Merry Christmas Everyone! Happy Running!!!

Last weekend was a solid weekend. Kimi and I finished off a 70+ mile week with 5x1 mile repeats. After the way this year shaped up, something clicked in my mind making a mile simply start to feel short. I think it all happened during my training cycle for the Twin Cities Marathon. I remember a workout vividly that seemed to change the way I view some of the shorter workouts. It was a 10 mile tempo run followed by an additional 1 mile which I ran in 5:19. That was the day that seemed to have changed everything for my speed training. Going into this weekend's 5x1mile repeats, I realized that running a mile hard just doesn't seem to be as daunting a task as it used to be. Kimi and I started out with a mile in 5:38 which was okay. It wasn't great but the first one hardly ever is. The second and third repeats were much better as they were starting to approach the pace we wanted them to be at. They both clicked off right around 5:33.  I really wanted to get these repeats down to closer to 5:25 miles which I knew would be a true challenge as that starts to really reach a challenging pace for both of us. We started to gain confidence heading into the fourth and fifth repeats knowing that we had the speed in us and just had to go get it. The fourth mile was a 5:24 and our fifth was 5:23.  Our confidence was right where we needed it to be. We cooled down to the car which was just over a mile away and then quickly went home to shower so we could go watch people finish at the Run for the Ranch half marathon.

On Sunday, we added another 16 mile long run that was marathon specific meaning it had some 90 second pushes during the last 6 miles. This was an interesting long run style that we're trying out a bit.  This should help simulate the latter stages of the race helping us remain strong through the final 10k which is typically the hardest part of a marathon. This is even more critical for me as it is usually where I have my races blow up leaving me just shy of reaching my goals.

This week has been a tough one so far as I've been battling a bit of a tooth ache which is limiting my training a bit. I'm hoping to be back at it today so I can at least maintain my streak of 60+ mile weeks. We have a critical 20 mile workout this weekend that I really don't want to miss. It's a 5,4,3,2,1 mile workout with each segment getting faster as they get shorter. We shall see how it goes.

8 mile tempo success!

This week has been interesting so far and has great potential to get even better as the weekend is quickly approaching. Last week, Kimi and I had a 20 mile long run to complete. We were determined that this run was going to go much better than the 16 from the week before. It was a bit of a windy day and the wind was blowing out of the southeast so we decided to park all the way in Willard and then venture towards Springfield first. We also decided that we would simply run an extra out and back stretch in familiar territory between Springfield and Willard so that we would be able to better avoid fighting the wind without any covering.  The run wasn't anything incredibly special but it was definitely solid. 

Saturday afternoon, we were in for a real treat. My parents came over to visit for a few hours.  It was a lot of fun simply spending time with them without any specific plans.  We had to cut their visit a bit short so that we could go to Derek and Lindy's wedding that evening. It was a very nice ceremony and I'm extremely happy for the two of them.

Kimi and me at Derek and Lindy's reception

Me before the 8 mi tempo

Kimi before the 8 mi tempo

On Monday, I decided to cut the run short a bit because my legs were still not recovered from the 20 on Saturday and I knew we had an 8 mile tempo run scheduled for Tuesday afternoon that I really wanted to succeed in. Unfortunately, the wind early in the week was really strong.  This meant that Kimi and I had to get out there and fight the wind during the 8 mile tempo.  The first mile and the last mile were both directly into the wind which made keeping them on pace quite difficult. 

At no point during the run did either one of us actually feel all that great but we managed to keep every mile right on pace.  Our first mile clicked off just under 6 min @ 5:59 and then we kept all the rest between 5:52-5:56 until the final mile which crept back up to a 5:58. Following the tempo, we trotted for a half mile, stopped and prepared to start rolling again. We added an extra 1/2 mile in 2:48 which we were pleased with since the darkness had officially set in for this one.  

Smiling after our 8 mile tempo workout (12/15/2015 and we were wearing shorts and short sleeves)

Our goal for the rest of the week is to knock out some mile repeats on Saturday to start generating some more foot turnover followed by a 16 mile marathon specific long run on Sunday (details about this one will be in my next post).

Reindeer Run 5k - quite surprised actually

In preparation for our LA trip, we scheduled a few races strategically into our plan. The first one was to be the Reindeer Run 5k last Friday night. The week leading up to it was set to be a challenging one with a 7 mile tempo run on Tuesday just a few days before the race. We usually do workouts on Wednesday mornings but I made a change to have our workouts actually be on Tuesday afternoons so that we might be able to complete some of them with at least some daylight. Our tempo run was awesome. I think the fact that we were racing the darkness helped us keep the pace rolling. We started out with a 5:50 ish first mile and we were both concerned that we may have started a little fast. Fortunately, we were able to find a groove and just kept the pace rolling. I honestly thought that we'd have to run the last 3 miles in the dark, but we were actually able to get through about 5 of the miles before darkness set in. The remaining 2 miles were a real challenge. We had our headlamps on to light our way and then it was just up to pure determination. For those of you that haven't given it much thought or have much experience with running in the daylight vs darkness, it's much more difficult to run fast without daylight.

We were quite please with our tempo run effort but I was definitely unsure just how quickly we would bounce back for a race only a couple days later. On top of that, it was going to be a Friday race (usually our rest day) which means it would come after a long work week, and on top of that, it was scheduled for 7:00. Bring on the darkness! The weather on Friday was awesome. I was able to wear shorts, a tank, and arm warmers.  Kimi and I were both venturing out with our own race goal in mind. My goal was to break 17 minutes and Kimi's was to simply run as fast as she could.  The race was basically an out an back style course which means that at the half way point, you make a 180 degree about-face and head back the way you came. When I reached the turn around, I was quite surprised to see how many fast runners were still fairly close behind me. At two miles in, I made a quick glance over my shoulder to see what was happening right behind me. Unfortunately, I couldn't see that Kimi was almost right behind me. She must have been hidden behind another runner. That's when I decided that I thought I could still get 2nd place overall. I quickly turned up the pace. With a half mile to go, I had caught the 2nd place guy and pulled even with him. He was a younger runner than me and with that in mind, I figured I had better get a gap between us prior to the final straight away sprint or he'd probably be able to out kick  me. I really poured it on at this point and pulled away far enough that I felt like I had a comfortable lead. I never really let up the pace all the way to the finish and was able to run one of my fastest times for a road course ever. I've only run faster a couple other times actually. I crossed in 16:38.  It wasn't long and Kimi came strolling across the line. She crossed in 17:12 which is an awesome time for her as well.

We were both a bit shocked with how it turned out.  Our next race won't be until January. We intend to run the Cabin Fever Reliever 20k on January 16. We have a scheduled 10 mile tempo plus 1 all out mile scheduled for that day so we thought that this race would actually work out perfectly for us to do the workout during.

Got our Christmas Lights Up!