L.A. Training is Picking Up!

Training for L.A. is really starting to get fully underway now. We've started adding in a few tempo runs and our long run last week was 14 miles. Our 4 mile tempo run last week was just mediocre. We managed to average 6 min pace but it wasn't near as easy as they usually are. I think the main reason for this is that we just haven't done much speed or hard efforts since prior to the Bass Pro half so our bodies are just having to get back into a groove. Our long run was pretty solid though so that's definitely a good thing.

Two weeks ago, I met with Cassie Dimmick (dietitian) from Achieving Your Best to discuss how I can eat better to achieve my sub 6 minute pace marathon goal.  We decided that I might be better off on a Ketosis diet which will help me to sustain my energy levels better because I would primarily use fat to fuel rather than carbohydrates. When we talked, I had 14 weeks until the L.A. marathon. I knew this transition would be tough, but I didn't know just how difficult it was going to be. I was actually doing really well with my eating habits but my running was suffering extensively. This was an expected thing, but I just didn't realize how long and how badly I would suffer. I was having difficulty simply completing my runs.  After a week of doing the ketosis diet, I pulled the plug. I was too concerned that I wouldn't be able to get in shape in time for L.A. I'm not against trying the diet again after L.A. We discussed it and decided that I would have more time to adapt to the diet before the Grandma's Marathon so if I don't reach my goal in L.A. I'll give it another try.

This week should be an interesting one. We're scheduled to do a 7 mile tempo run Tuesday afternoon and then we're going to try and race the Reindeer Run 5k in Republic on Friday night. It should be interesting to see if we can manage to run some decent times since it will be after work, in the dark, and on what is usually our easy day.

Christmas came early! L.A. here we come!

Following our Bass Pro half, Kimi and I were gearing ourselves up for a loaded training cycle leading up to the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials to be held in L.A. on February 13th!  My intentions were to train with Kimi so that she wouldn't have to suffer in the cold and miserable temperatures all alone, but I didn't intend to actually run the L.A. marathon the day after hers.  The next thing I know, I was being told that for my Christmas gift this year, my in-laws wanted me to run in the L.A. marathon. Immediately, my focus changed and I started gearing myself up for what will be an exciting race! 

I took 5 days off following Bass Pro to simply have a mental and physical hiatus and I'm sure glad I did so. Now I am mentally ready to go!  Kimi is focused and now I'm focused completely as well which usually makes for a great training cycle. We're now under 14 weeks away from our next marathon adventure. For those of you that have run a marathon, you know that 14 weeks of preparation never seems like enough time to get into tip-top shape!  We've quickly added in strength training and started building mileage back up.  

Our goal is to get up near 90-100 miles per week for a few weeks so we can give it everything we have headed into what should be one of Kimi's lifetime achievement highlights!  She's running in the Olympic Trials for crying out loud! How sweet is that!  

I want to take this time now to set everyone straight for what Kimi's realistic chances of making the Olympics are.  There will be approximately 100-150 girls in her race. And of those girls, only the top 3 finishers make the Olympic Team!  Don't get me wrong, I think Kimi can still improve upon her prior best, but to make the team will be a slim opportunity.  However, with that in mind, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't encourage Kimi over the next 3 months!  Every chance you get to encourage her through this training cycle, I simply ask that you tell her to keep her focus and to do the best she can.  Most of all, encourage her by letting her know that you're excited that she's made it this far and that you're excited to see her improve some more over the next 3 months!  

I know that last paragraph may seem like a downer, but trust me, it's not!  I'm very proud of Kimi and her discipline and I am truly blessed and honored to be her spouse and training partner.  I do have to say one last thing, I just hope we both come home from L.A. with new personal bests and who knows, perhaps we will both finally reach our dream goals in the marathon!

Bass Pro Recap

The Bass Pro half marathon arrived and went. Kimi and I woke up Sunday morning at 4:45 so we could eat and get ourselves fully awake prior to toeing the line at 7:00. In an ideal situation, it would be nice to be awake for 3 hours before the start of the race but I wasn't about to get up at 4:00.  It was difficult enough to get up at 4:45 since my KC Royals were playing in the World Series the night before. Thankfully, it was daylight savings weekend.

Anyways, we made our way to the race around 6:00 so we could get a good parking spot and then wouldn't feel rushed getting ready.  We always start our warm up about 45 minutes before the start of the race. This helps us get any last minute restroom stops out of the way prior to the start as well. After the warm up, we changed our shoes and did a couple strides so we could start getting the go fast juices flowing. 

Then we walked across the street to the start for the the national anthem and then off we went. I always find it interesting how they do the start at this particular race. There is no gun sound, horn, or anything exciting for the start. They simply count down and say go.  

I quickly surveyed the guys at the start and thought I might have a shot at the top 3 until the gun went off. You just never can tell sometimes when people are just standing around. It was incredibly foggy this particular morning and by about 1.5 miles into the race, the leaders were already starting to fade into the fog ahead of us. I knew I didn't have a shot unless one of them came back to us at some point. With that knowledge, I decided to run the race with Kimi and help her finally push through this particular event with a great effort. It's a good thing I did too.  When we finished up, Kimi and I were about 5 minutes behind the 3rd place male and about 4 minutes ahead of the 5th place male (that means I was 4th male). Kimi ran awesome and was 1st Female with a time of 1:17:36!  Smoking!!

Next up for us is to start focusing all of our efforts on Kimi's Olympic Trials Marathon which is coming up quickly in February. The biggest challenges for Kimi's training will be the winter weather and lack of daylight.  Hopefully, we'll be able to figure something out so that we can continue to get her mileage completed and have her as fit or better than she was back in June.

Is it really Bass Pro weekend already?!

Seems like just a few days ago I was writing about my recovery from the Twin Cities Marathon. Now I'm writing about my next race.  It was an interesting 4 weeks as for the first time, I had to cram recovery time and training all into a short amount of time. I knew it would be difficult both physically and mentally but much to my surprise, the physical side actually has gone pretty well. Mentally, it's been a grind.  I've made it through for the most part. I wasn't able to stick to my plan 100% but pretty close. I just added in one extra rest day earlier this week.

Kimi and I crushed a 6 mile tempo run 2 weeks ago which really boosted my confidence to think I might have a legit shot at running fairly well this weekend in the Bass Pro half marathon.  This is the one race each fall that we pretty well don't miss. This race is where I have my P.R. for the half marathon. Everything just clicked together beautifully in 2012. The last few years, I'm still run my 2nd and 3rd fastest half marathon times at this race but each successive year has slowed slightly. I think the majority of the reason for that is that we have been running a June marathon each year which just seems to throw off summer and early fall training a bit.

I really think Kimi is ready for a great race this weekend. We're both running the same race but I'm not sure if we'll be running it together or not just yet. I like to compete for a top 3 spot if possible at this event. That means I'll have to wait and see how the competition shakes out before I determine if I will drop back and roll with Kimi or whether I leave her to do her own thing.  I'll probably give it a good 2-3 miles to determine how the race is going and see what happens. I'm just looking for this to be a good springboard race for her into her Olympic Trials training over the next few months.

As of now, the weather is looking extremely promising for Sunday morning which could allow a great race.

I just wanted to take a moment now to wish all of you out there that are running a race this weekend good luck! Remember one thing going into your races, HAVE FUN AND GREAT THINGS HAPPEN!

Twin Cities Marathon Recap

Over the weekend, we went up to Minneapolis for the Twin Cities Marathon. We left Thursday afternoon to drive up to Des Moines, and then finished up the travel on Friday. This is a great way to travel prior to a race in order to help with any fatigue or tightness that comes from being in a car for 9 hours. Friday, we stopped at an outlet mall and go figure, I would be the one to actually have the most fun while shopping. I found myself some sweet athletic pants and a running vest which I had been wanting for a while.

This trip was a blast. Kathy Carroll joined us on the trip which made the trip that much more interesting. She was in pursuit of a Boston Qualifier so that made for a lot of excitement and nervousness for race day. As we were planning the trip, Kimi received an email from the Twin Cities marathon stating that they had a block of tickets for the Twins vs Royals baseball game for Friday night. I couldn't believe it. We quickly purchased tickets to the game since the Royals are most definitely my favorite team. Plus, this was an opportunity to see them play in an opposing clubs ballpark!  I'd never been to another stadium so I was like a kid in a candy store for the entire night.

Kimi made a sign! Unfortunately, we sat a little too high I think! Second Row from the top!!

Saturday was meant to be a more relaxing day. We went to Kimi's professional athlete technical meeting for about an hour so she could get all of her race details. Then we went to the marathon expo to get my packet.  We finished off the day with a nice dinner at Olive Garden so we would be well nourished on race morning.  After that, we went back to the hotel to just chill for a few hours prior to bed.


Beep! Beep! Beep! Race morning!!!  4:30 came around all too quick. I didn't hesitate to jump out of bed however. Kimi had to be on the bus outside the hotel @ 5:00 to get transported over to the start of her race. She was running the USATF 10 mile Road Championships so we were in two completely different races.

I had to go pick up Kathy from her hotel about 4 miles away and bring her back to ours to catch the bus to our race. Fortunately, everything went off without any trouble. Kathy and I boarded the bus at about 6:30 or so and were at the starting area just about 7:00. We got our final restroom breaks completed, shoes changed, and gear checked. The rest was all about covering 26.2 miles in as quick a time as our little legs would let us do.

The weather was perfect this morning which gave me all the more confidence that I was going to have a great race. The starters counted down and off we went!  I was a little lost for the first mile in regards to pace as my Garmin was having difficulty getting strong signal. Fortunately, I can feel pace pretty well. I came through the first mile in about 6:00 and things were already starting to thin out some at the front. I found myself around mile 2 next to one other guy. I decided to ask him what his goal was and he said he was shooting for a 2:35. I knew this was a few minutes faster than my goal but I was hopeful that he would be able to help pull me through. For the majority of the race, I just kept rolling along with my new found running partner. I had a few thoughts that I might be running too fast early in the race, but it just felt so incredibly easy that I just went with it. We came through the half in 1:16:52 and I felt great. Over the next 7 miles however, I could slowly start to feel some fatigue setting in. It didn't stop me from rolling though. I came through 20 feeling pretty good still and was mentally preparing for the final 4 miles of the race since I knew they were the up hill miles of the race.

I made it to 22 and was still rolling 6:20's and was pleased with that because I had plenty of cushion built in.  That's when the wheels fell off. I just couldn't quite keep it going. I had to walk a bit, stretch some, and then force myself to get going again. It was mentally brutal as I watched the clock tick up and saw my sub 6 min marathon avg slip out of reach. Then I had to set my sights on keeping my time under 2:40. This was no small task as the muscles in my legs were starting to tighten significantly at this point. I put my head down, and started pushing forward. It was interesting that each time I stopped to gather myself, and then started running again, the crowd would open up with an encouraging roar of cheers for me. This helped keep me going.

I finally reached the finish line with mixed emotions. Some joy and some disappointment. I was happy to see that Kimi was able to get to me pretty quickly after the finish. She helped me walk along through the finish line festivities to get my gear and get dressed.

Then we walked up to the 26 mile mark to hang out and wait for Kathy to come rolling down the hill to the finish. When she came rolling by, you could see all the joy on her face as she was running the best marathon she's ever done! Kathy had a huge personal best today and qualified for the Boston Marathon by almost 25 minutes!!!  I was very impressed and happy for her as she crushed her goal.

On the way home, I had plenty of time to think about what had transpired during the race. It didn't take me long to set my mind towards going for my goal again next year. In fact, I've already signed up for the 40th anniversary of the Grandma's Marathon.  Perhaps the 4th time is the charm!

10 mile tempo run! Crushed it!

Just over 3 weeks to go until I get the opportunity to redeem myself from my prior attempt at a sub 2:37 marathon.  To be honest, I don't think I'll be at my absolute best in 3 weeks but if I can make it through without a side stitch slowing me down again, a sub 2:40 is still something I think I can make happen.

Last weekend I went out to the Frisco trail on Saturday to nail down one of the hardest tempo run workouts we ever do. I had a scheduled 10 mile tempo run with a 1 mile recovery and then 1 more hard mile. On top of that, the 10 mile portion was to include 4 miles at marathon pace, and then 1 at half marathon pace or close to it, and then repeat that for the second 5 miles as well. It was a hot morning but I was determined to not let it stop me from hitting my paces. We woke up at 5:45 and immediately got in the car to start taking out tables to the trail for the water bottles to sit on.  I usually use this type of workout to practice nutrition intake along with fluid consumption during the hard effort. Unfortunately, I thought Kimi had grabbed the Nutrilite Endurance cubes and she thought I had grabbed them so I was simply out of luck on that part of it. I still had the water which helped immensely.

Kimi and I were slated for different workouts on this particular day since we are training for drastically different races. However, we both started at the same spot but I just had to let her go since her pace was set to be faster than mine. It's been a long time since I've had to do tempo runs or workouts of any kind by myself so everything felt a little weird getting started. Fortunately I managed to get it going and started clipping off solid splits. My first 4 miles were all under 6 minute pace. Then the 5th mile started and I was to pick it up. I did exactly that. I went from about a 5:57 to a 5:47. The first mile back at marathon pace is always a difficult one because it's hard to slow the rhythm some but not completely ruin it.  I kept that mile around 5:57 and then started clipping them off again. During the 9th mile I decided I was going to make it the entire distance but that I didn't feel up to running the 1 extra mile. I was going to change the workout mid-stream and finish with a 10th mile that was around 5:40 and then just call it good.

I finished and thought I was done until Kimi came along having already finished up her workout and encouraged me to do the 1 more mile. I sure am glad she did. I rolled that mile in 5:19 and was flat shocked. I never saw it coming. I started out hard and thought I'd simply have fatigue enough to drop me back to a 5:30-35. Sure enough, I got to the quarter mile and was rolling around 5:15 and just kept working it. Half mile, and still @ 5:18. Then with a quarter to go, the pace had slowed just a bit to 5:20. Thankfully, Kimi jumped into the final quarter and helped me bring it home. I still had a 3 mile cool down to complete but after a workout of this magnitude, the cool down pace just doesn't matter. I trotted for 3 miles and called it a day.

This Saturday, I've got the last really long 'long-run' to complete. It's the 24 miler day. I intend to have a good one and I'm excited that the weather is supposed to be a lot cooler. That will help me out a bunch.

I'll be sure to let you all know how it went when I write my final post prior to the marathon!

Bring it on Twin Cities!

It's been a day or two since my last post. Okay, okay, more like a month and a half.  I left off my last post with a recap of our Grandma's marathon in June. Following that, we took about a week off of absolutely no running. Then we started slowly getting back into mileage. Recovering from a marathon effort like the one we had in June is no small task. I think I finally got to the cause of my side stitch problem. Turns out I was in the process of developing 'Shingles' and the inability to fully expand my rib cage must have been triggering the entire thing. I have since been able to return to a full running load. I'm finally hitting upper 50's for weekly mileage again and am on pace for the mid-60's this week.

Following the Grandma's marathon disappointment, I decided to sign up for the Twin Cities Marathon coming up on October 4. I hope I'll be ready for it. It is only 7 weeks away now and I've got a lot of fitness to gain between now and then.

We have yet to have any really good workouts. I personally blame the heat and humidity and our inability to be consistent with morning runs. That has all changed this week. We're back on our routine of running in the mornings to take advantage of being fully rested and having the cooler temperatures. Unfortunately, it takes time for the body to fully get rhythmic with performance. I suspect that by this time next week, I will have rolled a successful 10k effort on Saturday, and then a successful 20 mile long  run on Sunday.

I'm also going to start picking up some strength training next week. I've put it off for way too long and need to start that back up in order to gain my power back so I can be an explosive running athlete again.

Over the next 7 weeks, I'm going to be sure to keep all of you updated on my progress as I prepare for my 6th marathon.