Brainerd Jaycees Run for the Lakes Pace Report

This year's Brainerd Jaycees Run for the Lakes looked as if it was going to be similar to last year — rainy. It also looked like it might be colder. The forecast was calling for cool temperatures — perfect, and showers with possible snow — not so perfect.


(check out a comparison to last year's race morning photo)

Laura and I somehow got out of the twin cities — through the rush hour traffic and construction, and made it to the expo with five minutes to spare. All the vendors had torn down and the place was pretty much empty besides packet pickup and the Minnesota Pacers table. We picked up our packet, headed to the cabin (at beautiful Grand View Lodge), chatted with the pace team, and rested up for the next day's running.

I was absolutely elated on Saturday morning when I looked out the window and saw a total lack of rain. It looked much better than last year's view. The report on The Weather Channel was also encouraging, showing temperatures in the low 40s. It was cloudy and I was somewhat worried that it would rain, so I waited to see what the radar would say. Another pacer showed me his smartphone and my joy was complete — the rain would stay to the south of us.

As for the race itself, everything was pretty uneventful. Once again, the timing company did not put a mat on the start line, so the race was gun timed, though we had chips to record our finishing times. This worked fine for me as I was about 5 seconds from the start, but I felt bad for those farther back.

I started out with a small group and it stayed pretty small through mile 10 or so. From that point on, I had one guy stay with me for the rest of the race until he pulled away with a mile left. He was very friendly and ran a smart race the whole way. It always feels good as a pacer to actually pace someone to their goal. My splits were very even — all between 7:38 - 7:56 (goal pace of 7:49) so I was pretty happy with my effort.

I missed my goal of 3:24:59 and came in at 3:24:48 — I must've got a little antsy that last 0.2 and picked it up too much (Garmin says I was at 7:25 pace for the last .2) My legs weren't really very sore the next day. The 7:49 pace was fast enough to keep my stride normal but slow enough that I could recover quickly.

Laura had a good run too. She put in an easy 2, raced a 1/2 marathon, then did another easy 3 in time to see me at the finish. We then celebrated our running with beer and pizza at the "Ye Olde Pickle" bar. If my schedule works next year I'd love to do this race again.

Earth Day 1/2 Marathon Pace report

As I awoke last Saturday to a cool, overcast morning, I knew it would be a day of making more dreams come true as I led the 1:35 pace group toward their goal in the Earth Day 1/2 Marathon. Temperatures were low, so I opted to go with the awesomest-looking outfit that would be comfortable--my red pacer singlet, courtesy of Zorbaz, and some black Twin Cities Marathon arm warmers.

After struggling with the single-cup coffee maker and having to show my numbskulled-ness to the guy at the front desk who explained to me how it worked, I ate a banana and drank some coffee before meeting another pacer to run to the start of the race. We got a nice warmup jog from the hotel and headed into the fieldhouse where the prerace festivities were taking place.

There was some lady leading people in a "warmup" of Zumba — some sort of crazy, dance-like thing that I didn't know was good for warming up for a half marathon. We then got a pep talk from the MN Pacers leader about how we'd better hit our pace or be no more than 30 seconds faster or we'd be in big trouble.

We lined up at the start, chatted with some runners, and were off. It was a pretty big race, but fortunately runners had lined themselves up well and I was able to settle into 7:15 pace pretty easily without having to dodge people.

My pace group was very nice — one guy in particular expressed appreciation multiple times during and after the race. The course was fine — not overly scenic but some nice stretches along the Mississippi and no killer hills. It drizzled a bit but nothing miserable.

At mile 7 I accidentally hit stop instead of lap on my watch. Luckily I caught it pretty quickly. I asked another runner what she had for time on her watch and I adjusted accordingly.

At about mile 10 I saw Laura — she was doing her long run and ran by to say "hi." I invited her to join our pace group for awhile, but she politely declined.

I kept a nice, even pace throughout the race and came through mile 12 a few seconds ahead of schedule. Then, at mile 13, I repeated a mistake I'd made before— trusting the mile 13 marker. According to my Garmin I was at 1:33:something. At that pace I would be at least 30 seconds fast, so I let up a little bit. Turns out the last 0.1 was more like 0.17. My final time ended up being 1:35:01. Close.

Saturday I pace the Brainerd Run For the Lakes Marathon — the 3:25 group. I hope to hit 3:24:59.

Earth Day 5k Race Report

Last night I raced in the Earth Day 5k. I was pacing the 1/2 marathon the next day, so racing a 5k the night before seemed like a good idea. Laura got to come along on this trip. She also did the 5k, easily wrapping up the title for cutest runner.

before the race

I was excited for this race--I've been putting in real mileage for over a month and did some solid interval workouts. My last 5k was in February, and I set a PR at 17:01. It was really cold that day, so I was expecting to break 17 minutes last night.

After a warmup I got to the start line where I got to chat with the eventually winner and fellow pacer, Gerad. I didn't think I could hang with him so I planned to hang back and hope that I could keep him within sight until the finish.

The race started and Gerad and another runner took off ahead of me.The race started up a pretty steep hill, putting the hurt on before the race really got started. After about half-a-mile I was running by myself--in no-man's land too far behind the leaders and too far ahead of everyone else.

I tried to run by feel and only checked my watch at mile markers. I went through the first mile around 5:20, but when I went through the second I was at 11:38. I thought there was no way I slowed down that much, and when I checked the distance on my Garmin it said something like 2.15. I was hoping the marker was just off and the race wasn't really going to be that long, but it was.

finish line

The race did have a ton of turns, but I was running all by myself so I'm pretty sure I cut the tangents. After the race Gerad had 3.27 on his Garmin and I had 3.26, so I'm going to go ahead and assume the course was long. Gerad also said he thought they had us running on the wrong side of the cones a couple of places. Either way, I wasn't happy with my time of 17:38, but oh well. I felt like I had too much gas in the tank at the end and that I should have been more aggressive with my pacing, especially between miles one and two. Gerad won it and the second place runner wasn't registered, so I got second by default. While Gerad, Dan (another pacer), and I were standing around at the finish, some guy came about five feet from us and threw up about a gallon of something really gross. I've got an iron stomach but after watching that dude spew all over the field turf I wasn't too hungry for dinner (until about five minutes later).

award ceremony

I do enjoy 5ks. They hurt, but they're over fast. I'm looking forward to do another one and hoping to break 17:00. I'll probably try to sneak in a little more speed work for the next one. I'd like to shoot for a fast time at the Eagan 5k Your Way, but I'll have to see how it goes since I'll be pacing Laura at the Lake Wobegon Trail Marathon the week before.

Stay tuned to a pace report for the half marathon.

Belated Race Report: MDRA 7 Mile

It's been over a week since I ran this race, but for some reason I've had a hard time getting inspired to write a race report. Perhaps it's because I did this same race last year and while I was happy with my results (I ran much better than I did in last year's race) I didn't have a breakthrough or unexpected performance.

Still, I did have a few things to say about the race, so in keeping with tradition of writing a race report for all my races, here it goes:

Laura was off visiting a friend in Louisiana on the Saturday morning of the race, so I was on my own driving to Hopkins and signing up for the race. It's actually a pretty neat little race--low key and free for MDRA members, but there's usually some good competition as well. This year was no exception.

While I was waiting in line for the bathroom, another runner asked me, "Did you see Katie McGregor?" I had not, but I thought it was pretty cool that she was running there. She'd also brought along a couple of her training partners. I didn't see them until they'd lined up at the start--it was pretty cool to be running in a race with such talented athletes.

The race got underway and one guy went out really fast--I could tell right away that if he was going to keep anywhere near that pace there would be no way I could keep up with him. They guy in second was also moving pretty well, though it looked like I might be able to catch up to him eventually.

About two miles in the guy in second turned around and slowed down. I was a little worried--I was afraid we'd made a wrong turn as I could no longer see the guy in first place. It turned out the second place guy just wanted someone to run with, so he stopped and waited for me.

He was in high school and asked me what school I went to. After I told him I was a little bit old for high school, he proceeded to tell me all about his training and race times. He's much faster than I ever was in high school and I wasn't able to keep up chatting with him at the pace we were going, so he did most of the talking. He was just running it as a workout since he had a meet on Monday.

At about four miles Katie McGregor and a couple other runners caught up to the high schooler and I. It actually worked out perfectly because McGregor passed me and that gave the kid someone to talk to who could actually talk. I was able to stay with one of Katie's training partners for the next mile and then tried to pick up the pace at the end.

I was pretty happy with my finish--I was able to run the last mile in 5:30 and finish in 41:16 (5:54 / mile)--fourth place behind the super-fast dude, the high school guy, and Katie McGregor. Last year my goal was to finish in the top five and I missed it by finishing sixth, so I was pretty happy my placement and time this year. I also ran a lot smarter and didn't go out too fast like I did last year.

I also got to run a few cool down miles with Katie McGregor and Michelle Frey--two awesome runners who have both run in the Olympic Trials. It was cool chatting with them and listening to some elite runners and getting some encouragement. How many sports can a regular person compete in and then spend some time with some top-tier athletes?

"Run" and "Brain Training for Runners" by Matt Fitzgerald

I'm a sucker for running books--just the other day I went to the library and picked up a couple more running books I hadn't read yet. Unfortunately I haven't been doing due diligence when it comes to reviewing said running books. Now that I'm on spring break, however, I have a little extra time to write a review of two of Matt Fitzgerald's book on running.

One of my favorite books on training was Brad Hudson and Matt Fitzgerald's, "Run Faster from the 5k to the Marathon." If you're newer to running but serious about improving I'd still recommend that one. Read the full review to see what it's all about.

"Brain Training for Runners" is quite a bit different from "Run Faster." "Run Faster" is what you'd call a nonlinear periodization, mixing faster running throughout. "Brain Training" follows a more traditional Lydiard-type periodization with more base-building at the beginning of the programs and faster runner towards the end.

"Brain Training" departs from the Lydiard model, however, when it comes to training paces. Rather than use a pacing table like Daniels' VDOT value, Fitzgerald instead uses race paces (such as 5k, 1/2 marathon, etc.). He bases this on the whole premise of his book--that performance is limited by the brain and not the traditional way of thinking (V02 Max, lactate threshold, etc.). He's not alone in this "central governor" theory of exercise performance as Tim Noakes, a prominent exercise physiologist has also suggested this model.

"Brain Training" explains this "central governor" theory thoroughly and I think it makes a lot of sense. Certainly performance is affected by physiological factors such as muscle strength, lactate threshold, and V02 Max, but these values alone aren't enough to explain the totality of running performance. I thought "Brain Training" did a nice job of showing how having a brain-based view of performance can affect your training. "Brain Training" also gives advice on cross training, running form, and provides training plans for the 5k through the marathon. 

"Run: The Mind-Body Method of Running by Feel" was a much different book than "Brain Training." For one thing, half of "Brain Training" is devoted to training plans, while "Run" had no training plans whatsoever. I could see, however, how Fitzgerald's views evolved from "Brain Training" to "Run."

"Run" was different than any other training book I've read. I enjoyed it very much--it seemed so intuitive and almost everything he had to say made sense. Fitzgerald talked about finding your own comfort zone, your natural pace, and finding a workout program that works for you.

One of the most useful pieces of advice he gave was to find a pattern of repetition in your workout schedule. While the current trend is to mix things up and change training, constantly tweaking and finding something new, Fitzgerald emphasized a pattern of repetition. Again, his ideas of this made perfect sense. Doing similar workouts throughout a training cycle gives athletes an apples-to-apples comparison of their fitness during the progression of a given training cycle.

Fitzgerald also touches on motivation, confidence, and using emotions like anger to help improve running performance. He talks about finding your own formula and workout pattern that best helps you improve. For experienced runners, this is fairly simple. For those less experienced he suggests trying the different models out there--Lydiard-type periodization, nonlinear periodization, or something in-between.

One big difference I noted between "Brain Training" and "Run" was the handling of running form. There is someone of a trend in running form--forms like "Chi Running" and the "POSE" method. These methods have been mostly defunct as learning a set form of running seems not to make any difference in prevention of injury or performance (in fact, a study of the POSE method showed that runners who changed their form actually showed a decrease in running economy). Fitzgerald spends a fair amount of time in "Brain Training" exploring proprioception cues for running form. In "Run," however, Fitzgerald focuses more on other methods of improving running form--namely runner more and running faster.

"Run" does not provide any training plans like most books of this type. Rather, it gives some basic workouts and discusses how to set up a plan in general. Really with all the training plans out there, many of them free on the internet, I didn't see any need for training plans--especially considering what type of book this is.

I'd recommend both these books to anyone interested in knowing more about training. I'd especially recommend "Run" to serious runners looking to take the next step in their training--especially those who don't need a cookie cutter program but would rather use what they already know more efficiently. "Brain Training" is probably more appropriate for someone who doesn't know as much about training or is exploring different kinds of training.

Spoiled

After a two week stretch of almost perfect running weather, I am completely spoiled. Sunday was absolutely ideal for running--low 50s, slight breeze, and sunny. After a trip to Iowa for a friend's wedding, I headed out on a 12 mile run down to a regional park (with dry trails!), around Jensen Lake, and back. It was awesome. It's been the perfect spring for running.

Then, yesterday, it was chilly. Low 40s and windy. I didn't need to get a run in, but being on spring break I figured I'd run at least a few miles every day. But no, being completely spoiled by nice weather almost all of March, I sat around my house, mostly being lazy, and didn't get outside at all. It's amazing what a couple of weeks of nice weather will do to my fragile running psyche. Rather than suck it up, put on a wind breaker, and get a couple miles in, I instead grocery shopped, went to the library, read, and watched some TV. Ugh.

Today there was 40 mph gusts of wind and it sounded like our townhouse was going to get blown over when I woke up this morning. I've resolved, however, not to be huge wuss and get out the door and put in some miles. Yesterday was my first day off from running in two weeks, so I suppose I shouldn't feel too bad about it. Today, however, there's no excuse--even though it's crazy windy it is warmer than yesterday. So, after taking care of some chores, I got after it to the tune of 11 miles.

I'm going to try to shed all the wussy-ness this mild March has imposed for me and get good running in the rest of my week. I know I have a little bit of a problem when one of my favorite things about being off of school is the ability to run whatever time of day I desire and as long as I want. I've got a 7 mile race this weekend so I'm not going to go too crazy, but I'm definitely going to get a good amount of miles in this week.

Spring!

It's been six days straight of 50 degree + weather in Minnesota. In March! Yesterday we set a record in the Twin Cities with a high of 73. I had time to get a quick run in and decided to go shirtless. It was my earliest shirtless run ever in Minnesota (probably in Nebraska too, but I didn't keep those kind of detailed statistics back then).

It's hard to say how many hearts I broke yesterday as eyes moved from my tanless torso to my wedding ring--I'd say the number isn't important. What is important is this awesome weather. Last year I was logging endless miles on the treadmills at the Y while near-record snow and city budget shortfalls left most of the sidewalks and bike paths in Eagan totally unrunnable. This winter, however, I don't think I had to do one run inside that I was hoping to do outside.

And now, I've been able to run outside in shorts for almost a week straight. This Sunday, before I ran 10 miles along the river (on a trail that was underwater last year until July), I even went on a bike ride. It was great.

I don't know how long this awesome weather is going to last, but there's nothing bad in the 10 day forecast and I'm finally getting in the kind of miles in I've been wanting to run all year. For a while I was beginning to worry if my goal of 2500 miles for the year was going to be a problem. After running 50 miles last week, I'm on my way to running 50 more this week. What a great time of year!