Two Week Recap- Running By Time

It's been over two weeks since the WhistleStop 1/2 Marathon and I have recovered much better than I thought I would. I took most of the week following the race off but resumed some easy running the next week and have been running by time only. I really like this time of year and base phase for the most part by running solely by time. It's really easy to get caught up in mileage and really, after all the years I have been at this running gig, I do know how much mileage I am running by a very good educated guess. What's most important at this point in the year is to get in some consistent miles and enjoy them. I can say I have been allowing myself to perform those qualities in my training and will soon follow a more structured plan.

Not a lot has happened in the last two weeks but the highlight of the time gap had to have been my run last Sunday. I couldn't hook up with any partners so I took after that one solo. I would decide on a trail that I had dabbled on a while back and was very fortunate to nail a remarkable day! The run would start at the Parking lot west of Ely's Peak and I would work my way in a southwesterly direction back towards Jay Cooke. The trail was dry, and slightly covered with leaves. I was a bit worried in regards to the trails coverage but it really wasn't an issue as I didn't twist any ankles or take any falls for the 80 minutes of running I did.

Here is the catch up for the two weeks. I plan to run 6-7 times a week and eventually work my way up to 10-11 runs a week with one mid week longer run and one weekend long effort. If the weather cooperates this may happen by early December. If not that will definitely be the goal heading into the new year.

Week 17th-23rd:
Monday: 0 miles
Tues: 31:00   ~4 miles
Wed: 0 miles
Thurs: 0 miles
Friday: 32:00  ~4 miles
Saturday: 0 miles
Sunday: 54:00  ~6.5 miles
*~ 15 miles running (recovery post 1/2 marathon)

Week 24th-30th
Mon: 43:42  ~5.5 miles
Tues: 0 miles
Wed: 52:55 ~7 miles
Thurs: 53:10  ~7 miles
Fri:  55:00  ~7 miles
Sat: 53:35  ~6.5 miles
Sun: 1:18:52  SHT  ~9 miles
*~42 miles

Weeks Total: 57 miles (2 weeks)
Years Total: 1842.6 miles

WhistleStop 1/2 Marathon.

So I did some calculating and I was ready for the WS 1/2 marathon. I had been asked several times during the week "how fast you gonna run?". To them I responded, "not too sure, just want to run a solid run." I'd have to be honest and say I really wanted to run well and have a shot at the win. My buddy Dave H was the clear favorite in my eyes and I was willing to give him company right to the wire if I could.  Long story short, it wasn't his day and we had a "spoiler" enter the race at the last moment.

Ben Cogger, a super athlete from Washburn had won the race last year and I couldn't scratch up any running results on him since. So, I figured he would be a no-show, thus giving Dave and I a good shot at the win! Not the case.

As the gun sounded we made our way out to the mile mark right smack into a headwind. That would be covered just under 6 minutes and I was quite happy with the slow pace as I used it as a nice warm up. It was at this point where Ben would make move number one and press miles 2  and 3. He set up a nice lead but well in sight. I fully had the confidence that I or Dave would eventually reel him in and have a race for the last 5K or so. It wasn't long after this point where Dave had some issues and I decided to make a press for a few miles to see if I could chip away at the lead. I would run about 5 consecutive negative split miles in chase but narrowed the lead by a mear 10 seconds, to be trailing by 20 or so.

I so wanted to throw in a couple of 5:10  miles and just catch up but it wasn't in my legs. It was in my head but not a reality this time...

I managed to chip some time I had lost in the 10 th mile during the last two miles but not enough to make a difference. I closed the last mile as my second fastest of the day and I was happy with that.

I ended the morning with a second place finish overall with a time of 1:14:48, thirty-two seconds behind the victory!

Here are my splits for those that like that kind of stuff:
5:53,5:49,5:42,5:43,5:37,5:36,5:34,5:38,5:37,5:42,5:48,5:43,5:35, 0:49

I am happy with how things panned out. Looking back I ran a lot of 45ish mile weeks building up to this and most of it was quality work. Just shows what you can do on very little volume with some quality and smart thinking. I really listened to my body over the last 5 or 6 weeks and let things happen the way I felt. I know I can run much faster but with what I had to work with I am content.

Now it's time to rest a bit then hit up the miles for winter base-phase.

Weeks Total: 35.5 miles
Years Total: 1785.6 miles

Race Week

Last weeks training went quite well and I had good feelings heading into this final week of preparation. I wasn't planning any type of taper and fully planned to run right up to race day. The week started with a nice recovery style run up Woodland to Martin road and home via the Vermilion road and UMD. I remember feeling really good. Legs light and flowing.

Tuesday I hit the trails for some easy miles then hit the walkways of UMD for some "pickups" to stretch out the legs and hips. That too felt good. My achilles was now near pain-free. What the heck? How did that happen?

Wednesday I ran out Skyline and decided on some "race-pace" type running just so my legs wouldn't get stale. The morning moonlight was great and I settled in a 3 X 4min at 5:50 pace for the pick ups. Decent but not stellar. My legs and achilles remained intact and that is all I needed.

Thursday and Friday turned into 0 days as I just made the decision to give it a try.

Week thus Far:

Monday: 1:01:58   8.1 miles

Tuesday: 45:49  5.5 miles

Wednesday:  1:00:59   8.8 miles 3 X 4 minutes at 5:50 pace

Thurs/Friday: 0 miles

Tardy Postings

First off, I need to play catch up with some running over the last week and a half.
The last I wrote I was heading into the weekend prior to race week and then I was going to see how things felt and tweak for the final days before the WhistleStop 1/2 half marathon.

I took off Thursday and chalked it up to a rest day.

On Friday the 7th I ran up Woodland and did a quick adjustment and decided to run a 4 X 4 minute at 10K pace, or just about 10k pace. It looked like this: 5:23, 5:32, 5:21, 5:18 paces respectively. I then ended with 2 X 1 min at 4:46 and 4:37 paces. I ended feeling really good and the feet/legs were really responding that morning.

Saturday the 8th I woke up early to get in my medium long run before my wife and before we hit the road for the Bayfield Applefest. I ran trails down to Lakeside and roads back home. I didn't feel spectacular but it was a decent run.

Sunday was another rest day so I took it off and walked a lot at the Apple fest.

Here is how the week ended with volume.

Thurs:
o miles

Friday:
1:03:00  9.6 miles 4 X 4 min, 2 x 1 min.

Saturday:
1:34:24    12.2 miles

Sunday:
0 miles


Weeks Total: 46.4 miles   (5 days)
Years Total: 1750.1 miles

Recovery Week and Move On

The extra "faster" running from last weekend left me a bit fatigued and I used the early days this week to make sure I was recovered. Monday was just that as I did an easy road loop. Tuesday was my trail run/umd sidewalk fartlek run. Wednesday was a  nice out and back on Skyline and I was going to attempt to run some faster miles but it just wasn't in the cards.

Monday:
1:01:50   8 miles

Tuesday:
45:43   5.7 miles (trails/striders on roads)

Wednesday:
1:12:09   10.4 miles (skyline)

Adding Workouts

To end this past week I added a workout, or two, and finally began to see a dim light at the end of a very long tunnel. I am referring to finally getting to the point in training where I can feel myself making a little progress towards some fitness. For some reason this return to everyday training has taken me through some rather long "rough patches". I'm glad things are starting to improve, albeit slightly, but I will take it.

On Friday morning I woke and had it in my head I as going to do some faster intervals during my route of unknown. I quickly decided on running up Woodland for the warm up and slowly work into a series of 3 minute intervals. After the 2.5 mile warm up I ended up doing 6 X 3 minutes at ~525-5:30 pace. I actually felt really good during this farlek workout and was pleased with the effort.

Saturday came and I had made plans to run with Dave H. He and I met at the Rose Garden and ran to Park Point where we slowly decided to work into an "uptempo" of unknown effort. Neither one of us felt that zippy to start but slowly worked into the run and ended up  finishing at 5:35 pace. I felt good, but remained concerned about the possibility of "racing" a half marathon in two weeks. The last thing I want to do is go do that race and have it destroy all the work I have done in the last month or so. So... it remains to be a last minute decision.

Sunday was another gorgeous day in Duluth. I hit the trails from our house and ended up running for just over an hour really easy. A super run. (wore he Universe and achilles felt great!)


Here are the details:

Friday:
Woodland Fartleks
6 X 3 min  *5:33, 5:32, 5:18, 5:23, 5:36, 5:36
Total: 1:02:07   9.1 miles

Saturday:
Park Point progression run with dave
middle 6 miles: 6:15, 5:56, 5:51, 5:38, 5:42, 5:40
Total: 1:19:31   11.7 miles

Sunday:
Hartley trails in Universe.
Total: 1:01:45   7 miles

Weeks Total: 42 miles
Years Total: 1703.7 miles

New Week- Progress

I have been posting about some persistent aches and pains that have ailed me since July. The main issue to keep at bay is a little tendonopathy in the achilles. It seems to wax and wane but for the most part I can run without any discomfort. In the process of all this I am working my way down to more minimal shoes, as I have been running in the Brooks Launch for a couple of years now I think I may be on my last pair. Mostly because I'm not too sure if they are going to make them anymore and more importantly I am looking forward to the Brooks Pure Connect. I'm not too sure how they feel and I am hopeful they will be a match for my feet. I also enjoy the Saucony Kinvara and they will definitely work if the Brooks fail.

With the change to a lesser shoe my form and stride have shifted a bit and that has been working some new muscles a bit more than in the past. I hope this transition remains to go smoothly so I can ramp up the volume and get ready for a strong base phase later this fall and winter.

This week has been one of small progress but progress none-the-less. I did't get out on Monday morning because I forgot to set my alarm and woke up 45 minutes too late. I chalked it as a great day of rest. The rest of the week has been going well and I hope to carry the momentum into the weekend and have a decent longer effort on Sunday.

Here is how the week has gone thus far:

Monday:
0 miles  *no alarm clock

Tuesday:
out and back on Skyline
10 miles with 5 miles at steady state 1:07:00

Wednesday:
Kenwood loop to UMD
53:28  7.4 miles

Thursday:
Windy as hell and hit the woods with double headlamps
44:54  5.6 miles

Persistent Aches

I managed to get out the door most days this week and even had the opportunity to run an evening run on Friday with my lovely wife. I really struggled to get up on Friday morning so it was a pleasant surprise to get out in the evening and hit some single track with her.

Waking up on Saturday had me in a spin. Literally! I woke up and was going to hit the trails and roadways for an easy hour before my wife and Lucas woke up. I worked my way downstairs only to find myself spinning in me head. I was so dizzy I had to lay back down and close my eyes on the couch just to keep things at bay. It wasn't too much longer and my son was trying to show me his loose tooth and when I looked up at him I saw three of him so I decided it was best just to stay where I was for a bit. I ended sleeping/resting on the couch in darkness for near two hours before working on getting vertical. I finally made it up and about but going for a run, especially on the trails, just wasn't in the cards.

I continue to have a series of aches and pains involving the achilles and right psoas muscles. Doing the stretches keeps things at bay but I am not really progressing with the volume and workouts like I had planned. I hope to nail down (2) workouts this week. Keeping the fingers crossed...

Here is how the week unfolded.

Wednesday:
Out to Woodland, Martin road and home via Vermillion/Umd.
1:01:40   8 miles

Thursday:
A mix of trails and UMD sidewalks at end for some uptempo running.
46:19   5.9 miles (6 X 100 meter striders)

Friday:
Too sleepy in a.m. Ran with Kari after work for a nice loop in Hartley.
55:00   6 miles/trails

Saturday:
NO running 0 miles

Sunday:
Out west with the boys. A series of loops to get in the time.
1:46:30   13.6 miles easy running

Weeks Total: 45.8 miles (6 runs)
Years Total: 1662 miles

Step It Up

I planned to step up the volume this week and start working on some faster running in hopes to get myself in respectable shape to do one more race this fall. I have a couple of half-marathons on my radar but nothing for sure. If I can make some progress in the next week or two I think I have a shot at racing and being content with the results.

MON:
This week I started off a bit weak but I really struggled just to get out of bed. I was happy I did and made the best of it with the time I had. Nothing special, just an ordinary shake-out run to the cemetery and back.
Total: 31:42   4.2 miles

TUES:
This morning I made the choice to do some faster running in the form of steady-state/slow LT pace running. I may have been a bit quick for steady-state but not quite fast enough for LT but by the way I was feeling I may have nailed the perfect pace for such a workout. After a warm up along Skyline I worked myself into a 4 mile section  at 5:45 pace. I was a bit surprised to see the first mile slow but I quickly adjusted the pace and finished out the miles. Wow! That seemed way hard and just a few months ago I ran 13.1 at 5:29/mi pace. Hopefully today's run was a good jump start to fresh running!
Total: 53:12  8.1 miles
          4 miles at 5:45 pace

Mixin' Trails and Such

I managed to finish off the week quite strong. I am really not making any great strides in my fitness and each run seems to be going well, so I may need to look at adjusting the volume next week and adding some up tempo workouts to the plan.

On Friday I managed to do another double headlamp (one around my waist and one on my head) run in Rock Hill and finish the run by doing some quicker miles on the campus roads. I felt great after one warm up loop and the achilles are progressing nicely.
Total: 43:03  5.3 miles

Saturday I did my medium long run solo and hit trails down to Lester before making my way to the Lakewalk and doing some quicker miles on my route to the DRC. I had to resort  to taking a gel along the way as I could feel a nice bonk heading my way and I was not willing to take part in a bonk-fest! The gel didn't make me feel any better, but I didn't get any worse so that tells me it was a wise decision to take it and I was able to maintain effort to the store where Kari and Lucas were waiting my arrival.
Total: 1:40:00   13.6 miles

On Sunday my wife did her long run and soon after she was done I made my way out with Dave. He and I did all the trails of Rock Hill and Chester Bowl before I let him go on his way home for his long effort. My legs felt decent but remained a bit fatigued from Saturday's longer run. I really didn't do too good of a job with nutrition after Saturday's run so I must play catch up now.
Total: 1:07:26  7.6 miles

Weeks Total: 48 miles
Years Total: 1616.2 miles

New Motivation

Over the weekend I managed to get my motivation fired up again. I had the opportunity to crew for my friend Tony as he ran the Superior Trail 100 miler. I have done this in the past and this year was one to remember. We met at Gooseberry State Park, the start of the race, where I had the pleasure to see all participants take off on a very, long run. I kept my focus one aid station at a time and I'm sure Tony did as well. It's really amazing, for me, how fast the day and night went by. When you are constantly thinking of your runner and how they are feeling, looking and what extra supplement they might need or want, the hours just fly by. I managed to get a little tired in the wee hours of the night but as soon as the sky broke for sunrise I was immediately energized and made the push to be on my best attentive behavior. The day hours were full of sun and heat, good for the crew, bad for the runners, but we made the best of it and Tony nailed a great race. During the race I was joined by Dave,Clint,Andrea,Deb,Chris and Dave S whom all shared the pacing duties after 50 miles and through the night. Dave Shuney stayed throughout the night and next day and paced quite a few miles himself. I can't speak for Tony, but I'm sure Dave, and all the pacers, did a marvelous job and having the extra company is truly amazing.

 Tony is one tough sun of a bitch. He always looked so content in what he was doing. Sure, he may have had his ups and downs, but there was very little complaining on his part. A sign of a true champion, and a sign of a prepared runner. It goes without saying, I am very proud to have been part of Tony's experience. Thank you!

The race or Tony ended at 6:34 pm on Saturday evening and like a bunch of whooped horses he, DAVE and I showered and attempted to eat before crashing for the night. There were many stories shared over the next 24 hours and there will be many more memories shared in years to come.

So, with such an amazing running experience from Tony, my motivation has been kicked in once again and I am making a push for one more race for the season. I may be running the Whistle Stop 1/2 Marathon on October 15th if all goes well. I need a few serious runs to go well and if they do, I will toe the line.

So Far this Week:

Monday:
48:10  6.3 miles
sluggish, but a good start

Tuesday:
51:39   7.2 miles

Wednesday:
0 miles

Thursday:
1:02:13  8.4 miles
felt great the last 2.5 miles or so. i hope this is a sign that things are going to improve quickly. I need that to happen.

Build Up

I used this week to build back up a bit. The goal was to run most days in Ronin's and maintain the lower leg/glute exercises. I knew I would get little to no exercise during the weekend so I made the most of my week runs. Nothing special, just good ol running on roads and trails as I wished.

Here is how the rest of the week unrolled.

Tuesday:
43:07   6 miles

Wednesday:
50:00 ~7 miles

Thursday:
45:00  ~6 miles (trials and roads)

Friday-Sunday:
0 miles
*crew for Tony during the Superior Trail 100 miler

Weeks Total: 23.3 miles
Years Total: 1567.8 miles

Labor Day Trail Run

I didn't run a trail race. Just another run on the trails by our house. We woke up to cool temperatures today (43F) and it forced me to put on a long sleeve shirt to keep the chill to a minimum.
I hit the trails of Hartley for a planned short loop and I felt super! No tenderness in the achilles and after running for an hour in my Universe I am pleased. The Hartley trails are in great shape even with the added rain we received lately. I ended the run with 3 x 100 meter striders at 5:15 pace. Legs are making a turn in fitness and I may actually toe the line in a race before years end...
Total:
33:44  4.3 miles trails

Solid Rebuilding Week

I am very happy with the progress I made this past week. The tendonopathy in my left achilles is slowly subsiding and gives me very little trouble right now. Having said that I need to remain diligent with the rehab process and moving forward with some new strength building exercises as I progress through the fall season. I hope to find myself in decent shape soon in order to take advantage of fall fitness and enter a race somewhere.

Here is the remainder of last weeks runs.

Wednesday
I decided to add a few minutes to the run this morning and proceeded to run the "extended Pig's loop". Out to Vermilion and back provided a nice a.m. loop.
50:31  6.7 miles

Thursday:
Making a conscious effort to step back a bit this morning I did just over a half hour to allow more time for adjustment to the minimal shoes. I don't really see myself needing a ton of time to adjust since I have been fairly "minimal" for a few years now, I am just making it full-time now and throwing out the trainers. The Ronin's are feeling great and I even see myself spending a bit of time on the trails in my Universe fairly soon.
32:38  4.5 miles

Friday:
I did a short version of my Kenwood loop and was feeling great. My legs are making further adjustments to the new shoes and stride. I found myself really cruising at times and had to slow things down.
40:11  5.4 miles

Saturday:
I hit the trails for my medium long run and had a super run! Leaving my house I hit the Rock Hill trails at UMD. After a short loop I made my way to Hartley via SHT and ran through to the Cemetery and once again hit the SHT to Amity creek trails where I proceeded to move to the Lester Park single-track trails for a half-loop before finishing on the Lester Park Ski trails for a loop until my time was up. My legs (quads) took a beating and were fatigued quite a bit but the rest of the body felt great. Another run in the Ronin's.
1:37:52  11.8 miles

Sunday:
I was planning a day off but got in contact with an old running pal from Esko and made the trek out to his place for an absolutely wonderful trail run in Jay Cooke State Park. I following on a new loop that had us just giddy. The trails out there are truly a hidden gem to most.
57:00  7 miles or so

Weeks Total: 44 miles
Years Total: 1544.5 miles

Clean Slate

The week following Ragnar I took a big fat 0 on all days! That's right. No running at all and a lot of sleep. I slept up to 2 extra hours a night for nearly a week. Yes, it felt great. I also allowed my left achilles some needed rest and I am now in the process of rebuilding an aerobic base and doing some much needed rehab. It's funny how a person lets their body go as long as it's performing well and quickly forgets all the extra strength oriented work that goes along with keeping the body healthy. I am now back at square one and will not slack on those exercises and continue to improve my overall strength this fall and winter and 2012 will be a new Masters record year for me. I'm pissed off with all the minor setbacks and now it's time to kick ass! This year was headed in that direction and since my 1/2 marathon in June I've been stuck in a rut of destruction. NO MORE.

So far this week I have run two easy days and performed my lower leg exercises along with some overall stretching of the legs, abdomen and upper torso. I plan to obtain some kettle-bells and possibly an old Bow Flex, as I used one today at Dunhams and I think it will provide all the necessary strength exercises I need. More research on that over the next few days.

Monday:

Out and back through the cemetery and exercises.

32:00 4+ miles

Tuesday:

on treadmill for 4.2 miles at 7:40 pace

33:00

*both runs were in Mizuno Ronins. I may try to adapt to the racing flat system, aka minimal-trainers, with a some caution looking ahead. I like the look of the new Brooks coming out this fall and those may be just what I need in a trainer. No more heels!

RAGNAR/GREAT RIVER RELAY 2011

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was very fortunate to be a member of a men's Masters team that was sponsored by Revel Sports/Marshfield Clinic that won the 2011 Ragnar/Great River Relay this past weekend. This same team, with the exception of two runners won the event in 2010 as well. Last year after we won there was talk of doing it again but those discussions really never surfaced until late this spring. Some guys were skeptical of doing it again because of the experience being so great in 2010, how could we possibly top that? With the crew we assembled we made that possible and had one hell of a time!

The picture above shows the six members of the starting van. We departed from Winona at 4:00 pm on Friday. For such a huge event, 300+ teams of 12 members, the start is very anti-climactic. The 4 pm slot had just 8 teams start. It felt like a club practice. We managed to get out and run in third place for most of the first round of running and had a decent battle already brewing. When we handed off to the second van of six runners it was getting dark and we had to put on the required reflective gear for the rest of the night and until the clock ticked past 0700!

For me going through the challenges of the race segments pays off when you hand off to the next runner and then see how the 11 other team members are putting out their 100% effort. In times of doubt all you have to do is think of the others hurting and to just keep pushing on the best you can. We all are hurting and as the night progresses EVERYONE is tired. You just have to dig a little deeper to find that extra piece that maybe the other teams are not quite able to focus on. All 11 of us did that and it resulted in another year with a super victory.

Briefly, I was runner number 5. I had segments of 8, 6.2, and 7 miles for my three legs. The 8 miler was .2 short and I appreciated every step of it! The 6.2 mile segment was in the farm lands just off the river valley's so it incorporated a lot of bluff climbing on gravel roads. I had about 1.5 miles of gradual warm up then I had 4.5 miles of uphill grind. The grade was more than the challenge I wanted at 0130 but I had to keep pressing on and get to the exchange zone to pass the hurt to my team member Mark. All in all, I finished that segment a bit disappointed but managed a 6:04 average pace for those climbs. My last segment was another hilly 7 miler that started in the corn/farm lands just outside of Woodbury and finished in the suburbia mecca of east Woodbury. Those rolling hills were enough to make scream, but I remember the look on my friend Steve's face as he ran the exact segment in 2010, and I just couldn't give up as he put in 110% that year and I didn't want to let my guys down. I still felt like I did, and part of it was injury, and the other part was not fueled up enough, but I managed to get it done and remain to average 6:03 miles for the last dirty bugger.

Once our van completed our last bit of running we handed off and grabbed a quick breakfast as Denny's and made contact with our team members in Van 2 only to find out they ate up the 9+ minutes we were behind all night long and actually were in the lead. As we made our way to the river paths of Minneapolis we found our runners in the lead and looking great. As our last runner took off for the final leg and the push to the finish he had a 5+ minute lead and gave it his all. With a lot of encouragement and a stellar running performance we managed to get the win with a 3 minute cushion.

The excitement was unbelievable. We had repeated the win and we now could celebrate. With a bit of help from some new friends we managed to make "a few" beers disappear and had eventually made our way to the motel for a little hot tub and dinner.

Thank you guys again for such a wonderful experience. I said this last year and I will say it again. I don't think we can top that performance but I am willing to try in 2012! Thanks much!!

Total for Ragnar: 195 miles 19:59:52 average pace: 6:10 per mile

me:

Friday:

44:36 7.8 miles

Saturday: 37:05 6.2 miles

42:05 7 miles

Sunday: 0 miles rest

Weeks Total: 43 miles

Years Total: 1500.9 miles

Ragnar Week

Team Revel Sports/Marshfield Clinic, a Masters division team, won for the second year in a row, the Ragnar Relay-Great River Relay from Winona to Minneapolis MN!!

I had the pleasure of joining these gentleman on last years victory and we decided to give it a try again and damn if we didn't repeat. There is a good story to the victory and I will get to that later but first I have to share the week building up to the race and how my runs went.

I started last week by giving myself a little break and running easy on Monday after a medium distance run on Sunday. I felt good and allowed myself a nice, easy recovery-type run and enjoyed it. Because I was feeling a bit behind in training I wanted to get a feel for "steady-state" pacing and decided to run a bit of loop out on Lakeside and turn up the volume a bit and run up to 5 miles at steady-state pace. Right now that pace seems to hit right about 5:50 pace. I started off and things were feeling great. I knocked off the first mile right on pace and soon found myself running closer to Lactate pace of 5:35 and didn't like that so I slowed down back to the 5:50's that I wanted. During the second mile I felt a pull on my posterior right knee that kept getting worse with each stride. Very concerning, so I backed off after 3 1/2 miles and jogged it home. That night I got a massage and the therapist couldn't find any trigger and all things felt fine. Very weird... On Wednesday I met up with Nic and we ran an hour very easy and things felt very good and I felt very little pulling on the knee. I took Thursday off and traveled Friday to the Ragnar.

The Ragnar report deserves it's own entry and I will post that very soon.

Here is the week:

Monday:

50:09 7.6 miles

Tuesday:

59:09 8.3 miles

3.5 miles at 5:50 pace

Wednesday:

57:55 7.4 miles easy

Thursday:

0 miles rest

Decent Week

I finished the week pretty strong with some decent runs and more importantly runs that felt good from an injury standpoint.

On Friday I managed to almost oversleep and had to shorten my run. I made up for it by hammering all the hills/inclines I came up to and ended running a decent fartlek workout.

On Saturday my wife and I managed to get out for a run together. That doesn't happen very often and we loved every minute of it. I showed her the single track trails in Lester Park. We had a wonderful day for running the trails and stood in the river after soaking our legs.

This morning I made my way out for a medium distance run and really didn't know what or where I was going to get my mileage. I decided on some trails in Rock Hill and Chester (upper) before making my way down to Skyline Blvd and out West to 8th Avenue before making a dip to see my friend Krysta. A quick chat and I was off to find the SHT and make my down to the Bayfront where the Bluesfest was setting up for their final day. I managed to catch up with some other friends and hammer a Bloody Mary down before making my chug home for the last 30 minutes of the run that took me along the Lakefront on the Lakewalk and finally the push up the single track on Chester Creek and home via UMD. What a fun run! The bloody actually helped me as the salt kept me going in the heat of the early morning. I did manage to hit the creek for a quick dip on my way up.

Friday: 43:00 6.5 miles (fartleks)

Saturday: 55:00 5.5 miles single track trails with wife in Lester

Sunday: 1:33:00 12.5 miles Loop down to Bayfront.

Weeks Total: 53 miles

Years Total: 1456.6 miles

Game On!

Things are going very good this week. I continue to 'up' my miles and intensity but remain to be far off of where I thought I would be at this point in the year. Still, I have a lot of racing season left and just have to refocus and do some new races this fall.

First on the list is the Ragnar in one week. I will once again have the opportunity to run with some real nice folks and talent. It will be fun, guaranteed!

Here is a quick recap of the week thus far.

Monday:

Martin road loop and home via Vermilion road.

1:00:00 8 miles

Tuesday:

Out and back on Skyline with 3 miles at steady-state pace just to test the achilles.

Felt slooooowwwww. Achilles decent.

55:30 8 miles

Wednesday:

short loop through cemetery and UMD.

40:00 5.3 miles

Thursday:

Kenwood loop. Tried to stay slow but managed a decent pace.

53:00 7.5 miles

Moving On

When I last wrote I was discussing how I may have found the source of my left achilles discomfort. I believe I was/am right and I continue to perform some deep calf stretches and lower leg exercises. The achilles discomfort is near gone but just a bit of stiffness on some mornings. This is something I need to monitor daily and stay diligent about exercises to keep things loose.

I managed to get out and run most days last week and took a double-day off on Saturday/Sunday after a most excellent party weekend in Washburn/Bayfield/Madeline Island with my wife, brother-in-law, wife and friends. There are times when you have to go have fun and forget about running and that was the weekend for me. Looking back I am very certain it also gave me some added rest to the achilles and that may be why I am feeling well this week. I continue to progress and will attempt to keep hammering towards my focus race the first Sunday in October.

Here is the remainder of last week and the early part of this week.

Tuesday:

31:33 Morley Park area/UMD. 4.3 miles

Wednesday:

55:17 8 miles Skyline 6 X 1min repeats at 5K

Thursday:

54:38 7.5 miles Kenwood/Chester loop

Friday:

38:56 5.2 miles trails and roads

Sat/Sunday:

0 miles

Weeks Total: 32 miles

Years Total: 1403.3 miles