My final preparation race for the Fargo Marathon was today in St. Cloud. I ran the Earth Day Half-Marathon. It ended up being a pretty good test for me. The weather conditions were pretty good for a longer race like that. It was cloudy, upper 40s, with a light breeze coming out of the north. I stayed the night in St. Cloud so I wouldn't have to get up too early to travel. I was still up early anyway, like I normally am on the morning of a race. After a good warm-up run I was feeling very ready to get in a good race. My goal was to break 1:20:00. My P.R. was at 1:22:42 from almost 3 years ago so I was overdo for breaking that.
The race got started and I was out at a good pace early. I came across the first mile in 5:56, a little quicker than I had wanted but it felt really comfortable. I backed off on my pace a bit anyway because I wanted to try and negative split the second half of the race. At mile 3 I lost 20 seconds on my time because I had to make a pit-stop at a port-a-potty. Usually I don't have that problem in races like this but it was somewhat out of my control. Despite losing that time I was still running pretty strong and I made it through the first 7 miles in the top 15 and feeling well for the most part. On the 8th mile though, my left hamstring began to tighten up for the first time in a couple weeks. My pace slowed as a result of that and I didn't have the ability to push the second half of the race as strongly as I had planned. I maintained my place and was able to bring my pace down to 6:00 for the final 1.1 miles. The finish to the race was great, there were a ton of spectators and the finish line was on the middle of the football field on the SCSU campus. It felt a lot like the finish to a marathon.
I ended up 11th overall and 2nd in the men's 20-24 age group. I ran the race in a new P.R. time of 1:21:50, not as fast as I had been planning for but considering how my body responded I'm fairly happy about it.
There are now only 3 weeks until the marathon. I begin to reduce the mileage slightly next week and then much more the next two weeks. Due to flooding in Fargo, the course for the marathon has been changed drastically. It is now a two-loop course with the entire course staying in Fargo. The original course crossed the Red River into Moorhead, MN and back and it also traveled south of I-94. The two-loop course also stays on the north side of I-94. These are the roads I am also the most familiar with from days of running in Fargo at NDSU.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Feeling Ready
4 weeks away from marathon race day, I have completed two very important workouts over the past two days that have given me a good indication of my fitness level going into the Fargo Marathon. With yesterday being Good Friday, I had the day off of work and took advantage by going home to Coon Rapids and did my interval workout on my home high school track. It was a modified version of the famous Yasso 800s workout. Instead of doing 10x800m, I did 10x1000m the same way. I did this to challenge myself a bit more and to see if my body could take it. I found out yesterday that it could. I averaged 3:24 for the 10x1000m, with my fastest being 3:23 and the slowest being 3:27. I was very consistent and I know it was about where I needed to be to attain the goal of the traditional Yasso 800s workout. Had I done the traditional workout, my 800 splits were between 2:43 and 2:45 for all of them, so based on the workout, that tells me I should be capable of running around 2:45 or just under for the marathon (doing 1000s probably tells me I could have done 2:40-2:43 for just 800s).
Today for a follow-up, I did what will end up being my last 20+ mile run. I did a tour de Coon Rapids, hitting nearly every area of the city this morning. The final distance measured out to be 20.5 miles and I maintained a pace of 7:10 for the run. Considering I was sore from the intervals on Friday I was very happy with it. I stopped only once for water at the Coon Rapids Dam by the Mississippi River (I did not drink from the river though) and took an energy gel there as well.
My final significant test of my training before the tapering begins will be a week from today when I run the Earth Day Half-Marathon (link on the right side). If all goes well, I will be feeling really good about the marathon coming up. I have also posted a list of all the races I have run so far in 2009 and the races I am preliminarily planning to run this summer and next fall. It is just a rough plan and it certainly could change but it is my ideal list of races at this point so far.
For you midwest marathoners, registration for the 2009 Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon opens on Friday, April 17th at 12:01am. It fills fast so register as soon as you can. I'll be registering the moment I wake up on Friday morning!
It's finally feeling like spring this Easter weekend. Enjoy the weather and the running but don't forget why we celebrate Easter in the first place. God Bless and Happy Easter everyone!
Today for a follow-up, I did what will end up being my last 20+ mile run. I did a tour de Coon Rapids, hitting nearly every area of the city this morning. The final distance measured out to be 20.5 miles and I maintained a pace of 7:10 for the run. Considering I was sore from the intervals on Friday I was very happy with it. I stopped only once for water at the Coon Rapids Dam by the Mississippi River (I did not drink from the river though) and took an energy gel there as well.
My final significant test of my training before the tapering begins will be a week from today when I run the Earth Day Half-Marathon (link on the right side). If all goes well, I will be feeling really good about the marathon coming up. I have also posted a list of all the races I have run so far in 2009 and the races I am preliminarily planning to run this summer and next fall. It is just a rough plan and it certainly could change but it is my ideal list of races at this point so far.
For you midwest marathoners, registration for the 2009 Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon opens on Friday, April 17th at 12:01am. It fills fast so register as soon as you can. I'll be registering the moment I wake up on Friday morning!
It's finally feeling like spring this Easter weekend. Enjoy the weather and the running but don't forget why we celebrate Easter in the first place. God Bless and Happy Easter everyone!
Sunday, April 5, 2009
T-minus 5 Weeks...
It is now less than 5 weeks until the 2009 Fargo Marathon. It is about this time in my training where the marathon begins to consume my thoughts more and more. I am down to just one more race prior to the marathon, the Earth Day Half-Marathon in two weeks. Yesterday I ran the Bunker Hills 8K in Coon Rapids. I placed 6th overall, in 29:29, nothing fast at all. The course is hilly but I certainly could've been a minute faster or more had my hamstrings not tightened up with about 1.5 miles to go. The trails the race was on are trails I know way too well, so I knew every hill and turn. It just wasn't my day but that's the way things go sometimes. Needless to say, I'm not training for 8K's or even 10K's.
This week will be a short work week for me as there is no school on Good Friday. The WMHS track team has their first track meet of the season on Thursday so I'm excited to see how our runners' training has been going. My workouts for the first half of this week coming up will be pretty easy but the 3 day weekend is going to be a good challenge. I'm hoping with a few easy runs to start the week will give my legs, especially my hamstrings some time to recover and loosen up before the tough workouts come. I decided to take today off (my first in 3 weeks) to see if that will help.
Best of luck to all of those running either the Zumbro 100K or 100 mile this weekend. The weather looks like it will cooperate for you. I will be sleeping while you all get your race started but I certainly am not taking my weekend easy by any means (I just won't be running 62 or 100 miles straight!). Friday's plan is to run 10x1000m on the track between 3:20 and 3:25 (5:20-5:30 mile pace) with equal time recovery. Saturday will be a long run of 20 or 21 miles and Sunday morning will be a tempo workout with a total of 45 minutes of hard running around 10-15 seconds under goal marathon pace. If the legs get the recovery they currently need during the first half of this week, the weekend of workouts will tell me a lot about my fitness and whether or not I am ready for a sub-1:20 half marathon and a sub-2:45 marathon.
This week will be a short work week for me as there is no school on Good Friday. The WMHS track team has their first track meet of the season on Thursday so I'm excited to see how our runners' training has been going. My workouts for the first half of this week coming up will be pretty easy but the 3 day weekend is going to be a good challenge. I'm hoping with a few easy runs to start the week will give my legs, especially my hamstrings some time to recover and loosen up before the tough workouts come. I decided to take today off (my first in 3 weeks) to see if that will help.
Best of luck to all of those running either the Zumbro 100K or 100 mile this weekend. The weather looks like it will cooperate for you. I will be sleeping while you all get your race started but I certainly am not taking my weekend easy by any means (I just won't be running 62 or 100 miles straight!). Friday's plan is to run 10x1000m on the track between 3:20 and 3:25 (5:20-5:30 mile pace) with equal time recovery. Saturday will be a long run of 20 or 21 miles and Sunday morning will be a tempo workout with a total of 45 minutes of hard running around 10-15 seconds under goal marathon pace. If the legs get the recovery they currently need during the first half of this week, the weekend of workouts will tell me a lot about my fitness and whether or not I am ready for a sub-1:20 half marathon and a sub-2:45 marathon.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Up and Down Week
I am on spring break right now and my training this week has been a little up and down. I had a good long run last Saturday at Elm Creek. I put in just over 18 miles on a nice morning. Since then though, my left hamstring has been feeling a little tight every now and then. My run this morning it was very tight so it was pretty slow going. Since the run it has loosened up nicely and I should be just fine for my run later this afternoon in River Falls. It has been a couple months since I ran in RF so I'm really looking forward to it.
On Saturday, I'm running an 8K race at Bunker Hills Park in Coon Rapids. The park is only a couple miles from the house I grew up in so I know the trails and the course extremely well. It will be fun to race on trails I'm very accustomed to. I ran that race 3 years ago and placed 6th. I wasn't in that great of shape at that time compared to now. This has been my most consistent training I think I have ever had. It's making me very optomistic for the marathon coming up in 5 weeks!
After the race in Coon Rapids I only have one race left prior to the Fargo Marathon and that will be the Earth Day Half-Marathon in St. Cloud, MN on Saturday, April 18th. It has traditionally been a very fast, very competitive half-marathon, often with the top runners easily running under 1:10 for the race. I'm setting my goal at running under 1:20 which would be around a pace of 6:06 per mile, a P.R. in the distance by about 2 and a half minutes. If I can accomplish that and not feel totally dead at the end, I know I'll be ready for a big marathon P.R. in Fargo.
On Saturday, I'm running an 8K race at Bunker Hills Park in Coon Rapids. The park is only a couple miles from the house I grew up in so I know the trails and the course extremely well. It will be fun to race on trails I'm very accustomed to. I ran that race 3 years ago and placed 6th. I wasn't in that great of shape at that time compared to now. This has been my most consistent training I think I have ever had. It's making me very optomistic for the marathon coming up in 5 weeks!
After the race in Coon Rapids I only have one race left prior to the Fargo Marathon and that will be the Earth Day Half-Marathon in St. Cloud, MN on Saturday, April 18th. It has traditionally been a very fast, very competitive half-marathon, often with the top runners easily running under 1:10 for the race. I'm setting my goal at running under 1:20 which would be around a pace of 6:06 per mile, a P.R. in the distance by about 2 and a half minutes. If I can accomplish that and not feel totally dead at the end, I know I'll be ready for a big marathon P.R. in Fargo.
Monday, March 23, 2009
A Good, Tiring Test
Yesterday was the annual Human Race on Summit Avenue in St. Paul, Minnesota. As the unofficial start to the spring racing season in the Twin Cities, tons of runners came out for what turned out to be a pretty nice day on Summit. The 8K was the road state championship so many top local elite runners were competing. The course on Summit is gradually uphill for most of the first 2 miles, a block turn-around near halfway and the final 1.5 - 2 miles around downhill. And with the wind yesterday, there was a strong headwind on the way out and a very nice tailwind on the way back.
I fared pretty well in my attempt at the doubleheader of running both the 5K and 8K races at the Human Race. I placed 7th overall in the 5K, running 18:03. I negative split the entire race, something I've never done in a 5K before. My first mile was 6:02, slow, as I spent much of that mile breaking the wind for the pack I was in. I felt smooth and strong in my final mile, while trying to not push too hard, knowing I had 5 more miles of racing less than 90 minutes later. Many UWRF teammates were in the 5K race. Jason Quarford won it, Ben Kirmse was second, I was seventh, and 4 other UWRF alum, Matt Olson, Eric Nordgren, Jeremy Olson and Kevin McDonough were not too far behind me.
In the 8K, I tried to pace myself out early, but it was of no use. My first mile in the 8K was 5:52, 10 seconds faster than the 5K. The legs felt okay at that point but miles 2, 3, and 4 were a major challenge. I kept trying to get my legs to go, but there just wasn't any speed there. I managed to close with a 5:42 for the final 0.97 miles, equal to just over 5:50 for the final mile. My time was 30:11, placing 129th overall. I've run much faster in 8Ks before but I've never run one shortly after a decent 5K. The results for the doubleheader haven't been officially posted yet, but looking at the 5K and 8K results, I finished 3rd out of all those that ran both races.
Overall, the day was fun. I was able to get a good reading for where my body is at. I need to keep reminding myself that I'm not training for these distances, I'm training for a marathon. Still, I will be racing again in two weekends in my hometown of Coon Rapids, MN. The annual Bunker Hills Run is run on trails that I have been running on for nearly 10 years, only 2 miles from the house I grew up in. It'll be an 8K race and it will be good to see what I can do over that distance when my legs are fresh.
Until then, the training will continue. I have mile repeats this week and when the weekend arrives I will be on spring break!
I fared pretty well in my attempt at the doubleheader of running both the 5K and 8K races at the Human Race. I placed 7th overall in the 5K, running 18:03. I negative split the entire race, something I've never done in a 5K before. My first mile was 6:02, slow, as I spent much of that mile breaking the wind for the pack I was in. I felt smooth and strong in my final mile, while trying to not push too hard, knowing I had 5 more miles of racing less than 90 minutes later. Many UWRF teammates were in the 5K race. Jason Quarford won it, Ben Kirmse was second, I was seventh, and 4 other UWRF alum, Matt Olson, Eric Nordgren, Jeremy Olson and Kevin McDonough were not too far behind me.
In the 8K, I tried to pace myself out early, but it was of no use. My first mile in the 8K was 5:52, 10 seconds faster than the 5K. The legs felt okay at that point but miles 2, 3, and 4 were a major challenge. I kept trying to get my legs to go, but there just wasn't any speed there. I managed to close with a 5:42 for the final 0.97 miles, equal to just over 5:50 for the final mile. My time was 30:11, placing 129th overall. I've run much faster in 8Ks before but I've never run one shortly after a decent 5K. The results for the doubleheader haven't been officially posted yet, but looking at the 5K and 8K results, I finished 3rd out of all those that ran both races.
Overall, the day was fun. I was able to get a good reading for where my body is at. I need to keep reminding myself that I'm not training for these distances, I'm training for a marathon. Still, I will be racing again in two weekends in my hometown of Coon Rapids, MN. The annual Bunker Hills Run is run on trails that I have been running on for nearly 10 years, only 2 miles from the house I grew up in. It'll be an 8K race and it will be good to see what I can do over that distance when my legs are fresh.
Until then, the training will continue. I have mile repeats this week and when the weekend arrives I will be on spring break!
Monday, March 16, 2009
What Do You Think About When You Run for 2 Hours?
Many of my students and some of my fellow teachers have asked me this question multiple times now and I finally decided to pay a little more attention to just all the things I think about on a long run this weekend. I ran 18 miles down at the chain of lakes and along Minnehaha Parkway in Minneapolis on Saturday afternoon. Saturday was a beautiful day for a run, a little breezy but couldn't ask for much better.
So, over the course of my hours of running, here is a list of the different things that ran through my mind:
- amazed by the number of people out on the trails around the lakes (tons of them!)
- rethinking my tests I just finished taking (took 2 Praxis tests to renew my teaching license, 4 hours of testing)
- my races coming up: Human Race 5K & 8K doubleheader on Sunday
- Fargo Marathon in less than 2 months
- my girlfriend (who is currently enjoying running in the foothills of the Rockies in Boulder, CO
- my lessons I will be teaching over the next 2 weeks (only 2 weeks until Spring Break!)
- training plans and workouts with the WMHS track team coming up over the next week
- more than anything though, I think about what an amazing gift God has given me to be able to run, and I use my long runs as a way to worship and thank him for that
Needless to say, a lot goes through my mind, especially when I'm all alone on these runs. Towards the end of the run I was beginning to feel some discomfort along the front of my left shin, right where my foot flexes and relaxes. It was still sore yesterday so I took the day off (my first in 3 weeks) and it made the difference. Today, in the beautiful 65 degree sunny weather, I ran for over an hour and it felt really good. This week should be a good one with the warmer weather. I have an interval workout and a hill workout along with the two races at the end of the week.
Enjoy the beautiful spring weather in Minnesota!!
So, over the course of my hours of running, here is a list of the different things that ran through my mind:
- amazed by the number of people out on the trails around the lakes (tons of them!)
- rethinking my tests I just finished taking (took 2 Praxis tests to renew my teaching license, 4 hours of testing)
- my races coming up: Human Race 5K & 8K doubleheader on Sunday
- Fargo Marathon in less than 2 months
- my girlfriend (who is currently enjoying running in the foothills of the Rockies in Boulder, CO
- my lessons I will be teaching over the next 2 weeks (only 2 weeks until Spring Break!)
- training plans and workouts with the WMHS track team coming up over the next week
- more than anything though, I think about what an amazing gift God has given me to be able to run, and I use my long runs as a way to worship and thank him for that
Needless to say, a lot goes through my mind, especially when I'm all alone on these runs. Towards the end of the run I was beginning to feel some discomfort along the front of my left shin, right where my foot flexes and relaxes. It was still sore yesterday so I took the day off (my first in 3 weeks) and it made the difference. Today, in the beautiful 65 degree sunny weather, I ran for over an hour and it felt really good. This week should be a good one with the warmer weather. I have an interval workout and a hill workout along with the two races at the end of the week.
Enjoy the beautiful spring weather in Minnesota!!
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Good Training Week
This week I completed my first 70+ mile week in nearly two years. The legs are feeling pretty good at this point and I had some real good workouts this week. Yesterday I put in 17 miles the day after my first interval workout since September. The interval workout on Friday went well. I ran it in shorts on the WMHS track, doing 6x800m at 2:40-2:50 with equal time recovery. It is called Yasso 800s (see earlier post) and I felt really good about how it went. I ran faster on each interval despite getting wetter and colder with each interval.
I'm looking forward to this week. High school track practice starts tomorrow afternoon. It will be exciting to see what kind of athletes we get out for the team this spring. I have talked to a number of my students who will be out for the team and they are getting excited to get going on the season. The first outdoor meet isn't until the first week of April so we'll have a good amount of time to get the runners in shape for their first meet. I will be running with the team most days of the week but when I run with them it will usually be only the start of my workout because my short runs are now very similar to the high school team's medium to long runs. I might also start doing my main workout early in the AM before school and then put in some easy miles in the afternoon with the team. I haven't decided for sure on that yet but it's certainly a good possibility.
More snow and nasty weather is on its way to Minnesota this week. It wouldn't be the start of track season without it though! Enjoy daylight savings time being back, lighter much later, I'm liking it already!
I'm looking forward to this week. High school track practice starts tomorrow afternoon. It will be exciting to see what kind of athletes we get out for the team this spring. I have talked to a number of my students who will be out for the team and they are getting excited to get going on the season. The first outdoor meet isn't until the first week of April so we'll have a good amount of time to get the runners in shape for their first meet. I will be running with the team most days of the week but when I run with them it will usually be only the start of my workout because my short runs are now very similar to the high school team's medium to long runs. I might also start doing my main workout early in the AM before school and then put in some easy miles in the afternoon with the team. I haven't decided for sure on that yet but it's certainly a good possibility.
More snow and nasty weather is on its way to Minnesota this week. It wouldn't be the start of track season without it though! Enjoy daylight savings time being back, lighter much later, I'm liking it already!
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