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Archive for March, 2009

Help the Minnesota Freeze Support the JDRF at Their 5k Run/Walk

Posted by scott on March 24, 2009

If you will be in the Twin Cities on Easter weekend this year, please consider joining the Minnesota Freeze Australian Rules Football Club at their 5k Run/Walk at Lake Nokomis on Saturday, April 11th.  A portion of your registration fee will go to support the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund (JDRF), which is a charity near to my heart.  Ultra friends could even run to the start and finish to get in required miles?

Just hearing the name of that club brought back fond memories of playing “Australian rules” football in the yard when we were kids.  Of course, we had no idea what it really meant – we just took it to mean that we could cream each other, no holds barred.  Maybe I should check out a game and see how close we were?

Good luck to the Minnesota Freeze and thanks for support this great charity!

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Posted in Races | 2 Comments »

Good Running Times in Cozumel

Posted by scott on March 23, 2009

Our family is just back from a week in Cozumel and we had a great time.  We were there with friends, which was great for us and great for the kids – lots of fun at the beach, snorkeling, and hanging out.  My older son and I even gave scuba a try.

I also managed to get my highest running mileage week in since taking an injury break last November – 25 miles and a long run of 9 miles.

image credit:  star5112 at flickr

image credit: star5112 at flickr

Running in Cozumel was a great time – got to run with friends whom I normally don’t run with, which was even better.  We usually just ran a service road towards town (we stayed on the North end, so this meant going South).  I convinced everyone to head North on the first day and that turned out to be a fun adventure.  Within .5 mile the road turned into dirt with tons of potholes and no evident civilization other than pickup trucks full of day labors.  Our reward at the end of 2.2 miles was a sewage treatment facility!  We turned back, and I had no more say in running routes.

I repatriated my huaraches, putting on 16 total miles in them.  This was the first time I have run in them without Injinjis.  They were great!  I’m going to love these in the summer.  It was nice to have cool feet in the hot weather, and not look quite as odd since we were near the beach (OK, I still looked very odd).

The banner run of the week was a 9 mile from our hotel (El Cozumeleno) down to Chankanab park.  This was a ton of fun – my longest run post-injury.  It was also fun to talk convince my buddy Matt mid-run that we could first turn out a 4-mile out-and-back route into a point-to-point, and then stretch the planned 8 into 9 to make a true destination run.  Good times!  Also fun to run with light gear in the heat after all this bundled up cold weather running.

Posted in Huaraches, Shoes, Training | 1 Comment »

Hill Training in Flatland

Posted by scott on March 4, 2009

I work in absolute flatland, and hill training is literally no where to be found nearby.  Its a 4 mile round trip just to arrive at a nearby park, where the very slight ups and downs can be measured in single digit steps.  I definitely need hill training for my race plans this year, so what’s my alternative?

flickr image credit:  Zach K

flickr image credit: Zach K

I hit the parking garage!

I have done both stair reps and ramp reps, I think the ramp reps are here to stay.  The stairs have only a slight rise, so not a huge quad workout unless I go doubles, which is almost too much quad.  My real goal is to be training for walking hills during ultras and getting comfortable with the transition from walk to run and vice versa, so the ramps are actually a better fit.  I have to say though, this is boring.  I really have to remind myself why I’m doing this to stick with it.  Doing the math only ate up a couple reps – 300 paces to the top, roughly 1200 feet, roughly 3 round trips up and down for a total of 1 mile.  After that, you are on your own!

The gawking crowd isn’t too bad over lunch – a handful of people coming and going, lots of cars in the ramp.  But when I did it before work the other day while the ramp was filling I swear I caused a gawker slowdown.  If they think this is weird, just wait until I show up doing this in my FiveFingers or, even worse, my huaraches!  I even plan to start eating lunch during these reps to practice eating while moving – I’m sure this will get phoned in at some point.

Posted in Training | 1 Comment »