GLR Weekend

Well, it has been a while since my last blog, and I really just wasn't writing anything because there wasn't much worth writing about.  The weather has been hot, my legs have been sore, and my body has been tired.  I did manage to squeak out a win at the Volkslaufe 10k, to pick up my second 3 liter beer stein, but other than that, running has been pretty uneventful.  My mileage has been between 70 and 80 miles a week, all slower pace it seems, when at this point it should be closer to 90-95 and the pace should be coming down.  GLR has always been a nice reset switch, which gets me back in the mindset of running more and running harder, and this year is no exception.

The relay started out with me popping off the first leg.  I led the 6.5 mile trail leg from start until the last 100 meters, and took 2nd by about 10 feet.  There were a lot of people on that leg that I have not beaten before, and a lot of other really solid runners, so I was very happy with it.  That leg was by far my best, but I still managed to hit around 5:55 average pace on the trail legs, and about 5:20 pace on the road legs.  I ended up running just under 32 miles for the relay.

Overall, our team took 3rd, which is about where I thought we would finish.  On paper, we would probably  be expected to take 4th.  The top two teams were University of Michigan alums, and included several Division 1 All Americans, a three time Olympian, and some other guys that they pulled on that are at least 15:00 type of 5k runners.  We somehow managed to beat the Eastern Michigan Alumni team.  Their team was stacked, but one of their runners rolled his ankle pretty hard on the second day, so that helped us out a little.  Looking at our team though, I don't think anyone was expecting us to do much...other then us.  We were a mix and match group consisting of guys from Aquinas, Saginaw Valley, Wayne State, Oakland Community, Sienna Heights, and Eric was from some place in Missouri.

Throughout the relay, we were always between 1st and 4th place, and the bigger shocker, to the other teams, came on day 3.  I will be honest, I was actually very surprised that we did as well as we did on the last day.  By leg 3, we had taken a 1:30 lead on 2nd place.  We opened the gap up to over 3 minutes, and were able to hold it through 10 legs...over half of the day.  Even though we only ended up 3rd for the day, I think that we ran very well, and surprised a lot of people.

So now, my legs are a little sore, but are feeling better, tightness/close to injury feeling, than they did before, and I am ready to get the mileage and quality up to where it should be.

Mother Nature is Manic Depressive

Michigan weather is ridiculous.  On Tuesday, we did a 6 mile fartlek at Grand Woods park.  The temperature was somewhere between 95 and 98 degrees, and I think I finally know what heat exhaustion feels like.  I struggled a lot with the workout, but gutted it out.  It was definitely not a workout to brag about, but it was a good chance to practice pushing through the heat.  The next day, I held off my run until about 10:30 pm, to try to avoid the heat, but it was still 85 degrees when I went out, making for another rough run.

Two days later, and we had a high of 70.  I had forgotten how much temperature can affect your ability to get in a quality effort, but I was reminded on Friday, when I ran the South Church 5K.  Initially, my goal was to run no faster than 16:00, but the conditions were so perfect that I was not able to hold back much more, and I ended up clocking a 15:27.  I won the race by  just about 3 minutes.  My splits were 4:56, 5:04, 4:51, and there was no point in the race that I felt like I was pushing it.  This race is one that I kind of just do for fun, because a friend from work helps put it on.  My real race was scheduled for Saturday, so had I not had that race in the back of my mind, I think that Friday's race would have been a very good opportunity to try for a pr.

The next day, I ran a race in Pewamo.  The winner gets $100, and you also get a dollar for every second that you run under your age group record.  My age group's former record was 15:50, so my 15:43 added an extra $7 onto my paycheck.  The race set up very interestingly, and I think that the main reason that I won was because of race experience.  Ian McDowell showed up to the race, and knowing that he had just ran at the NAIA National Championships, I knew that I was going to have to run a hard race to win.  Ian took out the first mile in 4:39/4:40, and I let him go.  In the past, I probably would have gone out with him, but I resisted the urge and held back a little bit, coming through in 4:47.  By about 1.5 miles, he started to slowly come back to me, and it was time for me to pass at the 2 mile mark.  What usually happens in a race, at this point, is I just maintain pace, and they latch onto me for a while.  This time, I ran hard for about 200 meters, which pretty much broke the race wide open for me.  Shortly after this, there was a series of sharp turns, as we got off of the trail that we had been running on.  As soon as I hit the turn, I again through in some hard surges.  The last time that I ran this race, Nate Usher did the same thing to me, allowing him to gap me by several seconds without me realizing it until it was too late.  My surges had the same effect, and by this point, I had opened my lead up to pretty close to 15 seconds.  I came through the 2 mile in 9:57, and 3 miles in 14:57.  I am pretty sure that the last 200 was long, because there is no way that I closed in a 46.

Then today, I ran 18 miles at about 6:20 pace, which capped off the week nicely.  The cooler weather has played a huge role in allowing me to get some quality runs in and hopefully Mother Nature will mellow out for a bit, so this can continue.

And another year goes by

This week started out kind of shaky, but ended pretty well.  Last Sunday, I think that I must have rolled my ankle, while running through the tornado with Scott.  I don't remember doing it, but as of Monday, my right  ankle/shin was sore and swollen.  After struggling through my runs and a workout on Tuesday, I ran an easy 5 miles and took a day completely off on Thursday.  It wasn't feeling 100% on Saturday at the race, and is actually still a little sore, but I was still able to pull out a decent time.

The Marysville Hospice 10K has pretty much become an annual event for me.  The Hospice 5k was the first road race that I ever ran, I first ran it after my freshmen year in high school, and I have ran it all but one year since then.  This was my 13th total Hospice race, and 10th time running the 10k.  It is a pretty nice race to come back to because a lot of the same people do it every year, so it is a little bit of a reunion.  Looking back at my running logs, I have ran a lot of races in the 34-35 minute range, with my two fastest being 32:43 and 32:48.  This year, I ran a 32:13, so I was pretty happy with that.

My original goal was to try to run 5:00 pace for as long as I could, but I woke up with a throbbing headache, and by the time I toed the line, I had changed my mind and was just planning on going 5:20 pace.  Ben and Charlie Richards were running the 5K, so I tucked in behind them, letting them take the wind, and we came through the first mile and a half at 5:15 pace.  I came through two in 10:31, three in 15:55 and the 5K in 16:33.  My fourth mile was around a 5:08, and I didn't see my last splits, but I had to have been a little under 10 minutes for the last couple.  The wind was at my back for the last two miles, and  it helped me get my 2nd 5K down to 15:40.  Overall, I am pretty happy with the effort.

Getting Shat On

I have been getting over being sick, over the past two weeks, and because of that, the running has suffered.  I woke up, on my Birthday, and my throat was on fire.  That lasted for two or three days, and then went away and moved down into my chest.  Over a week later and my breathing is still tight, and I'm unable to get any real quality training in.  This isn't anything new.  I have had at least one upper respiratory related issue each for since as long as I can remember.

So...I ran an interval workout last week.  It was 8 x a 1 mile loop with 400 meters up hill, and 2 x 20 sec sprint making up the interval.  Usually, I would run 75-78 seconds for the uphill part.  During this workout, I averaged about 87-88 seconds, and it was hard work.  I then ran a mile road race, on Saturday, and couldn't breath after a 64 second first 400.  I ended up shutting it down and running 4:58, and then jogged the 5k in 17:44, which still felt somewhat draining.

And then finally, the pinnacle of the week was when Scott and I went for out long run on Sunday.  It was hot out, but we still decided to go out for 20 miles.  I ended up cutting it short at 15, but the highlight of the run came less than a mile into the run.  This past week, I had been feeling like I was figuratively getting shat on...and now it was time for me to literally get shat on...right in my eye.  A goose, or a couple of geese let loose on us.  Scott got hit on the knee.  I was less fortunate, and took it right in the face.  And it stunk bad.  Hopefully this week goes better.

This reminds me of something my grandma says.

    Birdie birdie in the sky

    Why do you do that in my eye
    I will not laugh I will not cry
    I’m just glad that cows don’t fly

Speeding in Indy

This week, Scott and I drove down to the Indy 500 Mini marathon race.  Since both of our cars are not quite at 100%, and neither get the greatest gas mileage, we decided that renting a car that got good mileage would both save a little wear and tear on our cars, as well as be more cost effective, with gas prices around $4:20.  All was going well, until about 1 hour into Indiana, when apparently I was going 81 in a 65.  Like many situations, I have an excuse.

I am used to driving my Firebird, which with its cruise control and lack of smooth driving ability, I can usually keep myself withing 5-10 of the speed limit.  My base Aveo, however, did not have cruise control, and actually had a very smooth ride.  Every time that I glanced at the speedometer, I was going anywhere from 60-85 mpg, so I was mostly depending on the other traffic to dictate how fast I drove.  When I got pulled over, I was pretty much keeping to speed with everyone else...maybe passing a semi that was going not much slower than myself.  I was supervised both in that I got pulled over and that I was not given any opportunity whatsoever to explain myself.  "Business as usual," he asked for my information, went to his car, and graciously wrote me for 15 over instead of 16...I also did not realize that the limit had dropped to 65.  This was my first speeding ticket, and I hope that it doesn't set me back too much.

And then we arrived for the race.  Like last year, we ate dinner at Buca di Beppo's with Frank Shorter, a gold/silver medalist in the 1972/1974 Olympics.  The dinner was very good, and Frank had a lot of good input on racing and training for marathons, and also had some interesting anecdotes as well.  We actually had breakfast with another Olympic Silver Medalist, Nick Willis, at a local charity race in Ann Arbor, the week prior, so the past few weeks have been pretty exciting.  After dinner, I passed out pretty quickly, and the next thing I knew, it was time to race.

The race started out better than I had expected.  My original goal was to run 5:10 pace, and maybe pick it up towards the end, which would put me anywhere from 1:07:00 to 1:08:00 ish.  A pack of 15 or so went out in 4:55, while Scott Schmick, Jeff Powers and myself trailed in 5:07.  We were still together through the next mile in 5:02, and then we strung out the next mile.  My next mile was 5:09, followed by a 5:11.  The biggest hurdle, at this point, was that I was hitting my splits in basically the same times as my most previous race finishing times.  I came through 5K in the 15:40s, 5 miles in the 25:40s, and the 10K in the 32:10's.  By 5 miles though, I was by myself, feeling a little tight, and just a little too lazy.

During the rest of the race, I pretty much settled into a pace that I knew I could comfortably finish with, which was right around 5:20-5:25.  In the past, when I felt like I did today, those splits would have drifted into the 5:40s, so I feel good that I didn't completely fall off of the boat.  I am not happy, though, that I let myself stop racing.  I eventually finished the last 3 miles at about 5:15 pace, but the miles between 5 and 10 slowed down mostly because of laziness and a lack of drive.  At the end of the day though, I ran a 1:09:12, which is only 11 seconds off of my PR.  I probably should have ran a low 1:08, but I can't say that I am disappointed either.  I just sent in my request to get in to the Bayshore Half Marathon, so I will have another chance to drop the time in 3 more weeks.

If you ever get a chance, run Indy, but keep your eye on the speedometer...at least until you get into the race.

The Results

Easter Long Run

This weeks training has been a rollercoaster ride.  I would feel fresh one day, and everything would feel easy, and the next day I would be sluggish and exhausted.  The worst day was Saturday.  We were supposed to do 2x3 miles at half marathon pace.  One mile into the first interval, my legs were done.  I was supposed to hit 5:10 mile pace, but ended up hitting 5:20 average for the first 3 miles and a little over 5:30 pace on the next interval.  I left the workout thinking of it as a total waste of time.

Today Scott got a hold of me to run 20 miles.  I was a little reluctant at first, but decided to show up.  Luckily, I was back feeling good, and we had a successful run.  We ended up running 20 miles in 2:00:07, which is basically 6:00 per mile pace.  The good thing about the run was that it really felt effortless.  The long run was a good way to finish up the week, and I ended up with 92 miles for the week, all on singles.  Maybe the higher mileage is the reason that my legs have been feeling trashed.  I will probably run one more week at higher mileage and then throw in a small taper for the Indy Half Marathon.

Revelation...Women pee on porto pottie toilet seats

So...I have ran a lot of races, and have used a lot of porto potties, and something that I always notice is that a lot of the seats have pee on them.  Up until now, I have always thought that it was because men do not lift up the seat, or don't know how to aim.  But then I started to think, and remembered a comment that a female friend made about "hovering" over the seat, and now I have completely switched my stance.  No man has ever peed on the toilet seat at a road race, and women pee on the seats all of the time...and this is why.
1.  I have always used the urinal, and I assume all men do the same.  There is a 0% change that you pee on a seat if you don't even use the toilette.
2.  Men have years of practice aiming, and unless they are drunk, they would successfully aim at the water.
3.  Hovering exponentially increases the radius of the spray zone, and men do not hover.