Human Race 8k Report

Man that was fun and scary all at the same time. As always it was so fun to be at that race seeing everyone from all the teams and such milling around before the race, during and after. That is one of the things I love best about all racing is seeing the people. I will say going into it I was a bit scared as it had been some time since I had run a race of any distance where I was going to give it my all right from the start. In the ultra's I find it easy to say heck it long I will just start easy; and in road races I just have not put in a honest effort out in sometime.

I knew I had put together a solid 4 months of running and was is pretty good shape. Not my best but getting closer than I have been in years. I knew I had not done much speed work but figured I had done enough that I thought 5:40-5:50 pace was doable for me. I wore my Garmin 405 for a few reasons. 1) I thought it would help me not go out to hard from the start and 2) It would give me confidence when I saw that I could hold 5:40ish type pace and not feel like I was going to die. It was a good call by me.

Mile 1- Got out good, very in control as we made are way up the rise toward Snelling, a good start. 5:57 split
Mile 2- Well I never saw the 2 mile marker so I just kept on rolling as I was excited I was going to make it to the turn around the school before the leaders had past by me! It had been a few years since this has happen.
Mile 3- I was trying to catch up to a group that had just passed by me as I knew I needed to keep things rolling. A bit bumbed I did not feel any tailwind since we had it in our face a bit going out. Seems like the winds always swirl around there. I had a average pace of 5:46 for the last two miles.
Mile 4- So at this point I was working hard to keep pushing on. I was telling myself do not quit like the past few years. Keep pressing. Much harder to re-train yourself to do this that I thought. I believe I was like 6:03 pace but the Garmin read 1.06 miles so I guess sub 6 for a true mile. This mile has a gentle uphill for a while so it is always the slowest.
Mile 5- At this point my lung could not believe how hard they where working. I was happy to keep passing a few people and holding my spot. I was wanting to slow as I saw the line but kept going after it as I knew I needed to. I ran a 5:39 last mile which made me happy.

All in all I did not run anywhere near my times of the past when 27:30 was a normal day, but I was very happy about the run. I thought coming in I would be between 28:30ish and 29 mins or so. I guess 29:10 fits the bill. 5:50 mile pace for 5 miles. Still lots of work to do but as I did my 7 mile cool down I thought about how things are starting to go my way.


Evan " litte Pre " and Summer in the kids run. Just look at the arm carriage people

Race Week

I always struggle with how much to run the week of a race. It's not like I am peeking for this Sunday's race but I also hope to have a good run there. So after many great weeks in a row I decided to cut back just a bit so I could put my best foot forward at race time. I still had a great workout on Tuesdays and followed that up with a solid baby jogger up tempo run tonight with Evan. Man pushing a almost 4 year old gets harder by the week. But I will say I can tell my fitness must be better since I does not feel like total hell. It is funny the looks I get while we are flying around the lakes.

So have you been hitting the trails ? I sure hope so as it is great to be back on dirt ! I have been at Hyland a few times the last week or so plus the single track trails along the creek by our house have been nice as well. I have been trying a bunch of trail shoes this year so far. I have been super excited because we have gone all in full tilt with the trail running gear at TC Running Company. As a long time trail/ultrarunner I always thought it sucked that you had to go to like 5 different places to get what I wanted/needed. So Adam and I thought why not become trail headquarters for the Twin Cities area. We have added Montrail, Vasque and in July Salomon shoes to our already big wall of trail shoes. I also have stocked up the nutritional stuff, water packs and headlamps to name a few things. Heck as always I tell people that if they need it and I do not have it tell me and I will see what I can do ! So back to the shoes. I have been running in the NB 100, Inov8 xtalon 212, Montrail Rockridge and now the Vasque Transistor fs shoes. I will have to say that I have liked them all alot. The NB and Inov8 are super light and fast and the Montrail and Vasque are lighter but also have some good extra cush. It is great to have so many good options to run in. Hmm what will be my race shoe at Trail Mix 50k ???

Well my video or in this case 2 videos for the week is a good one. All time favortive bands in Fugazi and the Decendants !! Brings me back a long time ago and to a time where I spent alot of time at there concerts.

St. Patty "Haman Race"=Great race

Year in year out the start to the road race season officially starts at the St Patty Day "Human Race" 8k championship in St Paul. This race has hosted the MN 8k road championships for so many years in a row now I could not count that high. It is for a good reason. The race offers all the things I think make up a quality race. It has a great course, Great competition, very well organized race day from packet pickup to actual on course stuff like mile markers, air stations, etc. I have run the race almost every year since 2002. It to me marks the start of spring racing !! If you are looking for a great way to kick of the spring and want to run a top notch race check it out. You can get info at TSL Evants.com
* Ok so it is St Paddys Day "Human Race" 8k !!! Sorry Helen

A Busy Weekend

So can we say crazy nice outside or what. Man It is over 60 today ! This is one heck of a way to end out the weekend that is for sure. Hell its so nice I think the kids and I are going to go for a walk tonight.

Running wise it was another great week as well for me. I lock up one more solid week of miles and this week saw lots of faster pace running; something that was feeling good after so many months of running on snow and ice. Probably the highlights of the week for me came Tuesday and Saturday when I had a great runs where I was just feeling so easy while the whole time I was clicking off mile after mile of 6:30-6:40 pace with even some 6:10 miles in there as well. It was a great feeling to say the least. It feels good to see that the consistent running is starting to pay off. I finished off the weekend with a great MN river bottoms run with Tony around 12 noon. Man what more to ask for but sun, shorts, lots of dirt and great company. It was a real easy shake out run but once more I was feeling super good and feeling like the hard work is paying off. I know people say it all the time but good things happen with lots of hard work. I am so excited to race soon. I thought the trails would have been super muddy but they are not to bad.

Other busy stuff going on the weekend was lots of running to follow. We had NCAA indoor track live on ESPN 360. You can even go back and watch all the good races by clicking on the link. Also go over to Universal Sports.com to watch the World indoor track and field championships as well. And last but not least there was the USA 15k champs at Gate River run and Way too Cool 50k going on. Man lots for a running junkie like myself to keep up on. Now get out there and enjoy this weather !!

This Weeks video is the band Bloc Party. Their songs are great to run to, up tempo !

Ultra Running podcast

Over on Endurance Planet they have had two great podcast lately with a few ultrarunning ledgends Tim Twietmeyer and Anton Krupicka. If you have the time check them out. Just click on the names for the link.

My City is Alive

Man just got back from a solid 12 mile run down and round the lakes in Mpls. The Sun was out, temps are good and I was taking it all in. As a trail runner I love how I can go get lost in the woods and wind from tree to tree and sometimes not see a soul for hours. But as I saw today during my run was a great reminder of what I love about living in the city. I love that there are people outside like crazy just breathing the fresh air and enjoying the day with there friends and family. I do not know of anywhere else where I can get both the great wooded trails and the non stop paths all within 5 to 15 mins from my house. I love my city and state !

Today also saw me finish up another great week of running. It feels good to have the miles added up while loving it all and for the most part not having it feel like a job. It's good to be back. I am looking forward to the next few weeks and getting to race aging after a long long break. I also look forward to the trails all being open sometime soon. I have a feeling it will be pretty muddy for a few weeks and I will try my best to stay off them so not to tear them all up to bad.

Remember a few posts ago I wrote about having a song going thru my brain over and over after rocking to it via my ipod on the run. Well I think I am going to make this a weekly part of my blog. The weeks song always gets me going. What a great old school punk rock band. Long live the Hives.

Sun, Snow and Friends

This last week was a pretty good one filled with more fun running with friends on some good trails and roads with even a little indoor track tossed in for fun.

On both Friday and Sunday I got to run the great winter running trails at Theo Wirth and Lebanon Hills. The Friday morning group was the biggest it had been in many weeks. I think there was like 6 or 7 guys ready for the 6am start. The trail was in good shape and it was not to cold for the early start.

The Sunday group found Tony K, Adam L joining in for the first7 7+ mile loop at Lebanon along with Sonya, Paul and myself with Rick C. and we even ran into Helen part of the way so she jumped into the group. The snow was good and packed and the sun felt good. I loved the run and felt real good all the way. Still using my Vespa for all long runs and I will say for me it works like great! We got in a solid 20 miles for the day. After the run Sonya and I got a coffee on the way to pick up the kids. A great way to top of the morning. As great as the run was I will say I am excited to get the dirt back soon! With the warn temps we are having now it might not take to long.

One of my best days of the week was a super indoor track workout of 7x1000 meters at 10k race pace. I got to warm up with Paul and his son Danny which was super cool. Once I started I got the ipod cranking and I felt super great. This was my second workout of the year and I feel real good about where I am at this point. Still lots of work to do but it feels real good to be where I am at as of now.