First Run in My New Town

I had my first run in my new town of Mound, Minnesota this morning. Right behind my apartment complex runs a brand new paved trail that used to be a rail line. I followed it west of town away from Lake Minnetonka and ended up at, for me, an infamous place: Gale Woods. For those who don't know, Gale Woods is an educational farm and park with a 5K cross country running course. I ran in the first ever cross country race held there during my senior year of high school and placed 10th in the conference meet. When I spotted the sign and realized where I was, I just had to run a little bit of the course. It's still just as challenging as it was back then with a few really tough hills but it was good to find a familiar place in an otherwise unfamiliar location.

Olympic Fever & Marathon Prep

The Olympics have been going strong for a few days and I've been glued to my TV and to my computer, watching events every free chance I get. Fortunately, I don't have to work during the duration of the Olympics so I can get away with it. I'm absolutely loving what Phelps has been doing in the pool (just got gold #4, going for #5 in minutes!) but I'm really looking forward to the track and field events starting on Friday, especially for the men's marathon on the final day of competition. I'm really pulling for Ryan Hall. He is a humble but confident runner, and he runs for all the right reasons, not for his own glory but for God's.

After about a week and a half of taking some days of rest to let my shin splints subside, I've been getting back into my training. Yesterday I got in a quality 2 hour run with the Coon Rapids High School cross country team on their first day of official practice for the fall season. I hadn't planned to run the full two hours but I ended up doing it. It counted as my long run for the week and it definitely showed to me that I was back and ready to get back into full training again. I did not run the Gopher to Badger Half Marathon as I had originally planned because of my shins, so I am planning to get a final preparation run in sometime in early September, possibly the City of Lakes 25K or a 20 miler in White Bear Lake or River Falls, WI.

I'll be moving into my new apartment in Mound, MN at the end of the week so most likely my next post will come from my new residence, certainly searching for new places to run.

Tough Run

Yesterday was one of those days where you just try to survive the race distance. I had high hopes for the Lumberjack Days 10 mile yesterday morning. The race came at the end of one of my toughest weeks of running I've had in a very long time and I found myself with almost no energy halfway through the race. Multiple times the thought of dropping out crossed my mind but I knew the answer to that would always be no.

I was able to finish fairly strong, getting my final mile down to about the time I had been shooting for the entire race. I still finished 63rd overall in a race of 1,100 finishers so that I was certainly not disappointed about. I spent the rest of the day drained so I'm going to back off a little bit this week and give myself a little bit of recovery. I may change my race plans for the coming weeks. I really want to have a good half-marathon prep race so I really know what my body is capable of when the marathon comes up in 10 weeks.

Short Race

Yesterday, my last day as a 23 year old, I ran a 5K in my soon-to-be new town, Watertown, MN. It was a decent day to race but the race seemed so short. I ran very even mile splits but felt I easily could've kept that pace for many more miles. At the start I felt really slow because all of these high school and college aged runners went sprinting out in the first mile. However, I caught a few of them about 2 miles in, even though my final time was nothing to brag about.

I recovered really quickly and ran 13.5 miles this morning to celebrate my birthday! Next week will be a real test to see what kind of endurance shape I am in and how good I really am getting at my pacing as I plan to run the Lumberjack Days 10 Mile in Stillwater. I'm looking forward to it because I haven't run a long race like that in quite some time.

Update: TCM Training

It's been quite a while since I posted. My life has been a whirlwind these last couple of months. As the summer continues on, my life will be encountering a lot of big changes. I will be moving out on my own to take on my first teaching job at Watertown-Mayer High School in Watertown, MN. I will be teaching chemistry and physical science. I am really looking forward to it and I'm excited to be moving out on my own.

In the mean time this summer, I'm enjoying my last bit of time living with my family and running around the city of Coon Rapids and the north metro. However, I'm beginning to see some indications that maybe it's time to get out of CR and move on to somewhere else. A few days ago I saw a giant banana run across the street as I approached them along my run! An odd sight to see for sure but I know I wasn't hallucinating because I was only 2 miles into my run.

I am into my full training for the Twin Cities Marathon now and have been increasing my mileage over the last couple weeks. The training has been going well but because of my summer job I have been forced to run at 4:30 in the afternoon three days out of the week and each of those days I am on my feet for 10 hours during the day before the run. It's been a big challenge but my body is finally getting used to running in the heat of the day. I would still much rather run early in the morning though.

Over the next few weeks I'll plan to post more regularly and keep posting on my training and my races coming up over the next few weeks. I will be racing three times over the next four weeks: Watertown Rails to Trails 5K next Saturday, Lumberjack Days 10 Mile on July 26th in Stillwater, and the Gopher to Badger Half Marathon on August 9th from Stillwater to Hudson, WI.

Sick of Snow

So living and running in Minnesota has long provided some interesting challenges, primarily in the weather department. Our winters are long, cold and snowy, our spring almost doesn't exist, our summers are humid, and our autumns go by in the blink of an eye back to winter. However, the last couple winters have had much less snow (but still cold) so trails have been much more accessible. This winter seems like it will never end. More snow came over the last two days and some of my favorite trails are covered in a few inches of snow. Normally, I don't care but with my recovery from my most recent injury I have to be careful on uneven and unpredictable surfaces. The weathermen are saying 60s sometime this week but I'll believe it when I see it. In the meantime, I am continuing to pound the pavement dreaming of the days when I can finally run on some beautiful wooded grass and dirt trails again.

Only 6 days until Twin Cities Marathon registration begins and only 7 days until my first race in 10 months!

Running in the Rain

From the moment I left church this morning the rain has been coming down. With so many things to get done for what will certainly be a busy week I had to make time for my first run in the rain of the year. I love to run in the rain, as long as it's not too cold along with the rain, because it can be extremely refreshing. I don't mind getting wet and muddy on a run and with this rain, the good news is most of the snow around here is melting away. I decided to run on some of the trails through Bunker Hills Park to go through the woods. The sound of the rain hitting the trees and falling to the ground is so relaxing, plus I had the trails to myself which allowed me to talk to myself and not appear crazy to anyone else!

I just got hired as the middle school track coach at Northdale this week and practice starts in a week, so training these young kids should be an exciting experience. I'm really looking forward to it and I can't wait to see if my training methods will be beneficial to them.