Friday, September 4, 2009

Been Too Long

Well, it's been over a month since my last posting so it's time for a big update. Since my last blog post I've been putting in a lot of miles, more than I've ever done in a month before. The last two weeks I have put in 86 and 85 miles respectively and am currently on pace for 80+ miles again this week. I have run two races in August and will be running my final tune-up race a week from Sunday in Minneapolis. I ran the Mora Half-Marathon in scorching hot conditions. Needless to say I did not have a good day. Most people don't enjoy long races in hot conditions, I may be even worse than most. I prefer near frigid conditions for my longer races. I ended up running just over 1:29:00 for the half-marathon, finishing 11th overall. Last Saturday I ran a cross country 5K in River Falls and finished 2nd in our Alumni race in a time of 17:25, my fastest 5K since college track over two years ago. It felt remarkably easy, which was a good feeling for me.

The rest of my training has been very solid. I ran 2 20+ mile runs over the last month. The first was at the Lakes in Minneapolis with Kyle and we ran a 20.5 miles in under 2:20:00, an average of around 6:45-6:50 per mile. 3 weeks later we did 20.5 miles again, this time along East and West River Roads and Summit Avenue with some Fartleking on Summit Avenue. We completed the 20.5 mile run in under 2:15:00, averaging 6:40 per mile this time. Those workouts have been very encouraging for my fitness. I am hoping for a good solid 25K race next Sunday to give me a final boost of confidence leading into the marathon in a month. The last 20+ mile run will be tomorrow morning with a planned 7 mile tempo in the latter part of the run at GMP (goal marathon pace), which is about 6:10 per mile.

Along with my training, high school cross country season is underway. At Watertown-Mayer, the team's first meet was yesterday afternoon in Maple Lake, MN. It was a pretty hilly course so times were not fast plus it was the first meet of the year. The team has a lot of potential so the meets will be very exciting as the season continues. School starts on Tuesday so my days will only get busier and busier. The fortunate part is that the initial taper starts right after the City of Lakes 25K gets done.