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[tags] Foto [/tags]
Foto Friday
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[tags] Foto [/tags]
Author Archives: crossn81
[tags] Foto [/tags]
Human Race 8K
While I had already registered for my first race in 2008, the St Patrick’s Day Human Race 8K will be the first one I’ll run. I registered at the beginning of March. This is the first race in the USATF Circuit. The 8K distance is just short of 5 miles and is the collegiate cross country distance.
It is kind of a unique name but they help explain it on their page:
In 2005 a scientific article was released that caught our attention. The authors claimed that the human body has evolved to be the shape it is because of running. That`s what we have thought all along, that running isn`t just something we do, it makes us human!
It also has a strong community focus:
The St. Patrick`s Day Human Race benefits the community in four distinct ways. First, the event is a celebration of fitness and healthy living, which we believe are positive community values. Second, each year we conduct a shoe drive to collect worn (but not worn out) shoes for distribution at a local free store. We collect over 700 pairs of shoes each year. Third, beginning in 2002, The Sporting Life has designated Human Race Heroes and initiated a fundraising effort for the charity of choice for the honoree. In 2006 we honored Bonnie Sons and Chris Celichowski, and fundraising for their charity of choice, Bolder Options. Finally, we recruit community groups to work at our event in exchange for a donation to their organization.
The 36th running of this event is on March 16 at the University of St Thomas in Saint Paul. The out and back course runs along Summit Ave which is also the finish of the Twin Cities Marathon.
USATF – Minnesota Member
I’m a card carrying member of the USATF now. Well at least once I get the card in the mail!!
I had never thought about being a member of the USATF until now since I’m not fast enough to be in the track and field circuit and don’t really need another distraction.
So Why Sign-up?
I was prompted to sign up by one of the MDRA members to be a part of their racing team – Bad News Bears. The main purpose for signing up is to be a part of the Team Circuit. The circuit is a series of “championship” races where teams are scored cross-country style. The race distances go from 1 mile all the way up to a 25K (15.5 miles). The half-marathon I’m racing is part of the circuit and so are other local races hosted by the MDRA – so why not! It is $30 a year to be a member but there are some good benefits.
Benefits
I have actually already used one – discounts at races! I just saved $5 when I signed up for an upcoming 8K. There is a long list of discounted items, many of which I’ll never use. However, if you travel for a lot of races there are discounts for rental cars and hotels. There are discounts on running gear, other merchandise, magazine subscriptions, books and movies, and running stores. You also get a membership decal and a copy of the Fast Forward magazine. I think you could easily “earn back” your $30 membership if you were planning on getting some of discounted items! I’m also supposed to get a team jersey which must be worn during all races I’m competing in as part of the team!
You should see if there are any local USATF chapters or competitions to be a part of.
[tags] USATF, Minnesota, MDRA [/tags]
February Highlights
February has really flown by, even with the extra day this year the month seems like it only started yesterday! It has been a pretty busy month for Team Cross as we continue to settle into our new digs!
With the dawn of the new month I started my training for the Earth Day Half Marathon. You can read about my weeks 1, 2, 3, and 4 of my 12 week training program. It was great to be able to start running with a local running group on Saturday mornings. I also dissected some of my training runs, which helped me understand them a little bit better while also hopefully giving you some new ideas! Here are some of the things I talked about: Supersetting, Hill Repeats, and Biking as a form of cross-training.
I finished my series about my new Garmin toy, but couldn’t help post this funny Garmin map which showed me running on the Mississippi River.
February was also a fun month playing on Facebook, Hucking a Marathon, going nuts, and watching the Lunar Eclipse. I just wish I could earn $2 million by racing!
My training totals for February are:
Running: 121.1 Miles or 15:57:20 hours
Bike: 54.4 Miles or 3:11:52 hours
Here is a graph of my runs (from RunningAhead):
Half Training: Week Five
Wow training is quickly flying by, I’m almost half-way there. I had some good runs this week and it did warm-up although that created some different problems which you’ll read about below!
Monday – 6×1600 meter repeats at 10K pace or 15 seconds per mile slower than 5K pace. Jog for 800 meters between repeats. This ended up being a really good workout. I had to get up a little early to make sure I got it done before catching the bus to work, but I didn’t have any problems with that. It was 30 degrees at 6:30am so I was actually able to wear only a couple of layers! The warmer weekend temperatures had melted some of the snow – but that created icy patches where the water had refrozen – and that impacted some of my split times during the intervals. It was a beautiful run – I ran along the Midtown Greenway to Lake of the Isles around it and then to Lake Calhoun and around it before heading home for a total of 11 miles in 1:25:25. Each mile should have been around 6:26 – 6:30 My actual splits were 7:17, 7:00, 6:45, 7:26, 6:40, and 7:21. My rest intervals stayed approximately the same amount of time which isn’t usually the case, but some of the splits weren’t excessively hard either. I felt good with the workout overall, it will be nice to get on a track or something for speed work.
Tuesday – Run 6 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. I ran 5.85 miles in 50:30 – dang that was slow! I was sore and it was really windy. The windchill was 4 above with the actual temp at 18 at 6:30am. This was out and back along the greenway.
Wednesday – Run 20 minutes alternating between 30 seconds at 20 seconds per mile faster than 5K pace and 30 seconds at an easy pace. Cool down with 5 minutes at an easy pace. I did this along the Greenway as well and ran into the same problems that I had on Monday with the icy patches. It was also about 14 above with a 5 above windchill at 6:30am. I ran for 4.97 miles in 35:11. I ran one 30 second segment at 5:19 pace.
Thursday – Run 6 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. I was going to try and run everyday except for the Friday 4 miler and start weaning myself off the bike. By Wednesday evening though my foot and legs were starting to hurt so I decided to hit the bike again. I biked 17 miles in 58:20 at the YWCA.
Friday – Run 4 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. I ran 4.2 miles in 36:04 on fresh snow. It was about 30 above at 10:30 when I went running. I ran around little Powderhorn Park which had several inches of snow covering and ice! I had fun with it and took it easy. It was a nice run!
Saturday – Run 12 miles. Run the first 9 miles at an easy pace and the last 3 miles at goal half marathon pace. I ran with the MDRA Polar Bear group again. We met at the Theodore Wirth Park’s Wirth Beach parking lot and then ran up Theodore Wirth Parkway down Memorial Parkway to Humboldt Road and back to the Beach. It was a pretty good run with some hills and lots of icy patches. The middle miles were mostly flat without a lot of ice so we opened up the pace a little bit there. The out split was 5.86 miles in 48:53 while the return was 6.11 (I ran a little extra) in 47:55. I picked up the pace between mile 9 and 10 – there was a couple of guys ahead of us that I slowly reeled in catching them right before the final turn. I also slipped on the ice and fell on my rear end – hopped up and kept running. We started the run at 9:16 pace and I finished the last 0.97 miles in 7:04. I felt pretty good for most of the run – it was really hard to get into a rhythm due to all the icy patches along the way. It was about 12 above with a 4 above wind chill at the start and had warmed up throughout the run with the sun shining!
Sunday – Rest. No problem with that!
Totals: 37.9 miles running for 5:03:58 and 17 miles on the bike for 58:22.
[tags] Half Marathon, Training [/tags]