way. I think a good placing there would help get me a little pub, and help me to continue to train and race and not grow all the way up.

Changes, bro. Changes.

2011-11-11T15:14:00.001-05:00

I took another crack at a trials qualifier last Sunday. I ran 1:05:14 to win, but obviously missed the standard. It wasn't actually as close as it looked. Here's the thrilling recap:

It was kind of cold at the start. I decided to be extra fashionable by wearing my awesome Saucony AMPPRO half tights as well as my disgusting looking stained white compression socks. Luckily it warmed up enough before the start that I didn't need my bright green and purple armwarmers. So anyway, I'm standing there on the line, trying to figure out my primary goals here. I want to run a trials time, but this course is hard. I also want to win the race and get the cash money. I glanced up to a monitor positioned above the line. It was flashing people's names randomly (MAYBE NOT!!!) and I saw Ricky Flynn, 24, Lynchburg. This happened about 5 seconds before the gun. Immediately I was elated that a 1:04:15 guy was going to be there to race. Then my true human nature came through as I was worried I'd lose a fair amount of money when he dropped me, but I might hang on for a fast time. So we started out on pace, 4:56 through the first mile. I kind of zoned out and missed the signs for mile 2 and 3, but realized at mile 4 at 20:04 we were way off. I decided I need to sack up. I hit 5 miles in 24:56, and was nearly back on pace. In the process I built a good lead. All of the hills on the course were from mile 2-8, so I need to keep it close. I managed to dance around 5:00 pace hitting 9 in 45:00, 10 in 50:00 and 11 in 55:00. I could not put the hammer down. As I hit 12 in 60:00:00, I decided I would do everything possible to drop a 4:30 to get it. I ran 4:44 instead. A legit course, a good time, but not good enough.

Oh yeah, two days later I drove a U-Haul to Minneapolis, which is where I live now. Trish got a job at UMN as a resident genius. So I'm back to training all alone. It's kind of sad, knowing how long it takes me to make friends, and how much I improved just from being around a group. I'll see what I can find around here, and see if I can learn how to run on a treadmill.

The Bankofamericachicagomarathon

2011-10-17T15:23:00.000-04:00

Well, it's been about a week since the Chicago Marathon. And I'll blog (verb form) the highlights so you have to wait until the thrilling conclusion - if you didn't already know how it went.

so-

Thanks to the TAF travel fund, I got a room at the Hyatt, only about half a mile from the start line. That was a very good idea. I got up at around 5:00 (as opposed to like 3:45 last year) and had a leisurely ProBar and coffee breakfast. Then I lubed up my boy parts and headed out the door. I finally found the Elite Development tent and dropped off my stuff and it was about time to go. I ran into Tim Surface at the line, and started with him and a few other folks I kind of knew. It kind of kept the nerves at bay. So the gun sounded and we took off. Hope Solo had a head start and held us off for nearly a quarter mile. after a while we formed our little sort-of-elite pack with the lead women, and were clicking off 5:15-5:18 from the gun. Unfortunately our actual pacer took off like a maniac, and the guys that went with him all died a horrible death later. We were solid through the half, feeling like I was out for a nice tempo run, and right on pace at 1:09:2something. At around 15 the lead female (Liliya Shobukhova) picked it up a little, and we all went along. Everything is still going great here. at about 20 I realized we were still under pace and I was still feeling fine. THIS IS GREAT. at about 22 I was started to feel crappy, but it wasn't really a problem. At 23 I hit the wall hard. Suddenly my legs were heavy and I couldn't see straight. I kept blinking and shaking my head. I felt like I had been in a centrifuge. I was crying out from within "don't do it!" "you're too close" but shortly thereafter I accepted my fate. My body had given up even though I had told it not to. Other bodily functions to a backseat to maintaining consciousness, as I weaved down the street. For some reason, in the last half mile, I couldn't hear anything. I got to the line in 2:21:50. Roughly on 2:19 pace for 24 miles. At the finish I stood ghost faced (I saw the pictures) and defeated. The medical personnel kept asking me if I was ok. I kept trying to tell them I was as fine as you could be or something more smart-assy, but I could only get out the first word of a sentence I had put together in my mind "yeah, yeah, yeah" I kept saying over and over. I got a little scared, but a minute or so after the finish I was at least with it again. By the time I got out of the finish chute (the thing is at least half a mile long) I was pretty much ok.

So where do we go from here?

I guess the plan is to get a sub 65 half in ASAP. As it stands, 8 days later, I'm pretty much back to normal training. It's hard to get over being that close and losing it, and then finishing 3 minutes of pace, but luckily as a true American, I have a very short memory and a desire to go out and make my dreams come true - no matter how pointless they are. This is kind of depressing, but seriously, the race sucked and I'm not going to force myself to look on the bright side. I'm going to go out and try to rip a fast half and forget about it. You're only as good (or bad) as your last race.

2011-09-30T15:00:00.001-04:00

I'm tapering for a marathon. I hate tapering very much. For some reason things start hurting when you go from 135 miles a week to 120 miles, to 100, to 85. Average intelligence might guide you to think this would make a runner feel awesome. My shin splints and twingy hamstrings are evidence to the contrary.

I feel slightly better, having gotten my entry info for Chicago in the mail the other day. I'm bib no. 62 if anyone's following it online or watching on TV. I probably won't be too noticeable in a black singlet and grey shorts (yes, I picked out my race wardrobe already).

The real taper obstacle is probably coming this week. In my experiment of one, (SCIENCE!) I've noticed that the last two weeks are as follows:

2 weeks out: excitement, nervousness, slight training related pains that cause mild anxiety
1 week out: lethargy, depression

Perhaps I give the marathon too much credit. Maybe I give it more of lofty training goal position than it deserves. If I happen to pull one off without a monumental collapse at the end I will gladly come back to my blog and gloat about it.

If you happen to be in the Chicagoland area, stop by and see the race. If you're a runner and desperately seeking a place to stay the night before the race, let me know - I can hook you up - no money involved, only running related items for barter. I keep it old school.

2011-09-25T17:07:00.001-04:00

My last race before Chicago was the Magnificent Mile in downtown Raleigh.

I was actually pretty nervous for this one. I realized I hadn't really raced a mile in about 4 years, and I hadn't done a second of speed training. But greed and convenience got the best of me (I live a mile away from the start, and the prize money was good for a small race) and I toed the line. There was a pretty big elite field, so I wasn't sure what was going to happen. At the gun, we went out really slow, and I was confused. I didn't push it though, because I knew I stood the best chance off of a really slow pace. We hit the 400 in 70 seconds, really slow. Then a few legit contenders moved up to the front and I snuck up with them. We came through 800 in 2:13, back to a 63. Then, for some reason, we slowed back down again and hit the 1200 in 3:21, dropping a 68. By now it was down to me and Devin Swann for the win. I knew we have both been training for longer races, but I wasn't sure who would have the best finish. I started to move hard right at the 1200 mark, but then I realized I didn't have that long of a surge in my legs. I backed back down until about 100-150 from the line and threw in what I had left. Luckily it was enough and I won the thing in somewhere around 4:20 (this chip timing system is notorious for adding seconds) So I at least closed in under 60. the course had 6 90 degree turns, so I'll take the time and not complain too much.

Now I'm about two weeks out from the marathon and feeling good about my chances. I've toyed with a lot of race plans, but I'm not much of a risk-taker, and I really don't want to risk much in a marathon. So my race plan is to run a 5:18 mile 26.2 times. I'd thought about going out slow and hammering the last half, but I just don't trust my body to handle that. Hopefully I can cruise through 23 or so miles at pace and then step it down the last few, or at least grind it out and stay on pace for at least 2:18:59.

Unsolicited Advice

2011-09-16T14:19:00.000-04:00

I've been inspired by people with good blogs to try to make mine good as well. I don't expect to succeed, but I'm an expert at trying anyway - (post-collegiate distance runner).

I seem to only update when I've run a race. Some people are interested in what I do other that race. I foresee bored readers - but will tell you stuff. How about a training week!

Monday - a.m. 14 miles - p.m. 7 miles
Tuesday - a.m. 12 miles - p.m. 8 miles
Wednesday - 8x80sec. hills then 15 miles (total of 20 miles)
Thursday - a.m. 12 miles - p.m 6 miles
Friday - a.m. 14 miles
Saturday - 24 miles (last 4 under marathon pace)
Sunday - 13 miles

I'm pretty sure that's what I did last week. I've been told my training is way to vague. Well fine. I do not disagree - but go run a marathon and tell me how easy that is to micromanage. You have to be in shape to run for a freaking long time and be bored as crap most of the way. I'm good at being bored and being boring. Let's change the subject....

I'm going to plug for a race I just ran. I hope to make a sound argument.

So - the Chicago Marathon takes place this year on Oct. 9. The Charleston Distance Run 15 miler happened on Sept. 3. Many reputable marathon training plans recommend a half-marathon race 4-6 weeks prior to your intended marathon. The race in Charleston falls very much within that timeframe and also offers a few unique training and marathon preparation opportunities.

A distance that is slightly longer than a half-marathon. It is my experience that more is almost always better when it comes to marathon training. You aren't going to find many races between marathon and half marathon, so 15 miles at or under marathon pace is a good plan and indicator of your fitness.
a mostly flat course. probably half of the course is completely flat. The Chicago course is 100% flat. The last 6 miles of CDR is through a mostly crowdless, flat, boring part of town. Chicago is the same way. There are a lot of similarities, plus Chicago can get hot toward the end, so can CDR.
The parts of the course that are not flat are SUPER hilly. This offers you the added training benefit of running up hills, working on strength and economy.

So there's the plug. I didn't get a huge payout or the star treatment for running or winning the race, I just think the course and timing is a great pre-Chicago test.

2011-09-04T16:03:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I ran the Charleston Distance Run in Charleston, WV. It went like this:

I woke up in the morning with my hip feeling tight after sitting in a funny position during the car ride up from Raleigh. I slapped some KT tape on it, and it seemed to help. I stepped outside in my shorty shorts and goofy socks and was immediately met with mid-July morning humidity. It's been really nice in Raleigh the last couple of weeks. I really didn't want to deal with this. We drove down to the state capitol building (near the top of my list of cool looking state capitals, second only to the great green dome of KS) near the Kanawah river. They started us out and a group of probably 4 guys took to the lead. My plan (not considering the plan of anyone else) was to run 5:19s most of the way and then speed up the last few miles. Arrogantly I didn't actively seek out a course map, someone had told me it was mostly flat with one big hill early in the race, so I went with that. We went out dropping 5:12 then 5:00. A Kenyan started pushing the pace, and I was happy to lurk, planning to let him run as hard as wanted, then jump him when he got tired. He got tired when we started to head up the "Capital Punishment" hill. I didn't think it was really that bad. We went so slow that it didn't take much out of me. At the top of the hill, we turned into some steep switchbacky hills. It was a really pretty area. My only real trouble came as we came back down the steep hills. I was feeling the hills from last week as I stumbled down them behind Bryan Morseman (2:2o marathoner) Luckily by 8 miles we were back on level ground. I pushed a little in an effort to get back on pace, I clicked off a few around 5:10 and got a big lead and managed to hold it to the line.

2011-08-29T19:07:00.003-04:00

I've had a couple of really good races the last couple of weeks.

First, I had the chance to run at the Edmonton Marathon in Canada. We were supposed to run on a USA team against a Canada team, but apparently that didn't materialize. Whatever...I got to run in a USA uniform, so I'm happy. The race itself went very well too, as I placed third overall in 1:05:26. A big PR. I had a lot of crazy travel the day before with flights getting cancelled, but somehow things came together.

This weekend I headed out to Laurel Springs, NC for the U.S. 10k trail championship race. Bobby won it last year, so I thought I'd go out and try to pick up a few bucks. The course was one of the hardest things I've ever run on. you can check it out at www.continentaldividetrailrace.com. Somehow I wound up right behind Ryan Woods on the last climb (it was an actual climb, using hands) and then I had an open shot to out kick him to the finish. It's pretty cool to have won a National Championship - even if it is a relatively obscure type of race. There were some serious trail types there, and it was a tough, tough fight. I'm kind of in a hurry, so I think I'll edit this post later and add in some more interesting info.

2011-07-20T14:43:00.004-04:00

I ran my last race of the "season"...hopefully...this weekend. This was the NCUSATF 5k championship race at the Beat the Heat 5k in Winston-Salem. I have to say, for a reasonably small race, this was one of the best organized and all-around awesome little races I've ever run. Mostly because of all the post-race food and free beer. W-S is Bobby's hometown, and he was there to defend his title and shoot for the course record bonus. For some reason they provided us with a rabbit - W-S native Jack Anderson, who runs at William and Mary. The plan was to take Bobby through the mile in 4:30, and my plan was to hang on for dear life. The first quarter mile or so was mostly uphill, and then took a pretty quick nose dive to the mile mark. We hit it in exactly 4:30. I wasn't feeling great, but I felt better than I thought I would. The second mile was almost entirely uphill, and Bobby pushed pretty hard to try to stay on pace, I faded quite a bit, and hit 2 miles in 9:20. Luckily the last probably half mile was an smooth downhill, and I was able to at least press my pace back down some into the finish. I was second to Bobby in 14:37, and he got the course record in 14:14. Devin from RRO was next in 14:58, and luckly (for me, not him) Ryan Woods from Boone did something to his calf and didn't finish - though he was coming pretty hard in the last mile. The next race I plan on doing is the state and national championship for 10k trail race in Laurel Springs at the end of August. It should be fun as long as I don't break my ankle or anything. I'm sure I'll also learn a lesson or two about what it takes to race on trails.

2011-07-05T15:52:00.004-04:00

Peachtree was yesterday morning.

I didn't run very well.

I was kind of out of it from the beginning. I'm not sure exactly why I ran poorly, and honestly it's kind of getting exhausting trying to find a reason (excuse) for not doing well. Everybody is quick to come up with good reasons for why things were bad. The weather was bad, the course was hilly, something hurt, training has been less than ideal, blah, blah. Some of those things might have been the problem, but I just didn't compete, and wasn't willing to hurt enough. There's of course a bright side - realizing that I really don't belong (and can't) with runners of that caliber keeps my ever-swaying ego in check for the time being. Keeping that balance between useful confidence and baneful arrogance is good. Now that I'm feeling mostly uninjured, I can do some more serious training and rely on that to try to do something worthwhile in the fall. This sport, I tell ya - It makes you crazy.

2011-06-23T13:55:00.003-04:00

I realized that I don't post anymore unless I've recently run a race. So, I'll post even though I'm not racing this weekend.

..........I have no ideas......

Oh right - USATF National Champs are this weekend! I know a few people that will be running there. In concerted effort to not be a name-dropper, I will not name-drop them. Just know that know important people. You are impressed?

The first race is tonight, at 10:40 EST - the mens' 10k, which should be one of the most exciting races of the entire meet. I'm pretty sure you can watch it at flotrack live tonight. I will personally guarantee that it will not be shown during normal TV coverage on Saturday (on NBC I believe). Can you imagine anyone other than a distance runner watching skinny guys run around a track for nearly half an hour? What has NASCAR figured out that we haven't? noise? booze? I've drank whiskey at a track meet and it didn't really enhance the experience. I'll be thoroughly entertained notwithstanding.

The rest of the meet is Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I am pretty sure the 5k is Friday night and the 1500 is Saturday. I'll give you some predictions:

10k - Galen Rupp is going to win - it's just going to happen, take it like a man. Hang in there Bobby!
5k - Nobody can mess with Bernard Lagat - I just hope they don't televise his kid screaming again. I hope the race goes fast so the NCSU guys can drop a good time.
1500 - Andrew Wheating probably, but I'd like to see Russell Brown shake it up some. This race is the harder one to call. I'm pulling for Rob Myers to make the squad - he's a farmboy. Or David Torrence, just because of his smack talk on Ryan Hall at the road mile, which was hilarious.
800 - Nick Symmonds has done this a lot, but everyone's pulling for Robby Andrews - I'm rooting for Khadevis, just because he's gotten a lot of crap, and nobody seems to really like him. I don't know him at all, so I won't judge you KD.

I don't know the women's races as well, I don't think that makes me a chauvinist though. I'm more interested in the races that I dream of being in (Hey, you never know), but I probably won't be taking on Shalane Flanagan anytime soon (I can beat her). Plus, I don't know the field as well, so I'd be talking out of my *%$#.

So, about a week and a half until Peachtree, and nothing has broken yet. My shin feels like it's getting a stress reaction or something. Maybe I'm just paranoid. Ok, that's it - I'm not good with endings.

2011-06-20T13:44:00.003-04:00

This weekend I raced the NCUSATF title race for 8k at the "Running of the Bulls" race in Durham. Everything is bull-themed in Durham. Durham gets a pretty bad rap, most of which is deserved, but downtown is a cool place, and the race course wound around the downtown area and the two ballparks - DBAP and DAP, not confusing at all.

So, I didn't know exactly what to expect course-wise or competition-wise before getting there. Upon inspection, there were a lot of turns and a lot of up and down - neither of which fit the way I run much (that's probably not good). But I can handle pretty much anything for 5 miles. Bobby didn't come, so I knew I'd at least be inittowinit. Tim and Devin from RRO were there, but I'd heard through the grapevine that they'd been injured/missed training or something. That was good for me, be I felt terrible and really didn't want to get pushed. Devin ran 24:00 on that course a couple years ago - I knew I couldn't do that today.

Things started off straight uphill. I ran with the front group for that first few hundred yards to the top and then kind of sped off once it leveled out a little. I built up a decent lead pretty quickly and just held it to the end. I was really feeling heavy and tired and sluggish the entire way. I usually feel like that early in a race, but eventually I warm up and start feeling light and fast. That didn't really happen until the last half mile or so, and even then it wasn't transcendental by any means. My splits were all over the place, but the mile marks seemed a little off (I'm reaching here) and the hills probably slowed me down more than I want to admit

4:55/4:40/5:18/5:02/4:35

I didn't realize how much the pace fluctuated. I felt pretty evenly terrible the whole way. I guess I closed well, but if I had been challenged (if those guys were in ready-to-roll shape) I'd have gotten buried in a late push. That's not a great feeling.

Now i'm trying to figure out the best training between now and the Peachtree race in Atlanta on the fourth of July. I'd like to run well there, even though I know I'm going to get blow'd up by some of the best guys in the country.

2011-06-07T15:13:00.003-04:00

It's much more exciting to blog about running when you've just had a great workout or race. I haven't had either one of those in a while, but as I've often said to the kids I coach (In a very Howard Cunningham kind of way) "I've probably run more than a thousand races in my life, but I can only think of probably ten that were great." I feel really proud of that realization and statement. It's not exactly uplifting though. It's usually countered with "...And you never know when that next great one will be" or "...those few great ones are worth all the bad ones." Which is completely true. I totally believe all of that.

So there's the preamble I guess

I had a really crappy race this weekend. I was probably due, but it's never fun. The race was the Hospital Hill Half Marathon in KC. We were on our way back to NC from my in-laws in Kansas, so I figured I'd stop by and get in some suffering. There was a lot of suffering. I've got a ton of perfectly sound excuses for why I ran so bad, but I'll leave those out. I must note though, it was 85 degrees and this is seriously the most horrible race course I've ever run. There, there's the dramatic circumstances. Anyway, I started out running with my former college teammate, Mathew Chesang (whom I hadn't seen in several years) and just kind of hanging on for the first 10 miles of the race. When we hit the base of the 2.75 mile uphill at Broadway Ave. I was toast. I just got straight up DROPPED. That's the worst feeling in the world. I hobbled in in in 1:11:26. They say the course itself gives you about 3 minutes - which still is crappy. Speaking of crappy, I pooped 12 times after the race, I think I trashed my body completely over the course of the trip back home. Running aside, it was a great time and I hope I can be back there soon - I miss my home and my farm and my cows and goats.

2011-05-19T19:38:00.002-04:00

Last weekend I raced the Capital City Classic 1ok in downtown Raleigh. It's a neat little race. The director sets up elites really well and put together a cool course. We ran around downtown and didn't follow the usual downtown course. I didn't feel great however, so Bobby did all the work keeping pace and I just held on. He had run a 28:11 10k on the track just five days earlier, so I figured he'd be just tired enough to run my kind of pace. We came through the mile way too slow in 4:54, and kind of struggled to get things on pace. Through 5k in 14:58 I was a little worried we'd keep it close. We must have finally warmed up and a long stretch on Western Blvd. and back up Wilmington street let us stretch out a little bit and I started to feel better. I tried to do my share a little bit and lead, but going uphill I couldn't do it. With about a half mile left I went around and tried to make a last ditch effort to get back on pace, but Bobby pulled away strong in the last couple of blocks. I was really excited though to see the clock just ticking over 29:40 as we got close. Bobby won in 29:46 and I was in at 29:47. Finally under 3o and on a legit road course.

My tibialis anterior tendon and muscle are still giving me trouble, so I've got a few more days to decide whether or not it can last a marathon. If not I'll be racing for $ around Raleigh.

2011-05-19T19:32:00.000-04:00

2011-05-05T13:25:00.002-04:00

So, I ran another 5k road race for no reason this past weekend. It was a fundraiser for the Raleigh Police Dept. (I think). It was downtown, so I knew it'd be a pretty fast course, and I could make a marathony workout out of it. I got up early and ran about 11 miles to warm up and to go get my number and chip. When the race started I still felt like I'd just gotten out of bed, I figured over an hour of warming up might help, but I guess not. Though I felt slow and crappy - I came through the first mile in 4:29. Something like way too fast. I'm not sure of the accuracy of mile markers, and I know their timers were off, but it was only a 5k. I felt like I held pace pretty well, but must have slowed down quite a bit, as I ran 14:44 via raleigh chiptiming (always a few seconds slow - my watch had 14:41.) I was planning on another 1o miles or so, but my tendonitis was flaring up a little, and I figured a jog home and a nap would be the best solution. I got up the next morning and got in a nice 21 miler and felt pretty good, so I guess I made the right call.

Grandma's is about six weeks away, and I'm still planning on showing up. I'm worried that the tendonitis in my foot/shin will be a big problem after 2 hours of hard running, but i've got a couple more weeks to make a sure decision.

2011-04-20T13:42:00.003-04:00

Here's my not-exactly-triumphant finish photo from the Flying Pirate Half Marathon out on the Outer Banks last weekend. The race was the NCUSATF title for the 1/2, and there was some money on the line, so I figured it was worth the drive. We found a nice, cheap hotel (not too nice, but I mean - what do you need?) for 55 bucks, right on the beach. Since I didn't apply for a comp until the Wednesday before the race, I didn't get a free hotel. The beach view would have been nice if it didn't rain most of the time the day before. I got up nice and early and caught the bus to the start. The course was a point to point from north of Kitty Hawk, down to just south of downtown Nag's Head. From the start, it appeared that I would be pushing the pace the whole way. After a 5:20 first mile, I started ramping it down to 5:08s and was alone by the 3 mile mark. I was able to keep hitting 5:03-5:10 until a little before the 10 mile mark, when all of the sudden we turned onto a muddy gravel trail. Somehow the trail had a lot of ups and downs and turns, which I really didn't expect. The last mile morphed into a weird switchbacky, woodchip mess over the top of a pile of sand. I lost track of splits, but I'm pretty sure my last mile was in about 5:45. I won in 1:07:23, feeling pretty good, having pushed pretty hard, and was glad that I didn't have to race the last couple miles. I didn't have much left for a fight.

Now I'm trying to find some more races nearby that are worth the trouble and training for Grandma's Marathon in June. I'm still getting some tendonitis problems in my ankle every once in a while, so we'll see how it goes. Here's a much better picture, I think I actually posed for it, hoping for something dramatic.

2011-03-22T08:29:00.003-04:00

I've had little to post about lately, and do not currently. I will still post though - my Mom needs to check up on me.

I've been battling a nagging injury the last month or so - the tibialis anterior tendon near the junction of the foot and the ankle keeps swelling up after a lot of running. Currently I've kept it at bay with some superfeet insoles (I hate admitting that) that keep me from pronating on that foot too much. I did a nice 19 miler a few days ago without much trouble, so things are looking ok.

I still plan on running Grandma's Marathon in June, and need to get serious about training, as it's almost exactly 3 months away. I feel 3 months is a good amount of time to get ready for a marathon, much longer than that just gives you the chance to get tired, hurt or just straight up bored with the training. I'm very confident that I can get a trials qualifier, but it's a lot of work just to show up on the starting line for a full marathon.

I'm running with the Capital Fitness team at the Athlete's Foot here in Raleigh, training with some NCSU former all-americans, and that's really helped me out. I've gotten good at training alone, but getting out and training with people that are above your ability level raises the bar and helps you keep some perspective. This is good, because I'm prone to periods of extreme overconfidence followed by extreme lack of self-esteem. If I'm just out there cranking and getting faster, I've got a goal to pursue and not just local notoriety.

2010-12-19T16:37:00.003-05:00

I placed 31st individually and 22nd in team scoring at the USATF National Club XC Championships last weekend.

I ran 30:25 over the 6.29 mile course. For some reason it was .08 too long. Normally it's not a problem in XC, but I might have gotten under 30, for XC that would have been awesome. They changed the 10k course to include a really steep hill that we ran up and down 3 times, which legitimized it as a cross country course - at least to me. I got out fast enough, but I think I could have competed better over the last two miles. I beat the entire Zap Fitness team (a B team, I'm sure) three or four Hanson's team guys and all but one of the Boulder Running Co.'s team. They didn't all stack their teams, but I'm encouraged that I could run with that caliber of athletes.

The next step is a break. I haven't taken a real break from running in nearly two years, so I'm going to take a couple weeks and let my body recuperate. I've taken this last week and haven't run at all. I'll run some the next two weeks while back in KS, and then start sluggin' it out again when 2011 comes around. See you next year.

2010-12-09T16:22:00.004-05:00

Winter has arrived in North Carolina, to wailing and gnashing of teeth from frozen southerners. It's been down in the 20s, which is completely insane here. Honestly, I've gotten soft since living here. The Kansan in me feels the need to make fun of their version of the winter, but I'm freezing too right now.

Anyway, as far as running goes, I'm currently preparing for the USATF Club XC championships in Charlotte. I'm running for my team and with my bros of the KC Smoke. There was a lot of Letsrun complaining about this, but I've been a member of the team for long enough that a southern hiatus shoudn't (and doesn't according to officials) matter. I'm glad to get to run for a team, especially a team that I care about.

As far as training, my last solid workout was two weeks ago:

5xmile - 4:38/4:35/4:38/4:38/4:38 w/ 2 mins rest in between.

Since then, I've been doing the regular stuff, making the runs shorter and resting a lot. I've noticed my body feeling tired and sore, and generally sluggish, so I know I've probably only got one good effort in me before I take a little break.

The race is Saturday, on what I hear is a really fast course. It would be awesome to go out there and break 30, since it only sort of qualifies as an XC course, I think it's entirely possible. The field seems much deeper than last year, so hopefully I can place higher in addition to running a better time.
The intersection of Reedy Creek Trail and Reedy Creek Lake Road. There's a little snow leftover too.

2010-11-18T13:49:00.002-05:00

I ran a PR in the 10k on Sunday in 30:01 at the Old Reliable Run in Raleigh. It was a nice day and the course was flat and straight. The pic to the side is of me at the moment I realized I wasn't going to break 30 minutes. It looks like I'm just trying really hard. It's actually more of a "d'oh" kind of expression.

I went out on Wednesday to do a more cross country oriented workout on the WakeMed course. 1000m reps. It was awful. I was averaging much slower than I had for 1k splits in the 10k three days earlier. With a little time to think about it, I was due for a bad one, and it's taken some of the puff out of my chest, and reminded me that this sport is hard and painful, and oftentimes will make you feel terrible.

2010-11-12T14:33:00.002-05:00

Training notes:

Workouts recently -

11/2 - mile reps (pacing hs kids on 1 and 3)

4:57/4:22/4:57

A few minutes rest in between. Ran #2 alone while waiting for a kid to show up. Not exactly an important workout, but what the hey - the volume was low, which was important that day.

11/7 - Race

11/11 - 2x 2 mile (on Broughton track, alone - a.m.)

9:24/9:22

5 mins rest between. Did not do adequate warm up, so first rep was a little tight feeling. Was much looser on the second one. I did this workout in college in 9:25/9:17 once, but I had pacers and people blocking the wind, as well as a coach yelling at me. All I had this time was a worker blasting fertilizer all over and construction workers yelling to distract me.

Uptempo work has been very good. Focus on V02 as I work toward my last few races before a break in a month or so. Hopefully a cut in hard volume will allow me to utilize my fitness for a longer period of time than is normally likely. Ask me about that in the middle of December

2010-11-08T15:47:00.003-05:00

Race report -

I ran 1:06:34 (5:04 pace) at this year's City of Oaks half marathon. Unfortunately for my legs, I didn't actually run that pace at any point. I went out in a stupidly slow 5:31 for the first mile and had to scramble to get the pace back down to a reasonable 5:10 on the hillier first half of the course. About 7 miles in I stretched out the legs on the open and flatter sections and started dropping it down some more, but really had to hit the gas the last 5k to run a respectable time.

Lessons:

- Execute your race plan from the first step and don't rely on others to do it for you, unless you're racing to win without regard for time, in that case, things are much more complicated.

- Don't freak out when you're going too slow. By easing the pace back down, I didn't blow up. I'm confident I could have run under 1:06 if I had just been steady the whole race and opened up toward the end. Though in this particular race, I would have placed the same and gotten the same money for it, so I guess it's not all bad.

2010-11-02T21:52:00.002-04:00

Formerly secret post-run drink recipe:

-1 Banana (potassium)
-some blueberries (frozen is cheaper) (antioxidants and stuff)
-some fresh spinach (iron, vitamin c)
-some chia seed powder (it says that it's way good for you)
-some ground flax seed (Omega 3)
-some protein powder (protein)
-some natural peanut butter (protein)
-a little turmeric (anti-inflammatory)
-some honey (tastes good)

Fill it up with milk or water

blend it up and pound it. It tastes good, the spinach is covered up completely by all the other stuff, and the turmeric doesn't really taste like anything anyway.

2010-10-18T14:17:00.002-04:00

In the meantime, the in-between time -

I'm nearly recovered from racing a week ago, and am out looking to bolster my self-esteem and get a little endorphine high.

http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/content/18/11/2523.abstract

I plan to race first at the Raleigh City of Oaks Half-Marathon in about three weeks. I feel that I'll be recovered completely soon, and will still have all of my marathon training fitness intact, so that I can make a run at a decent time and maybe some cash money.

Here's some ideas about all this long-distance racing -

I feel my body has adapted well enough from high mileage that I can recover in most ways quicker than most. Currently that's held true, as recent runs have felt very strong in all ways, except for leftover soreness and pain in the major leg muscles. I'm taking what I feel to be a very economical approach in using all the training I did for Chicago and milking it for a couple more races, before taking a little time of in late December. I however run the risk of pushing it a little to far and wearing out, but I think since my Chicago training was only specifically self-destructive for two months, my body should be resilient enough to hand a little more before organizing to mutiny.

Here's some races:

COO 1/2 Marathon - 11/7

some 5k in Cary - early December (free shoes FTW)

USATF Club Meet in Charlotte - 12/11

I'd also like to throw in some trail races in order to get more adept at that discipline, and because I like to run on trails, especially in the southern version of winter.

2010-10-14T15:55:00.002-04:00

The Chicago Marathon (and learning stuff from it)

As I type this, my iliotibial bands and quadriceps are still burning with pain from what I put them through on Sunday. Here's a nice recap:

As soon as the gun went off I found myself with the elite females (top females in the world). They had a Hanson's guy (Maybe Ryan Sheehan?) for a pacer. They were hitting miles in 5:20, so I figured I'd stay out of the way of the cameras and let them do the thinking. I ran with their pack (getting lots of TV time in the background) until right after the half, which I came through feeling great in 1:09:40. After that, the course wound around through the least interesting parts of downtown, and most of ladies died off. I was largely alone for the next 6 miles, but held my pace pretty well. at about 20, Lidya Shobukhova (eventual winner) blew past me like I was standing still. Shaken, I continued plugging away, realizing I'd slowed slightly, but could still run under 2:20 if I was able to hammer the last 4-5 miles. Unfortunately with about 6k to go, I hit the wall hard. My legs gave up on me and I slowed to around 6min/mile. I was able to keep that pace to the line, coming through in 2:23:58 to get 37th place.

I realize a finishing stretch involving a total corporeal meltdown is probably not something that offers a bright side, but -

-At Boston I fell apart at 18 miles and started running 8 min/mile
at Chicago, I fell apart at 22 miles and started running 6 min/mile

-I raced very smartly from the gun and didn't get excited early. Many runners did. I was picking off those who had died, instead of being passed by 50 people in the last few miles like at Boston.

So, I'm learning how to run a marathon correctly. The improvements I must make are:

-muscular strength and flexibility - much better than at Boston, but still my achilles heel.

-my feet were killing me, so I'll wear more cushioned shoes next time

-I might bust out the compression socks to ease the pain in my calves next time, but really, strengthening them is of highest priority.

Until next time-

2010-09-27T19:16:00.002-04:00

Something I have no business doing -

Today I'm talking about tapering for a marathon. I haven't done this well in the past, and I have a habit of hurting myself in the taper phase. I think that's just bad luck. Or more accurately some kind of curse. It couldn't possibly be my own fault.

Anyway-

My plan this time incorporates elements from the training books of Daniels, Pfitzinger, a smear of Hudson, and and little slice of McMillan. In short, they all say about the same thing. Do a taper, don't freak out.

Of course the physiology of marathon training and the psychology that evolves from lead straight to freaking out when you start to run a lot less. My goal is to run less, and to well, not freak out. Currently I'm doing ok, strange periods of optimism punctuated with long bouts of uncertainty and anxiety. Normally these emotions would be quickly beaten out of me by a nice 16-20 mile run. Now they are in charge.

So - to the nitty gritty

I'm reducing volume whilst keeping an amount of intensity to keep things snappy and try to trick myself into thinking everything's normal. My race is 13 days from now, and my last 3 workouts will probably be as follows:

Tues 9/28 - 3 miles warm up/ 3 miles on track at 110% MP / 3 miles cool down
Sat 10/2 - 12 miles - last 2 at MP
Tues 10/5 - 3 miles warm up/ 1 mile on track at MP / 3 miles cool down

We'll see how it works.

2010-09-12T12:52:00.002-04:00

Marathon training focus. The focus of this post. Making sense with a title - not the focus.

I've fiddled around with a lot of training strategies, and marathon training adds extra variables and considerations.

My original training week looked something like this:

Monday - Aerobic run - 14-16 miles/am easy run 3-5 miles/pm
Tuesday - Long threshold/repeats - 15-18 miles/am easy run 3-5 miles/pm
Wednesday - Aerobic run - 15-17 miles/am easy run 3-5 miles/pm
Thursday - Aerobic run - 14-16 miles/am easy run 3-5 miles/pm
Friday - Long threshold/repeats - 14-16 miles/am easy run 3-5 miles/pm
Saturday - Off or Long run - 20-24 miles
Sunday - Off or Long run - 20-24 miles

This plan contained plenty of mileage, and wore me out. Being worn out is a good thing when you are training to run fast for more than two hours. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. If you don't get tired from your training, good luck around mile 20.

Despite the necessary mileage and fatiguing being central to this plan - as I get closer to racing, it's necessary to up the ante in a different way, while folding in another.

The transition plan:

Monday - Aerobic run - 14-16 miles/am easy run 3-5 miles/pm
Tuesday - Fartlek/fast repeats - 12-13 miles/am easy run 3-5 miles/pm
Wednesday - Med Long run - 16-17 miles
Thursday - Aerobic run - 13-15 miles/am easy run 3-5 miles/pm
Friday - Easy run - 10 miles
Saturday - Long threshold run - 20-24 miles
Sunday - Off

This system allows me more rest between extremely fatigue inducing stuff (Tuesday and Saturday) and focuses the most on Saturday's hard long run. The last two Saturday runs have been as follows:

9/4 - 10 miles 6:30 pace then 13 miles 5:28 pace
9/11 - 18 miles 6:20 pace then 6 miles 5:18 pace

Those are very tough workouts, ones that a human body can't handle too frequently. The marathon is a similar ordeal.

2010-08-19T12:02:00.003-04:00

Race Report:

I ran a 15k in Brisbane. The course was a 5k loop done three times. I won in 48:07 with 5k splits of 16:09/15:57/16:01. The race was small and friendly. There were kilometer splits instead of miles, which was nice. I was between 3:05 and 3:15 each k.

Jet lag has confused my body. It thinks that it is 3:00 a.m. tomorrow and that it is in the southern hemisphere. Presently none of those things are true.

-I need to get new shoes
-I need to stay awake all day today
-I need to get my training done in a solid way
-I'm glad I don't have to watch terrible Australian films on an airplane anymore. I can't believe I watched "Kings of Mykonos - Wog Boys 2" and "Australia". "Australia" reminded me of a incident when I was a child in which my father and I had to shoot a large opossum that had been terrorizing our barn. We had to shoot it seven times before it died.

2010-08-09T21:51:00.002-04:00

I'm currently in Australia. the city of Brisbane to be precise. My experience here has encouraged me to type a short article on training whilst traveling/in a new place. Lets go for the itemized list as usual.

- it is very easy to be discouraged by not knowing where you are and not being used to training in a strange place. The first few days will undoubtedly suck. Perserverence is the key.

- after a number of days getting your bearings, you should be able to plan routes in your head, definitely plan to run for time, not miles, trying to figure that out will be too much of a pain.

- workouts are exceptionally hard to do. I'm talking about marathon pace, tempo, fartlek, repeat, speed, all that stuff. I've found doing the original swedish-style fartlek (as I understand it) works best. speed up in bursts for random amounts of time, pushing hard for long bouts or very hard for short ones.

- The name of the game is flexibility. This is not something I pride myself on. If you are unable to continue the training you were previously accustomed to, pull the trigger and do what you can to maintain fitness until you return to your previous training situation. I leave you with this:

“I just had a great time out there. When you get chances, you've got to bury them, and I did.” - Patrick White (I have no idea what he is talking about, I just pulled a random quote from the most famous Australian author I'd heard of)

2010-07-27T13:48:00.003-04:00

Blog notes:

The older posts from my old pointless version are here, just click "older posts" at the bottom. Some have useful things in them, you will however have to look really hard to find them. The one post design is much less cluttered and keeps things easily navigable.

Today - the merits of faster than MP running.

I frequently struggle with pacing, especially now running at high volume. No doubt when I was 20, my standard 8 mile run rarely got over 6 min/mile pace for very long. Now, just holding under 7 min/mile for 14-20 miles a pop seems to offer just as good a training stimulus.

When the pace ramps up however, I find that I have some learning to do.

Currently, I'm not in very "fast" shape. Today's workout of what I like to call "Fancy Fours" was, to amicably put it, ball-busting. It went as follows:

-4 miles ~6:30 pace to warm up
-4 miles at LT 5:08/5:02/5:02/5:08 on out and back on Reedy Creek Road. (20:20
-4 miles 6:45-7:00 pace
-4 miles at LT 5:18/5:09/5:19/4:34 (same course-major GPS malfunction en route(20:25)
-4 miles ~6:45-7:15 cool down

The threshold pace felt very much above my actual threshold, meaning that I was not really training that particular system. This is ok for me because currently I'm just training hard and running hard, and it's working me over. In the near future, I hope that pace is a manageable LT pace that I can hold for about 9-10 miles without more than manageable distress.

As for the original intent of the thread, running faster than MP is useful (I feel) for being able to race other distances (obviously) and for the very real chance that in the last mile of the Chicago Marathon I'm going to have to burn the last two miles in less than ten minutes to get under 2:19. I'd like to be as well-rounded a runner as possible, like Shaq shooting free throws. Wait, not like that at all.

Wildlife check: Today - Northern Mockingbird, Field Sparrow, Goldenthroat, Whitetail Deer. I'm very disappointed in the reclusiveness of most snakes at Umstead this spring and summer.

2010-07-26T15:38:00.002-04:00

The last couple of weeks I've found a few things out about training.

1. It's hard to run 20+ miles a day for 7 days.
-so I take day 7 off.

2. Carrying along electrolyte beverages and carb-rich nutrition is hard
-I use Endurolyte capsules at water fountains, and use my multi-pocketed raceready shorts.

3. Protein bars contain all kinds of weird stuff to keep them solid and make them palatable.
- we use Alton Brown's protein bar recipe with some tweaks, with splendid results.

Week in training - 7/19-7/25

Mon - 20 a.m. 4 p.m.
Tues - 16 a.m. - 8mi steady/8mi MP - 53min/43min
Wed - 19 a.m. 3 p.m.
Thurs - 17 a.m.
Fri - 20 a.m.
Sat - 22 a.m. ~2mi at tempo at 15 mile point
Sun - OFF - walk to church

121 miles in 6 days, 1 MP workout, ~12.5 hours running.

2010-07-22T09:57:00.003-04:00

I have recanted my previous motivations to not continue with this blog. I realize that it's what everybody does now, and it's a good way to communicate with lots of interesting anonymous potential predators out there in cyberspace. So this is what I plan to do -

1. leave out superfluous crap from my blog, i.e. talking about my feelings and my shoes and my chafing. If you want to know that call me. If I feel like letting you know about it, I'll call you. (You might not want to answer)

2. Include potentially useful information, such as -

a. Training Information - should it turn out that my training philosophy
results in good racing.

b. Racing information - proof that I was correct/wrong in point (a.)

3. Occasional photos or personal information - a good dose of self-contradiction with a sprinkle of self-love never hurt anyone. (actually it kind of led to the holocaust.)

So that's the plan. I'd still most like to showcase what's going on through my running log on running2win.com there's a link at the top under "Running Log"

I'm also not above putting logos of places willing to sponsor me, like the Honey Stinger one to the left. It's good stuff and they're willing to give me at least something.

2010-07-12T11:01:00.002-04:00

This is way less stupid than my blog, and might actually be useful for someone interested in training:

http://www.running2win.com/community/public-log.asp?m=Seph&k=hubris

This blog is purposeless and only good for conceit.

This blog pretty much sums everything up about blogging:

www.idellathecat.blogspot.com

BLOGOBLGBGLBLOGLGOBLGBLGOGLBGLOLBGLGOGLGBLGOGLGOGBGLGOGB

2010-07-08T16:32:00.004-04:00

2010-07-01T16:01:00.003-04:00

The old farm home. A great place to run if there's not a massive storm coming.

2010-06-14T15:38:00.003-04:00

With my first place "trophy" - much cooler than a plastic runner on a stand

The Boogie Marathon went pretty well.

We rolled into Ellerbe about an hour before the race and it was a scorcher. The temperature was around 95 and the dew point was near 75 (that's pretty high I think). The sun was just frying. Luckily, about ten minutes before the start, some clouds rolled in and blocked it out, so one of the four factors that make the Boogie absolute torture was gone. We started out nice and easy and instantly a pack of three guys formed in the lead, running about 6:40s going downhill for most of the first 3 miles. The first lap was steady and easy, at 6 miles we headed down the steep two miles out and back (second half UP) for the second loop of the figure 8. By now it was me and Josh Hite (frequent Marathon racer, he had probably run one the week before) When we turned around and headed back up the massive hill, we slammed on the brakes and ran a nearly 8 min mile, intentionally. We had both seen what that hill can do. about halfway up, the guy we had dropped went charging past. I had to fight the urge to just go after him, but I kept him on a decent size leash, if he was making a move this early, he must not know about the Boogie. At about 14 miles he had started to slow up and look behind for me. I went up the big hills on loop 1 and then stretched out on the flat section afterwards. The flat section on the whole course is about half a mile long. With no mile marks to pace me, I went through with 2 laps left (about 10 miles to go, in 1:50. I was careful down the big hill (my quads were getting tight already) and then just held steady back up. Back through the aid with one lap left, I had about 42 minutes to make it under 3 hours, which would be a big deal on this course. I was really feeling terrible at this point, my hips and quads were starting to ratchet down, a la Boston, but not as bad. I got to the last turn and decided to see what I had left, and was actually able to really charge up the last hill to the finish in 3:02:30, a course record by I guess 4 minutes, though the old one is kind of suspect. Trish had a really rough day, the humidity and heat really got to her, but she was a trooper and finished anyway in 4:03, which is crazy considering she's never ran over 3 hours before. That race will eat you alive.

They don't have official results or pictures up yet, but I'll post them when they do.

2010-05-28T15:48:00.005-04:00

Oh man, the Boogie Marathon is coming up. In case you didn't know (you didn't) The Boogie includes the following features:

-6:00 p.m. start (avg. temp around 90 with 85% humidity)...(I don't understand humidity numbers, but it sounds impressive

-brutal elevation ups and downs

-little tree cover

-1 water stop every 5 miles

There's also a 50 miler, but I don't have the stones for that. My plan is just to gut it out. I should be in shape, and I'm going back because I have a juvenile need to assuage my wounded self esteem from getting owned by the course last year.

2010-05-24T15:19:00.003-04:00

The last few weeks have been pretty wild. My kids' state track meet was the 14th and 15th and then I ran the Inside Out Sports Classic Half Marathon on the 16th, then shipped off to work with the NC State BAE folks for a week on the 17th.

The track meet was really exciting. I think it's really good for me to work with people who are relatively new to the sport, to help them grow into it, and to get to watch track meets, because I really like to watch track meets.

The race the next day dawned cool and humid. The course was about 75% in Umstead, so I figured I had a pretty good home field advantage. An evening rain had left the trails perfectly damp and soft, but not squishy. We started out mostly downhill for the first 4-5 miles, until we started heading up Reedy Creek trail towards Reedy Creek Road. By then it was down to me and two guys. I decided to make the race happen. I surged hard all the way up (about a mile) and thought I had built a good lead. The guys at the top told me I had about five seconds on them, which I didn't think was enough. We turned and headed right back down the hill, so I turned on the jets and cranked back down. Then the real hills started. I fought hard up the switchbacky ones to Cedar Ridge, then the last few before the airport, and apparently the guys behind me had given up chase. I finished without much left in 1:10:55 (course record by 15 minutes!) which I was pleased with, it was a really tough one. The race turned out to be the RRCA State Championship for North Carolina, so I guess I'm State Champ! Finally.

I spent the next week out in Hickory, NC working for NCSU. I got to run from our hotel into town at about 5:15 every morning and found the track at Lenoir-Rhyne University for a workout on Friday. It was a really nice facility. I'll probably be back out around the lakes there in Mooresville and Charlotte in the next few weeks, and then the journey back to Kansas begins in mid-June.

2010-05-07T13:26:00.002-04:00

I don't have any bird stories now, but there are lots of bugs waking up or flying out of a larval state or whatever causes them to suddenly be buzzing around my head while running. These giant horsefly looking things (I don't know my insects well) would orbit my head and then land in my hair, I'm not sure what was enticing about it, but as soon as I got home yesterday I shaved my hair off. Try to nest on my head now. Other than that I don't really mind crawlies and buzzies. I run through spider webs all the time and have kind of gotten used to having a contrail of webs dangling off me and their former occupants confusedly scurrying around on my back.

I've also been using a lot of this:

http://www.drugstore.com/qxp90133_333181_sespider_1_1/alba_hawaiian/sunscreen_spf_30_green_tea.htm

I've gotten paranoid about UVs the last few summers, and the "natural" sunblock at least has a few less long chemical names in the ingredients list, so there you go.

It's supposed to rain and cool off in the next few days. That is fine with me if anyone's looking for opinions.

2010-05-03T13:51:00.002-04:00

I know I run the risk of this becoming an ornithology blog, but I like to point it out when I actually recognize birds that are around. In Kansas at home it was - Blue Jay, Robin, Barn Swallow, Turkey Buzzard. The last few days I've spotted more Eastern Towhees and Brown Thrashers. The towhees are inquisitive like their sparrow friends and the thrashers like to hide out, but have come out to the neighbor's birdfeeders a lot lately.

So,

I'm back and running almost to normal. I've been on the trails a lot, and have been reacquainting myself with Umstead. It's started to get really muggy and hot lately and I need to make sure I take care to adequately hydrate and replenish minerals and such. I'm starting lug around the handheld bottle again (which I hate) with some NUUN and some S!Caps in the pocket to take care of my Mg and Na requirements. I plan on being up over 80 miles this week and then back to the 100s after that, I really want to go nuts on mileage this summer, but the southern summer is not going to make it easy.

Race Schedule as of now:

Inside Out Sports Classic 1/2 Marathon - 5/16

Boogie Marathon - 6/12

Alert Road Race 30k - 6/19

And I'd like to find a cool trail race somewhere.

2010-04-27T12:39:00.002-04:00

I'm back on the trails now. I've been out at the park the last two days, and everything has gotten green and full. This is great when you need to hide to take a whiz, but I kind of miss the empty feeling of a leafless, grey morning in the winter. I haven't been able to run too much, my quads still feel like they have knives lodged in them whenever I run down a hill, but everything else is pretty much fine. I plan on racing again halfway soon in Cary in the middle of May for a half, then returning to Ellerbe, NC for the Boogie Marathon, the race that nearly killed me a year ago. I've got a score to settle. So high mileage and lots of stretching for the next several months.

Also, I just got in to the Elite Development program at the Chicago Marathon. It's neat, because I have a chance to win some money, and I'll get some of the perks of the real elite types. Now all I have to do is make it there.

2010-04-21T08:08:00.003-04:00

I ran the Boston Marathon on Monday. Here's how it went:

I rode the bus out to Hopkinton with my Dad and then sat around with the other 27,000 people and then weaved my way down to the first starting corral. I got there at the perfect time, getting in toward the front, about 50 feet behind the elites. They ran right past us on their way to the line, so I got to high-five Meb and Ryan Hall. The first couple miles I weaved my way up with the american sub? elites where I belonged. It was funny since I had run such a slow qualifier I wasn't in the elite start, so I was running along with bib numbers around 30 and 50 with my number 1412, people were cheering for me. Boston fans are awesome. So anyway, I was rolling along, hitting sub 5:20s for most of the first half of the race, coming through the half marathon in 1:09:10 (on my watch) and was feeling great. I kept it up until around 18 miles when things started getting really tough. My calf had started hurting around the 5 mile point, but then around 15, my hips. groin, and IT bands started tightening down really hard. The most frustrating part was that I still felt great, but my legs wouldn't let me run that fast. I shuffled up the hills and just survived after that, stumbling down Boylston street alone to finish 96th in 2:32:34. I know I'm very much capable of 2:20, but I don't know how to keep my leg parts from shutting down before my engine does.

2010-04-09T09:55:00.004-04:00

I'm not a wildlife expert, but since north central Kansas doesn't have an abundance of it, the stuff I see in the forest here really gets me excited. I saw one of these regal winged beasts the other day. (a Cooper's Hawk) I made the "schwee-wee-schwee" noise thing that I've heard bird watchers making when I saw him. He cocked his head to the side and considered me for a while, then I guess he decided I wasn't as interesting as I sounded at first and he glided off. Back in town I've seen (and heard) a lot of Northern Mockingbirds. They are cute little birds, but man they make some annoying sounds, and the real problem is that they often sing at night, and they are loud and rowdy. Trish said she heard one imitating a car alarm the other day. That's the saddest thing I've heard in a long time. Yesterday at the park I met a fine 4 foot long black snake. He didn't take off full speed, but got on a pile of leaves and shook his tail, making a rattling sound. I wonder if that defense skill ever works for them. Anyway, here's some animal pictures.

2010-04-03T17:36:00.001-04:00

A couple of good runs lately. It's getting really nice out. Here's a plug for a product while I'm at it:

www.kindbeers.com

Very good stuff.

2010-03-31T13:56:00.003-04:00

The run cam is back in action with some slaps against the dashboard and some electrical tape. I'm in the early throes of tapering for the race which is less than three weeks away now. I've never done well tapering, so I probably won't really do it the recommended way. I'll just force myself under 100 miles a week starting next week. I've had several good workouts recently and have been feeling pretty fit going into the race, so I'm getting pumped.

Today out on the trails it was about 55 degrees early in the morning, warming up to around 70 by the time I finished. Good singlet running weather. Also, I've been encountering a few more of these guys:

that's a pileated woodpecker and they are freaking crazy looking when they are flying around. I've also seen lots of Red-Bellied woodpeckers, but the pilies are much more noticeable. They're about the size of a crow, and when they start hammering a tree it sounds like a jackhammer. I've also noticed a few little snakes starting to wake up and sun themselves on the paved spots, so that will get exciting soon too.

2010-03-17T21:31:00.003-04:00

Well the "trail cam" has died. Good thing it was only 9 bucks. So probably no more awful blurry pictures. Anyway, since my last post...

On Saturday I did a half marathon in Roanoke Rapids, NC. It had been raining for several days and the flat dirt path had become a muddy bog for about half the course. And really, a lot of parts of the race were trailly, so I'd call it a trail race for the most part, especially with the mud. I got out ahead early, and was holding a good pace until the course got really rough around 3 miles, then I just had to more or less slide across the mud until I could get some footing, then take off as fast as I could. I ate it pretty hard around a turn and covered one side of my body with mud and a little blood, but that just made me look gnarlier, (if the beard and the flannel shirt I warmed up in wasn't enough.) Long, boring story short, I ran 1:14 with second at 1:23. Unfortunately, the money gamble didn't work out for me, as my only prize was a pint glass and a bottle of muscadine wine (gross) Still, a neat race, and I'll go back next year if they comp me.

Sunday I went out and ran way too fast for 16 ish, instead of doing my long run. I ended by running through good ol Sycamore Creek on the Cedar Ridge trail, normally I run through it when it's about 2-6" deep, but it was about 3'6" deep this time, and I decided to plow right through anyway, it was cold. That's the end of that story.

Tuesday I took on the double lactate threshold run again. This time 3o min LT/ 20 min. run/ 3o min. LT. I wore my Garmin and did most of the workout on the road next to the park to get some asphalt time. I made it 5.66 miles the first bout and 5.77 the second. I was pretty pumped. So that's 11.43 miles in an hour. that equals out to 5:15/mile for that distance, and that wasn't an all out effort at all. 2:17 marathon pace. I'm just shooting for under 2:25. I've had a string of pretty good workouts, so hopefully it comes together.

2010-03-08T15:09:00.002-05:00

This Saturday morning I decided to run a 10k in Cary. Cary is a sprawling suburb between Raleigh and Chapel Hill, mostly. The wording in the entry blank made it seem that some sort of prize, probably stuff related and not monetary would be available. All I ask is a chance to not lose money on a race, so I decided to give 'er a go. I seriously despise the 10k distance. I mean my PR is pedestrian compared to my 5k and 1/2 Marathon PRs. But I decided to show up anyway, since every race around here is a 5k, and those are pretty much useless. There was a large crowd, and the race seemed legit. Starting off, it was a pack of 3, two guys from Durham/Chapel Hill and me right behind them. The pace seemed quick, but not difficult, I was anxious to see what we'd come through the mile at. 4:49 as we hit it, and it felt like a walk in the park. The other guys seemed like they didn't mind pushing, so I just sat behind and let them. We cruised along a little slower from 2-3 miles when some hills were showing up. at 3 miles one of the guys who was laboring, dropped off hard. From there it was me and one other guy. I tried to push a little, but was getting tired. Luckily he had had enough and started falling back. I held on to the pace the last two miles or so up some good hills and finished about 40 seconds in front in 31:16. The other two guys are apparently 2:20 and 2:26 guys and are running Boston too. Nice dudes. It's a confidence boost to beat a couple serious runners, even though if the race was 20 miles longer, I'm not sure if I'd recommend betting on me. Anyway, I'm heading up to Roanoke Rapids for half this Saturday, also cryptically worded as to whether or not I'll win anything.

2010-03-03T13:29:00.002-05:00

Usually I feel compelled to blog about the transcendent properties of running down an empty trail as the sun rises and black snakes crawl out to bathe in it, then sluggishly slide away when I run by, still cold from a night under the leaves. That was one heck of a run-on. Where was I? Right. Today I do not feel compelled to to wax Thoreauian. I'm not feeling optimistic, I'm not feeling nihilistic, I'm just doing the work. I put down a big fartlek yesterday and will be at 60 miles already this week by the end of the day. I often get hung up on weekly mileage, but why not? Running a lot makes you better. Most people who disagree are lazy and/or slow. I do have a habit of over-doing it. Not only in running, but in most everything I do, so I suppose it's good that I sometimes recognize my penchant for obsessiveness. If you notice it and I don't, please let me know.

My newest ridiculous idea has been what I call "run-commuting" It's not complicated, I just run when I need to get somewhere. Driving inside the beltline in Raleigh is a nightmare, and riding a bike is a hassle. Most of the places I want to get are within a couple of miles, so unless it's a black tie thing, I might as well run there. If I have to take stuff, I have an old Camelbak without a bladder that I can cram stuff in. I usually make fun of people running with backpacks on, so I suppose any jeers I get are some kind of karmic retribution. Right. Until next time - keep your stick on the ice.

2010-02-27T21:48:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I did a big double threshold run - 20 min warm up/30 min LT/20 min easy/20 min LT/20 min cool down. It was a tough one, but I was cruising at 5:15 pace the whole way, up most of the big hills. Not a bad workout to cap of the work week.

Today we went down to Raven Rock State Park for a little trail running. It was a cool little place, with some nice riverside trails and there weren't too many people around early.

The big race is about a month and a half away now, and I think I'm starting to get a little more prepared. Let's not get too carried away here.

2010-02-25T20:47:00.004-05:00

It started snowing last night, and was still going, good and fat, when I got out to Umstead this morning. By the time I was done, the sun was gone, and the snow had disappeared. I'll deal with it like this. About halfway on most of my runs I stop for a poopie break at the visitor's center near the northwest park entrance. (picture below) Then I head back out, usually being gawked at by the traditional park patrons parking at the center. Park patrons parking. The rest of this week has been ok, I've been spending more and more time out at the park, I'm sometimes afraid that I'm getting a little too attached to the little patch of sort-of-wilderness out there. Anyway, I'm kind of losing steam here, I think I'll just post some pictures of the last week or so.

Here I am in the bathroom at the park visitor center/office. and next to it is my usual post-run bagel and a half a jar of PB with some NUUN. Below is another picture of snowy trees.

2010-02-19T12:16:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I decided to go out to my local CVS pharmacy and get a tiny plastic digital camera for $9. I can get some very lo-res pics of the day to day Umstead grind.

I did a lactate threshold run today and was able to pretty easily run 5 min. miles for 4 miles with some good hills involved. This isn’t a monumental achievement, but I remember working harder to do this same run about two months ago. I’m getting more confident that I haven’t lost a step. In good spirits, I threw in some trail running on my cool down and took the Loblolly trail back into the park.

It’s finally getting warmer here, and I’m ready to lose the hat and gloves and get out the smelly cotton t-shirts for a couple of months.

Here's on somewhere on Turkey Creek and on the right is my favorite part of the Loblolly trail - wide open, grassy, just like home...for about 30 seconds.

2010-02-17T13:06:00.005-05:00

Two posts in two days! I'm able to hop on someone's connection nearby, so I'm all over this internet. It's been strangely cold and windy in Raleigh the last several weeks, about 15 degrees below normal and windier than I've seen the whole time I've been here. Today I stumbled the usual route, but decided to add a short section of my favorite hiking trail in the park - the Sycamore Trail. This section is double track (I guess that's what it's called) and is soft and covered with pine needles. It was probably only a 5 minute excursion, but it was really nice to break up the monotonous morning 14.

About an hour in I was getting really weak and hungry, something that usually doesn't set in until twenty minutes later. I guess I need to up my caloric intake and probably keep an eye on my body weight, though my vessel seems to be pretty resilient. I snarfed a gel that I'm really glad I brought along and kept chugging away. My knee was a little tight, but it still hasn't given me much trouble for a while. I'm also pumped to break out the new Brooks flats on a longer run soon. Check these puppies out:

Hideous, I think, but they are pretty awesome doing the shoe thing, despite the strange looks.

2010-02-16T14:28:00.002-05:00

I'm back on my normal running routes again, anywhere from 12-17 miles at a time in the mornings. I usually stick to the bike and bridle trails, which remind me of the crunchy, small-diameter limestone gravel roads I tooled around on in Riley and Pott counties back at K-State. At about the five mile mark (if I'm taking the normal route) I get off the main trail and take an access road past this lake (above). Usually I just go right on past it, but lately I've been noticing it as a glide by and the sun is coming up and bouncing around on the water. There's canoes there, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone out on the lake. It's beautiful little spot. The regular single track trails that loop near it are some of the best in the park, but I haven't seen them much. Usually at this point in a run - the point that I'm really grooving with nature and stuff - a passenger airplane groans across the sky right above me to remind me that there is an international airport about half a mile on the other side of those trees. At least I get to check out for a little while. It's been quite cold lately, most of the wildlife is hiding out still, the little deer come out and run around sometimes, and there are squirrels jumping around in the dead leaves, often chirping their complaints at me as I pass.

Note: The rangers have recently closed the water fountain at the intersection of Group Camp road and Reedy Creek Trail. It hadn't worked for months. They did install a nice new one near the Reedy Creek road entrance though. I could always use a drink at the old one, but the one at the horse trailer parking lot is up and running again.

2010-02-13T11:02:00.003-05:00

I've spent the last week or so getting back on my feet. This week I'll be back around 90 miles, and my knee is only uncomfortable some of the time, and tight after running, so I'm dealing with it right now. I've got right about two months to get ready, so I've got to ramp up my training and get really lucky.

I've been doing a lot of yoga lately to loosen up all my tight stuff, my hamstrings and quads mostly, but my hips are incredibly inflexible, it seems like the best way to learn stuff about yourself, physically and emotionally is to get hurt.

2010-01-26T12:20:00.001-05:00

It appears that my Pes Anserine Bursitis on my left leg has finally started to subside. An intense massage session with "the Stick" (Sports Massage ain't cheap)and stretching with a rope have eased a lot of stress in the goosefoot tendon area to the inside of the knee......I think. So I've been swimming at the rec at NCSU. I hate recreation complexes. There are people everywhere, coughing, sneezing, sweating. The pool echoes and there's always a water aerobics class going on blasting Black Eyed Peas' latest insult to music. I got back out to the park today, and I feel a lot better. Hopefully I can continue to add a little each day and get back to where I was in a couple weeks.

2010-01-18T11:14:00.002-05:00

Well I have had decent training week until the last few days. 132 miles through cold, ice, rain. But now I'm suffering some pretty good pain just to the inside of my tibial tuberosity. Running doesn't really make it much worse, but it's just not going away. I'm taking hopefully just one day off, but we'll see. I feel worse because I have allowed myself to get unduly confident, nearly self righteous in my ability to train and my approach to high mileage and intense training. I consider this a good piece of humble pie, bringing me back to earth. I hope that I can heal quickly and re-approach this thing more clear headed and reasonable.

2010-01-11T12:09:00.002-05:00

Back in good old NC. I was ill the last few days in KS but everything is starting to feel better again now. I'm Reacquainting myself with Umstead which is pretty nice this time of year even though it's pretty cold. Shooting for 140 this week and starting more specific workouts soon. Should be awesome.

2010-01-06T10:06:00.002-05:00

Well, I haven't been around a computer much lately because I've been driving all over the place. We have been away from NC for the last two weeks and are headed home later today. Right now I'm at home in Green, where the windchill is supposedly dropping even more, down to -32 tomorrow. I've contracted a nasty cold or something and nearly passed out trying to run a mile on the old treadmill in the basement. Last week we were in Alabama for Trish's brother's wedding. I was able to get almost as much running in as I wanted, but I think all of the travelling and weather changing has finally caught up to me. I'll probably try to make this blog more interesting in the near future, because my mom likes reading it, and because I'm going to start adding in more hard work instead of just long miles, so theres that. My heart goes out to all of you gutting it out in this weather, you're tougher than me.

2009-12-24T11:35:00.002-05:00

We're back in Kansas for Christmas and I have been forced to remember that the winter on the plains is very cold. Today the windchill is hovering around 0. I've been able to run almost the mileage I want to so far, but I think my willpower is starting to fade a little. I am appreciating the south probably for the first time. Last week I was able to crank out 121 miles in 6 days since I expected that the next few weeks would be wild. My KS routine is now to suffer outside in the morning, the hit up mom's Total Gym and then run a few miles on the old treadmill in the basement at night. Seems to be working so far. The farm does not look anything like the nice picture above.

2009-11-21T15:36:00.002-05:00

Sports always have gearheads, and really for people running 0-26 miles seriously the only gear we have to obsess about is shoes. I've heard decent arguments for wearing everything from plastic orthotics in large motion control shoes to running without shoes at all. I have determined that my goal is to run in the least amount of shoe that can allow me to run fast and far on modern surfaces. I first got orthotic supports in high school when I had a lot of back pain from running a lot and being a skinny, weak runner that was still growing. After that, my shoes got more solid and heavier and the orthotics more complicated. This just kept going until this summer when I was running the Boogie Marathon. My legs were in awful pain and the arches of my feet hurt so bad that my ankles didn't want to bend and everything on the way up afterwards just felt like it was being hit with a blunt object. I shuffled down the road and eventually stopped and took out my orthotics to walk back, my feet still hurt, but not in the same way. Not long after that I started thinking about how medical professionals had let me down so many times in the past, and that they were likely wrong about feet. I started developing my plan.

1. Strengthen lower legs and feet so they could do some of the work

2. Use simpler footwear that didn't get in the way.

Luckily for me, Brooks makes shoes in all categories that made it easy for me to step down from stability shoes to lightweight, flexible neutral shoes. I haven't had an injury since, and I'm running better than I have in a long time.

Just to give a shoutout, the Brooks shoe, the "Launch" - is what I train in now. I have never been so impressed by a shoe, everything on it is perfect. Low profile, good cushion - but not too much, and a flexible outsole that doesn't jab me in the arch like posted shoes do. I can get a feel for what I'm running on and there's not a lot of plastic and rubber encumbering my feet.

I might have posted something about this earlier, but I don't feel like reading any of my old posts. Besides, I change my mind all the time, and this is working great for me right now. Also, I want to note that this is what worked for me, and will not necessarily work for a lot of people. You are special and unique, just like everyone else.

2009-11-15T15:43:00.002-05:00

Well, the winter season in approaching rapidly - which doesn't really mean too much in the south. The pack out at Umstead has thinned lately as the weekend warriors have either completed their fall races or were felled by injury along the way. The park grows quieter. A few die hard cyclocross riders are out there in the fog and rain, and other runners of all walks and reasons are out there too, just not as many. The cross country season is over and the high school kids are hibernating for track. My footsteps, strangely heavy for a 128 pound person, are noticeable again. The snakes are hiding, the deer are tired, the creeks are up. My gear usually consists of a pair of over laundered running shorts, a grey KSU t-shirt and "magic" gloves. My feet are housed by my Brooks Ghost 2 shoes, (I'd really like to get a hold of a pair of the Launch, if they truly exist) and that's about it. Backpacks full of water and iPods and other accoutrements still shuffle by, but mostly it's me and the dirt, and the trees, the leaves are still falling like crispy rain, that doesn't happen in Kansas. But soon the forest will be a skeleton and I'll be out there every day making sure the trail is still there.

2009-11-13T10:20:00.002-05:00

Transition time. I was planning to run a few more races using my training over the last few months, but the road race situation around here is pretty lame. I can pay 30 bucks to enter a race that might have competition and I can win a plastic trophy. I at least want the chance to make my money back if not get a little extra to get some new socks or something. http://www.sockguy.com/index.html. So anyway, I'll save most of my bellyaching. It took some time to recover from the half - which I was not expecting, but now I'm back on normal training for the most part, I'm now emphasizing mileage out the wazoo through January. Then it's sharpening time for...
So, I'll be having a good time getting up in to high mileage and trying to not hurt myself, as soon as it stops raining here on the east coast. Geez. Nor'easter+hurricane is not conducive for good running.

2009-11-05T10:11:00.002-05:00

I haven't blogggged in a while. I finally ran the race I've been training for for the last few months. Ok, here's the account: The day dawned about 45 degrees and breezy. I live about 2 miles from the start line on NCSU's centennial campus, so I jogged over there carrying an extra pair of socks and a toque in a plastic bag from Bed, Bath and Beyond. A few minutes before the start it started raining halfway steady and the wind was picking up. I got a spot on the line behind a few ladies with FuelBelts that decided they deserved a spot with the Kenyans from Chapel Hill at the front of the crowd. When the gun went off, they broke into a brisk walk and I dodged them gracefully and latched onto the back of the back of the lead pack which formed about 50m into the race. The Kenyans at the front jerked the pace all over the first 3 miles or so. Every downhill they would blast off, and every uphill they would slam on the brakes. It was driving me insane, and I really didn't feel like things were going to go very well. At around 4 miles they didn't hit the brakes on a hill, and I dropped off. At the time I was crushed. But as I got to stretch out and pace myself I started feeling great and just pushing it. I came through 5 in 25:25 and 10k in 31:50 all alone and really hitting on all cylinders. from 7-9 we were out on an open stretch and the heavens opened. We were getting poured on and the wind was crazy out of the north...east. One of the Kenyans came off the back and I picked him up, he hung on me and drafted for the rest of the race, but I was feeling pretty confident I'd outkick him at the finish, and if he ever felt like taking the front, that would be nice, so I didn't do anything to get rid of him. I hit 10 in 51:10 and 11 in 56:16. As we headed for a big downhill finish, I pulled away from my companion and had another one in my sight, but he heard me slapping and huffing down the hill, so he sped up enough to hold me off, and I ran out of road to catch him. I ended up just under 1:07 at 5:06 per mile. I ended up getting the prize for first American finisher, even though a college guy stayed with the front pack the whole way. I'd like to have earned it, but free money ain't bad. That's a lot of Powerbars. I've been looking for more races around here, but almost none have decent prizes, and the ones that do are infiltrated by 3rd class Kenyans that I can't beat yet, so I'm back to the woods to get ready for a big race whenever it comes up again.

2009-10-08T13:07:00.002-04:00

I ran my first cross country race in I think about three years this past weekend up in Greensboro. It was a pleasant experience. The college race was pretty small, but Liberty University showed up with their NCAA runner-up (and current favorite) Sam Chelanga. I saw him at the start, and that was about it. I also saw former NCAA champ Josh McDougal out on the course. I'm glad he was just there to watch. The course was a windy one through woods, mostly on wood chip trails and a few short bursts out on to the grass, with a slightly uphill 100m straightaway to the finish. I started out in third place behind Chelanga and another Kenyan from Liberty, and 5 miles later was still in third, but with the rest of the Liberty team coming up fast. I ran 25:58 to Chelanga's 24:45 and the other guy's 25:15 or something. Considering Chelanga's ran 22:50 at Pre-Nats last year, that gives me a 24:03...right? Oh well, I'll take it. What this really can be interpreted as, is that I'm in decent shape going into the 1/2 in about 3.5 weeks. I've also started a new workout that has really been working for me:

400m in 72 (4:48 or 5k pace) 1600m in 5:00 (or 10k pace) and 2400m in 7:45 (5:10 or 1/2 pace) I do these without stopping for a 4400m effort in 13:57, then I take a 4 min. break and do it again. on Tuesday I did it three times, which is probably the max for me right now. I think the last two 2400m efforts really start to feel like the middle or end of a 1/2 after all that running, and I'm right at pace.

2009-09-24T13:05:00.002-04:00

Haven't came up with anything interesting to blog about. I'll type something anyway. I guess I don't feel compelled to write anything that well here. I spent the last 6 years of my life having to really think about what I write. I'll consider this a break.

Lately most everything I've been doing is running related. Coaching, running, trying to get a job at a running store, etc. I'm about 5.5 weeks out from the race, and I'm getting more confident that I won't be embarrassed at the end.

In addition to running about 100 miles per week somewhat consistently, I ride a bicycle for most of my transportation. It's about 3 miles from where I live to the school I coach at, so it's very rideable. If you happen to be on St. Mary's street in the early evening, you'll probably see me slowly pedalling down the street while eating a nectarine or something.

2009-09-08T11:22:00.003-04:00

A couple miles in, pointing at the "peak"

So I made the Mt. Mitchell climb. It wasn't nearly as bad as I expected, there were even a few flat parts and downhills early on. The last few mile up the mountain were pretty rough going though. I started just off the parkway at highway 80 and headed up through a couple tunnels (there was ice on the ground in a few of them!) and then up some more. Every mile or so there was a little overlook, which is why I love the Blue Ridge Parkway. At those overlooks, Trish would usually stop and take a few pictures, I'd grab a gel and whatever clothing I needed, and then I'd keep going. Early on I was passed by several friendly bikers who encouraged me to "keep it up, brother" And for the first ten miles or so I held a pretty decent pace. As the altitude started ramping up (hey, Raleigh sits at 200 feet) it started getting chilly and foggy, which was great. I haven't experienced cold in a while - it doesn't happen in the south very much. I only put down a couple of gels and some water, and I managed to cover right about 16 miles in 1:53.

Now - a couple of days later, I'm feeling pretty good, my calves are incredibly sore, but I managed to get in a good track workout this morning - mile repeats in 4:55, 4:52, 4:48, 4:47, and 4:45. I haven't ran that fast in a long time, so hopefully I can hold 5:09 pace for 13 miles without stopping. Well I still have two months to train. It's looking much more hopeful now.

Here we are at the top

2009-09-04T11:52:00.005-04:00

I've been cranking out the miles. I topped 100 for the first time last week, and will hover in the 90s for a while. Thanks to all of the core stuff and other strength stuff, I've been uninjured. Only my feet have been a little sore, and I'm hitting the sack around 9:30 every night.

This weekend I have a stupid plan:

Trish and I are going to go out to the Blue Ridge Parkway and I'm going to run up Mt. Mitchell. It's about 15 miles from the start of the parkway to th

e top of the mountain. Here's a pic:

So that's the plan. We'll see how it goes. It would have been nice to camp there, but it's labor day weekend, so we're going to have to shoot from the hip. Wish me luck!

2009-08-18T14:58:00.002-04:00

I've been thinking about coaching a lot. It's a big part of what I do. In this particular season, it's my only job. I think when you've got a certain level of expertise in what you want to do (I'm talking about running) it's perfectly acceptable to coach yourself. The kids I coach need a coach. They need me (or anyone who has run at a decently high level) to pass on the information of what works and doesn't, and what running hard ENOUGH feels like. I don't feel that a just anyone can do this job. In my situation, my high schoolers are coached by two guys that have been around the block and aren't feeding the kids a bunch of bad ideas. Personally though, I can't seem to coach myself very well. I've always performed best with a couple guys of similar ability to train with and a knowledgeable coach to keep things organized. I think I can almost do as good a job as college level coaches in designing workouts, et cetera, but I have yet to grow out of the group-training-with-coach-yelling mindset, or whatever it is. I should though.

This is all coming from particularly unfortunate workout this morning. While I was running, the high school team nearby was having their practice. They are a powerhouse team, and their boys team has to has at least 50 kids on it. I think I will always miss being a part of a team like that. Cross Country is the best team sport in the world. I have always said that it is also the best spectator sport in the world, and it seems as if that's my role now.

2009-08-10T16:03:00.003-04:00

The last couple weeks have been different, but I've worked into a new kind of training phase for myself, while coaching the SDS kids, which is essentially just running with them and trying to articulate my love of the sport to them, because really, most of the things they will learn about running have to be experienced and not told to them by some old sage. Most days I run up to the school, about 3 miles, do about 8 miles of running with them, and then run back home, sometimes stopping for coffee along the way at the Third Place coffee shop on Glenwood. The people that work there undoubtedly want to kick me out for sweating all over their place, but they treat me like another hipster brother, even when I pay for my cup of coffee with small change. Since we've moved across town I'm also hitting up the track at Broughton High School. I think I'll be doing most threshold runs and slow intervals (my kids call them "Denton" intervals. I love it!) there. I'm trying to keep it simple but really whip myself into good shape again. I truly believe I can run 2:25 at Boston, which I know isn't amazing, but considering my marathon record, it's no small task. The goal for this week is to get up near 80 miles of solid running (not one 35 miler and a bunch of short runs) and then back down next week, I'd like to hover around 80-90 for a while, but we'll see what the ol' chassis has to say about that.

2009-07-30T17:08:00.002-04:00

Still running and trying to get into shape. My recent goals have been trying to get my normal pace down around 6 min./mile, which is harder than I thought. I used to do that everyday for every normal run. in about 3 months I'll have to hold 5:11 pace for 13 miles, so I've got a lot of work to do, and I've got to do it all alone. I'm moving to a new place tomorrow, which happens to be right near a track, and has quicker access to some greenway trails. It's still not ideal conditions. Hopefully something good will happen soon so I'll have something decent to blog about. I'll start listing some run data though, just in case it's interesting.

Monday - 12 miles | 4 miles in a.m., then 8 miles with the team right afterwards. I'm also going to have to balance coaching stuff and my own training over the next several months.

Tuesday - 8 miles | tried to do progressive run, from 7:30 pace down to 5:00 pace, but the Garmin was not having it.

Wednesday - 10.5 miles | ran a couple miles before practice then paced the kids on a 4 mile LT.

Thursday - 7 miles | kind of tired, I've been cleaning the apartment the last couple days and UHaul has screwed us over, so I've been a little on edge. Plus I'm planning a 2-3 mile test run tomorrow at 1/2 thon pace.

Fame

2009-07-14T16:05:00.003-04:00

I just realized that a video of me running got 19th place in a contest on Flotrack almost a year ago.

Here it is:

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack

Blog post title

2009-07-10T12:38:00.003-04:00

It's been an odd couple of weeks, going back home and driving there and back. It didn't make running a whole lot easier of course. I ran most of the days, but I exhausted from all of the driving and activities, that I slept half the day and slept fitfully at night. I was able to slug out a few longer runs, but they didn't feel like they were of any benefit. Despite that, out of the running stupor I've been in, has grown a newfound desire to compete. I have now decided to train exclusively for the half-marathon in Raleigh in November, before starting marathon training for Boston. I'm using a self-modified plan from Brad Hudson's book Run Faster which is a lot about self-coaching. If I'm using a book, I guess it's not really self-coaching, but I don't have any delusions that I'm that smart. Anyway, I'm starting mostly from scratch next week, making sure to make the workouts tough, the easy days easy and to take care of the chassis as well as the engine.

Oh, yeah, I did find a cool place in rural Illinois on the way to Kansas - the Tunnell Hill State trail. I got on in Vienna and had a nice little run, encountering a box turtle and a corn snake.

Here I am at the train station in Vienna, IL . Having to run with a shirt on at the private school is killing the tanness. This might be the worst abs I've had in a while too.

Where the Buffalo Roam

2009-06-22T09:47:00.002-04:00

I'm heading back to Kansas this week, and I look forward to a few runs out in the old haunts. Hopefully I can get out to the roads near Coach Smith's house for a nice long one, then I have to make sure I run "the loop", one of the three or so courses we ran all the time in high school, back in good ol' Clay Center. There's also the possiblity of a beer mile in Manhattan on Friday. I'm not sure how I feel about it, but the challenge will be hard to back down from.

Boogie Marathon

2009-06-15T15:44:00.003-04:00

So I DNF'd at the Boogie in Ellerbe, NC this Saturday. Despite being well warned, the course was amazingly brutal. I don't mind dropping out of a long race, sometimes that just happens, but what was a real kick in the junk was dropping out while leading and after holding course record pace for a long time. But that's what 96 degree weather, 80% humidity and a few trips up a 2.5 mile hill will do to you most of the time I guess. Anyway, hats off to the guy who ended up winning it, he was a trooper, and tried to get me to keep going, when he went by, even though I knew I was toast. I have to go back to this place though, It was an amazing event.

unpleasant adventure

2009-05-26T08:37:00.001-04:00

On Sunday, we planned to camp with some folks at Falls Lake, north of Raleigh. There is about a 35 mile section of NC's Mountains to Sea Trail up there, so I was salivating at the chance to run on it. I had Trish drop me off on the way to the campsite, south of Blue Jay Point. I had eaten a large lunch of Chilaquiles (bad idea) before the run, and was feeling that burning in my belly for the first hour and half. The first half of the trail was pretty up and down and twisty and technical, so I was jumping around and not moving real fast. about an hour and 45 in I got to the Shinleaf campground shower house and got some water and let go of the mexican food. Then I headed to a ranger station near highway 50. The place was closed, and there wasn't an accesible water source, which, from the map - looked like the only one for 10 miles or more. I snooped around and found a hose and filled up my bottles. I forgot to let the hose run for a while to get the scuzz out, so one of my bottles was undrinkably gross. Soon after, I got on to the "new" part of the trail, meaning there were hardly any decent maps of the place. The cool part was that the trail actually got into some really uninhabited areas, I didn't see any signs of human activity for quite a while, though I figured I was getting back to a road when I started seeing beer cans and McDonald's bags near the trail, and I guessed right. The trail started getting real messy after that. Large trees had fallen over the trail, which forced me to climb over and around stuff a lot, I wound up with a good collection of spider bites and ticks, and did a lot of crawling through poison ivy (we brought the Technu along). I got to another trailhead and realized that the next section was going to be impassable. There was actually a sign there that said just that. I finally threw in the towell and called Trish to come get me, then I ran down the highway until she showed up. I'm guessing from the maps I did see that I went about 24-25 miles, and it took me just at 4 hours. What a mess.

In other action:

I've been digging out old racing flats and xc shoes and doing some shoe surgery to try to make some good minimalist shoes to try to transition down from lightweight trainers to flats for some training. I think I'm too far gone to completely switch to running in H-streets, but I think it will be good for me to let my feet do what they want to a little more. We'll see how that goes.

In the city

2009-05-19T16:24:00.002-04:00

I spent the last few days with my track team, the St. David's Warriors - at their state meet in Charlotte. I was really inspired. Several of their performances really reminded me why I love this sport. I was busy getting sunburned and rained on (almost simultaneously) so I didn't have the chance for a nice adventurous run. I did get a 21 miler in yesterday, but I just ran around town. I started up north through the Oberlin Village area and up towards Glenwood and then finally onto the Greenway near the beltline. I took the greenway all the way back down to Milburnie street and then took that all the way past St. Augustine's college and Oakwood to downtown. The area near Oakwood is probably classified in the "bad" part of town, which is really a shame. There are some beautiful old buildings there and lots of big 'ol oak trees. I did a lap around the grass in Halifax square and then got back on the other greenway (I can't remember the names) to head back home. I encountered a full-out grove of ripe mulberry trees and stuffed my gut with some of those. My hips and groin were pretty tight and sore, so I need to work on loosening that mess up. I also got a few more pairs of the wonderful Brooks Axiom 3 in the mail. I should be good to go for a while now. A big thanks to Brooks for the free gear!

Natural things

2009-05-14T19:12:00.002-04:00

Today I did some hill repeats out by the art museum. Getting my knees up and really charging up a hill is still unduly strenuous for me now. But I feel ok. After the hills part, I went down to the "creek" that runs through there, and had to think before splashing some of the water on myself. That's so sad. There is so much weird human waste in there, that we can't even drink the stuff that God put here to sustain us. Then (after I doused myself anyway) I ran back and munched some mulberries and cherries off some trees on the way back. I was even leery of these, but the cherries were amazing.

Mileage

2009-05-09T15:09:00.002-04:00

This was a big week. I got over 80 miles on the week for the first time since last summer. That's not amazing, but means that I haven't been chronically injured, and that my injury avoiding plans have worked. Those plans have involved the following:

-Barefoot running on grass

-Creating my own orthotics

-Minimizing the size of my running shoes

-Running on trails

-doing lots of prophy stuff and using the elliptical machine

So today I ran 36 miles. I decided I should do about half on the pavement, since my marathon in a month is all paved. I took off for the greenway to North Raleigh and then came back down to the Schenk forest, filled up with some metalic, protozoa laden water, and got down into the trails. Trish drove to the park, so I stopped and got some munchies at the car. A couple old dudes were eyeing me, and asked me what I was doing (I was re-coating myself with sunblock and was wearing just shorts and my legs were covered with mud) they recommended I run the JFK 50 miler. Maybe I will. I got back down to my favorite trail (Cedar Ridge) and got to do some splashing at the awesome water crossing. I can't wait to get to do a run at Pillsbury Crossing back in Pott Co. I got back on Turkey Creek Trail and started heading back up. The last 5 miles or so were kind of rough, but I got back and loaded up the ice tub and pounded some Endurox. I should be good to go. I think I'll just go for a swim tomorrow though.

Dad

2009-05-03T21:03:00.003-04:00

I forgot, my dad ran a marathon today:

3:22 age 52

his last marathon was

3:15 age 39

and before that

3:12 age 30

I think slowing down only 10 minutes in over 20 years over a race of 26 miles is pretty remarkable.

Miles

2009-05-03T20:54:00.002-04:00

I am switching my long run from Sunday to Saturday now, it gives me more rest time on Sunday, and allows me to meet up with whoever's around on Saturday. This Saturday I started out extra early, carrying a couple water bottles and gel and a powerbar. As well as a stupid headlamp, because it was 4:45 a.m. I ran the first few miles heading toward Umstead before I realized my crappy headlamp would not help me much on trails, so I stayed on the Greenway. At the bridge over the beltline I was blockaded by an 8 foot fence. Apparently the trail is closed at that hour. I scaled it slowly, catching my shorts on the top while nearly toppling into the freeway below (not really, but it sounds more exciting that way) I made my way through the darkness to the trails, and groped my way along as the sun slowly rose. About 2 hours in, I met up with Coach Brian and Aaron from St. David's and some RRO guys. We ran down the Turkey Creek trail and then back to Glenwood. I then slogged back through some trails as traffic increased at the park. In all I ran 31 miles, and I feel good.

extra crap please

2009-04-30T10:26:00.002-04:00

terrible run today. I felt like throwing up from the start. I took out the waistpack to test it out for a few miles. I can't even run with it with the bottles full, and when I emptied them it was just uncomfortable. I think it was a good reality check for me, sometimes running sucks. Sometimes getting cool stuff just adds unneccesary junk to your pile of other worldly junk. I'll be returning that thing ASAP. I just need to refocus on running and enjoying it and worrying less about gear.

Anyway,

I am officially on the list for the Boogie Marathon on June 13. I'm pretty pumped about it. It looks like the course is way hilly, from pics and the elevation profile. I also noticed the course record is 3:06. Should be a brutal good time.

Back on the machine

2009-04-28T07:44:00.003-04:00

I can't run all the time, so I was on the elliptical today. There's a good set of them at the NCSU rec. I am able to get them to about 220 rpm before they start coming apart, so I can do a decent amount of impact-free work on them. I have to admit that I have always got my iPod on when I'm on the machine. It's a brand of boring that I haven't learned to deal with too well. After that, I headed out to the big rec field and ran a mile and a half barefoot on the grass and did some yoga/pilates/core stuff. I intend to get my barefoot distance up some, and my shoe selection simpler over the coming days.

Another Umstead run

2009-04-26T18:53:00.003-04:00

I've really got to find a new park. Oh, well - it was about 85 degrees this afternoon when I got out to the hallowed trails. I just doused the buff in any creek I was near to cool off and pulled it up over my head when I got out in the sun. I'm feeling pretty good now. I ran around 23 miles. The only wildlife I encountered was a 4.5-5 foot long black rat snake (the biggest I've seen). I spent all day yesterday at the Convoy of Hope, an event that tries to give some stuff (groceries, haircuts, info and such) to people who need some help. It was cool to see people doing some good, but I got roasted out there. I'm glad I could still put one foot in front of the other today.

A couple hours ago I was surfing www.marathonguide.com and came across "the Boogie Marathon" in Ellerbe, NC. It starts at 6 p.m. on a Saturday and has no mile markers, or course officials and only cost me 15 bucks to enter. So I'll see you in the middle of NC in a few weeks, bring your headlamp.

Almost Natural

2009-04-25T17:29:00.010-04:00

I went on a big run last Sunday. I traveled the length of the loblolly trail to Umstead park and all the way around it, and back, blah, blah. I ended up going a little over 28 miles. Along the way I saw a few blue tailed skinks (over on the right) a couple black snakes (on top right) and to my amazement, a barred owl. When I scared up the owl I thought it was just a fat hawk. Then he landed on a branch and turned his head way around and stared at me with those creepy eyes. It was great. The rest of the run took me through the campgrounds, where some young birthday partiers exclaimed "ewwwww" as I ran through in short shorts and covered in mud from the creek crossings. On the way back I got excited and went through the creek again and then sped up and held around 6 min pace for the last couple miles once I got back on the main path. I spent most of the week near the Chicago airport listening to the wisdom of John Piper and Tim Keller, as well as a cast of other great dudes. I found a decent and kind of spooky trail nearby, with tons of uninterested white-tailed deer roaming around. The squirrels are still grey in Chicago, but it's almost like home. (squirrels are supposed to be reddish).

more stuff and things

2009-04-18T17:40:00.002-04:00

I'm relaxing right now with a frosty Rolling Rock. (I'm sorry I can't afford to get nothing but microbrews) I'm anxiously awaiting my first 3 hour trail run tomorrow. I headed out to REI (again) and discovered that they are having a whole store 20% off sale today only. I quickly acquired one of these, http://www.ultimatedirection.com/product.php?id=128&page=trailwaistpacks and some other junk. I guess my big problem in the coming months will be finding out exactly what is necessary to take with me on longer runs. I fancy myself a minimalist in many ways, but there are certain things I need to have to keep me from dying while running, and keep me from dying when I get myself lost on a trail somewhere. Tomorrow's run, I plan on just taking two handheld bottles, because I doubt i'll be swinging by a water fountain along the way. Some gel and blocks should keep my energized enough, and with adequate water, I'll be recovered and ready to hit the road again next week.

I've been checking a lot of track results lately. The outdoor season is heating up finally. I miss running fast around those ovals, with crowds cheering, etc., but it's just not feasible to try that mess anymore. The NCSU team doesn't need a tag-along, and nobody else can train at a high enough level (sounds douchy, but I think it's true) Plus, marathoning and ultra-ing is new and exciting to me. I've been doing the same stuff for so long, that this is something I want to attack with that same fervor. I'm quite positive I could have been a decent miler (4:07 on DMR) if I had ever trained for it, and maybe this ultra stuff isn't what my body is designed for, but it looks like fun, and that's the plan for now.

April 16

2009-04-16T14:25:00.002-04:00

I'm back again already. Today I didn't have to work, so I slept in all the way to 7:30! Trish made me some delicious scones, and I was generally a sloth around the flat most of the morning. I went down to REI in Cary to acquire some Clif bars (Bar of the week only 79 cents!) Then got back and went out on a run to find the elusive trailhead of the Loblolly Trail near the RBC Center. After a few misses, I eventually found the trail, it's a pretty nice little path with a few small crossings and no traffic. I wound around on that and through the Schenk Forest and got back a little shy of two hours, which was about 30 min longer than I had planned on. Oh well. I felt good, I just took the little 10 oz. hand bottle, but I refilled it at the forest. I'm starting to get used to that one, the full size one is still kind of cumbersome. Got back with an ice bath and nearly half a jar of PB and several bananas. Now I'm ready to head off to school to coach the sprinters. Tonight I plan to work on my recipe for energy bars. My last ones were ok, but they were too crumbly.

Ultra?

2009-04-16T08:24:00.002-04:00

Last Sunday's long run got me up at 4:30 and running in the dark with my crappy Wal-Mart headlamp that I got as a prize at a 10k. That was a big run-on sentence. I headed south from the swanky Sylvan Park apartments in Southwest Raleigh to the NCSU ag fields, which contain the only stretch of real gravel road I've been able to find around here. It was just as spooky as running in the boonies at home. Stuff was jumping in the trees and livestock was lowing in the fields. The headlamp gave me about 10 feet of visibility. When I was a kid, my mom and I would run with enormous rechargeable flashlights the would wear out about 20 minutes in. This was only slightly better. Perhaps I'll head to REI to get something better, probably not. Anyway, my goal was to get on the trails at Yates Mill and/or Lake Wheeler. Unfortunately the "Park is closed, no tresspassing" signs were quite locked. Apparently people don't start fishing around here until 8 a.m. My grandpa is loading up the truck to go back home by then. So I continued down the road (now blacktop again) past the lake. Eventually I just turned around and ran back through the new NCSU golf course, since nobody was there at 7 to yell at me and back to the house. Somewhere around 23 miles, a little under 7 min. pace as far as I could tell. I did not get my cup of generic coffee before I started, and I could tell for about the first hour. I choked down a nasty flavored GU (I prefer ClifShot) and chewed up some shotblocks with a little caffeine and a tabby of Nuun. It all got me through. During the week I'll be spending some more time at the rec working on my technique on the elliptical machine, trying to perfect a way to get real excercise out of one of those things and get a little time off my joints. This weekend I plan on heading up to Falls Lake to attack some real trails (I think) and maybe try to procure a comfortable waist pack (hey, I'm new at this) to carry some emergency stuff for when I get myself lost.

Best of runs to all!