pictures from Brian Kraft 5k

Here are some pictures I took at the Brian Kraft 5k yesterday. Our team from TC Running Co. got 2nd in both mens and womens and 1st in masters men !!!

Feeling like a billy goat

So after taking last Sunday and Monday off to rest my leg's I started back up on Tuesday with the hope of just a little bit of running. I am happy to say I had a great week and weekend of running. I know that a big key for my summer of ultra running and most importantly Leadville 100 is for me to be strong on the hills. This being said a was like a billy goat Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I could see and feel myself getting stronger each day. By Sunday even with being tired from the great 6 day stretch of running I was strong and steady up the hills and even down them. I am already excited for next weekend.

A great read from Ryan Hall

So I find I really like what I read on the web from one Ryan Hall. I think he has great perspective on life and running. I am not a big religion guy like him but respect that he shares his views at times but not in a way I feel is shoving it down my throat. Check out this latest blog of Ryan's. Also I will be cheering for him this weekend as he runs the Bolder Boulder 10k. I ran this many year ago and it was a fun race.

** I love this picture of my kids. Little Evan is so proud of his big sisters

Change in the way I blog

So as the summer season is upon us I find myself with less time to spend at my computer to blog. Plus I find myself saying hell I am a horrible writer and my training has been nothing to excite people. Heck it has not even excited me in a long time. So I am changing the way I blog. I figure I seem to always find great things on the web that I find great and inspiring to runners like myself. So I am changing the format from a " what is Kurt running each day " thing, to a highlights of Kurts week not only training and running wise but also adding links to great stories or video's along the way. I hope this is a better read for those few out there who look at Dances with Dirt blogspot. Let me know what you all think.

A Love/Hate time on the SHT

So this last weekend I went up north to Lutsen for the Superior 50k trail race. It was going to be my first trail ultra for the year as I get ready for the Leadville 100 mile in mid August. I was luck to have along my lovely wife Sonya and our little guy Evan. Our good friend Paul also came along to run as well !!!

We drove up on Friday afternoon and stoped at the Coho cafe just outside of town. We love there food there. The pizza was first class. Paul and I had a beer with diner and all was good with the world. It was great to be back up north and great to see so many people I knew at the pre race meeting. I for one am not big on the pre race meeting as I feel lot's of dumb question get asked, but it is nice to see everyone so I guess it is a wash. After the meeting it was back to the hotel and off to bed at a way earlier time than my normal bed time. I guess when you normally go to bed at 12 to 1 am everything seems early.

On race morning it was so beautiful out !! Sun, clear sky and the great views of the area. We went to the start line and it was off to the races. I felt pretty good overall but knew that I was not in top shape so I needed to be ready for a longer than normal day. I found this easier said than done. The trail was rocky and rooty like the SHT is known for. I for one have a love/hate relationship with this trail. I love in but at the same time hate the fact that I feel like I can not run wide open on it. With the added tree's down this just made it slower, but in a way more fun, could this be ? Paul caught up to me like 10 miles into the run and we had a great time running together up till like 17 or 18 miles. At that point he was feeling good and I was just along for the ride. Paul is much better on this type of rocks and roots than I am. As the rest of the race went on I was happy to be out there but also feeling like man I better get to work or I am screwed in a few months. I guess I will be better for running this race, but after I had a hard time believing it.

Thanks to all the runners on the trail, you keep me going. Thanks to everyone who helped put this race on. And special thanks to Sonya and Evan for spending the day helping me out !!!

Happy Mothers Day

Kyra, Evan and I took Sonya down to the river bottoms for a fun hike. The kids had fun running around. The cool thing is we saw a bald eagle swoop down and grab a fish out of the river while hiking !!! We ended up at my parents for a nice dinner.

Week of May 5th-11th

Monday 5/5- Ran with Evan down by the lakes. I felt ok, we say lots of ducks which Evan loved. ( 7 miles )

Tuesday 5/6- Ran at 5:30am with my buddy Patrick Russell. As much as I hate getting up this early I always love running with Pat. It had been awhile so we had lot's to catch up on. Plus it is nice to mix things up and run from his place and loop by the river and in St Paul some. I felt pretty good after the first 20 min's. ( 8 miles )

Wednesday 5/7- My first run using my inhaler. I can not say I noticed much of a difference but then aging pushing a jogger in the wind might have more to do with that. We ran down by the lakes once more. ( 7 miles )

Thursday 5/8- Today I felt better. Maybe there is something about this inhaler stuff after all. We did a little longer run at the lakes. Evan had a great time singing and talking very loud most of the way. I believe many people got a kick out of it. He is a funny little boy and I love running with him. ( 10 miles )

Friday 5/9- I ended up not running today after a last min plan to drive to Brookings,SD to see my friend Stave run the marathon. It was his last in his 50 states + all continents loop. ( 0 miles )

Saturday 5/10- Ran in the pouring ran for 8 miles with Steve. I had hoped to run more with him but a) he was running much faster than I wanted to ( 6:10-6:30 miles ) and running in the pouring rain really sucked !!! Oh well I got in a nice 8 mile temp run. ( 8 miles )

Sunday 5/11- Ran with Paul at Hyland trails at 6:30am. We did a few different hill loops. I felt super great !!! My best run in a long time. I am not sure how many we got in but I am guessing like 15-18 hills or such ? It was a great run and a good way to end the week. I did not get as many total miles as I hoped but felt good about where I am leading into the next week. My total volume will get bigger after this next week with any luck. ( 14 miles )

Miles for the week = 54 ( 6 days )

Go Figure ?

So for the longest time now I have been saying to my wife Sonya that I feel like I am working to hard for what I have been doing running wise. It is like I am running on 3 cylinders and not the full 4. But as we all know as runners we tend to just say stuff like " oh I am just not working hard enough " or stuff like that. So after many months of this I went into my sports medicine doctor. Low and behold I find out I have athletic induced asthma. Funny since one of my younger brothers Kevin has had the same thing since high school. He was a very good cross country skier !! So I guess knowing what he goes through helped me think that maybe this was up with me as well. I am glad to know and looking forward to seeing how my runs come along now. I guess better to know now at not when I am racing at 10,000 feet at Leadville 100 miler huh.

Weekend fun and more

So this last weekend was a pretty fun weekend of running for me. I had been looking forward to hitting the trails some and running with my friends. It did not disappointed. On Saturday I got in a great 10 mile run with Nick on our "Tombstone" loop at Lakewood cemetery. I felt pretty good overall. Sunday I went super early at 6am with my pal Paul and his dog Sunshine down on the MN river bottoms. We had great weather and the trail was in super shape. One bummer was the floaty bridge was out so we had to do a few extra loops but all in all a great run. We kept the pace pretty good for most of the run. I was tired the first 45 min's but got better as we ran. All in all we got in like 22 miles in 2 hours 50 min's.

Later in the day Sunday we had a b-day party for my step daughter Kyra. She is a whopping 12 now !! My wife and I say 12 going on 22 but heck that's the life of a parent huh. She seemed to like her party and all. Happy B-day Kyra !!!!

Finally a run !!

After a few days off I finally got in a run !! Man I must have really bruised my quad muscle pretty good last Sunday. I ended up taking Monday and Wednesday off. I felt like I could run yesterday but thought I would just take one more day to be safe and make sure I can try for a big weekend.

Evan and I got out for a run around noon so he got in his nap while I got to test the body sum. I felt pretty good overall. The downhills where a bit tender but good overall. I was thinking of going a hour and a half but kept it to 1 hour. All in all a good run. I got in like 8 miles durning that hour so pretty solid.

I found this list of all mens Olympic medal winners from all the Olympics. It is pretty cool to see all the names. Check it out.