Awesome run this morning

I started out early this morning on a 16 mile run with two friends. We were going to run it Sat but moved it up a day. The plan was to run over to lake Harriet, run around the lake, and then back to the club. We got to the lake and my friends said they thought it was much farther around the lake that what I said. They changed the plan and we ran up and along the east side of Calhoun and then got on the Greenway. We ran east to the river parkway and then south and back to the club. We ran until we we crossed the Ford Bridge and then walked up the hill. The total running time was 2:47 and the mileage was 17.5. We got an extra-good workout because of the lack of traction in the snow. At one point in the run I commented on how stupid we were to embark on a 16 mile run with no water. Not too smart. We did stop at Dunn Brothers at the Lake St. Bridge for water at mile 15. I weighed myself at the club and found I lost about 5 lbs. Next time I need to carry water.
--Mark

11 1/2 weeks to Fargo

I ran 2x 20 minutes at tempo pace today. Since it wasn't horrible, I think my anaerobic threshold is getting pushed up a bit. I'm looking forward to running some of my spring races. I think I'll do well in the 8K Human Race in three weeks. I also recently signed up for the Trail Mix 4-person team race and the Ron Daws 25K.

Some of my upcoming workouts are:

Thursday - Yoga
Friday - 6 mile run
Saturday - 16 mile run
Monday - 40 minutes at tempo (7:18 pace)
Wednesday - Kickboxing
Thursday - Yoga
Saturday - 17 mile run

I've been healthy and hope to stay that way.
--Mark

Nice run yesterday and recovery today

I ran a 12 mile Mississippi river loop yesterday morning with friends. We averaged a strong 8:15 pace. This morning I wanted to do the same run by myself. My right hamstring was so tight that I just let my body do what it wanted to do. No forcing distance or pace. I cut it down to a 6.2 mile loop in 1:06 (10:38 pace). Much slower than I was planning but I didn't push anything and I feel really good right now.
--Mark

Broke through the Tempo 'Wall'

For the third Wednesday in a row I did a hard tempo run. I start with a 2 mile warmup at 8:34 pace and then I run 35 minutes at my Tempo pace of 7:19. I finish with around a 2 mile cooldown at 8:34. The first two times I did this workout I'd get about 22 minutes into the Tempo portion and just want it to end. I was hitting a mini-Wall. Today there was no 'Wall'. It was just a nice hard run. Maybe I was just having a great day. Maybe my anaerobic threshold got pushed up just enough to make the workout easier. Next week I'm doing Tempo for 40 minutes. I can't wait. :-)
--Mark

Yoga tomorrow

It's nice to look forward to something other than running. I did a 35 minute stretch on the treadmill this morning at tempo pace. I'm really, really, ready for Yoga tomorrow.

14 weeks to Fargo

I ran 42.8 miles this week. I'm trying to be a little more flexible with my workout schedules. My main goals are to do a nice long run weekly, do some longer tempo runs, some hill work, and core/strength and also now Yoga, too. I'm not going to get upset with myself if a planned workout that I wrote down doesn't get done exactly as planned.

I do have a 14 mile long run (outside) planned for Friday the 15th with friends. I hope it doesn't get canceled due to weather. If had been for today there is no way we would run it. It's -13F. Brrrr.

--Mark

a good few days

I ran 12 on Friday, 6.8 yesterday, and 3.5 today. The past two days I've added a little speed back in. I eased into running faster starting from marathon pace and working up to a 6:50-something pace. Not for too long, and not going directly from a moderate speed to a fast speed, has helped my feet feel good. Lately, that has been my issue... finding the edge between increasing stresses on my body to increase performance and being injury free.

I'm planning on running 6 miles tomorrow but the quantity of beverages I consume during "The Big Game" may change tomorrow into a rest day. I'll decide when I get up in the morning.

--Mark

a few days after the half....

I just want to record how I'm feeling after the race. My shins were sore Sunday and Monday and are feeling much better this morning. I took a day off from working out on Sunday. Monday, and this morning, I ran 3 miles at 6.2 mph (9:40 pace) on a treadmill. I'll continue running various distances at 9:00 or slower pace until at least one day after I don't notice any shin soreness. That will probably only be a few days from now.

My feet feel pretty good. I can tell that I had a problem with my right foot but there is no pain now. I'll still take it easy, meaning no fast intervals, for a few more weeks.

--Mark

Securian Frozen Half Marathon

I'll get right to it. I had two main goals for the race: 1) Practice running it like the first half of a marathon and 2) Get another TCM Wave 1 qualifier in.

I made a little card and kept it in my pocket where I had written the pace I wanted to run each mile. The race started and my goal for the first mile was 8:13. I ran 7:44. Ooops. With my heart rate monitor I got the lap time at every mile marker. Some of the markers were not exactly in the right place. I could tell because the pace was quite a bit off sometimes. I deleted the questionable mile markers off my heart rate monitor later when I looked at the data. The graph of my heart rate is here:



Here is the table of my planned paces and how I did.

Mile - planned pace > actual pace
1 - 8:13 > 7:44
2 - 8:13 > 7:57
3 - 8:08 > 7:59
4 - 8:04 > 7:53
5 - 7:54 > 7:53
6 - 7:49 > 7:52
7 - 7:45 > 7:52
8 - 7:45 > 7:37
9 - 7:40 > 7:38
10 - 7:40 > 7:37
11 - 7:40 > 7:43
12 - 7:40 > 7:43
13 - 7:40 > 7:15 (pace includes last 0.1 mile)
.1 - 0:47

It took a few miles to get settled into my plan. From the 5th through 12th miles I was really right on target. You can see that the 13th mile was way off plan. I knew by then (mile 12) my experiment was successful. Up ahead of me in the race was a large group that I was itching to pass. I hit my lap button and put it into high gear. There was little chance of me crashing and burning at that point. I passed a very large group and kept on going fast and continued my fast pace up the last hill. The final 100 meters I picked it up into a sprint and sniped a few more during that stretch. I was sure my gas tank wasn't even half empty at the end of this race. I'm feeling fairly confident about meeting my 3:27 goal at Fargo in May. I have 16 weeks to go.

My final time was 1:41:26 (according to the online results) so I made my Twin Cities Marathon Wave-1 qualifier! Woo-hoo!

Other notes:

The weather was perfect at around 20 degrees, overcast, and very light snow falling.

I met Julie B. and chatted with her before and after the race. I was happy to finally meet her.

My friend Dave was on the course cheering me on around mile 5. I learned that if you hear your name being shouted, someone may be shouting it at YOU. :-) I finally whipped my head around and gave him a wave. On my way back I ran over near him and he gave me a GU. That was nice! Thanks Dave!

Around mile 7 I heard someone yell "Mark". Since a few miles earlier I ignored my friend Dave, this time I decided to wave at the person and smile. Of course I didn't know her. I then asked the guy about 10 feet in front of me if his name was Mark. It was. He said we must be the Marks (Marx) brothers. :-)

Oh yeah. I forgot where I parked. What building did I park under? I didn't know. What parking ramp level? I didn't know. I wandered two ramps and various levels on both ramps with no luck. I finally decided to go out on the street, find where I drove in, and walk the same path I drove to park. That worked!

I hope to run this again next year.
--Mark

Mid-week update

My foot has still been bothering me. Sure, I ramped up my mileage at a reasonable rate over the last few months. I didn't do that with speed training. Ugh! Live and learn.

Monday I walked two miles on the treadmill. Later Monday afternoon and instructor friend of mine sent me an email. She was going to be a sub in Cycle 60 that night and also the 30-minute core class that followed. I went and did those awesome workouts. It was strange working out late at night since I almost always workout at 5:30 or 6 in the morning. Tuesday and today (Thursday) I ran 3 miles. Wednesday I did a Kickboxing class.

So my mileage this week is 6 so far. I think I'll run 3 tomorrow and then do the Winter Carnival half marathon on Saturday. If all continues to go well, I'll add a bit more mileage again next week.

Tonight I'm going to watch Spirit of the Marathon with my wife and some friends.

--Mark

17 weeks to Fargo

Last week I ran 41.5 miles. The highlight was on Saturday when I ran a practice simulation of the first part of the Fargo marathon on a treadmill. Two of us ran according to the same plan. He ran 15 miles and I ran 14. Each mile we would adjust our treadmill speed according to a chart I posted earlier. The run went great but what worried me is that my heart rate was higher than I would have liked during the later miles. I decided that on Saturday, when I run a half marathon race, I will attempt to run the same paces as I did on the treadmill. If that goes according to plan, I will be able to compare the two heart rate charts: indoors at 65+ degrees with proper hydration vs. outdoors at 10-15 degrees and under-hydration. I'm predicting that my heart rate will be lower in the race. My second goal would be to finish the half in just under 1:45 which will give me another wave 1 qualifier for the TC marathon in October.

Yesterday afternoon I had a sharp pain hit me in my right foot. In the top-mid-right area. There is some intermittent clicking there when I walk. It could be a side effect of running 14 miles on Saturday at a 7:59 average pace. I expect the 3x 3-minutes of 6:31's on Wed didn't help either. The pain comes and goes now (Monday morning) and I just walked for 2 miles at various inclines this morning to see if I could get things to click back into place. This same thing happens a few times a year and it always resolves itself in a few days.

Update: I did some searching on the internet during lunchtime today and I almost certain to have something called Cuboid syndrome. The is a cuboid bone in my foot that is slightly out of place and when it pops back all the pain will be gone. That's been my past experience and I think it will be better soon this time too.

I'm winging it this week for workouts. It all depends on when my foot gets back to normal. The only workout I'm doing for sure is the half on Saturday.

--Mark

Good news about my foot

I picked up a Strassburg Sock at Run N Fun yesterday to wear at night to help my plantar fasciitis problem. I wore it last night and there was no sign of it this morning. My running workout today was pain free too. I think I'll wear the sock for three weeks and also at the slightest sign of a problem in the future.

My hard interval workout was a good idea but I had to modify it greatly. Instead of 5x (4 min at 9.2mph then 3 min at 6.2mph) I changed it to 3x (3 min at 9.2 mph then 4 min of walk- or run at 6.2mph). My heart rate was at 169 and my AT is ~165. I think I was dealing with more of a mind issue than a physical one but at 3 minutes I just wanted to get out. I was able to do three cycles with good form and then decided that next week I'll do the same thing 4x. My total miles today was 5.0.

--Mark

Backing off the miles

The past few days I noticed that the back-bottom of my right foot hurts a little in the mornings. I felt it today when I ran a few miles. I'm pretty sure that I have plantar fasciitis. I have been following a running plan where my weekly miles are a percentage of what I expect my peak week will be. I'm working towards a peak of 60 but I'm changing it starting now to 48 miles. This week and next week I was planning to run 80% of peak. Instead of 48 miles, I'm dropping it down to 38 miles.

I'm revising the rest of the week to hit 38 miles. Instead of running 3 before weights, I'll walk. I'm cutting the number of cycles of Wednesday's workout from 6 to 5 and will walk to cool down. Friday I'll run less too. New remainder of week plan:

Everyday
Stretch calves/feet

Wednesday
6.6 miles
2 mile warmup +
5 x (4 min at 6:31 pace + 3 min at 9:41 pace)
6:31 = 9.2mph; 9:41 = 6.2mph

Thursday
strength training

Friday
6.4 miles

Saturday
12

Sunday
core or rest

18 Weeks to Fargo

I just finished a good week of workouts - 47.7 total miles. Saturday I ran 12 outside with a friend. It was a very early run and there was about an inch of fresh snow on the ground. We averaged an 8:06 pace on this excellent run. The Tues/Thurs strength training was hard on me and I was very tired at the end of the week. Starting this week Sundays may be a day off or just a short easy run and/or a core workout. No squats or lunges on Sunday. My legs need a break.

I'm going to try the core workout from the Feb 2008 Runner's World to see how that goes. I did the base workouts today. The Swiss Hip Extension workout is challenging and I'm looking forward to seeing how I improve over the weeks.

Plan for week starting Monday, January 14

Monday
10 miles

Tuesday
3 mile easy run +
strength training

Wednesday
9.5 miles
2 mile warmup +
6 x (4 min at 6:31 pace + 3 min at 9:41 pace) +
2 mile easy run
6:31 = 9.2mph; 9:41 = 6.2mph

I edited on 1/14 because I learned the 'quality portion' on Wednesday was to be 8% of my total week. I had added the recovery portion into the calculation previously. It just means 6x vs 4x previously. Ugh.

Thursday
3 mile easy run +
strength training

Friday
7.5 miles

Saturday
12

Sunday
3 miles plus core or rest

Planned total: 48 miles

Lofty goals or just plain crazy?

I'm sorting out what to do for major races the next few years. My final 2 year goal would be to finish a 50 mile race. I was going to write "run a 50 mile race" but I'd be lying. If the Superior 50 lands on September 12th in 2009 it will be just after I turn 50 -- what a perfect way to celebrate. Here are my preliminary plans:

2008
May - Fargo Marathon
July - Afton 50K Trail
August - Ragnar Relay - Great River
October - Twin Cities Marathon

2009
April - Marathon
July - Afton 50K Trail
August - Ragnar Relay - Great River
September - Superior Trail 50 mile

--Mark

Week 19 (to go)

That plantar faciitis that I thought I had wasn't. No sign of it this morning. I ran a nice 13.1 on the treadmill with a couple of friends so we had a chance to chat. It wasn't so boring that way.

Since I dropped the two fitness classes I had in my schedule, I'm going back to the Daniels' Running Formula book and will be trying Marathon Training Plan A. Next week is 19 weeks before race so using the book, I came up with the following based on a 60 mile peak week later on. I'll be at 43.1 miles this week after Sunday, so I'll be able to step up to 47 miles next week.

Week starting Monday, January 7
19 weeks to go

Monday
6 miles

Tuesday
3 mile warmup
strength training

Wednesday
10 miles

Thursday
3 mile warmup
strength training

Friday
10 miles

Saturday
12 miles

Sunday
3 mile warmup
strength training

Planned total: 47 miles

Week 18 (to go) I'll switch over to Daniels' Phase II of the plan and the workouts will become more complicated.

--Mark

update: I need to swap some of these days around to get my long runs on Saturdays.

plantar fasciitis?

I noticed just the slightest feeling of plantar fasciitis when I got out of bed this morning. I have not had PF for many years. A Step class I took (first time in months) on Tuesday may have been the cause. I'll have to pay close attention to my foot now and maybe add some stretches like I used to do. I've been noticing it a tiny bit during the day today too.

--Mark

Re-thinking my training

My mind is already past the Fargo marathon and I'm thinking of running (and walking) the Afton 50K. I know that Afton will be a bear. The 25K was not an easy run last year in the heat. So... I'm thinking of stepping my weekly mileage up from the upper 30's to 48 or so. I'll still keep one rest day but I'll make sure to have two strength days per week. I will also have some easy miles before and after my strength training. Over the next three weeks I'll be increasing my miles from the low 40's to the high 40's. My peak should be 56 on my week with a 22 mile LR. I'll also be dropping my hydro training class and kickboxing.

--Mark

Happy New Year 2008

I ran 10 early this morning on the treadmill. It was a good way to start the year.

Resolutions (more like goals):

1) Unclutter. The garage. The house. My stuff.
2) Eat better. Cut down on processed foods and foods with sugar.
3) Floss more. It's so easy to do so why can't I floss every day?

Running Races - I think I will be running the Afton 50K this year.

--Mark

Total mileage

I was surprised when I looked back through my workout logs and totaled my running miles. I had only just started running in late 2005 so there were not many miles then. 2006 I ran much more but that was still light on miles. I had some injuries in 2007 but was able to get quite a few miles in at the end of the year. I'm building base miles in preparation for a spring-2008 marathon.

My totals:
2007 - 920
2006 - 417
2005 - 88

Lifetime total - 1426

--Mark

Knee issue...

On Tuesday I ran 9 but later that day I could tell that I 'tweaked' my left knee. On Wednesday it was painful during some of the forward kicks during Kickboxing class. It took me awhile to figure it out..... There were several different workout 'factors' in the past few days. 1) ran with new and different shoes on Saturday. 2) ran with new shoes that I love on Sunday - these are the same model as my current shoes. 3) In hydro training class on Monday I wore old running shoes in the pool because I wore out cheap water shoes in just three classes. 4) ran outside for the first time in 3 weeks in partial snow/ice conditions.

I decided that what hurt my knee was wearing running shoes in the hydro training class. There was significantly more stresses put on my legs wearing running shoes vs water shoes do to the much larger surface area of the running shoes. The resistance was much greater than before and I could feel the added stress on my knees during class during some of the exercises.

Well.... I ran outside again yesterday and didn't notice my knee very much while running and it is feeling better every day. Today it was just fine for a 4 mile run. I'm recovering very quickly from this minor knee injury. Thank goodness!

--Mark

New shoes

I tried ASICS GT 2120's this morning. I picked them up yesterday because they were on sale and many people love ASICS. My experience with them was a blister on the end of my second toe and also the heels were a tiny bit too loose. It looks like I'll be sticking with Brooks Adrenaline GTS for awhile. I'll need about 3 new pairs to rotate through from now until the Fargo Marathon in May. After approx 400 miles, the Brooks loose too much cushioning and my feet start to hurt. I didn't like last years GTS 6's as much as the earlier 5's or my current 7's. I hope the 8's that come out next year are as good as the GTS 7's I'm running in now.

*** Afternoon update - I went to Run N Fun in St. Paul because the two general sporting goods stores near me didn't have my size in the Brooks shoes. I asked the guy at Run N Fun to let me try other shoes similar to the Brooks. I tried four other shoes as well as the Brooks. Only the Brooks fit like a glove. They are still perfect for me. I bought two pairs, one with yellow accents, the other with orange accents. My current ones are blue so I won't have any issues getting them mixed-up while rotating them. I'm happy for now and will get another two pairs in a few weeks and I'll be all set for many months.

--Mark

Still ramping-up mileage

I just finished a 34 mile week. I count Monday through Sunday. This next week I'm doing 36.3 and that's pretty much where I'll stay for the next month or two. 9.3 on Tuesday and Thursdays, 11.5 on Saturday, and 6.2 on Sunday. Two other cross-training days, and Friday is an off day. So far, so good as I have not been injured and this 10% ramp-up has gone very well.
--Mark

Marathon pace variation curve

I like the pace charts posted on the Twin Cities Marathon website. They show the mile-by-mile pace, starting and ending slow with a faster mid section. I created my own version of this in a spreadsheet based on my target 3:27:05 time. I will probably add an elapsed time column and print a wristband to use at Fargo. Here is my chart based on a 7:55 average pace:

Mile	Pace relative to ave.	Pace
1	104%	8:13
2	104%	8:13
3	103%	8:08
4	102%	8:04
5	100%	7:54
6	99%	7:49
7	98%	7:45
8	98%	7:45
9	97%	7:40
10	97%	7:40
11	97%	7:40
12	97%	7:40
13	97%	7:40
14	98%	7:45
15	98%	7:45
16	98%	7:45
17	98%	7:45
18	98%	7:45
19	98%	7:45
20	98%	7:45
21	99%	7:49
22	103%	8:08
23	103%	8:08
24	103%	8:08
25	106%	8:23
26	107%	8:27
26.2	100%	1:35
	total:	3:27:05

--Mark

Training Paces

I'll work with the training paces below for now. 1) Tempo, 2) the pace I may run during the long mid section of a marathon, 3) my target average marathon pace, and 4) my easy run pace. I selected the paces that were close to a treadmill setting. I may have to do some of my training inside during the winter. Through November, I'll be doing most of my running at the Easy pace.

	Pace	Treadmill
Tempo	7:19	8.2 mph
Marathon-mid	7:42	7.8
Marathon-ave	7:54	7.6
Easy	8:57	6.7

Marathon training / planning

I ran 24 miles two weeks ago, 26 miles last week, and I'm on-track for 29 this week. The only glitch so far is that I wanted to work in a hydro-training class for cross-training on Mondays. It figures that the pool was closed Monday when I arrived at the club. I left my non-pool workout clothes at home so I just took a shower and went to work. :-(

I've had pretty good luck with race estimation calculators. To get my best guess at a marathon time, I used three methods and used three different distances in the calculators and took averages. The average is 3:27:05 which gives me only 3 minutes and 54 seconds to spare if I'm going to qualify for Boston. I need to do some hard work now and have good luck on Marathon Day.

1) McMillian calculator
43:48 10K = 3:25:33
1:14:28 10M = 3:28:34
1:36:33 Half Marathon = 3:23:37
Average 3:25:55

2) Running Times
43:48 10K = 3:25:34
1:14:28 10M = 3:30:54
1:36:33 Half Marathon = 3:25:11
Average 3:27:13

3) Double and add 15
1:36:33 Half Marathon = 3:28:06

Average of above
McMillian = 3:25:55
Running Times = 3:27:13
Average and add 15 = 3:28:06

Average of averages is 3:27:05

first Marathon baby step

Twenty-nine weeks to go until Fargo. My first goal is to work up to 35-39 miles per week by the end of November. I'll end up with 24 miles this week and plan for 26 next week. So far so good. But yesterday it was 34 degrees for my 6am run. And this is Minnesota so there is a lot of colder weather ahead for me.

Basic plan of increasing mileage using the '10% rule':

Week starting	mileage
21-Oct	24
28-Oct	26
4-Nov	29
11-Nov	32
18-Nov	35
25-Nov	39

Fargo Marathon in 2008

It will be my first marathon! Training starts in a just a few months! Thinking about running my first marathon is exciting and scary at the same time.

--Mark

Back again (pun intended)

I hurt my back last Friday and the pain was gone for my race on Sunday. In kickboxing class Wednesday the pain came back. I left the class immediately and just walked for awhile. I suppose it will be a few weeks or so before I'm back to kickboxing. Running must not bother those particular back muscles because it was not an issue in the race and my back was fine afterwards too.

I have some exercises to do for my back and I'll be kicking again soon enough.

--Mark

Twin Cities 10-mile

TC-10

Humid and pretty hot today. Much hotter than the 10 mile trail race I ran 3 weeks ago. I learned what happens when you start out too fast.... You end too slow. :-(

The first 5 miles I averaged a 7:17 pace. I would be happy with that any day. The last 5 miles my average was 8:14. I think another primary factor in my slowdown was dehydration caused by the heat/humidity as well as my running hard. Dehydration increases heart rate and if I was trying to keep heart rate constant, the slowdown would be a natural side effect.

Almost a 1-1/2 years ago I had my anaerobic threshold tested at 160. I know it's higher than that now. I've been thinking that it's about 165. Then why in the world did I maintain the averages I did? The first 2 miles averaged 159 but you see my max in that segment was 170. It was already too late and there was not much chance of running at a lower rate now. I tried to keep my HR at 172/173 and held on for the ride. Unfortunately, the ride shifted into low gear at the half-way point. My form was good, I felt good, but I knew if I ran any faster my HR would shoot through the roof. Like it wasn't already.

Lap Ttl-Time Lap Time_ Max Avg Min Dst min/mile
1. 0:14:00.0 0:14:00.0 170 159 111 2.0 7:00
2. 0:21:15.6 0:07:15.6 175 171 167 1.0 7:15
3. 0:28:35.4 0:07:19.8 174 171 165 1.0 7:19
4. 0:36:23.3 0:07:47.9 175 172 169 1.0 7:48
5. 0:44:42.9 0:08:19.6 174 172 168 1.0 8:19
6. 0:53:14.1 0:08:31.2 176 173 168 1.0 8:31
7. 1:09:36.9 0:16:22.8 178 173 168 2.0 8:11
8. 1:17:33.1 0:07:56.2 180 175 173 1.0 7:56

I ended up finishing 374th out of 5080 which puts me in the top 8%. I can't complain about that.

TC Marathon

After my race I showered at the club and went back to watch the marathon runners. I parked and walked about 2 miles to my friends house. I figured the walking would be good for me. I think it was. I watched the marathon for about 45 minutes. At this point I'm seeing the 4+ hour runners at around the 24 mile mark. Many were doing well. Many more were not. As I was walking back to my car, a runner came off the road, sat down, and fell over. Three other runners and myself came to his aid, as well as several nearby volunteers. I'm glad the guy lived because I thought he was going to die right there. He was non-responsive to verbal questions and he could barely see. He started to come around with some water, sports drink, GU, and salt. One of the runners who stopped was a nursing student. The positive was that three runners stopped to help. The negative was that the volunteers didn't have the proper phone number list immediately available. The ambulance came and provided additional assistance. He was talking and thanked us all for helping. I wasn't able to help much but at least I knew to check the back of the guy's number tag for emergency contact and medical info.

--Mark

Pain in the back

I'm running the Twin Cities 10 mile race tomorrow. Doesn't it figure that yesterday afternoon I had a shooting pain appear in my lower back? It's not gone yet. :-( It won't be gone tomorrow. I've had a lower back spasm happen a few years ago. That time it took about 3 weeks to get better. What I have now is nowhere near that bad. I'll be able to run tomorrow but with the relatively high humidity and temperatures in the forecast, along with my new back pain, I won't be making my stretch-goal of running 7:10s.

--Mark

W.H.O.Rs in the night...

The middle of the night is when we passed the Women High on Running (W.H.O.Rs) in the 208.2 mile Great River Relay race held in August. The Great River Relay is from La Crosse, WI, up the east side of the Mississippi/St. Croix rivers to Stillwater, MN, and then to Minneapolis. The W.H.O.Rs have a great video of their race experience. I hope to meet Jen next year. I chased her up a HUGE hill in the middle of the night and couldn't catch her. Maybe next year I can.

--Mark

Recovering after racing

I've read that recovery takes a day per mile. I was searching on the internet for info about recovering and found an article that states recovery takes 4 to 6 days per hour. Using 5 days per hour for me seems about right after reading the article.

My example is my Afton 25K race on July 7th. On the 19th I posted that I was recovered from the race. That is 12 days later. Taking my race time of 2.33 hours multiplied by 5 rounds up to 12 days. It's right on.

Here is a like to the article: Recovery after Racing by Gale Bernhardt
--Mark

Harmon Farms 10 miler

I ran the first annual Harmon Farms 10 miler trail race in Inver Grove Heights, MN on Sunday, September 16th. The race is held in Salem Hills Park on mountain bike trails. Being a first year race, there were 100 or so registered to run. In the end, 89 finished.

The race director asked people to line up according to their speed. I wanted to be near the front but there was only one lone guy at the front of the pack. Just before the start, several others joined him. I felt better, because by the looks of the crowd, I was not going to finish in 2nd place. At the starting horn we were off. I think there were 6 guys in front of me as we took off. The first .75 miles was in open parkland and paved walking trails. Then we entered the park mountain bike trails for most of the rest of the race and the finish was the reverse of the start with .75 miles of open park / paved trails again.

The morning was cool in the low 50's and there was a slight breeze. Pretty nice weather for a race but I had been freezing my butt off before the start in my sleeveless shirt and light, long-distance running shorts. I knew I would warm up soon enough. At mile 1 I hit the split on my watch and noted a 7:16. Pretty fast for the terrain. Mile markers were not placed at every mile so I couldn't keep track of my pace very well. I was running by my heart rate and knew I was testing my threshold for a 10-mile race.

For the first 5 miles there was a 17 year old running right behind me. Nobody could run side-by-side as it was all single-track bike trails. I chatted a bit with the young guy and he knew he was first in his age category. I didn't know if I was or not. I'm in the 40-49 age group and was hoping not many of those in front were in the 40's. There was a guy about 100 feet behind me most of the race. I thought he just might be in the 40's so there was no way he was passing me. You see, they were giving out awards for the top three in each age/sex category. After mile 5 there were 10 runners in front of me including the 17 year old that passed me because I took more time at the water stop to have a little GU and water.

Near the end of the race I caught up to the 17 year old and the guy tailing me was still right behind me. I increased my pace so he couldn't catch me and I stayed right with the young guy to the finish. My finishing time as a new 10-mile PR for me at 1:14:28 for a 7:27 pace. I was 11th out of 89 finishers. The results got posted and I was 4th in my age group. Ugh. But wait... They had an award for the first male/female finishers from Inver Grove Heights (I was not) and he was from my age group. They didn't give double awards so they moved me up and gave me the third age-group award. Yes! I'll take the $20 certificate to one of my favorite running stores! It almost paid for the entry fee!

It was a great race for me and I'll do it again next year.
--Mark

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