RIP Pat Porter

Two-time Olympian Pat Porter (1984 and 1988) died in a plane crash yesterday along with his son and one of his son's friends. He leaves behind his wife Trish (a former Olympian in the high jump) and his daughter. While Porter's forte on the track was the 10,000 meters, his real niche was cross country where he was a consistent top-10 performer in the World Cross Country Championships and won 8 consecutive US titles. Porter was one of my favorite runners. He was a fearless front runner -- I vividly remember him leading the World XC race in 1984 (back when network television would show sports like cross country) before fading to fourth behind legends Carlos Lopes, Tim Hutchings and Steve Jones. Tomorrow I will hammer 8 or 9 miles in his memory. RIP.

Read more...

File Under Enthusiastic!

Runners all have their weird warm up quirks, but this is pretty ridiculous! She does win the race though!

Read more...

Kenyan Boot Camp

I've been slow on the update front lately but I don't have too much new to report other than I've been training hard and taking a hiatus from racing until Labor Day Weekend. I'm in a phase that I'm calling Kenyan boot camp. I'm running a hilly 9-mile course in the Rocky River Reservation three times a week (plus one or two easy runs), working different systems each time. Mondays I'm doing fartleks with surges ranging from one-minute to one mile; Thursdays are fast-finish progression runs (a Kenyan staple), starting at normal effort and building to the tempo zone and slightly beyond; Saturdays are standard easy runs, just going by feel. I'm also doing push up workouts three-days a week (Sunday, Tuesday, Friday). Tomorrow will mark the end of week 2 on the 8-week 100 Pushups Program. I've done this program in the past and it works. I can never get to 100 all at once but I have hit 70.

Read more...

Bay Days 5 Mile Race Report

I thought that it was hot in the Ohio City race I did a few weeks ago, but, man, this was a scorcher. Even at 8:30am it was pushing 90 and humid. My 15 minute warm up had me drenched. Good thing I was well hydrated. The race went about as well as I expected considering the conditions. I cruised the first mile in 6:11 and the effort felt right so I didn't force it. Initially, I thought I might be able to run sub 6:00s, but while that would have been doable if it were 60 degrees, I seemed too quick for where I was at for this race. In any case I stayed locked in a good groove and clicked off miles just under or just over 6:10 pace. I remember being like 18:27 at 3 miles and feeling like I could bring it home faster but by mile four the heat was too much and I was glad to just hold pace. Like the Ohio City race, I kept on passing people the whole way and was never passed. That said, I'm not really where I want to be but that will come. I'm never fully satisfied anyway as I tend to be a perfectionist about a lot of things. My plan isn't to race again until another 5 miler on Labor Day weekend. I want to get some good workouts and start thinking about fall cross country, which means hills and tempos. I will be running in a Corporate Challenge 10K relay on August 4. Each team has 6 runners (3 men and 3 women) and we each run a mile (one of us, most likely me, has to do a 1.2 mile leg). That should be pretty fun!

Read more...