End of 2008

I'm such a lousy blogger. Wish I could be better, but oh well. The xc season had its ups and downs. After the last race I mentioned here, I ran a poor race up in Bellingham- a 10k hosted by WWU. My calf felt really tight for most of the race, not sure why, and I was pretty slow and my calf stayed sore for a few days. I took it really easy because I was headed back to Penn State for their home meet to run on an alumni team. That race was October 17th and I actually ran decent there. It was really fun to be back in State College and see good friends plus I got a ticket to the PSU-Michigan football game where we finally beat them for the first time in 9 years.
Then, November 2nd, was the PNTF xc championships in Seattle. I was fighting a cold and had a tough time on the hilly 10k course, but did manage to beat some guys that had beaten me earlier in the year. However, a bunch of new fast guys came out and ran for Seattle Running Club and I just missed making the top 8 to go to Nationals. So my xc season was over. We'll see how 2009 shakes out and if I can be stronger next fall.
But now I switch gears and as of December 1st, I began formal triathlon training again. The big race for me will be Ironman 70.3 Oceanside on April 4th. I've done this race in 2006 and watched it in 2005 and 2008. I know the course fairly well and I'm excited to go back and race there again. Its well organized and very competitive.
My training got a small hiccup from the big snow storm in Seattle before xmas so I only ran once in about 10 days and didn't swim at all, but I did a lot of spinning which is good. Now, we're in Sunriver, OR, for a week with family. There is a lot of snow here but I did run twice, xc once, and finally snowboarded today. I love the snow and I need to enjoy it since I heard it all melted in Seattle.

Officical results

Here are the race results- wow, I was 11th overall. Very happy!


http://www.goseattleu.com/pdf5/144898.pdf?ATCLID=1596613&SPID=10770&DB_OEM_ID=18200&SPSID=89885

Emerald City Classic

My second xc race of the season went much better. This was on a much tougher course than 2 weeks ago and I actually ran faster. Everyone was perplexed-- I guess I didn't run very well 2 weeks ago, plus I'm just getting a little stronger every week. This race was 8km and consisted of 4-2km loops. It had rained most of the last 24 hours but the course handled it quite well. I wore spikes just to be safe and think it helped on the sharp turns and down hills. This race was smaller and more low-key than Sundodger which was good and bad. It was good because I thought I might beat more people, but had a fear that I would be alone for a lot of the race as can happen in small races. Luckily, I had people to run with for most of the race. Early on, I spotted a friend from my running group, Mike Bailey, and tried to keep him in sight. He is always very consistent and runs with the fast guys in our workouts. I haven't raced him in a long time but he is definitely faster in recent workouts. I was actually nervous after the first lap that I was running near him thinking I may have gone out too fast. At 1/2 way though I felt him start to slow a bit and I pulled up next to him. I was nervous to pass as there was still a lot of racing to go and I didn't want to die. But I was feeling ok so I decided to go by and saw a teammate and another friend from the running group, Ben Haber, not too far ahead. I set my sights on him and tried to bridge the gap steadily so I wasn't stuck running alone. I still felt good when I caught him and then saw Bobby, who was in first place for our team, Seattle Running Club. I again tried to bridge the gap. This took a little while but finally made contact at about 5km, 1/2 way through lap 3. We ran together for a few minutes and then I saw another pack of 3 guys ahead that looked like they might be slowing just a bit. This gap was tougher to close. I was actually alone for the rest of lap 3 and the start of lap 4. But those guys were in sight which helped plus I knew Bobby, Ben, and Mike were all still close behind and fighting hard so I couldn't slow at all. I inched toward the next guy, and Eastside Running Club member, and finally caught him at 7km. We ran together and we both passed a guy who stopped on the side and looked like he was about to lose his breakfast. Around one of the sharp turns I had looked back and saw a new face making up ground and by the cheers from people on the sidelines I figured it was a runner from Seattle University. As I pulled away from the Eastside runner, this new Seattle Univ. runner caught me with about 500 m to go. He got ahead of me but I stuck right on his back to try to see how much he really had left. As we crested the last little hill and turned into the last 150 m I got on my toes and started to kick and pulled up next to him, he responded and we were both in a dead sprint for the finish line. I think it was a photo finish but I might have gotten him with a lean and the officials put me ahead of him in the finish shoot. Due to the mad sprint finish, I didn't stop my watch for several seconds so I'm not sure yet what my official time was. I was able to get each lap split and I was really happy with how even my splits were. And I managed to be the top guy for Seattle Running Club. I'm not sure how the qualifying for nationals works on our team, but hopefully that helps me make top 8 to represent our club in Spokane in December. We'll see, we had a lot of good runners not race today and Ben and Bobby were within 15-20 seconds of me so anything can happen. It was just fun to have a solid race and compete with people and actually out-kick a college kid. :-)
2km: 6:56
2nd 2km: 7:06
3rd 2km: 7:04
last 2km: 7:10?
Total: 28:17?
Next Saturday is a meet in Bellingham, WA, hosted by Western Washington University. We should have a bigger team there. And I think it is a 10k race which will be another challenge.

Sundodger XC meet (8 km)

This race hurt and hurt a lot. I forgot what running a xc race full tilt felt like. My teammate, Mark Davies, picked me to carpool and we arrived at the course in the middle of the men's "Open" race. This was the race for junior colleges, small colleges, and extra runners not running in the "Invite" race. Watching them made me think I should be in that race. A lot of them would have still crushed me, but I would have been more in the "pack" I think. Watching the top teams warm up for the Invite race made me a little nervous: "can I beat any of these guys? Even their 7th runners?"
I thought my odds were good of beating SOMEONE, but again was a little nervous as the gun went off and the entire field took off. I was in the back of the pack. I went through the 1km in 3:07 and then the mile in 4:54. Yikes, I was hoping to average 5:20-5:30 for the race so sub-5 could mean a lot of suffering down the trail for Jake. But I didn't have much choice: I was only ahead of 3 guys at the mile mark.
Luckily this pace was too fast for a few others also and the pack started to string out and I started to pull ahead of a few guys. I was close to Mark Davies at this point and I thought I would end up running with him but he began to ease away- or I began to slowly fade more likely-- and I began to focus on runners from Gonzaga and Western Washington. I battled with their 6th and 7th runners through the middle of the race but lost contact with a few of them and was left with one guy to focus on. With about 2km left to go on a long uphill stretch I was able to pull away from him and started to make a little ground on the next two guys ahead. But the course turned down for an equally long down hill and I couldn't make up any more ground on them. We ran that long up hill one more time on the way to the finish I was able to make up a few more seconds on them but not enough to kick with them. At the 7km mark the course winds fairly close the finish and I could hear the roar of the crowd for the top runners. This meant not many spectators for me as they hurried to see the winners battle it out. I went through 7km in 24:07, and all alone. The guy I pulled away from was still pretty far back and I didn't have enough room to catch the two in front of me. This is probably a good thing since I was nauseous from about 1/2 way so having a big, full-sprint kick with other guys would have guaranteed breakfast coming back up.
My final time was 27:29 I believe. This is a 5:37/mile average. Not great but its a starting point. My average HR was 168 so I know I was pushing pretty damn hard. I just need to get faster is all! Next race is in two weeks here in Seattle, at a much tougher course than today. It will be another good test and another great workout to help me get faster.

Once a runner....

I'm a long ways from this photo (1992), but I am focused on running cross country this fall. For starters, I'm not running 90 miles a week like I was then....I'm lucky to hit 30-40. But I'm trying to get in some quality and more than anything, have fun out there while pushing as hard as I can. The first race is this coming Saturday, and is here in Seattle. It is a home meet for the University of Washington but luckily there a lots of small schools and other clubs running so hopefully I won't be last and maybe even top 2/3 of the pack.
Training has been going well, ie. no pain or injury, but hard to know what kind of shape I'm in and have no idea how fast to try to run on Saturday. It will be interesting, to say the least, but will then give me an indication for the rest of the season.

August recap

I drove up to Penticton, B.C. to watch Ironman Canada and help coach two of my athletes: Mari and Steve, as well as cheer on good friends such as Aaron Burby and Loree Bolin. Everyone had solid races and they all set personal records (it was Mari's first ironman).

It was fun as always to be at that amazing race. It is one of the oldest ironmans and continues to have fantastic community support. People kept asking me if I wished I was racing it....there were moments, yes, but on the whole, I'm still glad to not be doing an ironman this year. And still not planning on one in 2009 either. I will do at least one 70.3 (Oceanside) in the spring, and then focus on track racing in the summer with the goal of being fit at the next World Outgames in Copenhagen in early August.

Last weekend Justin and I took Jackson up to Whistler for the long weekend. We had a great weekend of relaxing, running, and hiking. We tried to play tennis one day but the rain said "no."

My running seems to be coming along- still love my Garmin 405 watch and feel it makes me run faster than I would without it. Last night at the wednesday track workout (my 2nd week back) I ran with Group 2a which was challenging. We ran a fartlek and I stayed right with the group for the first 3 intervals but then trailed off a little for the last 4. I kept them close and quickly caught up each time on the recovery period. I'm glad I did run with them as I think I wouldn't have pushed as hard with group 3.

I'm excited to start racing but glad I have another week before the first race. I really hope to be sharp when I go to Penn State in October to run on an alumni team in their home meet.

Trying to be better...

I tried my new Garmin 405 GPS watch yesterday for just the second time (the race was the first time). I just went for a nice run along the Burke Gilman bike trail. I decided to run 7 miles and used the watch to turn around at 3.5 mi. There are quite a few trees along the trail and I think that made the instantaneous speed less accurate, but I think the distance is dead on. After the run was done it said my average pace was 7:06/mile which I'm pretty sure is right, but during the run it would jump all over the place from 6:30 to 8:00 min/mile. It did get close the 7:00 mark when I was out in the open, without many trees. Its kind of a bummer though as the instantaneous speed is a neat feature. But since the distance seems to be right on, you can do some quick math with the time to calculate pace. All in all, still really glad I got it. Today I figured out how to upload the info into the Garmin software on the computer and it showed me on a map exactly where I ran in seattle, plus gave me the info I already knew: pace, time, distance. But its nice that it stores it, you can label that workout, and then I can be lazy and not write down in my log all the info because its stored on the computer. I still like my written log, but I don't have to worry about getting it all written down before erasing it from the watch now.