Grandma's Marathon Recap! Part 2

I want to take a short step back to the days leading up to the race. In case you didn't know, Kimi and I have been working with Cassie Dimmick, a registered dietitian from Achieving Your Best,  in order to try and maximize our performances.  After Kimi's Twin Cities Marathon last October, I knew she only needed to drop 3 seconds per mile to reach the Olympic Trials B standard. I wanted to give her every advantage possible to help get her across the finish line fast enough to qualify.  I met Cassie at the Bass Pro Fitness Festival Expo in November and we hit it off right away. I knew she'd be perfect for us to work with.  Cassie has been great at helping us with our focus nutritionally by keeping us accountable.  Even though I'm a chiropractor myself, working with someone who can look at our nutrition objectively from the outside helps tremendously.

Leading up to the Grandma's Marathon, we practiced with our Nutrilite Endurance Cubes and water intake multiple times during long runs and long hard workouts to help prepare our stomachs to handle the fueling necessary for achieving our goals. The week prior to the race, Cassie put together a specific food schedule for us.  I'm not going to lie, it felt like I was eating non-stop on Wednesday and Thursday. However, when race day rolled around, my stomach felt great and clearly the energy was plentiful just like we had hoped it would be. 

I want to take this time to give a shout out of thanks to Cassie for all her hard work and dedication to helping us achieve our performance goals. 

Thank You Cassie!!

www.achievingyourbest.net

Moving forward now to after the race. Kimi and I hung out around the refreshments and post race festivities for about an hour or so at least. This was simply to get settled down and get some food back in our systems. It was still quite chilly so both of us changed into some dry clothes and wrapped ourselves with blankets that were provided to cut the wind.  We finally decided we had had enough and wanted to head back to the dorms to get cleaned up so we made the 1/2 mile walk (which felt like an eternity at this point) to the bus pick-up area.  After getting cleaned up, we checked out of the dorms and drove to Minneapolis. We decided to split up the return trip so that it might not feel so incredibly miserable.  Surprisingly enough, I didn't feel half bad on Saturday evening after the race. However, by the time we had arrived home on Sunday, I was stiff as a board and walking was becoming quite difficult.  Thankfully, the soreness in the muscles only takes about 3 or so days for me to get back to where I feel like I could run. Kimi on the other hand, is already talking about running and how great she feels just a few days afterwards (I'm jealous of her incredible ability to recover quickly from everything).

Kimi after the race

All smiles on the bus ride back to the dorms

The question most people have now is what's up next?  And for that, I guess you'll just have to wait and see.  I do know there will be some fun and exciting training over the next few months. That's a fact!

Grandma's Marathon Recap! Part 1

Race day has now come and gone. We spent the last four plus months preparing for this one big day. It's quite nerve racking to think that all that hard work leading up to the big race could all be for nothing if the day doesn't pan out the way you hope it will.  Thankfully, that wasn't the case for us and thankfully, that's not usually the case. Typically, when you put in the hard work, the results will follow.

We left Springfield Thursday morning and drove all the way to Duluth, MN where the Grandma's Marathon is held. We did stop a few times along the way.  One of our first stops was simply to get some lunch at the wonderful Subway!  Oh how we love Subway!  Then we headed up the road to an outlet mall just north of Minneapolis to do some walking around.  While in this little town, we found a running trail to do a short 2 mile run with some 20 sec strides.  Much to my surprise, this run actually went well. I thought we would feel terrible after 9 hours in a car. After the run, we jumped back in the car and finished up the remaining 2 hours to Superior, Wisconsin (which is where we were staying-in the dorms at UW-Superior).

We slept in just a bit on Friday to make sure we would be plenty rested. Then we went to the running trail that is right along the coast of Lake Superior to do another 2 mile easy run with only four 20 sec strides this time. The temperatures were a bit on the cool side on Friday. When we woke up that morning, temperatures were about 44 degrees with a wind chill in the upper 30's. Brr.  We then spent a good portion of the day going to packet pick up and just hanging out at the dorms relaxing. We topped off the evening by eating at Olive Garden.  We assumed it would be crazy busy so we went to eat early (5:30 ish) and still had to wait over an hour to get seated. It was definitely worth it, however.

Race day was just about 12 hours away now and we knew we were going to have to get up early the next morning to get our pre-race meal taken care of 3 hours prior to the start. So when 4:45am rolled around, we got up, ate our bagels with peanut butter and walked over to the bus stop to get on our bus. The Grandma's Marathon is a point to point race meaning they bus you out 26.2 miles from the finish and have you run the entire way back to the city.  With this being my second year in a row running this race, I knew exactly how to handle the starting area which gave me a little more sense of calm prior to the start.

1 hour prior to the race

 All the restroom stops taken care of, and the final few sips of water completed, I headed to the start line to meet up with Kimi (She was able to drop her stuff at the elite drop area so we had to go to separate areas prior to the start of the race). We lined up and Kimi was just about 10 rows of people in front of me in the 'Elite' corral but none of that matters as soon as the starting gun goes off.  It took me about a mile to get fully caught up to Kimi.  I stayed with Kimi for the first 10 miles. We were clipping off mile after mile right at about 6:05-6:10 pace and were feeling pretty good.  So far, it simply felt like we were doing a long tempo run together.  At mile 7 I told her that I would stay with her through 10 miles and then I was going to try and get caught back up to the 6 min per mile average that I was hoping to break. We crossed 10 miles in 61:10 so I knew we were averaging 6:07.  My goal at that point was to try and get the average down to 6  minutes by the time I hit 20 miles. At this point, I knew I needed to average 5:53 per mile to accomplish that task. Mile after mile clicked off and I couldn't quite get the pace down below 5:53 except for maybe one or two miles which clicked off about 5:52.  At 20 miles in, I still needed to make up about 40 seconds.  I kept the legs churning hoping that I might be able to get the pace back down for the final 3 miles or so which would still give me a chance. I came through 23 miles this year and was exactly 30 seconds over pace.  All I needed was a 5:50 average for the final 5k to get exactly 6 minute pace. Unfortunately, I just didn't quite have enough to get that done. I did however, hold it together much better this year than I did the year before which allowed me to run a new personal best by 1 minute and 45 seconds.  All in all I was quite pleased with my performance.

As soon as I crossed the finish line, I waited around to see how Kimi would finish up.  This is where the nerves really set in.  The unknown for how she would do over the remaining 16 miles since the point where I left her was quite suspenseful.  I was watching the clock and watching the runners coming in. You can see the runners for about the last 2 tenths of a mile headed straight to the finish line. I quickly picked out Kimi's stride and jersey colors. I was stoked. She had about 2 minutes cushion to complete the remaining 2 tenths. I started cheering and waving my hat trying to bring her to the finish!  I get tears of joy just thinking about her accomplishment. She worked extremely hard to get to where she is now and to see it pay off is just awesome!  Kimi's time ended up being 2:41:54 which is under the Olympic Trials B standard by a minute and 6 seconds.

My Goal: sub 6 minute pace
Actual: 6:02/mile 2:38:05
Kimi's Goal: Sub 2:43:00 (Olympic Trials B Standard)
Kimi's Actual: 2:41:54 - Successful!

The time has finally come! It's RACE WEEK!!!!

I'm going to make this post a quick one since I simply don't have time to expand greatly. Last week was a great week. We hit every run exactly like we'd hoped during the week. On Saturday, we were scheduled to run 20x400 meter repeats on the track as a good speed session. We started the workout at the Drury track and the wind simply had other plans for us. We made it through 3 of them fighting the wind and then decided to shut down the workout and try it again the next day. This close to the marathon, it just didn't make sense to fight extra and increase fatigue. So, we went back to the track on Sunday morning and started again, we had made it through 5 of them right on a good pace when the clouds opened up and dumped heavy rains for about 20 or so minutes. We waited it out and then took a warm-up lap prior to continuing on with the workout. Since we had run three 400's on Saturday, we decreased the number of repeats to 16. The workout went exactly how we'd hoped it would. All signs seem to be pointing in the the right direction so we're hopeful that our race will turn out great as well.

Yesterday, we went up to the Frisco trail to do our last and final tune-up workout. The plan was to warm up 2 miles, run a 2 mile hard tempo, and then cool down 2 more miles for a total of 6 miles. We did this workout in the evening so we could maximize our sleep this week, and also to have to fight the heat a bit which will make 50 degrees on race day feel even better. Much to my surprise, we rolled this workout as well. Both miles were under 5:40 so needless to say, our confidence is high going into this weekend.

Now that work is nearly over for the week, we finally get to set our sights on the traveling and playing for what should make a great weekend!!

I'm not sure if there is athlete tracking but if there is, I'll make sure to tweet our information prior to the race so anyone that wants to follow us can do so.

2013 Grandma's Marathon Photo, I hope I look even better at mile 25 this year!

What a week! "Is it go time yet?!" June 2 - June 8

The week started off tough following our 24 miler which if you recall, didn't go the greatest.  Monday and Tuesday were recovery days and I definitely used them as such. I went a grand total of 12 miles over the two days. One Wednesday, we managed to get back closer to normal. We decided because the weather was being reasonably cool, that we'd wait until the evening to go up to the Frisco trail and put in a solid 8 mile run. The 4 miles on the way out weren't great but on the way back, we really got it rolling. We managed to keep all 4 return miles under 6:45 including the last mile which we ducked under 6:30 on while doing some strides. Thursday was our next scheduled workout which was to be hill repeats. It had been quite rainy that afternoon so when we started down the South Creek Greenway trail, it was simply puddle after puddle and walk after walk in order to get through without completely soaking the shoes.  Finally, we managed to get the 2.5 mile warm up completed on our way to a new hill we were going to try using for hill repeats. Ever since we moved from Republic into Springfield, we haven't really found a good hill to use for hill repeats. Thankfully, this particular hill was right at a quarter mile long which is exactly what we were looking for. The purpose of hill repeats is to run them at a reasonably hard pace but not necessarily all out in order to build strength and make flatter courses just feel easier. This almost always does the trick and it definitely did this time too (I'll explain that in just a minute).  We ran up the hill 8 times before we called it quits and started to make the 2.75 mile trip back home (decided to take a different route to avoid the water on the trail).

Friday is always our easy day so we simply trotted an easy 3 miles and that's it.

Saturday was to be our toughest workout during this entire training cycle. Yasso 800's were on the schedule and this was our first ever attempt at this particular workout. Yasso 800's are meant to be a good gauge of what you're capable of during a marathon. The workout goes a little like this. If you would like to run a 3 hour marathon, you do 10 x 800m repeats on the track in 3:00 (min:sec) with 3 min recovery between each repeat. If you'd like to run a 2:40 (hr:min) marathon time, you should run 2:40(min:sec) per repeat with the recovery of 2:40 (min:sec) between each. Kimi and I both have slightly different goals for our marathon but only by a couple minutes. With that in mind, we set out to run the monster workout with a goal pace of 2:40 (min:sec) or slightly under per 800m repeat.  Let me back up just a bit more. Friday night, we checked the weather.com app on my phone and looked at the hourly forecast. We were supposed to be good to go Saturday morning from about 6:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. without any major storm issues. Boy were they wrong. We just started to head out the door when, "bang!" the thunder and lightning hit and the sky opened up with rain. We went back inside and decided to wait it out and perhaps try again in the afternoon if we had to. Only an hour later, we looked outside, the wind seemed slightly calmer and the sun was shining. I looked at Kimi and said, "you ready to go give it a shot?"  We got dressed and headed back out for attempt #2. This time with much better success!

So just how did the workout go? It was phenomenal! By no means was it an easy task but we hit the first two at 2:40 and then dropped them down to 2:38 for the rest except for the last one at 2:37! I was pumped and excited about the accomplishment.

Sunday was also a great run. We nailed 15 miles just cruising along. It did start a little slow but that's to be expected after the workout we had the day before!

All I can say at this point is, "is it go time yet?!"

Goal Mileage - 60mi
Actual - 58mi
Goal Workouts - Smoke some 800's
Actual - Did just that!

Speed and Rest is all that's left!

The last couple weeks have been solid weeks. Following our 22 mile long run a couple weeks ago, I was curious how quickly we'd be able to recover. We took the entire week up to Saturday as a mileage only week to help speed up recovery in order to get ready for a 10 mile workout. The goal of the 10 miler was to run 10 miles non-stop but with 4 miles at marathon pace followed by 1 mile up tempo from there and then another 4 miles at marathon followed by a last mile up tempo again. We nailed this workout exactly how we had hoped to. We ventured out to the Frisco Trail which is our favorite spot for nice long workouts or long runs.  We even set out two tables with cups with water on them at miles 3, 6, and 9 so we could practice using a new straw technique for drinking water at water stations. This worked out quite nicely.  This particular Saturday morning was a drizzly/light rain type of morning which made for a perfect setting of one of those breakout style workouts. We rolled through the first 4 miles easily maintaining a sub-6:10 average and then dropped the pace down to 5:53 for the 5th mile. The next 3 miles we settled back the pace just a bit but were able to keep it a little faster than the first 4 miles. The 9th mile was a challenge as it's the most challenging mile on the trail but we still managed to keep it right at 6:10.  That left the last mile to try and get it back down below 6:00.  It wasn't easy and it took us more than half of the mile to get the pace down to where we wanted it. The final .5 mile was all about determination and pressing to the finish. Finished up with a 5:54 and both of us were quite pleased. We finished out the run with 5 more miles of cool down work to complete a total of 18 miles for the day. We also managed to hit a total of 65 miles for the week which was pretty decent for us as well.

The following week would hold our last remaining long run challenge (24 miles) prior to the Grandma's Marathon but that's not all we would do this week. Wednesday, we headed up to Frisco for 5x1mile repeats. The goal was to try and hit all 5 repeats near 10k pace.  This wasn't our best workout ever, but it wasn't too bad either. We persevered through and managed to keep all 5 right at or below 10k pace which all in all is exactly what we had set out to do. Let's just say it could have felt easier, but what can you expect after the way we ran over the prior weekend. We also knew the weekend ahead would bring great challenges because our plans were loaded with tiring work at the house. It was finally time to tackle the hardwood floors for the living room. However, prior to that, I got the bright idea of participating in the relay for life and helping out a friend as he ventured for 45 miles around the track that night. So, we went to bed Friday night at about 9:15 with an alarm set to wake us up at 11:30 (p.m.) to go over to the Parkview track and start our run directly at midnight so we could count the miles as our Saturday training.  It wasn't our fastest 7 miles ever, but it was pretty enjoyable as we got to spend some time with Derek (you're tough, but nuts man!). We made it back home by 1:30 or so and were able to get back in bed by 2:00 a.m.  I figured I could get about 6 more hours of sleep if I simply slept until 8:00 so that's what was attempted. I couldn't quite make it until 8:00 but 7:45 wasn't too bad.

First few miles of Derek's 45!

Let the games begin!  We worked all day at this point to get our hardwood floors about 3/4 the way finished.  It was exhausting work, but it looks awesome if I do say so myself. *A quick shout out to my brother - Allen, my Dad, and my Father-in-law for all your help! Couldn't have done it without you guys!*

Just Finished!

The floor took me through Tuesday evening to finally finish it up but it was definitely worth it. The biggest problem was our long run didn't go quite as well as I had hoped. We made it through 18 miles before really suffering and struggling to finish up. We did cover 24 miles but it wasn't pretty towards the end. Looking back on the week as a whole, it wasn't too bad as we managed a good workout, finished up our living room floors, and kinda/sorta ran 24 miles reaching 70 miles for the week. 

Now it's time to generate speed on our strength so over the next few weeks, we'll be headed back to the track and out to find us a hill for some repeats.

Let the results start rolling in! Week of May 12 - May 18 in review

Last week was an excellent week. We had every intention of hitting 70 miles again last week but weren't able to get there thanks to the weather. With the storms on Monday night last week, we didn't manage to get a run completed. This isn't exactly the way I'd prefer to start off the week but what can you do. On Wednesday, we were seeking a track to run on so we traveled over to Kickapoo to see if we could get on the track there and unfortunately, they were having some sort of sporting event so that wasn't successful. We quickly jumped back in the cars and drove to Glendale. We could have actually used their track facility but just before we started our warm up, we decided that neither one of us were feeling up to it. We jumped in the car again and ventured over to the Sequiota Park to get a run in. It wasn't anything great. In fact, it was actually quite miserable which simply confirmed our decision not to attempt the track workout this evening.

Thursday morning, we decided to attempt to use the Drury track and do our workout. Thankfully, this track is open during the day so we were able to finally get on a track.  The planned workout consisted of 1600, 1200, 1000, 800, 600, 400, 300, 200, with a 400 jog between each one. Since it was our first time to get on a track, we decided to scale back our expectations a bit. The goal was to do the longer distances near 10k pace and then work it down towards 5k pace and under as the distances got shorter. That's precisely what we did. We started out with a 5:33 mile which isn't great but isn't too bad either. The 1200 went even better near 4:05.  The rest of the way we kept progressively speeding up our pace as the distances grew shorter. It sounds easy to do this because the distance is shorter, but keep in mind that fatigue also places a role in the workout the further into it you get. We finished up the workout with a total of 11 miles which meant we had a 3.5 mile cool down afterwards and that simply felt like forever. 

Saturday, we headed to Marionville for the Running of the Squirrels 5k. Kimi was going to race it while I was going to do my own 3 mile tempo. Then immediately following, we were headed to the track there to do 4x400 repeats.  We both managed to have a good 3 mi tempo/race and then quickly headed to the track. We honestly didn't expect to run the type of paces that we managed following the 3 mile tempos. We ran all four 400's at 75-76 seconds with an easy 400 jog between. 

The best part of all of last week was of course the way we finished up the week. Sunday morning, we headed to the Frisco trail to take on the somewhat daunting task of a 22 mile long run. The plan was to run out 6 miles and back followed by out 5 and back. This allows us to trade out water bottles at the car near just over half way through the run. Unfortunately for me, I started to develop a blister on my right heal and could feel the sharpness of it a mere 8 miles into the run. I was simply hoping that I would have a spare pair of thin socks in the car so that I could swap the socks I was wearing and then continue. We made it back to the car and I was in luck. I had stowed away in the center console a pair of thin socks. I quickly changed the socks and we headed back out for the final 10 miles. We were both shocked at how well our run was going after the Thursday workout and Saturday workout as we were expecting to feel some fatigue. Thankfully we didn't. We just kept rolling. Kimi was getting stronger and stronger as the run went on and as we approached the final mile, I looked at her and said, "all you need is sub 6:30 to get to the trials, let's do it."  We started the mile strong knowing that the first .2 would have the wind slightly blocked and the next .3 would be fighting the wind (which at this point was probably approaching 15 mph). We came through the first half mile near 6:33 pace and then had to pick up the pace some more. 6:32, 6:31, 6,30, 6:29, 6:28, went the pace on the garmin. We were doing exactly what we needed to do. We managed to hold strong through the finish. Both of us were pumped up about the results of this one. This is precisely the type of long run we had grown accustomed to during our 2013 marathon training cycles.  

Next up, more speed work and quality mileage. 

Total Mileage - 65

Long Run - 22 miles 

Workouts - 2 quality performances

April 28-May 4 and May 5-May 11 in Review

If you've been following Kimi and me in recent weeks, you've noticed that we've been finally hitting consistent quality mileage.  We finished up April strong and jumped right into May even stronger. Our mileage goal for last week was to hit 70 miles with only one double.  That would mean that we would have 50 miles prior to our weekend long run which just happened to fall on Sunday this week because we headed down to Bradleyville for a 5k on Saturday.

In past years, Kimi usually goes to Bradleyville on her own while I go to the Republic May Day 5k. This year we decided to both go to Bradleyville together.  It turned out to be a great decision this year because I was able to get 2nd place. Our scheduled long run for this week was a 20 miler. We decided to head up to Frisco like we usually do but instead of running out 10 and back 10, we decided to make it a double out and back because this would allow us to stay on the part of the trail with trees to help block the winds. I just get so tired of fighting wind everyday so once in a while, it's nice to avoid it as much as possible. Our run went great. We managed to clip off mile after mile under 7 min pace and even added a finishing mile around 6:30. It was a good solid long run making that 3 straight weekends with great long runs.

April 28-May 4
Goal - 70 miles
Actual - 70 miles

The goal last week was to cut our miles back slightly to 68 miles. I began the week by getting ready for a 7 mile run on Monday following the 20 miler the day before only to cut the run short due to pain in my right lower leg. Rather than push through and turn it into a full blown injury, I decided to stop at a mile, walk back home, grab a bike, and ride the rest with Kimi. The next day I could still feel some discomfort in the right leg but it was only slight. I decided to give the run a shot and fortunately the leg didn't flare up much and I was able to complete the 9 miles on the schedule. That evening, I made sure to get some treatment from Kimi so I could try and get my legs to fully heal up which would allow me to get right back on track for the remainder of the week. We did an easy double on Wednesday which totaled 12 miles. Our runs up to this point hadn't been anything special. In fact, they were less than mediocre really. The 20 on Sunday had really taken it out of both of us. Heading into our scheduled 6 mile tempo run on Thursday, we were both thinking there was no chance we'd have a good one.  Our warm-up started out about as slow as we've ever run for a warm up. We now stood there at the starting point for a 6 mile tempo and I was seriously debating whether to even give it a shot when Kimi turned to me and said, "let's at least try and see what happens."  So that's what we did. We clicked off our first mile and much to my surprise, we were on a decent pace, near 6min mile. So we just kept rolling down the trail clicking off mile after mile (not stellar, but under marathon goal pace for Kimi), until mile 5.  Kimi and I were both starting to tire out a bit but I told her that we were going to keep going for as long as we could maintain under her goal marathon pace or until 6 miles; which ever came first. We were both pretty excited when we finished because the workout went much better than we thought it was going to though it wasn't as good as we would have liked when planning out the training cycle.

We now had one day to recover prior to our next long workout during a 17 mile long run. The goal was to run 3x3mile with the first around 6:10 pace, second near 6:00, and the third sub 6:00 pace. This workout started out awesome. We nailed the first press 15 seconds under pace. The second was just under pace as well. The third one didn't go exactly as planned but it wasn't too bad either. All in all, this workout was a great test of our strength and ability to turn around in only 48 hours to push hard again.

Week Goal - 68 miles
Actual Miles - 62 (good enough for me)

Bring on next week!