It's been 4 weeks since my last post and we've had a lot happen in that amount of time. First of all, Kimi and I went to Columbia to run the Roots'n'Blues 10k for the 4th year in a row. It's been one of those races that for whatever reason, has eluded Kimi in regards to winning. This year, was definitely one that we both feel we let slip away. For the first time in the 4 years, this is one that we can honestly say we didn't do our best preparation for. The following weekend, Kimi ran the Panther Run 10k which she took 1st place in. This was one of her easiest wins in a long time. While she was running the race, I did a 6 mile tempo run. There are many times, where doing a workout seems more beneficial than participating in a race, and this was one of those for me.
Over the last week, we had two awesome workouts. On Wednesday morning, Kimi and I got up and went to the Frisco trail. I don't know what we were thinking on this one but of course it was extremely dark. However, that didn't stop us from having a stellar workout. We ran the first 3 mile press just under 6 minutes per mile circling around the streets just off the trail and then heading down the trail as soon as it was light enough to see where we were going. The next 2 mile press was also solid near 5:55 pace and then the final 1 mile was near 5:47. We didn't finish quite as fast as we had hoped but all in all, it was a good workout.
On Saturday, we made the short trip up to the Drury track for some 400's. 16 of them to be exact. We were both curious how this workout was going to turn out, but never did I have any doubts that we'd be able to complete it. I won't go into all the details and list all the splits but we did manage to hit all of them under 80 seconds. The sad part for me is that any time we sprinted, Kimi would just pull away from me like I was standing still. That girl has some major foot turnover.
This coming weekend, Kimi and I are going up to Kansas City for the Waddell and Reed Half Marathon. I'm not planning to race it myself so I'm sure I'll be gearing up for a nice hard workout on either Friday, or Saturday. I think I might try to get it in on Friday so I can ride a bike around KC Saturday and cheer for Kimi. My big race is coming up about 3 weeks from now. I'm gearing up for the Bass Pro Half for the 4th year in a row and looking forward to the challenge.
That's pretty much all that's been going on with us over the last week or so. Hopefully I'll have some good news to report next week following the KC Half.
Monday, October 13, 2014
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
What a race! Separated by 1.5 or less seconds!
Over the past couple weeks, our training has simply felt like a grind. It hasn't been horrible, but it hasn't felt as easy as it did back in the spring. Fortunately, we're finally to racing season which will shift our training focus towards speed work rather than simply mile after mile of training runs. Our mileage has been solid with weeks in the 60+ miles per week range for several of the last few weeks.
We had some really good runs last week which all started with a 10 mile run out at Wilson's Creek Battlefield. We followed that up with what I hope will be the starting point of many good quality workouts to come on Saturday morning. We ran 6 x 800 on the Drury track. It started a little rough but we kept ourselves focused and continued to work through the struggles until the workout started to turn around. By the end, we were starting to hit some good quality times even as the rain came down on us.
Following the workout, my parents came to town to help us lay some tile in our bathroom. That made for a long day. I sure do appreciate my Dad's hard work. He did the majority of the grunt work and I don't think we would have got it done in one day without him.
Sunday morning came all too quick after our long day Saturday. We woke up an headed out to the Frisco Trail for our long run. The goal was to simply hit a 15 mile run and hopefully feel decent doing it. We headed out towards Willard for 7.5 miles and turned around and came back. The entire run went decent. We've definitely had better, but it was overall a success.
(The above portion was written last week and not published so what follows is actually a recap of this last week)
Last week was an interesting one. Our week started out strong with some solid runs. Nothing too special, but solid. On Wednesday morning, we woke up early and headed to the Drury track for 400m repeats. The goal was to run 8x400m with 400m recovery between each. We had a time goal of about 75-77 sec per 400. We started our warm-up and I just had a bad feeling for the workout based on how my legs were feeling. They just didn't feel like they had recovered from our run the day before. However, I've had days like this before and then started the workout to have it work itself out during the workout. That definitely wasn't the case on this day. We ran one repeat and it was simply sub-par. Kimi and I both felt horrible. We turned to each other and decided to simply do a regular run and give it a go the next day instead.
Thursday came around and we woke up exactly like the day before and headed up to the Drury track to attempt the exact same workout. As soon as we started this one, I could tell it was going to be better. I still wasn't sure how good it would be, but better for sure. We started out with a 78, and then it just got better from there with multiple 76's and 75's and then one of them at 73. This was exactly the type of workout I was hoping we'd have.
The weekend was a big one. Kimi and I were headed up to the Plaza 10k so that Kimi could run in a very competitive race and see exactly where her fitness level is at this time. This had to go down as one of the most memorable races I've watched of Kimi's since her collegiate days. At no point during the race were the top two runners ever separated by more than about 15 meters. They even swapped leading a couple times after the 5 mile marker. Coming down the home stretch for the final quarter mile, it was a dogfight. Kimi and Connie (the fellow competitor and our friend) pushed the entire way to the finish line. I was so excited because I love watching Kimi dig deep and drive all the way to the line. She never gave up and by the time they crossed the line, Kimi had edged just slightly in front. Kimi and Connie have a history of racing each other where either one of them could win in any given race and any given distance. Kimi was fortunate to have the slight edge this time, but there would have been absolutely no shame in losing to Connie.
It's now time to prep for our next race. In about 2 weeks, we're headed to the Roots-n-blues 10k in Columbia, MO. This has always been one of Kimi's toughest races. She has placed 2nd for three straight years and it's been to 3 different people each time. Perhaps this will be her year? Perhaps not? Either way, she'll give it her best shot and we'll live with the results! Also, I'll be toeing the line for the first time in months as well so it should be a good experience.
(The above portion was written last week and not published so what follows is actually a recap of this last week)
Last week was an interesting one. Our week started out strong with some solid runs. Nothing too special, but solid. On Wednesday morning, we woke up early and headed to the Drury track for 400m repeats. The goal was to run 8x400m with 400m recovery between each. We had a time goal of about 75-77 sec per 400. We started our warm-up and I just had a bad feeling for the workout based on how my legs were feeling. They just didn't feel like they had recovered from our run the day before. However, I've had days like this before and then started the workout to have it work itself out during the workout. That definitely wasn't the case on this day. We ran one repeat and it was simply sub-par. Kimi and I both felt horrible. We turned to each other and decided to simply do a regular run and give it a go the next day instead.
Thursday came around and we woke up exactly like the day before and headed up to the Drury track to attempt the exact same workout. As soon as we started this one, I could tell it was going to be better. I still wasn't sure how good it would be, but better for sure. We started out with a 78, and then it just got better from there with multiple 76's and 75's and then one of them at 73. This was exactly the type of workout I was hoping we'd have.
The weekend was a big one. Kimi and I were headed up to the Plaza 10k so that Kimi could run in a very competitive race and see exactly where her fitness level is at this time. This had to go down as one of the most memorable races I've watched of Kimi's since her collegiate days. At no point during the race were the top two runners ever separated by more than about 15 meters. They even swapped leading a couple times after the 5 mile marker. Coming down the home stretch for the final quarter mile, it was a dogfight. Kimi and Connie (the fellow competitor and our friend) pushed the entire way to the finish line. I was so excited because I love watching Kimi dig deep and drive all the way to the line. She never gave up and by the time they crossed the line, Kimi had edged just slightly in front. Kimi and Connie have a history of racing each other where either one of them could win in any given race and any given distance. Kimi was fortunate to have the slight edge this time, but there would have been absolutely no shame in losing to Connie.
It's now time to prep for our next race. In about 2 weeks, we're headed to the Roots-n-blues 10k in Columbia, MO. This has always been one of Kimi's toughest races. She has placed 2nd for three straight years and it's been to 3 different people each time. Perhaps this will be her year? Perhaps not? Either way, she'll give it her best shot and we'll live with the results! Also, I'll be toeing the line for the first time in months as well so it should be a good experience.
Monday, August 25, 2014
Heat, Heat, Go away! Come again after we've had too much of the cold, please! :)
The last few weeks have been challenging weeks. Kimi and I have returned to heavy training. Over the last couple weeks, we've been running over 60 miles per week and all in singles. It hasn't come quite as easy as it did prior to our June marathon but I'm assuming that has a lot to do with the intense heat that has taken over during the last month or so. I've always found that some of the hardest mileage of the year comes in August while the hot temperatures seem to just hang around and the anticipation for cooler air just keeps building. With that in mind, sometimes you have to alter your expectations for how you might feel on a day to day basis with the understanding that when the cooler air does arrive, (and I'm sure it will eventually) the times will get easier to hit and the way you feel will also improve.
This is is exactly what Kimi and I are banking on. Our runs haven't been absolutely horrible but they definitely aren't going quite how we'd both like them to be going right now. I remain optimistic and trust in what we're doing right now but it sure does get difficult in late August to stay the course when the times you're used to running in Spring and Fall temperatures aren't happening.
Over the last couple weeks, Kimi and I have run two workouts each week and a long run. We've run a Fartlek, and a track workout. They both were reasonable but definitely slower than what both of us have grown accustomed to.
Over the weekend, Kimi and I headed to Nixa for the first ever Diva Dash 5k - Nixa put on by KC Running Company. Kimi has always enjoyed these races because of their competitive fields. She usually gets to really compete with some of the best female runners in the mid-west at these races. This particular event wasn't quite as fast as most of the Diva Dash 5k's have been in the past and Kimi ran off with the win by 3+ minutes. It was hot and she ran really well considering she was pushing herself all by herself. She managed to muster up a 17:54 so all in all it was a good day! Since Kimi was running in an all women's event, I had to do my own tempo run by myself. I started about 15 minutes prior to the start of Kimi's race and ran the entire course myself. However, I had planned to go an additional mile to make a 4 mile tempo so I had to do a little bit of looping towards the end just to finish out the tempo run. This was probably one of the better tempo runs I've had in quite some time. To be honest, I couldn't even begin to put a finger on why that is unless Kimi's old Garmin Forerunner was simply being generous to me (which it does seem to do for some reason).
Over the next couple weeks, Kimi and I are going to be focused on a lot of speed work and high intensity tempo runs to get us into racing shape. The next couple months are the most exciting racing months of the year (but of course, you know that already)!
This is is exactly what Kimi and I are banking on. Our runs haven't been absolutely horrible but they definitely aren't going quite how we'd both like them to be going right now. I remain optimistic and trust in what we're doing right now but it sure does get difficult in late August to stay the course when the times you're used to running in Spring and Fall temperatures aren't happening.
Over the last couple weeks, Kimi and I have run two workouts each week and a long run. We've run a Fartlek, and a track workout. They both were reasonable but definitely slower than what both of us have grown accustomed to.
Over the weekend, Kimi and I headed to Nixa for the first ever Diva Dash 5k - Nixa put on by KC Running Company. Kimi has always enjoyed these races because of their competitive fields. She usually gets to really compete with some of the best female runners in the mid-west at these races. This particular event wasn't quite as fast as most of the Diva Dash 5k's have been in the past and Kimi ran off with the win by 3+ minutes. It was hot and she ran really well considering she was pushing herself all by herself. She managed to muster up a 17:54 so all in all it was a good day! Since Kimi was running in an all women's event, I had to do my own tempo run by myself. I started about 15 minutes prior to the start of Kimi's race and ran the entire course myself. However, I had planned to go an additional mile to make a 4 mile tempo so I had to do a little bit of looping towards the end just to finish out the tempo run. This was probably one of the better tempo runs I've had in quite some time. To be honest, I couldn't even begin to put a finger on why that is unless Kimi's old Garmin Forerunner was simply being generous to me (which it does seem to do for some reason).
Over the next couple weeks, Kimi and I are going to be focused on a lot of speed work and high intensity tempo runs to get us into racing shape. The next couple months are the most exciting racing months of the year (but of course, you know that already)!
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
A Birthday Celebration! Two week review!
August is what I consider the best month of the year. Other than the extreme heat that typically comes along with it, August is the month that everything seems to happen in. Students of all ages typically head back to the classroom, fall sports practices start up in preparation for the upcoming competition season, and it's the month when I was born. So I'm officially beginning the final year of my 20's which saw an awful lot of time with my eyes staring into books, notes, and exams. That basically engulfed 7 years of my 20's. I've now been a chiropractor for 2 years and it has been a lot of fun. I love every opportunity I get to help someone else improve their life and/or their performance. So how am I going to celebrate the final year of my 20's? That's the ultimate question that I've been asking myself and I think I have an idea for how I'm going to do it. Here's what I think I'm going to do to celebrate my last year in my 20's.
First of all, I've always wanted to complete 100 push ups straight through. There was a time when I could do 50 straight through. This will be the first thing I attempt to mark off my list of goals for my now 29 year old self. I started this on August 1st and I'm already up to 35 straight through by adding 5 per day. I don't expect to accomplish this in 13 more days, but if I keep at it, I should be able to complete this in about a month or so I think.
My next goal will be to run a new personal best in the 10k and then again in the half marathon. Currently, my personal best in the 10k is 34:04 which I ran in college on the track. I've come close a few times on the roads since but just missed by about 4 seconds a couple years ago. Following that, I'd like to regain my half marathon P.R. shape from 2012 when I ran 1:12:58. I don't know for sure if I'll ever repeat that feat, but I sure would like to get close. In the following Winter/Spring, I would like to run a new personal best in the 3000 meters which would likely have to be completed on an indoor track. If I am able to accomplish that feet, it should roll me directly into the next goal to finally dip under 16 minutes in the 5k. My next goal will be to run a Marathon under 6 minutes per mile. I came very close to this just this past June. I averaged 6:02 per mile so that makes me believe I can still accomplish this goal.
The simplest way for me to put it is that I intend to run a P.R. in pretty much all common distances from the 3,000 meter up to the marathon. Do I believe that I will have failed if I turn 30 and don't accomplish all the goals? Of course not, but I intend to do my best for the next year to see if I can't have the best year of running yet.
Now to recap the past two weeks. Kimi and I have been training pretty well for the last couple weeks. We put in our first tempo run on Saturday. It was to be a 6 mile tempo run between 6:00-6:05 pace followed by a long cool down of 5 miles. We were rolling through the first 4 miles of the tempo when our momentum sort of fell apart. It wasn't bad, but we weren't able to hit our goal pace for the remaining two miles. We might have started out with a tempo run that was slightly too long for our first one. Sunday was an awesome run that neither of us saw coming. We had a 10 miler and we decided to stay home and try a new route. We ventured out on the South Creek/Wilson's Creek trail to the west and were we ever taken back by the hills. We haven't ran hills like these in quite some time other than the Wilson's Creek Battlefield hills. The run was pretty solid averaging under 6:50 pace per mile.
Prior to the weekend, we had put in some solid miles including another 10 miler and an 11 miler during the week. Those weren't great runs by any means but they weren't terrible either. The
weekend before that was a great experience. Kimi ran the Diva Dash 5k in Tulsa where she took 2nd place. We were fortunate enough to walk into a Sports Authority that was having a going out of business sale where I was able to find 6 pairs of running shoes for $36 a pair (and that included the tax). I should be set for nearly the entire 30th year of my life. :)
This week brings high mileage and a couple good solid workouts on the schedule so hopefully I'll have some good news to report during my next blog post!
For now, I'm signing off to go celebrate my 29th birthday with a simple 5 mile run this afternoon.
First of all, I've always wanted to complete 100 push ups straight through. There was a time when I could do 50 straight through. This will be the first thing I attempt to mark off my list of goals for my now 29 year old self. I started this on August 1st and I'm already up to 35 straight through by adding 5 per day. I don't expect to accomplish this in 13 more days, but if I keep at it, I should be able to complete this in about a month or so I think.
My next goal will be to run a new personal best in the 10k and then again in the half marathon. Currently, my personal best in the 10k is 34:04 which I ran in college on the track. I've come close a few times on the roads since but just missed by about 4 seconds a couple years ago. Following that, I'd like to regain my half marathon P.R. shape from 2012 when I ran 1:12:58. I don't know for sure if I'll ever repeat that feat, but I sure would like to get close. In the following Winter/Spring, I would like to run a new personal best in the 3000 meters which would likely have to be completed on an indoor track. If I am able to accomplish that feet, it should roll me directly into the next goal to finally dip under 16 minutes in the 5k. My next goal will be to run a Marathon under 6 minutes per mile. I came very close to this just this past June. I averaged 6:02 per mile so that makes me believe I can still accomplish this goal.
The simplest way for me to put it is that I intend to run a P.R. in pretty much all common distances from the 3,000 meter up to the marathon. Do I believe that I will have failed if I turn 30 and don't accomplish all the goals? Of course not, but I intend to do my best for the next year to see if I can't have the best year of running yet.
Now to recap the past two weeks. Kimi and I have been training pretty well for the last couple weeks. We put in our first tempo run on Saturday. It was to be a 6 mile tempo run between 6:00-6:05 pace followed by a long cool down of 5 miles. We were rolling through the first 4 miles of the tempo when our momentum sort of fell apart. It wasn't bad, but we weren't able to hit our goal pace for the remaining two miles. We might have started out with a tempo run that was slightly too long for our first one. Sunday was an awesome run that neither of us saw coming. We had a 10 miler and we decided to stay home and try a new route. We ventured out on the South Creek/Wilson's Creek trail to the west and were we ever taken back by the hills. We haven't ran hills like these in quite some time other than the Wilson's Creek Battlefield hills. The run was pretty solid averaging under 6:50 pace per mile.
Prior to the weekend, we had put in some solid miles including another 10 miler and an 11 miler during the week. Those weren't great runs by any means but they weren't terrible either. The
weekend before that was a great experience. Kimi ran the Diva Dash 5k in Tulsa where she took 2nd place. We were fortunate enough to walk into a Sports Authority that was having a going out of business sale where I was able to find 6 pairs of running shoes for $36 a pair (and that included the tax). I should be set for nearly the entire 30th year of my life. :)
This week brings high mileage and a couple good solid workouts on the schedule so hopefully I'll have some good news to report during my next blog post!
For now, I'm signing off to go celebrate my 29th birthday with a simple 5 mile run this afternoon.
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| We even picked up one pair for Kimi! |
Monday, July 21, 2014
The Miles are going by!
It's been two weeks now since my last post. That's mostly because Kimi and I have been simply logging the miles with and having been doing a lot of workouts or anything too incredibly exciting. However, The last two weeks have been solid mileage weeks. Just last week we managed to crank out 64 miles which should start my streak of 60+ mile weeks that I'm hoping to hold until some time in October. The week prior to that was 58 miles so even that was a solid week.
Kimi is planning to run the Tulsa Diva Dash this week which is a 5k so we'll be headed that direction on Friday night. With that in mind, we decided to do a couple workouts before she heads down there. On Saturday morning, we did a pretty decent 2 on 2 off workout. It went as well as could be expected. Most of that is probably due to the phenomenal weather we've been having. Looks like this week will be headlined by hotter temps unfortunately. I can't complain though, the weather has been awesome so far this summer. Our long run also was great on Sunday so I think Kimi will be just fine for her upcoming 5k race.
The real question is whether or not we will be running a marathon this fall. We have been tossing around the idea of running the Prairie Fire Marathon in Wichita but haven't fully decided on it yet. I hope to have it all planned out and ready to go in the next week or so. In the mean time, I'm preparing as if we are going to run it and then if we don't, I'll simply be that much stronger for the Bass Pro Half in November.
Kimi is planning to run the Tulsa Diva Dash this week which is a 5k so we'll be headed that direction on Friday night. With that in mind, we decided to do a couple workouts before she heads down there. On Saturday morning, we did a pretty decent 2 on 2 off workout. It went as well as could be expected. Most of that is probably due to the phenomenal weather we've been having. Looks like this week will be headlined by hotter temps unfortunately. I can't complain though, the weather has been awesome so far this summer. Our long run also was great on Sunday so I think Kimi will be just fine for her upcoming 5k race.
The real question is whether or not we will be running a marathon this fall. We have been tossing around the idea of running the Prairie Fire Marathon in Wichita but haven't fully decided on it yet. I hope to have it all planned out and ready to go in the next week or so. In the mean time, I'm preparing as if we are going to run it and then if we don't, I'll simply be that much stronger for the Bass Pro Half in November.
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Is our recovery really over already? Time to focus again!
Recovery time has ended. We're now starting to get our focus back to training. Following the Grandma's Marathon, Kimi and I didn't run for several days. This is one of the few times we take some significant time off from running to let ourselves refocus mentally and physically. We managed to run a total of 19 miles during the week following the marathon.
Last week we increased the miles significantly in order to prepare for the Firecracker 5000 in Branson. We were asked to join a team known as the 'Idiots Running Club' which was full of some pretty amazing runners. All of them had either run a 100 miler or are currently training for one so we didn't quite fit the group prototype but we're both marathoners so that's good enough. We had a lot of fun at this race. Kimi and I weren't sure how we'd actually feel on race morning since it was only a couple weeks after our race and our runs hadn't been anywhere close to normal pace yet.
Much to our surprise, we both had an excellent race. I started out really good for me with a 5:11 mile and I was surprised at just how easy it was feeling up to that point. That's when the fatigued legs started to set in a bit. I managed to keep it together enough to still have a great finish for myself. The second and third miles were both 5:30 ish and then I finished out to a 16:35 and a 7th place finish. Kimi ran really well too. She finished 1st overall for women, 13th overall in the race, and had a time in the 17:teens. All in all we were quite pleased.
Thanks to the few weeks of lower miles and a long weekend, we were finally able to accomplish a lot at our house. We're both really excited that everything is starting to come together and become more like a home rather than a construction site! We've also been planning out our Summer/Fall racing schedule so we can start planning the training for it. I haven't fully committed but I might be running another marathon this fall. If so, I'll have to have an awesome training season so that I can truly go after my goal of sub 6min/mile. That should make for some good blog posts in the future so I hope you'll keep following Kimi and I as we continue training and pursuing goals.
Last week's mileage - 43 miles
5k race - 16:35, 7th place
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
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!!
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).
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| Kimi after the race |
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| 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!
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