Tuesday, December 25, 2012

December 23rd to 29th

Sunday
Still have a sore throat, but am feeling much better than yesterday. Kevin Clary was in town so I ran with him  in the morning, then we went to Storm Castle for breakfast. Easy run of about 8 miles. (8/8)

Monday
Started to snow as I started running, which made it impossibly slippery with hidden sheets of ice underneath everywhere. It was also very cold out. I ran for 123 minutes, but didn't cover many miles. (16/24)

Tuesday
Sore throat in the morning still. Went for about 13 miles easy in the evening. Had a pretty good Christmas. (13/37)

Wednesday
Still have a little sore throat. Didn't sleep much at all last night because Rowan was up most of the night. I was off a little all day and pretty grumpy. I didn't run for some reason. Sometimes when my schedule gets really thrown off and I am grumpy, I just don't go for a run which makes me even more agitated. (0/37)

Thursday
Ran a workout on the 2 mile square loop because it was clear and had good footing. For the workout, I ran 10 * 30 seconds at about rep (probably closer to 3K pace than mile pace) and then 8 * 4 minutes at threshold pace. Still feeling a little under the weather with a sore throat. I wore a heart rate monitor and could tell my heart rate was a little high for a slower pace than last week. Heart rate ranged from 168 to 172 for the most part and my pace was generally between 5:10 to 5:20 pace. This workout did have a higher volume than any workout I have done in a while. Hopefully, I didn't do too much and make myself sick(er)! (13.5/50.5)

Friday
ECR 13 miles (13/63.5)

Saturday
Was going to do a workout today, but was just feeling sluggish so I just did an ECR. (8/71.5)

Thursday, December 20, 2012

December 16th - 22nd

Sunday
Long Run 18 miles total. I ran way too hard today. I am not sure what got into me. The footing was horrible pretty much everywhere but the 2 mile square loop so I decided to just run loops on the square loop. I ran 7 loops with a warm up and cool down. I started at 6:10 pace and finished at 5:20 pace so 14 miles of the run was pretty quick. The last 6 miles was about 32:20. My heart rate (168-170) was pretty high the last 4-6 miles. (18/18)

Monday
Took the day off. (0/18)

Tuesday
8 * 1200 with 1 minute rest on Fieldhouse 200 meter indoor track with Dan Jackson and his friend Chris. If it had been up to me, I would have wanted to do this workout outside. However, Dan Jackson wanted to do the workout inside so he could get an accurate reading of his fitness level. It was a lot of laps, but it ended up being not too bad. We wore heart rate monitors and I tried not to exceed 175 beats per minute, which I didn't for the most part. For the 8 1200s, I probably averaged about 3:47. Not a super hard workout, but it was very high quality aerobic. (11/29)

Wednesday
Triple Tree loop extended, about a 13 mile easy run. (13/42)

Thursday
Tempo run - 6 miles. Did 3 of the 2 mile square loop. Mile splits were about 5:15, 5:15, 5:10, 5:15, 5:05, 5:15. The second, fourth and sixth miles are slightly uphill. My heart rate was generally about 170, but would get up to 175 on the 800 meter uphill section. (11/53)

Friday
Easy run of about 10 miles. I went a little shorter today because I woke up with a sore throat. (10/63)

Saturday
Felt pretty sick today. I could and maybe should have gone for a short run, but I didn't. Sore throat, tired, and achy all day. I shouldn't have taken Monday off because with taking today off, I ended up being pretty short on mileage this week. (0/63)


Wednesday, December 12, 2012

December 9th - 15th, 2012

Sunday
Easy run 45 minutes. Hosting a recruit today, so I didn't have a chance to get a long run completed. (6/6)

Monday
Long Run of about 17 miles. Ran in the evening in the dark. I did two extended hospital loops and ran into Dan Jackson. (17/23)

Tuesday
8 * 4 minutes on, 1 minute off with Dan Jackson on the 2 mile square loop. Went by heart rate which ranged from 168 to 172 for the most part. (12/35)

Wednesday Easy run late at night in the snow. I felt like Balboa in Rocky IV running through snow! Very slippery out. (11.5/46.5)

Thursday
The plan was to do a progressive run, but it snowed a lot which didn't allow good footing. Dan Jackson and I ran 6 miles (hospital loop) easy at about 7 to 8 minute pace and then ran 6 miles on the 2 mile square loop which was clear and we did do progressively. We started at 6 minute pace and got about 8 seconds faster each mile of the 6 miles of the run. (13/59.5)

Friday Easy Run of about 6.5 miles (6.5/66)

Saturday Easy Run of about 8 miles. Footing was horrible after snow so I didn't do hill workout as I had planned. (8/74)

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

August 19th to December 8th -- Recap

My training was not very consistent over this time period. There were some good weeks and others where I ran very little. In the middle of October, I was getting to be pretty fit. However, I caught a nasty illness and had a difficult time getting going again after being really sick for about 2 weeks. Toward the end of November and beginning of December, I started training again everyday and went right into some aerobic workouts. At the begginning of December, I started the training plan below which I intend to follow for about 4 to 8 weeks. So far I have been good about getting the running done, but haven't completed any of the ancillary training.

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
Training Progressive Long Run with last 3-5 miles at marathon pace, 8 * 100 meter strides ECR 8*1200 with 1 minute rest with heart rate monitor - threshold effort based on HR ECR, 8 * 100 meter hill runs Progressive Run with last 3 to 5 miles at tempo pace or straight tempo of 8 to 10% of weekly mileage ECR Hill Reps
Ancillary Fab 15, Stability Core Butt Blaster, Pull-ups, Dips Fab 15, Stability Core Butt Blaster, Pull-ups, Dips Fab 15, Stability Core

Saturday, August 18, 2012

July 29th to August 18th

During this three week stretch I started mixing in additional workouts, but did get a pretty bad cold, so there was a 4 day stretch where I took it pretty easy. If I had to guess my mileage for each week was probably 55, 85, and 65.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

July 22nd to July 28th

Sunday
Sierra, Rowan, and I went to the Bear Canyon Trailhead and I headed out on a nice run which the MSU team of 2001-2003 use to do pretty often. It is a nice loop heading up one side of the canyon and heading back on the other side after running to the Trail Creek Cabin. We did get a late start so it was definitely a little hot. Maybe 80 to 85 degrees by the time I finished. Afterward we went to Great Harvest for cinnamon rolls and then to Cafe M for coffee. It was a great time! (16.5/16.5)

Monday
Easy run in the morning with Dan of about 11.5 miles. (11.5/28)

Tuesday
Dan and I decided to do a little uptempo 20 minute run as a part of our run today. It was ok, not fast or hard, but just a little something different. (10/38)

Wednesday
Easy run of about 12 miles. (12/50)

Thursday
Easy run of about 13 miles. (13/63)

Friday
Easy run of about 12 miles. (12/75)

Saturday
Off

Thursday, July 19, 2012

July 15th to 21st

Weekly Summary
60 miles in 6 runs. Just enjoying getting out and running on a regular schedule again. This next week I will try to increase the mileage and have a little more structure.

Saturday
Ran up Sourdough aka Bozeman Creek Trail. I pushed Rowan for a while in the stroller and then turned him over to Sierra. The run was probably about 11 miles. (11/60)

Friday
Did not run (0/49)

Thursday
Easy run 12.5 miles (12.5/49)

Wednesday
Easy Run 13 miles (13/36.5)

Tuesday
Easy Run 7 miles (7/23.5)

Monday
Easy Run 6.5 miles (6.5/16.5)

Sunday
Easy Run 10 miles (10/10)

July 1st to 14th (two weeks)

After taking 7 days off I started to run again. Just easy runs, but I ran every day except one, I think. Dan Jackson and I have started meeting every weekday morning at 6am to run. It is fun running with Dan. It is pretty hard work though, because I am Dan's mentor and Dan needs a lot of guidance. Ha! J/K

June 24th to 30th

Tuesday - Saturday
Did not run. Actually did not run at all for 7 days. I ate a lot of junk food and I mean a lot. We left Eugene on Tuesday. I didn't watch one race or event while in Eugene. Sierra, Rowan, and I camped and took it easy while slowly making our way back to Bozeman on Saturday. It was great spending some time with the family on a road trip.

Monday
Steeple prelims at US Olympic Trials. It was raining during the warmup, but it pretty much stopped before the race. I ran 8:38 and did not make the final. I was in the second heat and saw the results of the first heat. I pretty much knew after the first heat that if I ran faster than 8:35 I would make the final because of the advancement rules. My heat went out pretty fast and I was in a good position through the first mile. I came through the first four laps at about 4:28 or so a little bit back from the lead pack of approximately 8. I tried to catch the back of the pack with 1200 to go and was making up some time, but with 800 to go I started to struggle. Just didn't have it. After the race I was as disappointed as I have ever been after a race. My first thought was I am never going to run any type of race again. Although I hadn't been training well, I had thought I could at least will myself to make the final. Obviously, even if I had made the final, my fitness wasn't where it needed to be in order to be competitive in the final. Regardless, to not even make the final was tough to handle. I wasn't visually upset, but inside I was totally distraught. As much fun as this season had been, I don't know if it was worth going through an ending like this. It felt so much worse than falling on the last barrier in 2008. Falling was a fluke, but this was just not getting it done and there was more of a sense of finality afterward than in 2008.

Sunday
We left Portland in the morning and drove to Eugene. We went to the football stadium and Sierra and I pickup up our credentials. I went for about a 35-40 minute run and then we went and checked into the motel excited for the big day tomorrow.

June 17th to 23rd

Saturday
Woke up early and started driving from Missoula. We stopped in Coeur d'Alene and ran for 30-35 minutes. Stopped again for another 30-35 minute run in Hood River in the afternoon. Rowan did great on the trip and those were our only two stops. We decided to spend the night in Portland. (8/53)

Friday
Easy Run of maybe 6 - 7 miles. Drove to Missoula in the evening after Sierra got off or work to start our long road trip to Eugene. (6/45)

Thursday
Mix workout of 2 * mile at tempo, 2 * 1200 at roughly 5K pace, & 4 times 200 at rep pace. The track was being used for a Junior Olympic Meet so I did this workout on the trail system with a GPS watch. It was ok, except I didn't run the 1200s quite at the pace. However, I was more concerned at making sure I wasn't pressing too hard at this point. (8/39)

Wednesday
Easy run of 9 to 11 miles. (9/31)

Tuesday
Decided to go with a race simulation today because the steeple at the American Milers Series went poorly after a break from racing. In order to hopefully stay sharp, I decided on two times 1600 over 5 hurdles at steeple height each lap and a 10 minute break between at sea level steeple pace. It didn't go well, which continued a trend of mostly poor workouts over the past 4 to 6 weeks. I ran the first mile in 4:34 and knew there was no way I could do another one. So, I switched the second mile to 2 * 800 instead. I ran these in 2:18 and 2:17 or something. This workout worried me, but I put it out of my mind as quickly as possible. I think I ran 4 miles in the afternoon. (11/22)

Monday
Easy run of somewhere between 10 and 12 miles. (11/11)

Sunday
Did not run. I only was able to get about 2 hours sleep after the late night at the track meet and the super early airplane/car rental drop off. Couldn't sleep on the plane and spent most of the day traveling.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

June 10th to 16th

Weekly Summary
Only 45 miles this week because of the two races and because I couldn't really run on Thursday. The Indiana trip didn't go well for me at all. It was too long to be away from the family and I slept horrible the entire trip. As unpleasant as it was, I am still glad I went because I tend to struggle if I have not raced for a while. I was sure glad to get back home!

Saturday
Ran about 2 miles in the morning. At night, I ran the 1500 in the American Milers Series. I still felt extremely tight everywhere in my body, especially my quads and hip flexors. My back felt pretty good for the most part though. I ended up running 3:45.01 for the 1500 which was ok I guess, but I think I am more fit than that right now. About 30 minutes after the 1500, I rabbeted the first 1600 of the 5K in about 4:18 or so, then did 4 * 200 in 26 or 27. (7/45)

Friday
Back feeling a lot better today, although it might be because of the ibuprofen. Every part of my body was feeling very tight though, I think from the sore back. Went for a 4 mile run in both the morning and afternoon. (8/38)

Thursday
Pouted around for a while and just sat in the motel room watching golf. My back really bothered me today. Sitting around in the motel did not help. In the afternoon/evening, I went out for a run and couldn't even make it a couple miles and had to stop. The sitting around in the motel room aggravated it worse than the race. (2/30)

Wednesday
Ran the Steeplechase at the American Milers Series. It did not go well. I started out ok, but just started to struggle. Wasn't really positive the second half of race. Even had thoughts of dropping out. Was surprised to even run 8:40 considering how poorly I ran. My explanations (excuses) are most of the time I don't run really well after a break from racing (hadn't raced in a month) and my back was still not 100%. Disappointed in my focus and lack of fighting through some adversity. (6/28)

Tuesday
Easy run 4 miles. Traveled to Indianapolis in the evening and arrived in Indy at about 10pm. (4/22)

Monday
Easy run 9 miles. (9/18)

Sunday
Last workout before going to Indianapolis. The weather was pretty aweful out. Very windy. For the workout, I ran 2 tempo miles with 60 seconds rest and then 3 times 1200. For the 1200s, I ran it kind of like the Bowerman/Pre 30-40 workout. The wind made the tempo miles slow. I ran 5:20 or so for the tempo miles. For the 1200s, I probably averaged 42 or 43 into the wind and 31s on the 'on' 200s. It seemed like I was already thinking of the race coming up and not all that into this workout. The weather being in the low 40s with a huge wind did not help. (9/9)

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

June 3rd to 9th

Weekly Summary
74 miles in 7 runs.

Saturday
Easy run 9 miles. (9/74)

Friday
Medium long run 13 miles. (13/65)

Thursday
4*tempo mile with 60 seconds rest. Then 4 times 600 with 1:40 rest. The 600s were 400 meters flat at 66 then 200 with 2 hurdles at closer to mile pace. The tempo miles were 5:08, 5:04, 5:04, 5:04 and the 600s were pretty much all 1:37 or 1:38 with the last 200 over hurdles in 31 or 32. I tweaked my back a little in the morning. It didn't bother me much running, except hurdling. I really stuttered into the first hurdle of each 200, which made it difficult to get down to mile pace. (11/52)

Wednesday
6 *200 just like last week. Was about half a second slower on every 200 than last week. Decided to not do the tempo miles afterward, because I was really sluggish. (8/41)

Tuesday
Easy run 10 miles. (10/33)

Monday
2 sets of 200-400-600-800 at rep/mile pace. My times were 31, 61, 1:31, 2:02, 30, 61, 1:31, 2:04. This was an ok workout. I was a little tired, but was still a little disappointed with workout. (8/23)

Sunday
Long run 15 miles. (15/15)

May 27th to June 2nd

Weekly Summary:
73 miles in 7 runs. This was an ok week overall. I wish I wouldn't have gotten so frustrated on Tuesday. I shouldn't have had the wisdom tooth extracted right now, but it ended up turning out ok. I was pretty worried it might turn into something serious.

Saturday
Went to what is my least favorite workout, but one I feel like I need to do, repeat 1200s. Dan Jackson ran the 2nd 800 of each 1200 with me which really helped. As far as pace goes, I averaged about 3:24 so it was a solid workout. (9.5/73)

Friday
Easy run of about 10 miles. (10/63.5)

Thursday
Did a workout of 6 * 200 at 29, 28, 27, 26, 25.5, 25.1. The rest between started at 2 minutes and increased 15 seconds between each so I took 3 minutes before the last one. I haven't done much faster than mile pace, so I am hoping this will help the running economy and speed endurance a bit. After the 200s, I did 2 * 3200 with 2 minutes rest. The tempos were 10:15 and 10:30. The tempos felt much harder than they usually do and I didn't want to press too hard. Probably because of the 200s beforehand and because my stomach was hurting from ibuprofen and blood that was getting down into my stomach. (9/53.5)

Wednesday
So I have had only one wisdom tooth. I had always put off having it removed, but today I decided to go ahead with it. It turned out to be a bad idea for a couple of reasons. The root broke off from the tooth and a hole opened up to my sinuses. My dentist said he has extracted 1000s of teeth and this had never happened. Anyway, the dentist told me this was pretty serious and to take at least four days off. This wasn't really an option for me, so I just kept on my schedule. I did wait until pretty late at night and went for an 11 mile easy run. I was stressed the wisdom tooth extraction was going to get worse, but it wasn't too bad. (11/44.5)

Tuesday
Tried to do a workout today, but got a little frustrated. I planned on doing 10 * 500 with 50 to 55 seconds rest at about 66 second 400 speed. I started slipping into 68 second 400s during the 5th and 6th rep. Even though 68s would have still been a good workout, I just got frustrated and decided to quit for the day. Not sure why I was so frustrated. If I would have kept going, I am sure I would have gotten back to 66s at least on the last couple. (6.5/33.5)

Monday
Easy run of somewhere around 11 miles (11/27)

Sunday
Long run of about 16 miles (16/16)

Friday, May 25, 2012

May 20th to 26th

Weekly Summary
68 miles in 8 runs. Had one pretty good workout and two average or below average workouts.

Saturday
24 * 200 with relatively short rest. It was really windy out at the track when I did this workout. After each 200 I either ran forward 100 meters or backward 100 meters, so I wasn't running into the wind as much. When I ran forward to the next 100 mark, I took about 33-35 seconds rest. When I ran backward 100 meters, the rest was closer to 40 to 44 seconds because it took a little longer to get turned around. The first 12 200s I ran at about 31, the next 10 at 30, and the last 2 at 28. After the workout, Sierra, Rowan, and I all drove to Butte to watch the state AA & C track meet. Sierra and I hadn't eaten all day, so we went to Silverbow Pizza and devoured a large pizza at about 4 before driving back to Bozeman. (9/68)

Friday
Easy run of about 10 miles in the evening after driving back from watching the state AA & C track meet in Butte. (10/59)

Thursday
Went back to the old 5 * 1200. It went ok, but not great. (9/49)

Wednesday
Easy run of 6 miles in the morning. In the afternoon, I ran another 7 miles or so. (13/40)

Tuesday
5 mile tempo. It was ok. Ran just over 26 minutes on the slow and windy course. (9.5/27)

Monday
Warmed up over to the track with some thoughts of doing a workout, but once I warmed up I realized it would be better to wait on the workout for one more day. One of the MSU guys was doing a little workout so I did a little of it with him, just for a little bit of a shakeout. I did 3 times 200 and 2 times 400 at mile pace. This little workout felt ok, but not great. (6/17.5)

Sunday
Easy run of about 11.5 miles in the afternoon after driving back from Missoula in the morning. (11.5/11.5)

Thursday, May 17, 2012

May 13th to 19th

Weekly Summary
Ran about 65-70 miles this week in 7 runs. Only one very light workout.

Saturday
Had a 6am flight out of LA and back to Missoula, so I was up at 4am after getting to bed at about 12:30. It was an amazingly short trip as I was only in LA for 12 hours. I slept for about 3 hours in once I arrived in Missoula then did about a 16 mile long run from about 8:30 to 10:30pm.

Friday
Ran the 3000 meter steeplechase at the OXY High Performance meet. The two weeks leading up to this race had been very busy and my training was almost non existent. However, I still had a feeling my race would go ok. My flight left Missoula and arrived into LAX at about noon. I tried to go check into the motel room early at about 2pm, but the room wasn't ready until about 4 so I had to hang out out and about. The 17 mile drive to the track took about 90 minutes because it was Friday afternoon in LA. Anyway, once I was at the track and I heard the rabbitt in the steeple was going to run the first mile at 8:19 pace, I decided the back of the pack would be a pretty good spot for me for the first mile. I came through the mile at about 4:32 which is 8:32 pace. I started passing people the last 1200 even though I wasn't speeding up. I ended up finishing with a new PR of 8:30 in 7th place overall after passing two people the last 70 meters. The time also qualified me for my third Olympic Trials in the steeplechase because it is under the Olympic Trials 'A' Standard. It was surprising I was able to run a PR because I didn't feel I ran all that well, it was just a fast race. This is the 3rd steeple in a row that I have felt afterward that I could run faster. I have gone from 8:40 to 8:35 to 8:30. Hopefully I can keep that progression going! Afterward I did about a 4 mile easy run. Anyway, here is a video of the race:



Watch more video of 2012 USATF Oxy High Performance Meet on flotrack.org


Thursday
Easy run of 6 miles in the morning. Drove 3 hours to Missoula in the evening to catch my Allegiant flight to LA on Friday morning. This will be the first time I have ever flown and raced in the same day. Laying in bed on Thursday night it was hard to wrap my head around that I would be racing the next day in LA. Was a little nervous and took me a while to get to bed, but did get some pretty good sleep.

Wednesday
Easy Run of 12 miles. Finally feeling normal again after the busy and irregular schedule of last week.

Tuesday
Had a dental appointment in the morning and had to have a root canal. So, after that, I was not feeling great, but I did a couple of 1200s in 3:24 just so I did a little something before the race on Friday. The mileage for the day was about 7 miles.

Monday
Warmed up for a workout, but was really not feeling great, just really fatigued. Decided to wait until tomorrow to do a workout. All in all, this run was somewhere between 8 and 11 miles.

Sunday
Easy run of 9 to 11 miles very late at night. Ran late at night again because there was a recruit in town. This makes it 4 out of 5 days where I ran between sometime between 9:30pm and 1am.

May 6th to 12th

Weekly Summary
This was quite a week, but all in all, things went well for the conference meet. Didn't get much sleep with the late runs and early mornings. Not exactly perfect preparation for a fast steeple this coming Friday, but there isn't much I can do about it now. Ran 58 miles in 6 runs.

Saturday
Not quite a long run, but a longer run. This was also a midnight run. Maybe 13 miles total. (13/58)

Friday
Easy run of about 11 miles. This was another midnight run, after the first full day of conference action. (11/45)

Thursday
The conference meet was delayed because of snow in the morning, so I headed out for a steady five mile tempo run mid morning. I didn't run really hard because of being tired and I still have a bad cough. (9/34)

Wednesday
Easy run at about midnight after the first day of multis at home conference meet. Very busy today and there are still 3 days to go. (9/25)

Tuesday
Tried a workout today. It did not go well. The workout was supposed to be 3 times a mile at 3k pace. I ran the first mile in 4:24 (about 4:18 with altitude adjustment). After the first mile, I started coughing like crazy and coughed the rest of the day and even coughed at night and couldn't sleep. I started the second mile, but quickly realized it wasn't going to happen. Not sure if I am sick or have allergies, but I am going to have to stay away from VO2 Max stuff for a bit. (7/16)

Monday
Did not run. Too busy getting things ready for conference meet (0/9)

Sunday
Easy run in Missoula before heading back to Bozeman. (9/9)

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

April 29th to May 5th

Decided to switch order of my days so the most recent day is at the top.

Saturday
Long run in Missoula of about 15 miles. Sierra, Rowan, and I stayed the weekend in Missoula after the meet. Not exactly what I wanted to do because I really have a lot to do with conference coming up this weekend in Bozeman. Oh well, it was fun seeing some family. (15/75)

Friday
Ran the 1500 and 800 at a small meet in Missoula. About half of our team didn't make the trip because they had finals or graduation activities. Anyway, my legs felt a little sore. Maybe I shouldn't have done the 300s in spikes on Wednesday? I was surprised to be feeling so poor. Anyway, I ran 3:54 (3:51 or 3:52 with NCAA altitude adjustment) in the 1500, but it felt really hard. In the 800, I started out pretty slow because I didn't feel well after 1500 and ran 1:55. I almost scratched the 800, but I guess I am glad I did it just for the training aspect of it. Was a little disappointed in how things went and how I felt, but I guess it doesn't really matter how I felt today in the grand scheme of things. (8/60)

Thursday
Easy runs of 4 miles in the morning and 5 miles at night. (9/52)

Wednesday
Did a little workout today of 3 mile tempo, 3*300 cut down, 2 mile tempo, 3*300 cut down. Started on the track and then went on a loop and back to the track for tempos. My watch had me at 15:04 for 3 miles, but I think my watch was off and it was a bit short of 3 miles. My first set of 300 cut downs was 44, 43, 42 with 1 minute rest between. All the sudden before the second 2 mile tempo a huge wind kicked up. My watch had me at 10:30 for 2 miles. The second set of 300s had 100 meters of each into a huge headwind. My times were 45, 44, 43. The time between tempo and 300s was as long as it took me to change my shoes. I didn't think this workout was going to be that hard, but I was pretty beat the rest of the day. (11/43)

Tuesday
Really busy catching up on stuff after the trip. Went for just a short run at about 8:45 at night. (5/32) 

Monday
Long run around Palo Alto of about 17 miles. Probably ran a little fast because of the excitement of the race and because it was sunny and warm out. Drove to Oakland to fly out after the run. Our plane ended up being delayed over three hours so we ended up getting home real late.(17/27)

Sunday

Ran the steeple at Payton Jordan and ended up finishing in 2nd place in my heat at 8:35. I ran an 8:35 in 2008, but my fastest steeple was 8:33 in 2005. So, it has been a while since I have run that fast. Going into the race I was feeling pretty good all things considered. Yesterday was a long day with the home meet in Bozeman and the late flight to Oakland. Since I didn't get a chance to run yesterday, I ran an easy 2 miles or so in the morning.

My race plan going into the meet was to get out toward the front of the pack and then start picking it up as best I could the last 1200 meters. However, when the gun went off, I didn't get off the line real well and basically had no where to go but the back of the pack. I didn't want to waste any energy with a surge too early in the race, so I just stayed in the back for the first 1200 meters and then started moving up. I wish I had started moving up a little sooner in the race. Sierra took my splits and moved down from the starting line toward the 200 meter start each lap, so these are roughly my 400 meter splits: (68, 70, 71, 70, 69, 68, 67, 31). After being last the first half of the race, I took the lead with 400 to go, but couldn't quite hold it. My last barrier was bad, which basically took me out of the running for the win.

Did a long cool down after the race. (10/10)

Here is a video of the race:


 
Watch more video of 2012 Stanford Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational on flotrack.org


Wednesday, April 25, 2012

April 22nd to 28th

Sunday
After a 3:45am wake up, 6am flight, layover in Denver, and drive to Bozeman, we arrived back at about 3:30pm. I was pretty tired and just went about 9 miles in the evening. (9/9)

Monday
Long run 16 miles. This run was a little more difficult because I went in the middle of the day and it was pretty hot, 80 degrees. Was still pretty tired and was pretty much totally spent by the end of the run today. (16/25)

Tuesday
Did a workout with Dan Jackson in the afternoon. The workout was 1200s. I really struggled on the 1200s, which was disappointing because I thought I could pull it together even though I was tired. I only did 4 1200s and they were not fast at 3:22, 3:26, 3:27, and 3:32. It was a little windy, but not bad. After the 1200s, I did a set of 300 cut downs with 1 minute rest. They actually went pretty well which was surprising 45, 42, 40. It was tough to have another poor Tuesday workout, even though this one was probably to be expected. After the race on this Sunday, I will get back into more consistent training after running a lot of races the past 3 to 4 weeks. (9/34)

Wednesday
Easy runs of 7 miles in the morning and 5 miles in afternoon. (12/46)

Thursday
Finished some work up in the morning, so I did my workout with the MSU team in the afternoon. For the workout, I did 4 times a mile with 1 minute rest, 6*200 with 90 seconds rest, and then a 2 mile 'power run'. The tempo miles were all 5 flat or just below, the 200s were mostly 31, and the two mile power run started pretty slow and then picked up. My quarter splits were something like 84, 80, 76, 73, 72, 71, 71, 68. The end of the power run actually got to be pretty challenging with a real strong wind throughout which added to the difficulty. There was a little more volume in this workout than I really wanted to do, but I took it all pretty comfortable until the end of the power run. (11.5/57.5)

Friday
Easy runs of 7 miles in morning and 5 miles in afternoon. (12/69.5)

Saturday
Cat-Griz Dual home meet today! Of course it snowed during the night and the weather was not great. I was up pretty early and shoveling snow by 7:30 followed by other meet preparation stuff. The meet went pretty smoothly. At about 2:30, Sierra, Rowan and left the meet a little early and headed to the airport to catch our 3:50 flight to Oakland and the Payton Jordan meet. We arrived at our motel late, I was exhausted, and I didn't think it was worth it at that point to head out on a run. This is the first time I haven't run at all the day before a meet, but I am not worried about it. (0/69.5)

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

April 15th to 21st

Sunday
Easy run 10 miles. (10/10)

Monday
Tempo run 5 miles. Ran on the old Sourdough Trail 5 mile loop. Not the fastest course with dirt surface and lots of sharp turns, but I ran about 26:15. I have only run this course under 26 minutes a couple of times, so it was an ok effort. Still feeling a little fatigued, but not horrible. (9/19)

Tuesday
Easy run after traveling all day. Drove to 2 plus hours to Billings because the plane out of Bozeman isn't big enough for vault poles, then flew into Ontario after a long lay over in Denver. (4/23)

Wednesday
Watched the MSU multi event athletes compete well at the Mt. SAC/Azuza multi event meets most of the day. Easy run in the evening of 6 miles. (6/29)

Thursday
Steeple at Mt. SAC, 6th in 8:40. I was really nervous about this race. The steeple I ran last Saturday at Weber did not go well. I really started struggling at Weber the last couple laps. So, I was actually a little scared I was going to come totally apart in this race. Also, before the race I was really tired. I took a nap in the motel room which was the first time I have ever taken a nap on race day and might be the only nap I take this year. In the stands before the race I was almost falling asleep, which made me wonder how the race was going to go. My first 600 was solid and then I started backing off a little thinking I was out too fast. Throughout the race I felt pretty good, running 69 or 70 second splits after the first lap. With about 800 to go, I was still feeling good and started moving up. My last roughly 200 meters was 31 so I still had a bit in the tank. I am excited for Payton Jordan next Sunday. I had to get my cool down done quickly because we had to get Carl Nystuen to Cal State LA to run a 10K there. (6/35)

Friday
Easy run 6 miles around Mt. SAC area. Drove the Suburban around most of the day traveling between Azusa, Mt. SAC, and motel. Up late watching our athletes compete at Mt. SAC. About as sleep deprived as I have ever been. Felt tired all day and horribly tired at night. (6/41)

Saturday
Ran a 1500 at the Beach Invitational. This week I have been as sleep deprived as I have ever been. Starting on Monday night this is what I have had for sleep 6, 5, 4, 5, 5. However, those 5 hours of sleep on Friday night must have been solid because I didn't feel horrible when I woke up. The 1500 actually went ok. My splits were 61, 2:02.5, and 2:49 (1100 meters). My finishing time was 3:47 low. I started picking it up with 450 to go. With 200 to go I knew the wasn't much left in the tank. My plan had been to do about an 8 mile easy run in the afternoon, but our assistant coach Bobby B. broke a pole vaulting. The shock tore his hand up. So I spent a lot of the afternoon and evening in the shadiest ER I have ever seen. Our flight takes off tomorrow morning at 6, so with a 3:45 wake up call, I won't be getting much sleep tonight. (6/47)

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

April 8th to 14th

Sunday
Long Run 16 miles (16/16)

Monday
Easy Run 12 miles (12/28)

Tuesday
Easy morning run 4 miles. In the afternoon, I did a workout with the MSU team. I felt even worse than I did on Saturday. It has been a while since I have felt this low on energy going into and during a workout. Making the workout even more difficult, were very strong winds varying from maybe 15 to 25 mph. Anyway. I started out planning to do 1200s, but switched to 1000s after Dan Jackson had to stop because of a quad strain. So, after two 1200s, I jumped in with the other MSU guys doing 1000s. My times were something like 3:27, 3:26, 2:48, 2:49, 2:55, 2:42. I am going to take it easy for a couple of days and try and get my legs back under me. (13/41)

Wednesday
Took the day off today because of low energy levels and the top of my right foot is a little sore. (0/41)

Thursday
Easy run 12 miles. (12/53)

Friday
Morning run in Pocatello of 4 miles. In the evening, 800 at Utah Spring Classic. Only ran 1:55, but wasn't too bad. Anything faster than mile pace feels foreign to me at this point. Also, still feeling tired. (10.5/63.5)

Saturday
Steeple at Weber State University. Ended up running a pretty slow time of 9:06, which adjusts to 8:54 with the ncaa altitude adjustment. Felt pretty rough over barriers. Hope getting a steeple under my belt will help me to run well at Mt. Sac. Pretty nervous with training not going great and these two sub par races. Have to get it rolling for this coming Thursday at Mt. SAC. (5.5/69)

Weekly Summary
69 miles in 8 runs.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

April 1st to 7th

Sunday
Long run 17 miles. (17/17)

Monday
Easy run 9 miles. In evening, I baby strolled it with Rowan for about 4 miles. (13/30)

Tuesday
Had another Tuesday morning workout struggle. The planned workout was 1600-1600-1200-1000-1000. Was just struggling and just not getting it done. I think I ran 4:36, 4:36, 3:27, 2:55, 2:55. Just think things are getting stagnant doing them by myself. Anyway, I decided to do the workout with the MSU distance team in the afternoon. The workout was 1600-1200-1200-1000-1000. I did feel a little tired, but the workout felt so much easier doing it with others instead of solo. I ran with the top MSU guys at 4:32, 3:24, 3:24, 2:53, and 2:47. (18/48)

Wednesday
Easy runs of 8 and 5 miles. (13/61)

Thursday
Did a little workout of 3 mile tempo, 2 mile tempo, and 6 * 300 with a minute in between. Ran 15:20, 10:10, 46, 47, 46, 46, 46, 45. Felt tired during and after workout. After the workout, I helped out with the first day of the heptathlon and decathlon for the rest of the day. (10/71)

Friday
Easy run 8 miles. Worked the second day of heptathlon. It was cold, wet/snowy, and at times windy. (8/79)

Saturday
Our first home fack meet was today. It snowed the day and night before, so we had some work to do in order to get the meet off. I was also one of the directors of the meet, I guess you could say, so I was pretty busy. I choose to run the 5k at the end of the meet because there wasn't as much which needed to be done at that point. I am not sure if I was tired from workouts, from working 3 days of track meets, or from not getting as much sleep all week as usual, but my energy level was low. I won the 5k in 14:34 (splits first two miles 4:46, 4:40 and last mile 4:32) just off Shannon Butler's track record of 14:31 (should have gone after it a little harder!). I wanted to run the last mile really fast, but I just couldn't do it today. (8/87)

Weekly Summary
87 miles in 10 runs. A pretty good week of training, except for the Tuesday morning workout blues. I am gonna do some strides at the end of my long run on Sunday to hopefully liven up my legs a little and really focus in order to have a good workout Tuesday morning this week. The last 2-3 weeks have been an adjustment because I have had a lot more coaching duties. However, we now have a baby sitter, so I am going to have some time during the day to get more work done and not have to work on things so much late at night. Excited for the coming weeks of racing. Training hasn't been great, but some things have gotten done even though the workouts are not that impressive on paper.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

March 25th to 31st

Sunday
Long Run 17 miles (17/17)

Monday
Easy Run 11 miles (11/28)

Tuesday
Tried to do a workout today, but was just off. I ran 5 * 1200. I started off running 68s, but fell off after the 2nd or 3rd 1200. My frustration kept increasing and after the 2nd of what was supposed to be 3 300s, I decided to call it a workout. I stewed over the workout all day. In the evening, I ran 5 miles. (14/42)

Wednesday
Decided to redo yesterday's workout, so I did 5 * 1200 again. Ran much better today, although not great. I ran 68s until the last one when the wind really kicked up which led to a slower time. After the 1200s, I ran 3 *300 with 60 seconds rest in 46, 44, 43. In the evening, I ran 5 miles (15/57)

Thursday
Ran 4-5 mile tempo run in the morning, but it wasn't real fast. In the afternoon, 5 miles. (14/71)

Friday
Ran 6 or 7 miles easy in the morning. In the evening, I traveled on the bus to Missoula for our first outdoor meet. (6/77)

Saturday
Intended on doing a workout in the morning before the meet, but it just didn't work with the bus/coaching responsibilities. So right after the track events finished, I slipped in a quick workout while the discus finished up. I did 2 * 200 with 2 minutes rest after strides just to make sure I was warm. The I went into a 1200 meter time trial. I think my splits were about 59, 61, 61 for a 3:01 total time. I was surprised I ran that fast in a time trial especially after being on my feet all day. Also, I didn't go into an all out kick or anything the last 200, so again I was surprised to run what was a pretty fast 1200 for me. After the 1200s, I did 6 *200 in 26-28 with 2 minutes rest, in order to get a little faster running done. I wanted to do some more full oval (800, 600, 400) intervals, but I didn't want to be any more of a distraction than I had been to those watching the discus, so I just did 200s on the backstretch. (5/82)

Weekly Summary
82 miles in 10 runs (actually it may have been 77 miles in 9 runs, can't remember for sure if I did one of those afternoon 5 milers).

March 18th to 24th

Sunday
Long Run 18 miles. Was a little tired after yesterday's race. (18/18)

Monday
Easy run 8 miles (8/26)

Tuesday
Easy Run 7 miles. This was supposed to be a workout day, but I just didn't get the workout in. (7/33)

Wednesday
Easy run miles in the morning. In the evening, I did 3 times 2 mile tempos. (16/49)

Thursday
A little workout of 16 times 200 at mile pace. The first 8 I did with 1 minute rest, then I switched to 30 seconds rest between the last half of the 200s. It was windy out and half of the track was closed for repairs, so this was harder than it should have been. In the afternoon, I ran an easy 8 miles. (14/63)

Friday
Easy run of 12.5 miles (12.5/75.5)

Saturday
In the morning, I did a progressive tempo run with the MSU distance team. My mile splits were 5:24, 5:22, 5:12, 5:06, 4:59, 4:53. I went about 6.5 miles total in 33 minutes or so.  The 1st, 3rd, and 5th were slighlty downhill, while the 2nd, 4th, and 6th were slightly uphill. In the afternoon, I ran an easy 4 miles. (15/90.5)

Weekly Summary:
90.5 miles in 10 runs.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

March 11th to 17th & Run to Pub 10K

Sunday
Long Run 17.5 miles (17.5/17.5)

Monday
Easy run 12.5 miles (12.5/30)

Tuesday
Easy run in the morning of 4.5 miles. I intended on doing a workout, but my foot was sore. When I loosened my shoe laces, my foot felt better, but it was still causing me to run differently. So, after going through the warm up, I decided to just head home. (10/40)

Wednesday
Started out on my run and my foot felt fine, so I went ahead with the workout of 10 times 500 with 1 minute rest. I broke out my new pair of trainers and just wore them for the entire workout instead of a training flat. This wasn't meant to be a really difficult workout, just a little something to get me use to being back on the track. I intended on running 68 second 400s or 85 seconds for the 500s. All of the 500s ended up being 84 point something. This was a comfortable workout, but it didn't feel quite as easy as I thought it would. In the afternoon, I ran an easy 7 miles. (14/54)

Thursday
I am running the 'Run to the Pub 10K' on Saturday, so I will do that in place of the tempo and instead do the rep pace workout today. I changed up the rep workout to 10 times 200 with 30 seconds rest. I had planned on doing sets of 200-200-400, but just felt it would be better to do something with a lower volume, but still a bit challenging. All ten 200s were 30 point something. I did this workout in trainers as well, which made it feel a little more challenging than it should have been. In the afternoon, I ran into the legendary Jake Turner on a 5 miler.(11/65)

Friday
Easy 6 miles (6/71)

Saturday
Ran the Run to the Pub 10K. Finished first in 29:46. The course was a little short I think, not sure though. My morning was pretty low key. Woke up and had some coffee. My sister and mother in law were on their way to town, so I did some cleaning around the house and the guest bathroom. About 25-30 minutes before the race started, Sierra and Rowan gave me a ride toward the starting line and dropped me off about 1.5 miles from the start about 20 minutes before the race started. I ran over to the starting line and soon afterward the race was underway. I started out very fast in the race and was out front right away. I don't know my mile splits. There were a couple windy spots, but the headwind sections were pretty short. I gave Rowan a high five a couple miles into the race. It was a fun race and I was glad I did it. (10/81)

Here are the Pub results: http://bozemanrunningcompany.com/race-results

Weekly Summary:

Monday, March 5, 2012

March 4th to 10th

Sunday
Long run 17.5 miles. Ran around town mostly and was even able to run on some trails, even though they were pretty muddy in the areas with no snow. It was 50 degrees out so it felt like a heat wave! Felt the back to back workouts before this run a bit. Was one of those runs which felt good to be done with, but wasn't a death march or anything. (17.5/17.5)

Monday
Easy run in the morning of 7.5 miles. Was pretty fired up during the morning run. Already getting excited to race again. In the afternoon, I ran an easy 6.5 miles with Seth Grossman. After the run, we did hurdle mobility and hurdle skill. (14/31.5)

Tuesday
Today's workout consisted of plyos and hill sprints. It was and had been snowing before and during this run. There were maybe 3 inches of snow or so and the wind was blowing, so it was snowing rather sideways. I was trying to figure out when to do my plyos because the Fieldhouse was pretty much closed. I decided to do them on the athletic practice fields. It had to have been quite a site to the casual passerby. I was out in the middle of a large grass field which was covered in snow, with snow coming down sideways, while doing plyos. It actually worked out pretty well because the snow made for a softer landing. I really did quite a lot of plyos. Twice through the regular rudiment circuit and then some frog jumps and pogo jumps. After I finished the plyos, I ran over to Kagy Hill and did 16 times 100 meter hill sprints. This was a pretty good workout, but I am likely to be sore from it! (6.5/38)

Wednesday
Easy runs of 5 miles in morning and 9 miles in the evening. During the evening run, I had a headache and later in the night was really not feeling well. I started to think I was getting sick. (14/52)

Thursday
Glad to not be sick when I woke up this morning. I must have just been really dehydrated. --Two times 4 mile tempos. I took about 3 minutes between the tempos. A little sore all over, including the upper body from the plyos, but not too bad. Pace was 5:10 to 5:15 per mile. The venue was South 3rd, to Peace Pipe, and Graf. In the afternoon, I ran an easy 5 miles. (17/69)

Friday
Easy run of 6 miles in the morning. In the afternoon, I ran an Easy 8 miles with Grossman, Asay, and Turner. Actually felt pretty lively during the afternoon run. (14/83)

Saturday
I went ahead with the hill workout on the schedule of sets of 200-200-400 with job back recoveries between everything. During the warm up I felt really sluggish, so I went for a long warm up run. After about 32 minutes of easy running, I started the workout. It seemed like the hill workout went pretty well. It is easier to get in a hard effort by myself in a hill workout than on a normal workout. Maybe it is because even if you aren't going extremely hard, the effort level is still high when running up a hill. After the workout, the family went on a day trip to Yellowstone. We had lots of fun, even though Rowan wasn't helping us look for wildlife! :) (12/95)

Weekly Summary
95 miles in 11 runs. Good volume and a couple of solid workouts this week.

Weezytale
This week's Weezytale happened on Thursday. The MSU men's team pranked Jake Turner and Jacob Kirk into thinking we were doing a 1.5 mile time trial and I really got into it helped the joke succeed. A surprise 1.5 mile time trial really made no sense (especially considering no one had their spikes), so everyone had to do a really good job of selling it. Somehow the two Jakes really bought into it. Before the fake time trial was about to start Jacob Kirk was visibly upset about having to do it and Jake Turner seemed a little nervous, taking multiple trips to the porta-potty! Anyhow, I started the race and most everyone went out really hard, but slowly dropped back until almost everyone had dropped out by 400 meters. Jacob Kirk slowly realized what was happening, but Jake Turner had taken the lead. Everyone dropped out at the 400 meter mark and Jake continued for another 50 meters before he turned around and realized he was the only one still running. It was quite a solid prank!




Monday, February 27, 2012

February 26th to March 3rd & March Training

*I added a recap of the MSU distance runners BSC races on the previous week's blog.

Sunday
Easy Run in Phoenix in the early morning before our flight back home. (7/7)

Monday
Easy run in the morning of 5.5 miles. 8 mile easy run in the afternoon with MSU team. (13.5/20.5)

Tuesday
Was going to do some plyos and sprints in the morning, but it was snowy and windy. I tried to get into the Fieldhouse to do the plyos, but it hadn't been broken down after the basketball game. So, I just did an easy run of about 7 miles. In the afternoon, I did two sets of the Cruz Circuit and my tempo miles were 5:00 and 4:55 with the MSU team. After this, I did added some plyos (single leg jumps - forward and backward, double leg jumps - forward and back, and bounds) and sprints. (16.5/37)

Wednesday
Easy runs of 8.5 miles in the morning and 6 miles in the afternoon. About halfway through the afternoon run, a huge storm blew in. The temperature immediately dropped about 20 degrees, with a big wind, and sandblasting snow into our face. Good times! (14.5/51.5)

Thursday
Messed up my schedule today. Had a meeting in the morning and then got to be busy with stuff in the afternoon. Ended up not heading out for a run until late in the evening and just did an easy 7 miles instead of a tempo workout. (7/58.5)

Friday
Did yesterday's workout today. 2 times 3 mile tempos. It was windy and the course has some inclines, so my pace was about 5:10 to 5:20 per mile. Felt pretty good about the tempo because I wasn't worried about the pace for this one. In the afternoon, I ran an easy 5 miles. (15/73.5)

Saturday
Snowed a little bit at night and I couldn't really do the hill workout before MSU practice, so I just went ahead and ran with MSU team at 10. The snow had melted by that time. I did 20 times 2 minutes on, 1 minute off. The workout went pretty well. The last 4 or so got to be pretty tough. The pace varied from 4:20s on the decline to 5 flat or so on some inclines. Overall, I would estimate my pace at about 4:40 or maybe a bit faster. (13.5/87)

Weekly Summary:
87 miles in 10 runs. Pretty good week of training. The workouts ended up being a little more challenging than I had on the schedule. Haven't done a long run in two weeks so I will need to get back to the long run train.

Here are a couple useful links:


Here is the camp brochure for the 2012 Bobcat Distance Camp:

http://msubobcats.com/documents/2012/2/23/2012_Distance_Camp.pdf


Training Paces on your phone - VDot Android App:


https://market.android.com/details?id=com.korbonix.vdot


A new website dedicated to Montana running interviews Casey Jermyn about his new running club, Run Bozeman:

http://406running.com/2012/02/406-running-club-spotlight-run-bozeman/



Here is a rough outline of my training plan for March:

March
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wdnsdy
Thursday
Friday
Saturday




1
2
3

ECR
ECR, plyos, and hill sprints or flat sprints
ECR
Plyos & 2 times 3 mile tempo
ECR
Hill reps sets of (3*100, 2*200, 1*300)
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Long Run & 8 * 100 meter strides
ECR
ECR, plyos, and hill sprints or flat sprints
ECR
Plyos & 2 times 4 mile tempo
ECR
Hill reps - sets of (2*200, 1*400)
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
Long Run
ECR
15 * 500 at (i) with 60 seconds rest
ECR
Tempo 3, 2, 2, 1 mile with 3, 2, 2 minute rest
ECR
6 sets of 200, 200, 400 at rep with 1 and 2 min rest
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
Long Run
ECR
5 * 1200 at (i) 3 min rest & 3 * 300 w/ 1 min rest
ECR
6 mile tempo & 6 * 200 at rep with 60 sec rest
ECR
5*1000 at 3k pace with 3 min rest
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
Long Run
ECR
13 * 600 at (i) w/ 70-75 sec rest & 6 * 200 at rep w/ 1 min rest
ECR
Tempo (3 * 2 mile w/ 2 min rest)
ECR
1600, 1200, 800, 600, 400, 400 at rep with 2 to 1 rest work ratio (1600 time trial basically)




February 19th to 25th & MSU BSC Recap

This week I am going to take off of workouts to get rid of my cough, because I am not racing for a while, and to relax for a week or so before getting ready for the outdoor season.

Sunday
Easy run 8 miles

Monday
Easy run 7 miles

Tuesday
Easy Run 7 miles

Wednesday
Easy run 4 miles

Thursday
No run, traveled to Flagstaff for Big Sky Indoor Champs

Friday
Ran late at night after the first day of competition, 9 miles.

Saturday
Easy run in the morning of about 9 miles. Ran on a nice trail in Flagstaff.

Weekly Summary
44 miles in 6 runs. I didn't really intend this week to be this easy, but I just took it really easy and ran when I wanted for as long as I wanted to run. I think it really helped to take this week easy because I am really motivated to get back to training now and my cough is mostly gone.

MSU BSC Recap

Women's Distance Medley - Heather Demorest ran a great 1200 and built a couple second lead on the field. Chelsea ran a solid 400 meter leg and maintained the lead. Maddy ran the 800 and also ran well. Becca Sorenson ran a really good 1600 leg, but was up against a couple really solid milers. The team ended up finishing 3rd overall, which is higher than most would have thought going into the meet.

Men's Distance Medley - Forrest Jarvi ran the 1200 and was feeling sick, but still gave it all he had. Mike ran the 400 and ran well. Matt Tex started out a little fast and had a bit of a tough time the last 200 meters. Jacob Kirk got the stick in 3rd place way behind Portland State and Northern Arizona. Jacob went out very fast at 61 for his first 400. Jacob moved the team into 2nd place and even made a run at first place and ended up running 4:16 or so for 1600 meters at 7,000 feet. Forrest, Matt, and Kirk were all sick either the day of the race of the day after. I think with better health this team could run much faster.

Men's 5000 - Dan Jackson ran a great race and placed 2nd. Jake Turner ran his first 5K and ended up placing 8th. Carl, Seth, and Trevor also ran the 5K, but didn't quite break the top 8. I was worried about Dan going into this race because he had been out of workouts for a couple of weeks because of a muscle strain. Dan ran with composure and great confidence.

Women's Mile - Heather Demorest ran a solid race in the mile and placed 6th. She has really improved since last year and is becoming increasingly more consistent. Heather Haug redshirted this indoor season, but ran at the USATF meet. She won the slower of the two heats and finished 9th overall in 4:26 (4:21aa).

Men's Mile - Jacob Kirk was very congested and feeling pretty sick going into this race. However, he gave it all he had and placed 6th. After this race, Jacob sounded really sick and was feeling awful. Seth Grossman and Forrest Jarvi also ran the mile.

Women's 800 - Lierin ran in the trials of the 800, but was trying to overcome a cold and didn't make the final.


Men's 800 - Super freshman and Teddy Graham lover, Grant Grosvenor worked hard all weekend to not fall behind society. Also, he won the 800. The race went out pretty slow. He took the lead with 250 meters to go and went really hard with 200 meters to go. Chipengama tried to pass with just under 100 meters to go, but after a couple strides, Grant found another gear and won pretty easily. Grant's splits were 58 - 54. Grant looks to be in sub 1:50 shape in the right race. Grant is gonna have a big outdoor season.

Women's 3000 - Becca Sorenson ran a solid 3K after a hard 1600 leg of the DMR on Friday night.

Men's 3000 - Before the race, Dan Jackson didn't think he was going to be able to run because of his muscle strain. So, I really didn't think he was going to be able to finish the race. Dan Jackson started the race and just kept going and ended up collecting another 2nd place finish! Jake Turner also ran a great 3K and finished 3rd overall. I thought Jake would run about this well in the 5K the night before, but was a little nervous about where he would place after the 5K. Turner did a great job at the critical point of this race and made the move which propelled him to a 3rd place finish.

Here is a link to complete BSC results: http://www.directathletics.com/results/track/23563.html

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

February 12th to 18th

A couple more things from last week:

Thanks to Miles, Blake, Kari, Kevin, and the Murphs for coming to watch the race!

Forgot to mention the best part of weekend, which was getting back home to a smiling Rowan and Sierra!

Here is a video of Mile Race at UW:
Watch more video of 2012 Flotrack Husky Classic on flotrack.org

Sunday
Long Run 15 miles. I felt good at the start of the run, but started to feel pretty sluggish about 45 minutes into it. (15/15)

Monday
Was a little busy with things in the morning, so I didn't run in the morning. Right before afternoon practice, I went for a baby stroller run with Baby Rowan. This was the first baby stroller run of my life. After practice, I ran about 8 miles. (12/27)

Tuesday
Mix workout in the morning, 4 times tempo miles, 2 * 1200, and 3 * 300 cut downs. Rest was 1 minute after tempo, 3 minutes after 1200s, and 1 minute rest after 300s. I ran the tempos outside and the 1200s and 300s were inside Fieldhouse. The tempos were between 5:00 and 5:07, the 1200s were both 3:24, and the 300s were 45, 43, 42. Felt pretty good and relaxed throughout this workout. In the afternoon, I threw in another baby Rowan stroller run. This time Newton went on the run with us, too! (14/41)

Wednesday
Easy run in the morning of 6.5 miles and about 6 miles in the afternoon. (12.5/53.5)

Thursday
Has been a while since I updated my blog, so I can't quite remember what I did for a run on this day. I would guess I ran about 6 miles. (6/59.5)

Friday
Ran the mile and the 800 at the Bobcat Open, well at least I tried to run the 800. My plan in the mile was to go out pretty hard and see how I felt. I went through the 800 at 2:01, but then my laps started to slow down. With 400 to go, I knew I wasn't going to run real fast so I didn't push the last 400 real hard and ran 4:12. After the mile, I had a horrible cough. I coughed all the way to the start of the 800 and even the first 400 meters of the 800, I was still coughing. All and all I was pretty disappointed with both races. I am going to take some time off of workouts in order to get over this cough next week. (6.5/60)

Saturday
Took the day off today

Weekly Summary
60 miles in 9 runs.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

February 5th to 11th

Sunday
Long run 16.5 miles. I did almost the exact same route as last week, except a little extra loop. My calves were a little sore after two races in spikes on the ISU track. (16.5/16.5)

Monday
Easy run in the morning of 6.5 miles. In the evening, I ran with the MSU team about 8 miles. (14.5/31)

Tuesday
Mile pace or rep workout of 2 sets of 200-400-400-600-800 by myself on the 200 meter flat track. The rest was 2 to 2.5 times the rep time. The workout was a bit of a struggle and I didn't do quite as well as I would have liked. My times were 30, 61, 61, 1:33, 2:03, 30, 61, 61, 1:33, 2:06. The last 800 was the most disappointing part of the workout. This workout shook my confidence a bit for the mile I am going to run this Saturday in Seattle at the Husky Classic. However, I will get over it! (8/39)

Wednesday
I decided to throw in a relatively easy workout since I don't race until Saturday. The workout was a mix workout of 2 tempo miles, 2 1200s at 'i' pace, and a set of 3 times 300 cut downs. I felt sluggish from the start of this workout so I decided after the second 1200 not to do the 300 cut downs. My tempo miles were both 5:07 and the 1200s were 3:27 and 3:29. I did this workout on the outdoor track and it was pretty cold (about 18 to 20 degrees), which may have been some of it. Also, I have a cough from running indoors in the dry aired arenas, so I am kind of paranoid about getting sick right now. Once I get the indoor cough, I seem to be really susceptible to getting sick. Yesterday and today's workouts weren't good, but I am still confident with a couple of easy days that I will be ready to roll on Saturday. Easy Run in the afternoon of 4 miles. (12/51)

Thursday
Easy runs of 5 miles in the morning alone and 6 miles in the afternoon with the MSU team. (11/61)

Friday
Took me forever to fall asleep which tends to happen when I have to wake up early. Fell asleep after 1am and was up at 5am to head to the airport with Dan Jackson. The flight to Seattle was pretty smooth and we arrived into Seattle at about 8am. It was good getting in early, but we really were stuck in some thick traffic. Dan and I stopped in downtown Seattle and had a little breakfast. Afterward we walked around downtown Seattle a bit, then went over to UW so Dan could check out the track. After a track preview, we went to check into our motel. The GPS on my phone took us to the competely wrong place. It was a pretty big pain. We finally called the motel and they said everyone's GPS takes them to the wrong area for the motel for some reason. After finally making it to the motel, Dan and I had some Thai food for lunch and then I went for a short run with Chris Baldus who came by the motel. Dan napped while we ran and then we all went to the track meet arriving at about 5:45 or so. Dan ended up running at about 8:35pm that night. He raced pretty darn well and ran 14:07 for the 5K. It wasn't quite the time he was looking for, but I thought he represented himself well and put in a great effort. After the meet, we went back to the motel and then walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner. By the time we had settled back into the motel, it was about midnight. It had been a really long day. About 19-20 hours of moving and shaking before the day was finally over. It seemed like it had been about 2-3 days just because we had done so much. (5/66)

Saturday
After getting a good night's sleep, I woke up feeling pretty good and much more relaxed. I had a solid breakfast, a lot of coffee, and we then checked out out of the motel and arrived at the track meet at about 12:30. I was pretty nervous before the race because I didn't know what to expect. I definitely had some fears of completely blowing up and embarrassing myself. However, I just decided I was doing to go after it and see what happened. Felt a little sluggish at the start of the warmup, but started to feel better as the warmup progressed. Finally it was race time. My intention was to get off the line well and get right up toward the front of the pack. The gun went off and my first two steps were good, but then I am pretty sure someone in an Oregon jersey hooked me with his elbow and just like that I didn't have much of a choice but to go toward the back of the pack. Once in the back, it was best for me to stay there unless the pack started to break up. The pace was pretty fast with the leaders through the 400 at about 58 and I came through in 59.7.  I just hung out at the back of the pack and was surprised how well I was feeling. With 2 laps to go on the 307 meter track I had thoughts of picking up the pace, but stayed with my race plan which was to go for it as I came onto the home straight for the penultimate (can't believe I just used the word penultimate) time. I started to pick it up as per my race plan with just under 400 meters to go. The second to last turn I was really on the outside of a large pack. I decided I had to get around the pack so I went about as hard as I could with about 250 meters to go. I moved all the way up to 3rd place, but then the big move caught up to me a bit. The last 40 meters of the race it felt like my legs were going to buckle. I ended up finishing 4th in my heat in 4:01.61. Looking at the splits, I may have had a chance for a sub 4 with a faster 3rd 400. Dan had my splits at 59.7, 60.9, 62.6, 58.0. I am pretty sure the last split included the extra 9 meters making my last true 400 56 high or so if that was indeed the case. Before the race I was thinking, why am I even racing this is so stressful and no fun. After the race, I was thinking of how fun it was to be racing again, especially in a good meet with a solid field. After the race, I did a long warm down, then we went out to eat with Kevin and Kari Murphy, before scurrying to the airport to catch our 8:20pm flight back home. We arrived back at our homes just before midnight and Dan and I had a hard time believing we had only been gone one night! (6.5/72.5)

Invite Mile Race Results:  http://www.directathletics.com/results/track/22376_1465661.html

Weekly Summary
72.5 miles in 10 runs. It has been hard to get much mileage in the last couple weeks because of traveling to the meets. Mileage isn't too important though and it has been nice to race three weeks in a row and get comfortable racing again.





Tuesday, January 31, 2012

January 29th to February 4th

Sunday
I completed the long run today which I originally intended for yesterday. It was unbelievably windy out and I definitely did not feel top notch. I was able to make it through it, but was glad to be done. The route was out South 3rd, Nash, Triple Tree, Canary, around the hospital plus a little add on. (16/16)

Monday
Did the workout with MSU in the morning. The workout was 1000s with 1 to 1 work to rest. Then 3 * 300 cut downs with 1 minute rest. I ran my 1Ks in 2:52, 2:54, 2:51, 2:50, 2:45, 2:43, 2:44. The 300s were about 48, 44, 44. I was definitively feeling sluggish today and I gave this workout about all I had today. If I wasn't still frustrated from the race, I don't think I would have run this workout so hard today. The last 1K was pretty tough, but the 300s were so brutal. Usually the 300s feel great to me, but I was absolutely out of gas. (9/25)

You know altitude impacts people differently. All of my PRs were set at sea level and are all significantly faster than my fastest times with the NCAA altitude adjustments. I have run 1Ks way faster at sea level, but today's workout felt way harder.

Here are my PRs at sea level compared to my best altitude adjusted times (I have run alot of races in the 1500, 3000, and steeple at altitude):
1500      3:42/3:45
3000      7:54/8:03 or 8:04
Steeple   8:33/8:37 or 8:38
5000      13:38/14:10 (Haven't run many fast 5Ks at altitude)

Tuesday
Did a quick workout on my own on the MSU outdoor track. There has not been a winter here yet! The workout was 2 sets of two * one mile at tempo and then 4 * 200 at mile pace with 1 minute rest between everything. I ran 5:07, 4:57, 31, 30, 30, 31, 4:52, 4:53, 31. The last three 200s I did as 30 second segments on the way home because I was running late. They would have been 30 or 31s on the track. Pretty good relatively light workout which included 4 miles of tempo and 1 mile at mile pace. In the evening, I ran an easy 4 miles. This three day stretch of long run, workout, workout definitely has taken my energy level down a bit. Was tired in the evening. (13/38)

Wednesday
Easy run in the morning of about 6.5 miles. Easy run 7.5 miles in the afternoon. Hurdle skill after run (14/52)

Thursday
Easy run 8.5 miles with a 3 strides at end. In the evening, I rode on the bus to Pocatello for the Mountain State Games with the MSU team. (8.5/60.5)

Friday
Shake out and strides in the morning at Holt Arena. In the evening, I ran in the 5K which also included MSU athletes Seth, Carl (pronounced kar), and Dan. Dan and I decided to switch off leading every 1K. I led the first and third K and Dan led the 2nd and 4th K. I was surprised even at 5K pace the turns felt tight on the track (it has longer straights and tighter turns than our home track). Anyway, I started out and felt pretty good with the first 1600 in 4:36. At about two miles, I was starting to feel it a bit and we came through 3200 in 9:14 about two seconds slower than we wanted to be. Dan really started to push the pace a bit and we started running low 68s. The last 1000 to 800 meters I started to struggle and Dan opened up a bit of a lead on me. With about 400 to go I started to pick up the pace a little bit, but with 200 meters to go I was still down as much as 3 seconds. With 200 to go I picked it up again and with 150 meters to go I really went hard and caught Dan on the last turn and ended up winning the race. Dan did a great job pushing the pace and made the race faster much faster. This was the fastest 5K I have ever run at altitude. Dan really went after it in this race and I was proud of him.Carl and Seth also ran solid 5Ks. Dan and I ended up running 14:18 and 14:19, I believe. Dan's time was a new school record breaking the old record set by Shannon Butler. It altitude adjusts to a 13:59 which ranks him 6th in the NCAA, at least for the time being. (10/70.5)

Saturday
I decided to try and double back so I ran the mile at the Mountain State Games. Before the race I felt pretty good, until I started to warm up where I was feeling sore and tired from last night's 5K. Even though I was a bit tired and sore, I intended to try and get out pretty fast. But, I got a really bad start and got stuck in the pack for the the first bit of the race. So, I just ran with the pack through the 800 and then picked it up. I ended up winning the race in 4:13. I went through halfway in 2:09, so I ran a negative split. I didn't get in another run today because of everything going on with the meet as well as the 4.5 hour trip home. (5.5/76)

Weekly Summary
76 miles in pretty much 9 runs. This was a pretty wild week. It started with an incredibly difficult workout for me on Monday which shook my confidence a bit, especially after the race last Friday. Tuesday's workout was ok, but it was difficult to gauge anything from it. The 5K race ended up being a pretty good race for me, not only because of the time, but also because it was a tough race where I had to stay relaxed and not panic like I seemed to last week.

Weezytales
My junior year of college I had a breakthrough race in the 3000. It ended up being the 6th fastest time by an American (college or pro) that indoor season. At the end of the indoor season, Coach Kennedy told me I would be on a full scholarship the next year. I told him I would prefer for the additional scholarship to go toward getting additional high quality distance runners onto our team. The next fall a couple new additions contributed to our cross country team's Big Sky Conference Championship and 11th place finish at NCAAs. This wasn't just my attitude, but just about everyone's on the team which is why we accomplished so much together. This team is getting inducted into the MSU Hall of Fame this coming fall.