Next Race

Duluth, MN - half marathon

Sunday, May 18, 2014

It's beginning to look a lot like marathon training

It's been a good past two weeks. Since Rock the parkway, we've started to move from simple mileage to 1-2 workouts per week now. We kicked off May with a 5k in Bradleyville, MO. This was my 3rd year to head south, I usually go solo. However, this year I was able to talk Marshall into coming with me (he was loyal to the May Day 5k in Republic, as it is a very fast course). My performance was nothing to brag about, but I did manage a win and happened to dip just under the 18 minute mark :) Marshall was 2nd male, and a very good day for him as well.

Very pretty country down there, Marshall pre-race
Weekly Review (4/28-5/4)
70 miles
1 double
20 mile long run
1 race
1 workout

The following week, was not too bad looking back at it on paper. But the legs felt like crap. That 20 miler really took it out of us. We did manage to pull of a decent 6 mile tempo on the Frisco trail. Goal was to run sub 36 minutes, but ended up with 36:37. Really can't complain based on how awful the warm-up felt. I was seeing mile splits that I hadn't seen since early morning college runs, a good 30+ seconds slower per mile than normal. We almost turned back and just calling it a no-go, but I talked Marshall into at least giving it a try, and we would run as long as we were some-what close to a slightly slower marathon pace (6:10 pace vs. sub 6:00).

Two days later we backed the above workout up with 3 x 3 mile. Also taken place on the Frisco trail. Can you tell we love this trail? I wanted to run this workout with guns a-blazin', but Marshall assured me that we should taper it down since it was going to be 9 hard miles.

Splits ended up being:
18:13
17:53
18:13

Since Marshall has satisfactorily re-caped these two workouts, you can read a more in-depth recap here: Marshall's Blog.

Weekly Review (5/5 - 5/11)
68 miles
1 double
17 mile long run
2 workouts
1 ART session from Dr.Reed

Next up, recap from this week. . . with a debut track session since last year

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Rock the Parkway Recap - Rust Buster

Winter is finally over, and Marshall and I are FINALLY putting in some decent mileage. Let's go back to the beginning of April. After being sick for nearly half the month of March, early April was a struggle to say the least. The second weekend we headed north to KC to run Rock the Parkway half marathon. It's advertised as one of the flattest courses in KC (which I guess it is), but after a year of training in Springfield, this race was a rude reminder that we need to find some hill to run.

While the outcome of this race was nice (1st place :) ), there's nothing like the clock kicking your a** to motivate one to get back in shape. Originally, I was hoping to run a decent time, but instead ran my slowest time in probably 3 years.

1 mile w/u
goal: run sub 1:20 (I had been sick, but thought this would still be attainable)
Actual: 1:21:31
Results
1 mile c/d

15 miles total

This was practically a tale of two races. I almost never try to judge a run from the first mile, but a mere 6 minutes in, I could tell this was going to be a loooong race. First half was right on pace, hovering between 6:00 - 6:10. I thought to myself, sub 1:20 for sure, maybe I haven't lost as much fitness being sick as I had thought. I kept clicking the miles off, not really lonesome at this point, but not really in a pack either. Next thing I know, I'm chugging up the hill at Loose park and barely running regular run pace. Maybe it was the wind, maybe it was the hill, maybe it was simply being out of shape, but the second half of the race was probably around 6:20 pace, with a couple miles slipping up to 6:30 pace.

As I trotted along, I made a half-hearted attempt to stay with the only guy in sight either way that had just passed me. This lasted about a mile before he was a good 20 seconds ahead, and I figured I going to be running solo the rest of the way. However, around mile 11 I noticed he'd started coming back to me. I zeroed in on his red jersey and thought to myself, "okay, this guy is the new Marshall. Get up there and run with Marshall." Sure enough, by mile 12, I was only a stride back, basically running side by side. And I'll be darned if he didn't look over his shoulder, point to his side, and tell me to finish! Just like Marshall does during workouts! Bless him, as he pulled me through the last 1.1 miles and even pulled off to the side as I was finishing so I could break the tape. It's not very often that a guy would willingly help/run/pace me during races.
Marshall running by the fountains (mile 9ish)


On tap. . . hopefully a review of the last 2 weeks, and a 20 mile long run tomorrow (yikes!)

Marshall to finish - 9th place overall

Kimi to finish - 1st place female