USA Half Marathon Championships / Houston Half Marathon on the Horizon

If I could sum up my training for the upcoming USA Half Marathon Championships next Sunday in three words it would be; pretty damn good.  Looking forward to the half marathon, I only have one race to use as a barometer, and that would be the treacherous club national race last month in Bend, Oregon.  Running 32 minutes for a 10k is never a good thing, but on that course in those conditions, I shouldn't be too upset.  The effort was solid, and I felt good about placing 49th.  Nevertheless, I really don't have an accurate perception on my fitness in the half marathon.

I can look back on the weeks and access my workouts.  Like any runner who's had consistent training, we always lean towards optimism and believe we are fitting and faster than we might actually be.  If you don't feel this way, then why bother racing a National Championship?  For the most part, it's nearly impossible to tell what you are going to run, which is exactly why we RACE - to find out our ability on that given day.  And with the past month of training and building from my last National Championship (Twin Cities, not club nats), I feel pretty damn good going to Houston next week.

Some of the confidence comes from specific workouts, and from consistent mileage, while maintain a paycheck from my job as a teacher...  I think one solid workout I did over the winter break was 8x1000m in 3:02 average.  The other one has to be a few of the long run workouts.  An easy 4 miles, followed by 6x1 mile with 70 seconds jogging in: 5:15, 5:10, 5:03, 5:00, 4:57, 4:50, followed by 12 more miles seems to do the trick.  With my last long run workout this Sunday and an easy tempo run on Wednesday before the Sunday race, I feel ready to go.  I've crunched some numbers and already know the goal is at least 4:57 per mile.  Is that realistic when I've probably only done that a few times in workouts?  Why not?  With the depth of guys racing next weekend on a nearly flat course and the predicted perfect weather; anything is possible.

The Field is loaded with the following runners:

Armijo	Jesse	Albuquerque	NM
Armstrong	Chass	Greenville	SC
Ashe	Eric	Boston	MA
Atkins	Cole	Blowing Rock	NC
Barkhaus	Erik	Seattle	WA
Barrett	Matt	Madison	WI
Birdsong	Brandon	Manitou Springs	CO
Biwott	Shadrack	Folsom	CA
Boit	Josphat	Mammoth Lakes	CA
Boyd	Travis	Edmonds	WA
Braun	Aaron	Englewood	CO
Brown	Sean	Aurora	CO
Bruce	Ben	Flagstaff	AZ
Cabada	Fernando	Boulder	CO
Carson	Jared	Austin	TX
Carson	Josh	Atlanta	GA
Ceja	Javier	Wichita	KS
Chavez	Michael	Fort Collins	CO
Cook	Riley	South Weber	UT
Cosens	Ryan	Costa Mesa	CA
Coyle	John	Logan	UT
Criscione	Jeremy	Gainesville	FL
Curley	Craig	Tucson	AZ
Davidson	Aaron	Lenexa	KS
Dewitt	John	Oshkosh	WI
Dialynas	Thomas	Denver	CO
Dworak	Brandon	Memphis	TN
Eggleston	Jeffrey	Boulder	CO
Finnel	Brian	Madison	WI
Freed	Jeremy	Longmont	CO
Fuentes	David	Austin	TX
Gray	Joseph	Colorado Springs	CO
Greeno	Dan	Minneapolis	MN
Grey	Matthew	Minneapolis	MN
Grey	Jonathan	Minneapolis	MN
Holt	Jason	Kaysville	UT
Hunt	Mitchell	Fremont	NE
Jeffreys	Tim	Brooklyn	NY
Kahn	Daniel	Houston	TX
Kamm	Connor	Nashville	TN
Keflezighi	Meb	San Diego	CA
Kerr	Daniel	Winston-Salem	NC
Kienzle	Ryan	Canton	OH
Krause	Elliot	Madison	WI
Kremske	Dan	Woodstock	IL
Krong	Jake	Salt Lake City	UT
Leak	Gregory	Steilacoom	WA
LeBlanc	Jarrett	Baton Rouge	LA
Leon	Craig	Eugene	OR
Llano	Matthew	Flagstaff	AZ
MacPherson	Scott	Columbia	MO
Marotz	Jake	Saint Paul	MN
Martin	Brent	Gambier	OH
Martin	Nathan	Spring Arbor	MI
McCandless	Tyler	Boulder	CO
Mercado	Diego	Eugene	OR
Moore	Joe	Manhattan	KS
Mott	Jonathan	Babson Park	FL
Munoz	Jose	San Antonio	TX
Nadler	Enoch	Richardson	TX
O'Connor	Kieran	Arlington	VA
Osman	Ahmed	Flagstaff	AZ
Payne	Ben	Ft Walton Beach	FL
Pennel	Tyler	Blowing Rock	NC
Petersen	Paul	Fort Collins	CO
Proctor	Seth	Orlando	FL
Proctor	Gabriel	Mammoth Lakes	CA
Puskedra	Luke	Beaverton	OR
Quigley	Sean	Lafayette	CO
Reina	Rio	Austin	TX
Reneau	Michael	Minneapolis	MN
Reyes	Sergio	Palmdale	CA
Ritchie	Tim	Brighton	MA
Rono	Aron	Beaverton	OR
Sathre	Benjamin	Chaska	MN
Sewald	Tyler	Greeley	CO
Sherman	Logan	Plano	TX
Siebach	Karl	Orem	UT
Sloane	Christopher	Gaithersburg	MD
Solis	Anthony	Sacramento	CA
Suver	Curtis	Colorado Springs	CO
Tapia	Daniel	Castroville	CA
Taylor	Justin	St Augustine	FL
Thor	Luka	Gretna	NE
Tunningley	Rory	Austin	TX
Vegh	Tibor	Raleigh	NC
Whitehead	Josh	Madison	AL
Wiley	Robert	Gurnee	IL
Wyatt	Verrelle	Akron	OH
York	Brandon	Madison	AL

      

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