39 more days till the Marathon!

Just for fun, if you go to the Chicago Marathon website, you can design a digital footprint in which if approved, Bank of America will donate $1 to the charity of your choice. Since I am running in honor of Pat through the Diabetes Action Team, I created my own footprint to further help my fundraising which has been virtually obsolete. Also, fun little article about running and economics - relates the economic theory of opportunity cost with running - very true!

Yesterday after work, Crystal and I did our scheduled 10 mile run. Weather was sunny and a little warmer (~75), so we hit the trails for an out and back. Felt pretty good, but as soon as we started the usual soreness/tightness kicked in so took a mile to shake it out. Crystal was in a rather foul mood from a crappy day at work plus was the recipient of a lot of ribbing from Tim and I about a former rival, so she was certainly ready to run more aggressively than usual. Because of an appointment of hers, we were running under a little time constraint so I thought it might be a good idea to get in our pace run earlier with the 20 miler looming this weekend. Also, it was a good opportunity to get in a run at warmer temperatures just in case we have another warm one in Chi this year.

Anyways, we started out moving ok, was stiff the first mile but worked it out. 2nd and 3rd mile, was definitely flying at this point, and looked down at my watch to see sub 7 minutes which was a LOT more faster than originally planned. Said something to Crystal, she pretty much yelled at me saying I was trying to kill her blah blah blah, so I eased up to let Miss Warrior Princess lead the pace since her running aspiration is to be Paula Radcliffe, whose basic running style is to lead and punish the other runners with a ridiculous grinding pace. Go figure, the splits do not lessen up, but both of us were feeling good so kept forging on. Pat at this point caught up to us on bike, so was nice to have him in our little "peloton". Came out of the woods on the trail, decided to go a different route which was pretty flat, and still felt ok. Made the turn around, realized this new "flat" portion actually had a slight grade, which meant it was uphill ALL the way going home - ugh! Next couple miles were ok, but could feel the uphill starting to burn. Last few miles, we ended up slowing down slightly and legs were pretty beat from 4+ miles uphill. Total mileage: 10 miles - splits were: 7:28, 7:03, 6:52, 6:55, 6:54, 6:55, 6:57, 7:03, 7:06, 7:02 (~7:02 average).

Was thrilled to get in pretty much a hybrid pace/tempo run, was a perfect workout for the upcoming Lewis and Clark half marathon next weekend. Having Pat out there helped a ton, as well as having a ton of walkers/bikers on the trail - always easier to run when there are people around. Crystal and I are going to race conservatively, using that race as a 15 mile tempo/pace run so there will be no ridiculous PR pace - just another training run. Will probably hit high 6's, low 7 minute pace - nothing too aggressive.

This morning, woke up bright and early for our scheduled easy run which both of us just wanted to get out of the way. Sun wasn't up yet, probably was in the high 40's, so wore a long sleeve shirt on the run which I hadn't done since probably February. Did an out and back on the flat part of the trail. Nothing to note, both of us were a little sore from the hard 10 yesterday, so we took it easy. Run went by pretty fast, mainly because I was pretty much sleep jogging through all of it! Total mileage: 5 miles - splits were (guessing, didn't wear my Garmin but Crystal called out the splits): 9:12, 8:58, 8:53, 8:48, 8:33.

Walked back towards the house with our normal victory stroll - before we got back, I heard a loud gasp and felt Crystal grab my arm. Pivoted my head to see what appeared to be right out of the movie of Arachnophobia, crawling right for my head. Completely froze, before I could panic my body spring into action and I quickly flicked it off my shoulder. I am absolutely terrified of spiders, and completely repressed that memory on the spot- in fact, Crystal just emailed me to remind me of the emotional drama this morning - lol. Legs are tired after 19 glorious miles this week already, but we basically have a day and a half off since our run is already over! Stretch mucho all day, corework/runners yoga tonight!

Article Tuesday

Have a bunch of articles I have been meaning to post. First, Running Times has some tips on how to deal with summer heat in training. Fortunately, we have had the amazing luck of perfect weather this summer, so hasn't applied much in the Midwest thank God!!!! Next, a great article on Kenenisa Bekele, who is inarguably the greatest distance runner of our generation. He has pretty much taken Haile Gebreselassie's throne, and has won 24 World and Olympic championships - oh by the way, he is a whopping 27 years old. Seriously, if you don't know who this guy is, remember this name - he is rewriting all the record books as we speak, and is targeting the marathon in the near future which is downright scary. Finally, a GREAT article about why it is good to hire a runner. Basically highlights runner's amazing ability at discipline, intensity, ambition, and dedication. I love it, and it's so true :)

Yesterday, went for an easy run with Crystal after work. Weather was gorgeous - sunny, breezy, and 70. Exactly like fall weather, my favorite season! Legs felt tired, groin was sore and still had mobility issues, but easy run wouldn't be too stressful. Did out and back on trail on the flatter portion, first mile was stiff but loosened up fast. Coming back, felt a lot better and we ended up inadvertantly pushing the last night. Total mileage - 4 miles - splits were: didn't have watch, hit 8:28 on the first mile and 7:01 on the last - splits got progressively faster, typical Crystal run :)

Supposed to wake up at 5 a.m for our 10 miler today, but just didn't have it. I think Crystal felt the same, as we nixed the early morning run for an afternoon one after work. Should be ok, legs feel decent and better so should go relatively smoothly.

23 more days...

until the dreaded 30th birthday! Ugh, I think reality is kicking in that it is going to happen, so I need to enjoy the final few weeks of my 20's in style! Blah!!! Really quick, here is a follow up on Dathan Ritzenhein's performance last weekend - absolutely amazing! Also, a post from Runners World talking about why GPS watches aren't necessary accurate to course mile markers - pretty much discrepancies from blocked signals from tall buildings and losing/gaining ground from excessive turns on a course.

Yesterday, woke up feeling better - took a ton of anti-inflammatories, and did minor stretching. Weather was overcast and cool - low 70's, just PERFECT for running, so dragged myself out to test out my groin and attempt a pace run. Groin was super tight, and had problems lifting my right leg so shorted my stride about 25% and kept going. This sounds like a radical solution, and not recommended but I have a pretty short stride as it is and almost feel like I'm shuffling my feet when I run so wasn't that big of a change. First mile, felt pretty comfortable, got into a good rhythm pretty quickly. Shocked to see a fast split, quite frankly. 2nd and 3rd mile, was cruising along, shouldn't feel this easy. Loosened up a little, still felt like I was dragging my right leg but no stinging pain like before. Coming back, realized why I was killing these splits - was running completely downwind first half, so kind of battled into the wind coming home. 5th mile, started to feel a little stinging sensation so eased up. Was laboring a bit, but felt strong for the most part. Last mile, battled some hills, hit it hard but let up the last 200 meters. Cooled down, stretched, more drugs. Total mileage: ~6.5 miles - splits were: 6:31, 6:35, 6:26, 6:32, 6:38, 6:25.

Went to a former co-worker's retirement dinner last night with Jared, actually got to hang out with him and his family a ton this weekend and got in some good quality time with his gorgeous daughters! Weekend was pretty laid back for the most part, and got caught up with rest which was nice.

So my pace run was more of a speed workout, but it didn't feel hard which was pleasantly surprising. I am a lot more strong at this point than I thought, but having an easier week probably helped a ton. Got in 38 miles this week (felt like 20 quite honestly), and hit all my runs according to plan! This week, another 50 mile week and another 20 mile run! But shouldn't be too bad, seeing we hit 22 the week before with no problems. Groin is a little tight today, but should be good to go on our easy 4 tonight.

Jared and I

Sophie playing with Lillian

Just adorable :)

Happy Saturday!

Pretty cool news - Dathan Ritzenhein tearing it up in the 5K in a meet in Zurich, setting an American record by 2 seconds! As most of you know, he just recently switched coaches to Alberto Salazar who coaches other elite athletes like Alan Webb and Kara Goucher. Dathan ran 12:56 to defeat Bob Kennedy's 13 year old record. Congrats Ritz!!!

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack

Friday, finished up another long work week then headed to the track in the evening with Crystal to do some track work (scheduled 7X800). Felt kind of weird switching off days, plus we had run so early on Wednesday that is was almost like we had 2 days off so I was feeling pretty lethargic. Weather was cool and humid, having rained most of the morning and some of the afternoon. We warmed up with a 3/4 mile jog, then had the misfortune of having a hoard of kids march their way on the track, deciding to play their football game ON the actual track. This was pretty much the last thing we wanted to see was a ton of hyperactive kids running in our way, so tried to communicate to them to leave the first couple lanes open for us to do speedwork. To their credit, they complied, probably because they could tell that Crystal was going to pretty much eviscerate anybody that got in our way ;) First rep felt ok - was tight, tried to lead a conservative pace, and think I did ok. Could tell that this workout was going to be tough, as we haven't done speedwork in over 6 weeks and obviously been focusing mostly on conditioning rather than speed. Crystal led the 2nd rep, pretty much destroyed both of us as we went blazing right from the start. Next couple, settled in a rhythm but legs were starting to get that leadened feeling and could certainly feel having to use my upper body a lot more on the last 200 meters. Crystal wasn't feeling too well, so she declared she was only doing 5 reps (7 were planned), so wanted to make the last 2 with her count. I set pace on both those, but on the outside lane which is definitely a lot harder to do so but felt fine doing so. Her and Pat left, decided to try to knock out my last 2 quickly, as it was getting dark and I was pretty tired. Without Crystal, sooo much harder to control pace so just concentrated on keeping a consistent turnover. Last rep, felt like the first 400 meters was so much faster than the time indicated, but decided to have fun with it so turned the jets on the last 300 meters. Saw a walker ahead, and decided I was going to catch her - caught her well before the last turn, felt my body naturally kicking and pretty much killed it and nailed my negative split. Did cooldown, stretched afterwards. Total mileage: 5 miles - splits were: 2:56, 2:47, 2:55, 2:54, 2:51, 2:46, 2:36 (yikes!).

This morning, woke up bright and early for our scheduled long run. Weather was chilly (high 50's), but warmed up fast. We decided to do the Troy route, which I had done a few long runs already but not yet with Crystal. Legs felt better than I thought they would, but groin was still noticably tight. Was able to shake it out the first couple miles so it felt more comfortable. We noticed a little more activity than usual on the trails (maybe the later start due to FANTASTIC weather this weekend), so played a little game modeled off the Nike Battle of the Sexes commercial I posted a while back. We were counting how many guy runners were out there vs. women runners - walkers didn't count, bikers made up for 1/3 of a runner. The women ended up winning (I think the final count was 14-1/3 to 11-2/3?), but the men take a consolation prize by technically having more of us out there :) Anyways, the run was fine - first 6 miles flew pretty fast, and we were hitting ok splits that felt like a slow jog. On the turnaround, started to cramp up pretty bad, and it wasn't getting much better. Tried doing everything to alleviate the cramp, but was getting worse by the step. Decided to stop for a bathroom break a little past the 9 mile marker, but kind of succumbed to the pain and had to walk a little bit to try to work it out. Last 3 miles were not pretty, as clearly my body was not responding to the run very well. Never had this before, it was pretty weird. Total mileage: 12 miles - splits were: 8:51, 8:20, 8:23, 8:27, 8:21, 8:35, 8:18, 8:21, 8:36, 8:06, 8:04, 8:00.

Ate some food, did minor stretching, took a small nap and woke up to some of the worst pain I have ever experienced in my groin area. It is this stinging burning sensation, and I cannot move my legs without discomfort in that area. My God, I can't even walk correctly right now! It's kind of scary - I am trying to stay off my feet the rest of this day and will pretty much proceed with caution moving forward :(

BOLT!!!!

Awesome that a track and field star made the cover of Sports Illustrated. Can't remember the last one, maybe Carl Lewis in the last decade? Regardless, great for the sport of running, and SI does a follow up on possibly the greatest sprinter ever.

Next, here is an article talking about the American women in the World Championship Marathon last weekend - more specifically, Tera Moody and Kara Goucher. Talks about how physically exhausting the race was, as evidenced by the post-race interviews.

Last night, enjoyed not having to run (since we got it in early) and hung out with Pat and Crystal on their new patio, which is gorgeous by the way! Today, day off - we switched it with Friday, where we will do our track work then. Will spend an evening doing some deep stretching, corework, and runner's yoga!

Happy Hump Day!!!

Sorry for the delay - the crazy combination of heavy work, running, and no sleep took its toll on me! First, here is a fun article from the Wall Street Journal comparing Usain Bolt's speed amongst animals! They think he's about the 30th fastest on the list, behind the likes of a cheetah, grizzly bear, and white tailed deer. Next, World Marathon Champion Abel Mutai sets his sights on the world record marathon time. Wants to bring the record back to Kenya, where pretty much all long distance times/titles are currently!

Here is a quick recap of my running week which has gone great so far. Monday, did easy 4 with Crystal after a looooong day of work. Weather was fine - cool, sunny, mid 70's. We hit the trails, did an out and back on the flatter route. Nothing special to note - kept pace very honest, and tried to loosen up the legs which were tired after the 22 miler the day before. Started slow, but loosened up quickly and finished fine. Total mileage: 4 miles - splits were between 8:30-9:30 minute pace.

Tuesday evening, did our run in the early evening, weather was windy but cool - temps in the 70's. We decided to run towards the university and back, a hillier route. First mile, started slow but quickly picked it up. Towards the turnaround, Crystal snarled at me saying I was obviously feeling good if we were moving this quickly, so I let her lead coming home. Not surprisingly, I watched the splits get quicker and quicker, go figure, and this quickly became a progressive negative split run. Around the last mile, completely dropped the hammer and tore into it. Legs felt great, was tricky coming back because of the wind but was completely fine. Total mileage: 6 miles - splits were: 8:23, 7:36, 7:35, 7:26, 7:21, 6:44 (note the first 3 miles where I was leading vs. warrior princess's last 3).

Decided to get today's easy run out of the way, so we met bright and early and hit the trails. Chilly outside starting out (high 50's/low 60's), legs were lethargic but ok. Did Glen Carbon route out and back, and felt ok for the most part. First couple miles just trotted along, ran through quite a few spider webs - BLAH!!! The turnaround eventually came, so the run was going pretty quickly. Coming back home, we have to cross a street and we saw a school bus stopping to pick up kids for school, followed by a pretty long trail of cars. Well, Crystal does not stop for anybody nor any vehicles, and we were about 50-75 yards before the intersection with kids still boarding the bus, so guess who turns on the jet propeller legs?! Ugh, was not happy about going from nice, easy pace to ridiculous uphill sprint, but we didn't have to stop. Kind of woke us up, so the rest of the run flew by. Total mileage: 5 miles - splits ranged from 8:30 to 9:20 I think?

Legs are pretty tired right now, probably from 2+ weeks of insane running, so going to switch Thursday and Friday for off days, which will give us almost 2 days of rest. Fri, we'll do our scheduled track work, Sat. long run, and Sunday pace run.

Riding with the Shen Train - choo choo!

Here we go with the weekend update:

First, pretty dismal showing by the United States in the World Championships. Really didn’t win too terribly much, but salvaged some gold at the end by great performances by LaShawn Merritt and the 4X400 men’s relay team. U.S. won 10 gold medals, a steady decrease from their last couple appearances in the World Track and Field Championships, so need to step it up moving forward! Kara Goucher finished 10^th in the women’s marathon, quite the disappointing performance seeing she should have easily medaled. She battled hot conditions and had problems with fluid retention during the middle part of the race which pretty much killed her in the end. Sadly, this will be her last race for a while, as she is taking a break to concentrate on family. We’ll miss you Kara! On the men’s marathon side, Dan Browne had the top U.S. time of 2:16:49, which was good for 24^th place. Very disappointing effort, as it shows how far behind U.S. Marathoning is behind other countries in the world. And if your name is not Ryan Hall, Dathan Ritzenhein, or Meb Keflezighi, there aren’t too many competitive marathoners in the country that are going to make an aggressive push at a marathon title. Hopefully, Hall can bring home a NYC Marathon crown and salvage some pride for the Americans – we shall see!

Weekend ended up flying by as usual, and managed to get in some solid runs. Friday, Crystal and I decided to get in our Saturday run early and flip flop our day off since Saturday was pretty jam packed for me. Weather was overcast and cool, prob in the low 70’s – absolutely perfect for running. In fact, it started to rain at one point but only spitting rain which was fine towards the later part of the run. Wanted to go slow, told Crystal that since I was tired from the aggressive tempo the night before. Started out slow, quickly got into a good groove and first few miles were sort of groggy but picked up quickly. Found ourselves having to slow down a little, but legs were ok. Groin still sore, but loosened up my mid-run. So we’re headed towards the university, and we see various runners in our path since it was really nice outside – about 0.12 miles from our turn around, we spot a girl runner with her boyfriend biking next to her presumably as her pacer. Crystal is pretty territorial about her bike path, so as we make the turn around (at least a quarter mile behind now), Crystal starts licking her chops and pretty much declares we are going to pick them off. So goodbye aspirations of a nice, slow run, all of a sudden we are going ludicrous speed, albeit on a downhill and felt pretty good. We catch up to them, just blaze past them, our point was made (don’t motivate Crystal or she will smoke you), and we finally eased up when we forked back to the main part of the trail. Last couple miles, cruised through, finished with no problems. Total mileage: 10 miles – splits were 8:27, 7:58, 7:55, 7:57, 8:03, 7:43, 7:15, 7:50, 7:36, 7:30.

Hung out with Pat and Crystal afterwards, Shane came over so we made it a fun euchre night. Saturday morning, golf tourney, played with some friends over at a local golf course – nothing special to note, just had a good time with good company with absolutely perfect weather! Didn’t stay long enough to see if we won anything, in fact all our teams bailed so who knows how we did overall?! Ran some errands, ended up going to a wedding with my friend Jessica in Soulard (south St. Louis) – perfect weather, just had a great evening with a lot of fun people. Stayed out a bit too late, and 5:55 a.m. came pretty fast for our Sunday long run. Shane picked me up, we met up with Crystal and trotted over to the bike trails and off we went! Weather was super cool (high 50’s), but sun was starting to come out so warmed up just fine. First 3 miles, my God I was cramping so bad I was wondering if I could even finish half of this run!! We were going pretty slow, and I was not feeling good at all but motored on. Right before the big hill on Meridian, finally started to feel good and then all of a sudden was in a groove. Pace felt good, good conversation, perfect conditions to run, next thing you know we are at the 10 mile turnaround having ran the last 7 miles uphill so you can only imagine our mindsets knowing we had almost 7 miles of downhill coming up. Those miles FLEW by, we passed a lot of runners on the trail, saw bikers, legs were feeling pretty good. Sun was coming out but most of the trail was shaded so was fine – breeze was a little stagnant coming home, so made the temps rise a little but was still tolerable. We make it to mile 17, last 3 miles were uphill so tried to get mentally prepared for that. Legs felt pretty good at this point, and we pretty much nailed those miles having to slow down at various points. BTW, saw a ridiculous amount of wildlife on this run – turkeys, deer, rabbits, cats, dogs, squirrels, birds - was like a freaking nature channel run! Shane had planned on getting in 3:10 on this run, and we were going to easily hit 20 miles in less than 3 hours so we decided to keep going since all of us felt pretty good. Hit a flat part of the trail (past our starting point), felt fine but at the turnaround (roughly 0.8 miles out), groin started to get really tight and could feel the general fatigue of running for over 3 hours at this point. Focused on getting into a zone, was fine – Crystal and Shane started to pick it up towards the end (wtf?), so decided I was not going to get dusted behind and got going myself. Got up to marathon pace, then faster, then I think we were hitting 6:50 pace at one point but still felt great. Did a little extra to round off the mileage, felt amazingly good and was on cloud 9 after that performance. Total mileage: 22 miles – splits were 9:03, 8:44, 8:42, 8:35, 8:54, 8:48, 8:44, 8:45, 8:34, 8:46, 8:51, 8:39, 8:41, 8:42, 8:37, 9:05, 8:29, 8:50, 9:04, 8:46, 8:27, 7:49.

Stretched for a decent amount, then had a ridiculous feast of food at St. Louis Bread Company with Pat and Crystal afterwards, ate outside and was enjoying the beautiful day. Notes on the long run – we used Gatorade Endurance throughout the run, which is the formula that will be used in the Chicago Marathon. The sodium content is higher in this type of Gatorade, which helps with fluid retention. Had no problems with it, tasted good and no cramping issues later. Also, used GU Roctane, which has more caffeine in it. Actually felt pretty energized after using it, and think I figured out my GU strategy for the marathon (every 1:15). I didn’t eat a very good breakfast in the morning (banana and water), so was happy to have gotten through without hitting the wall or any problems whatsoever. Was very pleased at the week’s running – hit 57 miles, had a career long training run (not counting marathons, of course), and hit a good tempo run as well so was absolutely perfect! This week is an off week, time to rest a little, but amazingly I feel pretty good despite the last 2 heavy weeks! Groin is still tight, left knee is sore but hey I ran 22 miles yesterday! Tonight is easy 4 with Crystal, should be pretty much an easy trot so foresee no problems.

Golf Scramble Team

Jess and I

Shane getting ready for the ridiculous long run