Struggle Toward the Heights

OT Marathon Qualification Standards

2012-01-23T07:00:00.000-06:00

I've been thinking about writing about the difference in the men's and women's fields and overall races at the Olympic Trials last weekend. Fortunately, David Monti did some good work on summarizing the numbers already...

http://www.letsrun.com/2012/wmtrials-0118.php

Having been around the national class marathoning scene now for over 10 years, I have seen US marathoning grow and improve in quality and depth. Others agree...

http://downthebackstretch.blogspot.com/2012/01/american-marathoning-has-really.html

The elimination of the men's "B" standard (you can compete, but you don't get funding for travel/accommodations) and the lowering of the "A" standard to 2:19:00 was controversial at the time. The women still have a "B" standard, and those two different procedures make the standards seem, well, arbitrary. The implementation of a half marathon and 10k standard (which were used for the previous trials as well) were also controversial. With this Trials on the books, it's a good time to do some objective evaluation of what effect the changes and different mens/womens standards may have had. How did they effect the fields? How did they impact the race itself? What effect may they have on US marathoning in general?

Looking at the women's field vs. the men's, you can can see some differences. The biggest difference is obviously the larger field for the women's race, which made all of the records for field depth possible. The men's race, from a depth perspective, looks a lot deeper at the front, though it is difficult to compare given the more challenging course in New York, and the different racing dynamics that resulted. This Trials had 21 men under 2:15 (vs. 7 in NY) and 50 under 2:20 (vs. 39 in NY).

At the front, both the men's and women's races in Houston, were impressively faster than previous trials. Again, it's difficult to say how much of this is related to the difference in courses vs. the difference in qualifying times vs. the difference in the overall quality of runners. For the women, that difference and improvement in depth carried down through the entirety of the field. For the men, the effect diminishes and disappears deeper into the field.

The women's finishing percentage was 81.7%, while the men's was 76.5%. A much greater percentage of the men's field got in on the standards of the shorter distances (about 33%, I believe). I don't know how many of the DNFs were due to injury, illness, etc. and how many may have been conscious decisions by those shorter distance specialists to save the legs for another day. Which brings me back to the original questions...what effect have these changes in qualifying standards had?

On the impact of eliminating the B standard for the men...

At the front of the race, I don't think the different standards have had any impact at all. Meb, Hall, Abdi, and Ritz were the contenders. They're all seasoned marathoners. They don't care if there are 111 guys in the race, or 211 or 30,000. They separate themselves and do what they need to do in whatever circumstances they face. Same thing with the top women.

As for the rest of us...Fewer men than women participated, and fewer of those who qualified actually finished. The slowest finishing times were the same from NY to Houston, but fewer men were out there getting the experience and giving it a shot. Even as a 3rd time Trials participant, I really experienced the boost in intensity and focus that comes with preparing for the Trials. I think that the more young, developing talents we can get preparing for the Trials, the more we will see improvements in depth and quality of American marathoning.

There's obviously a cap that needs to be placed, and it will always be somewhat arbitrary, but I think USATF ought to consider it a priority to get greater numbers of athletes involved at the national level. As one agent told me once...you get 500 guys who can run 2:20, and maybe 50 of them can eventually get down to 2:15. Of those 50 guys, maybe 1 can get down to 2:09.

In other words, you need numbers and you need to keep people motivated and involved. Having watched, over the last 15 years, literally thousands of collegiate runners who were all better than me either run for a year or two after college, or not at all, I think I can safely say that we have had a lot of great talent slip through the cracks. Some of that can't be changed. If you aren't motivated to compete anymore, no incentive will bring that back. But for the large majority who would like to compete but feel they can't justify it given the need to "get a real job", having a shot to run the Trials may be just the hook that they need.

On the implementation of the half marathon and 10 standards....

I was skeptical of these "other standards" when they were first used back in the last Trials. There was actually a 5k standard as well for those Trials. My opinion has shifted. Looking at the number of athletes who qualified on the half marathon standard and then ran very strong times at the Trials, I think it is obvious that the use of the half marathon standard is having the desired effect of encouraging younger athletes to give the marathon a shot without forcing them to fully commit to it and therefore compromising their track and other racing goals.

The 10k standard, in my opinion, needs to go the way of the 5k standard. It's not necessary, and I don't think it's expecting too much to ask an athlete to go and run a half in order to demonstrate a modest level of prowess at the longer distances. The marathon is over 4 times longer than the 10k -- it just doesn't make sense to use 10k times as a standard.

As a coach, I'm very interested to see what happens with the qualification standards for the next round of the Olympic Trials Marathon. The above are just my opinions, thoughts and observations...I'm curious to know what other people think.

Finishing Strong

2012-01-16T09:28:00.000-06:00

I don't quite know where to start...a whirlwind weekend in Houston and now the 2012 Olympic Trials Marathon has come and gone and it shifts, for all the participants, from the focal point of massive preparations to the shifty annals of memory, where emotions and events coalesce and settle into an impression and a feeling. For some, bitterness will tinge the experience. Watch the 4th place finishers if you're in the mood to witness heartbreak. For others, like myself, the joy of being there will reign. I ran 2:22:03 and finished 66th out of 113 starters and 85 finishers. The races for the 3 spots on the Olympic team and the dynamics of the races up front certainly warrant a post of their own. The experience of coaching 4 athletes at the Trials was a real privilege and honor, and could be another post. For today, though, I'll focus on my story strictly as a runner.

For me, a 35 year old with 20 marathons under his belt and a PR of 2:17, the Olympic Dream had been gone for several years. However, with recent marathons far off the sub-2:19 qualifying time -- 2:25 (with a tailwind at Grandma's 2011), a DNF at Twin Cities in 2010, and 2:29 (2010 Boston) -- I felt compelled by pride and respect for the gravity of the event to train to the best of my ability and to compete like I belonged there.

Training became an exercise in faith and patience. My early season test, the Mpls 13.1, showed just how far I had to go. I ran 1:11:00 for the half marathon, slower by 1:30 than the marathon pace required to qualify for the trials. While I did not necessarily "go the well" in that race, I could not have run that much faster.

Part of the problem, I realized, is that I had become too accustomed to staying within my comfort zone. The fire and drive that makes you that 10 seconds faster on an interval, or that gets you to hold on to a pace for an extra mile in a tempo run...that fire had dwindled, or more accurately, had been extinguished by the long hours of studying, the short nights of sleep, and the various other pursuits that had taken precedence in my life.

When the fire goes out, how do you get it back? The two keys for me were 1) fear and 2) the support of friends, family, the athletes I coach, and runners and the running community in general.

Fear? The marathon should be feared, and the high level of competition at the Trials should be feared...and the fact that I had a qualifying time just 2 seconds under the standard meant I had even more to fear. This quote sums it up well...

"Fear is the strongest driving-force in competition. Not fear of one's opponent, but of the skill and high standard which he represents; fear, too, of not acquitting oneself well. In the achievement of greater performances, of beating formidable rivals, the athlete defeats fear and conquers himself. " -- Franz Stampfl

And the support to do it...the ability to take a little lighter load at school this fall, to back away from coaching Nordic skiing, to take the extra time away from activities with friends and family. It means everything to have people say, "wow, that's really amazing that you get to do that." It reminds you of the purpose of your training during the long, hard weeks when the race is far away and all you have is the grinding regiment, the aches, the cramps, the early morning alarm clock, the doubts and the fears.

I considered, last summer, finding myself a coach. Being self-coached has its benefits -- no one knows you better, especially when you've been competing for 20 years. However, sometimes you need that outside perspective to tell you what you don't want to hear. Instead of finding a coach, which seemed like a gamble so close to the Trials, I sat down and set up a training program for myself as if I were writing it for someone else...some other 35 year old journeyman, coming off a couple of years of ultras and struggling to find those faster gears. Then, I vowed to hold myself to the standard I'd expect to see in another athlete who's training for the Olympic Trials.

What that meant for me was less putting workouts off for a day or two, not missing any of my second workouts, cutting out some junk miles, getting in more of the "auxiliary" training -- strength, core, plyos -- and probably most of all, getting back on the track.

Somewhere I had developed a real aversion to doing track workouts. I continued to do some speed work, but mostly in the form of timed fartleks (1 minute on/1 minute off, e.g.). These have their place, but obviously I had lost a lot of speed and it was a big priority to improve that aspect of my running. It would be pretty tough to judge that progress unless I went to the track.

So I did it. I had a hard time for several weeks...you compare yourself to where you once were and you compare yourself to the guys you'll be racing against. At a certain point, though, I found a groove with it, and actually started to enjoy it again. I was making progress. I wasn't as fast as I once was, but I improved and I felt fast.

I tapered well, and despite a few days of neurotic obsession with my tight hip and sore foot and doubting this, that, and the other thing, I managed to arrive in Houston feeling fairly confident in myself and genuinely excited to run a marathon.

Knowing this would likely be my last Trials, if not my last competitive marathon, felt like an added pressure. How will I finish...how will this portion of my career end? I didn't really know how fast I could run. I had had one or two workouts that suggested I could run in the 2:18 range, so I kept the dream of running a PR of 2:17 alive in the back of my head. Objectively, though, you have to look at what the majority of your workouts say, not what the best one says. And objectively, I thought I was probably in 2:22 shape, maybe 2:20 on a good day.

The first miles were fast and fun, tucked in with a massive pack in the cool morning air...nothing goes by faster than the first few miles of a marathon. At 4 miles I was at 21:00 and running with U of MN alum Justin Grunewald. He told me he was trying to slow it down to 5:20s. I felt comfortable running 5:15s, but I had to be honest with myself at this point and admit that I didn't feel comfortable enough to run 22 more miles at that pace. It was fairly breezy and the course was up on an elevated parkway at times, which made the wind a more serious factor. So rather than pushing ahead, I ran with Justin and soon we had a good pack that worked through much of the race together.

I held back and tried not to push the pace at all during the first of three large loops (after the initial 2.2 mile loop). I think this was key in allowing me to recover from the initial faster miles. On the second loop, I tried to balance caution with some slow progress on runners who were ahead of us. We hit the half marathon just under 70 minutes having run a lot of miles in the 5:20s. By the latter part of the second lap and going into the third, I knew I wasn't going to be able to cut back down to 5:15 or faster, but I did feel confident that I could hold what we had been doing.

At the same time, I was increasingly left to do the pace-setting on my own. The group had dwindled and splintered. Grunewald was actually ahead of me at this point. Clint Verran, a long-time competitor of mine, was settled in behind me. He had returned from injury just in time to get a qualifier at Cal International in early December, so his fitness was not 100% and he was content to try to hang on.

We were starting to see more and more guys dropping out along the sides of the road. I tried to keep the pace honest, and going into the third lap I started to move more aggressively to try to catch people. Over the last 5 miles, I caught a lot of guys...the fast early pace took its toll on many. Mile 22 was a 5:40, my slowest of the race, and at that point I really tried to drop the hammer and shift into a racing mentality. The next two were down in the mid 5:20s, and then I slowed slightly again, though continuing to pass a few guys.

Clint caught up to me with 400 meters to go. I tried to go and hung onto him as best as I could. When we turned the corner with 200 to go, there was no one else within striking distance. Clint swung wide and slowed, allowing me to go ahead of him. We came in together, with him sitting a half step behind me. He told me that he wanted me to beat him because I did all the work. That sort of humility and sportsmanship says a lot for his character, and sums up a lot about what's great about the sport.

At the end I had a moment of realizing that this was it, the end of an era in my life, and I got pretty choked up. No, I'm not retiring from running...I was never good enough to "retire" and frankly, the love of the sport has always come first for me. I'll be running in some capacity for as long as I can. But competing at this level is something special and finite, and it has been an honor to brush shoulders with greatness.

Alive and Ready

2011-12-30T09:51:00.000-06:00

So...it's been a while. So much for this blog serving as a document of my "comeback" from ultra-slogging to road racing speediness. The 30 second version of the story is that it has been a long, hard, rewarding process. I've trained harder than I have in at least a couple of years. Some workouts have gone great, others have been terrible. Most have been just another day at the office, plugging away slowly toward the goal.

The Olympic Trials Marathon is two weeks away, and I've come a long way. I feel very well prepared, with a few 140 mile weeks under my belt, and having done some very solid speed work and pace work along the way. I have no illusions about being anywhere near making the team, but I have my pride and my own goals.

Originally, my aim was to use the trials as a last shot at running a marathon PR (2:17:34). I will not rule that out as a possibility, and will certainly take a shot at it if I'm feeling good on race day. However, getting back to that level has proven more challenging than I anticipated. Most of my workouts do not suggest I'm ready to run that fast, but a couple of them do. At this point, I will have to surrender myself to the taper, be smart on race day, and take energy from the excitement of the day.

As a secondary goal (a back-up goal, as it were), running my best Trials time would give me a lot of satisfaction. In 2004, I overtrained (okay, I overtrained from 2002 to 2004!) and ran 2:26:59. In the last Trials in New York, I had run the PanAm Games Marathon fairly recently, so I went in with lower expectations and just wanting to put in a solid run. I ran 2:19:21 for 37th place on a course that was fairly challenging, though very much to my liking.

Perhaps more important than any objective time or place goals, I want to be able to run strong and enjoy the surroundings on the day. If my legs dictate that I can run strong at 5:12 pace, great. If they say 5:30 pace, then so be it. I want to run hard and finish strong regardless. At age 35, I have enough experience to know that it's not about the times and places...focus on the process and the results will come.

Aside from that, I'm very excited for the 4 women I coach who are running, and also to see how the races go up front. Any speculation on who our Olympic marathoners will be?

A Good Week, and Punching Through 13.1

2011-08-26T20:31:00.000-05:00

It takes time to get fit. Work hard, recover, adapt. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

I know all of this. I coach dozens of runners according to this philosophy. Yet when it comes to my own training and performance expectations, I find it hard to accept. Part of the problem is that for many years, I was able to get away with doing a lot more (and recovering a lot less) than just about anyone else I knew.

I'd run long races at the end of 140 mile weeks, and sure, it didn't feel great, but I could do it and perform reasonably well. Whether it's a bit of aging, the somewhat prolonged period of being less focused on running, or the collective scar tissue I have accumulated through the years of pushing the envelope, I don't seem to be quite as capable ignoring the recovery aspect as I used to be.

Last weekend I ran the Mpls 13.1, a half marathon from downtown Minneapolis to Lake Nokomis. I had modest expectations and goals, given the missed time due to the back injury, and the hard training I've been piling on for the last couple of weeks. I thought I'd go out and run about 70 minutes, and my aim was to start pretty easy and pick it up as I went. I repressed my racing instincts as best as I could at the start, letting five guys get away from me, but I still came through the mile in 5:13, much faster than I intended to run. I settled back to 5:20s, and mostly held that, but I paid the price a little bit later with some 5:30 miles in the second half.

The positives are that my breathing was easy and controlled all the way. The challenge is in my legs, which were heavy and not feeling very fluid. I've been working to get my glutes firing a little more, to take some of the strain off my back. I definitely feel that I'm using them more, but they got fatigued pretty early in the run yesterday. So...1:10:59, that's my jumping off point. I have a few weeks until the TC 10 mile. I'll be starting some serious track workouts soon, and racing Victory 10k on Labor Day and the City of Lakes 25k the following week.These are some of my favorite local races, so it's exciting to look forward to being out there and competing.

Running with the Bear; Throwing out My Back

2011-08-10T11:24:00.000-05:00

It would be really cool if I could tell you there were some relationship between my strained back and an encounter with a black bear that I recently had. E.G., I pulled my back while wrestling the furry beast in question...but I'm smart enough to know that if the bear had decided to engage me I wouldn't be here to write about it!

I did see a black bear while running on a remote logging road in Canada, but it took off immediately upon seeing me. I turned around anyway and headed back towards camp. It was pretty cool to see it, but the blast of adrenaline was enough from a distance. I would not have wanted to be any closer.

The back problem happened later. I had done the Rice St. Mile on a Thursday evening, a long run Friday morning followed by lifting, and then run 10 miles pretty easy on Saturday morning. At the end of that run, my back felt a little stiff, but I didn't think anything of it. I had offered to help a friend move later that day, and within an hour or so I had completely wrecked myself. I attempted to run the following day, but had to cut it short, and then had a hard time moving around at all for the next few days.

It is amazing how useless a bad back can leave you feeling. Now that I'm feeling a little better, I can find it amusing to think about the strategizing that I had to do to get my shoes on, or even to get up out of bed. In the end, this has been a minor setback. I was planning to run the MDRA 15k this weekend, but may hold off and shoot for the Mpls 13.1 half marathon the following weekend. My back is 95% and I'm sure I could race without problems, but I did miss a few days and was not able to do more than jogging last week, so it would be nice to get some solid training in before toeing the line.

Other race plans for the fall:
Victory 10k
City of Lakes 25k
TC 10 mile

After that, I don't know what I'll do. Possibly a couple of cross country races, but mostly just training for the Olympic Trials Marathon. So far, I haven't had too much trouble sticking to my plan of not doing any "crazy" races (i.e., ultras, mountain running, etc.) for the rest of the year, but I do find myself getting excited about what I might do next year, after the Trials are over. Who knows what sort of shenanigans I might get myself involved in? I do think I'll miss trail racing for the next few months, but it's also pretty exciting to focus on running fast.

Be the Runner

2011-07-27T14:28:00.000-05:00

I went to a coaching clinic a few weeks ago, and was struck by the talk on Mental Skills delivered by Bobby McGee. I have always considered the mental aspect of running to be one of my strengths. Compared to others with similar natural ability, I feel like I have gotten a lot out of myself and done a lot with what I have.

Over the last couple of years, and the last year in particular, that hasn't really been the case. I have found it hard to get as excited and invested in pushing myself. The loss of mental sharpness can certainly be attributed to a change in priorities in life, and a certain level of realism as to what I can expect to do based on what I put into preparing for races. However, listening to Bobby, it struck me again that these are all choices -- not only how we choose to prepare, but also how we plan to recover between workouts, and how we choose to view our preparations and our expectations in running. It's easy for self-deprecating talk to become a self-sabotaging attitude.

One of the downfalls of having run some fast times is that it becomes very easy to compare yourself to your best day in the past...and forgetting all of the tough stretches and months and years of good training and recovery that led up to that race. What is the point of that? Who cares what you did five years ago? It's death to live in the past. What matters is feeling like you're doing the best that you can on that day, in that race. Preparing to the best of your ability, taking the risk of caring about your success. There may come a time when I decide that racing is no longer for me. Until that time, I might as well do it right.

You Get Out What You Put In

2011-06-21T12:03:00.001-05:00

Grandma's Marathon 2011 has come and gone. This race marked the 10 year anniversary of my debut marathon. I ended up running that first marathon almost entirely alone, and afterwords wrote about the realization I had during the early miles that I had chosen a long and lonely road in becoming a "professional" or "elite" marathon runner.

Fast-forward 10 years, and I feel completely different. It was a weekend full of seeing friends, runners who I coach, and various other familiar faces. It's so much fun catching up with people, hearing how everyone's doing and of course sharing race day stories after the finish. It no longer feels at all like a lonely road. In fact, as I was trying to get through the last 10k amid the beer-drinking UMD students and blaring music, I felt myself longing for some of that sense of solitude and peace. Weird how time changes your perspective.

As for the race itself....

I went in knowing that I was not in personal best shape. The goal was to run a solid marathon, sort of a building block and confidence booster to get me moving in the right direction as I begin to look toward next January's Olympic Trials.

As luck would have it, the year when I don't feel like I'm in the best shape is the year with the best conditions you could hope to find. I went out much faster than I planned to, hitting a string of about 5:15 miles in the early going, before settling back and going through halfway just under 1:10. This was still faster than I had planned, given that any objective assessment of my fitness suggested I was in 2:25 shape, low 2:20s if the taper really worked some magic. I don't regret going for it. I know if I had gone out conservatively and finished strong and with extra in the tank I would always have wondered what would have happened if I had gone out faster.

While it is discouraging to have fallen off the pace so much (I ended up running 2:25), there were some fairly encouraging aspects to the race as well. I never actually felt at all out of breath, so I believe that I really was rounding the corner aerobically and had the capacity to run 2:20 strictly in terms of energy delivery.

The limiting factors lay elsewhere. My legs, particularly on the right side, were kind of stiff and not quite firing at 100%. Over the second half of the race I had a really bad stomach as well, which made it mentally hard to push myself at all. The legs never really got worse, and actually feel pretty decent in the aftermath. I am coming to terms with the obvious...that I need to get in for PT and just in general take better care of myself.

The explanation for my stomach woes has to be my decision to mix my special fluids stronger than usual, a choice I made after realizing that it was going to be cool and figuring that I probably wouldn't actually drink very much. I wanted to get in the calories, but after halfway, I totally stopped absorbing anything. My stomach has gotten much better at handling whatever I throw at it at ultra pace, but that apparently does not translate back to running marathon pace. Anyway, the thrilling conclusion to my race entailed me dropping to my knees and leaving a river of Gator-puke in the finishing chute. Sorry to those who witnessed that spectacle.

Next up:

1) Planning a fall/winter training and racing schedule that will set me up to run well next January at the Olympic Marathon Trials.

2) Figuring out how to stick to a more healthy lifestyle in terms of rest, recovery, nutrition, etc...doing the small things that are actually really, really big. Sleep? Yes, it matters.

Spring Racing

2011-05-31T09:13:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I posted. Training has been coming around, probably due to the fact that I'm actually sleeping a reasonable amount most of the time now. I have also gotten out and raced a few times, so here's a brief summary of recent races:

TC 1 Mile:

2:08 first 800, 2:20 second 800. What else is there to say? I died. BUT...I really hadn't done anything to prepare for such a short race, and I will say that I really enjoyed the event. It's pretty cool to race down Nicollet Avenue in downtown Minneapolis, and it was fun to be there to see the championship races as well.

Superior Trail 50k:

This was my third year in a row of running this race. I felt smooth and strong the whole way. Brian, Dimitri and I were running together most of the first half. There was a guy named Josh from Indiana who was with us part of the way out, and then surged ahead and stayed about a minute in front most of the way out on the out-and-back course. We didn't really know who he was, but he was wearing some old-school looking racing flats, so I figured he meant business. Nonetheless, when Brian asked if I wanted to chase him down, I said, "Not particularly," as I remembered well the difficulty of the last section of the course, and didn't want to get caught up in "racing" that early in the run.

The major focus on the way out was not taking the wrong turn that both Brian and I took last year. As we talked about this incessantly, I think Dimitri was probably wishing he had some more reliable navigators, as it was his first time doing the race. Anyway, we stayed on course, and the trail was in very good shape, with the exception of a bunch of down trees on some of the higher points along the trail. At the second aid station, just before the turn-around, I took a little extra time locating my drop bag and re-filling my bottle. Everyone got separated at this point. I passed Brian on the way up Carlton Peak, and Dimitri had caught and passed Josh. They were descending pretty close to each other. I hit the turnaround at 1:54:30, almost exactly on my course record pace from 2 years ago, although that year I had run the first half in 1:58 and then came back faster.

I returned through the aid station on my own, but quickly caught up to the guys after that. Dimitri continued to lead, and Josh was 20 meters or so back, but holding steady. They were still moving pretty well, so I sat in for a while and enjoyed the trail. I passed Josh, then Dimitri on successive uphills, where the fatigue and difficulty of the trail was starting to catch up to them. It seemed to happen very suddenly, but without "making a move" I was alone out front.

The run back felt really good, and I pushed the pace occasionally to test myself a bit, and make up a little time. I came into the last aid station knowing that I would be close to the course record, but that I'd have to go pretty hard to get it. For better or worse, I did not wear the GPS during the race, so I really didn't have any objective indicator of where I was at, except from the 4 aid station splits and the turnaround. The last stretch of the course is a rugged 7.5 miles, so it's pretty tough to evaluate how you're doing for pace.

I took one pretty bad fall, cutting up my right hand pretty badly, and scraping up my left leg and abdomen. It took a minute to shake that off, but then I was back and moving well. The down trees definitely slowed me down a lot more on the way back, as I definitely was lacking in agility, and was no longer able to hurdle them. I didn't think too much about time until the end, when I heard the stream that you cross shortly before coming out onto the road and down to the finish line. At that point I realized just how close it was going to be, and really picked up the pace. However, the stream deceived me, and I seemed to hear it for a long time before actually getting there. By the time I came out onto the road, I realized I would miss the CR, but I figured I was already running fast, so I might as well keep it going. I'm glad to have gotten under 3:50, and to have finished feeling so strong.

In the meantime, Brian, the wily veteran at age 26, had moved into second and finished in 4:01, a big improvement over his previous efforts on the course. Dimitri held on for 3rd in 4:07, a very strong run for a relative trail novice. Jordan, from my marathon training class two years ago, ran his first ultra, and finished in just over 5 hours and with his faculties fully intact.

Brian Kraft 5k:

Nine days later, I warmed up for the Brian Kraft 5k knowing that it was going to hurt. The 5k has always been a tough race for me. I had been sick and was coughing up phlegm, but my legs actually felt really good warming up and doing strides. I had gotten in a couple of speed workouts since the mile, so I figured I'd be a little more road race ready.

The 4:50 first mile felt fast but controlled, and I had a good pack to run with. Matt Gabrielson had taken it out super-fast and a few guys were strung out in pursuit, and then there was a large pack of club guys like myself just holding steady. I felt pretty good during the second mile and took a couple of turns at pushing the pace. We came through in 9:46, so we had slowed slightly.

Then it started to get very hard! I managed to try to go with the moves that people were making, though my breathing was very labored and my legs were getting very heavy. I was not able to find that next gear with a half mile to go, and lost contact just enough so that when I kicked with 200 to go, I was too far back to be in striking distance of anyone. I stopped my watch in the chute at 15:18, though my official time is listed as 15:20. Not a great run, and definitely a rough last mile, but for the first time this year running under 5:00 pace didn't feel totally awkward and/or impossible.

Looking Ahead:

I can't say where this leaves me for Grandma's. I'm obviously aerobically very strong, and that's most important, but I would be more confident with some good road race times under my belt. I don't plan to race again before the marathon, though, and I will have to try to fight the temptation to prove my fitness to myself in workouts. It's time now to just put the final touches on training, honing in on marathon pace and improving my efficiency and stride a little bit, while also getting rested and fresh.

Canyon, Training, and Marathon Class

2011-05-05T11:02:00.000-05:00

A group of 15 or so Twin Cities runners, many of whom are friends of mine, are off to run the Grand Canyon this weekend. They're going rim-to-rim and back, roughly 44 miles, in a single day. Here's wishing them a great trip, and most of all a safe and healthy journey! I'd love to do a similar trip myself someday, but the timing just didn't work this year, coming as it does near the end of the semester at the U and in the heart of track season.

On the training front for me, things are coming along well. I ran the Get in Gear 10k in a sluggish 31:43, and then ran a 3 mile, 2 mile and 1 mile at marathon goal pace (5:15-5:20). As bad as the race was, the workout went very well and I feel good about preparations for Grandma's Marathon. I actually can't remember the last time I raced a 10k, so I suppose I should not be surprised that I was not ready to race well.

However, it is scary how narrow the distance is between marathon pace and 10k pace right now...definitely need to work on my speed. Tuesday I did 10x400 and 5x200 on the track, and found that the speed is still there. It's just a matter of tapping back into it more regularly for the next few weeks, so that sustained speed feels more comfortable.

Other than that, life has been busy. My marathon training class at the University of Minnesota completed their journey on Saturday at the Eau Claire Marathon. The nearly 60 students who started all finished and ran remarkably strong on a cold and blustery day. There's not much in life that is as rewarding as being able to work with people towards a major goal, and then to go out and see them accomplishing what they set out to do. Fun stuff.

Trail Mix Video

2011-04-22T00:45:00.000-05:00

Snow and mud made for a more challenging than expected run last Saturday at the Trail Mix 50k. I did my share of slipping and sliding on some parts of the course, but managed to stay on my feet. I seemed to hit about 6:00 to 6:10 pace on the sections with good footing, but those were the exception rather than the rule. Still, I'm pleased to have accomplished the following:

1) Ran 11 miles farther than I had previously in a single run this year.
2) Averaged 6:33 despite the footing, which is a good training run for sure.
3) Ran a PR. I believe I have run a faster 50k in training and my only other 50k races have been Superior (much tougher terrain) and Afton (very hot), but hey, I just turned 35. You have to take the PRs where you can get them, right?

Here's what Minnesota in mid to late April looks like:

Trail Mix

2011-04-12T21:54:00.000-05:00

I'll be running the Trail Mix 50k this Saturday at Hyland. Training has gone pretty well for the last couple of months. I got in a pretty solid base of training in January and February, held things together pretty well while traveling in India, and then hit a couple of 120 mile weeks since then.

I've had some good longer runs with some extended sections around marathon pace (5:20 or so). However, it's taking me a while to wake the legs up and remember how to run much faster than that. So I should be fine for the 50k, which is really just a chance to get out and put in a nice long run on the trails. The shorter races are always a bigger challenge for me, but hopefully it's just a matter of time before the legs wake up. I just turned 35, so maybe I'm just getting too old to bother with the short stuff.

Last Friday was the first 6:00 a.m. Friday morning run on the trails at Hyland. I met Brian for an early loop at 4:50 a.m., so it appears that I've officially lost my final threads of common sense. But even at that hour, it felt great to be out there after a long, long winter of roads, bike paths, indoor track and treadmill. The trails were in very good shape. We'll see how they are after this next shot of precipitation, but at least the snow is finally gone! Hope everyone's enjoying spring as much as I am.

India Pics

2011-04-08T21:05:00.000-05:00

Kerala Backwaters

Taj and Chris at the Taj

Random Street Scene Near Agra

Caroms Game with Family

Tea Valley, Munnar

Choosing Sleep

2011-03-02T22:58:00.000-06:00

So around 8:30 Friday night, I was still in Minneapolis, 3 hours away from Hayward, WI, the site of the Birkie. I had not yet waxed my skis, or done many of the things I really felt I needed to get done before heading out of town. I had pretty much convinced myself that instead of going up late at night, I'd just get up at 3 a.m. and drive there, when it occurred to me that I didn't actually have to go. Something I had signed up to do for fun was now becoming a major stress, and while I'm all for pushing through difficulty, this was not what I had signed up for.

The thought of not spending all that time in the car, dealing with shuttling to the start and back from the finish, and the exhausted drive home...well, it was a breath of fresh air to stay at home and get some things done.

So I woke up around 6 anyway, and eventually made it out the door and got in a 22 mile run. The run went well, and the afternoon nap was delightful! The next morning my marathon training class did their half marathon, so I got up and ran the course at 5:00 a.m. to get the mile markers out. It was pretty snowy and slow, but the class did a great job, with lots of strong packs of marathoners-in-the-making working together to get to the finish.

Friday, my wife Taj and I leave for a two week trip to India to visit some of her extended family. It's exciting and will be a great experience...but there's a lot to get done before we leave. I'm now in decent running shape, but I'm not sure how much training I'll be doing while we're gone. There are a few days for sure where it's just not going to happen. Hopefully I can get out enough to keep myself sane. We'll primarily be in Kerala, in southern India, both near the coast and then in the mountains. Hopefully I'll get some good pictures.

Race Calendar

2011-02-25T06:55:00.000-06:00

So here's what I'm thinking for the first half of the year...

Trail Mix 50k, April 16
Get in Gear 10k, April 30
TC 1 mile, May 12
Superior 50k, May 21
Brian Kraft 5k, May 30
Grandma's Marathon, June 18

...........................................

Heading to ski the Birkie tomorrow. I'm in the 54k Classic. I haven't skied since my coaching duties with the high school team ended a couple of weeks ago. So, I'm a little nervous about it, but am taking a very laid back approach to this...just get out and enjoy the time on the trail. Still, I'll probably be very sore on Sunday/Monday.

Lehmkuhle, You're my Hero!

2011-02-21T16:48:00.000-06:00

Jason Lehmkuhle became the first American to win the Ohme 30k since 1983, when Greg Meyer did it. Hmm, what other race was last won by Greg Meyer in 1983? The Boston Marathon.

Once known more for his frequent stress fractures than winning races, Jason continues to improve and excel with an intelligent and consistent training approach. I logged many miles with Jason training for various marathons, and can say that he's a great guy, though also a hard-nosed competitor in a weekly mileage competition! He's headed to London for the marathon this spring.

Read all about it HERE.

Training to Train

2011-02-09T22:03:00.000-06:00

2011 is well underway, and my plans for the year are still somewhat up in the air. I'd say that the 2012 Olympic Trials Marathon is in the back of my mind...but actually it's in the forefront of my mind. When I think about what I want to do this year, it all comes down to being ready to run well in January of 2012 in Houston.

Currently, my training remains at a moderate level in both mileage and intensity. Coming off a nice break in December, I have built back up to 80-100 miles per week, supplemented with a few hours per week of cross country skiing. I have been on the indoor track for short workouts a few times, and have done a few shorter tempo runs as well. I'm nowhere near racing fitness, but I'm in a position now where I feel like a few weeks of more pointed training would get me there.

I'll hopefully get a racing plan together for at least the first half of the year in the next few weeks. In the more immediate future, I'm skiing my first Birkie in two weeks. I'll be doing the 54k classic race. My approach to skiing is more recreational than competitive, so I'm looking forward to a few hours out in the woods on a nice trail.

Thanks to all who have wished Hudson well or offered their help. He's at home now, being spoiled by his vegetarian parents with various meat products. He has been taking me on walks around the block. He's moving pretty slow, but he's not in pain and seems to be regaining some enjoyment of life, which is really all we could have asked for.

Top Ultra Performances of 2010

2011-02-04T08:52:00.000-06:00

Some of the ultra-running sites out there had lengthy debates about Ultrarunning magazine's rankings for ultra runner of the year and performances of the year. Some of the debate was about the North Face 50, and how those performances didn't seem to get much respect. There is a tendency to look to the ultras that have been around longest and rank those performances at the top if they stand up well to the test of history. The prime example is this year's Western States 100, where Geoff Roes and Anton Krupicka both were under the old course record. Surprisingly, there was not much discussion about how this year's course was actually different due to the snow.

Nonetheless, I'd say this is a case where the rankings at the top made a lot of sense. You had a stacked race and historic times. But it is unfortunate, particularly for runners not situated in areas of the country considered "ultra hotbeds", that many great performances in less well-known events aren't even considered. I don't have a huge interest in rankings that are based on a few people's opinions, particularly in a sport contested far from the gaze of any objective spectators. However, it did occur to me that Chris Gardner's Voyageur 50 win didn't get a single vote. The way he covered the last half of that course in the rain and mud was certainly worthy of mention. Aside from the two guys at Western, it was perhaps the best ultra performance I saw this year.

Gardner has a blog called Performance is Reality. Check it out and follow his training.

Howling for Hudson

2011-02-02T21:17:00.000-06:00

I'll surely get back to some updates on my training and racing plans sometime soon, but my mind is occupied with other things right now. Hudson (see above), my best running buddy, is having a tough time.

I ran 4 miles with him on Monday. He had great energy, breaking into a full gallop at times and practically pulling me along through the snow. His physical condition has gone down slightly over the 5 and a half years we have had him, but he's still in great shape for nearly 12-year old large breed dog.

He thrives in cold, snowy weather, and has been known to literally herd me out the door, especially on those cold winter mornings when another cup of coffee seems like a better idea than stepping out into the elements. I fell asleep that night having told Taj repeatedly, "Hudson was feeling good today!" He had gotten sick three weeks earlier, but bounced back quickly and had seemingly returned to his old self. The worry lingered in the back of my mind, but I felt pretty confident that he had just been hit with a bad virus and that he was over it.

At about 4 a.m. Tuesday morning, Sierra, one of our other two dogs, woke me up. I got up to let her out and saw that it was Hudson that was distressing her. He had thrown up many times and peed in a few places as well, which is extremely unusual for him. I let him out and he was a bit wobbly, but came back in, drank a bunch of water, and went to sleep.

When I got up two hours later, he had thrown up several more times. He went outside and lay down in the snow against the back fence. He wouldn't get up, but just stared out through the fence. It was 4 degrees outside. I was officially worried.

I brought him to the vet, and by that night we were told that the chances that he had lymphoma were extremely high, and that it was likely wide-spread. Even with chemo, should we choose to pursue it, he probably would only have 6 months to a year. He seemed to be in a lot of pain. We asked that they make him comfortable, and I guess prepared ourselves for the fact that he could go at any time, and that we would likely have to put him to sleep very soon to save him the suffering.

I did my best to remain in stoic, Minnesota male denial, but I broke down a couple of times. We adopted Hudson from the St. Paul shelter shortly after we got married, and we've been through a lot together. He's been kind of like a kid to us, I suppose, as silly as that sounds. Well, anyway he's really a good dog.

The Vet suggested an ultrasound to confirm the diagnosis. While it seemed like a pointless endeavor, it turns out that it's lucky that the test was done. We got the good news earlier today that he does not appear to have any cancer. That's the great news. The bad news is that he's still in really bad shape with what appear to be abscessed infections in his belly. Long story short...there's some hope for him. Possible surgery tomorrow if it looks like there's a way to remove the problematic tissue. Otherwise...let's not think about otherwise.

If you're a dog lover (and you must be if you've read this far!), let out a wolfish howl for Hudson, and hopefully his ears will perk up and he'll live to run another mile.

Climbing Back on the Horse

2011-01-14T10:02:00.000-06:00

Typically I find it difficult to take a break from running. Suffice it to say that I did not have that problem after running the North Face 50, in part due to being extremely busy with the end of the semester, ski coaching, etc., but also because I really needed a rest.

After 10 days completely off from running, I got out 3-4 times per week for the next couple of weeks. This was all supplemented with a decent amount of cross country skiing, which seems to have allowed me to maintain overall fitness fairly well. The last couple of weeks, I've been back to running every day, and have even been on the track a couple of times to try to bring some pep back to these aging legs.

What's next? I'm not sure. The Olympic Trials Marathon is about a year away, so that is really the big goal for the next year. I'd like to run some fast shorter races in order to give myself a chance at running a PR there, so I may be on the roads a fair amount this year. However, I also think the 50k trail runs are great training, very enjoyable, and don't seem to take much out of me, so I hope to hit at least a couple of those along the way.

Looking back over the last year, it has been filled with fairly rapid change. I joined up with the TC Running Co. racing team, and have loved being a part of a team again. I started work on a Ph.D. in Kinesiology, and managed to survive the first semester only a little worse for the wear. Even the dreaded Biostats was, in the end, a positive experience. Round two starts next Wednesday.

I also went from coaching a handful of individual runners to now working with 20-30 athletes at any given time. This has been extremely rewarding, and I feel lucky to have the opportunity to work with all of the people who have entrusted me with their training.

With all of this, and continuing to coach at the high school level (which I continue to love), I have semi-consciously allowed my own training to take a back seat at times. Last fall, I definitely plowed through, but often had to sacrifice sleep in order to do so. I don't make New Year's resolutions, but I will say that during the break I came to the conclusion (which was obvious to everyone except me three months ago) that my current pace of life is neither healthy nor sustainable. You can only drink so much coffee...

So, like many of you out there balancing family, work, social lives, other interests and life's various demands on your time, I am searching for balance. This next month could be tough, with the semester starting and ski season still going, but then I'll have a break from coaching, and my role with the track team is far less demanding, so hopefully I can maintain a somewhat more reasonable lifestyle through the first half of the year. Summer plans include naps, muskie fishing, and obsessive Tour de France viewing. Next fall semester, I plan to take a light load in order to give myself a good chance to train for the Trials.

A racing schedule is still TBD. In the meantime, I'm just trying to get out into the snow and cold every day. For all you Minnesota runners out there, enjoy the next in a long series of snowfalls and cold snaps!

Feel the warm
embrace of ice
burn your face

TNF Endurance Challenge...in Brief

2010-12-06T00:13:00.000-06:00

It was a long day in the saddle, as they say, at the 50 miler. For one thing, they made it 51.5 miles this year, which I didn't appreciate much. I ended up 7th, which was not the race I had planned to run...but then again, running 50 miles over some serious terrain doesn't necessarily go according to plan.

I had a lot of issues out there on Saturday...stomach problems starting very early (before 9 miles), which led to electrolyte issues around halfway. Once I figured out what the problem (or problems, rather) were, I pieced the race back together and finished in a respectable manner. The damage was done by then, however, and the race for the lead had gone away from me. Still, it was great to be a part of it, and I enjoyed running with some really great guys. For those who have followed my foray into ultra-running, you'll be impressed to hear that I did not go off course at all on Saturday! That's a testament to the thousands and thousands of ribbons that marked the course.

Hopefully I'll get a more thorough post up at some point soon, but for now I just want to thank all those who wished me well and offered their good luck or other forms of support. Chikara...thanks for the tip about soda. Coca-Cola saved me. And thanks to my brother for being out there on the course.

Results are posted HERE.

Updates...TNF 50

2010-12-03T16:31:00.000-06:00

Lots of great coverage of the North Face Endurance Challenge 50 miler are up at http://www.irunfar.com/. It appears that some of the contenders have opted out due to injury. As I told my high school coach Pat Foley earlier in the week, 50% of people either don't make it to the starting line, get there significantly over- or under-trained, or end up racing stupidly and taking themselves out of the game. My aim is to not be among that 50% (or whatever percent it actually is...), and then to challenge myself over the second half of the course. Let the chips fall where they may.

For those interested, Twitter updates will be posted tomorrow during the race at irunfar.com.

I stayed with my bro last night in Napa, and just enjoyed a delicious banana pecan pancake. Had a nice easy jog this morning -- it's nice not thinking about wind-chill! I'll be heading down to Marin soon, settling in early I hope, as the shuttle to the start loads between 3:00 and 3:20 a.m.

One Week Out

2010-11-27T10:18:00.001-06:00

After a busy fall and the various life stresses that can pile up, I'm excited to head out to the Marin Headlands for a nice long run. I'm currently a bit of a mess with a head cold, a tooth ache, and the lingering emotions of a funeral earlier this week. Running has always been a means of re-capturing a sense of order and control in my life, so I have continued to enjoy my runs as much as ever, despite it all, and despite the snow and ice that have hit early this year.

My last 20 miler was done entirely on the treadmill in my basement due to an ice storm. The first few miles were torture, but I added in a few mile hill repeats and began thinking about the race and conjuring up the images and feelings of a great run in the Headlands, and I actually forgot that I was in my dingy basement, not out on those beautiful trails.

This photo brings back my best memories of living in San Francisco: the natural beauty, on one hand, and the endless possibilities of the city on the other.

Lest I sound too touchy-feely, rest assured that I aim to go out and compete hard on Saturday. I'm not looking for a tour down memory lane on the trails of the Headlands. I'm excited to be entering a 50 mile race properly trained and tapered -- I hope -- for the first time. Last year was my first attempt at the distance, and I really was unprepared and physically flat due to the two marathons I had run earlier in the fall.

At the same time, I've been racing long enough to know that I can't take for granted that I'll feel great on Saturday. In fact, if there's one thing that is consistently true of long distance racing, it is that at some point, and perhaps for most of the way...it will be hard. Embracing the struggle gives us the best chance for a run that reflects our abilities. It may rain, it may be cold, I may get lost, I may fall down. In running, as in life, the interesting thing is not the obstacle itself, but the manner in which we choose to deal with the challenge.

Running Times did a little preview of the race HERE. It's a nice summary, though in my opinion they buried the lead...which is that Jonathon Wyatt of New Zealand is running. He's an Olympian, six time world mountain running champion, and I believe he has run under 28 minutes for 10k. Track times may not mean a whole lot, but in my opinion Wyatt's success at nearly every other discipline of running means that he's probably smart enough to figure out how to prepare himself well for a 50 miler. Obviously he knows how to run the terrain. Ultra purists will likely favor Geoff Roes or Anton Krupicka, and the logical pick is returning champ Uli Steidl. You could make a strong argument for any of those guys being the favorite, but in my mind Wyatt may have the potential to come in and change the game completely. Or he could blow up...how's that for a waffling prediction?

"I haven't had to move up to the ultra distances just yet, but...uh...ooh, maybe it's coming."

Wonderfully Boring Training...until Saturday's Snowstorm!

2010-11-15T23:11:00.000-06:00

I have started to get random calls and emails from people wondering if I'm doing okay...and it occurred to me that I haven't updated this in quite a while. The truth is that when training goes according to plan, there's not too much noteworthy to report, and I'm too tired from doing it to write about it!

It has been a great few weeks, with the high school team that I coach scoring their first conference championship in school history. With the end of XC season, the beginning of Nordic ski season, steady 120-140 mile weeks, and my first semester as a Ph.D. student (Kinesiology, Exercise Physiology emphasis) in full swing, it has definitely been a busy time.

I did make it up to northern MN for a weekend, and got in a nice long run up and down the long, grinding hills of Duluth while the other Lundstrom men attempted to shoot deer. That was a great run, and I've had a couple of others in the 30+ mile range that have gone well. The only hiccup in training occurred last Saturday, when an early winter snowstorm derailed plans for a 35 mile run. It was calm and a slushy snow was starting to fall when I set out early in the morning.

About 90 minutes into the run my clothing was soaked, and I turned into what became a pretty viscious wind. I got quite cold, stopped off to try to warm up indoors and only seemed to get colder. At that point, I decided I had best cut the loop short and head for home. By the time I got there, I had warmed up slightly as the path I was on gave me some shelter from the wind. However, my legs still didn't feel like they were firing on all cylinders in the cold, and the snow was continuing to pile up. I did not feel like I was getting much of anything out of the run. Bringing my body temp back up to normal was the top priority. I did still run 26 miles, in some pretty serious snow, and it was not as slow as it felt...maybe I started running faster to try to warm up.

Last year prior to the New York Marathon, on a cold, windy, rainy day, I got extremely cold, passed out, and fell off the side of a construction site (my uncle was building a house). I hit my head on some concrete block, and off I went to the ER. After a $10,000 medical/cardiac workup, the doctor told me..."Your heart is fine. Maybe just try to use some common sense."

Common sense? So I'm not sure what he meant by that, and running 26 miles in cold, wet, windy conditions probably doesn't qualify, but I did make it back home without any major medical problems, so....baby steps, I guess.

Less than 3 weeks til TNF 50 mile. I've got to try to sleep more.

Running 120 Miles a Week is Easy...

2010-10-17T19:00:00.002-05:00

...when your long run is 30 miles, which is what mine was this week. I considered going up to run the Wild Duluth 50k, as I love the Superior Hiking Trail, but opted to save the driving time and stress. Instead, I went out to Hyland this morning and did four loops of the standard Friday morning loop. Normally I don't like repeating loops, as my OCD leads me to pay far too much attention to time, but I actually wanted to pick up the pace gradually throughout this run, so the loop approach worked out well. Plus, this gave me a chance to return to the car to grab some fuel.

The loop is a little over 7.5 miles, including a pass over the ski hill on the way out and again heading back in. Starting in the dark is definitely the way to go for these really long runs, but the various crashings through the brush did startle me on a few occasions. I literally almost ran into a deer at one point. I also heard some kind of bird of prey making a killing, and later in the morning saw the aftermath -- looked like a hawk snared a rabbit.

The descending sequence went well: 64 min, 59, 56, 53. Somehow I've gotten to the point where a nearly four hour run does not intimidate me, and in fact I felt really good over the last couple of loops. I'll probably do a couple more runs of 4+ hours, in two and four weeks, with shorter long runs on the weeks in between.

This week...shooting for some treadmill climbing on Tuesday, a fartlek Thursday, and 20 or so on Sunday.

Roller Coaster

2010-10-10T20:53:00.000-05:00

I started off the week fired up to train for North Face, fell into a big funk mid-week, then bounced back and regained my spark by week's end. In hindsight, my big mistake was taking on a fairly challenging treadmill climb on Tuesday. I knew I was still feeling TCM and struggled through the run, but I pushed through anyway. Wednesday and Thursday, I backed it off quite a bit and even considered just shutting down my training completely for a few days. By Friday morning, I had my spark back.

The reality is that it's pretty tough not to really enjoy running right now, with the great weather, fall colors and nice dry trails. Friday morning I ran Hyland with the group, and then went to the ski slope to add on a few miles. Sunday I got in 20 at Afton, running the 25k loop about 5 minutes slower than I did during the 50k race in the summer, but feeling quite comfortable. I'm convinced that if that race were run at a cooler time of year, the course record would be 15+ minutes faster. What a great morning to be out running the trails!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm soliciting advice for my North Face 50 mile training. From my experience last year, I seem to have two big challenges to get figured out:

1) Nutrition. I did a good job with fluids, but had a hard time getting in enough calories. I've gotten better about taking gels, but every longer race I do, I'm tempted to stop eating just because I'm sick of it!

2) Preparing for the downhills. I can climb fine, but I need to be able to run the downhills a lot better, and to do so without trashing my legs. I suspect much of my leg soreness last year was due to damage sustained in the two marathons I had run earlier in the fall, but I also know I'm less efficient than some guys who seem to be able to motor down the trails without doing any damage to their legs. Certainly the trail experience I've accumulated over the last year will be helpful, and I have a few other ideas on how to prepare, but I'm always open to suggestions. Dick Beardsley reportedly hit his quads repeatedly with a hammer in order to toughen them up for the Boston Marathon. I'm not so sure about that one...

TCM 17 Mile

2010-10-03T17:35:00.000-05:00

I stepped off the course today at 17 miles, having realized several miles earlier that my body was not cooperating for today's race. My breathing was easy, but my legs felt sluggish and awkward from the early miles, and they were getting quite sore already by the half marathon. At that point I was off pace, and had little hope of accomplishing either of my goals for the day -- to crack the top ten and to run a fast, strong second half of the race.

This is only the second marathon I have dropped out of, of nearly 20 that I've run. I have had many good ones, and I've also had many that went sour but that I dragged myself through anyway. Today, I opted to save the legs for another day. By 10 miles I was thinking about not finishing; by half marathon I had made the decision to make it a 17 mile steady run, and consciously worked to maintain pace through the next four miles. My last mile was actually a relatively quick 5:20, which made me briefly reconsider finishing, but the many 5:25-5:30 miles had left me far back from the race I had hoped for. Objectively I had no chance of maintaining my pace through the tough final miles. Taj and Hudson were there to give me a ride.

Stubbornness is one of my over-riding personality traits, so the idea of not finishing something does not sit well with me. As I sit here this afternoon, I'm actually sort of proud of my decision to drop out. For me it is the harder choice to make.

This gives me two months to train well and prepare for the North Face 50 in the Marin Headlands. This year was supposed to be about doing some different things, and I'd say that I have pursued that goal very well, running a couple of mountain races, several longer trail races, and experimenting with my training. Add to that list: pulling the plug on a bad marathon.

TCM Weekend

2010-10-01T08:35:00.000-05:00

Twin Cities Marathon weekend is here -- the leaves are changing and a bit of chill has crept into the morning air. There is a whole lot going on with the ever-expanding Saturday events, etc. I'll be running the marathon on Sunday morning. My initial thought coming off the Mountain Running Championships was that I might not be ready for a marathon in four weeks. However, a solid run with a strong last 5k at the City of Lakes 25k convinced me otherwise, so I'll toe the line on Sunday.

I've been half-jokingly telling people that the marathon is my "speed work" for the North Face 50 miler coming up in early December. I'm signed up and ready to go back to that race with more experience under my belt.

I'm keeping my goals and expectations for the marathon in check based on the lower mileage and less marathon specific training that I have done in recent months. I'm trying to keep an open mind, though, on what might be possible. My workouts have been good, and I feel healthy, which is more than I could have said going into the last couple of marathons that I've run. Sometimes training less means feeling better, and I certainly have tended toward excessive training at times in the past. That said, I do plan to take it out conservatively, hoping to finish strong and pass lots of people in the second half of the race.

Good luck to everyone who's running this weekend!

Slovenia Pics

2010-09-17T08:40:00.000-05:00

A few photos I took in Slovenia:

1) Top of the mountain, fogged in:

2) View of pastures and shepherd's huts near the top:

3) Rickey Gates and Jonathon Wyatt jogging two days before the race:

4) Bruce Lee painted on a wall along the main street in Kamnik:

5) Traditional attire...

6) Teammates Eric Blake, Max King, Joe Gray, and Tommy Manning:

7) US team photo (courtesy of http://www.usmrt.com/)

8) Parade before the opening ceremonies:

9) Open men's team champions, Eritrea:

9) Flags of nations represented at the championships:

10) Near Kamnik town center:

11) Last but not least, the video of the US men's and women's team finishes. For all of those who have seen this and told me how bad I looked coming up to the line, I can assure you that it felt even worse than it looked!

Way to Go, Brian the Younger

2010-09-11T11:54:00.000-05:00

Just got the word that Brian successfully completed his first 100 miler, the Superior Sawtooth, this morning. Congrats to him on not only covering the distance, but on winning the race. His time of 22:32 puts him on the board as one of a select group to have gone under 24 hours on the course.

Here's Brian at 4:00 a.m. prior to the start of the Western States 100 miler, where we shared duties pacing our friend and teammate Tony.

I'm sure he's even sleepier now than he was in this picture. Hopefully in a few days we'll get to read his account of the experience.

Silver!

2010-09-07T22:22:00.000-05:00

This will be a quick post as I'm sleep-deprived, sore, and jumping head-first into the semester at the U. I just want to thank everyone for their well-wishes and congratulations regarding the World Mountain Running Championships.

I feel like I stumbled into good fortune once again...I was a late addition to the team, and ended up taking home a silver medal thanks to the great efforts of my teammates. I was our sixth of six runners, but ran a pretty strong race, taking 59th of about 150 runners. The course was very tough, with some unrelentingly steep sections that reduced everyone to a shuffle or walk.

More on the race and trip in the next few days, but two quick memories to give you a flavor of the trip:

1) The finish was hidden in a fog cloud and perched atop a final, exceptionally steep pitch. In attempting to sprint up to the line, my legs were basically failing, and only by swinging my arms violently was I able to carry my momentum up and across the line. I did not turn green (this time), but I did think my heart was going to burst through my forehead.

2) As the evening progressed at the post-race dinner/party, the local band moved from local folk tunes into more familiar western pop songs. I almost thought I was hallucinating when they started playing John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads". It was a gloriously kitschy moment!

Off to Slovenia

2010-08-31T12:40:00.000-05:00

I'm flying out tomorrow afternoon...Minneapolis to Amsterdam to Paris to Ljubljana, Slovenia (thanks, by the way, to the well-traveled individuals who have helped me pronounce the name of the city I'll be flying into!).

Final preparations have gone very well. My training has been more similar to cross country preparations than what I did prior to the qualifying race at Mt. Washington. I focused on long repeats up a constant grade for that race, which helped give me a good sense of pace and the uphill endurance that I needed, but left me lacking in race sharpness.

The course in Slovenia appears to be more varied in terrain and grade, so I've focused a bit more on developing power and VO2max, with a nice supporting base of long, steady runs and lactate threshold workouts.

I'm nervous in the sense that I'm not sure what to expect and what would constitute a successful race for me. But more than that, I'm just ecstatic to have this opportunity. What will be a successful race? Well, you know at the finish line when you've given it everything you have on that particular day, and that's really all you can hope to do. Aside from that, I'm looking forward to spending time with teammates, seeing a bit of the local area, and just taking the whole experience in.

I'll post from Slovenia if I can. Otherwise, those who are interested can get updates HERE.

Feeling Really Lucky

2010-08-21T12:31:00.000-05:00

First off, I want to thank Adam and everyone at TC Running Co. (especially Kurt) for all of the support over the last several months. There are a lot of great people in the running world, but as far as generosity goes these guys are at the top of the heap in my book. Their support has made it possible for me to go the World Mountain Running Championships. I probably wouldn't have even been able to go to the qualifying race were it not for all they have done for me.

Running with the team has freed me to pursue a number of new avenues. The big new developments have been coaching a seemingly ever-expanding group of athletes, and running mountain and trail races. Where running will take me next, I don't know for sure (aside from the Olympic Marathon trials in Houston in Jan. of 2012), but it's great to have people passionate about running behind you.

TEAM USA MN TURNS 10

I attended the 10 year anniversary party for Team USA Minnesota the other night. I was a part of the training group from 2001-2004 and from 2006-2009. It was nice to catch up with everyone, and also to hear all of the current athletes speak. I would like to take this opportunity to echo the recurring theme that I heard from all of them: a big thanks to Pat Goodwin, Coach Dennis Barker, and all of the sponsors and board members. I feel really lucky to have been a part of the group, and I'm excited to continue to follow these athletes' careers. The new class includes two athletes who took one of my classes at the U, so it's really cool to see them stepping up and starting their professional running careers. And Old Gabrielson, Lehm-coolio, Nicolini and McG still have PLENTY of fight left in them as well.

It's amazing to think back to 2001 and to take stock of how far the group has come, not only in terms of performance, but also in what is available to the athletes now, not only in things like medical care/therapy, but also in terms of opportunities to travel and race all around the world. The good reputation of the group has opened a lot of doors. And as Dennis talked about in his hilarious, inspiring speech, a lot of progress has been made in raising the level of US distance running, in no small part due to groups like Team USA Minnesota. I'd encourage anyone to support the group and its athletes in their quest for success on the national and international stage.

TRAINING

Coming to the end of two very strong weeks of training. I've been aiming for balance in my training, with some hill work, some VO2max pace, some lactate threshold work, some strength and power work, and some quality aerobic running. No single workout stands out as amazing, but workouts have been consistently good. If I had to tell you about one workout that I've done recently, it would be this Tuesday's workout. It was a cool, beautiful morning, but I had scheduled a hill workout on the treadmill, so I did most of my running indoors.

The workout was 10x3 min on/2 min off. I was shooting for roughly 10k race effort, or slightly harder. The twist is that I attempted to mimic the World Championships course in terms of the elevation. The first kilometer of the course is flat, so I did that one on a flat. Most of the other intervals were at 12% to 15% grade, but I did throw in another flat repeat to mimic the flat to downhill section that occurs later in the race. I even hopped on the stair climber and maxed it out in order to prepare for the very steep sections on the course.

This whole mountain running thing really makes training interesting. I've always used my own running as a sort of an "experiment of one" where I can test out different approaches and theories. With mountain running, there isn't the same amount of accumulated knowledge out there, so I feel like there's less clear, evidence-based training theory. That is a challenge, but I'm finding that it's a lot of fun to test out some different workouts and see how my body responds. In the end, the physiology is the same, it's just the demands of the course that are different.

The main focus for the next couple of weeks it to keep the positive momentum going while backing off enough to make sure that I'm fresh and rested on race day. And I'd like to spend some time learning something about Slovenia...it would be nice to at least learn how to say "thank you" in Slovenian.

MUSKIE!

2010-08-17T22:05:00.000-05:00

I'm back from Canada and am happy to report most importantly that it was a successful fishing trip. My lifelong quest to hook the elusive muskie was fulfilled on the last night of the trip, when I hooked the 42 inch fish pictured below. Many who know me as a left-wing hippie vegetarian pacifist may be surprised to learn of my obsession with catching large fish. What can I say? My wife and I once took one of those questionaires that reveals your true personality-type a few years ago. I was characterized as black-hearted.

While I do actually eat fish, especially when I catch it myself, you'll all be relieved to know that the green monster pictured below was released and swam away safely. Maybe I'll catch him again in a few years when he's put on a few more pounds. Thanks to my Dad and Step-mom Anne for a great and very memorable trip! Oh, and for anyone interested, here's the secret spot: Lac Seul Outposts.

Training was great too. There are no roads leading to the camp, so I was antipating doing a lot of scrambling through the woods and through some of the open sections along the lake that have recently burned or been logged. I explored a bit and found a nearby logging road that was in good shape. It was about a half-mile steep uphill through the woods and then 100 meters across some down logs and through a sea of blueberry bushes, and then I was onto the logging road. The road has apparently been closed to vehicular traffic for a very long time. So there were no cars, just me and the bears (I saw their poop, but not them, fortunately) and lots of rolling hills and the sound of gravel underfoot. I slept great, ate well, and I feel great. I'm very excited for the World Mountain Running Championships. Check out the course video below:

World Mountain Running Champs

2010-08-06T15:20:00.005-05:00

Shifting myself back into the uphill grind mindset these days...ran 3x1.5 miles uphill fairly hard in Duluth a few days ago, going from basically under the highway downtown all the way up the hill and finishing either at Duluth Central High School or on Cliff Avenue. It's a good steady climb with some nice variation in steepness. Preparing for Mount Washington I basically set the treadmill at 12% and ran...which was great training for running at 12% incline, but not so much for the steeper sections. The World course is more varied than Mount Washington, so I definitely need greater variety of inclines in my training.

On that note, I also busted out an old classic from the Team USA Minnesota days...threshold 1200s in the park. Thanks to Dennis Barker for that one. That workout has been largely responsible for putting quite a number of people on the World XC team over the years. The varied terrain makes it tough to go fast, but that's sort of the idea.

I'm making an effort not to make each post a small novel, so I'm shutting it down here today, with the final note that I'm off to Canada for a steady diet of training, fishing, eating and sleeping. Should be a nice respite before the high school XC season gets underway and my schedule starts to really fill up.

It's About the Voyage

2010-07-30T18:30:00.002-05:00

Two weeks after struggling through an easy run at the 1/2 Voyageur, I laced up the ol' trail shoes again for the full Voyageur -- a 50 mile trail run from Carlton, MN to Duluth and back. The course, for those who have never run it, has a little of everything, including technical single-track, wide well-groomed trails, mudpits, creek crossings, steep descents dotted with rickety bridges, plenty of rocks and roots, and some paved road and bike path. It is a true test of trail running prowess. I don't think it's an accident that Scott Jurek, 7-time Western States 100 champ, holds the record.

A couple weeks of drier weather, plus the trampling of a few hundred feet, did wonders for the course...until it started raining mid-race. I had a very enjoyable run and am glad I decided to run. Andy Holak and crew did a great job in putting everything together. I can't say enough about how humbling it is to have volunteers out there literally all day. On the same note, my wife Taj came out for her first ultra crewing experience, and helped me out so much along the way. Towards the end I started to just to look forward to seeing her again at the next aid station. Charlie and Sierra, two of our dogs, accompanied her and did a fine job licking the salt off me.

The race itself...

I ran with Brian P. for the first few miles. We chatted and caught up to John Storkamp after a few miles. Dusty Olson and Chris Gardner were out of sight from the get-go. Brian fell back after a bit, wisely listening to his body. Storkamp and I were close until the powerlines (after 10 miles), where he snuck away from me a little bit. I was running by myself, feeling good, eating a gel every 30 minutes in very dutiful fashion. This was a major accomplishment for me. After my first 50k last year, I was laughed at for commenting that I had taken two gels during the race, but that the second one didn't go down well, so it was actually more like one and a half. The seasoned ultra guys I was with thought that was pretty funny.

The only hiccup on the way out was that my left foot was starting to hurt. It was not bad, but still that is a little scary 15 miles into a 50 mile run. So at 18 miles or so, I stopped in the aid station to change my shoes. I put on the New Balance 759 that I had gotten from Kurt K. at New Balance via TC Running Company. They're light and flexible, and for the next 14 miles (to the turnaround and back) they were ideal. There's a lot of road and gravel road-type surfaces on that stretch, so they worked great.

At the turn-around, I realized I was actually very near the lead of the race. I had sort of been running along in my own world, not having seen another competitor in many miles. I was a few minutes behind Gardner, and very close to both Dusty and Storkamp. Neither of them looked very good at that point. After passing the halfway point in 3:23, I also realized that I was on a pretty nice pace. So I got motivated and quickly passed Storkamp and Dusty, and decided I'd try to catch Gardner before the powerlines. I cut the lead from 5 minutes down to a little over a minute, which was encouraging. Still, I knew that the less technical section was my strong suit, while the technical stuff would favor him.

My energy was great and it was still relatively cool...actually it was raining. It dawned on me that the trails were going to be tougher going and a bit slippery on the way back, but I didn't think much of it. I could have changed my shoes again, but the idea of running another 18 miles on shoes that were aggravating my plantar fasciitis seemed pretty stupid.

Just after the opportunity to switch shoes came and went, I hit a section of trail that left me sliding down the trail in the wrong direction...repeatedly! I finally figured out that I needed to go off to the side of the trail, grab grass, branches and anything else, and literally crawl up the hills, which I did on numerous occasions, before even reaching the powerlines. On the powerlines, I had actually become fairly adept at the crawl, so I didn't suffer too bad. However, this technique led to my arms being the most sore part of my body in the days after the race.

As I struggled forward (and sometimes backward), I kept hearing the voice of Paul Sherwen, one of the Tour de France commentators. He was saying things like, "Well, Phil, the impetus has really gone out of him now...He's just hoping to drag himself home now..."

It did give me some solace to see the tracks of Gardner along the trail...he had obviously done his share of sliding around and falling down as well. He still managed to finish in 6:55, one of the few sub-7:00 times ever, and the first in a very long time. I don't care what shoes I was wearing -- no one was going to catch him on that day. I came through in 2nd in 7:13, with Dusty behind me in 7:26, and then Brian running a very steady 7:52. Congrats to Valeria of TC Running Co. for her fourth place finish. I'm going to guess she holds the Voyageur record for an Argentina native.

Coming up...

I got a call on Tuesday informing me that a spot had opened up on the USA Mountain Running team, for the World Mountain Running Championships in Kamnick, Slovenia. Fortunately, I recovered quickly from the 50 miler (even my arms are feeling okay now!), and have turned my attentions toward training for this race. It's a real honor to be selected for international competition, so I'm very excited to have the opportunity. More on this race in the posts ahead...

Fool's Errand

2010-07-16T15:08:00.000-05:00

n., pl., fools' errands.

A fruitless mission or undertaking.

Oftentimes in life I find myself asking...what have I gotten myself into this time? The phrase "fools' errand" often applies the the pursuits that I choose, most recently the 1/2 Voyageur Trail Marathon.

My wife and I were in northern MN for the weekend, so I thought I'd try to see part of the Voyageur course as a means of preparing for the 50 miler, which is next weekend. Turns out the 1/2 Voyageur was happening, so I thought, what better way to see the course? I had sore legs from a hard week of training on top of the Afton 50k the previous weekend. Having not slept much the previous two nights, I was tired, grumpy, and not at all prepared for what I had gotten myself into.

The early part was enjoyable, as I ran with Storkamp until we went off course, and then he unceremoniously ditched me as I tip-toed through the rocks of Jarrow's Beach before plunging waist deep into a mudpit. I signed up for a trail run, and all of a sudden I felt like an American Gladiator contestant. My legs were in no shape to do more than shuffle along, so I took my time out there. The powerlines were still brutal. You have to ask at a certain point if it's still trail running, or if it has become something else...There's no running to be done, and there are stretches where there doesn't even seem to be much of a trail.

I accomplished the mission of scouting the course, but unfortunately my plantar fasciitis flared up, which made me doubt whether doing the 50 would be a good idea. On top of that, my legs were completely scratched up from crashing through the dense underbrush that has overtaken the trail in spots, I turned an ankle multiple times on rocks and roots hidden under the overgrown weeds, and had my shoe suctioned off in a couple of mudpits along the way.

Finally, almost a week later, I'm finding some enthusiasm and desire to run the 50 miler. My foot seems to have calmed back down and it's now conceivable that I'll be able to run/hike 50 miles on it. I know that if I rest my legs, I'll have a totally different experience than the 1/2 Voyageur. The fact that Jarrow's Beach isn't on the 50 course helps a lot.

However, I do believe that given the rutted, weedy, sloppy state of the course, chasing Jurek's 6:41 record would be yet another fools' errand. I'm hoping to use this 50 as a learning experience -- a chance to practice fueling, taking in fluids, and hopefully being able to preserve some strength for the second half of the course.

In my first 50 miler last December, I lost a lot of time on Uli Steidl and Geoff Roes on a section of the course that has some stairs and is narrow and kind of technical. I thought it was pretty tough...until I saw the powerlines. So if I can get through Voyageur, maybe it will change my perspective on what tough terrain is, and maybe there will be a payoff in December when I go back to Marin county to run the North Face 50.

Afton 50k Race Report

2010-07-06T10:44:00.000-05:00

The Afton Trail Run 50k was this past Saturday. I rode along with Kurt and Sonya out to the park. Being that 50k is the shortest commonly run ultra, people often make the mistake of taking it rather lightly. I had to remind myself that it's still 31 miles, and that's no joke. Add heat, humidity, and a tough, hilly course, and it's serious business.

The race went off wonderfully, thanks to the many volunteers. It's a testament to great course marking that both Brian P. and I managed to stay on course! Race Director John Storkamp, who does a great job all around, designs awesome shirts and awards. It's worth checking out the race web site and blog for a small taste of his work.

As for my race, it was a successful day on the trail. I've been a little self-conscious lately. I saw a runner who I used to coach last week at Western States and the first thing he said was..."I heard you've been struggling lately..." And then after my last post, where I talk about the possibility of running a course record at Afton, Steve Q. commented that it would be too humid for anyone to run a course record this year. I did manage to run nearly even splits, won the race, and broke the course record, though it very close.

Patrick Russell, Brian Peterson and I were out front in a lead pack for nearly the entire first loop. I don't think any of us wanted to run 31 miles alone, so we'd sort of trade leading duties, and slow down a bit to pack back up after aid stations. I took 3 gels and 3 salt tablets, as well as around 50 oz. of fluids on the first loop, which took just under 1:54. My breathing was pretty easy, but my legs didn't feel great. In particular my right hamstring felt a bit tight...probably from hammering those downhills in the Marin Headlands earlier in the week.

Toward the end of the loop, Patrick built up a small gap on some of the winding single-track, and then extended that on the climb back up to the start/finish area. He was still within sight, but Brian and I were a ways back from him coming through the first loop. I swapped out my water bottle, forgot to grab a fresh supply of gels (oops!), and set off in pursuit of Patrick. Brian took a little longer in the aid station, and I didn't see him again until the finish.

Patrick's gap seemed to lessen each time we went uphill, so I didn't worry too much about catching him. Not far into the second loop, he actually slowed up and started talking to me as I caught him. "Bastinado!" he cried, in ode to Wynn Davis, a strong local runner who was tackling the 25k this year.

It was getting really hot. Pat mentioned that it had not been his plan to go out on course record pace. I pleased with the pace and was right where I wanted to be. We ran together for a while longer, until I took a slight lead on the sharp downhill into the back 40 loop.

I was quick through the aid station, and my legs were feeling pretty good, so I decided to pick it up for a while. Patrick stayed close through the loop, but on the climb out I seemed to put some time into him. I later learned that he began to suffer from the heat shortly after that, and ended up dropping out. Still, for a guy who has only been back to training for a short period of time, he looked really strong. Having run on the U.S. team at the World 100k, he's a real talent at the long stuff. Everyone who knows them hopes to see the Russell's back in Minnesota soon!

So the first 2/3 of the second loop went great. My legs were strong, I took another gel from an aid station and a couple more salt tablets, and rolled along at a nice strong pace. I seemed to have built up a good lead, as I couldn't see anyone behind me coming across one of the long, open meadow stretches.

Then...coming down through the downhill between the campground and the river (about 10 miles into the loop), I was coming up on some 25k runners. I lost focus for a second, caught a toe on a rock and careened forward. Rather than just falling on my face, I tried to catch myself and stay up, pulling my legs back under me as fast as I could. My upper body was too far forward, though, so I only succeeded in causing both hamstrings to seize up as I hit the ground. The trail left its mark on my left knee and hip, but I was more concerned about my hamstrings. I managed to get back on my feet, the cramping released, and I cautiously ran the rest of the downhill.

Fortunately, there's a nice flat stretch along the river at that point on the course, so I was able to cruise along there and give my legs a chance to regain some rhythm. Still, I never regained momentum, and the last five miles felt pretty rough. I knew I was probably slightly under course record pace, but I also felt like things could fall apart pretty badly if I pushed too hard.

The meat grinder went pretty well...ran the whole way up albeit at a walk-like pace, but the snowshoe loop really nailed me. By then it was so hot and my sub-par fueling on the second loop may have been catching up to me. I just told myself to maintain effort and get through it. The last 3 miles of that course are really tough. Passing 25k runners gave me a little boost, as many were offering words of encouragement. I tried to return the favor.

With the end in sight, I realized that I'd sneak under the course record. It felt great to cross the line. I saw that I had torn through the toebox of one of my shoes...my big toenail didn't survive the run very well. Brian P. held on well for second, and Eve, who seems to own this race, took another win on the women's side.

Lots of fun hanging out and chatting after the race. Lots of TC Running Co. folks, and many others as well. It's like a reunion every time you go to a race: You never know who you'll run into. Congrats to Ben and Kelsi (go U of M 1262!) for their great runs in the 25k! Check out Helen's blog for some nice reporting and photos.

California Trip...And Afton This Weekend

2010-07-01T00:07:00.000-05:00

Western States

A big congratulations to Tony K. (not to be confused with ANTON K.) who placed 26th at the Western States 100 mile last Saturday in 19:28. I had the honor of being one of his pacers, and really enjoyed the whole experience immensely. People have been asking me, "so when are we going to see you in a 100 miler?" The answer is...the next time someone asks me to pace.

In all seriousness, it was very educational for me to see how diligent Tony was about sticking to his fueling schedule, backing off when he needed to, pushing through when he could, and generally ignoring what others were doing (and the stupid comments his pacer insisted on making), and focusing on running his best race. I learned a lot, and while I don't plan to run 100 miles anytime soon, the lessons apply to other races.

I've had a lot of time on my feet the last week, doing fairly long runs with Brian on Thursday and Friday, pacing on Saturday, and then hitting about 15 miles of Marin County trails on both Monday and Tuesday. I plan to run the North Face Endurance Challenge 50 mile again in December, and got a chance to re-visit some parts of that course that while visiting my brother. It was very enjoyable to hang out with the bro, eat burritos, and run more trails.

Afton Trail Race

Tuesday's run in particular got a little out of hand in terms of how hard I ran, but hopefully I'll recover in time to run pretty well at Afton on Saturday. I'm taking a fairly low-key approach to this and will likely be running comfortably the first loop and the trying to drop the hammer as much as possible on the second loop. Based on my meager 50k experience, that seems to be the way to do it.

It promises to be a fun day on the trails with lots of familiar faces and a great course. I'm curious to see how those hills feel after all of the mountain running I've been doing recently. A few people have mentioned the possibility of a course record this year, and I will certainly try to go for it, though I'm not going to reduce my training significantly going in. I still will try to run as hard as I can on that day. The funny thing is that the current course record is held by the nearly eponymous Chris Lundberg, and though I have never run Afton before, I've already had people congratulate me on running so well there!

There appear to be plenty of strong runners in the field, on both the men's and women's side. For the guys, Patrick Russell is running, and seems to be coming back into shape, and Brian P. has the potential to run very fast as well (see his Trail Mix results), though he claims to be taking this more as a training race in his preparations for the Superior 100. And in trail racing, as I learned at Superior this year, anything can happen. That's why they run the race. Looking forward to seeing everyone out there.

Training Summary & Mount Washington

2010-06-26T01:21:00.001-05:00

Here's a summary of what my training has been like for the last three weeks, including mileage and key workouts, culminating with the Mt. Washington Road Race last Saturday.

Week 1 (5/31--June 6): 102 miles
MON: Brian Kraft 5k (see previous race report)
TUE: 60 min. @ 12% on treadmill. Started at 6.0 mph, picked up slightly, but kept it aerobic and fairly comfortable.
THU: 30 min. trail fartlek. Felt pretty good
SAT: 15 miles w/ 8 mile progression: 5:50 down to 5:25
SUN: 20 easy at Afton

Week 2 (June 7--13): 90 miles
TUE: Track workout: 1600, 1200, 800, 400, 4x200, all with pretty short rest. Not encouraging...either I'm still tired from the weekend's long runs, or I have lost a couple of gears.
FRI: Treadmill climbing workout. All at 12%. 30 min, 20 min, 10 min w/ 5 min recovery in between. 30 min was all at 7.6 mph, 20 went from 7.7 down to 8.0 incrementally, and the 10 min was at 8.0 until a sprint of 9.0 mph over the last 30 seconds. This was encouraging...by far my best treadmill climbing workout thus far.

Week 3 (June 14--20): 78 miles
MON: 20 min. fartlek. Felt good
WED: 30 min. treadmill climb. Easy pace, with 6x30 seconds fast uphill thrown in.
SAT: Mt. Washington Road Race. 8th place. 64:25.

Mount Washington is a 7.6 mile uphill race, averaging an 11 or 12% grade. In summary...that was pretty hard! It was a competitive field, where typical breakdowns of who has the fastest PRs, etc. simply don't apply. Some great runners fell quickly by the wayside. Some people I have never heard of before rocked it.

Those with climbing skills and experience generally bested those of us who come from the flatlands, but I felt like I ran a strong race. It was a bit disappointing for me to miss making the USA team for the World Trophy Race, especially by just two places. However, I feel like a ran a smart, hard race...moving up through the field steadily until about the 6 mile mark. What more can you do? Move on to the next thing...

Next...

Currently, I'm at the Western States 100 mile, where I'll be pacing Minnesota's Tony K for the last 20 miles tomorrow. It's been a great couple of days of running in the mountains. Brian P., Tony's other pacer and I have gotten lost on runs two days in a row, logging lots of easy miles including an epic slog through the snow in Granite Chief Wilderness Area. The fact that we can't seem to stay on course has Tony a little worried. Our primary job, after all, is to assist him in navigating the course. In our defense, the course was not yet marked when we tried to run on it, and any permanent signs marking the trails were buried under many feet of snow.

Lots of up and down running in California this week, and then back to Minnesota next week. I'll be back on the trails for the Afton 50k next weekend. Thanks to everyone who has given advice, etc. on that course. Should be a great run!

Brian Kraft in Brief

2010-06-01T10:19:00.000-05:00

Memorial Day means the Brian Kraft 5k for many of the top local runners here in Minnesota. This year's race brought favorable temperatures, calm winds, and...slower than usual times. My entirely unscientific survey suggested that most everyone was a little bit off. The only explanation I can find is that perhaps the heat wave earlier in the week sort of zapped everyone and left the field feeling a little flat on race day.

I came through in 6th place with a 15:16. Eric Hartmark ran away with it in 14:54, a bit off what would usually win this race. I ran over 30 seconds faster last year despite the fact that I had just run the Superior 50k the week before (this year there were 2 weeks between the races). This reinforces my many years of experience that I race best off marathon training...high mileage and lots of long tempo work, which is what I was doing last year in preparation for Grandma's Marathon.

In any case, I'm not too bent out of shape about the Brian Kraft 5k. My goal is to run well at Mount Washington, so I've been doing lots of hill work. I was not sure how that would translate to a flat 5k, but apparently it didn't translate very well. On the upside, I felt strong and fairly smooth...just not very fast.

I may race again next weekend and/or the following weekend. Plans are a bit up in the air, but I feel like I need to get my mental racing game sharpened up, and the best way to do that is to go out and compete.

Last Three Weeks' Training Summary

2010-06-01T10:00:00.000-05:00

Training Summary:

May 10-16: 90 miles

Strange week with the mile and 50k...Monday workout indicates fairly low level of fitness, hoping to race myself into shape.

Key workouts:
MONDAY -- 4x1200 (5:10 pace) w/ 1 min. jog recovery + 4x30 sec fast w/ 1 min jog
THURSDAY -- TC One Mile. 4:32. 5th in heat.
SATURDAY -- Superior Trail 50k. 3:58. 2nd.

May 17-23: 96 miles

Pretty beat up.

Key workouts:

WEDNESDAY -- 10x1 min on/1 min off. Around Cedar Lake. Not particularly fast, but just changing up the pace to shake the legs out of their funk.

THURSDAY -- 60 min. on treadmill @ 12%. Started at 6.0 mph and worked pace down from there.

SATURDAY -- 18 miles at Afton w/ Tony and Younger. Ran hills hard during second half of run.

May 24-30: 90 miles
Starting to feel smoother and like the legs are coming around.

Key workouts:
TUESDAY -- 3 miles, 2 miles, 1 mile w/.5 mile jog in between, on treadmill @12% grade. 7.6 mph (8:00 min/mile), finished at 8.0 mph. (7:30). Felt controlled, but working very hard by the end.

THURSDAY -- Fartlek on roads: 8x1 min on/1 min off + 4x30 sec on/1 min. off

Go, Mr. Foley

2010-05-25T08:30:00.000-05:00

My high school coach, Pat Foley, was to be the subject of today's post, as he was inducted into the hall of fame last night by the Northfield Booster Club, an honor he earned through his many years of coaching and guiding young people on and off the cross country course.

Unfortunately, the happiness of the occasion was tempered by the news that Pat has just been diagnosed with colon cancer and will start chemotherapy today. Those who know Pat and wish to follow his story can do so at his Caringbridge site:

Web Address: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/patfoley1

It's hard to pay adequate tribute to a guy like Pat. His positive attributes are so many...but to me what stands out are his caring and compassionate ways, and the humor and positive energy that he carries with him. There's no way to quantify the influence Pat has had on those around him. I can only speak to my own experience.

I was kind of an angry kid, and very uncommunicative. My parents, recently divorced, bought me a punching bag as an outlet for my rage. The bag was well used and abused until I joined cross country in 8th grade and met Pat Foley.

I'll always remember how, right away, he asked so many questions, and wanted to get to know me. He very easily and naturally broached the subject of my parents' recent divorce. Other adults tried to talk to me about this, but Pat has a real talent for listening and letting people know that he cares. Many people told me, "it's not your fault" (I knew that) or "you'll be okay" (I was NOT okay). Pat was the first who said, "that must be hard." Giving a person the space to feel bad...seems so obvious, but yet so few people are able to really do that.

This was just the beginning. The impact of the life lessons Pat shared with me cannot be measured. I've internalized so much of it...I literally would not be the same person had I not met him when I did.

And then, there was the running...the cameraderie of this wonderful team, the juniors and seniors who took their younger teammates under their wings. And the miles, the meaning and knowledge of self and life pulled from long runs, races won and lost, meandering jogs through the quiet residential neighborhoods, the farmland outside of town, and the serenity of the arb. The friendships made and sealed in sweat and sore muscles, and over post-run donuts on Saturday mornings.

As a high school coach myself, I have often thought, "What would Pat do?" I've attempted to nurture a team atmosphere similar to the one that I was lucky enough to stumble into as an 8th grader, and to try to instill some of the lessons I learned from Pat. Committment, dedication, hard work, humility, perspective, the importance of humor, and the power of positive thinking.

Those who know Pat will not be surprised to hear he is facing this cancer thing head-on, unflinchingly. He's ready to run this race, and those who know and love him are right there cheering him on.

Man Vs. Trail. Trail Wins.

2010-05-17T09:00:00.000-05:00

Trail racing requires some skills that I seem to be lacking...namely, navigation, balance and coordination. I managed to fall several times, including a total face-plant into a big mud puddle in which I tore off 3 of the 4 pins in my race number. Prior to my various stumbles, I managed to take a wrong turn on the trail, and proceeded to climb a series of switchbacks up onto a ridge. The view was phenomenal. The feeling in my stomach as I went further and further without seeing any trail markings...not quite as great. This occurred at about 8 or 9 miles into the 31 mile run.

I believe I lost 6-8 minutes on that little detour. Ultimately, it may have been the factor that cost me the win in the race, as I ended up just two minutes behind Chris Gardner of Duluth. I had briefly led him astray a little bit earlier on the run, just before we came through the aid station at the 25k turnaround. We were around 56:30, which is almost 4 minutes faster than I ran that section last year. Granted, I had run a major negative split in that run, but in any case I felt good about the early pace, and my legs felt pretty strong. Chris gapped me coming out of the aid station. I thought I'd follow him for a while, as I had been leading the previous section. I guess I spaced out a bit, and let him get out of sight. And the next thing I knew, I was up on that ridge realizing I was off course.

So what do you do when you shoot yourself in the foot so seriously, and so early in the run? Mentally, it was tough to deal with for a few minutes. Going from feeling like I'd have a good chance to beat my time from last year to not even knowing what place I was in or how far behind I was took a major adjustment of expectations. No one was in sight for quite a while, and I was trying to figure out my place by counting the number of wet footprints on the boardwalk sections of the course.

I finally saw a red TC Running Co. jersey ahead of me. I assumed at first that it was Younger (Brian Peterson), who had gone out with Chris and I, but dropped back a while earlier. As I closed the gap, I quickly recognized Joe Z.'s stride. After chatting with him for a minute, I went ahead. He told me it was just the other two guys up ahead, and I started to feel more ambitious again.

I quelled the impulse to race off in major pursuit, realizing that my only hope was to run a steady, smart race and hope that those ahead of me would fade a little bit. I later found out that Younger had taken the same wrong turn as me, but was smart enough to turn around quicker than I did.

Chris Gardner ran strong and held a big advantage at the turnaround point. I don't think I closed the gap on him at all until very late in the race, when he bonked a bit. I never saw him, but he finished just a couple of minutes ahead of me. 3:57 to my 3:59. I was 3:48 last year. This year's run was slightly slower on every section of the course except for the first one (faster) and the second (waaaay slower...due to the wrong turn). It was still a very strong run on a sloppy day. I ate quite a bit of dirt (literally) along the course, and have some nice scrapes and bruises to show for it.

At the end of the day, it was a good quality run on a beautiful day. My legs felt pretty decent and my foot held up to the demands of the trail. I got to run with some great people, and very much enjoyed the company of some of the more energetic 25k runners over the final few miles.

As much as I felt that I had wimped out in the mile, I definitely stuck it out in the 50k. It was not my best effort in many respects and for many reasons, but it served as a great reminder that the competition, in trail ultras in particular, is between the runner and the course...or the runner and himself.

One Mile Down, 31 to Go

2010-05-14T07:30:00.000-05:00

4:33 road mile tonight...not exactly blazing, but it was fun to be a part of the excitement. Racing down Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis was pretty cool, though my legs begged to differ. Check out the USA Championship races (a.k.a. the real milers).

Women:

Men:

High school distance coaches like myself should be required to race a mile at least once a year, just to remember what it feels like. I'm used to the long, smoldering burn of the marathon, the million pin-pricks of discomfort, which build and build into a crescendo of pain. There is no reasoning with the pain of the mile. It is an inferno in your legs, smoking out your lungs, and you can only come back to safety by slowing down and settling in...and then you've blown your race. 4:33.

TC Running Co. RV to the Superior Trail Race leaves this afternoon...looking forward to hopping on board.

Splits in trail races are measured from checkpoint-to-checkpoint. I'm trying to dig up the splits I ran last year so I can check my progress along the course. I remember that I took it out pretty easy and came back faster, using the race as a training run for the Grandma's Marathon. There's a nice report on last year's run HERE.

This year I have no reason to save myself. I'm also not in great shape, so we'll see how it all pans out. I haven't run over 16 miles since the marathon, but then again, that was less than a month ago. The endurance is still there. I hope.

Too Soon to Tell...

2010-05-11T07:01:00.000-05:00

The Week in Training

It was a week of tentative steps on the training front. I started off by including a hard 3 minutes in my run on Monday, intending to get a little bit of that mile pace feeling. Instead, I sprinted for a minute and staggered along on trembling legs for another minute and a half, and then rallied to finish hard. On the basis of surviving that rush of lactic acid, I decided I'll be okay to run the mile on Thursday night.

Tuesday I finished my run with a couple miles of uphill running on the treadmill. It was a little experiment to get a sense for what the Mt. Washington Road Race may feel like. I discovered that running 7.6 miles per hour at a 12% grade is not easy. I kept the incline up the whole time, but alternated between 7.6 and various slower paces. Why 7.6? The Mt. Washington Road Race is 7.6 miles. If you run it in an hour, you'll do very well.

Wednesday's howling winds made doing a track workout seem wildly unappealling, but I met Paul G., Greg, and Lori Anne from the TC Running Co. team at Macalester that afternoon. They were game for doing the workout, so I got it in. I did 5x1000 followed by 5x200, a favorite workout of mine. G's fu manchu inspires me. Few could pull it off...

A couple of days of slogging around slowly followed. I'm pretty sure I didn't crack 8:00 per mile on Thursday. Friday felt a little better. While circling Brownie Lake, I ran into Zach Schendel, a former training partner and friend. He had texted me the previous night to see if I wanted to meet up for a run. I was probably already asleep, or in any case I didn't see his message until I came back from the run. Oddly enough, we met up anyway. I guess we're creatures of habit, running the same routes, at the same time of day, etc.

My longest run of the week was 16 miles, with quite a bit of it on the trails of Theodore Wirth Park in Minneapolis. The short, steep hills make for a great antidote to the unchanging flatness of running around the lakes. I ended the week with 75 miles, and a sense that my legs are slowly coming back to me. My foot continues to slowly improve through calf strengthening and stretching, the use of new shoes, and whatever other voodoo I can think of trying. I'm sick of sleeping with the night splint, but I have a feeling I had better get used to it.

The Week Ahead

This week...the TC 1 Mile and the Superior Trail 50k. Both will be approached as hard training efforts as it is still too soon after the marathon to expect much in terms of performance. Both runs should be a lot of fun.

On another note, on the trip to last year's Superior 50, I met a guy named Brian Peterson, whom I knew only as "The Younger" (or sometimes just "Younger") for months afterwords. I still forget his real name half the time. He hammered himself into quite a state of delirium that day. At the post-race lunch, the Race Director made an announcement that the soup was on its way. Younger, in his addled state, interrupted the apologetic announcement, yelling out "What kind of soup is it? Hey, what kind of soup!" We were a little worried.

Anyway, Chad Austin recently posted this great interview with Brian. Given that he just ran a 20 minute PR in the marathon, I'm excited to see how much faster he runs Superior this year. All I can say is that they better make sure that soup is waiting for the Younger at the finish line!

Boston After Party

2010-05-08T07:53:00.001-05:00

Instinct tells you to crawl into bed and stay there for a couple of days after finishing a marathon. But if you're in a great city like Boston, with friends and/or family, it's worth trying to rally your body and soul for a little adventure on the town.

My wife Taj's younger brother Nigel suggested we come out to see a show across the river in Cambridge. Some of his friends were performing, and he sat in and played the mandolin with them on a couple of songs. The surprise of the night was Spirit Family Reunion, a Brooklyn-based band whose video is below.

This song in particular stuck with me, and has been in my head intermittently ever since:

Spirit Family Reunion - "I'll Find a Way" from DUKE STREET on Vimeo.

Back on My Feet

2010-05-04T11:08:00.006-05:00

I got in 50 miles of running last week. That is very low for me, but I'm pleased with it given how I felt after the marathon. I think the week off was the best thing for me. My plantar fasciitis is still there, but is under control and seems to be improving with some of the remedies that I've been advised to try.

It's great to be running without a lot of structure right now. I'm aiming to get in a couple of quality days and a long run per week over the next few weeks, but I really just want to regain general fitness now.

On the event calendar, I'll be heading up north on May 15 to the Superior Trail Race along with a big crew, many from TC Running Co.

Last year, I rode along with a great group of guys and ran my first trail race and first 50k at this event. It was the most fun I'd had at a race in a long time, and I'm looking forward to getting back out on the trail. It's a rocky, rugged trail, but incredibly beautiful as well. Too bad you spend most of the time looking at your feet! The challenge this year is to run the TC 1 mile on Thursday night, and then come back for the trail race on Saturday.

A little further down the road, I've entered the Mt. Washington Road Race, which is a 7.6 mile run up a 11 or 12% grade. So needless to say, I've got some hill training to do. Superior should help, and I plan to get to Hyland and Afton quite a bit. I think if I want to do well, I will also have to do some treadmill climbing as well, since Minnesota lacks hills anywhere near long enough to simulate what I'll run at that race.

Failure

2010-04-29T10:19:00.005-05:00

Nothing motivates me like complete and utter failure. That has been the driving force for every breakthrough performance I've ever had as a runner, and probably for every major attempt at improving myself in the rest of life as well.

As a high school runner, a teammate and I were ranked 1-2 going into the state cross country meet. Both of us ended up stumbling in somewhere around 40th place. I was unable to run for 9 months after that, due to a mono-like illness. The anger I felt about that trumped all other emotions...I set out to prove myself on the collegiate scene, choosing to attend national powerhouse Stanford University.

It was a long and bumpy road back to decent racing. Finally, by my last two years at Stanford, I had broken through to the level where I wanted to be...almost. I ended up being narrowly left off the team to compete at the NCAA Division I National meet two years in a row. We were national champions one of those years.

Some people take these set-backs as a sign that maybe it wasn't meant to be, that they should move on and focus on something else. I am stubborn to a fault, however. So for better or worse, I set out upon the path time and again, aiming to correct the errors I have made. I come back and try again, hoping to do things better next time.

I've been thinking about this recently due to my body's meltdown at the recent Boston Marathon. I started out on that cool, breezy morning in Hopkinton believing that a PR day was possible (2:17 is my best), but knew from fairly early that my legs were not going to cooperate on this particular day. My plantar fasciitis was flaring up badly, but more fundamentally, my legs just didn't have it. I had likely crammed in a bit too much hard running too close to the marathon, and had gone in without an adequate taper. This is not the first time I've made that mistake, but it's the first time in several years. Suffering through a marathon on trashed legs is not something that is easily forgotten, but apparently I need to re-learn the lesson every few years.

So I came through half in 1:09, already slowing down, and by then I knew that I would need to re-set my goals. By 16 miles, the sole aim was to finish, so that I could go back to the marathon training class that I teach with my head held high and my credibility intact. I suppose I beat my body up more than necessary, but I just don't believe in dropping out of races unless major injury occurs. Not that I've never done dropped out...I can remember doing so twice in track 5ks due to GI issues and once in a marathon, when I went into the race in a terribly over-trained state.

Dealing with failure has become much easier over the years. Sure, I still get frustrated, but it's not the deep, visceral rage that kept me up at night when I was younger. For one thing, running is just running. There's more to life. And for another, there's always the next challenge...the next race, the next phase of life, the next opportunity that arises. So I focus on those things rather than beating myself up over the past.

So what's next? We'll see...