July was a big month

Running wise July has been a good and big month. It was actually the highest mileage month of the year so far! And to think earlier in year I was training for a marathon if im not mistaken. Le tme check.... Yep I was. I know I have one day to go this month but I was planning a rest day, my only one this week to rest legs a little before the Star Trax 5k Saturday night.

So, tempting has it was to wake early and go out for an 8 miler to make a new record, I decided to take the day off to rest my legs. My last rest day was last Thursday. Of course now my goal is to make August an even bigger month. (and PR at the perfect 10 miler.)

Indian Trails Adventure run.

I got up this morning and prepared to get ready to race again this weekend. My work scheduled on Wednesday and now will be off work on Saturdays temporarily, probably till end of August. Sooo, try not to be too shocked by this I have decided to run a few races and go to a golf outing. I know, I know hard to believe. Then Greg emailed me and said he was going to be town and asked if I wanted to go for a run. I told him I was thinking of going to a race, a local 5K or a trail race an hour away in Ashtabula.

I met up with Greg and Suzy and we made the trip up to Ashtabula. I cann't remember last time I was there but now I can check Ashtabula off the list of Ohio citys I have to run yet. We registered and got our numbers and t-shirts. It's definitely a bare bones race. We warmed up, got a bath room break and it was time to get lined up Small race, I think less then 50 people for both races, they had a 8 miler and 3 miler. We were doing the 8 miler. The registration had said it was muddy, had a river crossing, and reccomended wearing insect repellant. Sounds fun!

Unfortunately, due to weather they decided the river was too rough to cross. Apperantly after talking to some people the course is different almost every year depending on conditions. It ended up being this 2 different out and backs. You actually did this one 2 mile loop 3 times. The one mile loop you did twice. It was basically flat but definitely had some mud which made it tough at spots. A few logs crossing. On the first loop a bunch of us took a wrong turn, a minute or 2 later I was back on track. There were a few tricky spots if not carefull would end up on your rear. By the second loop I quit worrying about avoiding the poddles and was going straight thru them. I actually ran it harder then I thought I might. I just did an hard half 6 days ago. I really had no plans to run this at all till 2 nights ago.

But I made it to the finish. Plenty of mud but no river crossing. I finished in 1:18:17, happy enough with it. Mud doesnt usually make for fast time.

Pros: Low key race. Muddy fun run.
Cons: No river crossing. Running same loop 3 times is a little monotonous. I thought it was a little over priced for what you got.
Overall still a good fun race.

Presque Isle Half Marathon

I woke before my alarm went off at 4 AM for the Presque Isle half marathon in Erie, PA. I got ready and we got on the road about 5. After the 90 or so minute drive I went and got my number, chip and shirt. They did gender specific shirts so when she checked the list and saw I was down for a medium female shirt she gave me a funny look. Since my wife and daughter "borrow" so many of my races shirts I got one just for them. I have so "few" I wish they would run there own races.

I got ready which consisted of getting in line for the bathroom. This would be my fifth running of the Presque Isle half marathon, this was the coolest day I had run it in. Today was considerably cooler then normal mid July. So I got lined up, didn't see anyone I knew so lined up midpack or further back. I wanted to go sub 2 hours today. I wasnt sure I was in shape for it though.

Off we went! I waited to get to starting line to start watch, IM normally good at matching watch to chip time. I got off to a little bit of a slow start but made it up the second mile. I kept going up back and forthe around 9 then 9:15 starting out. They did have plenty of water stops, 9 in all. I didn't count they had them numbered. The Erie Runners club had signs before the water stops, "Water stop #5", kind of nice to know which water stop I was coming up on.

I started talking to these 2 sisters, Lisa and Karrie if I remember right, which really helped pass about 4 miles. They were running about same pace so that helped. I wasnt too far off pace but picked it up some to try to make my goal at mile 8. Apperantly the one was telling the other to catch up to me for motivation.

At Mile 10 I couldnt believe it. They lady giving times had me at 1:33ish, My watch said I did a 10:01 split that mile. Sure its just a 10 mile warm up with a 5K. I was ready to give up on goal, I know I had some leeway with chip time, (dont have chiptime from web site yet) but was a couple minutes off where I thought I would be and thought I had done a good mile and ended with my worse of day.

But I gave it my best effort to try and finish with a strong 5K. I did manage my 2 best miles in the last 3 miles. I grabbed a water from water stop #9 right before I got to the 12 mile marker which turned out to be a big mistake. I got to 13 mile marker and had already been able to see finish line. It was real close to 2 hour mark. I saw it go over 2 hours shortly before I got to the finish line but my watch said 1:59:49, which was probably my chip time. Good enough for me. But after "sprinting" to the finish line, the water I had taken didn't settle well. So for the second time this year I lost it at the finish line of a race. Luckily it was just some water. After I got it "out" I felt fine. Some guy walking past the finishing chute gave me some gatorade. While I was bent over. Then the guy cutting the timing chips off offered to wait for it. I assured him I was, which I was. No ill effects.

The girls I ran part of the race with finish about a minute and half behind me, about where they were planning to so great job! Also, this was the first time they gave out finishers medals. I like going because its a beautiful place to run a half around Presque Isle park. Often having a view of Lake Erie. Overall a good day, just short of a PR but was my best time for this course.



Mile HR
1 9:19 108 ( I dont think it was on the first mile)
2 9:00 173
3 9:14 174
4 8:58 179
5 8:57 181
6 9:12 183
7 9:10 181
8 9:23 182
9 9:16 183
10 10:01 182
11 8:28 182
12 9:15 184
13 8:51 193
.1 0:41 196

AHR 177 ( I think thats low, considering I dont think it took first mile correctly it might be)
Max 201 (must of been the dash to finish)

Tempo

I got in a good tempo run this morning. A little warm but still not too bad out for July. My time was same has last week but heart rate was higher for run. Of course it was over 10 degrees warmer almost 70 out this week, so im sure that made a difference.

This week is a short taper for the Presque Isle half marathon in Erie, PA. Im taking tomorrow and Saturday off and easy run on Friday. Hopefully I am ready.

run tomorrow

I didnt run 2 days in a row. Just too busy, and this hasnt happened in a long time. Right now I felt wore out. But I did run monday thru Thursday. Then Friday I went golfing in different golf shoes and ended up with a blister on back of foot right where top of shoe was. So I took today off too. I have long run planned in morning and meeting some others so all is good. Nex week I do a taper for my half next Sunday. So im cutting back on the push up and sit up plans I been following too.

Now about that charity link on the side, Epilepsy Association VIRTUAL RUNNER Hosted By DonorPages, Its something new to me. Ok so why epilepsy? its one of the 3 diseases that affects someone close to me. Luckily my wife hasnt had a seizure since 1995. Then I got a email from one of the running groups Im on the Emailing list for and they had an thing about signing up for this. So if I can get some donations thru racing thats great! Heart disease and diabetes both run in my family. Of course since I run I of course this im invisible.

Now it officially starts on racing starting August first. I am signed up for a half on the 19th of July so that doesn't count. Luckily I have a 5K on the night of the first. Good way to kick it off. I am trying to come up with a few prizes for top donors at end of the thirtenn weeks. I was thinking one prize will be a race tshirt from one of the races I do in the challenge. Still trying to figure this out yet.

I will thank my first donor , Ken Michael. Or has I know him better has Coach Ken of the running stupid podcast. Give it a listen, dont let the kazoo scare you off. You can find it on Itunes or try runningstupid.net.

Firecracker fizzler.

Me and Riley before race.




I will keep this short. I went to the Firecracker 4 mile run this morning. I did about my normal mile warm up with Rick. Then got finished prepping for race. While I wont say it was a horrible race I just thought I could do better. I was hoping low 33's or better. Dare to dream. To keep this short I ended at 34:50.

After the race I looked at my splits and I probably could of done slightly better. I wore heart rate monitor, but tryed to ignor during race. Need to decide whether to wear or not during a race. One nice thing is harder to see time for splits. Mile one it was real crowded, 700 or 800 runners in race. I got to mile marker at 8:30, with crowd it was best I could do, maybe too much weaving around people. If it was longer that would of bothered me more. Average heart rate (AHR) was 177.

Mile 2 I ran about same pace, at 8:32, AHR was 188. I kind of fell into a rhythem I guess. Mile 3 was alot of hils. Not steep but long upgrades. I ran it in 9:10 with AHR of 188. I tryed to pick it up for mile 4, especially the last half. Once I saw the finish line I got into a sprint with 3 or 4 others. Well it is a race. But had to pull up to avoid crashing at finish line, it was congested and backed up so far you could barely get into finishing chute much less run into it at full speed. I did last mile in 8:37, with AHR of 195, including a max of 198 on that finishing sprint.

Well thats it, best part of it was taking granddaughter to her first race. Im sure she was thrilled.

Epilepsy Associaton Virtual Runner

Epilepsy Association VIRTUAL RUNNER Hosted By DonorPages

I have never done anything like this before, but if I could raise funds thru racing why not give it a try. More details later.