Healthy Human Race Half Marathon

Three weeks before the Twin Cities Marathon, I decided to do a tune-up race and run a half marathon. I'd done a few 5Ks in this training cycle, but I knew a half marathon would give me a more accurate gauge on how fast I could race a marathon.

The morning of the race I decided to ride my bike to the start to get in a little warmup and avoid having to mess with parking. With the days getting shorter, I had to dig through my bike stuff to find my headlight, and I ended up doing the first half of my half hour ride in the dark. 

The race started at 7 AM, and I got to the start with enough time to run a two mile warm up.

After the little jog, I got lined up and chatted with an old friend from a running club in the twin cities. 

The race started, and I settled into what I thought would be a good pace. After a couple miles, I checked my watch and noticed that I was running just a couple of seconds per mile slower than I had been planning.

I was able to pick up the pace a bit, and I felt like I was moving along at a challenging but somewhat comfortable pace. It was a pretty small field, and there were only a couple of people running close to me, and after around five miles I was running by myself other than one guy who was about 30 seconds behind me for most of the race.

The course was pretty flat and I enjoyed running through various parks and along the Zumbro River. The aid stations were adequately spaced, and I took water and Gatorade along with a few Pure Fuel Maple Syrup gels.

With a couple of miles left, I was feeling pretty good and was able to pick up the pace for the last couple miles. I ended up finishing in 1:27:07. My 5K of 19:06 gave me a VDOT equivalent time of 1:27:42, so I feel like my fitness has continued to improve during this training cycle.

Laura and the kids came for the finish of the race, and it was great having them cheer for me as I wrapped up the race.

Like I said, it was a small race, so the Healthy Human Race wasn't overly competitive, but I still felt good about finishing as the sixth place male and second in my age group. My 1:27 was the fastest I've run a half since running the Pensacola Beach Half Marathon in January of 2018, and almost 10 minutes faster than the last half marathon I raced, the Louisiana Half Marathon, in January of 2025.

So, I'm feeling like my training has gone well and I'm feeling optimistic about the Twin Cities Marathon in two weeks. I'll give a recap of my training for Twin Cities in my next post.

Training Update

Training for the Twin Cities Marathon has been going great! Better than I expected. I didn't think I would be in as good of shape as I'm in when I started training seriously a few months ago.

One big key to my success has been my lack of injuries. My foot has been a little sore off and on, but it hasn't hindered my running at all. I also had one day where I started a run and my knee hurt bad enough that I wasn't able to run. I was afraid that I might be derailed, but I took two days off and my knee was fine afterwards.

My weightlifting has also been going OK. I haven't been making big improvements, but I think the strength training has still helped me stay healthy and improved my speed.

I've done four 5Ks since I've started this training plan, and I've gotten faster on each one. I ran 21:32, 20:44, 19:13, and 19:06.

One thing I've really enjoyed during this training cycle is doing my long runs with my kiddo. He's biked with me for 13, 14, 18, and 19 miles. Not only has he provided good company on two hour+ runs, he also carries the water. We usually talk about camping and fishing, but occasionally touch on other topics.

Tomorrow I'll be racing the Healthy Human Race Half Marathon. I've got a goal pace in mind, so we'll see what happens.

If you're interested in my training in detail, here's a link to my training plan for this year's Twin Cities Marathon:

Twin Cities Marathon Training Plan

Washington Running

A couple weeks ago, our family took a trip out to Washington state. It was a wonderful trip for a variety of reasons, including the fact that it was about ten degrees cooler in Washington than it was in Minnesota, and I work outside.

We saw lots of beautiful scenery including Mt. Ranier, various locations at Olympic National Park, and North Cascades National Park. We saw wildlife like elk, marmot, deer, sea lions, seals, otters, and a variety of small marine animals. We got to do several scenic hikes and drives as well as see a Twins vs. Mariners game in Seattle. We also had a chance encounter with my cousin and his family and got to spend time with some friends in Seattle. 

I also had some great running on our trip. On our first morning, I got onto my Garmin Connect app and mapped out a route from our hotel in Port Angeles. I saw that there was a trail along the waterfront that was only about a mile from our hotel, so I took off and ran through town and down to the water.

As I was running along the water, I saw something near shore. I paused and took a closer look. It was otters. Not something I see when running on the Douglas Trail in Rochester. 

The next morning I took my son with me and we drove to the trail this time, and more otters showed up along with sea lions, eagles, and herons.

I also got to go on a couple runs in Leavenworth, running through the mountains. 

My last run was the Renton parkrun. The course ran along a river and was mostly shaded. It was an out-and-back and it was very flat. At the half mile mark I took my first peek at my watch and saw that I was averaging a 6:35/mile pace. This was a fair amount slower than I was expecting, and I was hoping that I wasn't in worse shape than I thought I was. 

By the turnaround I was moving at a faster clip, and I finished the race in 19:13, a 6:11/mile pace. This happened to be my fastest 5K since May of 2021, so I'm feeling pretty good about my training.

The trip to Washington was awesome, other than me getting sick at the end and missing the last couple days of fun. Running there was great and running is going well in general. In my next post I'll give an update on how my training is going.

Marathon Training

Although I've done a marathon the past few years, I haven't really trained to run a fast race for several years. This year, I set the lofty goal of breaking 3:20 in the marathon. After running 3:53 in 2025, a sub-3:20 would be a huge improvement.

While on its face a 3:20 may look like a nearly unattainable goal, I'm very optimistic.

First, I'll look at why I ran a 3:53 last year. My mileage per week for 2025 was the lowest it had been since I started running again in 2009. I also wasn't racing, didn't have a structured training plan, and weighed more than I'd weighed in years,

Now, I have reason to be optimistic for this year. First, I'll be putting in more miles in this training cycle than I have in years. Second, I've started lifted weights, which I think has been a missing piece in my training puzzle. Third, I've gotten down closer to my racing weight, and if I stay on track, I should be down to race weight by race day. And lastly, I'll be following a structured training plan for the first time in years.

As I move through my training cycle, I'll be running a few 5Ks to get a gauge on my fitness. I did one at the beginning of this training cycle, clocking in at 21:32.  With only a couple weeks of training under my belt, I was happy with this result. According to the VDOT calculator, a 21:32 in the 5K is equivalent to a 3:25:48 marathon — not a sub-3:20, but this early in the training cycle, not a bad result.

Just three weeks later, I posted a 20:44 — a big improvement in a short amount of time. This time is equivalent to a 3:18:18, which would mean I'm on track to hit my goal.

The caveat to these 5K times is that I've always skewed at being faster in the shorter distances than the longer ones. My 5K PR, 16:17, is equivalent to a 1:14:36 half marathon and a 2:36:05 marathon, and my PRs in those distances are 1:16 and 2:50 (though my marathon PR would be faster had a couple of courses been marked correctly).

I'm six weeks into my 16 week training plan. I'm fortunate to have a work schedule where I have ample time in the morning to work out. A couple days I week I have time to get in a run and then lift weights before work.

In a week I'll be racing another 5K, and I'm excited to see how my training is progressing. I've run some good workouts, and I really think I'm going to see some solid progress.

After a Long Hiatus

I really don't know why it happened. I didn't make the conscious decision to stop posting on my blog. I didn't even have a reason. I haven't been super-busy. I can't even say I was struggling to come up with ideas for the blog.

Whatever the reason or lack thereof, I decided to get back at it. It's been an interesting few months with my fitness and my life in general, so here's a quick update:

In January I started a new job at the Mayo Clinic. I work as a door attendant. I enjoy the work, and it's been nice to do something other than substitute teaching. My job consists of greeting people as they arrive, helping people out of their cars and into wheelchairs, helping people back into their cars, and various other tasks. While it's not overly-complicated, the work feels meaningful and I enjoy my coworkers.

Health-wise things have been interesting. In December I made a medication change for my bipolar disorder, and I've been doing really well on it. I'm on as few of medications as I've been on for years, and I've been feeling balanced since the medication change.

A couple months ago I went through a rough patch where I was feeling sick to my stomach for almost a month. Several days I was throwing up, and for three weeks I wasn't eating solid food other than saltines, applesauce and toast. I lost over fifteen pounds and didn't exercise for almost a month.

Thankfully I've finally been doing better, though I still sometimes get nausea in the mornings. 

My exercising is now back on track, and in my next post I'll give a rundown of my fitness.

TV While I Pedal

In my previous post, I shared how I watched TV while I worked on my cardiovascular fitness on my bike trainer. 

There have been a couple of shows I've watched while pedaling. Once, I watched the news as it was live on Amazon Prime. Unfortunately, after about twenty-five minutes, it started playing on a loop, but otherwise it was interesting watching a news broadcast — something I rarely do.

The next thing I watched for a while was the show "Tracker." I like the lead actor, Justin Hartley from "This is Us," and the show, which is admittedly difficult for which to suspend disbelief, was nonetheless entertaining. "Tracker," follows Coulter Shaw as he sought to collect various rewards, mainly for finding missing persons. I stopped watching "Tracker," however, once we were done with our subscription to Paramount +.

Then, I started (actually continued as I'd started it a while back) watching "The Wheel of Time" on Amazon Prime. A high fantasy series, "The Wheel of Time" follows around a dozen characters as they seek to save the world from evil. When I was almost done with "The Wheel of Time" season three, I was very disappointed to find that the series will not be renewed. I probably should have just quit watching "The Wheel of Time" once I found out it was cancelled, but I still wanted to see where the show would end up after the last episode. Unfortunately, none of the loose ends were tied, and the series came to a disappointing finish. I wish I would have stopped after season two as there was more plot resolution as the end of that season.

After the disappointing end to "The Wheel of Time," I thought I'd go back to watching another fantasy series I'd started, "The Rings of Power." When I went to watch it, I found there were no new episodes. On the plus side, "Rings of Power" hasn't been cancelled, but the third season isn't due until 2027, so there went that idea.

I then watched "Person of Interest" of Amazon Prime, but I didn't love it. Then, I found another fantasy series, "The Magicians," which I think will do for now.

In the meantime I listened to the first book in the Coulter Shaw series. It was good enough to make me want to read more. I also reserved the second book in "The Wheel of Time" series. I listened to the first one quite a few years ago, so I'm hoping I won't be too lost where the second one picks up.

Feel free to let me know if you have any TV watching recommendations, preferably from Amazon Prime.

Thanks for reading.

My New Workout Routine

Our workout room.

Over almost the last two decades I've run over 800 miles each year, and most years over 1,100, with a few years topping over 2,000. Back in 2012 and 2015 - 2016 I was in the best shape of my life and ran a 2:50 marathon in 2012 and would have ran sub-2:50 in 2015 and 2016 if the course of the now defunct Milwaukee Marathon had been measured correctly. You can read the race reports (three parts) here.

This year, however, I'm doing something totally different with my training. This winter, I plan on running hardly at all, and instead focus on resistance training and pedaling the bike trainer for cardiovascular fitness.

I don't love the trainer — it's not as fun as running and the trainer also squeaks (something I've trying to fix).

Although the trainer is a little boring, I have been watching some decent TV, which makes the time go faster. In my next post I'll share some things I've watched while pedaling.

Be well.