Novi Memorial Day Run

What a great morning for racing! We had sunny skies and cool temps in the low 60’s. I was there for the elite mile. At this point in my training I had yet to run under 4:42 since the foot surgery. Luckily coach had me bang out a few sets of 6,4,3,2,1 to wake up the little bit of leg speed I had.

I guess they let anyone into the “Elite” mile as I got in along with some other EMU boys such as Lee Shaw and Terefe Ejigu.

The race started off nice and fast with a big group of guys. I’m not sure what our splits were exactly because they were a little off. There is no way we had a group as big as we did and split a 58 first 400M. Then somehow slowed to a horrid 800m of 2:12 or something. It was a road mile so I guess that is what you get.

By the time we hit the 800m it was just Ian Boyle and myself. I knew I didn’t really have the kick I used to have so I figured I better start pushing with 800m to go. I did and Ian and I just kept pushing harder and harder.

It seemed every time I came up on him he would inch away. We literally went push for push for about 700m. With less than 100m to go I was all out and Ian just began to walk away from me. He ended up putting about 2 seconds on me at the very end. I like to think I made him work hard but I think he only ran as fast as he needed to for the “W”

Results:
http://www.runmichigan.com/r_view.php?id=19334

The fun part came when we all grouped up to pace Mark Savedes in the 10K. There was a group of four really fast guys, all mid to low 14 min 5k guys. Then we had Mark rounding out our 5th.

We started nice and slow and still talking about the mile we just ran (Mark did not run the mile.) Then we started telling stories and Lee told us how he lost a bunch of weight which is why he ran 4:38 instead of 5:38 in the mile.

Poor Mark…we are all having a casual conversation while leading the race and pacing him. He was not talkative 🙂 Eventually someone told Lee and Terefe that the winner gets free shoes so they decided to start running and went from 6:20pace to 5:15ish.

Mike and I stayed with Mark and just kept on him. Pushing him, coaching him, and cheering him. It was so much fun. The course was great and Mark was running fast and smooth. We ended up crossing the line in a 39:10 breaking Mark’s 20 year old personal best by 45 seconds. That was just huge.

Mike, Mark, and Jordan

Mike, Mark, and Jordan

300 Meter Whaaa

Just a nice workout that I finished up today.

1X800m 2:09
500M Jog rest (3:00min)
12x300m 51 low average (100M Jog rest about 35 seconds)
400m Jog rest
1x800m 2:10 (2:40min)

This was one of those workouts that you finish and you can tell yourself everything is going in the right direction. The hardest part of this workout is that I was doing it solo.

As I was doing this work out I was thinking how under utilized the 300m distance is in training. I feel that when we do speed we do 200m and when we do distance it’s 400m…the 300 is such a great in between distance to keep up the speed and yet add some endurance. If you don’t believe me go run 12 of those bastards at your goal 5K pace with only a 100m jog for the rest. If you can finish up the 300m then try the full work out with the 800m in it. This work out with jogging rest is 4 miles plus your warm up and cool down. I did 2 mile warm up and cool down giving me a nice 8 for the afternoon plus an easy 4 in the morning.

Altitude 10K

O damn, first race of my life in altitude. For those of you have never experienced 5,000 ft or higher…it is a crazy feeling. Now if you hit that altitude and are not really doing anything active then you probably won’t notice anything.

Other then a subtle pressure on my chest I didn’t really notice it on my first easy 4 mile run at 7:30 pace, I didn’t really notice it on the next run when I did 10 miles closer to 7:00 pace. The first time I started to feel it was the day before the race when I dipped under 6:00 pace for my last mile. As you begin to push your body harder you’re expecting to take a deeper harder breath to fuel your muscles with Oxygen and it just doesn’t work the way you are expecting. When you attempt to take in that deeper breath there is a tightness in your chest that grows.

Time to race…The Road Runners Club of America (RRCA) brought their ringer out for the meet. Scott Bauhs (3:59 mile, 13:29 5k, 27:48 10K, and a 61 something 1/2 ) needless to say the boy is legit. Now neither one of us are really in good shape so we figured if we could run 5:00 pace for this race, it would be a good workout.

I won’t keep you in suspense…Scotty kicked my ass. There wasn’t really a race at all. We ran together for the first mile going out hard and slowing up to a 5:01 first mile. Then we turned right into the WIND…I figure caps will make the wind look more fierce. Mile number 2 was where Scotty just left me as I ran 5:27.

U Turn, now the wind was at our back again and I dropped back to a 5:09 for the third mile. I made sure to smile and give Scott the thumbs up as he passed me. I just could not stop smiling. My body was hurting but a ton of RRCA folks were cheering me on as I was passing them by. My legs felt OK but I just couldn’t dig deep for the O2 that I was used to.

The rest of the race/run came in at 5:17, 5:14, 6:19( 1.2 miles) = 32:29. All in all this was a great trip. We got to meet a bunch of club directors and catch up with some acquaintances that I only see at these running conventions. I was also able to meet Scott Bauhs, Howie Keflezighi and Meb Keflezighi.

I can’t wait to see how I feel when I get to Michigan and get on the track…

Wrightsville Beach Marathon

This will be the third re write of this…as some already read the other one and now it just isn’t there. The issue is typing it up on the ipad then finishing it on the PC. The ipad, not being closed down, auto saves…so it auto saved over the old story…So here we go for the third time.

Some good some bad but it was all a fun and new experience…lets start with the bad…I’ve only been averaging about 25-30 miles per week. I was only home for one full week in February and I find it difficult to get out the door when I travel but again that is a shitty excuse.

I have no more bad excuses. I think my foot is almost 100%. I can handle long hard runs without needing a day or two to recover. This is also a great example that it takes more than just good looks to win a marathon…you actually have to train 🙂

The course was great with only a few very small hills. The aid stations had water, Gatorade, and hammer gels. This was just a really well put together event thanks to Tom Clifford and his amazing Without Limits Team.

The race started out nice and smooth with a very slow easy first mile. I ended up finding the half marathon leader and running off of his Garmin. We raced together for close to eight miles until I started to pick up the pace, at least it felt that way. Turns out I ran even and he slowed and I just happen to pull away from him.

Tom saw me and told me that the leader was only about two minutes ahead of me so I figured I would spend several miles making up that gap. You can see on my splits I start to quicken my pace a little. I didn’t want to do it too quickly in fear of blowing up.

Once I could see the leader it was really hard to stay smooth and easy. The competitive drive just takes a hold of you and starts pushing everything like a salivating dog chasing a steak. I finally caught up to him at mile 21 and told myself “you should probably sit on him for a little” aaaaand I didn’t.

I slowed up a little…about 13 seconds for that mile and still just rolled past him. My next mile, 22, still maintained that 5:45 pace…Then there was little signal sent through out my body that said “Shits about to go downhill” So you think do I slow down to conserve or speed up to get there quicker…Kind of like when you have to poo when you are out running.

Mile 23 went 5:55…at that point I didn’t really have to do much thinking about my pace as my body was in control and I was just going off of the rails on the crazy dying train.

As I knew what was happening and knew it would not end well I told myself just keep Bleeping running. My head was together and my breathing was as relaxed as if I were sitting on the couch. I could tell my pace was slowing even more as I wasn’t passing people as quickly, Mile 24 – 6:26.

2.2 miles to go. I wonder how long it will take me if I walk it in from here? Shut up…keep running…I wish I had a beer right now. I should have ran the half. Then the demoralizing instance of getting passed back and falling to 2nd place. At this point I was just crushed as I knew there was nothing left in my legs to go after him, Mile 25 – 7:01

1.2 miles to go. My ham string on my surgery leg was just screaming at me. I was now keeping pace with the runners I was lapping. Every fiber in my body was screaming at me to stop running. Each step was a battle. Now the mental game was in full effect. “Stop Running, no one will notice” “Jamie is going to be so mad I didn’t win” “So much for owning the course record” “Why didn’t you just run a few more miles per week?” “Steal that big girls fanny pack” Mile 26 – 7:34

All of a sudden I hear “What are you doing?!” as I looked over and saw Joel Thomas David the man with three first names. I told him I was done. He said “Your not even breathing hard.” I told him my legs were dead and told him to jog it in with me.

I looked at Joel and asked him if he had a beer jokingly. Then he pointed over to Cameron’s West Virginia Alumni tent that was cheering on the runners and said “They do.” I shot straight over there and grabbed a little plastic cup that was filled with a little bit of the sweet sap, too bad they weren’t red solos hehe.

I slammed my beer and we laughed as I started to round the corner towards the finish line. I thought at this point I better try to put my Reckless Running uniform back on incase someone gets a picture of me. I had to take it off several miles ago in fear of my nipples falling off, which stung every time I showered over the next few days. I finally walked over the finish line. 26.2 – 2:34.51

True to my word I went out there and broke the course record…it’s just someone else did it a little faster than me that day. As hard as I died, miles 10 – 20 were just so smooth feeling…I was holding back the whole time…which really makes me wonder why I crashed so bad. My race nutrition was good as there was no way I could eat or drink anymore as my stomach was full.

Dead Man Walking

Dead Man Walking

1-6:12
2-5:55
3-5:46
4,5-11:45
6-5:46
7-5:50
8-5:43
9-5:43
10-5:43
11-5:42
12-5:43
13-5:36
14-5:39
15-5:36
16-5:43
17-5:35
18-5:33
19-5:37
20-5:33
21-5:46
22-5:45
23-5:55
24-6:26
25-7:01
26-7:34
.2-1:34
————–
2:34.51

Overal this race was a great time. The after race was also fun hanging out with a bunch of Without Limits Runners. If you are ever looking for a fun destination race this was awesome. Depending on the time line it will be a fun St. Pats time as well.

Building Confidence

A quick run down…work has been awesomely busy but training has paid the price. True to my word I will be running the marathon in a little over a week. I will be going after Captain….I mean Major Borg’s course record of 2:36.

The past few days have had some nice runs.

Sunday was 10x1k with only 45 seconds rest. Averaging 3:06

Tuesday was a nice run with Mark and Mike with some easy pick ups 4×2.5 min and 4 x 1.5 min

Today ,Wednesday march 6th, I did another strength session of 10x800m 45 seconds rest averaging 2:25. This was pretty easy. So I’ll be eager to see how I feel come race day. Look for my next post come March 19 th.

St. Pete Beach 13.1

So for those of you that didn’t get the full story. I was down in Florida for the ChronoTrack conference and Jamie and I decided to go for a walk to grab some food. We walked no more than 100 meters before coming across this giant Stat and Finish banner.

So over dinner I looked up which races were in town and turns out the St. Pete Beach Classic was going on all weekend. I was bummed I didn’t bring any racing flats or any racing stuff but I figured I would email the race director anyway.

He offered to give me a discounted rate on the entry, so I thought why not. Jamie and I walked over to the hotel expo and registered up for the race. Then we headed over to the running store display. They had all of last years or later shoes sitting there on clearance. I told the guy “Give me something that looks fast.”

So this is what I ended up with.

Nike Flats

Nike Flats

I figured I better break them in so I did an easy 4 mile run in them that night. I was also told there would be some good competition at the race. There were a few guys looking to run 70 min. I thought that would be perfect since I had no idea how in or outta shape I was in. I thought if I could run sub 74 that would be good for what little training I had been doing.

BLAH BLAH BLAH..Onto race morning!
It was a perfect Florida morning. It was about 62 out with a slight wind. I was the first guy to make his way towards the start line. I was looking for the guys who looked the part.

Two guy finally stepped up to the start. I asked them what they were looking to run and told them I’m just going to sit on them until they drop me.

The gun went off and it actually seemed like a nice casual run. We were clipping along at an easy 5:30 ish first mile. We were all talking a little bit and making polite conversation. I leaned that they were both 68 min. guys so I was a little nervous at how bad this was going to hurt but I just kept telling myself “If they are going to beat me I’m going to make them work for it.”

After about 4-5 miles of running an easy 5:25 ish pace I was starting to feel pretty comfortable and neither of these guys wanted to push the pace. Soon the local guy ,Hank, began to slow up. So the young man from Boston and I started to push a little.

Finishing up the 5th mile I was still feeling good and I told him that he could draft behind me for a little if he wanted a windshield. As soon as I took the lead I sped up to a 5:10 mile and put the hurt on him. That was the last I saw him…

The rest of the race was pretty uneventful…just me grinding miles solo. I crossed the finish line in 1st place with over a 2 min gap on second place and a 5 min. gap to 3rd place. Once again this goes to show you’re only as fast as your last race.

Wrightsville Beach Marathon

Time to go public…a group of us will be going down to the Wrightsville Beach Marathon this March. Finishing is always a good goal…but I would like to come close to my marathon time of 2:28.30 from Detroit back in 2010. I have a very long way to go and only a short time to get there. Last week I hit my highest week of running since the surgery at 55 Miles with a long run of 16 miles at 6:20 pace.

This week I’m on pace to be a little closer to 60 miles. I did a nice workout on the indoor track by myself today of 16 X 400M averaging 74.41 with 100m jog recovery (about 35 seconds.) I felt nice and smooth and probably could have easily gone to 20…woulda, shoulda, coulda.

Winter F-Un

For those of you that might get discouraged on these snowy, icy, windy winter runs, I would just like to say “Don’t” I know it’s frustrating feeling like you are never running fast in this shtuff. I just wanted to say it happens to all of us. You can see on the laps of this run the pace was going well until I hit the ice sheet known as Chambers Rd. (Mile 3) I lost 30 seconds on my mile pace and felt like my pace went to a standstill. As soon as I got back on the dry stuff I took off again…I guess we will call it a recovery mile…kinda sorta? Keep on Keeping on winter warriors.

Did you die!?!

No I didn’t die…I just didn’t think posting unexciting things would be worth either of our time. So for a quick update…I have been running around 30 miles a week with nothing super fantastic until recently.

The biggest issues I’ve had is if I go off and have a great run then the next day my surgery foot was in peril. I also discovered 14 miles seemed to be my painful cap. I feel like in the past 2 weeks I have turned that corner.

My runs are easily dropping under 7:00 min. pace and this week I’m falling under 6:00 min. pace pretty easily. I also had my first workout on the indoor track and in spikes!! I thought it went really well. My old body moved around the track with 8x400M in about 64.8 seconds on average. Now I just keep telling my self “I don’t have to get any faster, just stronger :-]”

You might not believe it but after doing this workout my foot seems to be feeling a lot better. Spikes really make you use more muscles in your legs and feet than you normally do hence the incredible soreness 😉 and I’m sure some of you are saying “No $hit Sherlock.”

Thanks for tuning in and I’ll try to keep you a little more updated and entertained…There’s only about 150 of you that read this damn thing 😛