Training Log Archive: wynncd

afton alps-trails (3,300 ft+)
300 abs
not a bad week considering a zero day Thursday. Went fishing, nuff said.

one more week of school before students are out. That will give me more time to relax, but also soak up the miles.

easy roads
300 abs

Red Cedar Trail: hooked up with Finch and Tony and headed up to the Cedar River trail, Menomonie, WI (40 min drive). This is a rails to trail which runs beautifully along the red cedar river gorge. Flat trail and mile marked which in pretty nice for a clocking splits. We did 6:30's for the first ten, turned around and did the same until 12mile, squeezed it a bit and then did 5:45-5:50 pace until mile 19 then cool down. I have a good volume and felt like i could keep going for a long time, meaning i have one gear which is typical when training for an ultra (primarily 50miles or greater). In my case the 100miler in July. I don't have the multiple gears like i did this winter and it will be nice to get back to that kind of training after the 100. But such is the training: adapting and training to what you are going to be racing.
Finch is looking very fit. I think he will definitely PR at Gary Bjorkland 1/2 in a few weeks at grandmas marathon weekend. He ran a 1:07:06 a few weeks ago at the Green Bay 1/2. Bjorkland is going to be stacked with fast guys this year.

easy on Hoffman hill trail

300 abs

we got after the hilly willow trail 10mile loop good today. Ran up whore hill and the strength showed right behind Ed and Reneau. Ed and Reneau kicked it the last mile finishing just under 63. Finch, Chris and I came in 63minutes feeling good. We enjoyed cold brews while soaking in the river. Reneau is on Team Strands. They are loaded with awesome runners. Reneau and Finch are both doing the Gary Bjorkland half marathon at Grandmas. That is going to be a hot race!!! A few of the Brooks Hanson boys will be there including some of the kenyans across the river out of Coon Rapids. River Falls will be there to represent though!! Ryan Meissen who has won the race before, including Renau and Finch.

easy run on rolling roads, legs a bit tired.
2x25 hips, hams
300 abs

easy run on roads/kinni trail, and hooked up with Finch and Tony for the last half hour. Ran over to the high school to watch the regional track meet 1600 run.

300 abs, 2x25 hips, hams

lake Nokomis, easy
300 abs

watched the Brian Kraft 5km USATF Minnesota championship race. One has to love the running community in Minnesota. I believe it is the best of any place in the country. The amount of races and level of competition is fantastic. The fact that there is great competition and not just weekend warriors and/or olympic runners. There is a healthy abundance of high quality/elite post collegiate runners that still love to compete. 6 runners were under 15 minutes today. After Vermont 100mile, I'm definitely going to focus on speed and improving my PR's from 5km to marathon. I love competing with these guys. Tony and I rode together and Finch and I cheered on. Tony ran a solid 15:42, and Patrick Russell ran a 15:17. Once again Polson snubbed Lundstrom by a second to take his 3rd Kraft 5km race in a row in 3 years. He ran 14:43 I believe.

easy out at Kinni state park and roads

north hudson hill loop with Tony. Beautiful outside. Went across the bridge to watch the finish of the inaugural Stillwater Marathon. What a great course and finish right along the St. Croix River. Expect lots of hills in this marathon and or 1/2 marathon/20miler/12km races.
Looking back at this week I was surprised to see that I was able to rack up over 100 miles without a daily double. Not that that means anything though.

300 abs

Afton State park trails, 6,000ft of climb. Beautiful weather.

300 abs

8 miles easy progression style run/ 10 miles in 1:06 on Whitetail Ridge trails with Tony, Finch and Mike Reneau. Enoyed some brews and grilled out afterwards.

2x25 hips, ham curls

Thirsty Thursday run with Finch and Tony. Mike Reneau was going to head out, but massage instead. We rolled through the rolling trails of Willow River trails easy in 1:06 (10miles) Tony and I added on 2 more for 12 for the day. Enjoyed spotted cow and two hearted beers post run.
very buggy out near the river!
300 abs, flexibility.

inov-8 just sent me the new x-talons and they rock! minimal, light, comfy and stellar grip.

roads and whitetail ridge trails. WINDY as hell!!!! the wind was something fierce today. 95 degrees and humid, similar to yesterday. This heat training will be ideal for Vermont 100.
dunked in the kinnikinnic river to cool off. Hope Tony was able to handle the wind on the track.

400 abs/ foot/ankle exercises.

1/2 mile w/up 7:30 pace, 5 miles & 7:35 pace @ 7% incline in 38:45, 7 miles in 43:09.

300 abs
Hooked up with Finch and Tony for the last 7 miles and cruised.
I was quite happy with my hill incline run. I've been doing these all winter pretty much every week and today I went at it a bit cautiously at first with the pace as I was still a bit apprehensive about the past two weeks of running/racing. I can safely say that the fruits of my training volume is making this run easier with far better economy.

roads/kinni trails, easy run
300 abs, flexibility

easy run at Afton trails 3,200ft climbing
300 abs

easy run on road

1 mile w/up, 13.1 mile tempo run in 1:15:57 (5:47 pace) 1 mile c/down.

Jumped into the SnoHawk trail 1/2 marathon with my friend Tony. A rails to trail course. I was looking to not do anything wild, just a nice sub 6 tempo run and finish strong. I was happy with how easy the effort felt and that I could had thrown a kicker it a few miles back rather than just the last 1/2 mile. Beautiful day besides the unbelievable wind strength. The crosswinds and headwinds were uncanny. At times it felt like you were running in place. Unfortunately it was headwinds on the way back and no solace on the way out with fierce cross winds. Tony and I went 1,2. Tony ran a solid 1:12:53 and we both went under the previoud CR.

300 abs

C • Man 3

easy run over to kinnickinnic state park trails.

spyed on a fox pouncing on a field mouse. Neat.

run to the bank and back
300 abs

easy run in Hudson on roads. I got in roughly 6 miles before meeting up with the boyz to do a 13. Did North Hudson loop at J loop with Finch and Tony. Everything is blooming beautifully. Good luck to Finch on Saturday at Greenbay 1/2 marathon. He's looking for 1:08 range. I would not be surprised if he even pushes that. Also good luck to Ed as he looks to improve his marathon PR and go sub 2:30 in the marathon there. They'll have plenty of good comp as the Coon Rapids, Minnesota Kenyan squad will be there. They pretty much cleaned up at Fargo marathon last week, although Pete held them off for the win.

500 abs/flexibility

easy run, kinni trails, hoffman park trail, road
500 abs, massage, river soak.

roads easy, windy as hell, bumped into Finch and Tony, they were doing some moderate speed work on the 10km course.

300 abs.

kinni trails, river soak, 500 abs/flexibility

easy run/kinni trails, 800 abs, ice soak

Ice Age 50mile.
never felt great and never felt horrible either.
Positive notes: Improved my time by 0ver 20minutes on that course, and racked up another quality long run with all facilities in tact. The course profile reminded me a lot of AR50. I placed 2nd. Zach Gingerich got first with a nice time of 6:23, which was similar to the time i was hoping for. At mile 40 he extended his 5 minute lead to about 10. A huge PR for him on that course. When we raced in 2007 he ran a 7:41.

Negatives: Yet to really feel fresh in a 50mile race. I'm starting to think that my training is too marathon specific. After talking with good friend and legend Steve Szydlik who has run some sick times at Ice Age50 he looked at my training and said I was in better shape than he ever was. It's a little frustrating that my training is great, but my races are not really parallel with my training. Maybe it's all playing out for my goal race of the year which is Vermont 100mile. Today I felt like I could have kept holding pace and going and going. I also learned this today, an old quote that is in our high school wrestling room at work: "WHEN YOU'RE NOT TRAINING, SOMEONE SOMEWHERE IS, AND YOU MEET THEM, THEY WILL WIN". Zach told me he pullled out all stops with his training this year running 120mile weeks with a few 160's and two back2back 200's! to prepare for Badwater. It was obvious his aerobic base won today. I thought my 100 mile weeks were subtantial. I'm finding more and more that marathon speed means very little in ultras particularly 50miles or greater. I'm in shape to run a 2:30 marathon, but that is useless for a 50mile. Show me someone that can run a 3hr marathon, but hold it for 50miles, that's what matters. This year I'm finding how important the long runs are. I know next winter I'm approaching my training differently with consistent weekend long run to prepare for spring ultras. This has been just the 4th time I've run legitimately over 4 hours this year. That's not going to cut it if you want to win. at 50miles+ all of my wins 50miles+ have come in the fall when I have accumulated solid long runs all spring and summer.

easy run,
500 abs

damn I can't wait to be done with this fuckin' taper. One more day!

easy run/ roads
can't wait until this taper is over!
500 abs/flexibility

easy run with 4 hill sprints, willow river SP.
500 abs

kinnickinnic trails

took 3 days off. Not totally planned but after Tuesdays and Thursdays workouts I and the rest of the crew were fairly tired. We had all done harder workouts on Tuesday going into the Thursday run. Friday my legs just felt languid, so I just bagged the run plus I was heading up to the Superior Hiking Trail to clear trail for the weekend. I think the weekend off was good for me too. I doubt the 2:30hr. run with marathon surges run I had planned would have done me much good. Anyways, 2 long days on the trail. I guess you can chalk 16hrs of trail clearing over Moose Mountain, Mystery Mountain and Oberg Mountain and good cross training. We were able to clear about 13 miles in 16 hrs/2 days. We really wanted to focus on the Superior 50km/25km race course section as that is coming up in two weeks. We were all pretty beat by the end of the weekend.
I'm hoping the extra rest days will pay off this weekend at the race. I never took a day off for American River 50m and still had 70 miles the week prior. I definitely could have pulled back a bit before that race I think. You get so used to banging out 100's each week that you don't want to stop. Hopefully my patience will pay off.

easy run, kinni trails/roads
500 abs