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.

What is Ultrarunning ?

This is the latest Ultra trail running year end video by Montrail runner Matt Taylor. I have always enjoyed his blog work with all the videos and such. Please go to his site and tell him good job if you enjoy this. I would find it hard to believe that anyone would not find it great. It makes me so excited for spring and all the upcomming trail fun I will have with my friends. Enjoy and great job Matt !!

My Runner of the Year

Last night I had the honor of going to the 2nd annual USATF-MN awards banquet. I was there on a few fronts. One was to pick up the great team awards our TC Running team won in last years team circuit. We got 1st Open Men, 1st Masters Men, 1st Grandmaster Men, and 2nd Open Women. I was very proud of my team and all my teammates. My other reason to be there was because my wife Sonya won Female Masters runner of the year !! I was so so proud of her. Lot's of her teammates and friends came out to Cheer which was nice. After the awards a few of us even went out for some drinks and a near by Champs. It was a good night in all.

Training has continued to roll along. One more solid week with a good long run today on the snowshoe trails at Lebanon Hills park and a super workout at the Dome on Thursday night. Fill out the rest of the week with some solid runs and I was a happy camper today. Plus hell team USA hockey beat Canada tonight to top it off. Now I just need to finish off the month in style !!!

**This looks like a fun race. Maybe someday ?