Well winter has arrived in Minnesota and its seems like forever since I’ve shared my stories with you. Due to the length of time overlooked I’ll give you the short version of how the fall went.
- I didn’t run as much or as hard as I should.
- My half marathon was great until the 9 mile mark when I hit the hardest wall of my racing career.
- I took a week off.
- I have started lifting and training (slowly) for next year.
My goals for 2011 are: 1) no races over 10k, 2) lots of races, 3) run fast. Pretty simple right? I’d like to think that I can stick to this because I have always loved the training involved in running 5ks. My body and mind seem more tuned towards shorter and faster races than anything else. At times this fall I just bailed on the idea of running long Tempo pace workouts because I didn’t feel ready for them mentally or physically. When training for 5ks my whole body gets itching to run track workouts, or hills, or fartleks which I haven’t run enough of in training for half marathons the last two years. So… watch out world!
PS – The wife and I are driving down to Iowa on Saturday to cheer on the OCXC women’s team as they compete at D3 XC Nationals at Wartburg College! I am very excited and proud of the ladies! This is their second year in a row at Nationals and I am told that Joanna has a shot at top-5 again this year (she finished 5th last year)! GO YEOWOMEN!!
By King | September 20, 2010
Three weeks ago I got off the plane in LAX with tattered sandals, board shorts, sun-kissed skin, and my well-used guitar hanging off my back. With businessmen zipping by, announcements echoing over the loud speakers, and security guards shifting their suspicious eyes from person to person, I knew my summer in the Fiji Islands was over. I knew I was back to “society”, and my old American lifestyle needed a revisit. While in Fiji, I managed to run in the mornings about once a week, usually with a couple of my students and our loyal neighborhood dogs. I remembered a family vacation to Hawaii three years ago when I had to set an alarm to get a run in. I was in the height of XC training, and I couldn’t slip, even when I was on vacation. This time, it was different. I didn’t have to train for anything. Instead, I jammed on my guitar in kava circles, went diving on breathtaking coral reefs, played soccer with the local kids, sliced through the Highlands in a whitewater kayak, and operated under the simple Fijian phrase of “Seqa na Lenga” — no problem, no worries.
Now that I am back in Eugene (I passed Andrew Wheating on a run the other day), I feel almost obligated to get more regimented with my running. So, most likely I will return to my 4x week of running with one long run on the weekend, hitting the gym as much as possible, and occasionally jumping into road races. Oh, and rejoicing in the fact that both the Oberlin women’s and MEN’S XC teams are nationally ranked! I think that gives me more assurance than motivation.
On that note, I hope you all had great summers and I look forward to the next time our paths cross. No guarentee I’ll be running down that path, but hey, seqa na lenga.
Wow, I just cannot believe how crappy I have been at getting out the door since I hit 50 miles. It has now been 4 weeks and I have yet to top 30 miles. In the last two weeks I have been Jekyll and Hydeing it being both mad at myself for not running and totally unable to motivate myself to get out the door. As a result I’ve let any little thing keep me on my couch, or some other version of not running laziness. As such I have retitled my blog entries leading up until the Monster Dash Half Marathon with a new, catchy and hopefully motivational slogan.
13.1 in 1:23
That my boys is my goal. I know it might not sound like much to the Pikes among us that run 1:20 for the first half of a marathon but for this “old” guy running 6:20 per mile for 13.1 miles will be an accomplishment.
There will be no details of the slacking from the last couple of weeks except to say that it has ended. I will run a workout in the morning (Wednesday) after running 4 miles this morning to start my 35 mile week. You will hear about the full 35 miles next week as I am not leaving any room for slacking the rest of the way. Later all and keep running strong.
I see that Ben has been forsaken by the rest of us, even as he achieves commendable milestones in his running. For this, I apologize. But I just want to say that I fully intend to recommence my running. My routine fell off a cliff after my H-M with Oman at the beginning of June, but now that I live a stone’s throw from a rail trail and I have all the free time of the unemployed, I’m back on that shit.
Filling out that plot line, I ended work on a farm that I’d been on all summer. As of this week, I live with my girlfriend in Montpelier, VT…the only of 50 state capitals not to have its own McDonalds. Cheers. Life is pleasant, but I’ll write again when I have some running to brag about.
Well this week was the epitome of peaks and valleys.
I only managed (for various reasons/excuses) three runs this week. The first was my workout on Wednesday (more below). The second was my long run on Friday (11 miles). And the third was the dual 5k legs of the Minneapolis Duathlon on Sunday.
That’s it. No training runs. No “easy days”.
The workout was dead-on pace and felt quick. Starting with a warmup and then 2×1000m @ I pace (3:27; actual 3:27, 3:33) with 2 min jog after each. Then came 4×400m @ R pace (1:17; actual 1:17, 1:17, 1:11, 1:16) with 3 min jog after each. Finished with a cooldown and lots of water.
The Duathlon was exhausting but fulfilling (and not to mention crowded as it was the “World’s Largest Duathlon”). I started in wave 1 and got out well enough (6:04 first mile). I finished the “5k” in 19:36 (depending on which chip pad I stopped my watch at). After a quick transition I got out on the bike with the goal of going under 1 hour for the 18 mile section. I did that and more finishing the bike in 53:37, or 20.11 mph. Another quick transition and I was out again on the 5k course with jelly legs. Now here is where the official timing goes wonky. The site says that my last 5k I ran in 23:50. Though my watch said 21:40 AND if you add up the splits they give it adds up to 1:40:17 and not 1:38:10 like they list at the top of my results page. SO, I am going to say that my last painfully slow 5k was done in 21:40 and that I finished the race in 1:30:10. YAY!!
Will do much better next year and certainly get all my runs in this week.
Wow, what a crappy follow-up week to my 50 miler. My workouts went well but other than that this week was a failure. I took Wednesday off, after taking Monday off, thinking I could squeeze more into my weekend in VA visiting family and it all went downhill from there. Waking up at 4:30 am on Friday for a 7:20 am flight really takes it out of you and by the time I could possibly go for a run in VA there was nothing in my legs. My humid run on Saturday got done but I wimped out on a long run in possible T-storms and humidity on Sunday (twice actually, as I went outside in my running clothes in the morning and came back in, only to “try” again later and only run for 1 mile).
So yeah, 22 miles. Ugh.
The workouts were:
Tuesday: 1 mi warmup, (then with no rest) 2 mi @ M pace (6:24 | actual 6:09 then 6:20), 1 mi @ T pace (6:04 | actual 6:00), 1 mi @ M pace (6:24 | 6:19), 1 mi cooldown
Thursday: I wimped out on a 6 mi middle-of-the-workout and did; 1 mi warmup, 4 mi @ adjusted T 1 mi pace (6:17; meaning I was planning on running 6 mi at T pace so Daniel’s told me to adjust the pace slower by 12 seconds, but then I only did 4 | actual 6:16, 6:28, 6:17, 6:30), I wanted 8 mi for the day so I did 3 mi cooldown
This week will include one workout (Tuesday), a long run on Thursday because of the Minneapolis Duathlon (5 km, 18 mi bike, 5 km) on Sunday (my 1-year wedding anniversary!). Wish me more luck than last week.
The road to 50 has come to an end at 50 miles in one week! I was able to pull of this feat for the first time since (probably) junior year (soooo… 2003-2004) and I am feeling great about it. I was feeling pretty dead legged on Saturday for my last “training” run of the week but whatever that was went away Sunday morning. My 15-mile long run was beautiful! I was pumped and running well only to find out that on the return trip I would get to cheer on a 2-ish mile stretch of the bike leg of the YWCA Women’s Triathlon. That was all I really needed to get home and it was a blast cheering them on.
Now moving on! FINALLY! I was sooooo done with Phase 1.
Phase 2 has begun and is going well. Tuesday brought my first workout since October 7, 2009 (313 days in between!). It was a simple M pace and T pace alternate but it felt good to run fast. I will tell you more about it next week when I devulge the details of Phase 2, Week 1 of 4!
Now what should I call the rest of my “season”? The road to 13.1 just doesn’t sound as cool as The road to 50…
Last week was awesome! I did get to 50 miles in a “week” from Friday July 30th to Thursday August 5th. Though it did include the two long runs of the two real weeks the “week” overlapped. I got to 44 in the real week and got to enjoy some great company while running in Ann Arbor at the Conlons’ wedding! Thanks Pike and the others that kept me going when I could have slept in after lots of driving (on Friday) and dancing (on Saturday). I am already off to a great start this week covering 6, 5, and 8 in the last three days. That leaves me with 8,8, and 15 to go to reach the real 50 mile week.
What’s next? Well my shortened Daniel’s Running Formula Phases start next week. I will be completing Phases 2, 3, and 4 in 4 weeks instead of 6 to get them all in before the big half marathon on October 30th. I am a bit intimidated by the long Threshold/Tempo workouts next week after not running a single “workout” in 2010 but I will get through it I’m sure.
Take care and run well.
Last week was a mixed bag. Overall I feel really good about how the runs felt and got done. Then again I repeated the 37 mile week from the week before instead of getting to 45 like I planned. I feel okay about this because I responded to how my legs felt instead of forcing the issue on Friday morning and possibly ruining the whole week. Dead legs are a sign from your body and not one to just blow through without thinking.
Then of course, there are signs from existence that just make you swerve because they appear where you don’t expect them. That is what happened on Saturday morning as I went to look up directions for my race. I was sure the race was on Saturday morning and was prepared accordingly. Until I found out the race was Sunday morning! That threw off my whole day and weekend. I went back to sleep, and put off my long run (originally due Sunday morning but now due Saturday) until 7 pm. So only 13 hours before my second race/5k of the summer I ran 12 miles.
Needless to say the race in the morning was not my best. The race was one I had won handily last year with far fewer people entered. So of course part of me thought I could just show up with no workouts at all in 2010 and win it again. That was not the case. I got pulled through the first mile in 5:44 by a couple of guys over 40 and then got dropped hard over the next two going 6:03 and 6:28 before the last 0.1 non-kick. I ended up fifth in 18:55 after winning in 18:16 last year (though 18:16 would have only gotten me third this year as two guys wearing UW-Eau Claire jerseys took 1-2 in 17:30-ish).
So yeah, a bit of a rollercoaster ride but running 37 instead of 45 will let me take this week in 45 and hit 50 next week.
Though with my desire to get my long run in on Thursday before driving to MI on Friday, I will actually hit 52 in the 7 day span from last Friday (an off day) to this Thursday. In that sense, the road to 50 has almost come to an end. Here’s wishing you all a great week and safe travels to the big event this weekend.
Finally a week to build on both mentally and physically! I hit the gym MWF, and ran every mile I wanted save a hot, early evening run on Saturday after not drinking any water all day. The result? A motivated Ben coming off a 37 mile week hungry for more! And that’s good too because 45 miles this week will be a high in 2010 (and 2009 for that matter). Throw in some strides, and a Saturday morning race, and you would think I was back in college or something!
We here in MN are excited to be seeing OC people very soon and I hope to be bringing good running shape with me (I’ve heard Coach is ramping up his training for his wedding showdown with Morse!). Take care and see you all soon (that sounds so awesome!).