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The first “class” session of this year’s Fall Marathon Training program focused on three areas

1) Places to run in the Twin Cities Metro

2) Training Philosophy

3) Goal Setting

Where to Run in the Twin Cities Metro?

Of course I’ve written about great places to run, some of which Nathan included in his presentation:

Here are some links to the places he talked about:

• Minneapolis City Bike Routes
• Hennepin County Bike Maps
• St Paul City Bike Routes
• Metropolitan Council Routes
• Three Rivers Park District (lots of parks and trails)
• Fort Snelling State Park
• Afton State Park
• Minnesota Monthly lists some other bike trails
• Dakota County Parks – including Lebanon Hills and Terrance Oaks
• Kate Havelin’s Minnesota Running Trails book

Listen to the audio of Nathan’s presentation here. [See post to listen to audio]

Marty and Mike talked about the training philosophy of this year’s class (I guess it varies slightly with each year’s coaches) and what we might expect.  Marty mentions that he isn’t a huge proponent of using lots of fancy terminology or wasting money on expensive tests for things like VO2 Max or Lactic Threshold.  He subscribes to  a more “old school” mentality of getting the miles in and alternating between hard and easy runs.  With a diverse group of athletes in the room, he said that we won’t work much on specific speed workouts but getting the long runs in and doing some hill training.  We are hitting the hills much earlier this year than last and knowing these guys we’ll be doing some long runs on hills as well.  Their goal, as stated later by Mike is to make sure we have fun and cross the finish line.

Feel free to listen to their sometimes humorous discussion here.

[See post to listen to audio]  For some reason I can’t get this to work.  Any suggestions? It is the same exact link as the one above…  You can scroll to the bottom and listen to the full audio – this section begins about 16 minutes in.

Mike continued the evening’s discussion with a talk about goal setting.  He used a simple pyramid diagram to show what the most important goals are.  The three main goals of a training program are to

1) Have fun/good experience in the training program

2) Get to the starting line healthy

3) Finish (this is then split into 3 subcategories)

a) Finish

b) Target Pace – Double your 1/2 marathon time and add 10 minutes (similar to McMillian Calculator)

c) Dream time – This is a stretch goal that you shouldn’t even think about on race day until after the 1/2 way point and really start going for it after 20 miles.

Listen the audio of Mike’s presentation here. [See post to listen to audio]

You can listen the complete audio (about an hour long from this first session here)  [See post to listen to audio]

Past Posts

Two years ago I ran the Chesterfield 10k on the 4th of July. This was a tough race with some great competition.  An older post about running logs, it could probably use an update.   Have you been wearing flip-flops this summer? I got some for $1 at Old Navy, but I don’t wear them very often, because they don’t help very much for my foot pain.  Several videos including some about World Vision and some humorous one about treadmills.  Foto Friday was a throwback to winter and the ridiculous amount of clothing necessary.

Last Year’s Mileage

Run: 34.2 Miles

This Year

The week began well enough, with a 3.5 mile run Monday run on Pike Island.  It was 63 degrees and I saw 5 adult and lots of baby turkeys, 4 deer and 2 humans on the loop.  I wore my Salomon trail shoes for the first time on a run and liked them well enough. It felt nice and easy and my foot didn’t really hurt too much.

Tuesday’s group run was at Bredesen Park in Edina. We ran 7.25 miles in 58 minutes.  Our pace dipped into the low 7 minute pace. It was 81 and humid.  My foot had hurt all day but after running it actually felt good.  Odd…  We saw lots of rabbits.

Had a morning meeting on Wednesday which kept me from running, but got 2.16 miles in on Thursday morning.  It was 60 and humid as I ran around the neighborhood, making a large square.  Saw more graffiti that I reported to 311.  We’ve seen a huge increase in rival gang graffiti so we’ve been trying to report everything we see.

I had planned on running Friday morning but my neck and back hurt so I thought I’d wait and see if I felt better and run later.  By the evening, the pains hadn’t gone away and I was feeling achy all over my body.  The flu like symptoms continued into Saturday and mid-afternoon I was shaking from cold chills so we went to urgent care.  Some blood work was drawn but it looks like a virus.  So there isn’t anything they can do.  Oddly, the doctor said they couldn’t test me for H1N1.  It sounded like they couldn’t test me at all since I wasn’t in the “at-risk populations”, but it may have just been that I didn’t have the respiratory or diarrheal symptoms associated with that particular strain.  Rest and lots of fluids are my prescription.  Yuck.  My fever finally broke late on Saturday and I awoke Sunday feeling a lot better and almost back to normal.  My body still hurts and I’m still contagious.  The doctor gave me a work release until at least Tuesday, so that is nice.  I’m not sure if I’ll try running or working out again before Wednesday or not.  Frustrating.

This Year’s Mileage

Run: 12.9 Miles
Bike: 21.5 Miles

Technorati Tags: Foto

It is still 3 months away but it is never to early to plan for race weekend.  For 11,000 runners the Twin Cities Marathon will be the culmination of many miles of pavement (and dirt) pounded throughout the summer.

The 26.2 mile race begins at 8am on Sunday, October 4th.  Earlier that morning at 7:05am 6,500 runners will take the “shortcut to the capitol” by running the TC 10 Mile.   Registration for this “shortcut” is via a lottery system that is currently open.  Registration for the 10 Mile lottery goes from Monday, July 6 to Wednesday July 15 at 10pm.  1,000 lucky runners of May’s TC 1 Mile event (including me) won a guarenteed entry into the 10 Mile.  I obviously chose not to use it. This is the 11th annual 10 mile race and is again the USA 10 Mile Championship event.

New this year to race weekend is a 10k event.  Held on Saturday, October 3 at 7:30am this will be an out and back along the last 3 miles of the marathon course (starting and finishing at the marathon finish area).  It appears that there is no limit to the number of 10k participants and offers race day entry.  This also is the first event of the 2009 race weekend.

The TC 5k is on Saturday as well  starting at 9am.  It is an out and back course along the last 1.5 miles of the marathon course, finishing at the marathon finish.  It too appears to have no limit to race entries and offers race morning entry.  Both the 10k and 5k events will be run on USATF certified courses and are chip timed.

Other family friendly events are scheduled throughout the day on Saturday.  All events offer pre- and race day registration. They include:

• Diana Pierce Family Mile which starts at 10m and is an out and back course finishing on the marathon finish line.
• Half Mile which starts at 10:30 am and is an out and back course finishing at the marathon finish line.
• Diaper Dash starts at 11am. Participants crawl from an inner circle to an outer circle, it seems obvious this is for the littlest of “runners” in the family. It doesn’t sound like this one finishes on the marathon finish line but does take place in the same area.
• Harry & Shelly’s Mascot Invitational starts at 11:15am and is a race amongst your favorite mascots.  I’m not sure which ones will be there, but I’m sure Brutus the Buckeye won’t be.   Harry and Shelly are the TCM mascots (in case you were wondering).
• Toddler Trot starts at 11:30 and is a 50 yard dash on the capital lawn.

Race fees start at $7 for the Toddler Trot and Diaper Dash and go up to $100 for the now closed marathon.

Last year I was quite happy to visit the Expo, pickup my number and chip, walk quickly through, purchase a shirt, and head home – less time on the feet the better! Some of my non-runner friends have taken their kids to the family events and had a blast.

If you’ll be here for marathon weekend, what event are you doing?  Me – I’ll be knocking out the 26.2.

Technorati Tags: Twin Cities, Marathon, Twin Cities Marathon, 10 Mile, TC 10 Mile

Post Review

Just like me last year, Ryan and Sara Hall have devoted their running to help raise money for World Vision.  Last year’s Foto Friday was a stock fireworks picture.

Last Year’s Mileage

Run: 28.9 Miles
Bike: 49.0 Miles
Swim: 400 Yards

Last Week’s Training

It was nice to actually run again.  The week started out pretty well. I felt good after Monday’s 1.5 mile run around my neighborhood.  Tuesday was the first group run and it was good as well.  My foot hurt a little bit but not too bad.  I cut the run a little short at 5.5 miles in 43:28.  We have a lot of new people in our training group this year.  Our pace’s group almost doubled.  I took Wednesday off and ran 1.9 miles on Thursday around the neighborhood again.  I could feel a little foot pain but nothing major.  I took Friday off of running but ended up riding my bike for 27.77 miles with a good portion of that being between 18-20 miles per hour, so got a pretty good workout!  On Saturday we met at the Calhoun Executive Center and the scheduled plan was to run 12 miles.  I planned on running about 6 or so.  I ended up running 7 around Lake Calhoun and Cedar Lake.  I felt fine while running but afterward my foot started hurting more.  I took a quick swim in the cool water of Calhoun – mostly just to  ice and relax a little bit, before heading home and enjoying the 4th of July festivities. On Sunday Christy and I went to the YWCA and swam.  I did 450 yards throwing in 2×25 yard all out “sprints”.  It was a nice, fairly easy workout.  I actually almost puked in the pool though after the 2nd sprint.  Oops, luckily it was just that nasty taste in the back of my throat.  So I stopped for a bit and recovered.  As always the hot tub is a nice way to finish a swim workout.

This Year’s Mileage

Run: 15.9 Miles
Bike: 50.0 Miles
Swimming: 450 Yards

Technorati Tags: Foto

Yes, I am a little biased, but I do think that Minneapolis is one of the greatest places in the United States.  I would say it ranks pretty high on the world stage too, but there might be some other places I’d rather live.   Nonetheless Travel and Leisure Magazine recently named Minneapolis one of the best biking cities in the world.

Minneapolis actually ranks number 2 in the US falling behind Portland as far as bike commuting goes.  One of the reasons Minneapolis was ranked so high is the

infrastructure that promotes bicycling on many fronts. From bike lockers and designated street lanes to recreational trails and snowplows dedicated to clearing off-street paths, a system exists to make transportation on a bike efficient, safe, and hassle-free.

This same infrastructure makes Minneapolis a great place to run.  Many of my runs use existing bike infrastructure.  The Midtown Greenway is a biking thorough-fare.  Running on downtown’s Riverfront uses part of the Grand Rounds Trail.  Of course all of the lakes have bike and running trails.

Minneapolis has a ton of paved trails, I wish it had more dirt trails within the city that I could easily use from my house.  But I will take the ease of off-road running and the mostly suburb job of plowing that occurs in winter.

HT Mayor’s Blog

Technorati Tags: Minneapolis, Biking, Trails, Travel

Hopefully the last week of zero miles.

Two years ago I ran the Buzzards Roost 10k, which is an evening race and usually pretty hot.  One of my all-time favorite places to run, even to this day, is Mounds State Park in Anderson, IN.  Last year I was tagged in a meme. I don’t usually participate in them, but it was a good chance to talk about some of my past running experiences.  Last year I dedicated my first marathon to Team World Vision and helping raise money to end poverty around the world.  How do medical professionals recover after a run? See my analysis of a medical journal article discussing that issue. In honor of the Olympic Trials last year I posted a Foto Friday with my 1996 Olympic Trials number.

Last Year’s Mileage

Run: 29.5 Miles
Bike: 58.0 Miles
Swim: 350 Yards

I kind of slacked off this week.  I only swam and lifted once on Monday for 500 yards.  I did increase the number of reps in my lifting from 10 to 12 for each set of 3.  But then I wasn’t motivated enough to go back again!  And I drove my car to work a few days…

Weekly Mileage

Bike: 21.3 Miles
Swim: 500 Yards

Technorati Tags: Foto