This past Sunday I ran in the 30th annual Lake Minnetonka Half-Marathon that run from Wayzata to Excelsior. It was a beautiful morning for a race and lots of people ran great races that day. I ran the race as a pacer for the Minnesota Pacers Pace Team. My goal time was 1:40:00 and I came to the finish line at 1:39:47. It was a lot of fun to run in this race and it was great to help lead a bunch of people in my group to personal best times!
This was my second race as a pacer and I enjoy it a lot. I have two more races I will be pacing this month: the Northern Lakes 30K in White Bear Lake on Saturday, May 22 and the Stillwater Marathon on Sunday, May 30. If you are running either of these races, come and join us.
My other focus for running right now is figuring out my summer races as I prepare for the 2010 Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon in October. I'll be running a pair of half-marathons, a 10 miler, and a 5K. I am also excited to be doing a small road race in Baldwin, Wisconsin in early June. I'll be doing a 5K or a 10K, or possibly both. I'm looking forward to it as Baldwin is the town where my entire family came from and I have a lot of great memories in that town.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Getting Back to Blogging
I realized that I haven't posted since last September and I've finally decided to get back into posting on a regular basis. A little update of what my running life has been like since last September is what I'll start with. Along with that I want to start posting more stories of struggle, inspiration and hope, some of my own personal experience and some that I just have found and have had from friends.
We'll begin today simply with an update.
Since September 2009, I have been running quite a bit and have competed in a number of races. I have run 2 marathons, 4 5Ks, a 10 miler and starting running races as an official pacer. I'll go in chronological order. In October I completed my 4 career Twin Cities Marathon in a course P.R. of 3:06:56, not as fast as I had hoped for but still had a great race and am still fighting my battle with Summit Avenue. After the marathon, I ran a series of 5K races: the Anoka Grey Ghost Run, the Turkey Day 5K in Minneapolis, and the Reindeer Run at Lake Harriet. All of them were sub-18:00, with a best of 17:37 at the Turkey Day 5K, and a 2nd place finish at the Reindeer Run. Right around the time that I was running these 5Ks I decided on my spring marathon, the Go! St. Louis Marathon in April 2010.
As the calendar turned to 2010, my training for St. Louis intensified. At the end of 2009, I spent 6 days in St. Louis at a missions conference and got an opportunity to see some of the race course and it got me going on getting ready for that run. While at the missions conference (Urbana 09) I also made a decision to run with a purpose other than just competing. I decided to run for a cause, the Hall Steps Foundation, an organization created by Ryan and Sara Hall. Go to their website to find out more. In preparing through a tough winter of training I hit my career high in mileage per week, just shy of 90 miles and had my highest mileage month ever (March - 319). In March, I ran a 10 mile race, the 100% Irish for a Day 10 Mile at Lake Harriet and Lake Calhoun. I placed 9th overall in a P.R. of 1:00:20. It was a great race and a big confidence booster.
My winter and early spring laid all the groundwork for the marathon in St. Louis, Missouri on Sunday, April 11, 2010, a race I felt truly ready for. The entire experience of the trip and the race was unforgettable. I flew to St. Louis on my own the day before and my fiancee and her mom joined me later that day in St. Louis. An exciting moment for me was getting my race number because I had qualified for the elite/competitive start field for this race and was assigned #10!! After the expo, we relaxed the rest of the day and I prepared for my race the next morning.
Race morning came and I was wide awake at 4am. I went through my usual race morning routine of a hot shower, dressing in my warm-up clothes and a breakfast of a bagel, yogurt, a banana and Gatorade. I left my hotel at 5:45am and walked to the start (only 4 blocks away). It was nerve racking walking to the start on my own, watching the St. Louis Fire Department raise a gigantic American flag over the starting area. It reminded me of the finish area at Twin Cities. I ran my warm-up run of about a mile around the starting line, waited in a couple long lines to go to the bathroom multiple times and finally stripped down to my uniform and stepped into our reserved starting area at the front. I was freaking out at this point on the inside, but managed to keep composed on the outside. Moments before the race, I knelt and said a prayer which helped me relax and focus on my reason for doing all of this. 2 minutes later, I crossed the starting line and my ninth career marathon was underway...
I went out slow as I had planned, or at least I thought it was slow. It turns out I ran my opening mile in 5:55, 40 seconds faster than I wanted to be, the adrenaline had gotten to me again. Two miles later, I had to go to the bathroom, something that has happened to me in every marathon I have run. Once out of the bathroom, I was more relaxed and began hitting my pace. Jen and her mom found me at mile 6 and they were a welcome site in a place where I felt a little bit alone. I was near the front of a marathon of over 2000 runners and the further along the course I went the fewer spectators and competitors there were.Unfortunate for me I was already feeling soreness in my legs by the halfway point. I went through 13.1 in 1:25:04, right where I had hoped to be, but my goal had been to run a negative split race, and that would be a great challenge. The course proved to be much hillier than I had anticipated and it took more out of me than I had planned on.
When I reached mile 17 I was all alone in the race and very few spectators were in sight. I was getting a bit down on myself. I began to pray and then to sing to God, and I continued to remind myself of what and who I was running for. About a mile later I was still singing, and almost instantly my legs began to loosen up and I was able to open up my stride again. This feeling stayed with me for about 3 more miles before general fatigue and minor leg cramping finally took over, but it gave me the knowledge that I was not alone in my race.
Over the final 5 miles I fought the notion of stopping to walk numerous times but I never did. This is only the third marathon I've done where I never walked. When I could finally see the American flag that had been at the start I knew I was almost done. Jen and her mom were just underneath the flag cheering me on like crazy! I was going to finally get a new P.R. and I pushed all the way to the finish line and crossed in 25th place in a new best time of 2:58:15. It hurt but the elation was like nothing else! Having a P.R. I had been trying to break for nearly 4 years was such a great confirmation that all of the hard work I had put in was worth it.
The biggest thing I took away from this race though, was that I know I can be a whole lot faster in the marathon than I have been to this point. It has awakened me to want to work significantly harder in my training than I have ever been before and I can't wait to get started in the next month!
We'll begin today simply with an update.
Since September 2009, I have been running quite a bit and have competed in a number of races. I have run 2 marathons, 4 5Ks, a 10 miler and starting running races as an official pacer. I'll go in chronological order. In October I completed my 4 career Twin Cities Marathon in a course P.R. of 3:06:56, not as fast as I had hoped for but still had a great race and am still fighting my battle with Summit Avenue. After the marathon, I ran a series of 5K races: the Anoka Grey Ghost Run, the Turkey Day 5K in Minneapolis, and the Reindeer Run at Lake Harriet. All of them were sub-18:00, with a best of 17:37 at the Turkey Day 5K, and a 2nd place finish at the Reindeer Run. Right around the time that I was running these 5Ks I decided on my spring marathon, the Go! St. Louis Marathon in April 2010.
As the calendar turned to 2010, my training for St. Louis intensified. At the end of 2009, I spent 6 days in St. Louis at a missions conference and got an opportunity to see some of the race course and it got me going on getting ready for that run. While at the missions conference (Urbana 09) I also made a decision to run with a purpose other than just competing. I decided to run for a cause, the Hall Steps Foundation, an organization created by Ryan and Sara Hall. Go to their website to find out more. In preparing through a tough winter of training I hit my career high in mileage per week, just shy of 90 miles and had my highest mileage month ever (March - 319). In March, I ran a 10 mile race, the 100% Irish for a Day 10 Mile at Lake Harriet and Lake Calhoun. I placed 9th overall in a P.R. of 1:00:20. It was a great race and a big confidence booster.
My winter and early spring laid all the groundwork for the marathon in St. Louis, Missouri on Sunday, April 11, 2010, a race I felt truly ready for. The entire experience of the trip and the race was unforgettable. I flew to St. Louis on my own the day before and my fiancee and her mom joined me later that day in St. Louis. An exciting moment for me was getting my race number because I had qualified for the elite/competitive start field for this race and was assigned #10!! After the expo, we relaxed the rest of the day and I prepared for my race the next morning.
Race morning came and I was wide awake at 4am. I went through my usual race morning routine of a hot shower, dressing in my warm-up clothes and a breakfast of a bagel, yogurt, a banana and Gatorade. I left my hotel at 5:45am and walked to the start (only 4 blocks away). It was nerve racking walking to the start on my own, watching the St. Louis Fire Department raise a gigantic American flag over the starting area. It reminded me of the finish area at Twin Cities. I ran my warm-up run of about a mile around the starting line, waited in a couple long lines to go to the bathroom multiple times and finally stripped down to my uniform and stepped into our reserved starting area at the front. I was freaking out at this point on the inside, but managed to keep composed on the outside. Moments before the race, I knelt and said a prayer which helped me relax and focus on my reason for doing all of this. 2 minutes later, I crossed the starting line and my ninth career marathon was underway...
I went out slow as I had planned, or at least I thought it was slow. It turns out I ran my opening mile in 5:55, 40 seconds faster than I wanted to be, the adrenaline had gotten to me again. Two miles later, I had to go to the bathroom, something that has happened to me in every marathon I have run. Once out of the bathroom, I was more relaxed and began hitting my pace. Jen and her mom found me at mile 6 and they were a welcome site in a place where I felt a little bit alone. I was near the front of a marathon of over 2000 runners and the further along the course I went the fewer spectators and competitors there were.Unfortunate for me I was already feeling soreness in my legs by the halfway point. I went through 13.1 in 1:25:04, right where I had hoped to be, but my goal had been to run a negative split race, and that would be a great challenge. The course proved to be much hillier than I had anticipated and it took more out of me than I had planned on.
When I reached mile 17 I was all alone in the race and very few spectators were in sight. I was getting a bit down on myself. I began to pray and then to sing to God, and I continued to remind myself of what and who I was running for. About a mile later I was still singing, and almost instantly my legs began to loosen up and I was able to open up my stride again. This feeling stayed with me for about 3 more miles before general fatigue and minor leg cramping finally took over, but it gave me the knowledge that I was not alone in my race.
Over the final 5 miles I fought the notion of stopping to walk numerous times but I never did. This is only the third marathon I've done where I never walked. When I could finally see the American flag that had been at the start I knew I was almost done. Jen and her mom were just underneath the flag cheering me on like crazy! I was going to finally get a new P.R. and I pushed all the way to the finish line and crossed in 25th place in a new best time of 2:58:15. It hurt but the elation was like nothing else! Having a P.R. I had been trying to break for nearly 4 years was such a great confirmation that all of the hard work I had put in was worth it.
The biggest thing I took away from this race though, was that I know I can be a whole lot faster in the marathon than I have been to this point. It has awakened me to want to work significantly harder in my training than I have ever been before and I can't wait to get started in the next month!
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.
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.
Friday, July 31, 2009
A Workout to Remember
My workout last night was one for the ages, but not because of the workout itself. I drove out to River Falls, WI to run with my college teammates Kyle and Justin and a current UWRF runner, Scotty. We were going to go to the UWRF track to do a 5 mile tempo run at goal marathon pace. The track and football field was setup for the Kansas City Chiefs training camp as they hold their camp on the campus there every summer. Practice starts today so we showed up to get our workout in the night before the place turned into a zoo. As we got going on the workout we were hitting pace real well and everyone was feeling good until the 2nd mile.
During the 2nd mile, two people in red shirts came out to the track to tell us we had to leave the track. Needless to say, we weren't going to stop just because a couple guys told us to when they had no real authority. Both of them were working for the campus for the training camp, one of them was a former football player and "track athlete" for the university. We had only 20 minutes left at that point so we just kept going. The two guys continued to yell at us quite disrespectfully each time we went by, so I finally said, "If you want us to stop, then catch us!" Kyle and Justin also had their own things to say. Eventually, the former "athlete" got on the phone and 3.5 miles in the campus police arrived and our workout came to an end.
We could all tell right away the campus policeman thought it was ridiculous that he had to come out here to deal with something like this. We explained our story and that we were doing nothing wrong and that there were no signs telling us to stay off the track. He fully agreed with us and decided to talk to the head of the facilities, a former coach of ours no less, to let him know this call was ridiculous. We still left the track and ran over to the River Falls High School track to do 2 more miles at pace. On our way over, we spotted the two guys who had gone on a power trip, and needless to say when they saw us coming, they both went and hid inside the hockey arena!
We finished our workout at the high school track but we were all still fuming and had the adrenaline pumping even on our cool down run after the workout. Justin even ran 100 meters backwards during the final 2 miles of the tempo and kept his pace!
This report of the situation is much calmer than it would've been had I written this post last night. I felt it would be better to sleep on it before I posted. I don't normally badmouth people unless they really get me fired up but one thing that will always get me fired up is a complete disrespect for runners, especially by football players, and especially when we know we are doing nothing wrong. However, this workout/moment takes the cake for me.
During the 2nd mile, two people in red shirts came out to the track to tell us we had to leave the track. Needless to say, we weren't going to stop just because a couple guys told us to when they had no real authority. Both of them were working for the campus for the training camp, one of them was a former football player and "track athlete" for the university. We had only 20 minutes left at that point so we just kept going. The two guys continued to yell at us quite disrespectfully each time we went by, so I finally said, "If you want us to stop, then catch us!" Kyle and Justin also had their own things to say. Eventually, the former "athlete" got on the phone and 3.5 miles in the campus police arrived and our workout came to an end.
We could all tell right away the campus policeman thought it was ridiculous that he had to come out here to deal with something like this. We explained our story and that we were doing nothing wrong and that there were no signs telling us to stay off the track. He fully agreed with us and decided to talk to the head of the facilities, a former coach of ours no less, to let him know this call was ridiculous. We still left the track and ran over to the River Falls High School track to do 2 more miles at pace. On our way over, we spotted the two guys who had gone on a power trip, and needless to say when they saw us coming, they both went and hid inside the hockey arena!
We finished our workout at the high school track but we were all still fuming and had the adrenaline pumping even on our cool down run after the workout. Justin even ran 100 meters backwards during the final 2 miles of the tempo and kept his pace!
This report of the situation is much calmer than it would've been had I written this post last night. I felt it would be better to sleep on it before I posted. I don't normally badmouth people unless they really get me fired up but one thing that will always get me fired up is a complete disrespect for runners, especially by football players, and especially when we know we are doing nothing wrong. However, this workout/moment takes the cake for me.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Racing Update
In the last week I have run three short distance races, all with something good to take away from them. Last Saturday I ran at the first annual Jammin' Jamaican Run in Wells, MN. I ran both the 5K and the Mile race there, winning the mile and placing 4th in the 5K. It was a cross country style race, something I hadn't done in almost 3 years! It proved to be a great challenge for me but it was a lot of fun to try it again. The course proved to be fairly slow with a number of 180 degree turns and a few hay bails to hurdle so times certainly were not very fast. I ran an 18:57 in the 5K and 5:39 in the mile but running hard and competing in a different style for me was a very good experience. The best part for me was to be able to spend the weekend with a great friend and his family. It was great to get away from the routine of my summertime life in the Cities and to just forget about all the other things going on.
The week concluded with me running 75 miles, my highest of the TCM training so far. I'm planning to hold steady around 70-80 miles per week for the next couple weeks before ramping up to close to 90 miles per week. I've never done that before so we'll see what my body can handle.
The third race of this past week was on Wednesday night in downtown Minneapolis. It was the annual Torchlight 5K, run just prior to the Aquatennial Torchlight Parade down Hennepin Avenue. I've run this race 3 times before but not since 2004. When I finally arrived and parked, I barely had enough time to run to get my BIB and my shirt at the Basilica, get back to my car, change and get to the starting line. I got to the line a little frustrated because I didn't feel like I was able to warm-up the way I wanted to but I couldn't do anything about it. The horn blew and I took off flying off the starting line. There were thousands of people lining the streets cheering, and thousands of people running as well. I went out way too fast and I paid for it on the 3rd mile but ultimately it worked out. I ran a 17:41, my fastest 5K since my last college track 5K over 2 years ago. I felt the legs start to burn at the start of the final mile which told me I was definitely pushing the pace. I finished somewhere in the top 60 but since this was a fun run, no official times were kept and no places were recorded. I don't know exactly how many people ran but there was at least 4,000 to 5,000 in it if not more than that.
My next race now is a more serious race for me, a half-marathon in Mora, MN on August 15th. It will be my best test so far to see how my training is going for me. I'm looking forward to focusing on my training for the next 3 weeks without any racing interruptions though. The races are a lot of fun to do and good opportunities to test myself but they can sometimes throw off the training of a given week. I have some interval workouts coming up as well as some very good tempo workouts and of course some quality long runs. I'm doing a long 16-17 miler in Stillwater tomorrow morning with a friend of mine, Mike Reneau. It will be a good hilly long run which will also be a good workout for me, above and beyond just running the long distance.
The week concluded with me running 75 miles, my highest of the TCM training so far. I'm planning to hold steady around 70-80 miles per week for the next couple weeks before ramping up to close to 90 miles per week. I've never done that before so we'll see what my body can handle.
The third race of this past week was on Wednesday night in downtown Minneapolis. It was the annual Torchlight 5K, run just prior to the Aquatennial Torchlight Parade down Hennepin Avenue. I've run this race 3 times before but not since 2004. When I finally arrived and parked, I barely had enough time to run to get my BIB and my shirt at the Basilica, get back to my car, change and get to the starting line. I got to the line a little frustrated because I didn't feel like I was able to warm-up the way I wanted to but I couldn't do anything about it. The horn blew and I took off flying off the starting line. There were thousands of people lining the streets cheering, and thousands of people running as well. I went out way too fast and I paid for it on the 3rd mile but ultimately it worked out. I ran a 17:41, my fastest 5K since my last college track 5K over 2 years ago. I felt the legs start to burn at the start of the final mile which told me I was definitely pushing the pace. I finished somewhere in the top 60 but since this was a fun run, no official times were kept and no places were recorded. I don't know exactly how many people ran but there was at least 4,000 to 5,000 in it if not more than that.
My next race now is a more serious race for me, a half-marathon in Mora, MN on August 15th. It will be my best test so far to see how my training is going for me. I'm looking forward to focusing on my training for the next 3 weeks without any racing interruptions though. The races are a lot of fun to do and good opportunities to test myself but they can sometimes throw off the training of a given week. I have some interval workouts coming up as well as some very good tempo workouts and of course some quality long runs. I'm doing a long 16-17 miler in Stillwater tomorrow morning with a friend of mine, Mike Reneau. It will be a good hilly long run which will also be a good workout for me, above and beyond just running the long distance.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Great Week of Training
This week has certainly been my most productive training week of the summer so far. On Thursday I completed my first two-a-day of the summer. I plan for two to three of these a week as August hits. Thursday I ran an easy 4 miles in the morning with my WMHS runners and then headed out to River Falls to do some mile repeats with two college teammates in the evening. Kyle ran 8 miles and Justin and I did 5 miles each. We averaged around 2:30-2:45 recovery time in between each one. The wind on the track was unusually light which was great for running well on the track. I ran 5:51, 5:50, 5:48, 5:48, and 5:43 for my 5 miles. I ran the first 4, took the 5th mile off and ran the 6th one. After that I ran alternating laps to pace Kyle through his final 2 mile repeats. I ran the 400s in 79, 81 and 77 seconds respectively. Kyle ran his 7th and 8th miles in 5:24 each, giving Kyle a very good indication that he is running very strong right now.
All 3 of us that did the workout are preparing for the Twin Cities Marathon in the fall. Twin Cities will be Kyle's first career marathon, it will be my 8th marathon and 4th Twin Cities, and it will be Justin's 5th career marathon and 4th Twin Cities as well. Justin is also an ultramarathoner and will be running a 12 hour run in Milwaukee during Labor Day weekend.
This workout gave me a good indication of my fitness at this point in my training. I am already feeling good about it, especially with this workout being my first faster workout since my last marathon two months ago. I have run 56 miles so far this week with an 11-12 mile run planned for tomorrow. I ran 15 miles bright and early this morning along Summit Avenue in St. Paul. I pushed the pace in the middle 5 miles of the run from approximately the 21 mile mark to the finish line of the Twin Cities Marathon course. The long run felt great and the weather was phenomenal.
All 3 of us that did the workout are preparing for the Twin Cities Marathon in the fall. Twin Cities will be Kyle's first career marathon, it will be my 8th marathon and 4th Twin Cities, and it will be Justin's 5th career marathon and 4th Twin Cities as well. Justin is also an ultramarathoner and will be running a 12 hour run in Milwaukee during Labor Day weekend.
This workout gave me a good indication of my fitness at this point in my training. I am already feeling good about it, especially with this workout being my first faster workout since my last marathon two months ago. I have run 56 miles so far this week with an 11-12 mile run planned for tomorrow. I ran 15 miles bright and early this morning along Summit Avenue in St. Paul. I pushed the pace in the middle 5 miles of the run from approximately the 21 mile mark to the finish line of the Twin Cities Marathon course. The long run felt great and the weather was phenomenal.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Time for an update
It's been a little while since I last posted so I figured an update was overdue. I've been running pretty steadily over the last couple of weeks, getting in 60 and 64 miles over the last two weeks. I ran an 8K road race in Blaine, MN on the morning of the 4th of July to test out the strength and recovery of my left hamstring. I didn't push the pace, just ran a good effort to make sure my hamstring could go fast again before I ramped up my training for Twin Cities. The race went well and the hamstring felt good the whole way. I ended up running 30:39 for 8K and placed 5th overall. Not too bad considering I was not racing at all.
I am aiming for somewhere between 65 and 70 miles this week with today being an off day for me. I am doing a two-a-day tomorrow for the first time, running an easy 4-5 miles with my WMHS runners and then doing a hard workout with Justin and Kyle in River Falls, WI tomorrow night. It will be my first up-tempo/interval type workout of the summer (with the exception to Saturday's road race). I'm looking forward to doing a harder workout with some good training partners, something I don't always get in my neck of the woods.
My next race is on July 18th in Wells, MN. It is a cross country 5K and mile set of races raising money for a missions trip to Jamaica this winter. The race is being organized by my friend Justin. If you're looking for a fun race and a change of scenery in terms of getting off the roads and racing on some soft stuff, make the trip down to Wells. It should be a lot of fun! There is a link to race info on the right side of the page under 2009 Races, it's called the Jammin' Jamaican Run.
I hope the summer is going well for everyone's training. It will fly by quick and the fall will be upon us very soon!
I am aiming for somewhere between 65 and 70 miles this week with today being an off day for me. I am doing a two-a-day tomorrow for the first time, running an easy 4-5 miles with my WMHS runners and then doing a hard workout with Justin and Kyle in River Falls, WI tomorrow night. It will be my first up-tempo/interval type workout of the summer (with the exception to Saturday's road race). I'm looking forward to doing a harder workout with some good training partners, something I don't always get in my neck of the woods.
My next race is on July 18th in Wells, MN. It is a cross country 5K and mile set of races raising money for a missions trip to Jamaica this winter. The race is being organized by my friend Justin. If you're looking for a fun race and a change of scenery in terms of getting off the roads and racing on some soft stuff, make the trip down to Wells. It should be a lot of fun! There is a link to race info on the right side of the page under 2009 Races, it's called the Jammin' Jamaican Run.
I hope the summer is going well for everyone's training. It will fly by quick and the fall will be upon us very soon!
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