RUNNING WILD: Motivation

Here is a great post from a friend's blog. Certainly motivating. Enjoy!

RUNNING WILD: Motivation

Quote of the Day:

"It is simply that we can all be good boys and wear our letter sweaters around and get our little degrees and find some nice girl to settle, you know, down with...Or we can blaze! Become legends in our own time, strike fear in the heart of mediocre talent everywhere! We can scald dogs, put records out of reach! Make the stands gasp as we blow into an unearthly kick from three hundred yards out! We can become God's own messengers delivering the dreaded scrolls! We can race black Satan himself till he wheezes fiery cinders down the back straightaway....They'll speak our names in hushed tones, 'those guys are animals' they'll say! We can lay it on the line, bust a gut, show them a clean pair of heels. We can sprint the turn on a spring breeze and feel the winter leave our feet! We can, by God, let our demons loose and just wail on!"

Great Quote from a Great Book "Once a Runner" by John Parker Jr.

(PR) Personal Records

At this point I think that I am going to call it a year. I don't think I am going to enter any more races this year. I have had a lot of fun running the ones that I did and set PR's (Personal Records) in my Marathon, 25K, 50K and 50 mile distances. The biggest record being the Marathon because I have only ran one each of the other ones once. Next year I think I'm going to go for quality over quantity. 2009 was a year of a lot of races and I had a blast, I raced 203.7 miles this year and a considerable amount more in training.

2010 I think I'm going to focus in on more PR's, I have never ran a 10k or Half Marathon and haven't done a 5k since really high school. I think that while I am still young and able to have the time to really focus in on the marathon I'm going o try and maximize my potential in that race. I figure that I can switch over to the ultra marathons when I'm older. Dean Karnazes didn't start really running until he was 30 and most of the top ultra runners are in the mid 30's to early 50's. I think I will try and focus in on my marathon time and use some short races 5k, 10ks, Half Marathons to tune up for those races.

The only thing that will be tough is that I really started to enjoy the trail races especially the ultras. I mean where else can you get the chance to see 50 miles of some of the most beautiful countryside in MN in one day? I will also miss getting to know more about the Ultra marathon community, it is definitely a different and diverse group of people and not very big, understandable, so they seem to be a pretty close knit bunch. Marathoners on the other hand are a whole different breed, sort of the speedsters of true distance running if you will. Note that I consider the marathon the shortest "distance" race. For now I will be cutting back the miles and ramping up the weight training, I really believe that the work that I did last winter in the weight room really help me to be injury free and able to run the amount of races that I did.

On that note here is a good article from Runner's World about how to work towards that new PR. Enjoy!

Magic Mile Repeats at Runner's World

Charitable organizations from RunnersWorld.com

As the cold weather moves in, earlier than usual here in MN, it gets a bit tougher to find the motivation to run. One thing that always helps me is running for a purpose, and often times it is for a personal goal which is a great motivator. If you are still in need of more motivation running for a cause and to help others is a great reason too. There are plenty of opportunities out there to do so, see article from Runner's World, and if there isn't create your own ask people to sponsor you for a charity in your next race, there are tons of ways to incorporate running into a worth cause.

Charitable organizations from RunnersWorld.com

Running Art

Here is an interesting article that I found in the NY times. I know that some of your have seen the workouts that I have posted from my Garmin GSP watch. It records my route and maps it to google maps. Well people are taking that to a whole new level. Enjoy!

The Big Draw of a GPS run:

Quote of the Day:

Here is a great quote that is a really great response when people ask about why you run, especially so many races and the Ultramarathons.

"A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for." - William Shedd

Twin Cities Marathon 2009

Despite, one hectic week of traveling, presentations and recovering from a hamstring injury I did run the Twin Cities marathon. As I was sitting on the plane Friday evening I was sort of doubting whether or not I really wanted to go through with it. I know I was in good enough shape but still have some questions about my hamstrings and was simply exhausted from all of the traveling. When I got home I have to help move all of our furniture into our new apartment, so less then ideal circumstances for preparing for a marathon.

I did end up running the race and it went a lot better then I expected. I actually felt great for the first 18 miles or so and was on pace to beat my personal best up until then. But the last 6-8 miles I dropped off quite a bit from 6:20 to 6:35 minute mile pace to 7:00 to 8:30 minute mile pace. I am also paying for pushing that hard and potentially not fully recovering form the 50 miler and all of the above mentioned activities.

The Twin Cities marathon is always a great race and a lot of fun. You get to see a lot of both Minneapolis and St. Paul and its as close to a home field advantage as I can get. Being that I now live in the Minneapolis area and I went to school in St. Paul I used to run many mile up and down the last 1/3 of the course and now I currently run most of my miles on the middle 1/3 of the course.

Here are the results and you can see my pace results from my Garmin watch.

Chip Time:2:56:24

Overall Place: 205

5k Split: 20:26

10k Split: 40:58

Half: 1:25:26

30k Split: 2:02:02

20 Mile Mark: 2:11:14

Avg. Pace 6:44

Garmin Connect -
Activity Details for
Twin Cities Marathon 2009

Not Quite the English Country Side

Well a quick post here, I have been out of the country in London and now Paris for the past few days now and I managed to get in one run at least. Monday Morning, I went for 5 miles from our hotel, which was very close to the Heathrow Airport, so again not quite the English country side.

But I felt ok and the legs felt pretty good, though it was a bit of a challenge crossing the road being the they drive on the other side of the road I always had to remember to look the other way before crossing.

Running Abroad

Well, it's 8:30pm and I'm about to hop a plane to London and Paris for a week for work. Exciting I know, but our schedule is very busy and I have the Twin Cities marathon a week from tomorrow.

The challenges of fitting your runs in while vacationing or traveling for work is alway a challenge, especially while traveling abroad. I will need to get at least a few runs in, but being that this is my taper week and I'm still taking it easy after the 50 mile race. I am happy to report that my hamstrings are feeling much better and I went for a 5 mile run yesterday and felt ok. It was still a little tough to run faster that a 8:30min pace, but with one more easy week I should be fine. Won't be setting any PR though.

I'll try and fit my runs and posts in while abroad, and hopefully can post some pictures of some sites, I'm planning on bringing my camera on any outdoor runs.

What's 4 Minutes?

The Short-Intense-Workout that Delivers:

I'm talking about Tabata Training, a short intense workout that is supposed to yield major gains. What is Tabata Training? It was created in Japan in 1996 by Izumi Tabata from the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo, who was searching for a better training protocol for the Japanese speed-skating team.

It is simple and easy(relatively). All you do is a quick 4 minute interval workout.

20seconds Sprints all out

10 Seconds rest

8 times for a total of 4 minutes.

Sounds easy enough and it is recommended that you start out incorporating it into your normal workout and once a week for beginners, 2 for intermediate and 3 times a week for advanced runners. According to a study done participants using the Tabata interval technique for 6weeks improved 14% verses 10% for non users. in max aerobic capacity. They also improved there anaerobic capacity by 28% while none user saw no gain.

While I can not fully endorse this training technique as I have not used it yet. I think I can spare the extra 4 minutes to give it a try and see what results I get.