Speeding along the parkway

Today I got out in the morning with Sonya and Evan in the jogger. Sonya had to do a easy run with 10x 1min on and 1 min off in the middle of it. She is in the taper mode for the upcoming Twin Cities Marathon so she is trying to stay fresh and get in a little quick turnover. Evan and I decided to join in with her. We ran down to the parkway and then headed towards Lake Nakomis. After a 20 min warm up we started in on the pick ups. I felt really good since I was pushing the jogger for them. I was using my Newton shoes once more today. I have never done any speed work in them. They felt good since they got me so much up on the forefoot. I think both Sonya and I felt good about the run. We ended u running like 7 miles in 54 mins and I kept my ave heart rate at 122. This has been a nice few days of running.

Tuesday with Sonya

After a very easy day of just 2 1/2 miles with my step-daughter Kyra after work in a light rain I was more than ready for more favorite things in the world to do. That thing would be get to run with my wife Sonya !! With her having Tuesdays off from work and with me not starting till noon we tend to get a run in together more days than not on Tuesdays. Today's run started a bit later as Sonya wanted to go to a parents meeting in the morning at our son Evan's daycare. Once we got a going we headed for the lakes like normal. We decide to take the cut trough in the rose gardens since Evan likes seeing all the pretty flowers. It is so cute to hear him say pretty flowers. From there it was up kings highway and then down to Lake Calhoun. Once we got to Calhoun it was funny because we where saying how it sure would be nice to have a breeze to feel cooler. Not 2 min's later man did the wind pick up. We both could not help but laugh about that. From this point it was a easy loop around both lakes and back home so I could go to work. At the end of the run Sonya had some stride outs to do so Evan and I joined in on the fun. Man was that tuff pushing the jogger and sprinting. I guess it will make tomorrows run with 10x1 min pick ups feel good. Over all a great run. We got in like 9 miles and I had a ave heart rate of 128.

Clicking Along

I would say it was a pretty good weekend of running. I was not sure what the weekend would bring after cranking my ankle so bad on Friday but it worked out pretty good.

The run on Saturday was not exactly what I was hoping in all ways but turned out to be great in a different way. I was thinking I would go run the river bottoms early in the morning and then go straight to work and shower there. Well when the alarm went off it was mighty hard to get up. Plus Sonya was going to run the Bolder Dash 5k and for some reason Evan was up much earier than normal. I knew Kyra was going to be with him so I wanted to help get things in line. This gave me less time then planned so I turned to plan B. I put on a new pair of the Nike Lunar trainer shoes I just got and went out for a 6 mile "up tempo" run. I started out easy the first mile till I got to the parkway then picked it up little by little. Once I made it the two miles to the lake I picked it up some more. Man I felt fast and easy all at the same time. I have not run a run like this for awhile. It was good to crank it out !! On the way back to the house I took it easy the last mile. I think I ended up with like 4 miles of tempo work. The ankle felt good also !!

Sundays run seem to come much earlier than the 7:30am start I had with Paul. We went to Lebanon Hills park to run for a change. Man what a park !!! I do not know why we have not run more there this year ? My ankle was very tight the first 30 min's of the run, but then got much better. For awhile I thought I would have to shut it down early. I am sure the uneven trail did not help much. One thing that was nice today was that Paul and I kept the pace nice and solid. It felt good to work things out on the trail like that with my buddy. We ened up doing just over 2 1/2 hours for what I thought was a solid 20 miles. What was best was the fact we only crossed over parts of the same trails. Great run !! Today's run was in my new Inov-8 f-lite 300 shoes. Pretty nice.

I ened up with 52 miles on 6 days. Not bad as I work my way back to normal weeks of 70 miles every week. To do this I will need to get rid of these 5 and 6 mile days and get back to like 7-8 miles each run with a good 10-13 mile midweek run. Just got to keep cracking the whip.

Looking towards the weekend

* More Pictures from our trip to Leadville,CO.

It is looking like we are going to have a good weather weekend for some trail running in the Twin Cities, that makes me very excited to get after it. I had a good run this morning with Joe Z and the boys out at Hyland Park. It had been a long time since I was able to drag myself out of bed to make it there by the 6am start time. After getting a no run day yesterday I was ready to roll. I had hoped to not miss yesterday but I guess that happens with 3 kids huh. One thing I forgot going into today's run was that it is still very dark at 6am. Thank god I had my Petzal Tika headlamp in the car. As we got going I was up in the front talking with a few guys as we made our way up to the top of the ski hill. On the top of the hill they have recently put down some new gravel. It is great to run on but as my right ankle found out there can sometimes be some big rocks hanging out as well. I could not believe how bad it hurt. I felt my ankle bone hit the outside of the ground to give you a idea how bad it rolled over. I walked/ jogged it off for a little while. I was not sure if I should keep going but decided I would give it a shot. After a mile or so I could feel my ankle start to losses up a little so I was able to finish up the run with the guys. In some ways I think pushing on might have helped it out some ? Kept it loose ? Either way it was nice to run with the guys and trade stories. It sounds like a few of them might run the new Surf the Murph 50k as well. I think all in all it was like a 1:07 run so I am guessing like 8 miles or so ?

Midweek update 9/16/08

** I love this picture of Evan and his crazy dog Finny.


Well the first 3 days of this week have been different. Coming off such a good weekend of running I had the hardest time on my run Monday morning. I had a few hours before I had to be at work after dropping Summer off at school. With that time I thought I would kill a hour or so at Hyland. Man the first 15 minuets was great then it came to a quick stop. I am not sure what happen but it was like I was a plug in machine and the power plug gets pulled from the wall. All I could do was walk. As I walked I tried to think about what I did. Now one thing might be the fact that I was coming off my longest run by like a hour the day before in my post Leadville life. The other I thought was the fact I had my huge coffee while driving Summer to school. Either way it was very tuff. I ended up being able to run part of the way back to get in a big old 4 miles.

Tuesday was a much better day. Not only do I get to spend time with Sonya in the morning these days since she is off work this day every week. But we get to normally run together. We went out with Evan pushing the jogger around the lakes and parkway. What a difference a day makes. I felt super good. I also was running for the second time in my new Newton shoes. They are great !!! I think all said in done I got in like a solid 7 miles in 52 min's. I was so happy with things since I felt so much better.

Wednesday was also a great day. I went to French Park and ran my normal hilly 6 mile loop. I was very strong on the uphills and got up to 6:10 pace on a few flats where I tried to open it up some and see how I felt. I knew I was running fast but was excited that it felt so easy. Now if I can keep this up a few more days till my long run on Sunday with Paul. I think we are doing like 3+ hours. Should be a good test to see what I race next. As of now I am leaning toward the new Surf the Murph 50k on Nov 1st. That will give me a extra week over Fall 50 miler and the North Face 50 miler. That seems like the best option since it is so close to home.

Great weekend of running

Man I had a nice weekend of running !! I was really hoping this would happen. I ran on Saturday after work from work. It was a nice day at the shop and after a whole day of raining it felt pretty good outside when it was time to run. I was also excited because I was going to be running in my new pair of Newton running shoes. We just got these into the store in the last month. We are one of like 40 stores in the whole country to get them to sell. For those who have not heard of Newton, they are the shoe company with extra forefoot padding to help get you up running more midfoot. You should check them out. Now back to the run..... It was a little different at first but I felt myself getting used to it about half way thru the run. I think these will be fun to run in over time. I ended up running like 6 miles in like 42 min's. After my run I headed home for a great night of fun with the family, and a little night time of watching SNL with Sonya.

Sundays run was even better than I could have hoped. My Mom was helping us out with the kids so Sonya was able to join Paul and I for a super nice trail run at Hyland Park. Paul and I were looking to move up to like 2 1/2 hours and I knew Sonya would be up for that. We made our way around the park and I felt pretty good. Other than a 10 min stretch I was happy with the run. I even added on like 15 more min's with Sonya as she was looking for 3 hours. Man is she tuff. I think I am going to try and hit the trails before work tomorrow for a easy 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Should be fun !!!

Bad Back/ Best way to blog ?

This week has been pretty much a wash running wise. Man I got up on Monday to take Evan to his daycare and as we where leaving I bent down to get something and my back went wacky on me. It really sucked all day Monday and seemed a bit better on Tuesday. On Tuesday night I got in a short easy 5 miles. It was funny how my back felt better running ? I guess that was good. Wednesday it felt a bit better but I ended up taking the day off anyway. Thursday and Friday I got in a hour each day which was good. I felt like I could run way farther but took the "taking it easy" route instead. The back is still a pain but I guess if it does not hurt running I will keep with it.

This last week I also have been thinking about my blog. Part of me thinks it makes a better blog when I write daily about what's going on and what I ran or did not run. Maybe it keeps me more honest ? Keeps me with keeping my nose to the grindstone. I guess I do not have the answer. All I know is that I like sharing my running life with people so I will keep it going one way or another.

Also I heard today that there is going to be a 25/50k trail race at Murphy on Nov 1st. That should be a fun and hilly run. Maybe something to check out. There will be info on the race on Ultrarunning web site.

Getting better in a way

I can not believe it has been 3 weeks since Leadville. I have been sticking with my plan of every other day with some back to back days. Most runs have been like 8-10 miles. For the most part it has been good like I was saying before in a post. I still have been a bit gun shy of going much farther than 1 1/2 hours. My right knee is still sore a bit.

I did not end up going up north to pace Adam out after thinking long and hard about what is best for my body. My mind wanted big time to do it but my mind also knew it would be good to keep taking it easy. I believe so many people fall into the trap of over doing it. They live very much in the moment with racing. I feel for myself feel like that can be a bad idea. I hope to race hard and good for many years. Heck so far I have been blessed with 23+ years of good running. I am hoping this decision will pay off with lot's of good racing ahead of me for many years. In the short term I hope to try a 2 hour run this week. If all goes well the next two weeks I might give the North Face 50 mile race down in Madison, WI a go at the end of October. If not I might look at Sunmart 50 mile in December. It would be good to have 1 more race in this year before there is a ton of snow.

My weekend was highlighted by getting to run on Saturday with my buddy Pat Russell one more time before he is off to the U.P. of Michigan next week, then I got to run with Paul and Evan down at the lakes and cheer on Sonya at the City of Lakes 25k. She was like 7th overall and 2nd master runner. She was not to happy since she was like 2+ min's slower than last year. I thought she looked pretty good !!! Next up for her is TC marathon.

Good job to all who ran also this weekend up at Superior 50 and 100 miler. Lot's of good times I hear but also sorry to Adam, Wynn, Duke, Carl, and the Quick man who saw there days end early.