Muddy Calves

One of the great benefits of being a member of the Minnesota Distance Runners Association (MDRA) is that they put on some great races including the MDRA Ron Daws 25K which is an old-school, low-key race. It reminds me of many of the races I ran in the 80s–registration is in the basement of a gym, there’s no fancy chip timing, there’s no T-shirt, and the cost is only $5.

Wayne’s Photography

Now, I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m a huge Ron Daws fan. Daws was a Minnesota runner who described himself as having average talent but was stubborn enough to make it to the 1968 Olympic marathon through had training.  Daws later wrote two books, Self-Made Olympian and Running Your Best: The Committed Runner’s Guide to Training and Racing.

I found Daws’ books at an impressionable time–it was when I started running again in college after a few years of Not Running (AKA The Dark Period). While my high school coach had been very good about including everyone, I think I could have been pushed harder. Or maybe I just wasn’t very coachable. Anyhow, in high school, I never trained over 6 miles.

When I got back into running, two thing inspired me to go beyond the limits I had learned through my previous training.  First, I had my sister, who now was running in high school but with a different coach, her training schedule and it included runs of at least 9 miles, maybe more.  And I read Daws’ books where he raised my expectations.

One sad note, sometimes I’m a letter-writer. If someone inspires me, I like to let them know. I sent Daws a letter a couple of months before he died. Because I only had his publisher’s address, I doubt he ever received it.

Daws used Athur Lydriad’s training, especially emphasizing the hill work.  In  Running Your Best, he wrote,  that “(hills are) so much better, in fact,  may be that shortcut or gimmick every runner wants.”

Given Daws’ belief in hill training, it is only fitting that the course for this race is on a “VERY hilly course“.

Just like last year, I wanted to use this 25k as a training race as I train for a June race.  I’ve been dealing with a couple of problems–first it was a groin probably caused by compensating for a muscle imbalance. I’ve seen a physical therapist (Margi at Viverant) who diagnosed the root problem as lazy glutes. After my first session with her, I went out too fast on a cold day and strained my calf which has become the bigger problem.

But even though I came into this race feeling out of sorts because these problems have affect my consistency–especially my weekday runs–and nervous about making these worse.

But, as this Tweet shows, the day started off good in one aspect.

Even though temps were mild–upper 40s at the start, I wore my tights to make sure my legs were warm.  The start was a bit tight as the ~170 runners had to run along a sidewalk so I just hung back taking the first mile easy. Eventually we turned onto a road and things spread out from there. I spent most of the rest of the race slowly reeling in the runners.

Originally I had planned to just try to run consistent 8:00 (marathon goal pace) effort–running even splits was unlikely given the topography of the course. But at some point during the race I decided to try to go through 10 miles at a 8:00 average pace and then speed up from there.  Basically, that is what I did as shown by my 5k splits:

25:01 (8:04)

24:41 (7:58)

24:01 (7:45)

23:49 (7:41)

22:20 (7:59, 2.8 miles,hilly finish)

The groin was fine but the left calf complained, especially climbing the hills.  The race went pretty smooth, can’t complain about anything. I though I was going to be able to extend it to 20 miles but after I finished, my left calf & hamstring said they were done.

I’ve worn my compression socks for 24 hours straight now, only taking them off for a cold-water bath (I haven’t worked up to ice, yet) and actually legs feel great other than the top of my left calf which is still bothered but I am walking fine so it’s not too bad.

My average pace (via Garmin) was 7:53 this year–on a different course last year, it was 8:1o so I’m happy with the improvement.

As part of my training plan for Grandma’s Marathon, I want to run a half marathon a little over a month out. Grandma’s is on June 16th, so I would prefer to race one of the first two weeks of May–sometime between May 5th and May 13th. That would give me a week to recover, one last long run and then taper city.

I like the idea of doing a half around that time for a couple of reasons. First, it will be my best speed workout for the marathon. I’m not planning on doing any sort of track work only some tempo work so running 13.1 miles at a faster pace will be a challenging workout. Second, I’m hoping it will help me gauge a reasonable pace for the marathon. As I said, I’ve got a goal time set (3:29:59) but that’s flexible depending on how my training goes–if I need to adjust, I will and running a half 5-6 weeks will provide an indication of where I’m at. I won’t do any half-specific training so it’ll be interesting how it goes.

I haven’t decided what half marathon I’m going to do but I’ve basically narrowed it down to three.

Eau Claire Half Marathon, May 6th.

The big draw to Eau Claire is that I lived in the area for close to 20 years & still consider it home. So I know the course–looking at the map, I can visualize exactly where it is going, places I have run for decades.

The downside is I would have to travel a bit–it is only a 2 hour drive & I’ve got a sister (Hi Beans!) or a sister-in-law that I could probably bunk with if needed. The price is a little high at $65 right now (if I had been more decisive and registered before the end of last year, I could have gotten in for only $40).

I have not run this race before (this is the third year) but I think it is put on by the same organizers that did the Tour de Eau Claire which was a well-organized race in its one year of existence. The course is not overly hilly although I see a few in there including the steep entrance back into Carson Park during the final mile. Last year over a 1,000 runners ran this race with 300 more doing the full marathon, which was run at the same time.

Lake Minnetonka Half Marathon, May 6th.

I ran this race last year and while there were some unusual problems for a well-established race, it was still a well-organized race overall.

The fact that I ran it last year and can compare time make this my default race for this year. The course has some moderate hills, there were around 2,000 finishers last year. It’s a simple 45 minute drive for me and the current price is $55 now.  One of the small bonuses is that the Minnesota Pacers will be there–I’ve considered trying to be a pacer with them but have hesitated because I don’t know what it entails. So I would like the opportunity to see them in action again.

New Prague Half Marathon, May 12th.

This is another established race that I have not run. It has a good reputation and I believe has some rolling hills (a positive). The Minnesota Pacers will also be here. It is probably about a 45-60 minute drive and the price is right, $40 (I can get in for $35 through tomorrow using their Facebook code).

I like idea of running a race I haven’t tried before but this is a week later than I would ideally like, it would mean probably running my final long run seven days after doing a training race. I could logistically do both this race and one of the other two but that is getting away too much from my main focus unless I use it as an aided training run & tack on a few extra miles before or after.

The ability to compare year over year gives Lake Minnetonka the lead this year–the numbers geek in me finds that very appealing from an analytical point of view although I already plan to run the Ron Daws 25k in early April so I’ll have that as a measuring stick.  If New Prague was a week earlier, it would be a stronger contender. Eau Claire is the one I would do if I just picked one on its own merits and not part of a larger plan.

Any suggestions or recommendations? Anyone run any of these before?

One of the unexpectedly benefits of having an extremely obscure blog is that I’m not bothered by trolls or comment-bots (cue the crickets) so it has been awhile since I have had one of those messy email/message board exchanges that happen from time to time.

I’ve sure you seen and/or participated in them–people going back going back & forth in a futile exchange, quickly losing any resemblance of an actual discussion, mis-interpreting and mis-understanding each other on each on a larger and larger, often on an increasing personal, scale.

Human communication is a flawed method of transmitting information as it is. Not content with mis-communicating with local humans, we have greatly expanded our ability to mis-communicate over long distances with people we have never met at instantaneous speeds.

Enter the 10% rule.  Although, probably not the 10% rule that runners might think of–the long-standing rule of increasing your weekly mileage by a maximum of 10% per week (A rule I have issues with but that’s a different post).

A long time ago (20 years, give or take) in a galaxy (online community) far, far away… I learned a different 10% rule–be 10% nicer online than you would be in person.

My first web experience was skimming the Usenet groups, especially rec.running. From there I found the dead runners society. This presented a wonderful opportunity for me to have other running buddies around the world. A phenomenon that was noticed pretty quick online was that it seemed disagreements could quickly explode into “Flame Wars”, much more quickly than in real life. A big reason of that is typing messages back and forth is a different, if not inferior, method of communication.  You lose the body language (part of the reasons emoticons were invented–to partially fill this gap), you lose the ability for quick back & forth (parties typing long, partially disconnected rebuttals), and you lose some context (this person is responding in the 5 minutes they have before the tater-tot hot dish is done).

So at some point, and I wish I remembered the genesis, the dead runners society (drs) adopted the 10% rule. There were still disagreements and Flames but over the decades, it has been one of the least contentious online groups I’ve been a part of. I believe that the 10% rule is a big part of that. I also believe that the group has held nearly annual world conferences where deads meet each other has a big rule–reminds you that there are actual people at the other ends of the Interweb. I believe that keeping in mind the limitations of this form of communications is important in keeping conversations, either in a message board or via eMail, respectful.

My blog represents a portion of who I am, what I think, and what I feel. Sometimes because of my own inability to express myself, a lack of time, or a desire to keep some personal information personal, you may or may not get an accurate impression of who I am, what I know, or what I mean. This blog is mostly focused on my running & I try not to pull too much non-running stuff into it. But I don’t put everything about my running in it either–I would bore the snot out of you (wonder if I could monetize that) if I gave every little details of my running, especially since the vast majority of my training is boring, aerobic work especially now during base season. So sometimes a post will be based off a fleeting thought ( a rumination, if you will) that lasted 10 seconds.

Without proper context I can see how a post like Worries might make someone think I’m stressing out a goal time when I really wanted to reflect a moment of doubt I often have in the winter while I am still building base at a slow, ice-dodging, layer-encumbered, aerobic pace and before the spring thaw has brought back the bounce back to my step. And sometimes in a post, without realizing it, I don’t fully explain something–say, for example, my goal of running Grandma’s in 3:29:59. I am well aware that basically as  a first-timer, I should just do it for the experience–that if I insist on setting a goal pace, it should be at least 15-20 minutes slower than what my other race time might predict. But I’m also willing to experiment and fail. I’m also experienced enough that if  I  need to revise my goal in a month, or two months, on race day, or during the race–whether due to laziness, injury, conditioning, weather, or the view–that isn’t the end of the world. At this point, a goal time is almost meaningless anyhow since I’m still just doing aerobic runs. Once I run a couple of training races–the Ron Daws 25k in early April and probably a half in early May (Eau Claire? Lake Minnetonka? New Prague? anyone want to throw a blogger a freebie?)–and really judge my fitness, will a goal time really be meaningful. At this point, the goal time mostly serves as a motivational tool for me, not something I’m married to.

I welcome questions, comments, or scathing rebuttals–an intelligent, respectful disagreement is both fun and a learning experience but please abide by the 10% rule and don’t assume you know everything about me based off of a couple blogs posts or 140-character snippets, don’t make wild-ass assumptions, if something makes your spidey-senses tingle-ask about it, don’t read too much into random blog/twitter/email comments, don’t extrapolate what I may knowingly choose to do in my running to what I would recommend someone else do, consider that maybe “what we have here is a failure to communicate“, don’t assume that because I don’t instantly agree with you that I’m a  moron, and as Mighty Mur Lafferty  says, “Don’t be an Ass”. And, for my part, I will continue to delete personal insults like “Arrogant old butt blister” from my responses.

If you can live with those terms of engagement, great, let’s have a civil discussion & debate–if not, have a good life.

I haven’t found a good way to imbed my Grandma’s Training Schedule in a blog post yet but I’ve worked out a preliminary schedule. It is essentially out of Marathoning, Start to Finish by Patti and Warren Finke who taught the RRCA Coaching Class I attended last summer.

After following Jack Daniels’ (the coach, not the whiskey) plans for several years for my 13.1 races, this plan seems relatively tame as far as speedwork–I’m planning on doing 4 weeks of hilly fartleks and 5 tempo runs at race paces, maxing out at 4 miles. But it is heavy on endurance–I just ran 13.5 and my long run will be 16 miles by the end of February. Overall, I plan on doing 15 runs of 16-20 miles before the marathon. Currently, 20 (5 times) is the longest but maybe I’ll bump that up to 22.

On paper (or on LCD) it seems to make sense but we’ll see how it looks on the road. I’ve started to experience early-season doubts, you know the ones, “I can’t run 5 miles at 8:30 pace, how the hell am I going to run 26.2 at 8:00 pace”?!

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I know with training it will come but it is still amazing to me how the same doubts pop up at the beginning of every training cycle. I am worried that my body won’t hold up to the training–I’ve nursed the miscellaneous aches & pains & chafing (on some very sensitive bits) so far but the miles are just starting to rack up.

The gut battle is on-going. I started compulsively weighing myself on Tuesday, with my weight ranging from a post-long run, dehydrated 158.4 to a high of 163.8. Median daily low of 162.4, median daily high of 163.8.

I tracked my diet for a few days & the biggest thing I learned from that is serving size. Often one of my servings are two or more legitimate servings. That awareness will help me just eat less I hope. And I’ve implemented the “Banana Diet”, my own invention. Before I snack, I need to eat a fruit (most often a banana). This helps fill my stomach with a healthy food and slows me down–helps me think about what I’m eating. I think I did OK this week, my youngest daughter had a birthday party on Saturday and I was measured in what I ate.

I missed one workout this week because of a combination of a work situation and a couple birthdays I needed to celebrate but overall a good week, methinks.

Spent a chunk of time driving around listening to National Public Radio today and of course most of the coverage was deservedly focused on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

At some point, my mind wondered why running, especially at the recreational level is so . . .  white (or at least lacking in African-Americans). I remembered wondering that at Bjorklund last year when seeing an (non-elite) African-Americans runner made the “whiteness” of the race all too obvious but I forgot about that thought until today.

And not to pick on any one organization, I thought that this header image from RunningUSA.org pretty well represents my impression of the racial make-up of most races.

Now I’ll admit, my impression might be totally off-base, maybe the participation by race is closer to the actual demographics of the country and I’m just out of touch. But if my impression is right, I can make some guesses related to sociology, economics, geography,  and culture but they would just be assumptions–mostly based off popular stereotypes and not any actual factual information.

Right now, I’m wondering what part of the running community are African-Americans and other minorities? And if these percentages are different from their proportion of the country’s overall population, why is there a difference?

No answers, just questions.

Last week I posted my running goals for 2012 without much explanation.

Well, I can either sit around in my underwear and watch The Big Bang Theory or I can actually write something for this blog (also while sitting around in my underwear). While the goals themselves are pretty straight-forward, I want to explain my motivations.

First, I’m gonna man-up and take ownership. I was pussy-footing around about running a marathon. Well that’s bull-shit. I am going to run Grandma’s Marathon on June 16th, 2012. There, I said it.

I hesitated to actually commit to this because I was not sure if I was willing to properly training for it. I have run one marathon before–Grandma’s 2000–and while I didn’t die, I went into it under-trained and struggled in the second half–I went through mile 16 in about 2:14:29 (8:24 pace). From there on, though, I struggled and ran/walked the final 10.2 at 10:22 pace, finishing in 4:00:14 (watch time).

To confess, while I was happy and proud that I finished, it was not a life-changing accomplishment for me. I guess having started running at 14, I just assumed that I would be able to do it if I tried–I had run as far as 16 miles before I started training for the marathon so I just had the mentality that I just needed to run longer.

I was not even disappointed in how the second half went–I knew I was under-trained. I had some more important things going on in my life (we were expecting our first child and my mother-in-law, who lived 5 hours away, was dying of cancer) and battled a cranky ITB during training so I did not have extremely unrealistic expectations. Although when I went through the half in about 1:50, I started to think I might run a 3:40-ish.  Ha!

And while those final 14 seconds lingered in the back of my mind, I did not care enough to do anything about them. Although every time I told another runner I had run a marathon, I had to confess that those 14 blasted seconds existed.

But I thought I was content running 10 to 13.1 milers–those are great distances to race. They are long enough to be an endurance event but short enough that I can, if I want, jump into one if I’m in any sort of shape and not have to worry about being able to finish.

But then as I started to re-connect with other runners and I heard about their marathon experiences, I got the itch to try 26.2 again. Not sure when the I gave in-in August I was still saying I did not plan on running a marathon. But since September, I have run a 10-miler nearly every weekend “in case” I decided to train for a marathon. I am not only going to train for & finish a marathon but I’m going to run a marathon.

So I am starting my training. I have sketched out my plan, I have penciled-in a couple of practice races and I am going to do it. This coming weekend, I up my long run to 12 miles. I plan on doing 16 by the end of February.

And I am setting an aggressive time goal, 3:29:59. That is about what the race predictors say I should be able to run but considering I am a recycled Marathon Virgin, it should be pretty difficult.

Not sure how these old legs are gonna hold up, but I’m hoping for the best. And I’m sure I’ll bore you with some of the boring specifics.

With 17 hours left in 2011, I’m sitting around in my underwear waiting for some daylight so I can sneak in my last run of 2011 and evaluating how my running went in 2011.  Overall, I’m satisfied with how my running went–I ran over 1,000 miles for the first time since 2004 (holy cow, I didn’t realize it’s been that long since I put together a full year), performed reasonably well in some races (including approaching a sub-20:00 with a 20:17 at the Rockford River Run 5k in August despite having struggled with an injury for a couple of months prior to that).

In January, I posted some goals for the year, let’s see how I did:

So while I met some goals & didn’t meet some others, I met the important ones and came close enough to the performance ones that I’m mostly satisfied.  One thing I hadn’t set as a goal but ended up doing that made this year stand out, though, was getting more involved.

Taking the RRCA Coaching Class and making some great new friends (Rebecca & Ann), coaching a kids Running Club, meeting up with a virtual friend I’ve known for over a decade, using Daily Mile, and even reaching out to members of the Run-net community like Norm, Steve, and 3 Non-Joggers.  These relationships help make 2011 a great year.

To review my racing, I ran 13 races, a new personal high if you exclude high school track & CC.  The races were:

• Waconia Winterfest 5k (2/5/2011)
• Ron Daws 25k (4/2/2011)
• Lake Minnetonka Half Marathon (5/1/2011)
• ALARC legends 10k (6/11/2011)
• Bjorklund Half Marathon (6/18/2011)
• Oulu Rock Run (7/23/2011)
• Rockford River Run (8/13/2011)
• Salomon Autumn Trail Series 1 of 4 (8/31/2011)
• Salomon Autumn Trail Series 2 of 4 (9/14/2011)
• Salomon Autumn Trail Series 3 of 4 (9/28/2011)
• Salomon Autumn Trail Series 4 of 4 (10/12/2011)
• Jack-O-Lantern 5k (10/29/2011)
• Chaska Turkey Trot (11/12/2011)

So overall, I’m happy with my how my running went in 2011. My life has settled down some from previous years and allowed me to focus more on my running. I did struggle with some minor injuries in the second half of the year but think I’ve worked my way though most of that.

• How did your running go in 2011?
• What were some of the highlights/lowlights?

Warning: This ends with me running my personal slowest 5k by over 6 minutes.

I tackled a project this fall that totally Kicked My Ass.

I’ve posted some about my preparation for my fall project, like when I took the Road Runners Clubs of America (RRCA) Coach Certification class and a CPR class. But I haven’t said why I was doing those things.

Now, for the Grand Reveal.

I coached a Run Club at a local elementary school.

It was incredibly frustrating, challenging, and difficult but extremely rewarding.

One thing to keep in mind is that I work as a computer programmer in a very…mature office. At 41 years old, I’m probably 20 years younger than the average age. It’s a very slow, quiet, and structured place to work.

The exact opposite of coaching 30-some 1st to 8th graders.

While I had a teacher and a couple semi-regular volunteers helping me, I was totally out of my element. With their help and some additional support and advice from fellow coaches, Rebecca and Ann, I survived and, I think, near the end, almost knew what I was doing.

But there were times that I came home and wanted to quit. From a second grader hitting another second grader in the gut, to trying to get some of the kids to actually run, to dealing with a boy who couldn’t control his temper, to a girl learning about “the trots” the hard way, to trying to come up with snacks twice a week, to trying to keep the 1st graders to middle-schoolers interested at the same time, to one of the kids crashing with Gumby in the end-of-season race.

I do appreciate more what my teacher-wife goes through on a daily basis.

But uff-da!

But it was extremely rewarding, too. From the girl who always pushed to do a little more, to the 3rd grader who just kept going and going and going, to figuring out how to manage one of the tricky kids, to getting a gift of cookies, and just getting to know the kids, I learned a ton. I grew a bunch. I might not yet be a good kids coach but no one got a concussion the second half of the season so that’s a positive.

This was, in a way, therapy for me. I’ve been painfully shy–at least around new people–for most of my life. Largely due to the fact that I had a hard time making some sounds when I was young; partially, I think, because I grew up surrounded by people with Finnish accents. I often was embarrassed or frustrated because people could not understand what I was saying so to prevent that from happening, I talked as little as possible around new people.

As some point, I outgrew most of my speech problems but I never really realized it. It only was recently that it dawned on me that I rarely had to repeat myself to people. But I still carried the fear of talking to new people with me. And talking to groups–I was almost completely successfully in avoiding it.

After my epiphany, I started to make an effort to talk in groups–at first it was in company meetings with co-workers that I had worked with for a few year.

But coaching really forced me to get over any fears of talking in a hurry. I had 30-some kids I needed to yell at give instructions to, I had parents that I needed to yell at communicate with, and I had assistant coaches & volunteers to yell at coordinate. And, for the most part, I didn’t have time to think about it, I just had to do what needed to be done.

But really the most rewarding part was getting to know the kids. At the end of the season we ran a local Halloween race. We had 19 participants run a quarter-mile fun run and five participant, one volunteer, and myself run a 5k at the end.

I ended up hanging back with the 5kers instead of really racing but even that was incredible. I watched as our 3rd grader, who ran slow & steady, raced another boy about his age and, just like the proverbial tortoise, win in the end. I got to cheer our middle-schooler as she finished her first 5k with a flourish even though her shins were killing her–I told her it was OK to walk it in but she was determined to run the final stretch.

I looked forward to the end, but now I’m starting to plan for the Spring session.

Hey, I’m giving away a Garmin Forerunner 405. All you need to do is go to http://tundrarunning.com/FreeGamin and leave a comment!

This is another long-overdue post.

This summer, I took a CPR class that I surprisingly enjoyed.

Although at first, I thought I was going to have a panic attack in the middle of class & need medical attention myself.  I was taking the class largely because I was going to be working with kids and the initial discussion started to freak me out a bit because I kept imagining have to give CPR to my own kids that was overwhelming.

Eventually, I relaxed a bit, largely due to the instructors, Tiffany & Katie of In-Pulse CPR.  They combined a serious topic with a touch of humor that created a comfortable atmosphere.  I’m one that never asks questions in a group setting but they made the class comfortable enough that I actually asked two questions.

But where they really excelled, I thought, was bringing their real-life experience–they both have worked as EMTs–to the class and telling us what to really expect if we need to do CPR.  For example, Katie told about the first time she had to do CPR and was totally freaked out when she broke ribs on the patient.  Her instructor(s) had never told her to expect that and that it is actually a required first step to give effective CPR.  The ribs are there to protect the heart and until you break them (in adults) you’re not going to be compressing the heart.

They told us that a coroner (not sure if just in one specific jurisdiction or universally) is required to indicate that “ineffective CPR” was administered whenever a corpse’s ribs are not broken.  And they told us about seeing nurses give WWF-type elbow blows to patients’ chests to break their ribs before starting CPR.

They obviously got the point across that breaking ribs (in adults) is to be expected.   Coincidentally, my wife, a teacher, took CPR training the same day with the school nurse and this wasn’t mentioned.  I feel taking the course from instructors who have actually done CPR and are willing to prepare us for the gruesome-ness of it helped better prepare me if I ever need to use the training.

If ever asked, I will always recommend that someone–especially first-timers–take the classes from instructor(s) that have actually done it in the field.