Team Cross Runs

Race Review: USATF-MN 10k

This race served as the USATF-MN Cross Country Championships.  As with collegiate championships this year it was a 10k.  Fitting for the mid-November race, it was cold and snowy when I awoke.  By the time we got to the race course, another golf course, the snow had stopped falling but the ground was very wet and soggy.

The course was 4 laps meandering around the golf course hitting a few good sized hills each time and rarely more than a couple hundred yards of flat terrain.  Knowing the course would be hilly and wet I secured a new pair of cross country spikes. They did a good job for me.  I didn’t slip and fall and I don’t really remember sliding at all while climbing the hills.  The Nike Zoom Waffle XC 7 did an excellent job.  With the waffle it is only a 4 spike bed. My toes hurt a little bit from jamming but I think that is due to the hills and I should have cut my toe nails!

Each lap was 2,500 meters long and the only distance marker on the course was the 1 mile mark.  So if you wanted to do that math that’d be 1600 meters which means that each lap after passing it you had about 900 meters to get to the finish line.  This was helpful on the last lap.  I felt really good at the start and went out with a few guys from my team.  We sorted around a little and ended up with a pack of 3 until about midway into the 3rd lap. At that point I started dropping back a bit.  I tried not to let them gap me too much and we all finished within 20 seconds of each other. It was a little disheartening to see Chris pull off the course in front of me during the 3rd lap as I was starting to get tired, but I struggled on and it looks like he’ll be ok.

I didn’t have much of any kick at the end but the finish was also kind of uphill. The cold made it a miserable day. On the way home a bank thermometer said “32″ so it was right around the freezing mark for the run.  Most of us ran in long sleeves and shorts.  Once you got moving your legs weren’t too cold, until you stepped in a puddle or something! There was no precipitation for our race, it was snowing/sleeting for the women’s 5k.

The course had 2 bad spots.  One was over a 90 degree turn around a tree that was on the edge of the rough. The other was a hairpin turn around 500 meters to the finish.  Both of these caused me to slow down a little, even though I tried running them a little wide.

I finished the race in 43:09 which is 6:57 pace. (That is faster than last week’s 6:59 pace for a shorter run!) I was 6th on our 3rd place team and 32nd out of 39 overall.  The winning time was 33:23 by Christopher Erichsen of Collegeville TC.  As I was coming around the hairpin turn on my 3rd lap I saw the gator in front of the leaders and vowed not to let myself get lapped.  (I didn’t!) Our women’s team placed 4th in their 5k (which was 2 laps of the same course, run after our race).

Technorati Tags: USATF-MN, Cross Country, XC

Week in Review

Last weekend’s time change made it a little easier to get up in the morning for a run.  But by the time I get home from work… its pitch black.  That’s no fun either. Even with the earlier sunrise I still found a lot of excuses not to run.  Talk about temperature contrasts though… geesh.  After last week’s race I walked around in a sleeveless shirt but after this week’s race I was looking for more dry layers to put on.

I ran Monday 3.25 miles on my Metrodome loop. It took me a meandering 24:35 to do it, but it was warm and sunny.  The temperature was around 50 and it felt pretty good.

I stayed up pretty late Monday night writing a blog post - not a smart idea because I was really tired and slept in Tuesday morning. Plus I had to be at work extra early to make sure our students handled the election without any problems. Everything went smoothly and at 4:30pm when I left they were at 76% voter turnout without counting the absentee ballots.

We stayed out late on Tuesday watching the election returns with friends.  And I had another early morning with a meeting on Wednesday. Pretty much everyone there was exhausted - it was a school related meeting and our referendum passed!

Luckily the weather held out for one more day. Thursday I got a nice 4 mile run in on my Park-Downtown loop.  It was raining but in the 50’s so it felt really good actually. I ran it in 30:07.  I’m glad I got one last run in with pretty nice weather.

I skipped Friday so I would be well rested for Saturday’s race.  It snowed though.

Saturday morning was the USATF-MN XC Championships. It was a 10k on a cold (32f) morning.  It was snowing when I woke up but the ground was just really soggy.  I ran the 10k in 43:09 on a pretty hilly golf course.  More on that later though!

Sunday was a nice cold 8 mile run.  The temp was around 27 when I left and it was snowing off and on throughout the morning.  We met at the Sibley House and ran south along the Minnesota River for a nice, fairly easy hour.  The final time was 64 minutes.  This was my first time on that trail and it was fairly scenic. I was surprised at how good I felt after the 10k.  My toe still hurt a little bit but nothing major.

Total Mileage:

Running - 21.5 miles

Biking - 22.3 miles

Foto Friday

Technorati Tags: Foto

Race Review: Rocky’s Run 8k

The Rocky’s Run 5k & 8k brought back a lot of college memories for me.  I’ve done a lot of trail races since college, but this is the first “cross country” race.  So many things about it were similar to a cross country meet.

Location - a golf course, we ran on a few golf courses throughout my career, most notably the Notre Dame Invitational.

Format - this event was a 5k and 8k.  The women’s USATF race was the 5k and the men’s was the 8k - just like in college.  NCAA men run a 10k championship race, my alma mater was NAIA so we stayed at the 8k all year.

Weather - this was like an early season race, warm and sunny! My first collegiate 8k was at Purdue on an extremely hot morning.

Team - This was part of the USATF Team XC series.  We cheered for our female teammates (and Kirk who ran the double so he could score in the Grand Prix) and they cheered for us. All of the other factors heightened the team feeling.

Ok, but what about the race? This was my hardest workout since Twin Cities so I pretty much had no expectations going into it.  When you have no expectations you can come out happy! I ran a 34:40 which is just at 7 minute pace and we actually cut off a little piece of the course.  How does a golf cart mislead the race leaders?? I finished 44/87, just missing the top 50%. But I was a 1:20 faster than the average!

The course was fairly hilly, nothing major but lots of little ups and downs that wear on you over 5 miles.  The course had a lot of turns and made numerous loops (see picture).  Since this was my first year here I had no idea where in the world we would be going next, except for seeing the string of people ahead of me, occasionally.

I think I may have been a little dehyrdated.  The sunny conditions took some out of me.  The nicest thing though was how short the race felt compared to the marathon. And the rest of the day I wasn’t sore or tired.  What a nice feeling.  It did help that I had an hour to lounge around after the race talking with Nathan and Mike, while we waited for AAA to retrieve Nathan’s car keys for him!

Another little highlight of the morning was the fact that the Rocky’s Run raises money for the University of Minnesota’s Women’s Cross Country Team’s scholarship fund. After the 5k it was announced that their Varsity team won Big Ten Championships! You can read more about the story of Rocky here.

Technorati Tags: Rockys Run, University of Minnesota, XC

Wednesday’s Number

Do you have a cool number? Send it to me.

Finish Line in Sight - Go Vote!

After what has really become a marathon election season - the finish line is finally in sight.

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on metaphors or make any profound policy statements, but who will make the best president for runners?  I haven’t heard anything about their policies in relationship to my running.  Will my times improve under a McCain presidency or an Obama one?

My guess is that since Obama is part Kenyan, that he’d be more inclined to support runners and help improve my time.  Or maybe McCain’s small government conservatism would reduce some of the beaurcratic weight off my shoulders and I could knock off a few minutes…

But seriously… make sure that you get out and vote today (unless you already did, then stay home and don’t vote 2x’s).  We each have personal convictions and beliefs that guide our decision and we are so fortunate to be able to vote that everyone should stand in line and make their choices.

If you vote your convictions and have a rational reason for your choice than we can be friends still, even if our votes differ.  Just don’t be a hater and be mean towards those who disagree.

One last time - GO VOTE!

Technorati Tags: 2008 Election

Week in Review

Tuesday was the coldest run of the fall.  It was 28 degrees when I left the house so I was bundled up a bit and ran my 4 mile downtown loop.  I finished in 30:50.  The cold wasn’t uncomfortable, I’m just glad I dressed warmly.  I should have dressed warmer for my bike commute to work though! My face was quite cold, I wore heavy gloves and forgot to grab a second coat to go over my biking coat. Oops! I survived and learned from my mistake.  It should be warming up the rest of the week though.

I’ve been taking it easy since I don’t have too much to train for right now, just going with how I feel.  This has made me a little lazy as noted when I went out for Wednesday’s run.  I was going to do 6 miles East on the Greenway.  About 2 miles into the run I started feeling pretty tired so I turned around and made it 4 instead. I did it in 31:28 and it was a nice sunny 31 degrees out, but I just didn’t feel like extending!  Oh well I guess. This was another cold biking day.

Why didn’t I bike or run on any of the warm days that filled in the week?

Friday was another similar day… I only ran 2.5 miles.  Is that even worth getting dressed for? Probably not, but I cut it short mostly because I had to go to the bathroom.

I skipped the first MDRA Polar Bear Run so that I’d be at least a little fresher for Sunday’s Rocky Run 8k race. it was an amazing day with temps in the mid-50’s at the start and the sun beating down fiercely on us as we did loopty loops around the golf course.  More later but I ran a 34:41.

Weekly Mileage:

Running - 15.5 miles

Biking - 28.1 miles