Cross country and other stuff

I've been pretty busy at work lately and definitely not blogging as much as I had been, but things have been going pretty well. I brought out the spikes a few weeks ago for a cross country race in Ann Arbor (photo above) and did ok in less than ideal conditions (cold, very windy, half inch of rain the night before). I finished 4th overall and thought I ran as well as I could for the day (don't even ask me what my time was!), but man does XC hurt. Normally, I don't get the dry heaving feeling until about a half-mile to go, but in that race it was more like a mile to go! But then, cross country is the most challenging when it's run on a tough course. The race was a good reminder that cross country really is a different sport than track or road racing. Sure, you need to do pretty similar training to be good at both, but you definitely need to get in the practice racing off road before your peak race. Club Nationals is on December 12 so I have a few more tune ups before that. This Saturday, I will be running in the Twinsburg Turkey Trot, which is half on roads and half on metro park gravel trails. On Nov. 21 the guys on my team, Second Sole Rocky River, will be doing a 4 mile cross country time trial. Trainingwise, my workouts have been faster over the last few weeks than any time of the year, so I'm a little bummed that I don't have a flat, fast road 5K coming up, but I'm happy to be in really good shape for cross country nationals.

Training Update

Had a really good week of mostly easy running with two key workouts: a 10 miler with 2 x 15:00 @ Tempo effort on Monday and a hilly 12 miler today, which included five upper and lower loops of Edgewater Park where I hit the uphills hard (alternating between high knees, bounding and just plain hard running) and hitting the downhills at race effort. A good Lydiard-type effort. I'm getting excited about my final racing phase of 2009, which I just updated on my entry below. I'll be doing a 5K cross country race in Ann Arbor next Saturday, followed by a 5 mile road/trail race on Nov. 14, our masters and open team 4 mile cross country time trial on Nov. 21 and then Club Nationals XC on December 12. Really excited that I'm on a masters team for this. Right now we have 6 guys lined up (all of us are ex-Team Good River runners) for the masters race and I believe we have enough for two teams in the open race.

The final countdown

I've mapped out my final races of 2009 as I prepare for the USATF Club Nationals cross country meet in Lexington, KY on December 12.

October 31 - Ann Arbor Track Club Invitational 5K cross country: Really looking forward to this as the last time I ran on this course was in the fall of 1980!

November 14 - Twinsburg Turkey Trot 5 miles: My buddy Jim Chaney who is managing this race describes it as a mix of road, paved bike paths and gravel trails. This should be a good XC simulation. This will be my first race as a 45-year-old.

November 21: Cross country team time trial - 4 miles. The masters guys will be running a time trial with our two open teams as we get ready for club nationals in Lexington.

December 12: Club Nationals 10K cross country: I need to research the course, but typically nationals are on flat courses but Kentucky in December will likely be rainy/snowy, so I'm preparing for a messy course.

Long overdue update!

It's been a few weeks since I've done an update, but things are going pretty well with my running. Two weeks ago I raced in the USATF Masters 5K National Championships in Syracuse where, in one of my last races as a 44 year old, I was 26th in the 40-44 division with a time of 17:08, which is an age-graded score of 82.11 (anything above 80.0 is considered National Class). The photo sequence above is from the finish of that race. Pretty ideal conditions, other than the roads being pretty wet from a lot of rain the day before, on a beautiful course with a couple of small hills. I was really impressed with the way this event was organized. Each kilometer was marked on the scenic out and back course and the organizers did a great job of keeping traffic away!

Today I got my first taste of cold weather racing for the fall season when I ran in the Race for The Rainbow in Lakewood this morning. About 40 degrees and felt much colder with the winds, and the roads were even slicker than in Syracuse. While my time of 17:39 was slower than I normally run I felt like the race was very "on". I got into a really good rhythm and finished very strong though the wind was really rough throughout (never seemed to get a tailwind!). I was third overall and the top master and even managed to score $15 in prize money! The first two guys finished in 16:02 and 16:04 and both of them have been under 15:10 this year, so that gives an idea of the racing conditions today. While I love the feeling of running a really good race, I'm frustrated that I haven't caught the right weather to take a shot at my masters PR of 16:54. My workouts indicate that I'm in shape to run about 16:45 on the right day so we'll see. Next up is a 5K cross country race in Ann Arbor, Michigan on October 31. Looking forward to bringing out the spikes for that!

Training Update

Everything's going well as I get ready for the USATF Masters 5K Nationals in Syracuse this coming Sunday. Ran 62 miles last week with a few key workouts, including 8 x 200 @ 34 w/200 jogs on Tuesday and a 10 miler with 2 x 10 minutes tempo w/2:00 rest on Friday. Yesterday I did 6 x 3:00 @ 5K effort in my racing flats and that felt really good, so I'm optimistic that I should have a good race on Sunday. The level of competition is going to be about as tough as any race I've ever run, so I need to watch myself early on and not get pulled into a pace that I can't handle. If all goes well, this should be one of those races where I pick off a lot of people who go out too fast early on. Fall is definitely here! Getting ready to head out the door for an easy run and it's cold, windy and rainy.

The Cult - Love reissue

Originally released in 1985, Love was one of the best rock 'n' roll albums of the '80s and still sounds great today. The Cult began their career as The Southern Death Cult, but by the time of their 1984 debut Dreamtime they began to shed a lot of their early goth influences and were much more in tune with the likes of Led Zeppelin, who would become an even more obvious influence on Love. Like Jim Morrison, Vocalist Ian Astbury was a tad overly fascinated with Native American lyrical themes (no mistake that he was invited to sing for the reformed Doors a few years ago!), but The Cult rock much harder than the Doors ever did. Love (and Dreamtime) remain The Cult's finest moment. The singles "She Sells Sanctuary" and "Rain" sound as thunderous today as when I first heard them as a youngster and the re-mastering here gives them even more punch. Other highlights are the Stooges-like "Phoenix" and, of course, the anthemic opener "Nirvana." The expanded addition is well worth it for a bonus disc that includes all of the original 12" mixes of the singles, plus the B-sides, while the accompanying booklet has quite extensive liner notes and interviews.

Rolling along

Had another really good training week, which culminated with my second overall win in a road race this year at the Lorain Aids Task Force 10K. The race ended up being a good amount longer than 10K -- a quick survey of three people who wore GPS devices had it at more like 6.54 miles. This made much more sense as my finish time was 37:50, which would have been my 'tempo' pace for an actual 10K. At 6.5 and change my pace was 5:47 per mile, which converts to a 35:48 10K according to the always handy Team Oregon Pace Wizard. Despite the long course, I was very happy with my effort. I ran the same overall pace as I did for 5 miles two weeks ago on Labor Day Weekend, so the strength is definitely building. Also, as I won the race by about 4 minutes, I didn't have anyone pushing me in the crucial middle miles. Other workouts this past week included a tough session of 8 x 1000 meters on the track with 400m jogs for recovery and 8 x 150 on Wednesday for a little turnover. Next race will be the USATF Masters 5K championships in Syracuse on October 4. Really looking forward to that one. I'll be doing a couple of 5K specific workouts before that race to sharpen up.