Hurricane

Just did my first run with the Saucony Hurricane. I can't say that they live up to their name. Not my most comfortable pair of shoes, but I guess I can keep them in the rotation. I should probably stick to the Kayanos and Nirvanas.

I did 4.4 miles in 0:35:41, a very quick 8:05 min/miles, but it was not because of the shoes, but because of a couple that thought they could pass me and I had to prove them wrong. Even if that forced me to complete the remaining 3 miles of my run at a pace under 8 min miles...

Retirement Run

No, I am not retiring from running… my pair of Asics Gold Kayano 15 is. I put 400 miles on a pair of shoes and try to get as close as possible to that distance. Today while in Redmond for business, I run the last 3.99 miles in this pair. I like for my retirement runs to be a little different than my other training runs. Sort of like a way to thank a pair of shoes for the good service they have given me. Retirement runs are usually at a slow pace, to truly enjoy the scenery. They also have a very unplanned route which is usually driven by landmarks in the distance that catch my interest.

These particular shoes that retired today have given me exceptionally good service. To reach 400 miles, they completed a total of 57 runs, so just about seven miles per run on average. They also were part of four races including three marathons:

• 2009 Rails to Trails Marathon in Norwalk Wisconsin (3:59:43)
• 2009 LifeTime Fitness Turkey Trot 5K (0:29:40)
• 2010 Madrid Marathon (4:48:57)
• 2010 Minneapolis Marathon (4:31:36)

Today I got up late. I am fastidious about setting up the alarm clock in a hotel. I test them, confirm the AM and PM setting at least twice, check the radio station, etc. This time I forgot to do a volume check. As a result a text sent by my wife woke me up about five minutes before I was supposed to hit the road. Barely made it...

I did learn one thing from this run: because of its random nature, it is not a good idea to do a retirement run in a city you are unfamiliar with. As you can see from the resulting route, there were a few 180 turns and a lot of confusion. Several times I was convinced I was lost, and this added some stress to what was supposed to be a relaxing run. In some way, I felt I did a little bit of a disservice to my shoes, so when I returned to the hotel, I sincerely, and profusely apologized to them... Then I threw their ass in the trash :-)

Some shoes have a life after retirement as walking shoes. The hole that developed by my right big toe many miles ago may preclude them from such a destiny. As a result, these will not make it back to Minneapolis. The Gold Kayanos are survived by a pair of orange Kayanos, a pair or New Balance MT800, a pair of Mizuno Wave Nirvana and a pair of Vibram Bikilas. All of then in active status on the rotation. They will be replaced by a pair of Saucony Hurricane that I got at a good price at a Running Room sale and have been patiently waiting in their original box in the closet. This will be my first pair of Sauconys. I may need to write about the inaugural run :-)

By the way, the irony of retiring shoes after 400 miles to avoid loosing too much cushioning a the same time that I am starting to run with a pair of no-support-whatsoever Five Finger shoes because of the benefit of natural running is not lost in me. And yes, I am comfortable with both positions. They are both perfectly consistent with my love for new gear.

Runs 4 Food in Redmond, WA

Traveling for business in Redmond, WA is a good opportunity to eat at a new place and run in a new area. Dinner last night was at Matts' Rotisserie and Oyster Lounge Bar. After sharing some oysters with the colleagues traveling with me, I ordered a wedge salad (pictured at right), and a halibut taco.

The salad was delicious. I have always liked the way wedge salads are presented. A lazily quartered wedge of iceberg lettuce with dressing even more lazily poured on top. Still, it works. Mine came with some nicely grilled prawns. Charred outside, tender and just cooked inside. The taco is nothing to write about. The corn tortilla was good, but the halibut was too small and a tad dry.

The run was pretty good. Redmond, where I come for business a couple of times a year has a col temperature and nice hills. I did 4.01 miles at 9:06 min/mile pace. Given the inclines I encountered, I am happy to call it a tempo pace. For details on the run, follow this link.

Tomorrow I am running my last run with these shoes, which won't make it back to Minneapolis. I will make sure to write about this run.

People For Parks 5K (and bonus miles)

Few runs are as enjoyable as those consisting of bonus miles. Those are the miles you run before or after a race, but not as part of the race itself. This morning we run the People For Parks 5K (fund-raising to pave the audience area in front of the Lake Harriet bandshell and refurbish the worn benches). The run promised to be fun and an opportunity to use my Bikilas in a race, but my training schedule called for 11 or 12 miles this Sunday. The solution? Bonus miles!

Instead of driving to Lake Harriet, I decided to run there. The plan was to run in my Kayanos and carry my Bikilas in a small backpack. Then run the 5K along with a number of friends and Sharon who were biking or driving there. (In all fairness, Sharon also put some bonus miles by adding a 5K around the house before the race).

The run to Lake Harriet was pretty awesome. I took a few detours (one of them by accident), and ended up doing 8.82 miles at 8:20 min/mile. And did so very comfortably. I will give some credit to some dude that thought he could pass me and ended up eating my dust. The rest of the credit belongs to Eric Clapton and his San Francisco Bay Blues from Unplugged that I played obsessively as I was cruising through Lyndale.

The 5K itself was also pretty good. Finished in 25:37 (8:16/mile), thanks in part to anther dude that thought he could pass me. This time, I had my serving of dust, though.

One thought was planted in my head that is worth mentioning, and in the event that Tim reads this... As I made it to Lake Harriet, I realized there was another run taking place in the area: the City of Lakes 25K. This other run starts at 8:00 AM. The 5K I run started at 11:00AM. What is more, the finish line of the 25K race is very near the start of the 5K. Of course that got me thinking... (and I am sure you, Tim, know where I am taking this). If next year the setup is the same, we could do the 25K and finish on time to get our bib for the 5K. The best part is that each race automatically becomes bonus miles for the other race!! How could we let an opportunity like that pass?

Tim, if you are reading this, let me know that you are in, 'cause I already know you want to do it.

Like the wind

This Saturday four miler runs in the fall around Union Yard are proving to be fun and fast. Today I averaged 8:27/mile with really no effort. I am starting to suspect my Garmin 405. Perhaps the proximity to the tracks is throwing the satellite signal off :-) Oh well, that was another beautiful run...

Ouch!! Was that a friggin’ root?!?! - The Bikila update

So following my friend’s Scott advice I’ve been really careful ramping up my mileage on the Bikilas. Running no more than once a week, the first time I did just two miles. Then increase weekly to three, four and yesterday five. On top of that I decided to run in them yesterday because it was a club run and usually we have a little of a slower pace and sometimes we even squeeze in a walking break.

Well, yesterday we had a nice five-mile run. At some point, running by the university of MN, the road and sidewalk were closed due to construction and Robbie, our club’s running guide, steered us to a grassy area to bypass that construction.

Midway through that, the ball of my very unprotected right foot stepped on a root… Ouch! I immediately corrected the step not to put any more weight on that stride (something you get used to do with Five Finger Shoes) and then kept running normally.

By the time I got home, I had some pain. When I took my shoes off and walked barefoot, I was in serious pain. My fear was having broken something. Not now, in the middle of effortless running season. Prime running season!

To give you an idea of poor timing, this is what a broken foot and 6 weeks down would threaten out of my schedule:

• Sun, Sept 12: People for Parks 5K. This run is so short that I was planning on running from home to Lake Harriet (~4.5 miles) on a pair of Kayanos, then switch to my Bikilas for the race and at the end turn around and head back home back in my Kayanos, for a total of ~12 miles.
• Sun, Sept 19: Harmon Farms Trail Run (10 miles). This one I am really looking forward to, since it is a rail run (of which I don’t do many) and allows me to use my beloved New Balance MT800.
• Sun, Oct 3: Twin Cities Marathon. This is not just another Marathon. It is not only a beautiful run, but this year, this run will be my 10^th marathon!! this reminds me that when my friend Tim was training to run his tenth marathon (also Twin Cities), he suffered a stress injury that kept him out of the race. Obviously, this memory compounded my fears.
• Sat, Oct 16: Big Woods Run (1/2 marathon). Also a rail run to use my MT800’s.

On top of that, being out 6 weeks and missing all those wonderful races, it will totally ruin my training schedule for the third annual Rails to Trails Marathon (Nov 7), of which I have run every previous one.

So needless to say, not an ideal time for an injury. That said, I just came back from a 4.6 mile run around home and even managed a respectable 9 minute mile pace. I have no pain when walking or running on athletic shoes, but still see the stars when walking barefoot. I am thinking (hoping) this means it is just a bruise…

Try and stop me... this is effortless running!

What a difference a few degrees makes! Earlier this week we were still hitting high eighties, and probably mid sixties in the morning when I hit the road for a few miles. This morning I went for my usual 4-mile Saturday warmup run and wow! It felt cold. Turns out it was about 45 degrees.

My warmup run is in preparation for my long runs on Sunday and I am not supposed go hit it hard. 9:30 min/miles is appropriate for those runs. I did 8:35 and it was completely effortless. I kept trying to slow down, but it felt just too good. I took a new route that ended doing about a mile by the railroad tracks of Union Yard, behind the new Gopher stadium. What a beautiful run.

Tomorrow my schedule calls for a mere six miles. If temperature remains cool, it will be difficult to keep it that short.

Zoom! Yah! Yah! Here I come!

I just heard from the race director of the Zoom! Yah! Yah! indoor marathon that is held every January in the St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN. This race is run around a track course requiring runners to complete 150 laps. There are only 42 spots open every year and thus candidates are selected through a lottery. Well... this year's runner number 30 is yours truly!

So Zoom! Yah! Yah!, here I come!

And finally the 2010 Ragnar report…

Last year we had so much fun doing Ragnar that we had to run it again.

We decided to go for the Ultra version this year,

so 6 runners and one van instead of the regular 12 runners and two vans. While the number of teams was greater this year (about 330, with 11 of them being ultra), the organization was as impeccable as last year. A few new safety rules, but the same crazy people showed up. We saw again the Ragnar 911 team (a play on Reno 911), the Full Monti, the Faster Pastors, and a bunch more. I particularly enjoyed the superheroes (saw as many as three Supergirls, all of which posed for me and made it to my blog), but really liked any team that brought fun to an already positively charged atmosphere.

My three legs were officially 14.9, 13.8 and 12, for a total distance of 40.7 miles. I need to mention the official distance because every section of the website has a different distance which is also different from the actual distance recorded by my trusted Garmin 405. These numbers come from the latest version of the Race bible.

I decided to take it easy on the first leg to save energy for the the two. After all, this was my first ultra and my goal was to finish. I set my Virtual Partner® to a comfortable 9:30 pace and pretty much stuck to it for the entire run, finishing in 2:21:11 (9:29 avg pace). My run started with a little rain (Rob before me got the brunt of it), which then developed into a hot, muggy, humid and overcast morning and the last part had a pretty hot sun (I think locust was next, but fortunately finished my run on time to avoid it. Keeping the 9:29 pace was essay enough.

Much like last year, the waiting time was consumed with leap-frogging the other runners and talking with other teams. At one point we met another ultra team that started at 4:00 PM and had caught up to us by running 6:30 min miles on average (we started at 10:00 AM). They later slowed down a bit, but really burn the hell out of that course. We also stopped at the same sandwich shop we did last year and enjoyed the last turkey sandwiches that were served.

My second leg was in the middle of the night. It was still warm (about 73 or 74 degrees), and very humid. I started at a good pace, also aiming to 9:30 min miles, but hit a couple of long steep inclines that selected to use for my walking breaks. Soon I decided I'd walk the long uphills and run the rest. Of course, as soon as I decided to do that, I found a stretch of 4 miles with no uphills, so I found myself wishing to find one so I could take a little walking break. With that high temperature and humidity, I decided to run with the required safety vest and no shirt. I still used a couple of band-aids to cover my nipples and avoid damage from the rubbing the vest would do. As usual in that temperature, I lost one of them within 30 minutes of my run starting and spent the next four miles figuring a McGiver-type contraption to keep the safety vest away from my nipples. At least that kept me entertained while I run. My second leg finished in 2:27:31, a lousy 10:41 min pace. Not particularly proud, but between the work done on my vest, the temperature, the fact that I had already exceeded my distance PR, the lack of sleep and the fact that I still had 12 miles to go on my third leg, I guess I was mildly satisfied.

With the morning came another hot day. It wasn't terrible when the sun was covered, but every time it came out, the heat seemed unbearable. Luckily for me, my third leg was mostly with an overcast (although still 80+ degrees). The run was beautiful and I had a clear impression that with every step I was breaking a new distance PR. I finished in 2:17:34 or 11:28 pace per mile. I have never run that slow, but by then, I was pretty tired and the heat was really getting to me.

Of course we did run the last mile (1.39, really) as a team. Mel, who was the team finisher, imposed a 10:04 pace that felt like a blistering speed. By then we were running in full sun at 90 degrees. Mel proved to be a real trooper. While she had the shortest distance overall, that last leg was probably the most miserable. Still, she kept an amazing pace. We were all impressed (while begging for a slower pace).

I enjoyed most the people I met and run with. In addition to my team (of course), I run a few miles with one of the Ragnar 911 cops (Chris, I think), who threatened me with arrest if I passed her a third time. So we ended up our first leg together. On my second (night) leg, I met Nancy. Nancy was running her first race that was over 8 miles. Her team had given her the longest legs (almost 20 miles), even though they were far more experienced runners than she was. She also shared that they were not terribly supportive and for the most part shoed up only at the end of every leg. Al and all she was having fun. We finished the second leg together pushing each other to keep running. On my third leg, I tried to catch up to Ragnar 911 Chris again. She had the second half my leg (remember we were doing double legs). I got within 100 yards from her, but a long hill kept me from cathcing up and then I ended up a good 15 minutes behind.

My only regret was not running back from the an rental place where we drove the van at the end of the day. Tim and I talked about doing it (as we had the previous year) throughout the day. It was almost a done deal. Given the temperature, Rob wanted to make sure we provided support for Mel throughout the last leg, which didn't give us much time to do it before the end. At Boom Island Park, we had three free pizzas and $2 pints of beer, of which I had one. By then Tim and I were already walking away from our promise. Not until the end, when we were unloading the van and washing the chalk off, I decided we HAD TO run that last leg, but found out that Rob had told Tim he could go home while we finished cleaning the van. I was both disappointed and relieved about breaking the tradition, since I wasn't looking forward to the run, we just HAD TO do it.

Not sure if I will be able to organize a team next year. This race falls on Sharon's birthday and next year she is turning the big 5-0. It might be a good change to take a year off Ragnar. If the weather was cooler, this would be one of my standard races (like Twin Cities has turned out to be), but with this heat, there is plenty of temptation to skip it.

I want to thank the rest of my team, Tim, Jim, Mel, Rob and John. They were every bit as great as last year's (three of them WERE last year's). We had a blast and it was largely in part because of them. I know they feel the same way about the race. We have over 200 pictures (after the clean up) and are already exchanging sappy emails about how much we enjoyed the race. I know it will not be the last Ragnar, perhaps one day we can travel to the original Ragnar in Utah.

Bikilas, Finally!

I couldn't wait no mo' and I finally bought myself a pair of Vibram Five Finger Shoes. I have been thinking about them since I read Born to Run, which has a very interesting chapter about the benefits of running barefoot.

Supposedly, running with athletic shoes, does not provide so much support, but rather eliminates feedback by reducing sensation on the foot. As a result of running with a cushioned sole, a runner changes their stride and lands on his/her heel rather than in the preferable ball of his/her feet. Before the founder of Nike started creating soles using a waffle maker, runner shoes had thin soles and runners (again supposedly) had better form. The result of today's shoes is greater rate of injuries and slower recovery.

So I had to try them.

Following the advice of Scott, who has been running with teem (and without shoes, I hear) for some time now at least off and on, I need to start slow and short. I know that to be true because I tried running with some travel sleepers that were basically a thin rubber sole and a mesh on top, and after doing four miles the balls of my feet were on fire and for a good week I experienced muscle soreness in my calves.

I bought the newly released Bikilas, created just for running, but basically another pair of the Five Finger shoes not very different form the KSOs. I have taken them for a 2 mile run and LOVE them. I still had some calf pain the next day. Clearly you are using muscles you don't usually use with regular athletic shoes, but still a great experience. Still I decided not to use them for more than once a week. So my plan is to build up to 4 to 6 miles and make it my Thursday run.

I will report back as I get closer to my goal. This might be a good pair of shoes for my club runs at the Phoenix. Speed is usually slower than my usual 9 minute miles, so this might be a good opportunity to take my Bikilas for a spin.