Mental Preparations

This is my visualization....thanks to Photoshop!

The Fargo Marathon is now just a few days away. The marathon is not a task to be taken lightly. Not only is running 26.2 miles a challenge within itself, but now I will be trying to do it in less than 3 hours and 20 minutes. There will not be anything easy about it. It's interesting how distorted the perception of time can be. Spending 3 hours relaxing with loved ones can go by in a flash while the same 3 hours while running a moderate pace can seem like an eternity. The physical work is done, it's mostly mental now.

You always reap what you sow.
I have put in well over 700 miles of training so far this year. I have worked hard to get to my current level of fitness. I am stronger than I have ever been as a runner.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not and act, but a habit. - Aristotle
Long runs, intervals, hard tempo runs, speed work. Sometimes it sucks but the fact is, you have to run faster to get faster....and that's not easy.

Happiness - the fruit of the desire and ability to sacrifice what we want now for what we want eventually.
As one of my Dailymile friends once said "Training isn't all unicorns and glitter". It's easy as hell to find excuses not to get in a run, but it feels ten times better afterwards when you do it anyway.

You can do anything you want to do, if only you believe with sufficient conviction and act in accordance with your faith; for whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.
7:30 - 7:38 average pace - 26.2 miles - I am ready, it will happen.

Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can.
I know I can.

You have to believe in yourself when no one else does, that's what makes you a winner.
I believe.

A huge thank you to Coaches Jeff and Diane at PRSFit for kicking my butt into shape, and all of my Dailymile friends for the daily confidence and support throughout. It just wouldn't be the same without you.

My post race visualization. Ahhhhhh!

Frisco High Line Half Marathon Report

My training plan called for a half marathon on this particular weekend and the closest thing that I could find was the Frisco High Line Run for Scouting half marathon in Springfield Missouri. A nice little 4 and one half hour drive from home...road trip!

While checking the weather for Springfield it looked like it would be between 34 and 46 degrees with some rain in the late morning or early afternoon, a little cooler than I would like it to be, but very doable. Saturday morning, this is what I woke up to. A beautiful 36 degrees and a steady rain!

When I arrived at the race start I was able to meet up with fellow Daily Mile friends David M. and Jon W.  David just finished the Rocky Racoon 100 and Jon was there as not only part of the support crew but helped pace David for 20 miles in the event, very cool! They are a couple of great guys and some serious running machines!

Luckily before the race start we were able to hang out inside of a warm building while we hoped that the rain would stop. At one point shortly before the start, somebody announced that they would delay the race while a storm cell passed by. At this time there was a some thunder and lightening. About one minute later, the same guy came out and announced that we were going to start soon and needed to head to the start line, so much for waiting out the storm. At the start line, there was a small group of us up front and most everyone else was huddled under a tent about 100 feet behind the start line. (hello - you are running 13.1 miles, you WILL get wet!) 

We were started off with a train whistle in honor of the Frisco High Line Trail, the rails to trails path where we were running. 

OK - too much fluff detail going on in the post so here is the breakdown.

My goal for this race was to run even 7 minute splits or even a hair under. Like a rookie, I cruised through the first mile at 6:35, much faster than I intended. I wasn't too upset though because it felt good and I was able to slow down and relax a little while keeping a solid pace. My second mile was spot on 7:00, perfect! I felt like I was locked in at a good steady effort at this point. After mile 2 I didn't hear my watch sound off the splits and I didn't see any mile markers again until mile 6. I went through miles 3 - 6 in 6:57, 6:47 and 7:03 - things were looking good and I was just about half way through the race. Because this is an out and back course I was able to count that there were 8 or 9 people ahead of me and when I hit the turn around I noticed that there was not really anyone close enough behind me that would present a challenge. 

All through the race we could see and hear the lightening and thunder as it continued to rain. The wind and rain were at our back on the way out, so when we turned around it was right in our faces. I think it hailed a little too because at various times it had a nice sting to it as it hit my face. 

Whether it was knowing that I was really not going to gain or lose a position or that fact that we were now running into the wind my pace slowed on the back half. I ran miles 7 and 8 in 7:07 and 7:18 respectively, then by mile nine my feet were cold, soaking wet, and felt like bricks. I slogged through mile 9 in 7:23, then I think my mind drifted off in mile 10 because I dilly-dallied through it with a 7:33 pace so I had to kick it back into gear and ended up finishing with 7:14, 7:28, 7:24 and final push of 50 seconds at the end. 

Race stats copied from Training Peaks log.

I was cold, soaking wet, and my face was frozen, but I finished with a nice PR,10th overall and 3rd in my age group! In retrospect, not bad for such crappy conditions, i'll take it! I even scored an extra medal for my age group award!

Looking back at my Garmin stats, my heart rate didn't make it into zone 4 which tells me that I could have run this a little faster. I know that if I would have had a someone closer to me either in front or behind it would have helped push me to a faster finish. 

I am in no way unhappy with this race, but I am also not completely satisfied with the result. The great thing is that I know I can run it faster next time, especially if I have some competition to push me.

Finally, a quick but important plug for my motivators.

First of all, Jeff and Diane at PRS FIT have helped to keep me motivated and educated along this journey. They have helped my train smarter and harder while staying pretty much injury free the entire time. I have been working hard this year in preparation for the Fargo Marathon. My goal is to qualify for Boston there. With a lot of hard work and a little luck I will do just that. Qualifying or not, it's pretty much guaranteed that I will have a PR there. If you are serious about putting in the time and effort to improve your running, I would encourage runners at any level to contact them for assistance. 

Second, and no less important, the great Daily Mile friends who continue to inspire and and bring positive thoughts to every workout. I feel lucky knowing that it has reached the point where I can participate in almost any race across the U.S. and even internationally, and find a friendly Daily Miler. I even moved from a city of well over 100,000 people to one of 3,000 people in an entirely different state and was able to connect with local Daily Miler Sara D.  in my new town. Pretty awesome stuff in my book!

St. Cloud Earth Day 20

Saturday April 17th was the Earth Day Run in St. Cloud, MN. It was a somewhat unique event in that they ran both a half marathon and new this year, a 20 mile run. I had great company at this race with Daily Mile friends Jenn B., Megan N., and Jenessa. Each of them ran well, both Jenn and Jenessa obtained half marathon PR's and Megan ran a very solid 20 miles. They are a great bunch, if you are on Daily Mile and you don't follow them already, you should, I expect each of them to have some great race results this year.


Obviously running is a physical sport, but I would say it is equally and many times more so a mental sport. Preparation, attitude, and determination are major factors in the result of any distance run. It is easy to be intimidated by a race or a long run. But if you have trained properly, and have the right mindset your results will generally be positive. I found a great quote on Twitter from EnMotivate : If you truly expect something to be difficult, it will be. ~ Pete Cohen.  I went into this run with expectations of having fun, maintaining a responsible pace,and working on fine tuning my fuel plan for Fargo.  


The Fun Part
An amazing thing happened on this day. I woke up in a great mood (not that amazing), and I was really looking forward to this run. I have been training hard through some really crappy weather and was looking forward to see how things would shake out. I have started to develop a new attitude towards running this year and it is all about enjoying the runs. I don't know that I have too many more PR's left in me and frankly I am not too worried about it. It is all to easy to obsess about training and racing, but my eyes have been opened to the joy of running. Throughout this race I made it a point to thank as many volunteers as possible and talk to and encourage other runners along the way. I hope I made some people feel a little better about there run, even if for only a few moments. I was running well and felt good most of the way, so why not try to spread a little love?


Maintaining Pace
Yep, I am very much a typical runner, I go out too fast at the start, and have nothing left at the end. I proved it in my first marathon and I still do it much too often in my training runs. This time it was different, but I did have a little help. My goal was to finish with a 9:00 - 9:30 pace without wiping myself out in the end. Luckily there were pacers at this race, so I found the 9:33 pacer and stuck with him. My plan was to run faster the last part of the race if I felt well enough to do so. 9:33 seemed a little too easy the first few miles, but I stuck to the plan like a champ, for the most part. I did pass the pacer and pick things up at miles 6 - 10 knowing that I was going to have to make a bathroom stop. When I stepped out of the port a potty I had to pick my speed back up to catch back up to the pacer which I finally did somewhere close to mile 12. I kept a pretty steady pace through the next 4 miles and then started to push the it a little at mile 16, simply because I felt like I could. I feel good that I was able to finish strong and run my last two miles at close to 8 minute pace, my pacing plan worked well!


The Fuel Plan
This is where I have the most anxiety about my long runs and the marathon. Mostly because I did such a poor job of it during my first marathon that I really don't want to make the same mistake twice. I have asked questions on Daily Mile and done a little experimenting on my own. I have not come to a complete resolution yet but here is what I have so far.

1. 5-hour Energy - yeah, don't freak out. I am typically not a big believer in these things and I am not sure how much it has actually helped. But, the two times that I have tried it, I had solid results. I will give credit where credit is due, I borrowed this idea from Rob-The-Runner on Daily Mile.
2. Hammer Gels - I have tried Honey Stingers and Hammer Gels on my long runs. I like the flavors and the ease of consuming the Hammer Gels. I use the non-caffeinated gels simply because I don't feel like I need any more caffeine than what is in the energy shot. I consumed one gel for every four miles. This seemed to work out well, but I may try every 30 minutes on my next long run.
3. Water - I still have some work to do in this area but I drank from every water stop and walked through most of them to drink. I was still a little dehydrated at the end of the run but it was much better than my first marathon experience.

Here are some pictures of me and the great DM runners that I mentioned earlier

53 Miles

My first marathon has taught me many lessons, most importantly, patience. In training for the first, I selected a fairly challenging training plan and ran almost every run at a strong pace. Never really thinking much about recovery. If you run fast in training, you are bound to run fast in a race right? Right….to a point. Being a master’s runner (40+ yrs of age) changes the game a bit. I have to be a little gentler on the body whether I like it or not. I am still learning about running and researching what will be my next marathon training plan. If Fargo is my race, then I have until February to select the right plan for me. Until then I have been experimenting with aerobic base training and heart rate training.

It’s not glamorous, trust me, I used to check my resting heart rate and what it was right after a run, but never gave it much thought beyond that. My opinion was that it really did’t matter and that if you run harder your heart will get stronger. I was wrong. Using a heart rate monitor helps you gauge your effort and keep that effort within the optimal zone for what you are trying to accomplish on each particular run. This type of training is supposed to build up your aerobic capacity and improve your overall running abilities for all distance running. This training encourages you to listen closely to your body and not push yourself to the limit for each run but allow for recovery after every run. It is actually much more detailed than what I touch on here but I can tell you that it has made my runs definitely more enjoyable. I now closely monitor my heart rate during my runs and do not worry about how long it will take me to finish. In fact I enjoy my runs much more at this slower pace because instead of running at the top end of my abilities, I am running in a comfortable heart rate zone.

It has been a relief, training myself not to run by pace on the watch, but by effort. Forcing myself to slow down when the heart rate gets too high and making myself speed up if I take it too easy going downhill. Since my marathon I have been working to safely increase my mileage. In fact I just finished October with 173 miles, my highest month ever, and the week ending November 1st, I logged over 53 miles. If you want to learn more, below are some links with some explanation. I am also open to any thoughts or recommendations from anyone with experience with this type of training.

H.I.T – the book that started it all for me (this is an advanced running book but still has some good tips for an amateur like me)
Aerobic Base Training
Heart Rate Training

20 Mile Run Day

Today, I reached a new milestone in my training. I ran farther than I have ever run before, that's right, I ran (sort of) 20 miles. I tried to make sure that I was well hydrated the day before and loaded up on some spaghetti last night to make sure that I had some carbs in my system. Saturday evening after work I ran an easy 5 miles, my schedule said to run 4 but I didn't realize that until I had already finished my 5. Watched a the TDF that I had DVR'd earlier in the day and headed to bed at a fairly early time. My goal was to get up at 6am and be running by 7 while it was nice and cool. Unfortunately, due some circumstances beyond my control I was awakened at 2:30am and did not get back to sleep until probably 4. I reset the alarm clock for 7am.

I woke up before the alarm and felt a little groggy but pretty decent and hit the trail at about7:30am. Within the first half mile, I realized that I had forgotten to take care of things with body glide, too late now, I would have to suffer later.

My first 12 miles were a piece of cake actually. I had a nice pace going and was feeling pretty good. But during mile 13 I really started to struggle. My legs were not holding up very well, I am guessing because of the 5 miles that I had run about 14 hours prior (dumb mistake). So, I walked for awhile during mile 13. Then, with just 7 miles to go, I figured I could probably finish out my run, what's 7 miles? I was wrong, it was a long 7 miles of running and walking. I couldn't even force myself to run the entire last mile without doing some walking. :-(

I completed the run in 3hours and 8 minutes, a pace of 9:24. Not bad but disappointing because I was on pace to finish at about an 8:40 pace. Oh yeah, luckily the chaffing was very minimal, that's a good thing!

Running with Issues

I was scheduled for a 4 mile run this morning but it just didn't seem right. I felt like I was cheated out of some miles on Sunday's run, and I still had a little residual frustration from in too, so I tacked on a couple of extra miles today.
Nice cool overcast morning on the bike path. Ran a pretty consistent pace on an out and back course. 23:45 for first three miles and 23:16 for last three giving me a pace of 7:53. I am very pleased with my pace on this run. It brings me that much closer to the possibility of running a 3:20 marathon and qualifying for Boston.

Thursday Run

It's been strange backing off of my running this week. My schedule only calls for a total of 17 miles with my longest run being 5 miles. I almost feel guilty about it but I think it has been a good thing. It's been good to give my body a bit of an off week to rest up - prepare for the punishment that's coming. In fact, Sunday, the start of the new week for me, my long run will be 10 miles and I am scheduled for a total of 34 miles and 35 the next. It will be a good challenge!
Today's run was a quick 4.1 mile fartlek run. I finished in 30:38 giving me a 7:30 pace. What is a fartlek run? It is simply a run where you vary your pace throughout the run. After about a mile warm up, I will pick a point ahead like a tree, sign, road, etc. and run hard to that point, then back down to my original pace. I continue to do this off and on throughout the run. This increases my overall pace and helps my body adjust to recovering after the hard run periods.
Note: No gas was released during the fartlek run.