Today was probably one of the last nice days we're going to have weather-wise. It was sunny and about 50 degrees. I ended up running my entire 8 miles solo but felt pretty good. I managed to cruise at around 6:30 for a couple of those miles and hovered just under 7 minute pace for most of the rest. Overall it was a good run.
This weekend is conference. The course is pretty wet and muddy so it looks like it'll be a fun race. We've been preparing for this all season. It's time to see if that monster is ready.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Divisions
Today's practice was a set of strength exercises followed by a simple 8 mile run. As we were setting out, Richard (the only captain present for the men's team) started heading south, but most of the other guys broke off and headed north instead. There was a brief mid-stride argument before it became apparent that the rest of the team simply didn't want to run that direction. I chose to be the loyal follower, however, and went south with Richard. We only went out 3 miles instead of 4 in case his knee bothered him, but it didn't so we finished the last 2 miles on the course back at CUW. The run was pretty slow; I had little energy and was unable to push the pace at all. The weather was absolutely beautiful, however: 65 degrees, sunny, no wind, trees with bright yellow and orange leaves...perfect fall afternoon. Tomorrow is fartleks on the road. No meet this weekend. Using the week off to train that monster.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Still Alive
Another Tuesday. Another late start because of Literary Criticism class. "Monster Workout" #4. 2 mile warmup, 20x400 with a 1 minute jog between each, 2 mile cooldown. 5 miles at faster than 5 mile race pace, seven laps on the meadow, lots of guts. And a few tears.
I got out there while most of the other guys had about 5 intervals left to go. I managed to hit my times on the first 5 with no problems, but after that things got difficult. My times were supposed to drop every 5 400's, but fatigue made doing that almost impossible. By the time I had gotten to the last set of 5 everyone else had finished and gone in for the day. It was just me, the geese, and the rapidly darkening sky. My times were way off but I just ran as fast as I could, launching an all-out assault against the forces of evil, aka the Meadow. By the time I was finished with the entire workout I was so exhausted I could barely make it through the cool down. As I sit here, about an hour and a half later, my legs feel like hamburger and my stomach feels like acid. I haven't felt this sick after a workout in a long time. But I guess if this didn't kill me nothing will.
I got out there while most of the other guys had about 5 intervals left to go. I managed to hit my times on the first 5 with no problems, but after that things got difficult. My times were supposed to drop every 5 400's, but fatigue made doing that almost impossible. By the time I had gotten to the last set of 5 everyone else had finished and gone in for the day. It was just me, the geese, and the rapidly darkening sky. My times were way off but I just ran as fast as I could, launching an all-out assault against the forces of evil, aka the Meadow. By the time I was finished with the entire workout I was so exhausted I could barely make it through the cool down. As I sit here, about an hour and a half later, my legs feel like hamburger and my stomach feels like acid. I haven't felt this sick after a workout in a long time. But I guess if this didn't kill me nothing will.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
More great races on another nasty course
Today was the Wisconsin State Private Schools championship. Both men's and women's squads did great, except for the fact that a lot of people are out with injuries. For those who ran there were PR's almost all around. A few people even managed to drop as much as 2 minutes. I struggled to keep up with Jon and Pfeuffer but was ultimately unable to do so, instead watching them tear away across the top of the "mountain" at Ripon College while I played leapfrog with the MSOE guys for 5 miles. I caught up to Danny mid way through the race and he gave some encouragement, but I ended up dying later on and he left me behind. I'm not yet sure what my official time was but I may have PR'd by a few seconds. Jon shaved a minute and a half from last week, running somewhere around 28:11, and Pfeuffer made the last spot on the all-time list with his 28:03. Tyler, Mike, Ben, and Andrew all finished one after the other and Ash won the thing in 25:35. As a team the guys managed 3rd place, getting beat out by Ripon and St. Norbert. The good news is that we beat all the schools in our conference, so two weeks from now it looks like we could take the championship. The ladies took 4th, and Guppy was second overall. The monster award for this week definitely goes to Jungers, however, as he was able to knock off about 2 minutes from his previous best.
The weather was a little bit chilly (40 degrees?) but not too bad. The black team sleeves kept my arms cozy as we ran laps at the top of the hill (bit of a breeze up there). The course, however, was somewhat of a nightmare in my opinion. The start consisted of a hard right almost immediately after the gun, and some moron put a blue flag directly to the left of the actual right-turn flag. This caused a bunch of the leaders to nearly miss the turn because they aimed for the blue flag instead of the yellow one. After that we climbed to the top of the hill, ran a couple of loops up there, and then branched off into the forest for a steep, winding downhill towards the finish. This descent caught me completely off guard and almost sent me hurtling over one of the edges into the woods. I also came very close to going down right in front of Richard, who was taking pictures at the bottom. My knee started to give out and he snapped a photo of me flailing my arms in a near-panic. As much as the downhill sucked, though, it helped people run fast. This, combined with the fact that the last mile was short (balanced by 4 other miles that were slightly long) led to many of us running around 4:40 for the last "mile." The finish was also terrible. The chute was essentially in the middle of a parking lot.
It was a good day though. Next week is off (fall break), then conference, followed by the President's Run and Regionals. It's time to make things happen.
The weather was a little bit chilly (40 degrees?) but not too bad. The black team sleeves kept my arms cozy as we ran laps at the top of the hill (bit of a breeze up there). The course, however, was somewhat of a nightmare in my opinion. The start consisted of a hard right almost immediately after the gun, and some moron put a blue flag directly to the left of the actual right-turn flag. This caused a bunch of the leaders to nearly miss the turn because they aimed for the blue flag instead of the yellow one. After that we climbed to the top of the hill, ran a couple of loops up there, and then branched off into the forest for a steep, winding downhill towards the finish. This descent caught me completely off guard and almost sent me hurtling over one of the edges into the woods. I also came very close to going down right in front of Richard, who was taking pictures at the bottom. My knee started to give out and he snapped a photo of me flailing my arms in a near-panic. As much as the downhill sucked, though, it helped people run fast. This, combined with the fact that the last mile was short (balanced by 4 other miles that were slightly long) led to many of us running around 4:40 for the last "mile." The finish was also terrible. The chute was essentially in the middle of a parking lot.
It was a good day though. Next week is off (fall break), then conference, followed by the President's Run and Regionals. It's time to make things happen.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Drizzle
Today I did 400's in the meadow with Danny and Ben. It was a bit windy and raining lightly, but that didn't stop us. The workout itself seemed like it should be very easy on paper, but once we got out there Russ told us we had to run a few seconds faster than was previously thought. He also said that every interval needed to be on pace or faster; for every 400 that was over (even one second) we would have to do another one. The three of us still managed to keep pace however, running about 2 or 3 seconds faster than our goal times on most of the intervals and going about 5 seconds under for the last couple. Danny's knee seems to be pretty much back to normal now, but Richard has been out a couple days with minor knee problems of his own. The rest of the guys are looking decent though. This weekend should be a good meet.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Forgotten Monsters
Today was, supposedly, the most difficult practice of the season. I showed up late again because of class. All I knew at first was that I needed to do a triple bluff warmup. As I jogged up the final hill I noticed a few of the guys running around the north path by the edge of the bluff. By the time I'd gotten over there only a couple of them were left. I wasn't sure where the rest had gone off to. Ash told me to do 10 600's with a 1 minute jog in between each, but I had to find Russ in order to get my target splits. He wasn't by the north path so I ran out to the meadow. I had to shoot around to the starting line to finally locate him and get my splits. I was supposed to do 10 600's at 2:06 a pop. That's faster than the last time we did them, and with 30% less rest. I decided to give it a shot.
The 600's went terrible. I had such a hard time getting my legs to move up the dinky little hill just past the mud puddle that I was huffing and puffing by the time I made it to the lake. My best lap was 2:08, two seconds slower than goal pace. It also didn't help having nobody to run with, since the rest of the team was out at the meadow by this time, but Danny stopped by during his run to cheer me on for a couple of laps. After 9 of them I decided to go to the port-a-potty and make a pit stop. Coming out of the john I ran into Beth, who was waiting to get into the other one. She asked how it was going. I said I had one 600 left, then the "surprise" second half of the workout. She asked if I wanted to know what it was. I declined. One step at a time. I didn't want to worry about whatever was coming up until I'd finished those 600's.
The last 600 was faster due to the extra rest from my bathroom break, and I entered the meadow on a bit higher note. Once I got out to the starting line, however, I looked around and was unable to see anyone. For a brief moment I thought they'd all called it a day and headed in without remembering that I was still out there and needed to know what the rest of the workout was. Then I decided to go around the trees and check the south side of the field. Sure enough, a group of the guys were standing in a circle in the corner, talking to Russ. I ran over.
When I reached the group, Tyler said hi and Russ turned around with some kind of confused look on his face. "Am I about to die?" I asked. They responded by saying that it was a real possibility. Russ then said, "Oh, I forgot about you."
Great. I was in the middle of the hardest workout all year, and my coach had forgotten that I existed. Am I that hard to notice?
Anyway, Russ told me to go to the starting line and do 1 mile as fast as I could. He emphasized that it needed to be "all-out." This would not be fun. I could do it though. "Ok," I said. I would bust this out and be done. "Is that all then?"
"No, you've got 1 mile all out and then 5 minutes, then there's one more thing."
I started laughing and headed for the start. At this point I had lost enough of my sanity to stop caring about little things like shin splints, aching knees, and intestinal distress. It was time to let that monster out and make my body do things it really didn't want to.
I started the mile at a quick pace, reaching the 400 mark in about 1:16. Not actually fast at all, but considering that I was running in the meadow (as opposed to the track) and had already done what was essentially an entire workout by itself, I was content. By the time I got to the 800 I had slowed down, however, rolling through at 2:44. Just as I checked my watch, I suddenly heard the voice of Russ shouting motivational comments that I can no longer recall. He was all the way on the other side of the meadow with a megaphone. I turned the corner and went east along the edge by the woods, passing the other guys as they did part of their cooldown. They all shouted encouragement and told me to let out the monster. I went through the 1200 in 4:07 (why can't I do that every day in practice?) and passed the starting line where Russ was standing, still hurling motivation at me. A few more of the guys were now at the northeast corner, blasting yet more words of motivation as I sprinted the last 200 meters. I finally reached the end and looked at my watch: 5:29. What?! Five minutes and twenty-nine seconds?! That's so...slow! So much effort for such a crummy time?
I went back to the start and reported my time to Russ. He then told me to go jog around for five minutes. I did. When I got back, he instructed me to do one more 800. The catch was that I had to be under 2:40. Or else. Or else what, I'm not sure. I just had to do it. And I knew I could.
I went to the starting line one last time. With a burst of speed I took off and tore around the first corner with no desire for anything except pain. After cruising down the hill I passed the 400 in 1:12. Perfect. I was about 8 seconds ahead of pace. All I had to do was hold it. For 400 meters. Not that hard. Piece of cake.
As I went up the next little hill I felt my legs start to die. No! I couldn't let this happen! Not now, legs! I thought to myself. Just hang in there for another minute! I started praying that my body would hold together.
Turning the next corner, I caught sight of my teammates. They were standing at intervals all along the remaining 200 meters. Each one yelled as I passed, encouraging me to blast it to the finish. With those guys screaming at me on both sides, I smashed myself into oblivion up the final hill, sprinting to the end with every ounce of strength that remained in my body. I crossed the line (actually it's a traffic cone, but whatever) and walked for a few seconds to catch my breath. I then bent over, looking at my watch to see if I'd succeeded in destroying 2:40.
It said 2:31. I screamed a warrior's victory cry.
The 600's went terrible. I had such a hard time getting my legs to move up the dinky little hill just past the mud puddle that I was huffing and puffing by the time I made it to the lake. My best lap was 2:08, two seconds slower than goal pace. It also didn't help having nobody to run with, since the rest of the team was out at the meadow by this time, but Danny stopped by during his run to cheer me on for a couple of laps. After 9 of them I decided to go to the port-a-potty and make a pit stop. Coming out of the john I ran into Beth, who was waiting to get into the other one. She asked how it was going. I said I had one 600 left, then the "surprise" second half of the workout. She asked if I wanted to know what it was. I declined. One step at a time. I didn't want to worry about whatever was coming up until I'd finished those 600's.
The last 600 was faster due to the extra rest from my bathroom break, and I entered the meadow on a bit higher note. Once I got out to the starting line, however, I looked around and was unable to see anyone. For a brief moment I thought they'd all called it a day and headed in without remembering that I was still out there and needed to know what the rest of the workout was. Then I decided to go around the trees and check the south side of the field. Sure enough, a group of the guys were standing in a circle in the corner, talking to Russ. I ran over.
When I reached the group, Tyler said hi and Russ turned around with some kind of confused look on his face. "Am I about to die?" I asked. They responded by saying that it was a real possibility. Russ then said, "Oh, I forgot about you."
Great. I was in the middle of the hardest workout all year, and my coach had forgotten that I existed. Am I that hard to notice?
Anyway, Russ told me to go to the starting line and do 1 mile as fast as I could. He emphasized that it needed to be "all-out." This would not be fun. I could do it though. "Ok," I said. I would bust this out and be done. "Is that all then?"
"No, you've got 1 mile all out and then 5 minutes, then there's one more thing."
I started laughing and headed for the start. At this point I had lost enough of my sanity to stop caring about little things like shin splints, aching knees, and intestinal distress. It was time to let that monster out and make my body do things it really didn't want to.
I started the mile at a quick pace, reaching the 400 mark in about 1:16. Not actually fast at all, but considering that I was running in the meadow (as opposed to the track) and had already done what was essentially an entire workout by itself, I was content. By the time I got to the 800 I had slowed down, however, rolling through at 2:44. Just as I checked my watch, I suddenly heard the voice of Russ shouting motivational comments that I can no longer recall. He was all the way on the other side of the meadow with a megaphone. I turned the corner and went east along the edge by the woods, passing the other guys as they did part of their cooldown. They all shouted encouragement and told me to let out the monster. I went through the 1200 in 4:07 (why can't I do that every day in practice?) and passed the starting line where Russ was standing, still hurling motivation at me. A few more of the guys were now at the northeast corner, blasting yet more words of motivation as I sprinted the last 200 meters. I finally reached the end and looked at my watch: 5:29. What?! Five minutes and twenty-nine seconds?! That's so...slow! So much effort for such a crummy time?
I went back to the start and reported my time to Russ. He then told me to go jog around for five minutes. I did. When I got back, he instructed me to do one more 800. The catch was that I had to be under 2:40. Or else. Or else what, I'm not sure. I just had to do it. And I knew I could.
I went to the starting line one last time. With a burst of speed I took off and tore around the first corner with no desire for anything except pain. After cruising down the hill I passed the 400 in 1:12. Perfect. I was about 8 seconds ahead of pace. All I had to do was hold it. For 400 meters. Not that hard. Piece of cake.
As I went up the next little hill I felt my legs start to die. No! I couldn't let this happen! Not now, legs! I thought to myself. Just hang in there for another minute! I started praying that my body would hold together.
Turning the next corner, I caught sight of my teammates. They were standing at intervals all along the remaining 200 meters. Each one yelled as I passed, encouraging me to blast it to the finish. With those guys screaming at me on both sides, I smashed myself into oblivion up the final hill, sprinting to the end with every ounce of strength that remained in my body. I crossed the line (actually it's a traffic cone, but whatever) and walked for a few seconds to catch my breath. I then bent over, looking at my watch to see if I'd succeeded in destroying 2:40.
It said 2:31. I screamed a warrior's victory cry.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Cold
This morning I got up at 6:55 to go out and run at the 7:30 practice. It was 28 degrees outside, and when I got to campus nobody else was around at first. I almost left, thinking that 15 miles in the freezing cold by myself would be too much, but then Ash and Muffenbeck showed up at the last minute. We ended up running 10 miles on the north road, then Ash and I went back out for 5 more. It felt horrible. Just several miles into the run I already felt like I was dying, but managed to hold on for the entire journey. Later I spent the whole afternoon doing homework. Thus ends another weekend and begins another long week.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Left Behind
Today I had to miss the Parkside meet to go rock climbing. The experience was pretty fun, although I would have rather been with my team. I dominated the first couple of walls and then started to falter as my forearms and wrists got tired. Eventually I found myself stuck on a certain wall that nobody else seemed to be having problems with, and they refused to let me quit. My rock climbing "teammates" kept saying they wouldn't leave or let me come down until I made it up, but my hands just didn't have the grip left and after quite a while I had to bail.
After getting back to CUW I set out to do my 4 mile "tempo" workout, which actually turned out to be just a fast easy run (which is ironically an oxymoron). My fastest mile was 6:23. It was just a bit too cold (took me halfway just to get warmed up) and my hip flexors were too tired from the rock wall. I even had to stop halfway through the cooldown and stretch them out before I could make it the last mile back to campus.
While I was failing to conquer the repelling course and sucking at my tempo run, the rest of the team was tearing up the hills and woods at UW Parkside. From what I heard most of them seemed to do fairly well. Some big season bests and a couple of good packs out there. Pfeuffer came close to finally breaking 29 minutes (with Jon O not far behind) and supposedly said he could have done it if I'd been there. Next week, then, it'll happen for sure. I'll WILL them both under 29 minutes. I've got a special plan for that race. Hopefully it'll work.
After getting back to CUW I set out to do my 4 mile "tempo" workout, which actually turned out to be just a fast easy run (which is ironically an oxymoron). My fastest mile was 6:23. It was just a bit too cold (took me halfway just to get warmed up) and my hip flexors were too tired from the rock wall. I even had to stop halfway through the cooldown and stretch them out before I could make it the last mile back to campus.
While I was failing to conquer the repelling course and sucking at my tempo run, the rest of the team was tearing up the hills and woods at UW Parkside. From what I heard most of them seemed to do fairly well. Some big season bests and a couple of good packs out there. Pfeuffer came close to finally breaking 29 minutes (with Jon O not far behind) and supposedly said he could have done it if I'd been there. Next week, then, it'll happen for sure. I'll WILL them both under 29 minutes. I've got a special plan for that race. Hopefully it'll work.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Not Dead Yet
Yesterday was another great test of my body's durability. The team warmed up on the bluff and then headed over to the "north path" behind the soccer field for the workout. We did a total of 12 600's in 3 sets of 4, each set progressively faster than the previous one. It didn't seem terribly difficult on paper, but the competitive nature of my teammates made it a little bit insane. I was being chased all the way through by the group behind me, nearly on the verge of panic due to the fact that I was being caught by people who were supposed to be running slower than I was. As I hurdled the mud puddle and climbed the small hill east to the lake I could hear the relentless breathing and pounding of footsteps from behind, see the shadow of Jon coming to eat me. It was just the extra motivation I needed to run that little bit faster, and I know it helped them as well having some bait to chase after. On the last set of four we were supposed to run normal pace to the corner at the top of the path, then sprint full speed down the back stretch to the finish. When Jon and I reached the orange cone marking 400 meters we were greeted by Russ, who promptly screamed "Monster all the way down! How much pain can you handle?!"
It was the perfect thing to hear at that point and gave us the inspiration to turn on the jets and fly down that hill. I more or less ran out of energy on the last couple of loops but was still able to blast it at the end. Afterwards my legs were so sore that the cool down felt like finishing a marathon.
This morning I (barely) got to sleep in, since I didn't have to run in the morning. Instead I spent my time finishing an essay and rushing to class at the last minute. Actually I was five minutes late due to the parking debacle. This afternoon Russ only had my group run 4 miles, which felt like a warm up but was probably just what my body needed. I was quite sore throughout the day and am actually pretty impressed that my knees and achilles held up the last three days. I'm at 42 miles so far this week, on pace for about 70 total. Unfortunately I'll have to miss the Parkside meet on Saturday because I have a 1-credit rock climbing class, and will probably have to do a workout by myself early that morning.
It was the perfect thing to hear at that point and gave us the inspiration to turn on the jets and fly down that hill. I more or less ran out of energy on the last couple of loops but was still able to blast it at the end. Afterwards my legs were so sore that the cool down felt like finishing a marathon.
This morning I (barely) got to sleep in, since I didn't have to run in the morning. Instead I spent my time finishing an essay and rushing to class at the last minute. Actually I was five minutes late due to the parking debacle. This afternoon Russ only had my group run 4 miles, which felt like a warm up but was probably just what my body needed. I was quite sore throughout the day and am actually pretty impressed that my knees and achilles held up the last three days. I'm at 42 miles so far this week, on pace for about 70 total. Unfortunately I'll have to miss the Parkside meet on Saturday because I have a 1-credit rock climbing class, and will probably have to do a workout by myself early that morning.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Hang in There Everyone
I awoke to grey skies and soem light rain at 7:25 this morning. Half sighing, half moaning, I rolled over and turned off my alarm clock. 5 miles did not seem half as appealing as my warm bed, but laziness was not an option. Valiantly fighting what has now become a sort of permanent fatigue, I managed to crawl out of bed and lace up my running shoes. Outside the conditions were not terrible; in fact I got a bit warm under my retro Grafton Track jacket. I felt pretty crappy overall due to low energy, but before long I was back home and getting ready for class.
This afternoon I did another 6 miles. The rain had stopped by then and the sun even came out for about 10 minutes, but the clouds soon returned. Along with them came the wind, which created plenty of leaf-catching opportunities. I failed to actually grab any though.
After returning to the field house, Sarabia and I did 5 strides on the grass and parking lot. Those actually felt great, which is usually the case then the run itself goes terrible.
Have I mentioned yet that my knees are slowly dying? It's the same thing that plagued me all summer, only this time it's both knees. I've been putting them on ice to try and slow down the pain but I can only hope that I don't end up on the bike again in a few days. It seems like a lot of other people on the team are also experiencing problems lately. Kelby has apparently stubbed his toes and gotten stitches, which will take him out for most of the remainder of the season (according to facebook at least). Holly was recently witnessed limping around the library with some type of busted hip, Emily's been on the bike all week, Nicole still hasn't returned from her stress fracture in the beginning of the season, and Danny continues to have issues with his knee. We're dropping like flies.
I just hope the team can hold together physically for a few more weeks. We can't afford to lose people now.
This afternoon I did another 6 miles. The rain had stopped by then and the sun even came out for about 10 minutes, but the clouds soon returned. Along with them came the wind, which created plenty of leaf-catching opportunities. I failed to actually grab any though.
After returning to the field house, Sarabia and I did 5 strides on the grass and parking lot. Those actually felt great, which is usually the case then the run itself goes terrible.
Have I mentioned yet that my knees are slowly dying? It's the same thing that plagued me all summer, only this time it's both knees. I've been putting them on ice to try and slow down the pain but I can only hope that I don't end up on the bike again in a few days. It seems like a lot of other people on the team are also experiencing problems lately. Kelby has apparently stubbed his toes and gotten stitches, which will take him out for most of the remainder of the season (according to facebook at least). Holly was recently witnessed limping around the library with some type of busted hip, Emily's been on the bike all week, Nicole still hasn't returned from her stress fracture in the beginning of the season, and Danny continues to have issues with his knee. We're dropping like flies.
I just hope the team can hold together physically for a few more weeks. We can't afford to lose people now.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Need Energy
Last night I felt horrible, so I called it a day early and went to bed around 9:30. Despite sleeping close to 10 hours I was still exhausted when I woke up this morning at 7:30. Running 5 miles made me feel a lot better though. I overdressed a bit, expected some chilly morning air but instead being surprised by a pleasant 50 degrees. The tiredness returned throughout the day as I struggled to remain awake during Latin class. I took a 40 minute nap at 1 o'clock but was still sleepy by practice time.
Practice itself was fine. I woke up enough to stay near my times and didn't encounter any problems. We did a triple bluff warmup followed by 2x1 mile and 4x800. I ran near (0r faster than) my target times for every rep but was still barely able to keep up with Pfeuffer, who was supposed to be running 10 seconds slower than me. He keeps complaining about being tired and unable to run well but I'm convinced that he just hasn't had a good race yet. The guy kicks my butt in practice every day but I've beaten him in every race. Next time I bet he'll come out on top with a 28:30 or something around there.
It was about 13 miles for the day total. If my knees and shins survive (as I always speculate) I will be going places I've never been before.
Forecast calls for rain tomorrow. Wednesday is another monster. Let's do this.
Practice itself was fine. I woke up enough to stay near my times and didn't encounter any problems. We did a triple bluff warmup followed by 2x1 mile and 4x800. I ran near (0r faster than) my target times for every rep but was still barely able to keep up with Pfeuffer, who was supposed to be running 10 seconds slower than me. He keeps complaining about being tired and unable to run well but I'm convinced that he just hasn't had a good race yet. The guy kicks my butt in practice every day but I've beaten him in every race. Next time I bet he'll come out on top with a 28:30 or something around there.
It was about 13 miles for the day total. If my knees and shins survive (as I always speculate) I will be going places I've never been before.
Forecast calls for rain tomorrow. Wednesday is another monster. Let's do this.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Lakefront
This morning several of us volunteered at the CUW water station for the Lakefront Marathon. We handed out hundreds of paper cups filled with water and gatorade, cheered on the seemingly endless horde of runners, and then cleaned up. It's something I've done four or five times in the past (my high school runs a water stop a few miles earlier in the race) and still enjoy. I also got to see Dr. Paavola and a former teammate run by on their way to personal glory.
Around 1:30 Ben, Ash, Danny and I set out to do our long run. Danny made it about 100 meters before having to quit due to knee problems. He first noticed the pain yesterday while we were helping out at a high school meet at Lake Country Lutheran. Russ has him biking until it stops hurting, which hopefully should be very soon.
For the other three of us the run went fairly well. Ben complained about feeling sick for the first half and Andy seemed to have an urge to use the facilities, but I felt great and we all managed to survive the thing without any major problems. We averaged under 7-minute pace overall, partly due to a certain runner in a red shirt that we felt obligated to chase down around miles 8-10. The guy was first visible from far out when we were approaching 2 miles from campus (we ran 5 miles out and back to the south and then finished on the grass), but it wasn't until a little later that we kicked it in. We had been commenting for several minutes about how this fellow fitness junkie apparently wasn't willing to be caught when Andy pointed at him and said something about "getting" him. The man turned around to look at us just at that moment. I could almost feel a sense of fear pulsating through his veins as he saw us tearing down from behind. We decided to charge up the last hill in an attempt to finally close the gap, but ultimately ran out of room and were unable to catch him. We arrived back at CUW and had to turn off the road just short of victory.
One quick bathroom break and a couple of miles later, we were jogging out north to the half mile mark and ran into the same guy on his way back. Both parties waved.
I hit a wall the last mile and a half or so but was easily able to finish my 14 miles, putting myself around a bit over 70 for the week. That breaks my previous record of 60 by a solid margin. Next week...80? 85? The more the merrier, as long as my knees and shins hold out.
Around 1:30 Ben, Ash, Danny and I set out to do our long run. Danny made it about 100 meters before having to quit due to knee problems. He first noticed the pain yesterday while we were helping out at a high school meet at Lake Country Lutheran. Russ has him biking until it stops hurting, which hopefully should be very soon.
For the other three of us the run went fairly well. Ben complained about feeling sick for the first half and Andy seemed to have an urge to use the facilities, but I felt great and we all managed to survive the thing without any major problems. We averaged under 7-minute pace overall, partly due to a certain runner in a red shirt that we felt obligated to chase down around miles 8-10. The guy was first visible from far out when we were approaching 2 miles from campus (we ran 5 miles out and back to the south and then finished on the grass), but it wasn't until a little later that we kicked it in. We had been commenting for several minutes about how this fellow fitness junkie apparently wasn't willing to be caught when Andy pointed at him and said something about "getting" him. The man turned around to look at us just at that moment. I could almost feel a sense of fear pulsating through his veins as he saw us tearing down from behind. We decided to charge up the last hill in an attempt to finally close the gap, but ultimately ran out of room and were unable to catch him. We arrived back at CUW and had to turn off the road just short of victory.
One quick bathroom break and a couple of miles later, we were jogging out north to the half mile mark and ran into the same guy on his way back. Both parties waved.
I hit a wall the last mile and a half or so but was easily able to finish my 14 miles, putting myself around a bit over 70 for the week. That breaks my previous record of 60 by a solid margin. Next week...80? 85? The more the merrier, as long as my knees and shins hold out.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Forces of Nature
The team met for practice at 6 am this morning, and surprisingly almost everyone showed up. It was still dark out for about the first half of the workout and rain was blowing down in sheets from the black skies. As we warmed up on the bluff I could barely see Jon directly in front of me. The wind was coming into our faces off the lake as we jogged down the steps. As we were climbing back up the stairs for the second or third time I noticed a dark shape dash past in the opposite direction, and then heard the voice of Russ shouting "Yeah Baby!" This morning may have confirmed our suspicions that the man is actually insane. Luckily nobody tripped and got hurt on the slippery steps.
Following the bluff we went out south on the road for fartleks. This was the first time I've run that direction since the construction started 3 weeks ago. Flying through puddles and mud on the side of the road, dodging dump trucks and caution signs, we managed to grind out several miles and returned to campus just as the skies were lighting up. After finishing the fartleks on campus I took a bathroom break with Danny flying wingman, then headed over to do two more bluff hills. These were fairly brutal but it always feels good to punish the legs over there. A short cool down wrapped up the day for a total of about 8 or 9 miles. It was definitely a practice to go down in the record books.
Following the bluff we went out south on the road for fartleks. This was the first time I've run that direction since the construction started 3 weeks ago. Flying through puddles and mud on the side of the road, dodging dump trucks and caution signs, we managed to grind out several miles and returned to campus just as the skies were lighting up. After finishing the fartleks on campus I took a bathroom break with Danny flying wingman, then headed over to do two more bluff hills. These were fairly brutal but it always feels good to punish the legs over there. A short cool down wrapped up the day for a total of about 8 or 9 miles. It was definitely a practice to go down in the record books.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Moving Up
I showed up to practice after class today and found Danny and Ben waiting for me. We weren't sure how far to run since we'd missed the rest of the group, and a quick search for Russ proved futile because he'd already gone out to run. We ended up just heading north and ran into Russ around 1/2 mile anyway. He told us that group A was supposed to run 8 miles, while group B was 4 and group C was 7. Danny and I talked him into letting us do 8 miles with Ben, however, and also moving us both up to group A next week (woot woot!). The run actually turned out to be 6 miles plus the 2 mile "triple bluff warmup," which in this case was more of a cooldown. The wind was really blowing off the lake and Danny got a little chilled in his cut-off sleeves. We did an extra bluff hill too just for good measure (actually we were supposed to do it, but it still felt like over achieving). So far I'm at 40 miles this week. By the end of the weekend I should be at 69. Never run that much before.
I managed to catch one leaf today, bringing my season tally up to 4 points. I'm pretty sure Danny is somewhere around 15, and Pfeuffer must have at least 12. I really need to step up my game.
I managed to catch one leaf today, bringing my season tally up to 4 points. I'm pretty sure Danny is somewhere around 15, and Pfeuffer must have at least 12. I really need to step up my game.
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