Running With Jack

Last night at 5:30 I jogged the 4K/2.5M to the trailhead where my running club runs. I planned on running an easier paced run, as I am still recovering from my HM, so asked the regulars that I run with what pace they were planning on running. Most said they also wanted to run an easy pace, so I decided to run with them. The first kilometer was indeed an easier pace then normal, but true to the nature of the group the tempo began increasing shortly after this until we were running at 5:00/K (8:00/M). Ignoring my bodies signals to keep it slower, I plunged on with the 5 runners.

We lost the first two at around the 4K point, I guess they were smarter then I. This seemed to spur the other 3 to an even faster pace. I hung with them for a few more minutes until I finally got the idea in my head that I was overdoing it a bit, e.g. I have a marathon in a week and a half. So I reluctantly slowed down a bit and hoped the other two would catch up. They never did, I ended up finishing the 11K run alone. The three fast dudes finished the 11K loop in around 53 minutes. I wandered in at 56:23, for an average pace of 5:08/K (8:15/M), which was almost a minute faster per kilometer than I had planned on.

I was sure to take it nice and slow at I ran the 4K home, but I knew the damage was done.

This morning I feel the error of my ways, my quads are toast. But now I have two days off until my next run, an easy 14K/8.7M-er. I am seriously considering not running with the running club next week, the rabbits are a bad influence on my recovery ;-)

Posted by Jack at 6:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

A few weeks ago I received an e-mail from Lora White who is working with a couple high school seniors who wrote a book about their quest for an Ohio state cross country championship. She stated that since this was a high school project with limited funds, the authors are hoping to generate some buzz in the blogosphere about the book. She asked if I could find time to read the book and then offer a review on my blog.

Now, I was never involved with cross country, but my own curiosity as a runner got the best of me and I decided to check it out. Although she offered to send me a free review copy, I figured she didn’t realize that I lived in Germany, so I decided to just order the $5.95 book from Amazon myself.

When the book arrived from Amazon Germany a couple days later I honestly was not expecting much more than a Hardy Boys tale of a cross country team. The description of the book written on the back cover left me unimpressed, I’ll repeat it here to introduce the books central theme:

“The young cross country team of Salem High School places in the State Meet, only to have the state athletic association eliminate them from the competition after a scoring error. Told from the perspective of two members of the team, Harriers details how Coach Mike Almond brought his team back to pursue the state title the following year. This book tells the boys’ story of teamwork, dedication and overcoming the odds.”

As I began to read through HARRIERS I felt the prose was a bit pompous, but when I considered the age of the authors, this is not surprisingly. As I read on I found myself totally drawn into their true story and had trouble putting the book down.

HARRIERS is a story about high school runners told by high school runners. The book captures the hardships, pain and eventual jubilation of a cross country team that had the rug pulled out from under them due to a scoring error at the state championships, but fought their way back to the top the following year. I found myself experiencing the ups and downs of the team, as I lived their journey through the authors.

I highly recommend buying the book because it is simply a good read and a great way to support young writers. The authors Joseph and Paul Shivers were mentored by the Fresh Writers Writing Program of which the Shivers’ were 2005 Award winners.

Buy the book, I bet you will feel the heat of enthusiasm through this well told story.

HARRIERS
By Joseph and Paul Shivers
Paperback,181 pages
Fresh Writers Books
PO Box 82
Uniontown OH,44685
Fax:707-220-4510

Posted by Jack at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Swim

Last night I stopped at the swimming pool on the way home from work. It was fairly busy, but I managed to get in a 1000 meters of laps before feeling crowded. I alternated breaststroke and freestyle every 100 meters, mostly so I didn’t drive everyone nuts as I seemed to have a hard time swimming straight when doing the freestyle. I still am a very weak swimmer. I probably could finish a sprint tri if I really wanted to, but I would prefer to wait until my swimming improves. The pool is closed for renovations for the next 3 weeks, so I have to find another place to swim next week.

The Diet

What diet? I’ve gained 3 lbs. since my tapering started. I would like to think it is just water, but it probably has more to do with the fresh pastries that I have been shamefully stuffing into my mouth almost every morning at work. I usually go through the pastry phase as the weather cools down and autumn set in. Unfortunately this cycle started early this year, at 6 a.m. this morning it was only 12C/54F and yesterday it only reached 16C/61F – this is August, right??

Anyway, I made sure to bring some fresh fruit with me to work this morning, I only have to stay away from the cafeteria until the danish are sold out :-)

The Taper

I feel pretty much recovered from my PR-breaking half-marathon on Sunday. I have a total of 42K/26M on the training schedule for this week. Compared to the 95K/60M weeks that I was putting in prior to tapering this seems like a warm-up. I woke up this morning feeling in dire need of a long run.

Posted by Jack at 8:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This week is turning out to be marathon week at work, I think the engineers are cleaning off their desks so they can go on vacation. They don’t know that I’m going on vacation soon too – I learned long ago never to tell anyone this (except my boss). I work as a Technical Writer/Web Designer/Translator/Documentation Coordinator/Baby Sitter for the NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) Development Division of my company. The engineers love to finish up their projects right before summer vacation or Christmas. What’s the last step? The documentation! “Hey Jack, can you read this over the next two weeks (when they are gone lounging on the beach in Spain)”? Yeah, sure, take a number…I’ll get to it when I have time (after I get back from vacation ;-)

Okay, I feel better now. Ranting and raving is almost as effective at getting rid of stress as a good run – ask A. Maria, she knows!

Speaking of which, last night I went for a nice easy 9K/5.5M run. It rained the whole time, but a gentle rain with very little wind. It reminded me of running in the springtime, although since is was only 18C/65F outside, it was probably colder than most spring days. I have only one question, who stole summer in Europe? Fess up, I know you’re out there, geez can’t leave the summer laying around anywhere anymore ;-) I know it wasn’t Thomas in Ireland, his weather is worse than ours.

Tonight I want to stop at the swimming pool on the way home and do some laps. Tomorrow night I want to run with the running club. How’s your week going?

Posted by Jack at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

So the official race results for my half-marathon have been posted on the Internet. I finished the race in 1:41:44, a new personal record, my old record being 1:48:12. I placed 122/294 overall, and 14/35 for my age group (M45). Out of the eight runners from my running group I placed 3rd, the two in front of me finishing in 1:28:30 and 1:33:10!

I found the following pictures of the start and finish of the race:

The winner of the race finished in 1:12:33, a young man (1979) out of Karlsruhe. The winning lady finished in 1:33:33, and hey listen up ladies, she was born in 1954! The second place woman, with a time of 1:34:28, was born in 1961. In fact the first five women HM finishers were all over 45 years old. Who said you slow down as you get older!

I am obviously pleased with setting a new personal record, I’m just amazed that I made such an improvement. I think a lot of it has to do with my running club. The ones I run with regularly kept telling me that I should be able to run a faster half, I guess I started believing them.

My legs are tired this morning, which is no surprise, but no aches or pains, pulled muscles or anything like that. I want to do a 5-mile recovery run this evening to loosen up the muscles. For the rest of the week I will continue my tapering with a 11K/6.8M run with my running club on Wednesday and probably a 1½ hour run on Saturday. I’ll fill in a couple of the days with some swimming and bike riding, but nothing excessive – I want to be in good shape for my marathon on Sept. 10th.

Posted by Jack at 6:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)

I woke up this morning well rested and ready for business. My goal today was to break my half-marathon personal record (PR). I just finished the most challenging marathon training cycle ever, my speed runs have been steadily getting faster, I had a week of tapering behind me and most important I had the hunger for a PR! In my mind today was the day! And to back it up I had two good nights of sleep, had a good pre-race meal last night, was relaxed and just ready to rock.

I arrived in Hambrucken, the town that experienced the tornado a month or so ago, about an hour before the race started. As I stood in line to pick up my race number a couple of guys that I run with from my running club came over and talked with me. They were running the 10K today, one wanted to try to break his PR. They asked me what my goal was, I said I wanted to break my HM PR of 1:48:12. They both agreed that the way I have been training it should be doable, the weather was almost perfect for fast running this morning, 16C/61F, no sun, only slight humidity, and almost no wind. The race route was entirely flat and a good mixture of roads, bike paths, gravel trails and forest trails.

I collected my number and spoke with a few other people from the club, three other were running the half, and a few were running the 10K. With a half-hour to go I got in line for the toilets, then went outside to warm-up.

A few minutes before the start of the race I lined up with the other runners. The 5K, 10K, and HM runners were all starting at once – it was quite crowded. My strategy was simple, try to break out of the pack as soon as I could, then try to run every kilometer at an average pace 5:00/K (8:03/M). This would get me over the finish line with a new PR. So at the start the only thing that I allowed myself to think about was the first kilometer.

As the starting pistol went off we slowly creeped forward, I new better then trying to weave forward, this uses up too much energy. Instead I waited for little pockets to open up and gradually made it out of the crowd. I was pleased to see that I finished the first kilometer in 4:55 (7:55/M), despite the slow start. I remain focused, concentrating on keeping my breathing at a steady rate and my legs pumping at a good cruising speed. I ran the second kilometer in 4:50 (7:47/M) and the third kilometer in 4:40 (7:31/M). At this point I was starting to breath hard so I let up on the pace just a bit. I don’t recall what my time was for the 4th kilometer, but I crossed the 5K point in 24:01, for an average pace of 4:48/K (7:44/M) – which is 1 second faster than my best 10K race pace.

I grabbed a cup of water at the 5K aid station, but kept running, somehow I managed to get some of it in my mouth ;-) By this time I started getting thought that maybe my pace was too fast, that I would never be able to maintain this pace and that I would end up dying at the 16K like I did last time. I shook these thoughts aside and only thought about the present kilometer. I ran kilometer 6 in 4:59 (8:01/M), oops I was starting to slow.

Becoming a little alarmed that I perhaps couldn’t maintain the pace, I dug in and pressed forward, finishing the 7th kilometer in 4:50 (7:47/M). From this point on I started having trouble remembering when I passed the previous kilometer, so I just kept track of the seconds on my watch, I was running pretty close to 5:00 kilometers, so it was easier to do this. For the rest of the race I concentrated on running under 5:00/K (8:03/M), as long as I did this I didn’t worry about anything else.

I passed the 10K point in 48:18, just 12 seconds slower than my best 10K time! Rather then getting cocky I kept pushing forward, the race wasn’t over yet. I grabbed a cup of water and a piece of banana at the aid station just past the 10K point, slowing just long enough to stuff it all inside. Around the 12K point the 3 or 4 people that I had been following for at least a half hour pulled ahead of me. My mind was trying to tell me that I was slowing down, so I did, running the 13th kilometer in 5:05 (8:11/M). But then I thought about my training, all the runs with the speedy dudes from my running club – I knew my body wasn’t finished, I dug deep and pressed on!

I ran the next couple kilometers under 5:00/K, but I was fighting for every second. Shortly after the 15K aid station I tall dude past slowly by, somehow this irritated me and I passed him. We ended up playing cat and mouse, which seemed to really tick him off. Somehow my dark side emerged, because every time he crept by I managed to creep by him again – and because of his height he was taking one step to my two! For a couple kilometers I forgot to even look at my watch, but I ran both the 17th and 18th kilometers in 4:50 (7:47/M).

With three kilometers to go the tall guy ran out of steam, so I concentrated on sinking my teeth into the next victim, a running chick about a minute ahead of me. My quads were starting to ache as I slowly swiped away at the gap between us. My breathing started increasing and my heart pounded, but my speed seemed to be decreasing. I decided it wasn’t worth the energy to look at my watch, so just kept going.

With one kilometer to go I finally managed to pass the running chick, as we made our way back into Hambrucken. I recognized the street, this was the street where the tornado set down, you could still see some of the massive roots from the trees that were torn out of the ground.

As I wound my way through the streets of Hambrucken I did my best to at least maintain my pace. A few runners sped by me as we rounded the last corner. With the finish line in sight I did my best to try to pick up the pace, but I just didn’t seem to have any kick left.

I still managed to catch up with one of the guy that passed me, we crossed the finish shoulder on shoulder. I was gasping for air and my quads were killing me, but I knew that I had set a new PR - but I wasn’t prepared for what I saw on my stopwatch:

1:41:45

I couldn’t believe it! I beat my old by almost 6 ½ minutes – no I blasted the old PR to bits like the tornado did to the forest in Hambrucken!

After walking around a bit to cool down and doing some stretching, I showered, picked up a cup of coffee and a piece of cake the club was selling and joined a couple guys from my running club. After sharing our race stories, we headed our separate ways, in my case home to my sweety. By the time I hit the front door I was flying on caffeine, sugar, and adrenaline so about tore the door off the hinges as I rushed into the house to retell my adventure.

I am still waiting for the official race results, but I am pretty confident that my old PR is history. How was your weekend?

Posted by Jack at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

This morning I redefined "race-of-my-life" during the half-marathon, full race report to follow!

Posted by Jack at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I came home from work yesterday I decided to run a shorter run to loosen up and leave some of the stress from work outside. I set out at a comfortable pace, running the first kilometer in 5:25 (8:43/M) and the second about the same. Then I decided to pick up the pace for a few minutes, so ran the 3rd kilometer in 5:07 (8:14/M). This felt good, I’m sure I could have finished my run at this pace, but I have a race on Sunday, so I slowed it back done to an easy pace. I ran about 8.5K/5.3M in 48:47, for an average pace of around 5:44/K (9:14/M) for the distance.

Today (Saturday) I feel lazy, it is the first weekend that I haven’t done a long run in awhile. I spent most of the day working in my woodworking shop, there is always something to do.

Tomorrow morning my half-marathon starts at 9 a.m., I’m ready to give it my best shot! I’ll let you know how it goes.

Posted by Jack at 4:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Last night I had to work an hour longer, so one of my coworkers drove me home. Of course he was also a friend of mine, so we had to stop for the obligatory beer on the way home, which lead to a couple hours of ranting and raving about the problems of the world, which meant by the time I got home my wife was already done with her school work and looking for companionship – so I decided to postpone my run until tonight (Friday). As I only plan on a 45-minute easy run this is no major problem, I still have a day of rest planned for Saturday, which should leave me ready to run a good race on Sunday.

Sunday’s half-marathon is in Hambrucken, a town about a 20-minute drive from our house. Several of my running club are going to run the 5K or 10K the same morning, so it should be fun. The course is flat, with a good mix of asphalt, gravel and improved forest paths. The HM, 10K and 5K all run together for the first few kilometers, so it could be crowded at the beginning. The weather prediction is cool temperatures in the 60’s (F) and rain. So really anything goes.

Hambrucken from the air:

I would like to break my current 1:48:12 personal record on Sunday, but like every race I have multiple goals in mind:

A race-of-my-life goal: Run the race in 1:45:00 or less
A good-race goal: < 1:48:12 (new PR)
A not-so-good-race goal: >1:48:12-1:55:00
A should-have-stayed-home goal: >1:55:00

My strategy is simple, break out of the 5K/10K pack and find my groove, hopefully around 5:00/K (8:00/M), and hold it until the end. Oh, and run the last kilometer like my butt's on fire!

Posted by Jack at 7:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Last night at 5:30 p.m. I ran the 4K/2.5M to the trailhead so I could run with my running club. We had a pretty good turnout, despite it being summer vacation time in Germany. I planned on running a nice easy pace, around 6:00/K (9:39/M), so asked around who was planning on running the same. The other ultra marathoner in our group said he wanted to run fartleks, but I figured this would kill my legs so I declined. Some of the guys that I normally run with said they were going to take it easy tonight, so I joined them.

The first kilometer was indeed an easier pace than what these guys normally run, but it wasn’t long until they started speeding up. My legs felt good so I hung with them. After a few kilometers two of the runners dropped back, this should have been a sign…a few minutes later two of the runners in front started accelerating again, leaving just two of us running together.

Now I don’t know this other guys name, but I did know that he tends to run the first half of our 11K/7M trail at a reserved pace, then starts speeding up. And true to his routine this is exactly what he did a couple minutes later. Rather than being left running alone I decided to try to stay with him, which I did, at least until we caught up with the fartlek running ultrarunner. About this time fartleks appealed to me and I bid the speedy runner farewell.

So for the rest of the run I played cat and mouse with the fartlek runner. I say cat and mouse because when he speeded up, he REALLY speeded up, at a pace that I could not match – so I could only catch him again when he slowed down.

In any case this made the run quite interesting and was a fantastic workout to boot! I ended up running the 11K/7M loop in 56 minutes, or at an average pace of 5:05/K (8:12/M) which is faster than my HM pace. I also know that the last two kilometers were at a 4:40/K (7:31/M) pace, which is redling at faster than my 10K pace. Probably not smart right before a half-marathon…

This morning my quads are seeking vengeance and I feel like I could sleep a couple more hours, but I have a few days to recover before my HM. Tonight I want to go for a 45 minute recovery run to stretch out the muscles, then I am taking two days off till race day (Sunday).

Posted by Jack at 6:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Last night I stopped at the swimming pool on the way home from work and swam 1100 meters. The tapering is already paying off, I was more relaxed and was able to swim more efficiently (e.g. the lifeguards didn’t try to rescue me when I did the freestyle ;-)

Tonight I am running with my running club, pace to be determined when I get there. I am trying to take it easier this week so I can have a good half-marathon race on Sunday. I try to set a personal best at least once a year with each race distance (below marathon), I already have a PB for the 8.88889K (Baden Mile) and 10K, now it’s time to try my luck at the HM. If it doesn’t work out I have a couple more events this year, I’m not going to get all stressed out about it.

Happy running!

Posted by Jack at 8:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So in honor of my first day of tapering I shortened my 14K/8.7M run to 9K/5.5M. Why? No special reason, after heading out and running 5K it just felt like it was the right decision to head home. But I didn’t totally slack off – I ran kilometer 2 in 5:10 (8:19/M) and kilometer 8 in 4:45 (7:39/M). My average pace for the 9K/5.5M was 5:33/K (8:56/M), a little fast for a recovery run. Anyway my legs feel great, it doesn’t feel like I ran 4 hours on Saturday.

The first negative aspect of tapering is rearing its ugly head. I spent the day eating like I’m going to run 100K this week, trouble is I only plan on running half that amount. I’m scared to look at the scales in the morning. I’m going to have to be careful over the next few weeks, whew!

Anyway tomorrow night I want to head to the pool and do some cross-training.

Posted by Jack at 5:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

read this.

Posted by Jack at 1:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Yesterday was a rest day, I spent most of the day cleaning up my home office, answering numerous e-mails that my genealogy homepage generated, and just relaxing with my wife. My legs already feel mostly recovered from the 4-hour run on Saturday. I feel a little tiredness when I walk stairs, but otherwise they feel fine.

Tonight I want to go for a recovery run, probably my normal 14K/8.7M trail. Wednesday I plan on doing a tempo run with the running club, then maybe a shorter run on Thursday or Friday night.

On Sunday (27th) I have a half-marathon race in nearby Hambrucken, the town that had the tornado a few weeks back. I am going to do my best to break my personal record of 1:48:12 The way I have been training lately, I should be able to do it. So if you hear about another tornado in Hambrucken next weekend, don’t worry, it’s just Jack doing his thing ;-)

Posted by Jack at 6:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This morning was a cool 14C/57F as I headed out at 6:00 a.m. this morning for my last long run before my marathon on September 10th. Luckily the odd pain in the back of my foot had disappeared after a day of rest yesterday, so I was ready to go.

Rather then doing another back to back I decided to do a slightly longer long run, hopefully about 4 hours. Anyway this was on my mind as I drove to the neighboring town of Weingarten where my hilly trail is located.

As I started running I was at first concerned that the pain in the Achilles area of my right foot would act up again, but as it turned out this was never an issue. Anyway I did two 1½ hour loops, then headed around for part of a third. By this time my quads were showing the first signs of resentment of what of what I was putting them through, but I pushed on. After 3½ hours my legs were getting tired, but worse was the mental battle going on inside – I wanted to quit, to stop running and just walk back to the car. But I kept telling myself this was the last long run for a few weeks, I had to finish up!

Finally after what really felt like an eternity, my watch indicated that I had run for 3 hours and 45 minutes, which meant I could come down off the mountain and return to my car. I arrived 16 minutes later for a total long run of 4:01:00 (around 36K/22.5M). Mission accomplished, but man was it mentally challenging this time.

For the record this was 4 hours of straight running, no walk breaks, only 2 short pee-breaks. The only food/drink that I consumed was 2 ½ liters of isotonic sports drink.

After a cool-down walk and some stretching I headed back to the house for a shower, second breakfast, and some time off the feet. Now, 10 hours later, my legs are tired, but no aches, pains or complications.

So now its taper time, I think I won’t have too much problem with this, as I have been pushing my body harder for this race than for any other race (including my ultras) and it’s time to take a step back and rest a little. Next Sunday I have a half-marathon, but I don’t necessarily have to “race” it – but we’ll see, a new PR would be fun too.

Posted by Jack at 7:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I was startled by an obituary I saw this morning in the newspaper. If you have been reading my blog for awhile you may remember that we belonged to a garden club up until this spring when we sold our garden. Well, the garden club has a club house restaurant (beer garden) which is leased by a couple with two daughters. On Sunday the oldest daughter was driving home and was involved in a fatal traffic accident just a few miles from home (I don’t know the details yet). This pretty, vibrant young lady that used to work as a waitress at the biergarden is gone, only 19 years old. I know from talking with her that she was so looking forward to life, a career, a family – in her dreams she had no limits. My heart goes out to her family and friends…

Posted by Jack at 9:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Runner Susan and Bill were wondering if I am getting faster with my running. When I review my 10K race statistics from the last two years there is a clear indication that I have been getting faster, at least up until this past April when I seem to have leveled out. For example in May 2004 I ran a 10K in 53:53; in June 2005 - 49:51 and in April 2006 48:18 (my PR).

I was also looking over my training logs since 2004. My faster training runs averaged around 5:40/K (9:07/M) in 2004. In 2005 this dropped to around 5:30/K (8:51/M). This year I averaged around 5:25/K for the first 6 months, but in July my pace dropped to 5:21/K (8:37/M) and August to 5:06/K (8:12/M).

It is interesting to note that my average speed training pace started improving when I started running with the Graben Running Club.

So I guess the answer is yes, my speed is slowly improving.

After saying all that I should add that I really haven’t done “speed work” as many would define it, e.g. I haven’t done hill repeats, intervals, sprints, whatever. Rather, I have simply run my 14K/8.7M route faster once a week and/or run the 11K/7M route with the running club at a faster pace. The pace that I indicate is the “average” over the distances indicated.

Anyway last night I ran my 14K/8.7M route at a nice easy pace, around 5:47/K (9:18/M). Actually this is a lie, I stopped about 500 meters before the “finish” and walked, so send me to runner’s hell for fudging my log ;-)

Last night I had some issues with my right foot, the muscles in the back of the heel (Achilles ?) hurt after about 40-50 minutes of running and got increasingly painful as I continued. Being totally paranoid I slowed down and finally walked the last 500 meters. This morning the muscles are a bit tight in this area, but there is no pain. I’m going to take a rest day today and hopefully will be fit for my long run tomorrow morning. I think my old body is finally telling me that I shouldn't do a back to back long run EVERY weekend.

Posted by Jack at 7:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Last night I ran the 4K/2.5M to the trailhead of the Graben Running Club and ran 11K/6.8M with the rabbit group. Two of the guys that I normally run with from a moderate speed group decided to get in a tempo run, so I figured well they are from my group so they probably won’t run too fast. Ha!

We attached ourselves to a group that turned out to be rabbits in tortoise’s clothing, they started out at a nice steady 5:30/K (8:51/M) pace, but it turns out they were just warming up – by the second kilometer they were flying along at 4:45/K (7:39/M) which is faster than my 10K pace.

I hung with them until the 3rd kilometer, then dropped back with two other’s, that I haven’t run with before, who decided they were too old for the rabbits like me ;-) We settled down to about a 5:18/K (8:30/M) pace, which was more sustainable.

As it turns out one of the guys that slowed down with me was “the other” dude in the running club who ran the 80/K (50-miler) Fidelitas Night run in June – we finally got to meet each other! This dude told me he has run the event 21 times, almost every year that they have held the event! This year he came in 12 minutes ahead of me! So we spent the rest of the running impressing the third dude with our ultramarathon adventures, hopefully convincing him to run it next year with us :-)

So anyway I ended up running the 11K in 58:01, an average pace of 5:16/K (8:29/M), a good tempo run, and an enjoyable run with two new found friends! I jogged the last 4K/2.5M home with light feet and a smile on my face, it just doesn’t get better than this!!

p.s. The two guys that I started running with at the beginning turned around at the 5K point and took a shortcut back to the starting point - the rabbit group burned them out :-)

Posted by Jack at 6:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Tonight I had my 14K/8.7M speed run (>5:15/K or 8:30/M pace) on the schedule, but concern that a couple meetings this week will mess up my higher mileage runs lead to a shift in plans. I decided to go for a medium long run, distance to be determined when I got out there. I headed out over my normal 14K route, then turned just past the 9K/5.6M point and headed over the railroad bridge separating my route with my running clubs trails. I decided to run the 11K/7M loop and then cross back over and finish my 14K route. I maintained a fairly steady pace and finished the roughly 26K/16M run in 2:35:14, for an average pace of 5:58/K (9:37/M), almost my planned marathon pace.

The last 5K were pure hell, my quads complained bitterly every last step of the way. But I knew it was just whining and pushed on home, barely breaking my pace! Now as I type my quads are getting their revenge, wow! Tomorrow I am taking a rest day (I have to work late) so hopefully I'll be back in shape by Wednesday night.

Posted by Jack at 7:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Yesterday was a cold, rainy day so we decided to stay home and get a few things done around the house. At 5 p.m. my wife went upstairs to work on her Technical English homework, so I decided to go to the swimming pool. The pool ended up being really crowded, but I fought my way through 1000 meters of laps. In any case I worked off some of the mega-calories that I consumed this weekend. I’m going to have to cut way back with the eating when I start tapering.

Tapering on the Horizon

Speaking of tapering, I have just one more intensive week of training and then I’ll start tapering for my September 10th marathon. My last long run will be on Saturday morning. I haven’t decided whether to do another back-to-back run, or just one real long run. I guess I will see how the legs feel on Friday. I don’t think there is any real need to do a back-to-back long run this weekend, I’m only training for a marathon and a 50K, not a 50/100-miler.

The Rest of the Year

As I mentioned I have a marathon on September 10th. The week following this we will be on vacation in Toscana, Italy, but then it will be back to work training for my 50K that I will run on October 21st.

I also have several other shorter races on the calendar, I probably can’t do all of them (my wife would flip out), but I will surely try to do as many as possible:

Hambrucken Half-marathon – August 27
Pfalz Marathon (Pirmasens) – September 10
Kraichgau Half-marathon – September 24
Neudorf 10K Autumn Run – October 1
Rhine Half-marathon – October 3
Durlach 10K Town Run – October 7
Hardt Forest Run (10K) – October 15
Schwabischer Alb 50K – October 21
Neckargemund 11.8K Mountain Run – November 4
Karlsbad 10K Volks Run – November 11
Karlsruhe Palace 10K Run – November 19
Marsch 8.4K Cross Country Run – November 25
Bruchhausen Half-marathon – December 2
Rheinzabern 10K Run – December 17
South Pfalz 9.1K Cross Country Run – December 23
Forchheim 10K New Years Run – December 30

Most of these are within 30-40 minutes of my house - so I guess my old bones won’t be collecting any rust for the rest of the year!

Posted by Jack at 8:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

On Friday when I came home from work it was stormy out, thundershowers and windy. My wife prefers that I don’t run during thundershowers, so I figured I would have to postpone my running plans for a day. But an hour later the sun popped out and I decided to go for it before the next round of thundershowers.

The air was clean and fresh, the temperature around 19C/67F, as I made my way over my normal 14K/8.7 route. My plan was to turn at the 8.5K point and add on another 14K/8.7M from the Graben Running Club trails. However, as I started over the latter trails I could hear thunder in the distance so I decided to cut the run a little short. I ended up with 23K/14M at an average pace of 5:48/K (9:21/M). To be honest I was straining pretty hard at the end to keep the pace up, so it was probably better that I quit early anyway. The 28K/17.5M (2 runs) that I did on Wednesday left me worn down more than I had anticipated.

On Saturday morning I was up at 5:30 and began my hilly long run around 6:15. It was raining lightly and the temperature was a fresh 13C/55F, which is pretty cool for August in our area. My goal was a non-stop 3½ hour run (roughly 32K/20M) over the hilly trails. I had mapped out a roughly 16K/10M loop earlier in the week using Google Earth, much of which was over my normal hilly route, so I only needed to run this loop twice to meet my goal.

The first loop started out well, my legs were somewhat recovered from the run the night before, it definitely helped that I had shortened that run. However by the end of the first loop my quads were already protesting, especially on the last steep downhill back to my starting point. As I climbed back up the mountain my quads settled down again, but by each downhill they again raged. By the 3 hour point my legs were shot, everything ached. I could feel my pace slipping, but fought grudgingly on to keep it as strong as possible.

Finally I made my way down the last downhill and last 500 meters back to my car. I ended up running for 3:29:34, no walk breaks, and only one short pee break. I also didn’t fuel during the run, other than the 2-liters of watered-down sports drink in my CamelBak. After walking it out for 5 minutes and some stretching I drove home for a hot shower, a second breakfast and a chair! Mission accomplished.

Today (Sunday) my legs feel good, no aches or pain – a bit tired, but nothing a day of rest won’t cure. Not bad for having run 97K/60M this week, my second highest mileage week ever!

Posted by Jack at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Ha, I bet you all wonder what this post is about, huh! It’s not running related so if you are in a hurry you don’t need to linger.

I was walking by the small breakroom that we have at work and the 5 male coworkers were discussing of all things, “Whether a good-looking woman has more persuasive power over a man, than one that isn’t?” I don’t know how a bunch of electrical engineers got started on that, or what their parameters were, e.g. how do you define who is good-looking, what they meant by “persuasive power” etc. – but they seemed to be pretty spirited in their discussion. I got my cup of coffee and moved on, but of course I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

I know at work if the secretary (the only woman in our section) came and asked me to help her I would do it in a heartbeat, but not just because she is blond and pretty (and reads my blog), but rather because she is a good friend of my wife and I. I have been in meetings and discussions with a good mixed group and I don’t feel that my mind was changed because anyone looked better than anyone else.

I do freely admit that I would probably react faster if a woman asked me for help, as compared to a man – is this being sexist? I think I’m just old fashioned - I mean I still open doors and give up my seat on a crowded tram/bus and am more thoughtful of what I say around women - but this was just the way I was raised.

What do you guys think, does a “good-looking” (insert your own interpretation of this) person have more persuasive power over the opposite sex?

p.s. I asked our secretary, she said “Yes, definitely!” hmmm…

Posted by Jack at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

What a difference a day of rest makes, wow! Last night I stuck to my decision to take a rest day. I surprised my wife by showing up just as she was leaving work and took her out for dinner – nothing fancy, just a street Cafe around the corner in the main market area of Karlsruhe. We enjoyed watching the scurrying shoppers rushing around doing their errands before the rain slowed them down, had some good food, and just enjoyed sharing the time together. The best part is we only had to walk 50 feet to the tram (street car) and could ride it home (no rush hour traffic, park-houses and stress).

This morning I feel rejuvenated, ready to take on another back-to-back long run tonight and tomorrow. My wife is going to take advantage of my absence this evening to work on her Technical English course, so I have this side covered. I only haven’t decided whether to run the flat route around my town tonight and the hilly route tomorrow, or the other way around. Physically it would probably make more sense to do the hard (hilly) run first, but mentally it is better training to do the flat run first than the hard one when I’m more worn out tomorrow.

It will probably end up like it usually does, it will depend on when my wife gets home with the car – the hilly route is 7.5 miles away (all asphalt – yuk). Of course I could run the 7.5 miles to the hilly route, run a couple loops (8 miles x 2) and run 7.5 miles home, but I think I will save the 31 mile training run for when I train for my 100K race next year ;-)

At this point I prefer more time on the softer hilly route and none on asphalt (The Asphalt Phooey Principal - TAPP).

Posted by Jack at 9:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

…is what my body is telling me this morning. With only two day of running in so far this week I already have logged 42K/26M – and that without a long run! Monday I did a faster paced 14K/8.7M run, which was on the training schedule.

Yesterday, in anticipation of a late night at work due to a training class, I ran 9K/5.5M in the morning before work (easy pace). But the class ended earlier than expected, so I managed to get home early enough to run with the Graben Running Club, so I ended up with 28K/17.5M for the day. At least I managed to keep the pace down, not like last week when I did two speed workouts.

My legs are tired and sore this morning, which is an indicator that I need to proceed cautiously over the rest of the week. I have cross-training on my schedule for tonight, but I think it is better that I take a rest day. I also may opt for a slightly longer long run this weekend rather than a back-to-back long run.

My inner voice is telling me I have entered the red zone and need to let up a bit on the gas pedal – and I’ve learned to trust my body. I’ll see how I feel tomorrow.

In any case four and a half weeks until my next marathon (Sept. 10)!

Posted by Jack at 6:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Last night I got home about 1½ hours late from work, but as my wife was busy around the house she kicked me out (get out of my way) to run. Of course I don’t need much prodding, I barely stopped to change before rushing out to complete my 14K/8.7M route.

It was a pleasant 27C/81F, sunny, and with a gentle breeze blowing as warmed up the first few minutes. As I passed over the bridge spanning the highway splitting my town with the neighboring town of Spoeck, I picked up the pace. As I made my way over the field paths, past Spoeck, and to the forest behind this town I just kept picking up the pace until I was cruising around 5:00/K (8:03/M), just under my 10K race pace. I continued on along the edge of the forest, eventually looping back through the lush forest trail within, all the while trying to maintain my tempo. Just before popping out into the sunlight I passed the tree marking my 10K point, 51:37, not too shabby for a grandpa ;-)

I slowed down for about a kilometer, but still feeling good, picked it up again as I headed over the dirt paths through the fields, running a kilometer in 4:51 (7:48/M). I finished the last two kilometers at a gentler tempo, then walked around the block a couple times to cool down. My average pace for the 14K/8.7M run was 5:06/K (8:12/M) which is a good solid speed workout for me, and with the mild temperatures, a most satisfying run.

Question of the day: What is your interpretation of a "speed workout"? Of if you prefer, what kind of speed training do you do?

There are lots of way to train to increase your speed. What generally fits best to my schedule is to run all or part of my 14K route as fast as I can. Probably primitive to many of you, but I'm not training for a 10K, only trying to add some faster paced running to my otherwise slow marathon/ultramarathon training runs. I'd love to hear what you do (or would like to do ;-)

Posted by Jack at 6:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Yesterday was a rest day, I ran 89K/55M for the week and my legs told me it was better to just stay home and rest. So I spent a little time with my wife and caught up on some unfinished tasks around the house.

For the next two weeks I am going to try to continue with the current training intensity, although my mileage may stay about the same.

I was thinking last night if I should continue with the two back-to-back longer runs over the next two weekends, or just run one longer run. Generally for a marathon the back-to-back long runs are almost overkill, a long run of up to 3 ½ would suffice.

I think most of you realize the importance of long runs in training for a half or full marathon, so I won't comment on this. Back-to-back long runs seem to be used mostly by ultramarathoner’s who want to simulate running on tired legs and the additional metabolic load of longer ultramarathons. Plus they help you learn to hold back the first day, as you need to in the first half of a long ultra (100K or 100M).

I think the uncertainty comes from a fear of burning myself out before marathon day. This feeling may not be justified, as my body has recovered very well from everything that I have thrown at it over the last 4-5 months. And to tell you the truth I would much rather experiment with the back-to-back runs now, and risk overdoing it, then making a mistake next spring when I am training for a 100K which would prevent me from doing the run.

As far as my September marathon is concerned, it really doesn’t matter which route I go, important is only that I get in a couple more long runs (and don’t break anything).

Posted by Jack at 8:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

…is all I can say about my back-to-back long run from last night and this morning!

It began with an approx. 26K/16M run Friday night after work, combining the 14K/8.7M route that I normally run, with the 11K/7M route from my running club (plus the 1K in between). With cooler temperatures at 5 p.m. (25C/77F) it made for a nice pleasant run. I averaged a comfortable 5:55/K (9:31/M) pace making two short pit stops along the way for refueling and waste control.

This morning (Saturday) I was up early and drove to the neighboring town of Weingarten to run my hilly route. I started running around 6 a.m. – it was a cool 16C/61F, with a drizzling rain. I made two extended loops over my hill route, taking a couple loop backs to tack on extra distance. I ended up running for 3:15:00, I would guess roughly 30-31K (~19M).

So around 56K/35M in roughly 16-17 hours!

So how was it you might ask? Well, it was definitely not easy – not that I wanted it to be. What I didn’t anticipate as I planned this double long run last weekend is that I would to two speed workouts during the week. When I set out on the first long run on Friday night my legs were still not fully recovered from the speed workouts, by the time I finished I felt like I had run much further. This morning when I started running I almost immediately felt the tightness in my legs. I pretty much ignored this the first half of the run, but then my legs just started getting achy, the quads were protesting loudly.

During the last hour of the run my legs felt like I was running with lead weight in my shoes, it was challenging to raise the knees while running uphill – and downhill pounded my legs into a pulp. I ended up taking three 3-minute walk breaks during the last hour of the run and had to call upon all my mental fortitude to keep from stopping all together. I was quite relieved to finally get back to the car. I had actually wanted to run 15 minutes later, but my legs vetoed this idea!

In any case I achieved my objective which was to run a long run while physically worn down – kind of like “getting past the wall” training or practicing the ability to keep going when your body protests.

Although I wouldn’t recommend this method of training for most marathon training programs, I will probably implement this in my training schedule when I train for a 100K/62M trail run next year. I really don’t have time to implement more mileage or training days in my training week, so I am looking for ways to optimize the time that I do have. This double long run method is not easy!

p.s. Somebody remind me not to do two speed workouts next week ;-)

Posted by Jack at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

I stopped by the Pirmasens Marathon webpage last night and discovered they have some pictures of the planned marathon route for September 10th. I dedicate these to Angie who commented that she would love to do a forest marathon!

Posted by Jack at 6:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Today after work I headed to the pool for some laps. As today was the first day of school vacation (and it was rainy outside) the pool was full of nerve-breaking teenies. There were also more adults than normal, probably trying to get a last workout in before they spend the next 2-3 weeks on vacation with the kids.

In any case I managed to get in 1100 meters of laps. I was in no hurry – my legs were still tired from the speed workouts this week, so I just took my time and tried to enjoy it the best I could (despite the masses).

A Forest Marathon?

A couple people asked me what's a “forest" marathon? The marathon that I am running in September is called the Pfalzwerwald (Pfalz Forest) Marathon. According to the advertising for the race the route “Quickly leaves the city and enters into the soft ground and fresh air of the forest, eventually circling around the forest back to the starting point.”

So basically the first and last kilometer (+/-) are asphalt, the rest should be “soft” forest paths. If the paths are like most forests in Germany they are improved logging or farm trails usually consisting of dirt, gravel or some kind of mixture like this. It is rare to find any single-path or rough trails like you find in many parts of North America. There are several hill climbs during the race, but again I can’t imagine the “trail” will be in too bad of shape.

You should also realize that this is not a small marathon, they are expecting up to 3000 participants for either the marathon or half-marathon. So the trails have to be pretty accessible to handle this crowd.

I anticipate that the “trails” will be very similar to what I run on regularly, developed dirt and gravel paths through the shady forest. Sounds good to me anyway, I’m really looking forward to it! Anything but asphalt!!

Posted by Jack at 6:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Last night was a cool, windy, almost blustery 25C/77F as I headed out at 5:30 p.m. to run with the Graben Running Club. I ran the 4K/2.5M to the meeting point at a nice easy warm-up pace, around 5:45/K (9:15/M).

I was one of the first to arrive and as I waited I started wondering if I was going to be running alone (the other two there were from the fast group). But in the last 7-8 minutes the small parking lot filled and there ended up being more people than usual (around 40). I fell in with the normal group that I run with, but one said he wanted to run the 11K/7M faster with a couple other dudes, so I decided to join them.

The four of us took off, or more correctly stated, the three of them took off and I fought to keep up with them. They quickly reached my 10K race pace, then faster, by the second kilometer I knew I was running with the wrong crowd, but did my best to hang with them. By the 4th kilometer I could feel the first side stitches and just as I was about to bid my adieu, the fastest rabbit pulled over for a pit stop. The other two slowed down slightly and I managed to stay with them another 10 minutes. Finally after about 7K/4.5M I decided that I would do more harm than good if I kept the pace up, so I bailed out and fell behind. I managed to keep the small group in site and noticed a few minutes later that another one dropped out as well. I concentrated on trying to catch him, but was still 10 paces behind him as we finished. I traversed the 11K/7M with an average pace of 5:01/K (8:04/M). Considering that I also ran a 14K/8.7M speed run on Monday this is pretty good for me.

After chatting with some of the club members for a few minutes, I started feeling a chill from the wind, so ran the 4K/2.5M back to the house (23 minutes).

This morning I definitely felt the workout in my legs – sore and stiff, a good reminder that I’m not getting any younger :-) Tonight I’m heading to the pool for some laps. This weekend I want to run another back-to-back long run, probably the same 20K/12.5M on Friday night and around 30K/18.6M hilly run on Saturday morning that I did last week. We’ll see how the legs feel on Friday.

Posted by Jack at 6:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

When I got home from work last night it was still a pleasant 29C/85F, a gentle breeze was blowing and the humidity had diminished significantly. I decided that it was a good night to get in a tempo run.

After warming up I headed out over my flat 14K/8.7M route, completing the first kilometer in 5:27 (8:46/M). Feeling good I picked up the pace and quickly fell into a groove, a pace of around 5:10/K (8:19/M), which is around my half-marathon race pace. As I entered the rim of the forest at around the 4K point, I was feeling really good and just kept pouring it on. I passed the 10K point in 50:27, an average pace of 5:03/K (8:07/M).

As I came out of the forest soon after this I hit a pretty strong headwind and slowed down a bit. But I was still feeling strong so quickly picked up the pace again finishing the 14K/8.7M with an average pace of 5:03/K (8:07/M), just 10 seconds under my 10K race pace!

Needless to say, it was a great run and a great feeling! I guess the back-to-back run on Friday and Saturday was too easy, I need to start running farther ;-)

Actually I ate well and slept long and deep this weekend due to cooler temperatures. I think this really helped with the recovery.

Marathon on the Horizon!

In 5 ½ weeks is my next long race, a forest marathon on September 10. I have three more long runs planned over the next few weeks and will launch my tapering with a half-marathon race on August 27th.

The route of the “forest” marathon is 95% through the forest and surrounding fields around Pirmasens, in the Rhineland-Pfalz region of Germany (about 70 minutes from our house). As you can see from the accompanying profile there are a few hill climbs, so this will not necessarily be a quest to break my marathon speed record. I look at it as more of a reward for my hard training, a chance to celebrate my passion for running.

But first I still have some (self-imposed) tough training ahead of me - my next 50K is coming up in 12 1/2 weeks!

Posted by Jack at 6:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)