Father - Daughter Dance

After another Chiro appointment yesterday, I was given the OK for an easy run today. I waited until mid morning and Melissa & I headed out for an easy 4 miles. She just started running again since track practices began and I worked her and her teammates pretty hard on Thursday but she was feeling OK today. It was good to run with her since I needed to take it slow.

We started out with a first mile of 9:20 and my back was twinging some. After a small walk break at mile 1, mile 2 was slightly slower and my back was still a bit sore but not too bad. Melissa was getting tired for the last 2 miles and walked a bit more but she was a trooper and finished with a pace of a little over 10:15 per mile. Not too bad for 9 years old. I did pick up the pace a lot for the last 1/3 of a mile. I wanted to see how the back would feel going fast since I really want to run the 5K I am signed up for next Saturday. It did OK, not good, not bad.

The special part of the day today was the Father - Daughter Dance at the girl's school. This year I had the pleasure of taking all 3 princesses with me. They sure had fun running all around and dancing with their friends and having a few with me too. It is true, they grow up so fast!

Katelynn is on the left, Melissa in the middle, and Megan on the right.

The theme of the dance was Candyland. Megan had a lot fo fun.

Temporarily Out of Commission

Yep, I am out, but hopefully just for a few days. My back has been pretty bad since I reached for air off the grocery store shelf and has spasmed quite a bit almost flooring me a few times.

I went to the Chiropractor on Monday afternoon and had a good adjustment but today, it was very stiff and I still had problems with the muscle spasms. So I am going back for another adjustment Wednesday morning. I am hoping this will put it all back into place and I can get back to running in a couple days. I may need to go back again before I get the OK to run again. If things go according to the way they did in the past, I should be able to run on Thursday but will need to go a few more times for adjustments. It is absolutely amazing how just a little reach for nothing can mess me up so much.

I am a bit concerned about the 5K I am signed up for on May 7th but if I am back running soon, it should not be a problem. My goal is to run faster than the 20:59 I ran a little over a week ago. I will most likely miss my hard interval workout this week but maybe rest is better.

Today was the first time I was able to do any coaching of the kids at my daughter's school. The last practice was pouring rain and the kids just did a circuit around the gym. Today it was raining pretty hard and was windy but slowed enough to go outside to finally run. the first meet in a week and a half away so not much time left. I had the boys today, 8 of them. So I marked off a 200 meter sort of oval in the parking lot (no track available) and I had them do some 400 meter intervals. I paired them up into teams of 2 and had them run 5x400 each as a a person relay. After a water break, they did 3 more 400 meter intervals all together. Most of them seemed to enjoy it (as much as one can enjoy intervals) and some surprised me at how well they did. It was definitely a rewarding day for coaching.

Keep on Running!!!

A New Trail to Run

This weekend was a planned long run. Since I had decided to go long on Saturday, I skipped my run on Friday. Well, not because of that, but because I was waiting at home for the new refrigerator to show up. The delivery crew gave me a window of between 4 and 7 but 7 came and went. Finally about 9:15PM, they arrived (long day for them). After getting it in the door and all hooked up, I was able to get to bed closer to 10:30 to 11. Oh well, up by 5:30 to run.

I decided to try a new bike trail run that starts in Pewaukee and goes out toward Delafield. I saw in on some mapping websites I go to and just was curious how it was. It is called the Lake Country Recreational Trail. I got to the trail head at about 6:30 and was surprised to see that is was paved. Nice for bikers but disappointing for a runner but it will do. I took off toward Delafield at an easy pace and enjoyed the new scenery.

After 4 miles, the trail went to crushed limestone for awhile and it went through NAG-Waukee Golf Course. Up until this point, I thought this would be a good trail to bike on with my girls but along the edge of the golf course, the trail was just gravel and seemed poor for biking and just OK for running. A large hill was through the gold course to add to the challenge.

After NAGA-Waukee Park, the trail was paved again all the way to Delafield. I got to the end of the trail at 7.3 miles in. I didn't want to run only 14.6 miles so I had planned more miles. I ran to Genessee St. and across I-94 toward Lapham Peak Park. This is the park where the Trailbreaker Marathon turns around right at the top of the observation tower. Sounds like a good place for me to turn around this time so up the road I ran and climbed the 250 feet to the tower and then the 40 feet to the top. It was just over 10 miles to the tower.

After a minute of looking at the views from the highest point in the area and the local lakes all around, I was off back to my car. I was at 9:16 average pace at the tower, most gained in the last 250 feet climb in the last mile but I picked it up a little on the way back. It was cloudy so the temps stayed around 45 to 50 without the sun. With 4 miles to go, i picked it up more and was able to end the run at an average of 9:03, an under 4 hour marathon pace for just over 20 miles. I was good with this.

So the morning was good and the run was good. The afternoon was not as good. I was grocery shopping when I reached for something on the shelf. I hadn't even touched it yet when my back twinged and tightened up. UUGGHH!!! For no reason (that I know of) my back just goes out. I wasn't even lifting anything, just reaching a little over and BAM! Since this was Saturday, my Chiropractor was not in. I stretched and iced but still no luck. What a pain in the . . . well . . .back side.

Funny how someone can run 20 miles in the morning and then simply reach for something and that is what takes him out.

No improvement this Sunday morning or evening so I will call early Monday for an appointment, hopefully the Dr. is in. Most likely a couple days off of running for this but I have gone through it before and after a couple adjustments and I will be fine.

I also passed 500 miles for the year during the run, coincidentally right about half way in the run near the tower.

Keep on Running!!!

Improvised Intervals

I had planned on running intervals of 6x800 after work today on the track in town. Only problem was that when I got there, a track meet was going on. Time for plan B. I had mapped out a 1/2 mile route next to the track along the road so I could do my intervals. this may have made them better as one way was into the wind and both ways had a downhill portion and an uphill portion. It was like running into a valley and ending back up a hill to finish. It is only about 35 feet of total elevation change per interval but it sure made a difference.

The first, third, and fifth intervals were with the wind and the second, fourth, and sixth were into the wind for an added challenge. All were pretty close in time to each other and I only took between 1:05 and 1:20 rest between each one. I left the watch going the whole time and with warm up, cool down, intervals, and jogs between intervals, I ended up with 5.75 miles for the workout and averaged 7:50 pace. It sure felt good to get some more speed in again. I have another 5K in a little over 2 weeks so the more speed, the better.

Now a change of subject. Did you see the Boston Marathon? I was trying to keep track of it from my desk at work but only could read twitter updates from Runner's World. I sure wish I could have watched in online or maybe heard someone giving a play by play (run by run, step by step) of the race. I was rooting for Desi Devila to pull it off. So close! Ans then the Men's race ending with a World's Best Marathon time and Ryan Hall with an American Best time too! Amazing!

A lot of people are wondering why it isn't a World Record or an American Record. Well, it doesn't qualify for either of those for 2 main reasons and I agree with those. The first reason is that the course drops 3.1 meters per Kilometer. the larges allowable elevation change from start to finish is 1 meter per Kilometer. This is to make sure they don't stage races on big time downhill course with the sole purpose of breaking world records.

The second reason the Boston Marathon course does not qualify for a world record is that the straight line distance from the start line to the finish line is something close to 25 miles. The largest allowable distance is half of the race distance, in this case 13.1 miles. This is to not create a race that predominantly run with the wind, thus giving it a wind aided time. Similar to a 100 meter race where there is a 2.0 meters per second allowable wind. I read that the wind at Boston was at the runner's back at 16 MPH. I think that would qualify as wind aided. So that is the reason, in case you were interested.

This doesn't mean I don't want to run Boston someday. I would love to qualify someday. Time will tell, I still need to drop a ton of time. Close to 25 minutes and maybe even more with the new qualifying rules starting next year. Perhaps I will just have to get older without slowing.

By the way, I did wake up early the other day and ran 4 miles before work.

I hope you all have a very Happy Easter.

Keep on Running!!!

More Snow?

This is what I woke up to this morning. We only got about an inch or 2 but I've had about enough of snow for the year. It was over 80F just a little over a week ago, but that is Wisconsin weather for ya!

By the time work was done, the snow was completely gone. I went for a 7 mile run along a bike trail and felt very good. I ended up running it in 59 minutes and could have gone for many more miles at that pace. I have to coach after work tomorrow so I am going to attempt to get up before work and get a few in. Chances of me getting up? Probably slim but I will still set the alarm and hope for the best.

The last 2 weeks or so have been a little problematic when it comes to unplanned purchases. First it was the van and overheating problems. That was about $700 I didn't need to fork over. The very next weekend the battery in the car died. Doesn't sound too bad until you find out that the only way to get to the battery is to take the driver front wheel off and take off a panel in the wheel well just to access it. Not to mention how on earth you get it out then. I wasn't about to attempt it myself. Another $200 I didn't plan for. Then this week, my refrigerator decided to slowly warm up. It is sort of cold in there but it is suppose to be colder than 45F and 20F. So now another crap load of $$ needs to be spent. Uuugghh. I needed to go into the Disney Fund to help pay for these things. Oh well, just going to have to start to save more (if possible).

Good thing I run to keep the stress down.

Keep on Running!!!

Race Report - Gary's Gallop 5K

Saturday morning was the Gary's Gallop 5K held at Wisconsin Lutheran College's Raabe Stadium. I have run this race 3 years in a row now and really like the small race feel and how well it is organized. My friend and fellow Icebreaker Indoor Marathon committee member Brian Volkman is the race director and even with a few unexpected snags this year, did an excellent job for a 5K race.

One thing Brian could not control was the weather. It as in the mid to upper 30's and it was misting rain along with some wind. Sound like good weather? It didn't seem to dampen spirits though as there were still 252 finishers in the 5K along with 63 walkers. Another thing Brian could not control was the construction crew. Seems that the construction crew beginning to build new stadium seating and locker facilities cut power to the sound system to all announcement were made by yelling (no bullhorn was available either as the sound system was expected to be used). The national anthem was sung by a member of the recording group Koine` but turns out we all sang together. That was a nice touch.

As with past years, we were all given a nice cotton long sleeve shirt. Same design as previous years, just a different color. I now have Green, Orange and now, Red!

The race started right on time and we headed for the parkway and down a hill toward the 1st mile mark. I was trying to relax as much as I could but it felt a little fast and I hoped to maintain knowing we would have to run back up the hill. Mile 1 was 6:34 which is about where I wanted to be. About a quarter mile later was the turn around and we headed back. I was somewhere near 30th place but at least in or near quite a few other guys which helped going up the hill. My mile 2 split was 7:08 as the hill took its toll on me. I was able to pass a few guys as we headed back to the stadium and past it before entering the baseball field area. About a half mile to go and I saw a few more guys ahead of me that I thought I could catch so I kept the pressure up. This race ends with a full lap on the track and then running to the 50 yard line of the football field. Again I was able to pass 2 guys on the track and 1 more right as we hit the football field for the final 50 yards. My finishing time was 20:59 and 23rd place overall.

I am not unhappy with my time and also not ecstatic. Considering the weather and the course, it was about where I expected. It was only 20 to 30 seconds slower than the last 2 years. After the race, I ran an additional 5 miles while the kids race was going on. The kids race it so much fun to watch. About 20 kids between 2 and 10 ran 1 lap around the track and all received a ribbon. That is pretty cool for a race to do, make the kids feel a part of the fun.

As I finished the 5 mile 'cool down', the awards were being given out and I was surprised to learn that I took 2nd in my age group. I received a medal for my efforts. In a nice gesture, as I went up to get my medal, Brian told all the other runners about the WELS Kids Marathon that I organize and hold the final mile at the same location. That was really cool.



Even on my cool down, a lady stopped me and asked if she could get her school involved in the Kids Marathon. I will have to tell you more about that as we are beginning our 3rd year.

Thumbs up to Brian on putting on another great race and I plan on running this one yet again next year. Now 3 weeks more and I will try a 5K once again up in Door County.

I Wanted to Run but ...

I had planned on running today but I only was able to get a half mile in. You see, today was the first day of track practice at my daughters school. I volunteered this year to be the distance coach for the boys and girls. I was going to run with the kids but today they were doing time trials so all of them did a 1 mile trial and I timed them. My half mile came during the warm up. After practice, there was no more time to get any miles in and I needed to get my daughter home.

Practices are Tuesdays and Thursdays so I think I will just have to run before work on those days. No worries, the track is close and the port-o-lets are out for the summer. The biggest problem will be getting my butt out of bed early enough to get 5 miles in before work.

I was able to get 5 miles in yesterday and have a special 45 minutes with my youngest daughter. I was able to push her in the jog stroller for what may be one of the last time. She is now 5 years old and getting pretty big and heavy for the stroller. She is much more active than in the past when she used to either go to sleep during the run or just be quiet and look around. We talked most of the run pointing out what we saw and what we did all day. She even sang a few songs for me along the way. After 5 miles, I could tell she had about enough and was ready to get out. Won't be too many more of these runs so I will cherish the times we still have.

Keep on Running!!!