Masters Weekend Races and Runs

Welcome back OMBTS.

Had a great week of training, just heading out for Sunday's run after I type this.

Raced in a local XC event Saturday, a 5K. Great fun and although I was pathetic, I enjoyed my first race in almost a year - aside from the Beer Mile. Much work to do but it sure felt good placing a toe on the start line with my running club team mates.

MF, hope NZ is treating you well.

Have a good week! Best of success to all heading over to Italy this week to begin the WC.

OMBTS, great to see you're back! And definitely thanks to skinnbones and MF for guest-hosting while you were away!

Can't believe it's the last week of August. Every year, summer comes and goes with a velocity that I simply can't match. By the time I've got my swimming suit on and my swim fins in hand, it's already September.

Ah well, at least it's been a good summer on the running front. After being sidelined completely with quad pain at the end of last Spring, I've managed to put in some nice Summer base work (for the first time in 4 years!), finishing off another 90-ish week, to give me 6 in a row after 3 80's and a 70.

Will lower the volume some this week to ensure an honest effort in next Saturday's x-country season opener (and the first meet for the collection of masters runners on my new club). And then will cross my fingers that this fall is free of the injuries and illness that have plagued me the last couple times around.

Okay, hope everyone has a great week!

Nice to see the weekly thread started by the Master himself, OMBTS. Welcome back. I don't know what a 'real swimmer' feels like but I have been swimming 3 X week for two years now and I still feel like a 'real rock.' I hope your progress is better than mine has been :)

Ran a long, long, steady run of 10 miles Sat in the heat and humidty. Wasn't all that fun actually. Ran 10M ez today. All in all, a good last week of Aug.

SoCal, I'm jealous of that mileage!

Despite running one of the most pathetic, humiliating, embarrassing, pussy efforts of my entire life yesterday, actually giving up and quitting mentally and physically with half of the race to go.... I actually had a pretty good week. 59 miles with a nice set of 200's on Monday and some quality mile reps on Wednesday. Had the pleasure of having dinner with Skinnbones on Friday night. Thanks for being my tour guide for the night....

Good Runnin'

Dave

I like tofu and beans.Do not miss meat or eggs.It has been 2 weeks.Allready had given up dairy and processed carbs.Feel good.

Started running more.Feels great but I am gonna take a real gradual approach.My main run is an 18 minute run from NW Portland up to Pittock Mansion about 2.75 miles.The first 1.75 is climbing on the street winding switchbacks with fantastic views of Portland and the last mile on a trail in forest park.Then I just spend 50 minutes walking back down.I like it!

Peace

Not sure about how many miles I ran--maybe about 90.

Kids running well. Girls are hammering--took a group of six out for a 9.5 mile trail run yesterday. Boys are going well, too--did a 12 mile fireroad run with a few of them this AM. T-pace runs have been good, esp. in the 100* heat. Solid sets of 200m reps for this time of year, too.

It's stunning to be a part of a team as committed to trying to do something big as this group is. Stunning. We've worked toward this attitude for 4 years now, and here it is.

Howdy all.

Welcome back OMBTS. Love this thread.

I like to swim, slowly. It's a good aerobic thing and it doesn't take long to work up to a mile or two. And — bonus — if your're a skinny runt like me it gives you some neat new muscles (well, more like bumps and little ridges in my case). Lately I've hit the pool 1-3 times per week.

Decent week here in North Idaho, about 36 miles on five days, including a couple sessions of barefoot strides on the grass after short trail runs. I'll try to increase the volume over the next several weeks.

Ten miles on trails this morning. Wife stayed out longer. When she got back to the car I had to break the news I locked our keys inside. We hitched a ride 15 miles back into town. We shared a backseat with two black labs. One stretched out across our laps and slobbered kisses on us. The other growled menacingly. That was the one next to me. I didn't think I smelled that bad. He warmed up to me eventually.

Have a great week everybody.

To address the key issue raised by OMBTS....yes, this is the Redskins' year! [of course, i actually watched on TV last night a rain/lightning delay of a preseason game, so I may not be objective about this].

Pretty good week, including 4 X 1600 [400 jog] averaging 5:16 Tuesday and a 5-mile tempo (29:23, 38 sec slower than intent, but a good bit of that was stopping twice to let cars go by -- need to pick better route next time) Friday.

Looking forward to my first track 5k ever Sat. 9/1, I hope in less humid conditions than we had in DC this weekend. Hope everyone has a great week.

Skinnbone, great race in Flint. Excellent times (for both you and Aufdemberge) in very humid conditions.

55 miles total this week. Came down in mileage in prep for the Crim 10 Miler. Was thinking I was ready to run 58 and change but it was not in the cards. 1:00:56, got very ugly the last 3 miles, but I was passing a lot of people. Just very humid and I don't do well in heat and humidity. Like every every race that we're in together, Doug Curtis ran my sorry butt down in the last 1 mile, he's done it at the 25k this year as well. This time he went by with a smile on his face as we had talked about it on Friday!

Can't be to disappointed with the race though, it was my fastest Crim by almost 2 minutes.

On another note, I tripped coming down some stairs yesterday and jammed the big toe on my left foot. Hurt like hell, but I had a ton of crap to do so I took some motrin kept going. Looked a little swollen when I went to bed and it had a nasty nickel sized bruise on it when I woke up this morning. Did ten very easy with skin this morning and afterwards I took my shoe off and the entire toe was one big bruise, skin thinks its broke, I think it's bruised. We both know I can run on it!

I've been running in Oslo all week, and capped it with 6 EZ miles this evening in Gothenburg, Sweden. The week included a 10k on the track Thursday night - a little slower than I woulda thought I shoulda run, but it is what it is. I'll try and run somewhere neat on the drive back to Oslo tomorrow, then I'll be in Oslo and Trondheim the rest of this week, and somewhere in southern Italy the two weeks afterward. Next race looks like a half marathon end-September.

Have a great week, everyone!

Fair week here in southeastern Illinois.

If you didn't know, oil is the second largest (financially speaking) natural resource in the region. It's been hot, over 90 degrees every day for almost 22 days now, except for today. When its this hot, the wells stink to high heaven. Almost enough to make one puke when you have to run through its aroma.

Alas, with the afternoon temps in the 100s, and the mornings in the high 80s in both humidity and temperature, I've been forced to do my hard workouts on the treadmill (1.5% or above incline).

I ran 82 miles for the week, with 3x2 mile (4min rest) at 11/10:45/10:40 on Tuesday, 8-mile tempo of 5:36, 33, 33, 33, 33, 27, 23, 19 on Friday, and a 20-miler of 15 on the road and 5 on the treadmill to finish. Today's easy 10-mile felt really good as the temps are low 80 and no humidity.

Friday's run was painful. I usually weigh about 157, but after Saturday's run I was 148. I drank a gallon of water last night and felt pretty good this morning. This week the temps are again in the 90's, but its supposed to break by Thursday.

This is the first week of marathon training for me, 14 weeks to go.

erik

Welcome back OMBTS!

Greetings from Christchurch...1500, thanks for Auckland hotel tip, was perfect and included runs along waterfront...very SF-like...just about to leave Christchurch for remote Southern Alps etc...good running the past few days in Hagley Park...caught a bit of Worlds...wow, Tyson Gay was a stud and Kara Goucher, mand did she race smart...beat back some big girls in final 400...impressive.

Enjoy the rest of the Worlds...will try to chime in next week from Queenstown...stay well.

MF

Sounds like most of us had good weeks. Racerdb - looked for your result on Saturday, sorry to hear that you had a bad day. Go get 'em next time.

My week was sort of strange. I burned a couple of days trying recover from my 2+ hours of trail racing last week. I gutted out 3 easy on Monday with very tight hamstrings and only stretched on Tuesday. I surprised myself by pulling off some decent races at the Tour de Pain in Rochester - 5k XC, followed by a mile road race, capped off with a 400m hill sprint, all centered around a 100 ft hill. My trail and hill running really helped me surge past the other masters at the end of the 400m.

I was a little sore, but did another easy 5 on Friday, 3 yesterday, and raced again today at the Chris Thater 5k. I was definitely less than 100%, but pulled out a 17:10, which is a big PR and the first time I've edged over the 80% grade on the WAVA tables. It was a very competitive field - Africans dominated the mens and women's top 10 - men were all under 14:05 , and several women were under 16. The men's masters was also tough: Steve Boyd won with a ~15:20, Paul Mwangi was second in ~15:35, and Jim Derick was 3rd in 15:48. Not sure who the first master woman was, but Marie-Louis Michelsohn ran a pretty good time at age 65. I also finally had the opportunity to meet Molly Huddle - she cruised to a 15:45 but was a step behind the winner.

SoCal - It looks like your Fluffy Bunnies could have used you in Hood to Coast. Anyone know which team was muddygirl's?

Hi. Well that Tour de Pain sounds interesting. I could probably try that one unlike some of the impossible ones like Pikes Peak. I don't know, I probably ran about 35 miles for the week, may be a little more. I ran a local 10K yesterday, There was the 10K and a 5K and some kind of walk and out of all the categories mens and womens the 10K age group mens 50-59 had the most participants. I won with a time of 43:33.Nothing fantastic but I'm not fantastic. I train alone and find it hard to throw up the miles when it is just me on a lonely trail or road with no one else around. I live about 25 miles from Madison and when I run there it just seems easier or more fun. Just some thoughts I've been having pertaining to motivation. Have a good week all. I signed up for 2 10K's next week=end so that should prove to be real interesting. MF, eat some Kiwi fruit for me if you know what I mean!

nyloco,

Nice PR for not being 100%, welcome back OMBS. Still training for the 1/2 here in Southern IN. Did 32 miles with a 13 miler this morning. The heat is coming down and the running is getting better. Have a 10K in two weeks.

What's the conversion for the 10K to the 1/2. Is it double plus 90 sec. Any help would be appreciated.

Gordon

After two weeks in the Adirondack Mts. upstate NY I came back to the heat and humidity of Northern Va. Almost all my mileage in NY was in the woods and very relaxed with only two runs where I pushed it hard. Back to work this week and it seemed as though I lost some of the little bit of speed that I had. Next month I'll try to concentrate on the speed thing instead of mileage. If it works I'll run a marathon, if not, keep on running.

I did come around a turn on one of my trail runs and had two ladies on horseback facing me. The first horse didn't know what to think and he spun around and took off running. The rider was able to get control so after the fact it was funny. The other funny thing is running 7-8 miles into a popular wilderness camping area and the looks I get wearing shorts and no shirt from these people with all the latest hiking and camping gear.

Have a safe and productive week,

Kevin

Pete,

Tell us a bit about that 10K on the track. How many people were on the track during your race? Did they break it up by time standards? How many heats of the 10 were there?

European racing is so much different. I'd love it if you would shed some light on it.