Hmmmmmm.............

            For the 2^nd time in my life, I really have been contemplating giving up running competitively. In my last training stint, I was attempting to get in shape for Grandma’s marathon and decided to run a couple of 20 milers at a pretty decent effort. Unfortunately, shortly after these runs, I began feeling symptoms that were identical to the symptoms that I experienced during my first sacral stress fracture. I entered the Human Race 8k (St. Patty’s Day weekend) at the climax of the injury and I raced about ½ mile and then slowly transitioned into jogging Sunday long run pace over the next couple miles. I took almost a week off running and then I tried to back off running a little bit hoping my hip would feel better. Unfortunately, I had no such luck. At this point, quitting competitive running really began entering my mind. I just have not been able to put together any amount of sustained training over the last 2 years which has been a very frustrating process for me. I’ve now taken quite a bit of down time (I honestly am not sure how much). In my down time, I’ve picked up playing broomball which really exposed a lot of my muscle imbalances which were even worse than I thought. Most notably, I’ve experienced “tightness” in my groin for over 2 years now. I believe that tightness is slowly going away. Additionally, I now have been continually experiencing issues with my right hamstring. Both of these right leg issues have probably heavily contributed to my sacral fractures over the last two years. That pretty much takes to me today.

            I started running again this past Thursday and have now run 5, 6, and 10 miles over the past 3 days. I am probably in the worst shape that I’ve been in over the past 4 years so it should be interesting to see how long it takes to regain my physical fitness. At this point, I have absolutely no plans for up and coming races. In college, I was always training to get ready for a race. Over the past 2 years, I have been doing the same thing. Right now, I’m planning on going back to what lead to me “breaking through” in the running scene (breaking through is of course relative). When I plan on entering a race, I really feel pressure to run fast so I’m not planning on entering any races until my training indicates that I’m ready to. I have absolutely no idea when this will be. I feel like a little bit of a toolbox joining the Run N Fun team and literally sucking for the past year. I would love to go out and start racing fast for the team, but in the end, being a little selfish right now will probably pay dividends in the end. I still plan on playing a fairly decent amount of broomball which may lead to some short term setbacks, but should provide a great alternative exercise to discover muscle imbalances and help resolve them as well. Because I am currently having hamstring issues, I am trying to avoid running with people until this is resolved. depending upon how my leg feels, you may see me out running anywhere between 5:50-7:30 pace so I’d just rather run myself and by feel at the moment. In the back of my mind, I’d like to run a marathon next spring or in the fall of 2013, but it’s more important to get back running healthy. I’m sure I’ll hop in a couple races this fall, but the magnitude of these races has yet to be determined. I suspect it will be a fairly low key fall for me, but time will tell.

Training update, Perspective, and Races Approaching

As a refresher, all of my training for this season is focused on running well at Grandma’s half marathon in June. At this point, I’m solely trying to build base, strength, and get down to a better running weight. The diet has been a little more relaxed lately, but I’ve been pretty good about staying away from “less healthy” food (aside from occasionally enjoying a couple beers). For once, my training has been consistent and I’m beginning to see some benefits. I’ve really tried to avoid “fitness gauging” workouts and quite honestly have not run too many workouts. Over the last couple weeks I’ve run the Franklin Bridge hill workout. Each repeat is ~0.4 miles and I’ve run workouts with 7 and 8 repeats which were plenty to stimulate a breakdown in my muscle fibers and induce a need for recovery runs. I actually ran this workout in consecutive weeks and each repeat was ~4-5 seconds faster the second go around. I’m sure a lot of this had to do with confidence, but I am feeling stronger on my runs, and it’s always nice to see the times heading in the right direction.

            In the after life of club nationals, I really have deemphasized my long run efforts. This was actually really difficult for me to do. Quite honestly, hard long runs are a stimulus that I’m addicted to. I can’t explain why, but I just enjoy lack of consciousness that comes over the last 5 miles of a hard long run. However, over the last couple months, I simply took the hard long runs out of my training regime because I was feeling injured after every single effort. Instead, 14-16 mile easy efforts were becoming a Sunday ritual. Two weeks ago I decided that my training had reached a reasonable level of consistency and that I was ready to move the long run up to 18 miles. Early into the run, I decided that I was only up for an easy effort. I honestly don’t recall what I averaged (maybe 6:15-6:40ish???), but I bonked hard over the last 4 miles. The only explanation was that I hadn’t been running long and my recent streak of consistent training has left me a bit fatigued and depleted. Going into this past Sunday’s run, I wanted to put forth an honest, fast pace and struggle to make it through 20 miles. The route I chose put the wind at my back for the first mile with a net downhill. I didn’t look at my watch at all….it clicked, I looked down, and it read 5:30. I was pretty sure that my watch wasn’t working, but the second mile turned me into the wind, and I ran a 5:28. At this point in the run, I was clearly running an effort that I wasn’t going to quite be able to hold for 20 miles, but I wasn’t worried about running an even paced run. Instead, I was trying to make my body respond to distress in the second half of the run. In the 8^th mile of the run, I ran around Lake Calhoun into a fairly stiff wind and overexerted myself to run a 5:35. This put my 8 mile split at 43:57 (5:30 pace), and it put my body in a position where I needed to back down. I backed the pace off and averaged somewhere in the mid to upper 5:40’s for the next 8-9 miles and really struggled to get home the last 3. I think my last 3 miles were 6:05, 5:45, 6:08. It ended up being a 20 mile run in 1:53:55. Going into the run, I was expecting to maybe run in the 1:59’s to achieve what I wanted for the day so I was pleasantly surprised to run 5-6 minutes faster than expected to achieve what I wanted for the day. It definitely gives me confidence moving forward and leaves me a little more optimistic that I’ll be in half marathon PR shape by the time mid June comes along.

            In the short-term, my first spring race is shaping up to be the Human Race 8k in about 3 weeks which will be followed by the Shamrock Shuffle 8k in 4 weeks. I’m not sure how sharp I will be, but I’m definitely NOT running the races as workouts. In my build-up, I’ve decided to have 8-9 consecutive “up weeks” with running fewer than normal workouts which has left me with tired legs, but I’m going to run a mini taper that focuses on freshening up for the Shamrock Shuffle. While I don’t guarantee that I’ll be running fast or impressing anyone, I’m definitely planning on finding out what kind of shape I’m in at the moment. While I’m not in the best shape of my life, my 8k PR isn’t my best PR and I’m hoping to take a shot at it. However, most importantly, I’m just excited to get back out and race.

            As talk of racing comes up, the topics of workouts and training plans are common themes. In the workouts that I have run, I’ve dialed back the duration and intensity some. Every runner’s mentality is very different, but my biggest weakness as a runner is to run too hard too often. When I’m on a training schedule, easy fartlecks quickly turn into efforts that are harder than my track workouts with planned rest. Unfortunately, rest and recovery is the most overlooked component to a training segment. While I don’t consciously do this, I can not put together a workout schedule because at some point, I always try to beat the schedule. I suspect that a lot of runners have this problem, but I am always trying to do more than I thought would be possible. I’m pretty sure that I do it for the runner’s high afterwards, but the moral of the story is I can’t train to a schedule. I need to know what I’m building towards, bur I honestly think I need to plan my workouts week by week, and adjust them depending upon how my body responds. This probably gives the impression that I’m unfocused or maybe I’m not doing everything I could be to get better, but the reality of the situation is I’m probably a “little” too obsessive compulsive about training details. I’m sure those who know me strongly disagree with that statement, but yes, I might over analyze training a little bit at times. While planning weeks or months of training is definitely is an effective method for some, it’s definitely not for me. To summarize how planned training goes for me, I am always running a little faster early on, but I’m always barely holding on, missing workouts, or not hitting my times by the end. It’s quite easy to spiral into a negative mentality without even knowing it. Without the structure a flawless training schedule, I’m finding that letdowns on bad workouts has lessened while great workouts still yield the same runner’s high. For the time being, I’m just enjoying running healthy and really looking forward to the up and coming racing season. While I’m aware of the details that are required to run well, I’ve made a conscious effort to not be aware of them, but not obsess over them.

Training Update and Gary Bjorklund Half Marathon

            This morning I met up with a group of runners from the Run N Fun/Twin Cities Track Club and this allowed to do two things: (1) Hit 80 miles for the week; and (2) Hit my longest streak of consecutive days running since my last sacral stress fracture that I suffered this past summer. ……..18 days in a row (Previous best streak was 17 days). While I’m not afraid to take a day off if I need to, I generally take a day off of running every 1-3 months so this past stint of training has not been characteristic of my training habits. While I could go off in a tangent about how the last year of running has not been “ideal” for me, it has been a learning experience that should set up well for the next 4 years of training.

            Operation find my lower abs is currently in affect. While I was 153 lbs after the holiday season, I’ve cut my weight back down to 148 lbs which is a long ways off of my ideal running weight, but I’m heading in the right direction. While I’ve cut a lot of weight in a short time span, I imagine the rate at which I lose weight will slow down over the up and coming months. All of my PR’s have come at times where my weight was in the 137-142 lb range so my goal is to get back down where I should be. While I wasn’t given a naturally sleek runner’s body, I was given a large set of lungs so hopefully I can put the work in so I can take advantage of the talents that I have.

            My last week of training was somewhat uneventful which was great news. My week started out with a long run of ~15.4 miles with Paul Limpf and Dan Allen. It really was a relaxed effort which was exactly what I set out to do. For the time being, the goal of my long runs is to get time on my feat to train my body to burn fat stores early in runs rather than glycogen. As many people know, this is a key component for racing longer distances. On Tuesday I met up with the Run N Fun group and had a little quicker effort. Wednesday was my treadmill cut-down “workout”.

Mile 1 - 6:18 (9.5 mph)

Mile 2 – 6:00 (10 mph)

Mile 3 – 5:49 (10.3 mph)

Mile 4 – 5:40 (10.6 mph)

Mile 5 – 5:27 (11 mph)

Mile 6 – 5:18 (11.3 mph)

Mile 7 – 5:10 (11.6 mph)

7 to 7.25 at 9.5 mph

7.25 – 7.5 at 10 mph

7.5 – 8 at 10.3 mph

8-8.5 at 10.6 mph

8.5-9 at 11 mph

9-9.25 at 11.3 mph

9.25-9.5 at 11.6 mph

9.5-9.75 at 12.1 mph (Just wanted to see if the treadmill went over 12 mph)

9.75-10 at 9.5 mph

As you may guess, I didn’t necessarily plan this out ahead of time. Instead, I knew that I wanted to run a cut-down workout and the type of effort that I wanted to give so I adjusted the workout accordingly. The purpose of the workout is to get a sustained effort, work on stride efficiency at various speeds, work on taking in fluids while running, and not tax my body in the process. While this workout does not “show you’re in shape”, it’s definitely a workout that gets you in shape. For the up and coming season, I’m really going to focus on recognizing the purpose of each work out and stick to the purpose. On Thursday I ran a 13 mile easy mid-long run and filled in the rest of the week to hit 80 miles. All in all, the last 2 weeks of running have been very successful and I hope to continue to have consistent training. I’m planning on running 80-85 mpw in February to continue to build a foundation for the spring season. Getting healthy and consistent is my number one priority for the up and coming month.

            The last update is that I’m officially going to gear my training to peak for the Gary Bjorklund Half Marathon (i.e. the half marathon at Grandma’s marathon). For the next 2 years, this race is the USAtf Half Marathon National Championships. I’ve heard great things from people that have competed in the past years. Additionally, the race is providing athlete compensation with a nice purse as well as time standard incentives. The Event Organizers are making a premiere national event which should create some buzz and attract a fast field (http://grandmasmarathon.com/site/). To anyone looking for a great late spring event, there’s about 5.5 months to get ready. If anyone from Michigan is running the race, let me know.

Correct Training Weight and 2012 Tenative Racing Plan

            After club nationals, I had to take a few days off running due to some foot issues that I was having. The foot began to feel “ok” and I resumed training. I hit 80 miles the week of Christmas and ran every day of the week which has been uncommon for me since my last sacral stress fracture. I have been trying to get in shape, but I’ve felt as though I’m on the cusp of another major injury since resuming running (i.e. about the last 4 months). While training the week of Christmas seemed to go well, my foot issues have resurfaced which has lead to more interrupted training. The bottom line is, I can’t keep training the way that I have the last 4 months. I thought that origin of my problem was doing workouts too soon, but I’ve stopped running workouts and my issues have not gone away. Over the last 4 months it has really become quite obvious to me that I really just need to start over and go back to what lead to my PR’s over the 2009-2010 seasons which is really getting down to the right running weight.

            As many people know, my college running career was not necessarily successful and was filled with many injuries. My average running weight in college varied but was in the range 149-153 lbs. Keeping in mind that I’m 5’7”, that’s not exactly a runner’s build and I wasn’t exactly a chiseled runner at that weight. Conversely, when I ran my last marathon in 2010, I was 137-139 lbs and I still think I probably had a few unnecessary lbs. While I suffered a season ending injury that year, the injury was due to feeling invincible and training rather unintelligently. While one way to drop weight is to increase mileage, this method has always lead to me to an injury. Alternatively, I have to drop weight and increase my mileage as my weight goes down. Trying to cut weight while training is mentally taxing and challenging for me, but there are plenty of websites and phone applications that now allow for you to easily track your calorie intake vs calories burned. While the calories burned are not accurately calculated since everyone’s metabolic rates are different, the caloric intake is. To lose a lb a week, you have to burn 500 more calories a day than you consume. While there is preliminary guess work involved, I am guessing that I burn between 3000-3500 calories a day after training is factored in. In a perfect world, I would like to lose 1 lb per week which means I have to take in between 2500-3000 calories per day, but there are going to be days where I have a couple beers or eat a treat and go above my caloric allowance. As a result, I’m setting a more realistic goal to lose a lb every 1-2 weeks. Currently, my weight is 150-151 lbs so I do in fact have quite a bit of weight to lose.

2012 Running Outlook

            First and foremost, I do not plan on toeing a start line until my weight is 146 lbs or lower. As of right now, I’m leaning toward targeting the half marathon at Grandma’s marathon for my peak race season. This gives me about 6 months to get fit which should be plenty of time and allow for me to not rush into things. While I love racing, I may have to sit out a couple early season races to avoid pushing myself before my body is ready to be pushed. My two goals for the spring season are to get my weight down and eventually work on speed again. I think I can get into PR territory this season, but it is probably unlikely to expect a huge PR given how the last year and a half of training has gone. Realistically, I am building a foundation for the fall/winter season. That being said, if I get the right day where I’m feeling good, I won’t shy away from attempting to hit a big PR, but the season will not be a disappointment if a PR doesn’t happen. While my fall season isn’t completely mapped out yet, I have some rough target races:

October - Twin Cities Marathon, TC 10, or the USAtf national championship marathon (not sure where it is this year).

December – USAtf Club Nationals

January – Austin Half Marathon

February – USAtf Cross Country Nationals

This is a very tentative targeted race schedule which could change, but I’ve always found that having races to target for the up and coming season helps get me through tough times in races of the current season. My ultimate goal is to be fit and run USAtf Cross Country Nationals, but I’ll only run this race if I feel that I’m fit going in. While I have an itch to run a marathon, I’m staying open to the possibility of not running one this year, but time will tell. I’m pretty sure that my next marathon will be the Twin Cities, USAtf National Championships (unsure of the location), or the Lansing Marathon (spring 2013).

            Currently, I hit 60 miles this past week on 6 days of running and one of the 6 days I only ran 4 miles. The 4 mile day and day off of running were due to my foot issues once again. While I only ran 60 miles this past week, I’ve begun to implement a little bit of biking and have dedicated a little time toward massage therapy. I’m hoping to hit 70 miles this week (if I am able to run all 7 days), but the number one priority is to get my weight under 150 lbs. After the holidays, my weight was up to 153 lbs so I’m slowly progressing toward my goal weight in a healthy manner. While I don’t know if I can or want to get down to 137-139 lbs this spring, I’m hoping to at least get back down to 142 lbs for Grandma’s half. For now, I’m keeping my long runs down in mileage and running easy to reduce the pounding that my body is absorbing. I really need to get my foot issue resolved and this seems to be helping a little. I’m not sure what the technical “injury” is, but like most injuries, it is due too much pounding. My foot is beginning to get better, and I think it will be fine as long as I correct the root of the problem.

Just not willing to put in the effort for a clever title.

            It’s been awhile, but I’m back on the blog! A quick mental break from revising my dissertation needed to be in the cards for the night, so here I am. I don’t even remember the last time I posted on here, so here’s a bit of a summary (I’m probably not going to take the time to proof read this, so sorry for the typos):

Because life has been a bit overwhelming, running has had to take a bit of a back seat. When I moved to Minneapolis this past summer, I was coming off of a 1:07:26 half marathon (easily the best race of my spring season) and my legs were finally showing signs of coming back from the sacral fracture from the previous fall and my fractured knee cap that I suffered in the spring season. Running was finally on the upswing, but transitioning from being a graduate student to taking a new job at 3M left me a little pressed for time. Did I mention that I also bought a house and am still revising my dissertation? Through this transition, running was going absolutely great and I am pretty sure I was the most fit that I’ve ever been. However, I wasn’t exactly taking care of myself and I neglected somewhat useful things such as sleeping, core work, stretching, massaging, etc. I started to get a “tight” hip right before my first race in Minnesota, the Lumberjack 10 miler. I entered the race and 3 miles in I knew something was definitely wrong with my hip. As it turns out, I finished the race and I had yet another sacral stress fracture. This was my second sacral stress fracture in a year which left me a bit bummed and erased my goal of hitting the Olympic Trials time standard for the marathon. My time that I ran at the 2010 Twin Cities Marathon was 1:50 slow (I ran 2:20:50 and needed to run 2:19). In an effort to not lose all of my fitness and get outside, I took up cycling and before I knew it, I went on 100 mile ride. Shortly there after, I ended up piling my bike and breaking my collar. I must say, I really did not understand just how much I use my dominant arm until I couldn’t use it. Even sleeping became difficult because moving at night would pleasantly awake me with a jolt of pain. Sleeping on my back also took a little getting used to. 7 weeks after suffering my sacral stress fracture and 17 days after breaking my collar bone, it was September 11^th, and I ran 4 miles. I had to stabilize my right arm, but I was at least able to get outside and get my heart rate up. Before long, I committed to running Club Nationals with the running group that I have been running with in Minneapolis, Run N Fun. At that point, I thought I could run sub 32 at Club Nationals on December 10^th. Training did not go well. I felt border-line injured after completing any workout and my body did not respond well to anything. I hopped in a couple xc races prior to club nationals and they did not go well.

October 22^nd, Jack’s Race – 6k – 20:04 (5:23 pace)

November 12^th, Minnesota State Champ – 7.5k – 25:14 (5:25 pace)

To put these to races in perspective, I averaged 5:22 per mile at the Twin Cities marathon with falling apart the last 5 miles. I wish I could say training went well between November 12^th and December 10^th, but it really did not. I ended up having to take 2 days off and everything really was a struggle. 10 mile runs were becoming easy, but any workout essentially left me crippled. I ran a 21.5 mile run (which was followed by one of my days off) and I did everything that I could to get ready to run an xc 10k in Seattle. The great thing about running team races is you have to race to help the team. In my mind, I thought I still might be able to break 32 minutes and finish somewhere around 100^th despite the fact that no workout or race had indicated that I should be able to. As race day approached, I had been having an issue with my left foot. Unfortunately, it flared up right before the warm up. Remembering the 10 mile race back in July, I was honestly considering not toeing the line. Honestly, walking in my trainers was not even feeling ok. I talked myself into at least putting on my spikes and running a few strides. As it turns out, the spikes that I had with me didn’t really allow my foot to move and it made the foot fairly tolerable. Before I knew it, the gun went off and the race had begun. I started a couple rows back from the start line which left me a lot further back than I would have liked to start. The foot was responding fairly well and at the mile mark, I believe we had a group of 4 former La Crosse runners all within 10 meters of each other (Bill W. Cory H., Jimmy P, and myself). At this point, I could tell that I was definitely well outside of the top 100 so I decided to try to move through the field. From the mile to the 5k, I passed quite a few runners and was moving toward the top 100 or so. Right before the 5k, I stepped in a hole caught myself, but my hamstring cramped up. Disbelief went through my mind as well as a million additional thoughts. My lack of fitness and core strength really began to shine. At this point in the race, I was a scoring runner for our team and I really had no idea how well the other guys were running. I backed off for about 100 meters and my hamstring fell back into place and I was able to resume racing. I think I came through 5k in about 15:58. The second half of the race was somewhat uneventful. I held my position within the field for the most part. Maybe I passed a few more runners and was also passed by a couple. I honestly thought I was fading pretty badly, but I ended up crossing the line in 32:10, 109^th place (5:11 pace). While this isn’t even close to my PR, I was very happy with the performance since I had only been “running” for 3 months and I really struggled through training. The trip to Seattle was a lot of fun and a much needed mental break.

            In the aftermath of the race, my legs were extremely beat up and my foot was extremely sore. While the foot injury could be the beginnings of a stress fracture, I’m somewhat optimistic that it’s not yet. In the 6 days after club nationals, I have now run twice. I wasn’t planning on taking any days off originally, but my body definitely needed it. I’m hoping to get back to running every day and building a solid aerobic base from here on out. Until my thesis is completed, I’m somewhat restricted by the time that I can spend training and doing my normal recovery exercises. For the time being I’m just going to focus on being consistent, getting out the door, and enjoying being outside. While the last year of running has not been kind to me, I’m definitely not ready to give up competitive running, and I am focusing on getting better over the next 4 years. For me, that starts with getting healthy.

            It was extremely weird to not being racing at Club Nationals in a Playmakers uniform, but I am very fortunate to have another great shoe store/running club in Minneapolis in Run N Fun. I really have been lucky to land in areas with great running communities. I honestly don’t think I really would have gotten back into competitive running had it not been for Playmakers. I definitely will always be grateful to the store and people affiliated with it. It was great seeing some of the Playmakers guys out in Seattle, and I’m looking forward to my first trip back to Michigan (TBD). My plans for the spring racing season are completely up in the air, but I’ll post as things become a little clearer.

Barefoot running and weekly update

            As my one poll would indicate, I am interested on people’s perception regarding minimalist running. Growing up, I always thought that more cushion would protect your body and help fend off injury. Recently, barefoot running and the famous Vibram 5 Fingers have become very popular. The question is, how beneficial is barefoot running? The simple answer is, it’s great. It strengthens your arches, promotes forefoot striking, and really just overall helps your running mechanics. On the other hand, the lack of arch support can lead to shin/calf problems since muscles such as the soleus attach run from your calf muscle and attach at your arch. For me, I love the feeling of running in minimalist shoes, but there is a risk/reward issue where I’m not sure if the gains out weigh the injury risk. I am still somewhat undecided on my opinion on barefoot running, but for the time being, I’ll probably stick with arch support. For those interested, check out the link below, featured on Flotrack. If the link wouldn’t work, search Thirsty Thursdays and there should be a talk with Jack Daniels. It’s really a great piece that spurs thought. I really enjoy listening to Jack Daniels because he really does consider most possibilities and he encourages runners to think about what they’re doing vs pushing the latest fads.

  

http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/234673-Saucony-Thirsty-Thursdays-with-Jack-Daniels/video/335086-4-Barefoot-Running-Thirsty-Thursday

As for my training, this week was a little rough. My body is struggling to adapt to the heat and dehydration has been an issue which I believe has lead to some unwanted muscle spasming. I think I probably need to cut out some of my morning coffee since I seem to be drinking a ridiculous amount these days and really focus on taking in fluids. My workouts are not eye-popping, but I think they’ll continue to help me build toward my marathon goals. I still have approximately 4 months of training, so I’m trying to keep myself reserved. I am certainly in the base building stage and my workouts designed to break up the week and have a little fun without pushing my body to the edge. Additionally, I’m officially in my last week as a Michigan resident. While I’m extraordinarily excited to move closer to home and live in another great area for running, Minneapolis, I really will miss the people in Michigan. Deciding to pursue graduate school at MSU really was one of the best decisions that I’ve made in my life. I’ll definitely look forward to my future visits back to Michigan.

Workouts

Sun May 29^th – 20 easy.

Mon – 11 easy

Tues – 9 mile cut down. Goal: 6:30-5:10. Actual: 6:14, 6:14, 6:01, 5:57, 5:48, 5:36, 5:30, 5:24, 5:17. I didn’t do a very good job at controlling the pace early. The last 3 miles didn’t feel very good. My bum muscles were spasming which I think was due to dehydration. My body is struggling to get adjusted to running in the heat.

Wed – 10 easy with Strides at the end

Thurs – Goal: 3 x 2 mile at MGP (5:11), 2 mile warm up transition straight in, 1 mile brisk recovery. Actual 2 warm up (12:34), 2 miles 10:24 (5:15, 5:09), 1 mile 6:04, 2 mile 10:22 (5:10, 5:12), stopped workout due to booty muscles spasming. I could have run the 3^rd set, but I really didn’t feel great about my form and the point of the workout was really to work on stride efficiency vs pushing my body to its limit. Even after the 2^nd interval, I felt 100% recovered after a mile, but I really didn’t like how my muscles were responding on the 2^nd interval. I ended up just running a brisk pace in and doing strides at the end instead. Didn’t run the workout precisely how I wanted, but accomplished something without suffering setbacks.

Fri – 10 miles easy

Sat – 10 miles easy, strides

85 mile week. I’m planning on hitting 85 and maybe upwards of 90 for the up and coming week. However, given that I struggled a little bit this week, I’ll likely hold the miles down to 85.

Back to the Basics: Training to my Strengths

            I know that I just posted a blog, but as I’m sitting here not racing on the weekend that I typically dedicate to the Bayshore half marathon, I’m more excited than ever to run and race. For the first time in quite some time, I set out with a moderately difficult training week and was actually able to complete it. Since my last post, I ran two workouts.

May 26^th-Thurs- 9 mile cut-down (6:22, 6:20, 6:04, 5:54, 5:46, 5:38, 5:26, 5:21, 5:06) 3 mile cool down

May 27^th-Fri- 2 mile warm up straight into 6 mile Marathon Goal Pace 31:09 (5:10, 5:13, 5:03, 5:14, 5:15, 5:14). I was shooting for 31:06, but my form broke down a little the last mile and a half. I probably could’ve struggled through some more miles or run the last one a little faster, but that wasn’t the point of the workout.

All in all, after today’s 10 mile run, I will hit 85 miles with my best workout week in quite some time. That being said, the workouts that I ran this week were all strength based which just so happens to be my strength. 2:16 for the marathon is a pretty lofty goal, but I have over 4 more months to train and I certainly didn’t go into my last marathon prepared or healthy to say the least (which was entirely my fault). My coach, Jim Robinson (the coach of Playmakers Racing), is there reminding me that I need to keep up on my ancillary work as well as incorporating strides. Speed is really my weakness, but I’m planning on primarily training to my strengths for this training cycle. I think this will allow for faster recovery which should also allow for me to get my mileage up down the road. I’ve never really consistently trained above 90-95 mpw so I’m hoping to train somewhere in the 95-105 mpw this summer. Over the years, I’ve found that my body responds better to quality over quantity, but continued slow progression in higher training volumes is needed to reach my goals. That being said, I do have 4 months to work toward my marathon goal, so I do need to not get carried away so that I can get to the start line healthy this year. While I’m highly anticipating my next race, I don’t know when my next focal race will actually be. I’ve really over raced my body the last couple years so I’m really resisting the temptation to race and backing off a little bit for now. While this is completely up in the air at this point, my speculative race schedule may be Bix 7, Hood to Coast, Twin Cities Marathon, but that being said, I may add a race or two into in the mix and I haven’t committed to a marathon yet. While the workouts that I’ve run to this point are not eye-popping, 2 weeks before Indy, I ran 2 x 3 mile in 15:31 and 15:56 which was a near all out if not all out effort for me at the time. Needless to say, I was pretty scared going into Indy, but couldn’t be more happy with the progression that I’ve made in the past month. In this past week’s workouts, I really have felt like I have more to give at the end of each workout if needed, and that’s a good sign that I’m not over doing it and that I should be able to continue to progress.

May 25th Update

            My blog updates have been a bit less frequent these days. To summarize, I’m in the process of finishing up my Ph.D. in chemistry at MSU, getting ready to start a job at 3M, and recently bought a house in the Longfellow neighborhood in Minneapolis. Did I mention that the house is 4 houses away from my sister Dawn!? Needless to say, there are a lot of big changes going on in my life right now, but I’m taking the time to enjoy them. At the risk of sounding cheesy, I have been lucky to have good people involved in my life which has made and will make the up and coming transitions much easier than they could be. So thank you to everyone that has helped me along the way.

            As far as running is going, running is actually going great. My knee has been a little bit bothersome, but I’m finally able to run normally without taking an anti-inflammatory. My workouts and races really were horrendous leading up to the Indy Mini Marathon, but I believe that I raced to the best of my fitness level at Indy and really did execute a near perfect race for the fitness that I was in. I just took 2 weeks where I ran workouts, but I wasn’t concerned about the mileage that I was hitting (I believe I hit 80 and 62 miles the last 2 weeks). I’ve been true to my goal of running workouts to get in shape rather than to show I’m in shape. I plan to do a lot of training at or near marathon goal pace (5:11’s) and incorporate more cut down runs into my training where the workouts will be on the roads. Here’s a quick summary of the workouts I’ve run post-Indy

Tues May 10^th - 4 miles in 20:42.

Sun May 15^th – Was fortunate enough to meet up with a former college teammate John Heitzman. We ran 20 miles where we took 10 minutes of recovery running (at or little under 6:00 pace) between each interval 2 x 1 min at 5:08ish pace, 1 x 15 min (5:06, 5:09, 5:08), 2 x 1 min at 5:08ish pace, 1 x 5 min (5:05). It was a great run on a great day. I believe John is ready to set a nice PR at Grandmas Marathon this spring.

Thurs May 20^th – 12 miles with a 9 mile cut-down segment (6:29, 6:17, 6:09, 5:57, 5:46, 5:38, 5:27, 5:25, 5:10).

Sun May 22^nd – 20 miles slow in the heat.

Tues May 24^th – 3 miles 15:23 (5:11, 5:07, 5:05), 0.5 mile rest (6:30 pace), 2 miles 10:16 (5:06, 5:10), 0.5 mile rest (6:40 pace), 1 mile 4:58.

My last workout was really the best workout that I’ve run in quite some time and I’m beginning to actually feel good on workouts where I feel that I could’ve run more intervals. It’s great to have that feeling back again. I plan to continue to run workouts that challenge my body, but workouts that allow my body to recover on a week to week basis. I’m planning to race significantly less than I have over the past 2 years, but I’m sure I’ll still hop in an occasional race here or there. The end goal is to run 2:16 (give or take a minute) this fall. That obviously can not happen if I have setbacks this summer, but I’ve really gained a lot of experience over the last couple years and think that I have the perfect training plan for me to run fast in the fall. I’ll continue to update my workouts in future blogs, but I plan to keep my mileage between 85-90 miles for the next couple weeks. Good luck to everyone racing this weekend.

Endurance 5k and Indy Mini Marathon

            As most people that have run with me know, running really has not gone well this spring. Looking back on the calendar, I took a spill and fractured my knee cap 8 weeks ago. While I’ve been able to run, I’ve really had a lot of trouble with the knee which has affected my stride a bit and caused some pain. Because of the difficulties that I was having, I decided to back off my mileage and replace track workouts with tempo runs. While I was seriously considering backing out of the two races that I had already committed to, I decided to go ahead and run them any way so here are the summaries:

Endurance 5k

            In the 5 years that I’ve lived in Michigan, I believe this was actually my first trip to Ann Arbor. The Huron Hills Church puts on a very nice little 5k, and Nick Willis took it upon himself to organize a fast field. It really was a pretty cool race that I would highly recommend. It’s just two loops around a river in a pretty flat area. The first race was composed of 11 guys where the sole purpose was to try to run fast. Given that I haven’t successfully completed too many workouts this spring (I believe one since I fractured my knee cap), I really didn’t expect too much out of myself this race, and I was right. I came through the mile in 4:42, but things didn’t go very well from there. I really just progressively faded and ended up running a 15:21. The poor time was a result of my lack of 5k fitness and had absolutely nothing to do with the course. Despite not running particularly well, I really did have a good time and the race was put on well. Nick Willis has a lot of class and really did a great job helping out with the race. It also was pretty cool that he had his Silver medal from the Olympics along with him. I really do highly recommend this race.

Indy Mini 500

            Again, I really didn’t know what to expect out of myself in this race. My PR in the half is 1:06:36, but I knew that I hadn’t put in the work to run a PR time. I honestly thought that if things went well, I might have a chance to break 1:08:00, but I really didn’t know. I ended up running the entire race pretty much by myself. After 3 miles I really was thinking about dropping out. It’s really difficult to block out negative thoughts during races when a season just hasn’t taken too many positive turns. Needless to say, I decided that I just needed to make it to mile 6. I could hear Jerome’s trademark cough through about 5 miles, but I actually ended up running pretty well. My splits were as follows: 

5:06, 5:02, 5:08, 5:03, 5:09 (25:30 5 mile split…actually 2 seconds faster than my Shamrock Shuffle 8k), 5:05, 5:12, 5:11, 5:10, 5:11 (51:21 10 mile split), 5:08, 5:14, 5:14, :27 which put me at 1:07:26.

With about 4 miles to go, I really thought I was going to start negative splitting, but my foot began to cramp and my lack of workouts began to show. I really did struggle a bit coming in, but I managed to get through it. I really didn’t have too much more to give today, but I’m very happy with the result. While it wasn’t a PR, it really was about as good as I could have run at this point. I think it should be a good stepping stone as I look toward running a fall marathon. The Indy Mini 500 half marathon is a fast course, and it’s run extremely well. The night before the race was pretty cool and we had the opportunity to eat dinner with Frank Shorter. Again, he’s a great guy, and it was great to hear him talk, especially about running. While this may not be what he said to the exact word, he brought up a very good point regarding workouts.

There are workouts to show that you’re in shape and workouts to get you in shape.

It’s easy to try to run workouts to show you’re in shape, but the reality is, workouts are meant to get you in shape. Once you’re in shape, you’ll show it in races. In my view, workouts are meant to break your body down, but you also need to be running workouts that you can recover from both physically and mentally. I often run workouts to compare my fitness from previous years, and I really do need to stop doing this. While it’s ok to do it occasionally, I tend to do this on a weekly basis which definitely gets me in trouble. Frank Shorter did have a lot more interesting things to say, but I guess I’ll cut this blog entry off here since it’s getting pretty long. I’m pretty sure my spring racing season is over and I’m really looking forward to enjoying some pressure free base building training. It’s time to start building toward the fall marathon. I’m not sure which one I’m going to run yet, but I really think that I’m on my way to a nice PR.

Arpil 17th: Fatigue and Twin Cities

Wow, coming back from a 3 month layoff from a hip injury has been quite interesting. While it’s been frustrating at times, it’s probably good to take a step back and look at what’s happened:

End of June: Hip pain really began to affect my running.

June-September: Had a few good workouts, missed a lot of workouts, raced 3 relays and 3 half marathons with very mixed results.

Oct 2^nd: Ran Twin Cities Marathon which was followed by not being able to walk a week later due to a fractured sacrum.

Oct-Jan: 3 months of primarily pool workouts. Was up to 12 hours of cross training per week in the pool with some biking mixed in. I was feeling pretty burnt out.

Feb: Transitioned back into running

March: By the end of March, I was running 100 mile weeks

Now: Racing like junk and not able to complete workouts.

            I don’t think it takes a genius to figure out what went wrong, why it went wrong, and why everything is still going wrong. Being as competitive as I am, it’s hard to resist doing more work when running is not shaping out the way you want it. However, when things are going poorly, sometimes it’s best to step back and look at the situation. A few weeks back, I ran 20 miles at 5:38 pace so I can’t be completely out of shape and I really think that my body is just fatigued at this point. As a result, I didn’t run any workouts this week and only ran 68.5 miles with a day off. Honestly, it felt great and I have no regrets. I think I’m going to resume training at 85-90 mpw and see where the season takes me. As I often say, last spring I ran a 15:30ish 5k on tired legs and ran 30:28 for 10k a couple weeks later. This past fall I ran a 1:10+change for a half marathon and then ran a 2:20:50 a few weeks later. As evident by 20 mile long run at 5:38 pace, my aerobic fitness is pretty high and I really just need to sharpen up. I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to do leading up to the Indy half marathon, but hopefully I’ll get things figured out by then.

            In other more exciting news, I received a job offer from 3M and will be moving to the Twin Cities area sometime this summer. Lansing has been a great area that has rejuvenated my running for the past few years and I am really grateful to everyone that has been involved in my life here. Events such as the Great Lakes Relay (still don’t know our team name…I think it’s something Latin…Ask Ken) and the Playmakers store/owners/training partners/coach and various members of the running community have helped me maintain a healthier lifestyle and countless great memories. I’ll definitely look forward to the trips back to Michigan. However, I am really excited to be a little closer to family and really look forward getting to once again attend all of the family events. It’s crazy how things work out, but 9 years of school later, it somehow did. It’s going to be a couple hectic months coming up, but I’m really looking forward to the transition for the next phase of life.

Shamrock Shuffle 8k Recap

            The Shamrock Shuffle 8k started out absolutely perfectly. It’s was about 70 degrees outside which is in complete contrast to the last 2 races where it was in the upper 30’s maybe lower 40’s. After a down week, my legs felt great, recovered, and I thought ready to race. We started the race out with a decent wind at our back, and I breezed through the first mile smooth as can be in 4:50 which probably put me somewhere around 15^th to maybe 20^th place. My stride felt great and I thought I was well on my way to having a good race. We turned the corner shortly after the mile split, and that’s where things started to go wrong. As you’ve probably read in my past blogs, I am really having a problem with over-striding. I think I hit 5:00ish, maybe 5:02 (I don’t remember) for the 2^nd mile. I split 15:39 for 5k (pretty much an identical split to the Meteor 10k) and was slowly fading back through the field. It was really hard to stay mentally in it when my stride felt as awful as it did, and I wasn’t racing up to my standards. On the positive side, I did fight, but with every surge and move that I tried to make, my legs just locked up. I remember seeing a 5:13 mile split on my watch, and really couldn’t fathom how I couldn’t run any faster since I can get down to that pace on training runs, but my stride just wasn’t in sync. The Shamrock Shuffle was a team race and I was a scoring runner so I really did push through to the finish. I ended up running a very disappointing 25:32, and I believe I was 32^nd overall. Our team ended up in 4^th place, and we were 22 seconds out of 2^nd (the race was scored based upon net time). Needless to say, I didn’t feel great about the fact that I cost our team $1,000 and a second place finish, but at the same time, had I not run, we probably would have taken 5^th place.

            On the positive side, the forefoot on my left foot is sore which probably indicates that I am striking correctly with my left leg while my right heel is pretty sore which is indicative of over-striding with my right leg. It’s at least encouraging that I know precisely what I’m doing wrong. If I can retrain my right leg to run efficiently, I think I am aerobically fit and things will eventually fall into place. I guess that’s what training is for.

Meteor 10k Recap

            I really don’t know what to take away from today’s race. While I didn’t push my body to the edge today, I did put out an honest effort and my time doesn’t reflect it. On the first note, the Meteor 10k is a great race with a flat and fast route. I highly recommend this race to anyone that’s looking to run a fast 10k on the road. My 10k PR is from this course last year where I ran a 30:28. I’m actually not sure what I ran today. After crossing the line, without thinking I hit stop and cleared the watch. I saw the finishing line clock coming in and I think I might’ve been a smidge over 31:30, but that’s completely a guess. I went out with the lead group and came through the first mile in 4:59, but I really don’t have the mental edge just yet, and I let the group slowly pull away. I’m not saying that I should have held on to the leaders and been with them to the finish, but I do think that I should’ve held on for a bit longer to give myself a chance of having a better race, but that’s part of racing. I came through the 5k in 15:40ish and was a bit discouraged, but I thought that I might still have a chance to make a charge to put myself in the top 5 since I negative split the race the prior year and actually wasn’t through 5k that much slower. Unfortunately, that charge never came; in the last 2 races and last few workouts, I’m really just landing with my foot out too far in front of me and my stride just hasn’t been efficient. I think the 2 contributing factors to this were the fall I took 3.5 weeks ago on an easy a.m. run where I think I fractured my knee cap (I still can’t kneel on it) and the speed work from last week that tore up my calves. I understand that setbacks are typical with running and tearing up my calf muscles are part of building them up for better performances in the future, but the competitive side of me can’t help but wonder exactly what’s going on right now. So the question that I’m trying to figure out am I (a) not fit (b) tired from the miles that I’m running (c) really just in my building phase since I’m coming off of a fractured hip and lack the winter running (d) just not race sharp yet (e) stressed out. In my opinion, it’s probably a little of column (b), (c), (d), and maybe even some of (a) and (e). I keep trying to compare myself to last spring and I do get excited when I run a workout that matches or is faster than what I ran this time last year. However, I’m not consistent with my workouts and my mileage is the highest it’s been since college (100 mile weeks) despite the fact that I’m coming off of a three month layoff from running. No matter how hard I cross trained, cross training isn’t quite the same as running. It helps, but it takes a little while to get the running shape back as my current weight indicates (142-143 compared to 135-138 last fall). I think today was a good little wakeup call to reality. I wasn’t even close to my PR; however, I do need to keep the big picture in mind and to achieve my goals. I do have to weather the lumps along the way. It’s easy to train when everything is going perfectly, as it really has the last couple years, but I realize that I’m going to have to take a few more licks along the way so I can hopefully slap reality back in the face. So while I have every reason to be a little discouraged right now, I’m hoping to weather this, keep the mileage up, and hopefully get the legs back before too long. I have a down week scheduled for the up and coming week; with a little good fortune, maybe the Shamrock Shuffle can be a step in the right direction. I’ve actually been able to sleep well at night lately, so I’m definitely tired from the mileage. I think it’s just a matter of waiting for my body to adjust.

On other notes, if you ever get a chance to watch "professional wrestling" in the front row, do it. It was an absolute blast and Hillarious at times. I even got high 5's from Ray Mysterio and Christian!!! Seriously, though, it was a ton of fun. Props to Stuber on that one. Also, people should vote on what type of cushioning they prefer. I'm somewhat curious whether or not my perception of what people like is completely wrong or not.

March 26th: Training the Mind

            It’s really quite amazing just how much our mind controls our ability to run and perform. For most runners, this is one of the most interesting times of the year. Living in the Midwest, it’s the time of year where you can run without a shirt one day and debate whether you should wear 2 or 3 layers the next. It’s also that time of year where you’re in between racing seasons and you have likely put in a lot of hard work the last few weeks; in some cases, you probably don’t even realize just how fast you have been running. With the weather gradually warming, our muscles began to loosen up, and we’ve been more excited to get outside to run and enjoy the weather which has lead to a lot of faster runs. The cold weather front that has hit us this past week combined with a couple weeks of “over training” has a lot of us are feeling a bit more tired than normal. The good news is warmer weather is on its way, and it only takes a couple days or even one great run to become rejuvenated so hang in there. Don’t over think your training and have confidence in your plan. It’s perfectly normal to have ups and downs in training. It’s good to make subtle adjustments in training to compensate for how we’re feeling, but keep the big picture in sight and get through the lows. While it’s critical to physically train our bodies to perform better, it’s equally, if not more important to train our minds.

Training Summary:

            My goals going into the week were to hit 95-100 miles, work on my mental toughness, and get in some key speed work. After my disappointment with my performance at the Irish Jig, I followed up the next day with a 20 miler where I averaged 5:38’s. It was really a challenging run because I ran an out and back where the wind was predominantly at my back for the first 10 miles and I split a 55:40. The second half of my run was against the wind which presented great physical and mental challenges, but I really did enjoy it. A 5:38 pace 20 miler ties my fastest 20 mile training run ever which encourages me for the up and coming months. We had a minor speed workout on Tuesday and I ran 8 x 200, 200 rest on Wednesday. I threw on my spikes to work on form and calf strength and I really paid for it. Despite only running in the 30-31 second range, this workout destroyed my calf muscles and was much harder on my legs than my 20 miler. The 200’s also put me in oxygen debut and really made me work on dealing with the unfamiliar pain that comes with sprinting. Keep in mind, I’m a marathoner and I haven’t really done speed work since last spring. I ran the same workout on Friday, but wore flats instead. This was much easier on my legs and everything felt easier. Assuming I get my second run in today, I should hit 100 miles this week with one 2-a-day. All in all, I felt tired going into this week, but I set realistic and challenging goals for the week that I was able to achieve which I feel great about.

            On another note, I’m interested to see what people’s preference is regarding training in minimally cushioned training vs heavily cushioned shoes and made a poll to see what everyone thinks.

I Guess it Happens

         Today was the first real race back, and I must say I’m a bit disappointed with how everything went. I took a fall and banged up my knee a week and a half ago and it really has affected my running the last week and a half. The stress of finishing grad school, the job search, not running for 3 days, and other things really have been adding up. I ended up running a 15:09 at the Irish Jig this year which is only one second slower than last year. However, the conditions were much better this year and I didn’t get out there and compete. I felt very sluggish and tired going into the race. Given that I’m coming off of a 3 month layoff due to a stress fracture in my hip, I would’ve been happy with a 15:09 six weeks ago. However, as a runner, things just weren’t clicking today, and I really ran poorly. My stride was extremely inefficient, and I was landing with my heel out in front of me rather than underneath me. All in all, today was a pretty disappointing day. I really didn’t get out there and compete. Hopefully I can use this as motivation, get back on the training horse and have some better days.

            Moving forward, it really is just time to put in the work. I’ve felt that I’m ahead of where I was at this point last year, but I really need to start cranking out the long runs and put in the work so I stay ahead and perform better down the road. I have to remember that I opened up with a 15:08, 15:30 at the Irish Jig and London Downtown 5k last year and still managed to run a 30:28 at the Meteor 10k a couple weeks later. I rarely open up the spring season with great performances so I’m trying to keep everything in perspective.

            On another note, I am excited for the Wisconsin game and the UFC title fight. I’m taking Wisconsin in the game and “Bones” Jones in the fight tonight. I think he’s the next Anderson Silvia which probably isn’t good news for him because I don’t seem to ever be right about the fights. Should be fun to watch.

1st Race Back

            With the Irish Jig next weekend, I decided to head over to Jerome’s home town and run a little tune up at the Leprechaun Loop 5k. Racing longer distance races requires a completely different mindset and pain tolerance than racing 5k. My fall racing schedule consisted of 3 half marathons, a marathon, and 8k so I really wanted to race a shorter distance to knock a little rust off. As Jerome and I were driving to Port Huron, Jerome went on to tell me that Port Huron had gotten 4-5 inches of snow. I honestly didn’t really believe him, but sure enough, we arrived at his mom’s house with snow all around.

The next morning we viewed the course which was simply an out and back that was primarily run on the “board walk” (essentially a sidewalk that’s twice as wide as a normal sidewalk). Jerome and I warmed up on the course to see what the conditions would be like and the boardwalk was plowed, but it was covered in ice. Being as I took a spill on a morning run earlier in the week and I already had a sore knee, I was less than thrilled and contemplated not running the race. I really didn’t know much about the competition other than there was a 1:49 800 runner in the field. The first ¾ mile was on street and sidewalk where I thought I’d be able to open up my stride and really try to run fast. I took the first mile out pretty hard with a couple guys running for the Elite Feet Team. After about 600 meters I took the lead completely and came through the mile in 4:49. The last ¼ mile of the first mile was extremely slow. To put it in perspective, Jerome was running the 10k and he was running 4:57 pace at the ¾ mile mark, but once he hit the snow and then boardwalk, he ended up hitting the mile in 5:10. I’m not sure what type of pace I was running the first ¾ miles in, but I would guess somewhere around 4:40? The second mile was a 5:22 and I really was just trying to stay upright while maintaining a lead. I almost took a digger shortly after the turn around. The race was simply wild after the turnaround. While the icy boardwalk made it challenging to run, the race did have a couple hundred people in it and everyone was looking down and watching their footing. Needless to say, that made coming back against traffic in the opposite direction very interesting. Fortunately, major collisions were avoided, but I definitely had a lot of stop and go running. Coming off the boardwalk, the guy in second place was making a surge and I believe he caught me and was right on my heels. At that point in the race, I was pretty tired and completely out of rhythm so I just focused on reestablishing the pace and was able to hold him off. I believe my last mile split was a 5:10. While I was a little down that this mile wasn’t a little faster, I do have to keep reminding myself that there were a few sections on it where I essentially had to slow down to near stops to avoid collisions. I think my final time was around 16:01, but the race was good tune up for me. It really makes you appreciate how great of a job the people running the Playmakers races do. This race was definitely memorable and actually ended up being a lot of fun. The pub crawl afterwards was a pretty good cap to the weekend and the mental break was definitely needed. All in all, it was a pretty fun weekend.

March 5th Post

            As seasons change, there is one important question that needs to be asked. Is this the season that we once again back down or is this the season that we get after it and really go for it? Yes, you know what I’m talking about. I’m sick of those red-winged black birds and I’m sick of backing down. They’re the size of my fist, but yet they think that they can just buzz around my head while flapping their wings and pecking at my head. So what are we going to do about it this year? A lot of ideas have been tossed around. Do we do nothing? Maybe we should write a letter to the city and petition to allow for their extermination? Should we run with rocks in our hands? Tennis racquets? Should we organize group runs with the MSU tennis team? I understand the birds do not want people within x feet of their nest, but why don’t they just build them in places away from sidewalks or paths? Does anyone have any more good ideas here?

            On other notes, I posted my racing schedule. If you’re going to be at a race that I’m at, you should let me know so I can keep an eye out for you. I also posted a poll asking what people consider to be an elite time for both male and female US marathoners. I think it’s really interesting to see what people perceive as elite for both sexes and I hope people respond.

Summary of my training week:

            I have finished my 7^th week back from running and every workout to this point has indicated to me that I’m in at least as good of shape as I was at this point last year or maybe even better. The workout that I ran this week was identical to the workout that I ran this week last year. It was the Mt. Hope Cemetery fartleck workout. Lansing is a pretty flat area and one of the better places to incorporate hills into a workout is actually a cemetery. The workout is quite simple. On flat stretches or uphill segments, you run hard while you recover on the downhill segments. It’s really a taxing workout. To my astonishment, we had 11 guys from Team Playmakers Racing show up for the workout. It was absolutely awesome. It was my first workout with the team in quite some time. I was overly excited for the workout and I went out too hard. I hadn’t run any hill workouts this year, while I was running hill farlecks every week last winter. Despite the lack of hill training this year, I ended up finishing workout 38 seconds faster. It seemed that most of the guys at the workout also made the most of the day and ran quite well. Needless to say, I was pretty excited for both myself and the team. It was pretty cool to see a group of guys just getting after it.

My legs are starting to feel a little sore/tired from the process of getting back to running. My main focus this past week was to make the average pace of each run faster than the prior weeks while running about the same mileage as last week. I’m getting to the point where my easy runs are in the 5:50-6:15 range which is a good sign for me. Everyone has different strengths as a runner, and I believe mine is to run efficiently at faster paces while my body recovers. I hit 87 miles this week with two 5.5 mile a.m. runs. I really don’t have a mileage plan or workout plan mapped out and really am enjoying the process of running how I feel.

Spring is almost here!

Whew! It really just occurred to me that I’ve only been running for 6 weeks after a 3 month injury. However, to my amazement, my workouts are indicating that I’m in at least as good of shape as I was at the end of last February. My workout this week consisted of 5 x mile repeats with 0.26 mile recovery. Due to the footing this week, this was an ideal workout because our apartment complex does an excellent job plowing and salting the parking lot. I have a 0.5 mile loop where I measured out a mile consisting of close to 2 laps. I really didn’t know what to expect going into this workout. The weather was around 30, not much wind and good footing. I ran the first repeat in 4:54 and really didn’t feel very good, but I was able to hit 4:56, 4:56, 4:55, 4:56 for the last four repeats. I really thought I struggled through this workout but the repeats seemed to get easier as I went on which is a good sign. For the sake of curiosity, after the workout I checked the variation on the resting time and to my surprise it ranged from 1:54-1:56. While I’m very happy with the workout, my muscles are very imbalanced and my stride feels extraordinarily awkward. Swimming was instrumental in maintaining my aerobic fitness during my injury, but I have decided that I need to give it up for now and replace the swimming with morning runs and core work to help get my weight down, improve running efficiency, and balance my muscle strength. Hobbling around for 3 months really did not help my athleticism, balance, and balance of muscle strength. All and all, I really can’t complain and I’m really just enjoying being outside.

This past week consisted of mostly easy running where I implemented 2 two-a-days and ended up hitting 84 miles. The next weeks should really indicate where my current fitness level is as I’m going to repeat a workout that I ran at this time last year and also hop in my first post injury race (5k). The Twin Cities Marathon was my last race and I missed the time that I was shooting for, but I’m the most motivated that I’ve ever been. The next few weeks of training should be a lot of fun to see where I’m at and get back running with some of the guys on our club team. It’s snowing outside today, but it’s getting to be that time of year where the weather should start warming up a bit. Here’s to enjoying the transition. Hope training is going well for everyone else. Looking forward to seeing people out this spring. It's been too long.

Great to feel like spring: 2nd workout back

            With the weather warming up this past week, running has been great. I’m sure that the temperature will cool back down and there will be more snow to come, but the great footing this week has shown me that my cross training has paid dividends. The last 4 days were a 10.5 miler where I averaged just over 6 minute pace, an easy 5 x mile repeat workout slightly slower than marathon pace, a 10 miler at 5:54 pace, and the week was capped off with an 8 x 800 workout. It was extraordinarily windy out yesterday and I ran the 800s through our parking lot with my roommate Kyle Johnson. Since I haven’t run workouts in quite some time, I actually wanted to lead to get back to pacing and Kyle stuck on me for every repeat. Our rest was consistent and was just under 0.25 miles in 1:41-1:45. I really didn’t know what to expect from this workout, but we hoped to run 2:20-2:25 and that was before we knew that we were going to be running in the wind. I was somewhat surprised by how well we were able to run as we split 2:16, 2:21, 2:20, 2:22, 2:21, 2:20, 2:21, 2:17. I never once even thought of my hip/back pain throughout the workout which is a great sign that my hip is 100% healed. I really didn’t know what to expect from this spring season, but I think running PR’s should be a realistic goal. On a side note, if Kyle can stay healthy this spring, I do think we’ll see some substantial PR’s. My race schedule is beginning to take shape and I will post it in the near future. Happy running!

Massage Therapy: Taking my lumps and getting them out

How about those Buckeyes! Wisconsin sports are having an “ok” month. I’m finally starting to feel like a runner again. I had my first workout this week, my long runs are progressing, and I also ran my first run that I would categorize as “brisk to semi-hard” effort. Needless to say, it’s been an interesting week of running which is highlighted by the “brisk” run. On this particular day, I really just wanted to open up my stride a bit. The roads aren’t completely clear, so I tried not to worry about the consistency of the mile splits. On a 9.5 mile run, I ran the 2^nd mile in 5:44 and thought that this run was going to be flawless. Well, needless to say it wasn’t. At about 2.7 miles, I was cruising and slowed down to take a corner. Unfortunately, not enough and I bit it. As every runner knows, this happened in slow motion and all I could think is “get the knees, hands, and arms out…protect the hip”. Needless to say, that hurt. I hobbled for about a quarter mile and then got back to it. Somewhere in the middle of the run I had a 5:40 mile and the run was gaining some momentum. As I turned to head home down Okemos road, I was feeling a little tired, but had a great sense of accomplishment. The run had gone pretty well, and then I got hit by a car. Now I realize that a lot of drivers do not stop before the cross walk (which I do not condone), but I guess I take it for granted that they’re actually going to stop. Now I didn’t get the best look, but from my point of view, it wasn’t completely the driver’s fault. To the driver’s defense, he was driving his wife and kid somewhere while talking on his cell phone and taking a drink. I completely understand how he didn’t see me in my Brooks night life jacket in broad daylight or that big red stop sign. I jumped up, got hit, slammed my hand on the hood (not intentionally), and actually landed on my feet without falling. It still hurt, but not too badly. All and all, I ran a slower first mile, fell, got hit by a car, and actually managed to recover from it all and have my first post injury sub-6 minute mile run. My hip survived and I hope I can keep building momentum.

            All and all, I am being fairly aggressive with my post injury build up which is definitely causing some unwanted knee, shin, and muscle pain. I hate to say it, but I actually have missed this pain. In my 2 year injury free stint, one thing that I really began doing is massage therapy. It all started with a half marathon in Columbus. I had been running for the summer and like always, began to develop an injury. This time it was terrible knee pain. I thought I was pretty fit and I thought my injury was going to cut my season short so I decided to hope for a PR and run the half marathon anyway. I was experiencing pain in my hamstring and really thought that was the root of my problem. The day before the race, there was free massage therapy so I decided to go ahead and see if they could help me. I warned the massage therapist that I was having knee pain and to be gentle with my hamstrings. She complied, but rubbed out knots in my calves. I had been experiencing no pain in my calves so I was in utter amazement that she was barely pressing on them and I really couldn’t tolerate the pain. I let her keep going and I could hardly walk the next morning. Needless to say, I ran absolutely terribly at this race, but it really was a changing point in my running career. I went back home and decided that I to rub out my calve muscles. About a week later, the knee pain was gone and I didn’t miss a beat training. I couldn’t believe it. I ended up dropping my half marathon time that season by 3.5 minutes. It’s amazing what consistency in training can do. I am certainly no expert in massage therapy, but it’s pretty easy to imagine that if you have a large knot in your muscle, your muscle is much shorter than it should be which can lead to a lot of extra strain on your tendons leading to joint pain. By getting the knots out, your muscle goes back to the proper length and your joint pain can subside. Aside from resolving injuries, it stimulates blood flow to damaged muscle tissue which allows for faster recover from harder runs. Massage therapy really has helped me stay healthy. Like any profession, there are good massage therapists and not so good massage therapists. In my opinion, a good massage therapist understands the mechanics of the body, isn’t afraid to get into the muscles, and focuses on the individual athlete rather than having preconceived thoughts. Susan Henderson is an excellent massage therapist and has helped me get through a lot of injuries. I really can’t thank her enough.

Getting Back

            Go Pack Go! I had to throw that out there. It’s great to have back to back quarterbacks with super bowl rings! However, I do have one confession to make. I didn’t watch every game this year and I am a bit of poser. Back in week 12 of the regular season, I missed the first quarter of the Packers/Falcons game because I was getting a workout in at the pool and only caught the last 3 quarters. While I guess I didn’t see the entire season this year, it’s great to see Woodson and Driver with rings and the trophy back in Green Bay.

            Running is coming around. I ran my first workout of the year at tempo pace and discovered that it’s going to take awhile to get the lungs acclimated to the winter weather since I’m used to my hard efforts being in a 70 degree humid atmosphere (i.e. a pool). My legs felt pretty good during the workout, but I can’t say the same for my lungs and stomach. I guess that should be expected since my last hard effort on the roads was over 4 months ago. I am very surprised with how easy running is coming back, but I guess the time that I’ve put in the pool and on the bike are paying off. I do thank everyone that has helped keep me sane over this time period. Now I'm reducing my cross training a bit and trying to get my body to recommit to running. I ended up hitting 51 miles last week with 5 hours and 10 minutes of cross training which brings me to my last point. Have you ever watched “How I met your mother”? If you haven’t, you don’t know what you’re missing. I actually don’t mind sitting on a stationary bike while watching a season.