Masters Runner

I Like Running - Masters Runner

I like to run. I also like to reflect about my running while I run, and at times I am lucky enough to write those thoughts down and share them on this blog. Since it’s been far too long since my last post, and a lot has happened since my 100 miler, I thought it would be refreshing to revisit and share my reflections of the last few months of running. 

Just recently I turned 40 in October, which has now catapulted me into the Master’s Age group category. It’s a fun group to be part of, as many of these runners have been racing competitively since college. Many of these runners at the top end I have raced over the years since college, post-college and on the USA circuit which included the Olympic Trials and various prestigious road races.

A few months ago I got to debut at the USA Cross Country 5k Masters Championships in Boulder. I had this race on my calendar for nearly a year, but I wasn’t training properly for it during that time period. So when the race came around in October, and only a week after I turned 40, it didn’t go as planned. I was hoping to place on the podium many months ago, but as I said, my training wasn’t up to par. I got smoked and felt many nagging injuries rise as a result of wearing spikes and not prepared for it. Lesson learned - train more and get some decent mileage in if you want to compete like you use to.

USATF Club Cross Country Championships 

Fast forward to this past weekend and some 5 weeks of “okay” training will result in an actual result you would like to see. Despite the mess of the race organizing logistics and the weather, I was very satisfied with my results. I finished 50th place for the altered race in a time of 31:45. This time is a little irrelevant since it’s cross country and not to mention that it was closer to a 6 mile race than a 10k race distance. However, the thing that stood out was the 50th place out of 334 athletes. I know I have worked very hard in the past to run well, and to compare that to what I am doing as a masters runner isn’t at the same level. I have definitely been slacking a bit on the mileage and overall focus as a runner. However, life is more balanced as a husband, coach, teacher, friend, and socialite (which I dislike doing these days, because all I want to do is stay home with my wife and dogs relaxing…).

There are way more things to juggle around in life and Arlene and I don’t even have kids yet. Although, instead of complaining, I have found so much more structure in a routine to keep up with my training, and to train competitively. I still feel that I can post some decent times as a masters runner, and hope to continue my training while staying healthy. If this happens, I would like to break 2:30 in the marathon as a masters runner and complete at a few Masters Championships over the next few years.

It’s an exciting realm to be in, and after our San Francisco Club Championship race, I have high hopes for the future of my running. Paralleling my own training alongside my youth athletes will be an exciting challenge that I hope evokes the same passion for this sport as I have had.

Club Cross Country Nationals

Well, it's been a long time since I've posted something, but that doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything.  It's been a busy couple of weeks, and many miles have been logged.  I first starting writing this post before the USATF Club Cross Country National meet in Bend, Oregon, but now that the meet is over, I'll be entailing a summary of that meet, how the training went, and what lies ahead...

First off, I truly miss and love cross country.  It's such a heart pounding, gut retched feeling from start to finish, and a few strides past the finish for some.  This year the meet was in Bend, Oregon, which meant a mecca for beer lovers such as myself.  This also meant the home of Max King, who would be developing the course and transforming a lovely golf course into a hell bent European style cross country course with some hilly terrain - I was all for it!  Club Cross (as it's known to most post-collegiate runners) is usually a reunion type of race, where more than 1000 runners converge onto a city.  The reason for this is due to the "Club" mentality and camaraderie of racing together and scoring as a team.  Which, by the way, is the first time the Dukes Track Club has sent both a Men's and Women's team.  This was a huge highlight for me, and for everyone who raced.

So, to start things off, Phil and I left from Albuquerque after teaching all day at 5:27pm, and got into our rooms in Bend at 1:30am Saturday Morning.  We had to fly into Redmond first, then make the short drive to Bend.  Luckily, the Men's race didn't start until 12:45pm Saturday afternoon.  Well, once we: slept, woke up, get a short morning shake out to the course, and have breakfast, we were all ready to race.  The following Men and Women raced:

Men's Team:
Me
Tony
Phil
Neal
Brant
Matt
Chris
Mark
Sal
Loren
Matt

Women's Team:
Liz
Arlene
Sam
Stephanie
Vanessa

Well, I took a long break from writing this, so I'll end it quick...

The race was cold and hilly; hilly like a trail race with sharp turns and steep inclines and declines.  It was Epic, and I finished 49th.  The team finished 26th, which I was happy to have us finally score as a team.

More on training and the USA Half Marathon Championships.

First Real Week Back

After some much needed down time from the Twin Cities Marathon and a few weeks of low mileage, I've finally got a real week of training in. Actually, it's not completely real, I could use a bit more miles, bits it's a start. 

I rounded out the week at 91 miles and attempted and completed a solid 6 mile tempo run in. The tempo run went much better than I expected, as I averaged 5:23/mile on dirt. I know it's nothing spectacular, but it's a start. And after finishing up my grades last week, I'll have more time on my hands for some much needed miles. 

With usatf club cross country championships a few weeks away, I think it's time to get in the thick of things. Fartleks, long tempos and Long Runs. More updates to come once some interesting training is occurs. 

Anderson Fields - A great place to Tempo

Marathon Training & Cross Country (Week 9)

A little over due, but nevertheless, it's here... cross country season that is. Well, at least college cross country, the "real" cross country season doesn't start until the winter. So, to clarify some things, our Dukes Track Club put together a pretty solid cross country team to go up against some local colleges including the UNM Lobos. The Lobo Invitational, as it is rightly named, was held on Saturday. Before that, I had only one workout leading up to the race. The rest of the days were just easy miles and some strides here and there.

The workout was conveniently held around the Lobo cross country course, which is held on the UNM North gold course. The cross country course is a nice well groomed grass golf course with many angulating hills and quite a few turns. But, the tempo workout we planned was not on the course, but rather around it on a 2 mile dirt perimeter loop with some hills. The plan was a simple 20 minute tempo, then 10 minutes jogging rest, then another 20 minute tempo. I wore a garmin to get some mile splits, which were: 5:51, 5:26, 5:43, and 5:45 pace for the remaining half mile in the 20 minute segment. After that, we had a nice 10 minute rest and hit the 20 minute tempo again, with mile splits of: 5:46, 5:26, 5:41, and 5:32 pace for a little more than half a mile. It wasn't that fast, but a good workout over some different terrain.

The rest of the week leading up to the 8k cross country race consisted of easy runs and some strides. Once race day came on that Saturday, the Dukes Track Club had a full team, along with a few more guys totaling 10 guys. The meet wasn't scored, but we knew were going to score it once the carnage subsided. In my opinion, this was one of the best teams I've ever been on for a cross country team! The team consisted of the following with times and placing:

4th - Jesse Armijo 25:20

11th - Allen Wagner 25:47

12th - Neal Holtschulte 25:50

14th - Kris Houghton 25:56

17th - Soloman Kandie 26:04

37th - Chris Peverada 26:56

51st - Loren Wholetz 27:57

52nd - Mark Pepple 28:02

76th - Trevor Manzanares 31:05

79th - Dana Patton 33:58

With a 1st man to 5th man spread of only 44 seconds, this team beat out: Utep, New Mexico State, UNM and a few other's that aren't that significant... The race itself was pretty sweet, since out track club is a bunch of rag-tag road racers that don't give a crap of what other people think! So, as the race started, Kris took the lead with about 800m into the start. Allen and I crept up to make it a Dukes TC 1 through 3 through the mile. But after that, I got a little excited and took over for about a mile and got taken over to settle in 4th place. Most of the hilly and tangly course I remained in 4th, while getting past by some guys here and there. Towards the end, I was in 6th and was kicking with about 800m to go. At that point, I managed to take over 3 guys and found myself in 3rd place, yet once I got to that point another Kenyan/Utep runner flew by all of us to take 3rd; leaving me in 4th place. Nevertheless, after crossing the line in a time faster than my previous attempt on this course, I watched as more and more Dukes TC guys came barreling down the straightaway! After everyone came in, we tallied up the score and figured out we won... unofficially, since the meet isn't scored. Oh well, we had our glory. The next day was just an easy 22 miler, which felt hard as I was very tired.

Week 9

Mon - am. easy 10 miles / pm. easy 4 miles w/3x hill strides

Tue - am. easy 4 miles

Wed - am. tempo workout, total 12 miles / pm. easy 8 miles

Thur - am. easy 8 miles / pm. med 12 miles w/some strides

Fri - pm. easy 8 miles

Sat - 8k xc race, total 10 miles / pm. easy 8 miles

Sun - med/easy 22 miles

Total: 106

USA Cross Country Championships

This past weekend was the US cross country championships in Spokane, Washington.  It was a great race to be in and I have been gearing towards this race since last year.  So, for 365 days, I've been dreaming of racing well here and making a US team.  And by the feel of my workouts leading up to this race, I felt as if it were possible.  

The trip to Spokane was great, and I was accompanied with some great people.  So, when race day came it was going to be a familiar feeling.  That morning, the weather was "perfect".  I was and hoping for rain and cold miserable weather, but that wasn't the case.  A nice 50 degrees and sunny skies would pave way for a great race.  The gun goes off at 2pm and I had a feeling that 20 guys or so would be capable of making the two US teams.  One being the World Cross Country team (6 guys) and the other being the NACAC team (5 guys).  So, ideally, you want to be at least top 11 in order to be on one of those teams if no one declines.  And that was the goal...

By the first kilometer I was in great position in around 9th or 10th place.  We hit that kilometer in about 2:47, which was pretty quick, but I felt alright.  I just wanted to stay there and hopefully other guys would fall apart and I would maintain a good position.  The first loop was pretty quick and I was still in that lead pack.  At that point I felt good but everyone else were feeling better.  The pack starts to drift apart over the next few kilometers and I start fading and getting passed.  The 5k came up in about 14:40 something and I was feeling it.  As each guy came up on me I tried to go with them and surge just to hold on.  But, that would not help as I still faded.  I finally held on to 16th place as the finish was coming up.  So I finished in 36:36 in 16th place.  It was faster than last year and a better placing than last year, but not exactly what I wanted.  

I kept thinking that I needed to be stronger so that I could hold on to the position I started off at, but ultimately that performance was the best I could do.  It was a great race and I am now happy with the way it turned out.  I originally wanted more from that race, but I can only take what happened and use that for next year and other racing in the future.  

Next on the schedule is Stanford 10k and then the Country Music Marathon in April. 

Results:

http://www.usatf.org/events/2010/USAXCChampionships/results/Overall%20Open%20M.pdf

Video:

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/236481/299000

On the Horizon, the USA Cross Country Championships

So the USA Cross Country Championships is just about a week away and the entry list is looking pretty good!  There are only 6 spots to make the USA World Cross team and 5 spots to make the NACAC team.  Both of them are US teams, and I would be honored to make either of them.  So the goal is to be top 10 and secure a spot on either team.  I know its going to take a lot of grit and grind to make anyone of those teams, but I've been thinking about this race for a year.  Since last year, this has been all I've been thinking about and all I want, among a few other achievements in running.  The obvious would be to: make a US team, make the Olympic Trials, run sub 14 in the 5k, or make a US National Championships race.  Anyone of those things and I may feel content with all the years of running I've done.   

UNM Lobo Indoor 3k

Running a PR is always something to be happy with, which is what occurred this past weekend.  It was another UNM indoor race, with loads of runners in all sorts of events.  Allyson Felix was at the meet and she ran a Stadium record in the 400m in 52.05!  So that was sweet to see.  Then it was nice to see some of the UNM guys and girls run well leading up to the mens 3k.  I knew in the weeks leading up to this race, that it was going to be stacked with a grip load of studs and NCAA All-Americans.  So, it was nice to see that I made it into that heat, as there were two heats of this race.  

To name a few guys, we had: Rory Fraser (13:39 5k), Patrick Smyth (1:02 half-marathon among other top 5 performances at USA Championships), Ben Bruce (8:26 sc), Jason Lehmekule (5th at the US Marathon Trials, 2:14) and a couple of other sub 14:00 5k guys.

So, with all this talent in the field and a rabbit to pace the leaders through at 8:05 pace for 3k, it was going to be exciting.  There was a waterfall start, and since I was seeded second to last in this heat I was on the waterfall on the outside lanes, which was fine.  Once the gun went off, everyone took off like a bat out of hell.  Our little group didn't cut in, until the 100m mark and I positioned myself around 6th or 7th place through the first 400m.  After that point, I was still running in lane 2 so I decided to move up and sit on the inside lane, but there was no way to get in unless I moved up to 4th place behind Rory and Smyth.  So, like an impatient runner I did exactly that.  I was nice and secure in 4th place through the 800m mark in about 2:13.  The pace started to heat up and I was holding on while a few guys passed me as we hit the mile in about 4:24.  I was in about 7th place at this time and Jason Lehmekule started to move and pass a bunch of us on the outside.  At that point I decided I could go with him and position myself back in 4th place, since at this point the rabbit dropped off and the leaders were now: Smyth, Fraser and Lehmekule.  I was in 4th again for a short amount of time as Ben Bruce passed  me and then Aucencio Martinetz passed me as well.  Naturally, I tried to stick on them but could only hold their pace for a few hundred meters and would fade off of each of them.  I could hear the announcer and the crowds going nuts, since it was a great battle between UNM's Rory Fraser and Team USA Minnesota's Patrick Smyth at the bell lap.  I could see them killing each other as I was trying to close the gap on Lehmekule, since Bruce and Martinetz passed him, but that didn't happen in the finally 200 meters.  The crowd roared to Fraser's win of 8:08 and a wake of runners that still bettered the Stadium record of 8:10.  Four guys went under the old record and Lehmekule finished in 8:13 as I was kicking in just under 8:20 with a new PR of 8:19.99.  

It has a catchy ring to say 8:19, instead of 8:20... So I was full of smiles and happy to run that fast before the US Cross Championships.  I know two of those guys in my race are racing Cross, so its going to be a great race out there in Spokane.  I am getting excited and wonder how fast I could run a 5k at sea level...?  Sub 14:00?  And I don't know if I'll get the chance to do that this year.  It would be nice, but it also would be nice to make a US Team.  I think I'll go for the US team and see what happens.

Results:

http://www.golobos.com/sports/c-track/stats/2009-2010/unm13010_res.html

Article:

http://www.dailylobo.com/index.php/article/2010/02/dashingfellows_best_their_own_times 

2010 Training

2010 is going to be a great year, I can already tell.  Training is going to be great and the friends and family that encompass this new year are going to be great companies for these wonderful experiences.  However, I have one minor set back, and that is while I write this I am a bit under the weather.  Yet, it's nothing too serious and as I watch my other training partners get healthy and logging in the miles, I can only hope that we will be running new pr's and competing against some good guys.

The most immediate goal that has been on my mind since last year is focused towards the USA Cross Country Championships next month in Spokane, Washington.  This 12k cross country race is something that I cannot wait to race and do well in.  I hope to make a US National Team and represent my country in running.  It would be such an honor and dream come true to achieve.  There will be a few of us out there, and a buddy of mine lives in Spokane, so the experience is going to be great.  The weather; God willing, should be miserable!  Snow, windy and mud should prove to be a great cross country experience.  And the training leading up to this race has been great!  Mileage has been relatively high, but could be higher and the quality of the workouts has been great.  Yet, my biggest problem has been rest.  My recovery runs have been great, but the amount of sleep has been awful.  I have about 5 weeks till the race and I need to incorporate more sleep into my training in order to make that team.     

Base Building

It has been about 4 weeks since Twin Cities Marathon, and I am back on the Trials of Miles...  I think I was around 110 for last week and will continue to build up towards 140 miles/week.  We haven't been doing any workouts, so it is a bit easier to hit higher mileage.  This past sunday, there was a big group of us.  There were about four Americans and four Africans with us on our 18 mile long run.  We went 6 miles easy, 6 miles a little faster, and the last 6 was very, very fast...  But, it felt great!  

Things are shaping up, and I am very excited to focus on one thing this winter, which will be the USA Cross Country Championships.  I will do a few indoor races, but the main goal is to make a National Team.  Workouts will come in a few weeks, and I'll jump into a few races for fun.  And the quote of the month between all of us has been: "More is Better!"  

USA Cross Country Championships

Another long awaited post from a race nearly 2 months ago...

On the weekend of February 7th, a group of Dukes Track Club runners (Myself, Kris, Juan, Robby & Dana) flew to Baltimore, Maryland to compete at the 2009 USA Cross Country Championships/USA World Cross Country Trials.  I was very excited for this race once I got to the airport.  The four of us, minus Kris were on-time checking in and getting to the gate, whereas Kris was nowhere to be found.  As we meandered to our gate, we met up with a small crew of UNM athletes that were racing, including: Jeremy Johnson, Alan Pitman & Lacy Oeding.  We were on the same flight so it was going to be a fun little trip.  Once we we landed, the two groups raced off to get our rental cars and headed over to the course and get a quick peek at what we were about to suffer through!

The course was amazing.  We found ourselves in the middle of a forest with rolling hills carved into a 10 meter wide cross country course.  The frozen mud gave room for horrible footing along the undulating terrain for each 2k loop.  I don't recall any flat surfaces on the entire course, because if there wasn't an uphill or downhill, there was a slope to run along that threw your stride.  Our entire group of New Mexican runners were very pleased with the course, since it reflected the foothills back at home that we loved to run!  Once the sun rested over the farmland hills and red barn at the starting line, we decided to finish up our run and head to dinner and get some rest.

The next day we all slowly woke up, got ready for a shake out run (which included some light hill repeats) and get some breakfast.  Our race was scheduled to go off at 2pm, so we arrived at the race around 12 and watched some of the junior races.  German Fernandez won the junior race with an impressive breakaway in the last lap.  Our UNM runner Al Pitman finished an impressive 17th, which was very motivating for us.  And Lacy placed 10th, earning her a spot on the US NACAC  team.  

Once we got our warm up in, which was 40 minutes of running around lost in the hills behind the course, we did some strides and stretched back at our little spot by the course.  At this time we laced up, did some drills and headed over to the start.  Jeremy was no where to be found at this point, but the five of us headed over there as a small pack of lost Albuquerque runners.  After some more strides on the course, the runners were gathered to start on a long hilly 12k cross country race.  Kris and I had a strategy from our coach Henry Rono to run conservative for the first 4 loops and then start racing after that.  So we agreed that Kris would take the first lap and we would switch leads for the 4 loops.  After the gun went off a huge group of nearly 60 runners converged in front of me towards our uphill start.  I stayed as comfortable as possible for the first loop with Kris.  Once the second loop came I started to lead Kris and pick off a few guys every quarter mile or so.  The hills were relentless, especially the down hills, since they were very steep and slightly muddy from the previous races.  

As the third loop came, I was expecting Kris to take over, but he was not there.  I was not going to look back, so I kept my composure and attempted to pick off guys that went out too hard in the first half of the race.  I was very surprised to be passing such high caliber runners.  At this point fans were calling out places, so I had an idea that I was in the top 30 at this point.  Another discouraging moment, was when guys where dropping out of the race.  This issue gets to me, but nevertheless I still pressed forward through the hills and mud.  For the next 2 loops I was amongst the top 20 and still pressing.  I could see Jeremy up in front and I wanted to reach him, but this late in the race with these amazing runners would be a tremendous effort to reach anyone.  I could feel the guys behind me struggling through the course as much as I was, so our positions seemed frozen for the time being.  On the largest downhill of the course many runners fell, and I witnessed many runners sliding well off the course to avoid a horrible fall.  At one point I nearly fell, but thankful not.  

At the beginning of our last lap I saw Anthony Famiglietti in a red singlet in front of me.  At the moment I did not know who it was, but once a fan called out his name to cheer him on I got excited.  The excitement was that I was closing in on a great American distance runner, who just competed at the 2008 Olympics.  I put in a surge to catch him on the downhill, and we were running together up the hill leading to the back side of the course.  I think we were running together for a bit, then he let me go with 1k to go.  At this point I was pressing as hard as I could without sprinting.  I had an idea where the quarter mile mark would be, but i still wanted to hold my position; which was 17th I believe.  Once I hit the turn for the finish I started my kick...which was too soon.  I could feel the lactic acid build in my legs like battery acid and was just praying I could catch the guys in front of me.  That was not going to happen.  Instead, the opposite happen, a group of guys ate me apart in the last few hundred meters.  It was tough!  They flew by me as if I was standing still, then they started to come back to me.  If they kept their momentum I think they would have gaped me by almost 30 seconds in those few meters, but fortunately I was not standing still and finished a few seconds behind them in 20th.

As I crossed the line in compete pain and exertion I waited there for the rest of our team.  A brief chat with the fellow runners and friends that beat me and Kris soon crossed the finish line in 37th place.  Juan came in a few moments later in 81st place followed by Robby and Dana in 119th & 141st respectively.  This was Robby's first real race since moving back to Albuquerque, at it was a great performance at the National level.  Dana was real pleased with his performance as well, since he has never been on a team before.  As for Juan, this race just fueled the fire for him.  He has always been a competitor, so he used this as a testament to further his training.  Kris was joking stating that he was the fastest Lawyer in the race and was very pleased with it.  This was a huge improvement from last year and he is going to have a huge track season!

I was very pleased and excited with my placing!  This may have been one of my best performances to date.  But, another thing was lingering in my mind.  The team competition!  Now, USA Cross Country Championships is not really regarded as a team event, but they do score teams.  I noticed a table with the Championship Trophy and Runner-up Trophies.  Once I saw that, I knew we won!  There was no way any of those teams beat us, but even if they did I still figured we'd get second and take home some hardware!  But of course, they screwed up the scoring and didn't even score us as a team.  Oh well, maybe next year!

2009 USA Cross Country Championship Results

So on the cool down we were applauding each others performances and joking around from such a great experience.  Many Olympians and Professional runners had bad days and I was very fortunate to have a great day!  Our good friend Jeremy Johnson finished an amazing 12th place, earning him a spot on the US NACAC team as well!  It is such an honor to represent your country in any kind of international competition and I am very proud of Jeremy for making that team.  I only hope that I can have the fitness and integrity to make that team next year.  It would surly be a dream to wear the US Jersey in competition, doing something I love.

That night we headed out to the post-race party and had an amazing, crazy, lost night throughout Baltimore with random people!  One of my buddies/old roommate (Mike Crouch) who runs for Queens University and just ran 7:57 (indoor 3ooom) that same day drove down from New York with his coach, Scott Simmons and stayed in Baltimore for the night came out with us.  All I can say was that we had a night we would never forget, or for a time being we would forget...

And the adventure didn't end there..... The next day, in a slump of sickness we geared up very slowly, packed and drove to Washington D.C. to tour our nations capitol.  Dana lost his wallet so he had to drive back to the hotel to recover it as the rest of us toured the capitol while getting in a run.  This was the last thing I ever wanted to do, but as soon as we got out there running the spinning seemed to slow down.  That night I seemed to have consumed the most beverages and was paying the price that day.  Although the Mall in D.C. was quite amazing.  We meandered through each monument and gazed in awe.  After a few hours of running/sightseeing I started to feel "tapped out".  We got a call from Dana that he'd returned and was looking for us.  We told him we'd run towards his direction, but I was feeling too tired to continue and sat down trying to recover.  Kris was getting irritated and wanted to meet up with Dana first, but before Kris could freak out I heard a women's voice from a car in traffic yell my name.  I looked over in shock and saw an old college teammate, Jenny Hauser.  I ran over to see her and told her to meet up with us after she parked.  Once everyone converged to exchange stories and why we were in D.C. Jenny directed us to a wonderful restaurant where we could complete our Maryland experience with some Crap Cakes!  We arrived at the restaurant, had a great crap cake experience wearing our running clothes and sweat then left straight to the airport for our journey home.

Once again, for lack of a better word, this was an Epic Adventure.  One we shall not forget...