Training Plans- more like guidelines really!

Well, the goal for last week was to hit 54 total miles and of course do so in 7 days of running. The week started off strong with a good but not great 8 miles on Monday. Tuesday, which was supposed to be another 8 miles, turned into 7 due to the cold temperatures. Wednesday, I'll be honest, lazy Marshall took over and so I didn't run at all. Unfortunately, Thursday morning included frigid temperatures again, but this time, we bundled up and made it 7 miles. Friday would again prove to be no good. This was not the week I had in mind after how excellent the week before was. Thankfully, the weather made a turn for the better on Saturday and Sunday. We headed up to the Frisco Trail Saturday morning for what I thought was going to be our long run with a workout in the middle of it. After a nice 3 mile warm-up, the intentions were to complete a 4 mile tempo run and then finish up to 14 miles with a nice easy 7 miles afterwards. The tempo run part went just as planned keeping all 4 miles under 6 minute pace. However, our remaining 7 was cut short due to simple fatigue. So, all in all, we decided to call it quits at 11 miles and do a solid long run on Sunday morning. Saturday afternoon we got to spend some time at the in-laws house where we watched the second half of the Mizzou basketball game and then put in the movie Lincoln (a rather slow but still interesting movie).

As Sunday morning rolled around, we were looking forward to having a solid 12 mile run.  So where do we go when we want to have this type of smooth sailing run? Frisco Trail, of course. The run started out extremely promising. We had a first mile near 6:50 which was also into the wind. Then we started rolling along in the mid 6:50's. After how well our long run went the week before, this long run turned out to be nothing special. It was just a good solid run.

Surprisingly enough, even without running two days last week, we still managed to have a reasonable week of 45 miles. It wasn't exactly as I planned out for our training, but really, training plans are more like guidelines anyways.I've decided that things will be easier when we move into our new house (closing on it this week!) because we will be able to run under the street lights rather than in pitch black with only head lamps to light the way.

Goal Mileage - 54
Actual - 45
1 workout = 4 mi tempo run

Now We're Rolling!

It took nearly a month but I finally feel like we're rolling with our training. Last week was the first full week in the last 4 weeks where I was able to run all 7 days and had great runs all week on top of that. It was all topped off with our long run on Sunday which shocked even me. We headed up to the Frisco Trail because we find that it is the best place to run where the wind seems to be blocked at least reasonably. Sometimes, when you start a run in the cold, you surprise yourself in the first mile or two. I think this is because the harder you run, the quicker you feel like your body warms up. So with that in mind, we started out down the Frisco Trail headed directly into a 10mph head wind with Temps still in the 30's. Thankfully, the trail turns towards the North which meant the wind would be a direct crosswind for the rest of the run. We crossed the mile mark with one of our fastest first miles in a long time (6:45ish) and then just continued on clipping off mile after mile under 6:50. If you've ever ran on the Frisco trail here in Springfield, you know that it's kind of like running in a tunnel between the trees until you arrive in Willard. At this point, we had to decide, 'venture out of our nice guarded wind tunnel' or 'turn around and create a couple out and backs' to get the 13 miles total we were seeking. We were running so good that we decided to take the chance and challenge the wind. We made it all the way across the open parts of Willard to our turn around at 6.5 miles away from the car. My only concern at this point is that it had been so easy on the way out that I thought we'd turn around and have to head into some sort of head wind.  However, one of the rarest things was happening. We made the turn around in Willard and started back, yet the wind didn't really feel any different. Kimi and I looked at one another with disbelief. Are we really having this good of a run and it's not wind aided? So right around mile 7, Kimi looked at me and said, do you want to "do some up-tempo work towards the end of the run?" I said, "well, let's see how we feel at mile 10." So we continued on, and just before the 10 mile mark, I asked Kimi if we were going to go up-tempo. I was thinking we were going to go up-tempo for the next two miles and then relax on the last mile. To my surprise, she said something about running a 6:35, 6:30, and then finishing with a 6:25 which would average us out to 6:30 for the final 3 miles. To put it simply, let's just say we crushed all three of those goal times.  It has been a long time since we have had a long run go like this. To be honest, it's been since last spring when I was training for the 2013 Grandma's Marathon. If this is a sign of what's to come this year, I can only imagine how the year might go.

OMRR Runner of the Year - Overall Category

Also, on Saturday night, we went to our first ever OMRR winter banquet.  As always, the food was great but the people were even better. We were fortunate to socialize with many people in our local running community. It was a lot of fun to listen to the different running stories and to learn more about the heritage of OMRR. I hope to meet many more people this year in our running community.

Week Mileage Goal: 53 Miles
Actual: 53 Miles

2014 - 'First Full Week' Review

So far so good. It's been a decent start to 2014. I started off with my annual Active Release re-certification seminar in Kansas City on the first weekend of the year. The worst part of the seminar is the fact that it makes running difficult. I managed to complete 4 miles on the treadmill over the lunch break on that Friday. I went over to Rockhurst University where Kimi graduated to use their gym facility to get the run completed. I was unable to run on the Saturday because our lunch was cut a little short and then I wanted to jet home afterwards because weather was supposed to be quickly approaching.The best part of the seminar was when Dr. Leahy (Active Release Techniques founder) used me as an example and treated my left groin. It had been giving me issues for a couple years now. A few quick treatment passes later, my groin was much better. I'll be honest, even I was a bit skeptical at first because I had been dealing with the issue for so long, but it really does feel about 75% better than it used to. It wasn't a great first few days of the year but I did manage to have 25 miles in the first 4 days of the year.

This last week was a pretty good one until Friday.  We ran exactly according to schedule until Friday morning when it was a bit rainy. Unfortunately, I've become much more of a wimp in regards to the weather over the past few years. I can thank my wife for that (she absolutely hates the cold). So we didn't run Friday, but quickly returned to our plan on Saturday morning. On Saturday morning, we were able to sleep in because Kimi's race didn't start until 9:00!  I warmed up for the race with Kimi and then as she was racing, I continued my run so that we would both have an equal cool down after the race. After the race was over, we quickly went home, cleaned up and headed to Joplin for the indoor track meet at MSSU. The women's team was holding an alumni day so my wife had a chance to go and catch up with her former teammates and good friends. It was a lot of fun although exhausting. We even had a chance to go out to eat with my parents and enjoy some pretty good Mexican food.

(Kimi and her teammates)

So it wasn't exactly an exciting week of running because I didn't have any workouts or races, but the good news is that I did manage a decent mileage week. If I can refrain from having any major down weeks, I should be well on my way to a great year of running!

Week Mileage = 47
Current Mileage to date = 72

I'm back! Bring it on 2014!

I decided to give blogging a try again. I had one once and had fun writing in it for a while. As I was starting my chiropractic practice, I simply didn't feel like I had the time to maintain the blog consistently and adequate enough for my readers. Now that things have settled down a bit, I have decided to give blogging a second attempt. I know you are excited, but seriously, don't expect any amazing fireworks.

So let's fill you in about what has been going on for the past year. Here's the quick version. I graduated from chiropractic college in August of 2012. Then Kimi and I moved to Springfield, MO at the beginning of September only a few weeks later. I spent the following four months setting up my practice and officially accepted my first patient on January 15, 2013. That means I am now only 10 days away from finishing my first full year of practice. My first year went by really quickly and I have had a lot of fun meeting a lot of new and interesting people. For the first 4 months of the year, my wife Kimi (who also has a blog: runner4life-seekimirun.blogspot.com) was finishing physical therapy school at Rockhurst Univerisity. She graduated in May, took a job at Mercy Hospital, passed her boards in July, and started working in August. Ahh, what a relief it is. 

I had a great year of running to go with the rest of the events of the year. I only managed 2600 miles compared to my 3004 miles in 2012. In June, Kimi and I decided to go to Duluth, MN for the Grandma's Marathon and the U.S.A. Half Marathon Championships. I ran the full marathon while Kimi ran the half champs. It was an awesome experience. I prepared for this marathon much better than I did for my first two and it showed with my finishing results. I ran about 18 and a half minutes faster than my previous best. My time was a whopping 2:39:50. Unfortunately, I was spent mentally and physically after my marathon for what felt like the rest of the year. I still had a pretty good day in November when I ran the Bass Pro Cohick half marathon for the 3rd straight year. I simply felt a little unprepared compared to my 2012 race where I ran my personal best of 1:12:58. This year I ran 1:14:24. Still a great time for me but hopefully 2014 I will recapture my late 2012 form. 

So what is the goal for 2014? I'm so glad you asked. Kimi and I are doing our best to train for another marathon or two this year. We will start the year off right by training hard (even if some of it has to be on the treadmill due to weather) to prepare for Rock the Parkway in KC in April. That will be our first real chance to measure our fitness level coming out of the winter. Our big goal this year is to improve both of our marathon bests. I want to break 6 minute pace in the marathon which would put me at a sub 2:37:30. In order to do that, we are going to travel back to Duluth, MN in June for the Grandma's Marathon again. This time, however, Kimi will be running in the marathon also (I sure hope she doesn't pass me at the end.) With some highly focused training, she will hopefully get her Olympic trials qualifying standard.  We haven't fully decided what our racing plan will be for the second half of the year. Most of that depends on how the first 6 months of the year go.

2014  

Total Mileage Goal: 3,000 miles again

Marathon: sub 2:37:30

Half Marathon: Sub 1:13:00

5k: sub 16:00 (this one still eludes me)