Only 275,000 footsteps to go

I ran the Great River Ragnar Relay on August 24th and 25th with 10 other team members. Our team name is "Only 275,000 footsteps to go". That's about how many I figured it would take. The race was originally planned for 198 miles this year from LaCrosse, WI up to Stillwater and then to Minneapolis. With the 35W bridge collapse and then some police lines from a chase/shooting Friday night, sections were re-routed and the new mileage was 208.2.

We had 12 team members. Six in each of two vans. How it works is that starting in LaCrosse, each of the six in Van 1 runs their legs. Then Van 2's runners run. It switches back to Van 1 then Van 2 for two more times. Each runner has to run three legs in the race from 3 to 8 miles each. I ran 7.4 at 11am then 8.2 at 10:30?pm then 7.1 at 6:30am. My total was 22.7.

Oh... At the beginning I said 10 other team members. Van 1 was planning to leave for LaCrosse at 6am Friday. Well, at 3:58am one of the team members called and cancelled due to a leaky water softner in his house. Three others on the team had to run his legs in addition to their own. We sure didn't plan on that.

Most on our team have said this has been the best running experience of their lives. I think that says alot. Our finishing time was 28 hours, 40 minutes, and 31 seconds which is an 8:16 average pace. We finished in 17th place overall out of the 99 teams that finished. We can't wait until next year.

My average pace was a 7:57. I can't complain about that.

--Mark

Urban Wildland half-marathon

Saturday, August 4th was the Urban Wildland half marathon.

I decided to run the first mile at 8:45 and then every mile speedup by 5 seconds. Well, water stops and slow runners put a little kink in the plan but I didn't care. And in the race I saw a woman cheering people on that I used to work with 20+ years ago. I stopped to chat for 20 or 30 seconds. It made the race FUN. It was AWESOME trying to keep to my plan of running negative splits every mile. Every mile didn't work out exactly like I planned but I ended up at 1:49:05 instead of around 1:48. My first mile was around 10:20 due to me starting way back in line and being in the traffic jam of people. One woman fell when she stepped in a hole in the grass in the first 0.25 miles. It looked like a very, very, bad spain or maybe worse. Around mile 4 I kind of got back on my pace plan. It was great just passing people on and on as each mile I ran slightly faster while others were slowing down. I would do this again when I'm not going for a PR.

Here are my paces:

mile	Planned pace	Actual pace	Fast or slow?	Ave HR for segment
1	8:45	10:17	1:32 slow	130
2	8:40	8:06	0:34 fast	141
3	8:35	9:14	0:39 slow	138
4	8:30	8:46	0:16 slow	147
5	8:25	8:14	0:11 fast	152
6	8:20	8:18	0:02 fast	152
7	8:15	8:20	0:05 slow	155
8	8:10	7:51	0:19 fast	160
9	8:05	8:27	0:22 slow	156
10	8:00	7:28	0:32 fast	167
11	7:55	8:07	0:12 slow	162
12	7:50	7:39	0:11 fast	171
13	7:45	7:28	0:16 fast	175
13.1	0:47	0:45	0:02 fast	176

My next race is the Great River Relay on August 24th and 25th. Twelve-person teams run 198 miles from LaCrosse, to Stillwater to Minneapolis. Each person runs 3 legs of 3 to 8 miles each. Mine are 6.1, 7.6, and 6.1 miles for a total of 17.6 miles. I wonder how the 7.6 mile leg that I will be running at 2am will go?

--Mark

Recovered from Afton

A few weeks before Afton, I strained a hamstring during a fitness class. Of course, I kept running on it and each day it was a little better than the day before. Going into Afton I felt it was at 95%. That wasn't enough and I was hurting bad after the race. So... I quit running completely to let the damage heal. I've been doing some aerobic exercise - spinning, swimming, kickboxing and also some moderate strength training. I've also spent some time walking on a treadmill with short bursts of moderate speed running sprinkled in. Right now, I feel about as close to 100% as I can get. Next Tuesday I plan to start running again outside. I can't wait but I feel it's better to do just a bit more cross-training before getting into running mode again. Next race: Urban Wildland Half Marathon on August 4th in Richfield, MN.

--Mark

Afton 25K 2007

I've been wondering when a race would break me. It happened at the Afton 25K trail run on July 7, 2007. I ran with my friend Christine on that very hot and humid day. Christine and I stayed together for 13.5 miles. It was awesome to run with someone the same speed as I am. I think we both pulled and pushed each other to run faster than we would alone. After mile 13.5 Christine pulled ahead, or more likely I fell behind. I finished with an excellent time of 2:19:56.

This is the first time I took GU in a race. I tried it a few times during practice runs at Afton. There are 5 water stops in the 25K. I decided to just drink water at the first stop and all later stops I was going to take half a GU packet along with water. I had been reading that a half packet along with a typical drink of water during a race gives the correct ratio of GU/Water. Right or wrong? I don't know. That combination worked for me.

That run wore me out. I tried running with a friend two days after the race and had to quit after 0.25 miles. I was just too sore. I feel much better tonight, and will take a kickboxing class in the morning, the 4th day after the race. Although we have a family vacation planned for next year this time, I look forward to another Afton 25K in two years.

I record my heart rate during exercising. An anotated chart of my run is shown below. I'm not exactly sure where my anaerobic threshold is now. A year or so ago I had it measured at 160 on a treadmill.


--Mark