5K Time Trial

Today marked the half way point of my 8 week training plan. That means that it was time to run a 5K time trial to evaluate my progress toward a 5K PR. The result of my time trial run was a new 5K PR

New 5K PR

My time of 28:13 bested my previous PR of 28:39, set in September 2016. With just under 4 weeks to go until race day, I'm certainly on the right track!

IMT Des Moines Marathon Relay

For the second year in a row, I competed in the marathon relay at the IMT Des Moines marathon, and for the second year in a row, we had a blast on race day. The relay is the same distance and course as the marathon, but is divided up between 5 team members. This year's team consisted of 3 returning team members, Megan (a co-worker of mine at Pioneer), Erin (my lovely wife), and me. In addition, we had 2 newcomers in Dan (Megan's husband) and Justin (a friend of mine from middle school and high school).

The weather could not have been more different than last year. Last years race was humid with fog and got quite warm by the end of the race. This year it was cold and very windy. Erin started us off running the first 4 miles that included a big hill at the end. I ran the next 6 miles before handing off to Dan to run mile 10 - 15 that included a lap around the blue oval at Drake Stadium. Megan took the baton from Dan to run the big down hill into Water Works Park before handing off to our final runner, Justin, at mile 20. Everyone on the team ran fast today and we ended up finishing in 4:20:02.

Freezing and wishing the race would start

Time and pace is a personal thing, so I can only truly speak for myself, but I was EXTREMELY happy with how I ran today. My average pace for my 6 miles was 9:39/mi which beat the 9:45/mi that Erin challenged me to this year. In addition, it was faster then the 9:53/mi that I averaged for my 6 mile leg last year and is the fastest 6 miles that I have run in my entire life. If that didn't make me happy enough, when I got home and uploaded from my watch to Garmin Connect, I saw that my leg included 352 feet of elevation gain. That is 120 feet more than the route that I ran last year.

Crushed it!

Transition 2 and 3 were less than a mile apart so after I handed off to Dan, we walked to the next transition. With about 40 minutes to wait, I noticed that the water station that was at this transition was very understaffed and they were struggling to even get cups filled to keep up with the runners coming by. At this point, the marathoners were almost 15 miles into the race and I know from experience what can happen when hydration is compromised. Since we were waiting anyways, I decided to spend the next 30 minutes or so helping to hand water to the runners as they came by. 

Working the water station

The sun finally came out late in the race, and we all joined Justin around mile 26 to cross the finish line "together" (ok, so maybe we spread out a little bit, but we all found each other after finishing). 

The proud finishers

I can't state enough how fun it is to compete in a relay. This will most likely remain a staple on my race calendar every year, and it has me looking for more relay opportunities. In fact, I'm currently working to put a team together for the Market to Market relay next May. 75 miles from Jefferson, IA to Des Moines, IA split between 6 - 8 runners. In fact, I still have a few spots to fill out, so if this is something that you would be interested in doing, be sure to let me know. Runners of all experience levels are welcome!

It is hard for me to believe that we are already half way through the month of October. With only 1 race remaining on my schedule for the year, things are really winding down and the time for reflection, as well as planning for next year is upon us. For now though, it is time to get back to work. 

2017 Goals Update

The end of September marked 3/4 of the way through 2017 so I thought it would be good time to provide a status update on my goals for the year. Note this progress is through the end of September and does not include the first 3 days of October.

Goal 1
This goal was to run a combined 2017 miles with my wife, Erin. We are absolutely crushing this goal! To date, we have combined to run 1,686.2 miles leaving us with just 330.8 miles left for the year!

Goal 2
This goal was to bike 2,500 miles. I am currently at 2,131.52 miles and well on my way to completing this goal as well.

2017 Cycling Update

Goal 3

Swim 75 miles. This might be the one that I am most proud of as I am still very new to swimming, but I am furthest along in this goal as I have already completed 64.67 miles combined in the pool and open water.

2017 Swimming Update

Goal 4

Complete 150 strength training sessions in 2017. I am happy to say that even though I was behind where I should have been at half way through the year, I have managed to catch up since that time. As of the end of September I had completed 114 strength training sessions and am happy to state that I am the strongest that I have ever been in my life. 

2017 Strength Training Progress

Even with the good progress so far, I have no plans of slowing down anytime soon. In fact, I'm hoping to finish off my goals early so that I can take a short break from training around the holidays to let my body recovery leading into all of the big plans that I have for next year. 

Planning For A 5k PR

For the past 4 years my focus while training has been to increase the distance that I can run. During that time, I have become a stronger and more efficient runner and naturally have become faster. However, I have never actually focused on developing speed. During that time, I have really enjoyed pushing myself to go farther and farther, but after checking several races off my bucket list it is time to start shifting my goals to running faster.

To get things started off, I have set a goal to run a 5k PR by the end of the year and am targeting the Des Moines Turkey Trot 5k to do just that. My current 5k PR of 28:39 was set during a 5 mile training run on September 10, 2016. I have been training about 1 minute per mile slower than I was at this point last year, and I am about 15 - 20 lbs  heavier (mostly muscle) so I have some ground to make up.

With all of that in mind, I have set up an 8 week training program that, along with good racing conditions on Thanksgiving, should give me a good chance at breaking that previous PR time. My training program will include several days a week of high intensity running while mixing in plenty of recovery time. I have spent most of my year splitting time between running, cycling, and swimming but with my triathlon season in the rear view mirror, I will only be including 2 days of swimming and 2 days of cycling per week. Those 4 workouts will also have the intensity and distance/time dialed back significantly. In addition, I will be shifting from training 6 days a week down to only 5 days a week to allow for extra recovery. I have laid out my run training program below:

Monday:
Tempo Run (30 - 45 minutes)
Strength Training
Lap Swim (Easy)

Tuesday:
Rest and Recovery

Wednesday:
Interval Run (Progressive 200 or 400 yard intervals)
Strength Training
Lap Swim (Sprints)

Thursday:
Run (3 - 5 Miles Easy)
Bike (15 - 20 Mile hills or intervals)
Strength Training

Friday:
Rest and Recovery

Saturday:
Pace/Fast Run (4 - 6 Miles)
Bike (15 - 25 Miles Easy)

Sunday:
Long Run (60 - 90 Minutes Easy)
Strength Training

As mentioned in a previous post, my off season this year is going to involve getting refocused on losing weight and getting lighter. Although my off season won't "officially" start until after Thanksgiving, I am already planning and starting to implement my off season nutrition to support weight loss. The reason that I bring this up is that it will probably take awhile for me to find the correct balance to fueling the more intense running workouts while trying to lose weight. My hope is that by starting early, I will go into the holidays with a solid plan and a good head start on my off season plans.

I will keep you updated on my progress throughout this training cycle and hopefully I will be sitting atop the PR mountain come Thanksgiving day. For now, time to get back after it!

Thank God It Was Me

Let's start off with the most important fact of the night and that is I crushed my training run tonight! This is the last week of my 3 weeks of "unstructured training" so I didn't even know how far I was going when I ran out the door. I ended up running a little over 5 1/2 miles keeping an average pace of 10:05/mi. The weather was perfect for running and I really enjoyed not having a preset route or distance. 

Running in the dark

So I do have a goal of trying to keep my blog posts positive, but I also believe it is important to be as honest as possible when sharing my journey. I'm sure all of you will have different thoughts about what follows, but if you like to stick with the positive, then you should probably stop reading here.

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For those that know me, or have been keeping up with my blog posts, it is no secret that I am an overweight individual. You also know, that for the past 4 years I have been working very hard towards changing that. For the first time in those 4 years I had someone yell a derogatory remark at me out the window of a truck that was driving by as I was running. I was over 4 miles into my run when it happened and very much "in the zone" so it took a second for me to process what had happened and my thoughts were as follows:

Thought #1: Well duh? Like I don't know that? Why do you think I'm out here running?

Thought #2: Thank God it was me that they decided to yell at. I am at a point that although I desire to improve my body composition, I am very confident with my body (have you seen what I wear for my races?!?). 

They could have been yelling at an obese middle aged man who just had a wake up call when his aging dad had a heart attack and decided to give running a try out of desperation. Or maybe it could have been a mother of 4 who is embarrassed by how she looks and finally built up the courage to ask for some "me time" to go for a run. Or maybe it is a single guy in his 20's that has always been made fun of and is choosing to run after dark to avoid being seen and judged. 

Thank God it was me and none of those people, because I know that I can brush something like that off and keep going. Everyone is on a journey in life and everyone's journey is different. If you take something away from this post, don't let it be anger, frustration, or embarrassment. Instead, I ask that you do your best to be kind to others even when it is not easy or even when they don't seem deserving. I challenge everyone reading this blog post to do 1 extra nice thing for someone tomorrow. Something as simple as saying hello or holding a door, or even better yet, ask someone how their day is going or tell someone they are doing a great job. If we do that, then we will all help make tomorrow better than today.