Count Down to the Stillwater Marathon

I decided relatively last minute, as far as marathons go, that I am going to run the Stillwater marathon on the 24th.  It is there inaugural race so I thought it would be fun, plus it is gorgeous country out in that area, potentially a lot of hills though.  I am not as concerned about the Stillwater race as I am of the following weekend when I will be running the Minneapolis marathon.  

Yes, a little crazy I know, but I feel great right now and I truth be told I'm really going to try and take it easy on these two.  They are more or less for "fun."  It will be interesting to see what type of field there is for the race, because Fargo, Minneapolis, Rochester and the Grandma's marathons are so close, I have a feeling  that they will be thinning the numbers out for each one.  We'll see though, marathons are growing in popularity every year.  

I checked the weather and it shows a high of 80 degrees, should be quite the change from Fargo.  

Workout: May 10th-12th

May 10th: Slightly hungover from post race celebration, but felt really good, so I took the day off.

May 11th: Softball game, it actually felt good to do some sprinting and I think it helped a bit the the soreness.

May 12th: Strength training upper body only and easy 3 mile.  

I asked personal trainer about advice on running marathon 3 weeks apart and she asked me why I'd want to do that.   Hmmm...touche train, touche.

Quick Tips

Fighting soreness is a big problem for runners and all athletes.  Here are some tips to fight soreness the next day.

1. Do a good cool down after your workout.

2. Make sure to stretch after your cool down.

3. Ice helps after intense workouts, 20min icing 20min off no more than an hour total.

4. Massage-if you can afford a sports massage great, otherwise do it yourself or use a foam roller.  It should be a fairly deep tissue massage, so it will hurt a little but it helps blood flow and recovery.

Fargo Marathon

Results from the 2009 Fargo Marathon:

Division: Men 25-29

Overall Place: 17

Sex Place:17 (i.e. no girls beat me)

10k: 39:41

13.1 mile: 1:25:09

20 mile: 2:10:49

Last 10k: 41:46

Time: 2:52:34

Pace: 6:35

It was a good race, though the weather was pretty cold.  I didn't do quite as good as I'd liked, I was trying to get under 2:50, but didn't quite make it.  The course was a lot different in that it winded through a lot of residential areas and often in the second half of the race there was no one around meet at all.  A bit different than Boston.

It was a great race and I finished 1st in my age division, so I was very excited about that and I won my first prize, a $50 gift card to Scheels Sporting Goods.  All in all a good race and a great weekend.

 

Fargo Marathon

Tomorrow is the big day marathon number 2 this year.  The Fargo marathon, which I a very excited for.  I have a lot of friends and family running and because it is a lot smaller field I think that I can place pretty high.  I am shooting for a top 10 finish, which is very possible if I can improve my existing personal best at all.  

The weather is supposed to be kind of nasty, mid 30's and potentially rain/snow, yes that's right snow in May.  We'll have to see how the race goes, we will have to make 2 loops because the course was changed due to all of the flooding that happened and this is my first marathon that I have run right after another one.  I feel like I'm completely recovered, so I don't think it should be a problem.  We'll see, it should be a fun race regardless of the outcome.

Workout: May 4th-6th

Taking it pretty easy getting ready for Fargo.

May 4th: First Softball game, so kind of a workout, but we got 10 run ruled so we only played 5 innings.  

May 5th: 5x 1000m at marathon pace.

May 6th: Easy 6 miles

Quick Tips

Quick Tip:

Two nights before the race is the most important night to get some rest.  Most people are nervous or anxious the night before a big race and can't sleep well, so make sure that two nights before you race you get a good nights sleep.

For me that's tomorrow, the Fargo marathon is Saturday.

Quick Tips

I know that I have not really shared a whole lot of advice on this blog and I have actually have learned a lot in the past year or so about running, nutrition, ect.  I am going to try and post a "Quick Tip" at least a few time a week with helpful information that I have learned.

Quick Tip:

Workout routine- Your workout routine should consist of 

1) Warm-up-Light jogging for example just enough to break a sweat.

2)Stretching- good full body stretch.

3)Workout- The hard stuff

4)Cool down- Again light jogging to lower your heart rate gradually.

5)Stretching- Again a good full-body stretch, this stretch is more important that the stretching before your workout and will help you recover from the workout and reduce soreness.

Well there you have it hopefully I'll be better and leaving more advice on this blog in the future.

Workout: May 1st-3rd

May 1: 9 miles total 2x20min @ marathon pace

May 2: Off softball practice

May 3: 13.5 miles easy (gorgeous day outside)

Last hard workout and last long run before the Fargo Marathon.  I am getting pretty excited, but I lost my watch/heart rate monitor, which is really no good.  Well, I have 5 days to find it.

Count Down to the Fargo Marathon

Just 8 days until the Fargo Marathon, I am really excited for this marathon for several reasons.  This is the first time I will be running a marathon with only 3 weeks in between, there are a lot of my friends and family are either running or coming to watch the race and because Fargo limits it marathon participation to only 1600 I think I have a good chance to place in the top 10.

I feel pretty good and will have 2 more solid workouts today and this weekend then it is another week of tapering to get ready for the race.  Also a friend of mine is trying o qualify for the Boston Marathon at Fargo so it will be fun running with him.