Twin Cities Marathon, WHAT!?!?

I have just signed up for the Twin Cities Marathon.

This seems to come to a surprise to a lot of people as I have usually been known to compete in fast 5K races, and train with mostly speed work.

Let's just say, sometimes a guy reaches a point in his life where he has to prove to himself that he can do what would normally seem impossible. With my hernia and subsequent surgery, I will have gone 6 weeks without running. I will have 8 weeks to train for this marathon.

Also, going 6 weeks without doing something you really love to do; something that has become a big part of who you are -- it has taught me that being able to run is not something to take for granted. So when I can do it, by golly, I'm going to do it!

I was also inspired by reading the book Born to Run, which greatly demonstrates the joys of running long distances. In honor of this, I also plan to train to run this marathon in huarache running sandals (though I'm not 100% certain if this will work out).

In addition I am confident that training for a marathon will greatly improve my overall running ability and have a positive effect on my shorter distance running as well. I hope to journal my training experience in this blog.

AHEF 5K Race Report

I ran in the Bill Gallagher Memorial 5K this morning. I finished 4th overall and 2nd in my age group. I was hoping for a little faster time than the 19:18 my watch recorded (they just kept track of placings, not times), but I'm content.

At the starting line, there were a bunch of kids; which this race if famous for. I knew they would all start out like gangbusters, so I hung back a little bit from the starting line to let them have their fun. Sure enough, when the race started, those kids took off like they were running a 50 yard dash -- not a 3.1 mile run.

As the youngsters started dropping like flies in the first quarter mile, I found myself having to weave in and out of them. They would pretty much stop completely and start walking when they gave up their little sprint and I could hear their parents yelling to them to get out of the way. But, kids will be kids.

When all of the little ones were out of the way, I looked ahead and saw a couple of rather serious looking runners about 20 yards ahead of me. Knowing they were the leaders, I decided I would try to maintain my current distance behind them and hopefully have enough gas in the tank to make a move at the end.

The route consisted of old park bike paths which were quite crumbly and cracked. I noted that this surface was harder to run on than smooth, predictable streets. Your feet land at somewhat odd angles, which is a little harder on the muscles. Part of the route also looped around a small lake twice, so I did have to pass quite a few slower folks whom I was lapping. They usually didn't hear me coming and were not moving out of the way, so a little bit more bobbing and weaving there.

Coming around to the final mile, I noticed I was gaining a little bit on the leaders. The 2nd and 3rd place guys were only about 10 yards ahead of me. Suddenly, I turned a corner and the wind was very strong in our faces. It took a lot out of me, I'm not going to lie. I had a side ache soon after that, and at about the time I was planning to try to kick it down and try to pass the guys in front of me, I suddenly thought I was definitely going to throw up. So, I just held on as best I could and was very relieved to cross the finish line.

I was proud that I held back on the first mile, staying around 6:10 pace (in the past, I've gone much faster and crashed and burned in the middle of the race). Looking back, I'm not sure I would have done anything differently in that race. I ran the best I could with what I had that morning. I simply need to keep training and working at it. Not to mention, running a hard race like that is really the best training/workout you can get.

Finally, Spring.

It's been a long time coming, but the weather is finally starting to get nice for running. In my book, anytime you can comfortably wear shorts, it's a pretty good day. It was almost 40 degrees and sunny when I started today. It's around this temperature where I sort of have this ritual of starting off in long sleeves, then, at the end of the warm up, stripping down to short sleeves and arm warmers. After the first mile of running harder, I'm down to just arm warmers and shirtless. Some people may think it's weird to wear arm warmers and no shirt, but in this weather, once your core is generating a ton of heat, it's really only my arms that get cold. And when they do, it is distracting.

So, anyhow, it is a very freeing feeling running shirtless in the cool, early spring air. Definitely makes you run faster.

I'm staying focused on an overall goal of just getting faster and better. I'm not worrying about race goals or anything like that. Just, am I getting better overall? The workouts and races are just meant to serve that purpose. There will be good days, and bad days, but am I getting better?

Here is the data from today's run:

Longer Tempos

I've always been a strong proponent of speed work, as I really believe that getting your body used to running really fast will make less fast speeds seem easy. It has a lot to do with mental training.

In that same vein, I decided that my "3 mile tempo" workout (the standard workout I've always used) may not be serving the same idea. I decided if I run 5 mile tempos, then 3 mile 5Ks will seem like a short distance. Again, mental training. So I've been trying to increase the length of my tempo runs and have been very happy with it.

It also feel less mentally daunting to start out on a 4-5 mile tempo run because I know I can pace myself -- where with 3 miles, I really feel like I need to start running almost full tilt from the beginning.

Above all, I believe running often is the most effective. I think that is how the body best adapts itself to running more efficiently. In my mind, VO2Max (oxygen consumption) is nice, but if your body is slogging along with extra unnecessary movements and a momentum braking stride, you will wear out quickly no matter how good your lungs are.

One Way Run

I did a 7 mile run into town over the weekend and it went pretty well. One thing that was really nice is that my wife was going to be driving by and picked me up. There is something refreshing about running and knowing you won't have to run back to where you started. I managed to keep my pace around 7:00-7:30 for the first part, and let it slow down to around 8:00-8:30 for the last half.

Trying to ramp up

With the notable weather improvement, I tried to start doing some faster training runs. I feel like I was able to maintain regular workouts often enough during the cold winter to sustain and hopefully build up overall fitness.

I ran a 3 mile tempo run yesterday, averaging a 6:30 pace (19:33 time). I think that's the fastest 3 miles I've run, not counting actual races. We also ramped up the millage today and went 6 miles. I'd like to eventually fit in an 8-10 mile run each week just to build up more endurance.

Short weather.

Wow! It got in the upper 30 degrees here and I decided to celebrate by running in shorts. It felt really nice to have this little taste of leg freedom so I went 6 miles. I got some really funny looks as I barreled down the road, bare legs contrasting (or maybe not so contrasting) against the white snow. A few guys on snowmobiles in full snow gear drove by me and also seemed very startled by my appearance. I feel I should point out that I live in a relatively rural area. So, for most of these good folks, seeing a grown man running for the sake of exercise (let alone at a fast racing speed) seems very frivolous. A few of them might even think the word "cardio" means the radio that sits in the dashboard of your Chevy. Ba Boom *ching* (I just made that one up).

Anyhow, it's back down to single digit temps and I'm back in all my cold weather clothes. I'm extremely grateful for the low temp gear, but can't wait until I can pack it away for 6 or 7 months.