This week started out on a sour note with me having to head into a Q -Care clinic for a sinus infection. Although the sinus pressure and drainage was bothersome, but I don't have any races coming up for a few weeks and I still managed a good week of training.
My first key workout of the week was and ANT workout of 9 by 5 minutes with 90 seconds of recovery between. I cruised along between 5:24 and 5:30 pace for this one, with a nice solid heart rate.
The second key workout out the week for me was a longer ANT workout of 3x 30 minutes at ANT. This is a tough mental workout, but a good one for getting tough and building my second half strength that has served me well.
My week was capped off with a 3 hour run this morning with Erik Esher from the starting line of the Half Voyageur up Spirit Mountain to Mangely-Snively into Jay Cooke State Park and back. it was a good run, and I was thrilled to run in the sun again after all of that rain we have had.
Overall a solid week of training. I'm happy that I was able to have good efforts for all of my key workouts, and for the first time in a while not have too many wrenches thrown my way.
6/24/11
Week's Training
Race Round-Up From The Track
Although I really enjoy longer races, and normally on trails, I did run track and cross country all through high school and college and still enjoy the tactics and thrill of a track race. This week and weekend is the 2011 USATF Track and Field National Championships in Eugene, OR. The racing and competition is going to be awesome, so be sure to check out all the news from Track Town at: www.usatf.org
I'll start off my USATF Championships viewing by nominating the top 3 track performances of the last few weeks.
#1) On June 11th Lukas Verzbicas of Orland Park, IL not only defended his title in the adidas Jim Ryun High School Dream Mile, but also became the fifth US high school runner to break four-minutes in the mile. He can add that to his other accolades, including breaking the national high school record in the 5000m indoors, breaking the national high school record for the two miles outdoors, and winning both the Foot Locker and Nike national cross country championships. His next goal is a gold medal at the World Junior Triathlon Championships. He will run for the Oregon Ducks this fall.Check out a flotrack video of the race here:
http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/238873-adidas-Golden-Stripes-2011-Dream-100-Jim-Ryun-Dream-Mile/video/495885-adidas-Dream-Mile-Race-Video-Lukas-Verzbicas-35971
#2) On June 23rd Hayward Field hosted both the men's and women's 10000M national championships, which also served as the qualifier for the US World Championship team. In the men's race the top four runners had already reached the world A standard, so the race was "slower" and tactical from the begining with Galen Rupp taking a close victory. You can watch the race from the USATF website here:
http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?do=videos&year=2011&pg=1&event_id=3618&video_id=49837&folder_id=2043&offset=1#video
In the women's race Shalane Flanagan ran away from the field taking the win, with Kara Goucher coming in second, and Jennifer Rhines taking third. I should also point out that the women's medal ceremony is shown in the men's 10000M video, and in it the commentators incorrectly state that Kara Goucher moved with her family from New York to Michigan. I feel compelled to correct them and say that she actually moved to (the one and only!) Duluth, MN. You can watch the women's race from the USATF website here:
http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?do=videos&year=2011&pg=1&event_id=3618&video_id=49805&folder_id=2043&offset=2#video
#3) In yet another stunning performance the 80 year old Ed Whitlock of Ontario Canada broke two world records in 25 hours at the Canadian Masters National Championships. He ran an unbelievable 42:59.16 in the 10000M shattering the old mark by over 1:30! To put that into perspective Ed ran about a 6:55 pace for the 6.2 miles...the men's 80 year old age group record for the mile is 7:09! The next day Ed broke his own two week old 5000M world record running 20:58.12.
Ed Whitlock Cruising To Victory!
Go For The Buckle Western States Runners!6/18/11
FANS Races
On June 4th I joined some of the fastest, coolest, and craziest ultra runners in the midwest for the 22nd annual FANS races. FANS is a time race in which runners run as far as they can along a loop, in this case around Lake Nakomis, for the appointed time. The person with the most distance at the end wins. FANS has both 12 and 24 hour categories, and I was running in the 12 hour. This was going to be the longest race I had ever done and the longest road ultra I had ever done as well, so a lot of learning for me.The race started at 8AM, and we could already tell that this day was going to be great be great weather....for going to the beach perhaps. The sun was coming out and foreshadowing the 85 to 90 degree temps that we would run in all day.
Pre-race with crew chief (and wife) MegThe race started with a short out and back stretch to even out the split marks later in in the race, and then it was on to the roughly 2.5 mile loop. I for the first few hours with John Storkamp, well know Minnesota ultra runner on the Inov-8 team whom I "run into" at a lot races throughout the year, and Carolyn Smith a Wisconsinite and ultra running legend who was getting ready for the 100K nationals and worlds this year as well as going after her one year old course record.
After a bit more than 2 hours of running with John and Carolyn I moved out front and ran by my self for a while. I was running at between 19:00 and 21:00 minutes a lap through 5 hours. After that I started to slow down and was passed by John, moving me into second. I shifted my focus to the short term - PR'ing at the 50 mile distance. I pushed it in with my coach Jason Kask running with me a bit and hit 50 miles in 6:58, a PR.
Coming through the crew area after a 50 Mile PRThen I hit a real low point here and really slowed down. The heat was more than I was used to so far this season, and I was starting to get dehydrated and sun burned. I ticked off some slow laps with Jason, my wife/crew chief Meg, and friend Erika. At about 8:00 John passed me a second time, and that got a bit of fire under me to pick it up. I had a Lara bar, a Honey Stinger, and some fluids and started to make up ground. I ran a few good solid laps after that in about 22:00 to 24:00 minutes.
I soon caught John while he was walking on the far side of the loop, and did my best to keep on pushing. I blew right though the aid station and check point and completed another lap, catching John just at the end of that lap to bring us even in the standings with about 1:00 to go.
I finished with 70.89 miles, got the win, and PR'd in the 50 Mile, 100 K, and 12 Hour. Like in many of my previous races, I really found another gear in the last part, in this case making up a 5 mile deficit and gaining 3 miles on the leader. It was a good race and I really showed myself the mental strength that I can have if I allow myself to push for it. I think I had the nutrition aspect dialed in well, and I learned some great lessons about ultra strategy as well.
Men's and Women's 12 Hour winners
Me after the awards: 2011 Men's FANS 12 Hour Winner
