Grandma's Minnesota Mile Bummer

The day was gorgeous. Winds were a cross-wind, so in a city where there usually is a predominant wind off the lake, which would be perfect for this race as a tailwind, they were not in our faces. It was sunny and cool and the competitions was stiff. The hamstring tightness I was experiencing earlier in the week from Monday's last workout was just about nonexistent. I figured with a nice long warmup and some decent stretches I would be ready to go. As I continued my warm up and some striders the tightness was all so slightly present. Would it let me go rip out a mile and just be a little sore or would it tighten and go into a full-on spasm right int the middle of Superior street. Well, I was handed the later and I had to make the only safe decision really. The first quarter was covered in a quick 62 seconds and although it was a little too fast I realized I had a nice downhill quarter ahead of me and I could relax, slow and gain some breathe and still run a 65 to be ahead of my pace before focusing on the last 800 meters. I didn't make it the next quarter and jumped the curb at 700 meters. My race was done.  I could have slowed and hobbled in for the pathetic, "old-man" shuffle applause but really there was no point to that. I had only one decision and that was to stop and walk back to the start. DNF!

These last 5 or 6 weeks have been wonderful and I know I will use the speed I build up to my benefit later this fall. Anytime you can spend that many weeks on the track a person is going to be quicker because of it. The plan now is to recover, and switch gears and start running some medium-distance runs along with a decent dash of LT workouts and see where and what half-marathon I can get into. If I can nail one more race this fall that would be great. It's been a weird year for me and one that has had little racing. I guess that is a nice change, after all, the training that goes into all these races is often the best part!


Sept. 6-9th

Thurs:  50:00  6-8 striders at full effort
                           ham tight but no spasm.
Friday: 0 miles
Saturday: 0 miles *up all night crewing for 100 mile race
Sunday: warm up 35:00
             race 700 meters  DNF

Pure Lactic Acid

The quicker I can put myself at ease by the taste of blood and the burn in my lungs, and the lead in my legs, the sooner I will be mentally prepared to run the Grandma's MN Mile this Sunday. I have returned to the track for the first time in many years in preparation for this event. For the most part I am very happy where my fitness has gone in such little time. Having said that, I am a bit concerned about my fitness after the 800 meter of a mile race. Good thing the course is net downhill for the first 800 meters or so and I hope to make it my advantage.

First in line for the weekend is spending another weekend at the Superior 100 mile Trail race for some crewing duties of fellow team member Dave Shuneman. He is gonna rock that race and I can't wait for all the festivities to begin.

Here is the quick look at the last week and a half:

August 22nd-September 2

Monday: 1:00 early morning headlamp trail run with Shune
                              very easy paced run. felt great.
Tuesday: Track work. 800, 400, 200 X 2 sets. (2:20,2:23) (70,69) (33,34)
Wednesday: 45:00 easy
Thursday: 59:00
Friday: 1:05:00  3 X 1000 meters @ 5:10 pace
                         4 X 200 meters
Saturday: 0 off
Sunday: 35:00 around Centerville lake MN



September 3-5

Monday: track work, 800 (2:23) 1 min rest 400 x 2 with 30 sec rest. (70, 71)
              *right hamstring trouble, a bit mentally beat with this workout!
Tuesday: 0 off for rest/recovery
Wednesday: 37:00 leg feels a bit better, still concerning though for the race???