Race Day Preparations

Today is race day.

For any runner, new or experienced, young or old, fast or slow, race day is a special day. It doesn't matter what kind of race it is, how serious a runner is approaching the race, what the goal may be, a race day is special.

For me, today is no different. For as odd of a race as tonight's may be, it is still a race day and I am excited for the race tonight. Tonight I will be competing in the Treadmill 1 Mile World Championships at Gear West Ski & Run in Long Lake, MN. It is my first ever treadmill race so it will be interesting to say the least. I'm not a big fan of running on treadmills but I'm excited to race and try to go fast.

I thought I would share some of what I like to do on the day of a race to prepare myself for the event, regardless of how big or small the race may be. Most of my races take place on the weekends in the morning hours so typically I wake up fairly early. Usually I have a hard time sleeping the night before just because my mind is wandering as I think about the race. The first thing I do when I get up is take a nice hot shower, not to get clean (although I do) but to warm my muscles up right away. The hot water wakes all my muscle fibers up and gets them alert for what is about to happen. Next, I eat my usual breakfast of oatmeal and yogurt. I'll have water and a little bit of Gatorade to drink.

At this point, I'll make sure my bag is packed for the race and I'll head out to the car to drive to the race. While driving, I listen to very specific music, mostly Christian rock, stuff that gets me pumped up and focused for the race. Listening to bands like Switchfoot, Hawk Nelson, Anthem Lights, and some worship music gets me thinking about why I run (see the "Running for Joy" post) and how I can honor God with what I do.

When I arrive at the race event, I get my race number, shirt, etc. from the volunteers, return to my car to put my number on my jersey and then with about 45 minutes until the race I get out for a 2-3 mile warm-up run. From this point on, I prefer to be mostly on my own (if I'm not already) unless I'm competing with a team, just so I can be mentally preparing for the race ahead.

Each race is different so it's never quite the same routine. Today is very different as the race isn't until almost 6:00pm tonight. I worked all day today and won't be going home before the race. My eating patterns will be different, so today should be interesting.

Runners, as most athletes are, are creatures of habit. We like consistency. Today will be one of those odd race days for me. A few years ago, this would have scared me with the day being so different. Today, I embrace it.

However, there is one race day routine that I don't ever intend to change and it is reading one of my favorite lines of scripture prior to each race. It gets me in the right mindset entering the race. Here it is:

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up. After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin."

- Hebrews 12:1-4

It gives great symbolism of a race and also provides a glimpse into the hope that Jesus gives each of us who put our trust in Him.

I will post this weekend at some point with results of the race tonight!

An Eventful Week

It's been a week that's been anything but dull for me, both in life and in running.

I had a great workout at the CMS dome on Friday afternoon, running 16x400m in an average of 76 seconds. I ended the workout with a pair of 74s, my best set of 400s so far this winter.

Saturday is where things got interesting. I was going out to Watertown to run with some friends that I hadn't run with in quite a while. I was meeting them at 7:00am but I never made it there...my car broke down on County Road 6 on my way there. Janikula had to come pick me up and we had to call a tow truck. Long story short, I never returned home until 11:00am while waiting for the tow truck, contacting insurance, etc. Also, we never got to run! By this point in the day I was so worn down that I just didn't have the energy to complete it.

Sunday went a lot better, simply because I did actually get to run. I went 14 miles with Brett and Kraig out at the lakes in Minneapolis. It was a pretty relaxed pace (about 7:30 per mile) but the distance run was good. The first half of the run was into a very strong headwind. On the way back it felt really easy and it ended up being a solid workout.

Monday was relatively uneventful other than the fact the extent of my run was to go to the auto repair shop to check on my car. We found out it was the timing belt and water pump that went out. Fortunately, they got it done right away that day. Unfortunately, it cost almost $500 to get fixed! However, it got fixed so no more worries about my car.

Tuesday I was having some issues with my left hip so I took the day to ride the stationary bike instead of run. The weather was already getting a little nasty out so I wasn't entirely disappointed by it. The positive that came out of Tuesday was that Jen and I met with our realtor for the first time and the official house search for us has begun! We're looking for homes in the Plymouth/Maple Grove area and we've got a great realtor helping us out. We're hoping to be in our first home by the early part of this summer. It still seems a long way off but we both know it's going to come fast.

Finally, that brings us to today. I think everyone in Minnesota has a story to share about their day today. Mine began with Jen getting a phone call at 5:15am alerting her to Buffalo having a snow day. I eventually got my phone call alerting me to Wayzata's snow day, but it never came until I was over halfway to school in my car. I turned around, went to Caribou and returned home to enjoy my first snow day since I was teaching in Watertown. It led to a run in the snow later this morning (nearly an hour of running). I ran some up tempo segments during my workout to break up the monotony of a run through untouched snow. I don't think my heartrate was ever below 160 from the moment I started but I really enjoyed the run. The hip didn't bother me at all which was good.

What's to come next? Well, tomorrow is a long day with parent-teacher conferences until 8:30 in the evening and then Friday is the Treadmill 1 Mile World Championships at Gear West. I will be competing around 5:45pm Friday night and I'm looking forward to what should be a very fun and unique event! Come check it out at Gear West Friday and Saturday if you're in the area!

Running for Joy

As I stand in the hallway of Wayzata High School at the end of another school week, I've been pondering the thoughts of why I do what I do (not just running, but my job, lifestyle, etc.). There's a long story of why I've been pondering all of that but I won't get into that right now. When it comes to my running, I feel very comfortable in knowing why I run and what I am running for, and I felt like I should share that with all of you.

I began running simply to keep in shape for high school basketball but quickly discovered I was very good at the sport. Eventually, running became my main sport and I continued it into college. When injuries and struggles came about, I really began to question my motivations for running. Was it simply to stay in shape, was it to be competitive, was it for notoriety? I was very unsure and for much of college I struggled with my running successes. Near the end of college, I became a Christian and began learning a ton about my faith and my purpose in this world. For me, everything I learned made sense when it came to my job, my relationships and just about everything else. I still was unsure when it came to running though.

I always found a sense of calmness when I ran and a great feeling of joy from the sport. Not too long after I graduated from college, I came to a verse from 1 Corinthians that really stuck with me, and still does to this day. It read:

"Glorify God in your body and in your mind, which are God's." - 1 Corinthians 6:20

As I learned more about the context of this verse, it was focusing in on telling the readers about purity with their body and their minds, but at the same time, it also means to take care of your body and your mind because ultimately, they were created by and belong to God. This was powerful stuff! Because my body belonged to the God who created me, I needed to take care of what was His. This opened my eyes to what my purpose in running was and really began to shape what I thought about when I ran. I now had a new found motivation to run...it was a way of honoring and worshiping God that I truly loved and enjoyed!

The title of this blog is "Running for Joy." The title is not of my own creation. Ryan Hall, a top American marathoner, gave me the idea for the title from his book with the same name. He was going through a similar struggle in preparing for his training leading up to the 2010 Boston Marathon. The book was his training journal throughout his preparation and he spoke of his struggles and successes with training, racing, and honoring God through running. Hall wanted every run and every race to be a form of worship to God, who made him and gave him the ability and joy to run.

This is very much how I now feel today. I spend time before each race briefly praying that it would be a way to honor God, the one who gave me the joy and ability to run in the first place. Without Him, I wouldn't be able to run and I honor God with every step I take.

Finding joy in that, there is no better feeling.

Up & Down Couple of Days

The last few days of running have been a little inconsistent for me. The positive from everything is over the last 7 days, I ran a total of 70 miles, the first time I've done that since my training for the Boston Marathon nearly a year ago! The drawback is yesterday's workout became some pretty ugly miles. My original workout plan was to do a Fartlek/Tempo workout of 10x3 minutes at 10K pace with 90 seconds of jog recovery in between each. When I began the workout, I was feeling pretty good, but 3 intervals into the workout my stomach starting feeling a little uneasy. Uneasy very quickly turned into being virtually unable to run without pain. The worst part was that at this point I was at my farthest point away from where I had started from (the high school). I eventually found a bathroom, cleared some things out and felt moderately better. I scrapped the workout by that point and just got myself back to my car in the parking lot so I could go home. I have not figured out what triggered that because my eating patterns were identical to what they have been the entire school year. Hopefully it doesn't happen today.

On the up-side of things, I had great workouts the few days prior to that. I ran 14.5 miles on Sunday morning with Brett from the racing team with about 3 miles up-tempo during the second half of the run. We averaged 7:18 pace with the up-tempo portion averaging around 6:15-6:20 pace per mile.

Monday, I ran a solid 10 miles on my own around Plymouth and just felt really good the whole way. I got the run in before the snow came, which was also a positive.

On Tuesday, I ran about 6 miles with a college teammate of mine, Jason Phillippi, who also runs for the Gear West team and teaches at Rockford. We did a loop from my place that took us along a number of paths in Plymouth that normally are not plowed the day after a snowfall, but this time, they were! Needless to say, that made the run go much more smoothly.

In the next week to come, I will be getting in another good long run as well as a session of 400m intervals, leading up to the Treadmill 1 Mile World Championships, being held at Gear West from Friday, March 2nd to Sunday, March 4th. I have absolutely no idea what to expect from this race, especially since I haven't been on a treadmill much this year, but we'll see what happens!

Getting Back at It

It's been almost 2 years since I posted to this blog and fortunately, Blogger hasn't cancelled my account for inactivity. With so many other friends getting on the blog/training blog bandwagon, I couldn't resist getting back into it. A lot has happened in the nearly 2 years I've been away from this thing (I won't get into all of that now, but it'll all come as I post). The major things is I have a "new" teaching and coaching job at Wayzata High School in Plymouth, MN and that I have now been married for 1 and a half years (perhaps you can understand why I've been away from this so long...I've been busy!).

Anyway, my goal in returning to this is to keep you all up-to-date on my training, coaching, and life in general. My goals this year, 2012, are centered around preparation for my 13th career marathon, which will be the Bank of America Chicago Marathon on Sunday, October 7th. It will be my first attempt at Chicago and my first marathon since the 2011 B.A.A. Boston Marathon (an 18 month layoff between marathons). In leading up to that race (still 6 months away), I will be running a handful of races that I will post about and I will also post about my training as I prepare for each race. I will also keep you informed about the Gear West Racing Team, the team I compete for and oversee during the racing season.

I look forward to getting back into blogging and going back and forth with many of you about workouts, running, and life in general!

What Inspires You?

With this blog I have always talked a lot about what is going on with my running, racing and a little about life in general. I have many times mentioned some of the things that get me excited about running, what motivates me to keep going and what inspires me in life. As I begin to shift some of the focus of this blog, I am going to occasionally post a question looking to find out more about who reads and follows me on my blog.

My 1st question is: WHAT INSPIRES YOU?

It could be about the things that inspire you to run, or it could be the things or people that inspire you to get through each day of life.

Here are a few things that inspire me.

I am inspired daily by the students that I get to work with in my classroom and out on the track. They keep me feeling energized and upbeat even when I often don't feel that way when I show up to start my day. I am inspired every time I go to watch a marathon. When I see so many people pushing themselves beyond what they thought they could have done and getting excited about doing something most people would never dream of doing, I get inspired to continue training for marathons myself. But the thing that inspires me most is the relationship I have with my family and with God. They mean everything to me. They encourage me and keep me positive when so many others wouldn't do that for me.

There are countless other things that keep me going, but what about you??

WHAT INSPIRES YOU?

Lake Minnetonka Half-Marathon

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.