One of the best ever

Wow two days in a row of blogging for me, hot darn. So today I did have a nice run with my wife. I was very happy that the paths on the parkway and by the lakes where in very good shape. After yesterday I was ready to scream !!! It was very nice to run with Sonya. In the winter we do not get to run together much since we do not have use of the baby jogger.

Continuing with linking up great video's that I love to watch I give you today a good video on one of the best distance runners ever hands down Haile Gebreselassie. He has had a very long career and has held world records from 5k, 10k, half marathon and now the marathon. He was the first man to ever break 2:04 for the marathon. Enjoy !!

Please snow go away soon

Man after feeling like I was making some real progress forward with the running we get hit with a bunch of snow !!! I love snow as much as the next guy but I am ready for it to go away soon. I do not know what we have gotten so far today but I am thinking I heard like 10 inches, what fun. So far this has been a pretty good start to the week. With the new training plan starting this coming Sunday and it going from Sunday to Saturday I have to re-set my thinking when it comes to my running week. I am at 38 miles for 4 days so far so I hope to still get some running in later to get over the 40+ mile mark going into Friday. I would like to end this week at 60 miles or so.

Here is two pretty good video's from Josh Cox who just set the American record for 50k. He has quite the training group with Hall, Meb and the rest of the Mammoth Lakes group.

Ending on a good note.

So I ended last week on a good note I thought. Now I did not get in a 18-20 mile run like I was thinking going into the weekend but I did have two good runs. Saturday I went out after work from the store and rolled out a nice 7 miler. I had a nice pace going for the most part. One thing about running from the store is that the hills make me get stronger !!! I need to get stronger that is for sure.

On Sunday I also went for a run from the store after work. I normally have Sundays off but we where short on staff so I had to fill in. The morning was out of the question for Sonya and I to double up since she was running for 4 hours !! Yes I said 4 hours. What a crazy tuff woman I have for a wife. So after I closed up the store I got all ready and went out the door with my trusty ipod. At first I was thinking longer like I said before but after about 3 miles or so I decided to make this into a solid pace run. I kept a great pace for the next hour or so I would guess. All in all I got in 14+ miles with like 10 miles of it run around 6:45 pace I would guess off the top of my head. I ended up the week running all 7 days and getting in like 56 miles. 10 miles better than last week so that is good. I need to keep this up with only like 4 weeks till St Patty's Human Race 8k race.

The Great Matt Carpenter !!!

I came across this great article on Matt Carpenter from the New York Times. If you can read it and then watch the video. It is very good and only like 4 min's long. Man I saw him out at Leadville a few years ago and it was so crazy to see how good his is and running trails like that. This is the link

Where did the week go ?

Time to catch up I guess. So the last time I blogged at all I was talking about how I was looking forward to starting my training for Grandma's and such. I ended last week with a great long run with Sonya, Paul and Adam for part of it. Paul and I got in like 18 miles on the LRT trail from Hopkins. There was a little ice but overall not to bad. I think th week ended with 45 miles in 5 runs once more. Man I could not get over the hump with days and amount of miles.

This week has started out much much better overall. So far I have run everyday !!! I have also had three real nice 10 mile runs. Now while this has been good I do know not to over do it to much and go from 5 days and 45 miles the last few weeks to 7 days and like 70+ miles. That being said I do look to get all 7 days in with some running and if all works out end with like 60 miles for the week.

Now more in my showing everyone some great motivational video's I like. Since I just bought this week the Brad Hudson training book I thought I would show you a video from one of his runners and one of my favorite U.S. runners Dathan Ritzenhein. Dathan was just 9th place at the last Olympic marathon. Enjoy !!

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack

Getting Back on the Horse

I have a date, a date with a little thing called Grandma's marathon in June. One of the things I have been talking about for sometime now is that I needed to get back to training more like a marathon runner. As I have said before I think far to many people training for ultra's do not do enough speed running each week. I have had my best years doing ultra's when I have been running lot's of hard speed work each year. I am still about 99% sure I will be toeing that line at Leadville trail 100 in August once more, but I want to make sure I am as fast as I can be when I get there. A finish will be high on my list but I am also wanting to run as fast as I can. I am a racer.

So one of the ways I thought to get myself in that type of shape was to sign up for Grandma's marathon this year. Another wrinkle in this race will be my buddy/boss at TC Running Company Adam and I are having the "20 min" challenge. Adam one day a while back was talking trash with me about how he could spot me 20 min's and still beat me since he feels like he will be in that kind of shape come June. I figured I would take that bet and so we begin the battle !!!

I am still 2 weeks away from my official training starting for Grandma's but I am getting excited to see how it will go. As many of you who know me good know how much running video's and such pump me up. I will start today going back and sharing with you some of my favorite one's. Let's get it started !!!

2008 Olympic Mens marathon trials

Strong finish I guess

So after a slower start to the week I came on nice and strong at the end of the week. I find myself having a hard time getting out the door both mentally and with the amount of time I have set aside family wise as of late. So often I feel like I am listening to a broken record in my head about getting out for a run. I will be honest it is CRAZY hard to feel that way. That being said I know I can overcome it !!

I did have a great run Tuesday night after work with Jason "Zippy" Minnick. We cranked out a solid 8+ mile run. It was colder but I felt like I nailed it clothing wise. After one more day off on Wednesday I got out there Thursday and had a good 5 mile run. Friday was also a good one and the weather was starting to feel much better to me. Both of these runs where on the parkway and by the lakes. I find with all the melt and re-freeze those places are in good shape so I don't slip and kill myself.

Saturday I ran after a crazy busy day at the store. You can tell people are ready for nice weather. It drives them into the store for new shoes big time. I started out pretty easy on this run but built into the pace. After about 15 min's I was feeling very good. With all the hills on the back side by the store I always feel like I get a solid run in. Part of what was driving me was this whole 20 min challenge Adam has with me for Grandma's marathon this June. He seems to think he can spot me 20 mins' and still beat me. I hope to make him very wrong on this !!

Today I got my long run in at the store with both Paul and Adam. We first did a 8+ mile loop with Adam them the "real" men Paul and I added on another 8+ miles to get a very solid 16+ mile and 2 hour day in. I think next week I need to try and get closer to 20 miles before a rest week. I will keep using my heart monitor each day to make sure I do not over do it. I am trying to keep the pace good but not to good.

I ended the week with like 45 miles on 5 days of running. Short of the goal from a few weeks ago but ok in the grand idea of things for me.