Impromptu 5k

Today my wife and I ran a 5k in St. Paul. This winter she's building a base for her first half marathon in Fargo, and a 5k now and then is helping her keep motivated and see the fruits of her labor. Now normally we don't run together, because in the past I've been training for running races too, and we just have different paces. But for this race she wasn't sure she wanted to run it because it was cold, and her running buddy from the last couple of races just wasn't up to it. But Friday I caller her up and said 'hey, let's do this, the weather will be fine and I'll run it with you.' So it was a done deal.

The race is the Dredel Dash put on by the St. Paul Jewish Community Center, since we decided to do the race on Friday, and the race is on Sunday, we did not pre-register :)

Race Morning
The plan had been to get up and go to church and then make our way to the race. Well, I stayed up 3 with our baby and some frustrating stuff I've been working on. The last thing I did though was send my wife and email and said "it's late, but wake me up anyway." But it turned out it didn't really matter, the kids slept in and my wife and sister-in-law didn't get up in time. So we didn't make it to church, and off to St. Paul for a quick run. The race started at 1, we got there at 11 to register. Registration went really well, my wife stayed in the car to feed our youngest, and I went in to register us both. I, probably predictably, went in the wrong door, but they had volunteers in the building guiding people to the right place. It was very cool. So I got us registered and it was 11:30 - that's way too much time to kill with 3 littles who are hungry. So we went to grab a bite to eat.

The Start
After we got some food, we found our way to the start line. A sort of unique feature of this 5k, at least as far as any 5k I've ever done is that it's point to point. There are actually three races going on, a 5k, a 10k, and a 1 mile fun run. The 10k is an out and back on the same course as the 5k, which is probably how they came up with the idea of the point to point. We lingered around the starting line, it was about 40 degrees with a slight breeze, talked to some people who were there, and watched some of the faster 10k runners run through. As is common with smaller races, when they finally started talking about the start I couldn't hear anything they were saying. But seriously, it was probably the normal, "everyone have a great race, remember to run between the people telling you to run between them :)" An unusual feature is that they sang the national anthem. At least I can't remember being at a race that did that, it was pretty cool.

Waiting for the start

The Run
The run was pretty good, there weren't a zillion people which I have found can be a double edged sword. On the one hand the race isn't mobbed, on the other hand they tend to be heavy with fast runners. Luckily this race wasn't like that. We settled into a good pace and just enjoyed the ride, some people in front, some people behind us. One cool thing about this run was that every single road was completely closed off. For a race this size I was surprised, there were some not-totally main streets, but also not side streets. I mean I think there were only like 300 racers, so that was a nice touch. One thing I did notice that struck me as odd was there was only one water stop, and it was for 10k runners. Now in all fairness I didn't notice until I finally got my paws on some water and noticed how thirsty I was, so it couldn't have been that bad.

About half way through - all smiles :)

The Finish
We knew we were pretty much on the pace we wanted to do. My wife was on her way to a new PR, and it was fun to be part of that. About 100 yards till the end we saw our kids and my sister-in-law on the side of the road cheering. Our oldest ran right out and headed toward the finish line, she didn't even pretend like she wanted to run with us. And she was booking, so I took off after her while my wife slowed down to run in with our son. Our best estimation about that is that he didn't know he would have the opportunity to run with mom or dad, but when his sister took off he felt left out :)

My wife and our son running across the finish

We finished, realized there was no finisher award and headed inside for the after race festivities. They had some good food, cookies, bananas, muffins and water. So we sat down, had some food and then headed home. There were supposed to be a lot of other stuff going on, but it was busy, and honestly I smelled like a locker room.

Enjoying some post-race snacks

Final Thoughts
This was a pretty good race. A good small race, and I had a great time running with my wife. She had a great run and was able to see that all of the running she's been doing is started to pay off. I'm very proud of her.

Getting out in the cold

It's starting to get cold out there. At our house we have three runners and two three kids under 5. So treadmill time is a premium. Also with the cold weather come fewer daylight running hours. It's dark when I get up, it's dark when I get home.

Considering last year I ran outside all year long, it's really tempting to let the cold weather and scheduling differences keep me from getting out there. But I've gone out for some runs anyway. Mostly now I'm doing my weekday runs over lunch at work, and the weekend runs during the day.

I read once that you should try to get out during inclement weather because it prepares you mentally for the future. I like that, a little cold weather won't kill me, and if I get a little exposure to sub-optimal weather, when I get great weather I'll be super happy, and when I get less desirable weather...meh :)

Honestly, if it's much above 30 it's a no brainier for me the cool weather means that I'm not sweating as much and as a result the run is pretty nice. I did have to convince myself to go out when it's colder. I did some reading, and the general consensus I ran into was, why not. It's not going to kill you.

So I went out for a cooler run the other day

At the start

At the end - it started warming up :)

Honestly except for about a half mile stretch I was fine. It wasn't uncomfortable at all. The half mile stretch was along a four lane road with no wind protection. And I swear, my nose got so cold that I had to stop and warm it up with my breath.

The wind was coming from the south, this loop is about three miles

The Getup

The gear

Here's my thinking

• Hat to keep my head and ears warm
• Gloves to keep my fingers warm
• Tech tee as the bottom top layer - to keep my dry when I started sweating
• Long sleeve T (cotton) on the top layer to provide some wind protection
• Thermal tights - to keep me dry when sweating
• Wind pants - more wind protection

Put a wicking layer of clothing next to your skin. It will help pull your sweat away from you (and you will be sweating) so it doesn't have time to get super cold.

On your torso, which isn't getting a huge amount of work, put a wind-breaking layer on top of your base. That will keep the wind from chilling you to the bone.

Same deal on the bottom, without the wind I would have gone without the wind-pants because your legs are doing all of the work, and can keep themselves pretty warm.

Hat and gloves are, in my opinion, a neccessity. Your hands and head aren't super great at keeping themselves warm, and the last thing you want is frozen fingers.

Choose a route that has decent wind protection. Usually I'd do that run with basically an out and back on the big road, but I know it's like a little prairie out there, so I tried to avoid it. It was basically an experiment, and now I know, avoid direct wind if you can.

Notes
There are a couple of things I would have changed.

• Tuck in one of my shirts. When the wind would pick up I would get some super cold shots of air up my shirt. Not super awesome.
• Wear my watch on the outside of my shirt. Wearing it against my skin left me with some undesirable exposed skin. It wasn't terrible, but easy to prevent.
• Try harder to stay out of the wind. The coldest parts of the run were running directly into the wind, or letting it blow across me for a sustained period of time.
• If it gets much colder than that, I'm going to invest in something to put on my face. The nose thing wasn't super terrible, but it was bad enough to make me stop for a few seconds.

Trinona 2012

Trinona 2011 was my first race last year in Minnesota, also my first Olympic distance race, so it has a special place in my heart.

I enjoy following the specticle that this race carries, they make commercials, they do fun little things that add a little spice to the race. This weekend during Kona coverage they will have a new commercial on TV (Saturday between 3:30 - 5:00 central on NBC and likely only locally)


I have to admit, the bluff destroyed me last year. It was very challenging, and not in that "this is too challenging way" because there are plenty of people who passed me on the way up. If you're looking for a fun race with a monster climb, hit it up.

I probably won't be doing this race this year, I am planning on having my first half iron distance on the same day. But I will enjoy following this race, and maybe I'll try to beat the hill next year.

New Terms

While preparing my training schedule this year I have pulled from a variety of sources and along the way have been picking up new terminology that is, apparently, used by other people to describe how they train.

First, let me review the terminology I used last year.

• Race pace - The goal speed during the race
• Run - Go for a run not quite as fast as race pace
• Tempo - Go for a bike/run slightly faster than race pace but for less distance
• Intervals - Go for a bike/run with high intensity parts mixed in with low intensity recovery parts
• Hills - Go for a bike and spend most of the time going up and down a relatively steep grade hill

My understanding of these terms has not changed, and I think I, at least understood how to, use them correctly to make gains in my performance.

Some new terms I've picked up

• RPE - Rating of Perceived Exertion. A method of planning that allows you to understand how hard you should be pushing yourself. There are a couple of scales, but the one I have adopted is 1-10 because it fits in my worldview, and a scale that starts at 6 is confusing. The following explanation is my paraphrasing of (http://www.topendsports.com/testing/rpe-intensity.htm)
• 0 is no effort
• 2-3 normal training effort
• 5 is a hard effort, likely race-pace
• 7-8, interval effort
• 10 is maximum effort, you cannot hold this pace for long at all, maybe a sprint at the end of a race
• Strides - A gradual acceleration over a relatively short distance. For example, every five minutes you go from your normal training effort to close to max effort over the course of 20 seconds, then back to normal.

This marketing worked - on me - sort of

Yesterday I ran across this video for SRAM RED. Now I'm no bike pro, and while I do know what components one of my bikes has on it, I am not totally sure what this is advertising.

However, I do like this ad. And it does make me want what they are selling - and not in that "Late night infomercial way"

November Training Notes

This month my totals look like this

	Distance	Time
Swim	0 yards	0 hours
Bike	0 miles	0 hours
Run	17.22 miles	3:00 hours

Overall
After 2.5 months off I am slowly getting back into the swing of things. There's still a little more than a month before I really start to apply some structure, so for now I'm just getting my legs under me and starting to try to cement my plans and goals for the year.

Swim
Zero - I'm planning on a January start

Bike
Zero - I cannot imagine riding my bike when it's only 25 degrees, and it's dark when I get up and come home from work. So... I'm thinking trainer, and I'm shooting for January start.

Run
I'm just doing easy runs for 2-3 miles at a time. Actually I just go out for 30 minutes at a time and I go as far as my legs will take me in that time. Also, I've started doing my runs at work, the next step is to convince some of the people I work with to run with me. That will be fun.

Day 1 or I Couldn't Handle It Any More!

So way back at the end of August I did my last race of the season. At that point I said, 'this is my last race this year, I am doing nothing for 3.5 months and pick it up again in January.' Well, that didn't last; it's surprising to me how hard it was to not do anything. Almost immediately my wife's uncle invited me to a 100 mile bike ride with him and his riding group, and there are 5ks and half marathons and 10ks. But I held steady, I forced myself to take the break I was looking forward to.

I recommend a break like this to everyone. Sure you can train all year long, but the break is sweet, and while sometimes I itched to just get a quick run or bike in, most of the time I enjoyed not doing it.

It all came to an end today. Sometime last week I had finally had enough, I was tired of not do anything, and I had started to piece together my early year training plan and it started with me being in better shape than sitting on the couch for 3 months. Also my everyone else who lives in my house have done a few 5ks recently, and that has made me look forward to my own races next year. I would have started earlier in the week, but our newest baby had different plans. My wife and I alternated staying up to the wee hours of the night with her, and that took place of getting back in the saddle.

So today, a little run; it was nothing special, a quick 30 minutes on the treadmill. I have been saying that I was going to try to get outside and run during the winter despite the cold weather. But you know what, 19 is cold, and I am sort of convinced that the sidewalks I usually run on turn into snowmobile trails when it snows, and it has snowed recently. So instead of braving the cold weather only to find out my usual route is teaming with snowmobiles, I opted to hit the treadmill. That's fine, it went fine, it felt very good to get the heart rate up.

Early Race Schedule
Over the last couple of months, I've mapped out a race schedule for the coming year. I haven't really committed to anything yet, but basically it boils down to

• Two 70.3
• One half marathon
• Several sprints
• Several Olympic
• Tentatively - one end of year marathon

We're also tossing around the idea of a trip to FL for some very late season races with my sister and our friends down there. That's still in the drawing board phase; my wife has a marathon in October that she's going to be shooting for, and she may not want a few weeks in FL stuck right near the end.

Training Plans

My training plan consists of two phases. First build confidence for the 70.3. I have an early season one picked out and a later season one. I will spend the first couple months building endurance for the first race which is the same day as my first Minnesota race last year. During this time I will do a half marathon with my family, a 5k with the family, and a couple of tune up sprints.

After the first 70.3 I expect to re-evaluate that plan and see what I might need to work on. There are a couple of months between the first and second and I will use that time to address anything I think needs to be addressed. I will also use that time to address my other major goals which consist of speed work and transition practice. 

The Immediate Future

I am planning on using this time until about mid January to just get my body ready for the full time training to start. That also gives our youngest some time to get on the regular sleeping schedule. She's being a baby, and baby's do this. I didn't commit to a much more significant training program because she's a baby, so if she needs me to stay up till 3, then that's what I'll do and maybe it will fit in with my plans or maybe it won't, but family trumps triathlon every day.