This morning I ran the North Shore Half Marathon put on by RAM Racing in Highland Park IL.  It was a great race, and quite fun!  My overall time was 2:16:35, 10:26 min/mile.  I’m really happy with my performance.

The race itself was great.  It started in downtown Highland Park and wound through a few neighborhoods, a park area, a few more neighborhoods then into Fort Sheridan towards the end of the race.  The weather for the day was much better than expected.  The temps started in the 70′s, and climbed to the mid 80′s; however, the humidity was well above 80%.  When we started, there was a mist in the air, almost like a drizzle, just not falling on you.  I was expecting it to be a touch warmer, so I was very well prepared to handle the weather.

For this race I used my Bikila’s and they performed wonderfully!  I’m still really loving the this shoe.  No hotspots, blisters or anything; just a wonderfully designed VFF.

My initial plan was to use my normal long run setup with one handheld and a 3L Nathan pack.  I prefer to not use the pack in a race, but with the expected heat I was ready to do that.  Due to more favorable conditions I switched it up and went with two handhelds.  One containing my fuel fo choice for long runs  Hammer Perpetuem, and one loaded with water.  This worked out great!  Until I lose a little more weight and feel more comfortable with were a water belt sits, I think I’ll continue with the two handheld setup.

I lined up at the 11:00 min/mile marker thinking that this would be a good starting pace and that I would just pass folks later in the race when it thinned out a bit.  Somehow I don’t think that the folks in this section read the signs, you’ll see from my splits below that I did not once run an 11:00 min/mile, and I was being passed for the first 4 miles or so.  It didn’t bother me at all, I was going to run my own race and make sure that i felt good and managed my heart rate per my plan, start it up easy, take a mile or two to settle in and let it ride up to about 175 at the end.  You can see from the graph below, it turned out quite nicely!  Most of the little drop offs in HR occur at the mile marker, or at an aid station.  I find that as I hit the lap button and double check calibration of my s3 sensor, I tend to slow down a bit  I did open up a bit “harder” than planned, on a longer race this may cause some problems.

Splits and Commentary

1. 10:11 – I opened up a touch fast again.  My HR was well within the range I was looking for, but I think I need to work on starting out a bit slower to keep the rest of the run nice and strong.
2. 10:19 – Yeah, another fast opening mile.  Not really the 11:00 pace I was planning now was it?
3. 10:26 – At this point I was settling into the run, but my HR is about 5 beats per minute faster than I’d like.  I was at 160, I’d like to be at 155 here.
4. 10:28 – We started to climb some hills at this point, the race opened with a few downhill spurts that contributed to the opening speed.
5. 10:46 – A few more hills to climb, and I was having a nice chat about the Bikila’s on my feet  Hopefully we have another convert to minimal running on the way!
6. 10:18 – A bunch of up and down, up and down, and then a big ole’ downhill to the lake, getting ready for a the “big hill” at the start of mile seven.  This is the drop in my HR in between 1:02 and 1:23
7. 10:17 – I slowed down quite a bit at the start of this mile to climb up the hill, but it wasn’t to bad.  My HR got up to 170, so I backed off a touch and slowed down a bit more.  With 5 miles left, I wasn’t ready to break into the 170′s yet – it was just too early! This one ended with another nice move down a hill, providing speed and a somewhat lowering HR.
8. 10:42 – What goes up, must come down… I spent this mile taking it a bit easier, climbing up and down a bit while allowing my HR to regulate back down, average 164.
9. 10:31 – I really wanted to hold off the “push” until the last three miles. So I stopped to refill my water at the aid station here and enjoyed the run towards For Sheridan.
10. 10:24 – Finally, I was able to get things back under control a bit at averaged out at 161.  It helped that this was mostly flat or downhill.  A nice break, but just a teaser as we prep to climb for the last 5K of the race!
11. 10:10  - I turned it up here, and sure enough I was met with another bloody hill!  Little did I know that we’d be climbing until the end at this point. These aren’t huge hills by any stretch of the imagination, but for a guy that runs in the IL plains all the time, anything with 50 feet of vertical seems huge!
12. 10:32 – Grinding, up and down, up and down.  I held a fairly constant pace here.  I was really starting to feel the run in my hamstrings and glutes now… Ouch.
13. 9:47 – Hammer down and get this thing finished!  The last mile was up hill pretty much the whole way, and my legs were starting to feel it.  I had run hard enough that I couldn’t do my customary sprint into the finish.  I was able to pick up some speed and pace a few folks, it was a blast!

Well, there you go!  I don’t know what else I can say about this race.  It was great overall, and I’d love to do it again.

Well, I did it.  This morning I pulled off 40 minutes of Kenneth Jay’s VO2 Max 15:15 Snatch protocol with a 20kg bell.  My plan is to knock that down one more time, retest and move up to the 36:36 protocol.

The phases of a workout like this are pretty funny to me.  After getting nice and warm, I started up the timer and started snatching.  The first few minutes seem like they take forever as I begin to get into a rhythm.  Shortly thereafter, the next 10 or so minutes fly by and then it’s time to grind.  It’s somewhere around the 20 minute mark that my body starts feel tired, and my mind starts to play tricks on me.

This morning, I almost called it quits at about 23 minutes.  I was starting to drag, my brain said that it would be fine to stop… I mean why press, I have a 1/2 marathon race this weekend and there isn’t any reason to push that hard.  That’s when I remind myself that the body is stronger than the mind.  After grinding it out for another 10 minutes or so – looking at the clock every 2-3 wondering why it’s going to slow – things change dramatically.

It’s somewhere around the 30-35 minute mark that the second wind seems to kick in.  The whole workout suddenly becomes fun, and I’m looking forward to the remaining bit of punishment.

Yeah, it’s weird – I know.  But at that point, it’s just plain fun.

Anyhow, I got it done today.  I think I’ll take a short jog around the neighborhood tomorrow just to stay sane before my Sunday race.  It should be fun!

Two weeks ago I completed my first longer distance race – the Soldier Field 10 Mile.  This was an awesome race, and a great experience. I’ve participated in quite a few 5Ks, I’ve only run one – and my pace was slower than my current recovery runs

Anyhow, the racing season is kicking into high gear and I’m pretty excited about it!  This weekend I have the North Shore Half Marathon, then next weekend I’ll be doing a 5K and the Warrior Dash.  Whether or not I run the 5K depends on logistics with my wife and family; so it may be a warm-up for a longer run in the afternoon.  The Warrior Dash looks like it is going to be a blast!

After those races, I cool off for a while, and then hit the Rock and Roll Half in August and the big one, the Chicago Marathon in October!  I’m really looking forward to building up the big milage on my way to the Marathon.  I have no idea if I’ll be able to pull off my super-stretch goal of a sub 4 hour marathon as I’m still quite a way away from that pace.

My training has been going really well, and I’m quite a bit ahead of schedule.  I’m using that to my advantage by simply rotating in some longer long runs and leaving flexibility in the training if it is needed.

Anyhow, that’s all for now.  I’m hoping to keep pressing through my weight loss plateau as I think that will be the biggest key in a faster Marathon time.  The reality is that slow and steady wins the (weight loss) race.  So I’m not going to push it or try any crazy crash diet garbage.  My body is adapting and will continue to do so.  I’m just going to let it adapt, and get stronger.

The last few weeks have been somewhat frustrating for me.  I’ve hit a plateau in my weight loss, but I can’t really complain when I’m down 78 pounds in total so far.  I have done a little travel, and I’ve been switching things up as far as my eating has been concerned.

Based upon the data that I have collected (every day since Jan 1), I’m still losing weight – just very, very slowly.  I’m hoping that over the next week or two things start to pick back up.

My training program was starting to get a bit intense and I think I was suffering a bit of overtraining syndrome.  I’ve dropped a kettlebell and added another running day.  So far, it feels good.  We’ll see how this works over the next few weeks.

My kettlebell workouts have switched to be mainly hard core snatch protocol workouts.  They are brutal, but fun!  This morning I was able to complete 40 minutes with a 20kg bell.  I did take a break to change my son’s diaper, so in my mind it doesn’t count as a total completion with the 20kg.  Hopefully Friday morning will yield a successful 40 minutes hammering out snatches.  After that, I’ll kick it up into the next gear and do the 36 second protocols…

Anyhow, my journey has yielded some amazing results!  I’ve slowed down a touch, but that should hopefully change soon.  I’ll be running a half marathon this weekend, that should be fun!

Saturday morning, the alarm went off at 4:30am – it’s time to get up and get going for the Soldier Field, Memorial Day Weekend, 10 Mile race!  The race starts at 7:30am, and we planned to arrive at the field around 6:15 or so.

The morning was fairly smooth.  We ended up leaving about 15 minutes after we had hoped and needed to fuel up on the way to the field.  No worries, traffic was quite light and we arrived around 6:30 in the morning.

Prior to the race, I ate a banana and drank a bottle of water with a Nuun cap tossed in to make sure my electrolytes were nicely loaded up prior to the race.  My plan was to use a bottle of perpetuem rather than gels for the race simply because my long run training has all been longer than 10 miles, and I use perpetuem on those runs!  When we arrived to the field, I mixed up my bottle, tossed on my Bikila’s and Polar gear, then my wife, son, and I headed out to get loose and get into place.

My wife did the 2 mile walk, so she was able to be a great supporter before and after the race. We walked around the field looking for a restroom that didn’t have a mile long line.  Luckily, we found one and took care of business before the race.  She headed off to get the camera ready, and I headed off to the 10:30 pace corral.

The race was VERY well organized.  Pace flags were set out and everyone seemed to line up in the appropriate spot.  The horn fired at 7:30 am, and of course in the 10:30 pace open corral, we didn’t move at all  The race warning system was set to Yellow prior to the start…

17 minutes later, we passed the starting line and began to run a wonderful course.  From the field, we made a quick right turn, then a left into the tunnel at McCormick place, shortly thereafter we hit mile 1.  We headed another 3.7 miles or so south on Lake Shore Drive with plenty of support (Gatorade / Water) along the way.  I stuck to my plan of sipping on the perpetuem bottle and grabbing a water cup every now and then.  We made the turn around north at approx 4.7 miles into the race.  Heading back up north, there was a nice breeze that helped to cut the humidity and rising heat.  By the time I arrived at mile 7, they were switching out the Yellow warning flags for Red as the heat and humidity started to rise.

After 5 miles or beautiful lakeshore, we approached the field, preparing to head inside for a finish on the 50 yard line!

My plan for the race was simple.  Run it like a training run, just a little harder (manage my HR, not my pace).  This was my first major race, so I didn’t want to go to hard, and I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect.  I started out at a slightly higher HR that I had hoped, although I wasn’t surprised due to the excitement of the race and the adrenaline that I’m sure was pumping through my blood.  I ended up switching out programs on my watch after about 1 mile in to simplify things, and to widen out my HR zones a bit.  From  the start, I was limiting my HR to stay in my aerobic zone, ensuring that my body warmed into the 10 miles nicely, at the turn (4.7ish miles) I opened up the gates to going full out anaerobic, and at 9 miles I was ready to go flat out.

As planned, I turned up the heat during the last mile, and continued to increase my speed as we approached the field. After making the turn into the stadium, I kicked it into high gear so that I was basically in a full sprint by the time I hit the turf!  Coming out of the tunnel, finishing on the 50 yard line with my picture up on the jumbo tron…

My overall time was 1:45:24, or a 10:33 pace.  Not to bad as I lined up in the 10:30 corral, and I’m still a whopping 250 pounds…  I ended up passing a ton of people during the race… After about mile 6, I was in constant passing mode; it was pretty fun!

Splits:

1. 10:36, surprisingly fast given that it was the first mile, I didn’t intend to keep this pace up for every mile, so I decided it was time to turn down the engine and run my race… I’ll pass everyone later
2. 11:28, ah the first aid station… I slowed down quite a bit and kept my tempo in check for this mile.  I was also messing with my watch changing programs and what not.
3. 10:54 – better, and on track
4. 11:03 – good, second aid station, I grabbed another cup of water
5. 10:51 – great, time to pick it up
6. 10:21 – I opened up my limits on my monitor and started to pass everyone
7. 10:20
8. 10:08
9. 10:14 – Last aid station, time to send some texts to Megan and hit the last mile
10. 9:05 – Yeah, cutting more than a minute means that I left a little to much on the course I think…

I was able to run Negative splits nicely, but I think I left quite a bit of time out there.  I’m fairly certain I can cut 5-10 minutes from this race without any problem if I was to do it again next week.

After the race finished we headed out to the vendor area, and left shortly thereafter. There wasn’t much that interested me there, and with a pregnant wife and a toddler, it was time to go home!

I finished the day with 18 holes of golf, just to make sure I was nice and cooled down.  That was probably not the best idea, as the warning system at the race switched to Black and they recommended everyone walk in about 10-15 minutes after I finished… then they canceled it shortly thereafter!  I walked the first 9, then grabbed a cart… I was tired.

I ran in my Bikila’s, and they performed perfectly!  I had quite a few questions about the VFFs as usual, they are quite the conversation piece.

Overall, this was a wonderful race.  If we are still in the Chicago area this time next year, I’ll be running it again.

On Wednesday of this week I had finished reading through Kenneth Jay’s awesome book on conditioning and took the cMVO2 test, as prescribed in the book.  I found out that my first round of 15:15 was done a touch to easy  That wasn’t a huge surprise as I was able to hit 80 sets my first time through.

Well, I needed to bump my reps from 7 to 8 per set, so I did during round two of the protocol on Friday.  Holy crap! 1 Rep makes a HUGE difference.  I was smoked at 29 minutes and couldn’t knock out 8 reps in 15 seconds any longer.  I could only knock out 7 reps at that time, so I called it a day.

My heart rate spiked up past my lactic threshold, and lo and behold the program works exactly as advertised when done properly!  I’m really excited about how this will fit into my training program.  I’m still working out the exact details, but the 15:15 and 36:36 protocols are going to be key parts of my routine for a while now as I’m still building my base for the marathon on October.  These will really push my cardiovascular system to develop, strengthen my heart, increase lactic buffering, build strength and conditioning as well as help to continue to cut fat – awesome!

Once I figure out my training calendar, I’ll post it up on the site.

Today I added in a great workout to push my VO2 Max levels higher.  It’s called the 15:15 Snatch Protocol.  In a nutshell, you snatch a bell for 15 seconds, then rest for 15 seconds, repeating for 40 minutes.  By the time you are done, you’ve completed 80 sets and a ton of reps.  Today my goal was to make it through with the 16kg bell, and quite frankly I surprised myself!

Not only did I make it through, I ended up grabbing the 24kg on the last two sets and then doing 3 rounds of 25 heavy swings (32kg) to push my heart rate up past my lactic threshold.  Don’t get me wrong, this wasn’t an easy workout, but it wasn’t nearly as hard as I expected it to be!  I think the next time I do this (next Monday), I’ll up the weight to 20kg and see how it all goes.  I expect that will be much more challenging and should push my heart rate much faster.

I’ve been in the process of trying to find a really solid balance between marathon training, and overall conditioning and strength.  I think this protocol will really help to build volume in training, while also pushing my cardiovascular system benefiting my running and overall goals!  I’ll be following up the 15:15 protocol with a more intense variation in the next few weeks… More to come on that later!

Here is a quick update on the weight loss and everything else.  I’m currently down about 75 pounds.  Lately I feel like I’ve been losing weight a bit slower, however looking at my tracking stats I’m still losing at a nice pace.  I’ve recently switched up my diet to be a lot more “primal” in nature by continuing my quest to remove processed garbage by ditching almost all grains and going to a very natural diet.  I eat lots of fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds and animal proteins.  I still consume a fair amount of endurance specific products on my long runs, and I don’t plan on ditching those at this time.

Anyhow, everything is going well and I’m having a blast.

This last week has been a great one.  My workouts were fantastic, and I’m getting faster and faster as the days move forward.  I ran three days during the midweek and did three rocking kettlebell workouts.

I’m planning to head to bed early tonight and getup for a solid ten miler really early tomorrow as I have a 9am commitment so I need to be done well before then.  I’m still working through my final training program for the Marathon in October.  I am so far ahead of the original plan that I’m getting ready to scrap it and create a new one.

The Art of Strength Newport workout is getting easier as I keep working through it – it is a great workout!  I’m planning to keep that in my set as a killer cardio blast.  My rough plan is that I’m going to do Newport at least once, and then possibly set in Resolution II and III or the Strength in Motion workouts for three kettlebell days a week.

I’ve also recently acquired a few more bells and some cool tools that I’ll be adding into the sets; more on this in the future.

Anyhow, great week!  Workouts are awesome, my diet is going really, really well and I’m just loving life lately.  Oh yeah, I’m down over 75 pounds now.  Things are clicking, I’ve found a grove and it’s awesome.

Today I took a nice easy jog around my neighborhood with my little guy in the stroller.  It was a nice 4 mile jog at an easy pace.  The cool thing is that my splits were roughly 10:30 miles.  For a guy that couldn’t run a mile 6 months ago, and was cheering when I broke 14 minute miles that is pretty amazing.  I can definitely go faster, but this was an aerobic zone jog.

It’s pretty amazing to watch how the body can adapt and improve.  With my heart rate monitor on, I keep close tabs on what is happening during my run and I can monitor improvement.  One of the most interesting things I’ve noticed lately is that I’m much faster and efficient in my aerobic zone than I was just a few short months ago.

My top speeds are still not blistering by any stretch, and I have a lot of work to do on my lactic threshold etc… However, I’m getting a lot faster overall.  I have a long way to go to get to a sub 4 hour marathon pace by October… Buy hey, everyone has to have a goal right?

That is the only way that I can describe the Art of Strength Newport Workout. Absolutely Brutal; yet, amazing.

This morning, I got up to hit the kettlebells and decided that I would do Newport on Monday and Friday and the Ropes Gone Wild Workout on Wednesday.  Let me tell you something, Newport is a rocking workout.  The amount of cardio conditioning required to get through that thing is simply staggering.

I figured I was getting into decent shape.  Heck, I ran a half marathon this past weekend; I can’t be that out of shape can I?  Sure am… Wow.  I could barely get through a few of the rounds.  I took a ton of breaks mid set, and just about ran out of gas during the crazy push-up round.  All of that withstanding, I did finish, including the two bonus rounds.  I finished with the 5 minute snatch test and knocked out 100 snatches with the 16kg bell at the end of the workout.  I’m pretty proud of that part.

I am actually looking forward to Friday.  Now that I know what is coming my direction, I can gear up for it a little more and prepare to knock it out.  Adding Newport in as a normal part of my workout routine is really going to up my core strength which is never a bad thing!

Oh yeah, that Snatch -> Get-up -> Windmill thing… Simply awesome.  I loved it!