Masters Weekend Races and Runs

Mizou, as to where all the pheasants are . . . I live in a Detroit suburb with big lawns and lush landscaping, and the birds love it. But they're not snobs: there's also a healthy population in the city of Detroit itself. Plenty of overgrown, abandoned lots = plenty of habitat.

Not much help to you if you're looking to go hunting, I'm afraid. I find it ironic that sprawl and habitat loss out in the country has turned them into city birds.

SoCal Pete, loved the vivid race description!

SoCal - thanks for the nice play by play. I think some of us forget that the frontrunners hurt every bit as much as we do, and maybe even enjoy it more.

I finished a moderate taper week with a decent effort at the Great Bay HM. We were teased with 50 degree weather and sunshine on Sat. afternoon, but a cold front moved in just before the race on Sun. and kept the temperature in the high 30s with a cold mist. I had debated how hard to run it with Boston only 2 weeks away, but after only getting around two hours of sleep, I knew I didn't have a strong HM in me. I decided to run in sweats to keep my legs warm in case my tendonitis flared up on the hills.

The course itself is a fun challenge, and it's easy to see how Lynn Jennings became such a strong XC runner training on these same roads. There are plenty of rolling hills, with a gradual ascent during the first five miles and some hills in the middle that are steep enough to force you to drop your arms and use them for leverage. I went out in a 6:20 pace, but dropped to 6:30 when I realize that there was a good group of 6:30 pacers behind me. We helped each other get through the wind and hills, and there was plenty of encouragement when some of the group started to fade after 10 miles. I finished in 1:25 - a minute slower than last year, but I kept the effort at tempo run pace and feel great today. It was good to taste some mildly competitive juices after not racing since December.

Happy Monday everybody! Anyone other than me anxious about the NHL playoffs set to start this week?

~ 78 miles this week, including a hilly 8k race Saturday. Tuesday I did 8k a little slower than HM pace followed by 6 x 800 at about 10k pace. Interesting long-ish workout. 800s at 10k pace aren't very fast, but the first one felt like hell after running the 8k tempo at a consistent slower pace.

Race went pretty good, or at least I feel pretty good about it. Weather was absolutely gorgeous - sunny, cool (maybe 4-5C?) and nearly dead calm. I didn't know the course, so I started at what felt like a conservative pace and tried to pick it up as it went. Didn't get passed, and maybe passed 8-10 people or so, including one young guy on the last 400 (the finish is deadly - a ~ 350 m steep hill, followed by a sharp turn at the crest of the hill.... my last 400 was 89.8 seconds!).

Two weeks to go 'til the spring's goal race, a half marathon a couple fours from here. Training seems to be pointing to a decent time there, assuming good weather.

Have a great week, everyone!

Pete wrote:... a half marathon a couple fours from here...

Not sure what a couple "fours" would be in this context, but the race is a couple of HOURS from where I live. (damn dyslexic fingers)

Highly varied week here in Boulder. First of all, we literally alternate snow storms with sunny and 60-degree days this time of year. Secondly, I'm a nervous dad-to-be while still looking forward to some good racing this spring/summer.

On Friday I saw physical therapist/former marathon world champ/torture specialist Mark Plaatjes about my sore left knee. He pounded on an inflamed ligament and suggest more quad stretching (more as in any). But he gave me the green light for the Platte River Half-Marathon on Sunday.

On Saturday we thought it was baby time. Spent most of the day at the hospital but it turned out to be a false alarm. We would have been home within an hour but they had four emergency c-sections going on so it took a loooonnngg time to get discharged.

Sunday was a sweet day. Nice course for the most part, with one big climb at the very end. I was reasonably happy with a 1:31, especially considering the knee was still bothering me -- not enough to change my stride but enough to be worrisome. Aerobically I felt fine, which seemed encouraging for a three-day per week running schedule (plus a day or two of mountain biking).

Single Speed, did Mark make you scream? I've had a few cold sweat bite on something visits to him. For a little guy he sure can hurt.

For me nothing to report. Caught a mild cold luckily right after indoor nationals so took it quietly this week. Just as well because the body was pretty banged up anyway. Watched 2 basketball games yesterday (Stanford and then Denver Nuggets), a new viewing PR.

Therefore, to keep this couch potato from baking, keep those Carlsbad reports coming!

My colleague Don Norcross of The San Diego UnionTribune notes that Pete's race resulted in an American M45 road race record for 5K!

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080407/news_1s7badnotes.html

Only a couple problems with the story.

Pete's last name is misspelled throughout and the wrong age is listed.

(I blame the copy editors on the Sports Desk, not the writer. These facts are easily checkable.)

Nice half! Any more false labor? Today, the 7th, is our true due date, but now Olivia is 33 days. Yikes.

Hope all goes smooth for you, your wife, and little one. Be sure to keep the camera handy. If you have a movie camera, take it too. I was able to film her first bath which is a hoot to watch. We could not film any procedure, but everything else was no problem.

Keeping the fingers crossed!

Great recap of the race Pete, wonderful description. Dennis and yourself are both gifted runners and it is encouraging to know how well you are both still running. I have the utmost respect for Dennis and Michelle, they are the epitome of discipline and hard work and yet fun balanced people and just an incredible talent.

As for me, I took a work shop with hubby John in AZ on muscle release therapy, great stuff and looking forward to working on all the runners I know....

I am still on a slow come back trail but believing thanks to people like you and Dennis and Michelle that we can all run astoundingly well through our 40s and beyond. I don't often post here any more not wanting to be a sob story of injury set backs, but your post on the race prompted me to want to wish you continued great racing.........

tracklover: Mark P is some jackhammer thumbs ... he treats my wife too and we were joking (only he was laughing) about how after visiting him her labor will be a breeze.

1500: Thanks for the kind words and advice. We just purchased a new camera with better video features. Can't wait for the fun to begin.

Congrats on the big race SoCal; 14:50 is studly at any age, and downright awesome at 46. Likewise, Gary, nice 10 looking forward to seeing how Boston goes.

Gary, muddy g, you probably wouldn't want to admit it, but we knew each other way back when, on Merv's.

Ski race season wrapped up, uhhh, rather spectacularly this in March. We had a 43+ K marathon two weeks ago, which went just about perfect: beat one of USs top 50+ skiers (& medalist at World Masters) and a world cup women's skier from Norway only to get outkicked by another masters skier by 4 sec. Still best result of the year.

Six days later I lined up with THE best skiers in the US and North America in the US Distance Championships 30K. At 50 I was the oldest by more than 20 years! A running analogy would like being a somewhat over the hill bloke, who on a good day could run maybe 1:15 to 1:18 for the half, and here he lines up against Ryan Hall, Meb, Hansons, et al. at the US half marathon championships.

They took it out hard and immediately found I wasn't recovered from the marathon. Totally sucked out there! But as a coach and all-around hard-head, I refused to drop out in front of the home town crowd. Finished dead last in 1:46 for 30k, 24 minutes behind Russian born Ivan Babikov who is Canada's ski equivalent to Bernard Lagat. Babikov is now a Canadian citizen and will be a medal contender in 2010.

Anyway, back to the analogy: if it was a 1/2 marathon, the winners went 1:02 and I stumbled home way back in last at 1:20 or 1:21.

Think it's time to stick to age group level!

Meanwhile running is starting back up, and I did 20 miles last week and will build up from there.

AK-50 wrote:A running analogy would like being a somewhat over the hill bloke, who on a good day could run maybe 1:15 to 1:18 for the half, and here he lines up against Ryan Hall, Meb, Hansons, et al. ...

Hey, I've done exactly that in Lisbon a few years back. I somehow scored a seeded number (I had much appreciated local help - Antonio Cabral got me the number - he may have fibbed about my seed time, I don't know) and got to warm up with the likes of Paul Tergat and Stefano Baldini. Of course I never saw them again after the gun went off, but it was a privilege nonetheless. Good work gutting it out!

I've never heard of that newly Canadian Russian, but then again I don't really follow skiing. I have some buddies who've been national team members though - I'll have to ask them about the guy.

Pete wrote:

[quote]AK-50 wrote:

I've never heard of that newly Canadian Russian, but then again I don't really follow skiing. I have some buddies who've been national team members though - I'll have to ask them about the guy.

Here's a bio:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Babikov

Interested to hear what your friends say.

1,500,

Thanks for your help with the Great race half...the course was really difficult but I managed to get through it. My time is too slow to report amongst all of you elite masters. However, it was my longest run in 18 years! As an old coach once said "everyday in life is a comeback".

Also, belated congrats on the birth of your daughter....kids are amazing and they really help put things in the proper perspective.

AK-50 wrote: Interested to hear what your friends say.

In a strange coincidence, I was running with a buddy and bumped into a skiing friend at a downtown stoplight (it's not a small city here - this was an odd coincidence). I was about to blurt out "hey, what do you know about this Russian skier dude...?" but then the stop light changed and I had to keep moving on. Had this subject not come up this afternoon, I'm sure she wouldn't have appeared at that street corner. Life is full of odd little coincidences like that.