How does it feel to "get chicked"?

Just ask any of the 161 men who finished the Trail Marathon at Pinckney Recreation Area this past Sunday. "Getting chicked" for those who don't know is what some of the fast men call it when they get beat by one of the fast women runners. These men will tease each other if they are the one who got chicked at some event. Well it turns out that on Sunday Gretchen Gehrke chicked every dude who ran the marathon - yes, that's right all 161 of them.

Gretchen Gehrke won the marathon overall with a time of 3:19:22 which as far as i can tell is a course record for women (I checked back to 2000).

Now next time someone tells me that I run like a girl I'm going to think "In my dreams baby. Only in my dreams." :-)

Full results here.

Congrats to Gretchen for an outstanding race!!

And thanks to Randy and all the volunteers for putting on another excellent event.

Some trail running tips from Scott Jurek

Sunday 4/20

Well yesterday ended up being a rest day. This weeks runs got the best of me and I just didn't have the energy to get out there and run. I suppose I could have gotten in a short recovery run but somehow rest seemed more appealing.

Today I ran the 11 mile loop on the poto. It felt pretty good and was faster than last week. It wasn't exactly the run I had planned but it was a good run. The weather was almost perfect - average temp was 56.9 F, average humidity was 71.3. Yikes. I guess I'd rather have that than the snow and ice I spent a lot of time with all winter long.

Total distance = 11.37 bringing the total for the week to 40.57.

Pinckney Recreation Area is one of my favorite places to run.


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Friday 4/18

Today was cruise interval day and it kicked my butt. 25 minute warm up followed by 3 x's 15 minutes at T pace with a 3 minute recovery. I had a real hard time maintaining T-pace during the intervals. I was supposed to run them at an 8:12 pace and the best I could do was an 8:26 for the first 2 and then 8:29 for the last one. I am not sure if I was just tired from the increased mileage I have been running or if I am just more out of shape than I realized. I need to run a 10k to make sure I am working in the right zones. Any way I made it through the run the best I could and need to try again next week to see if today was just a bad day or whether I need to change my training zones.

Totals for today: 9.7 miles, average pace 9:10.

Let's hope the rain holds off until I get my long run in tomorrow.

Time to throw away your Nalgene bottles?

A recent report on MSNBC indicates that plastic bottles/containers may pose health risks. How do you know if your bottle or container is safe? Turn it over and look at the number inside the little triangle. The number will be between 1 and 7. The numbers that pose the most risk are 3, 6 and 7. The risk is due to exposure to a chemical called Bisphenal A which affects hormones and therefore fertility and reproduction. Nalgene plans to phase out bottles containing this chemical over the next several months. What are the alternatives? Klean Kanteen makes a stainless steel water bottle that is available from REI. I know there are a couple of models available from the People's Food Coop in Ann Arbor - sorry I don't remember the brand names.

If you already have a Nalgene water bottle and don't want it to end up in a landfill you can find some tips here to minimize the dangers posed by Bisphenal A.

More good information can be found on National Geographics Green Guide.

Nova: Marathon Challenge

Just in time for the Boston Marathon PBS is rebroadcasting Nova's Marathon Challenge. The program follows 13 people who go from sedentary to marathon ready over a 10 month period. People were given a training program, coaching both on exercise and nutrition, had their VO2Max tested a couple of times as well as weekly group runs. The program is quite interesting and inspirational. Check your local listings to find out when this is being aired in your area or watch online.

Visit the Nova website for more information including tips for rookie runners, a copy of the training schedule they followed, tips and advise as well as four of the team members training diaries.

To those of you running Boston good luck. Hopefully the weather will be perfect.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention to mention that Uta Pippig offered words of wisdom and cheered the runners on throughout their training as well as on race day. How cool is that?

Athlinks.com

I stumbled upon this great website where you can find old race results for you and your friends. Athlinks.com is a comprehensive database of race results for endurance athletes as well a a social networking site similar to Facebook or Myspace. I haven't really tried to use the social networking function but I have been fairly impressed with the number of results I was able to find for races I have run during my short running career. View my profile here.

Let me know how the site worked for you if you end up checking it out.

Thursday 4/17

Today was another recovery day and I felt like my body really needed an easy day. Once again the weather was perfect, even a little warm - right around 73 F with 33% humidity. I decided to run through Bird Hills once again just because it's such a pleasant place to run through. There was a proscribed burn going on and one area I ran through was quite smokey and I could feel the heat from the nearby flames. It was only a small area that was affected, maybe about 50 to 100 yards. Other than that it was a great run. I kept it short (45 minutes) and had to walk up a couple of the hills because my heart rate got too high. Other than that another beautiful day to be out on the trails. Tomorrow is supposed to be a little warmer with a high around 74 to 77 F. I need to get in a tempo type workout so I'll be back on the roads and might hit the track for the cruise interval portion of the run.

Here is a map of todays run. It ended up being a 4.19 mile run. So far that makes 19.5 miles for the week. I am slowly ramping my mileage to the 40 miles per week range where I seem to see the most benefit.

Todays run:

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Wednesday 4/16/08

So today was another beautiful spring day here in SE Michigan. 68F, 28% humidity with a nice breeze blowing. As a matter of fact I need to hurry up and post so I can get back out there and enjoy this weather. It won't be long until I am complaining about the heat. If only I could find a way to eliminate winters and summers Michigan would be a perfect place to live. Of course I dream about living in or near Auburn so that I can train on the Western States trail and run all of those wonderful trail races they have out there. Of course we have some great trails here in Michigan that I am lucky enough to get to run on often.

Any way, today was a medium long run with strides. I warmed up for 20 minutes and then picked up the pace a little for another 25 minutes. This was followed by ten 30 second strides with a 2 minute recovery between. I ran in to Randy Step and Rick Leedy who were soaking their legs in the river and stopped to chat with them after stride number 8. After that short break I finished up my final 2 strides and then cooled down for another 20 minutes. Total distance 9.72 miles. All this in my new Asics 2130s. It's been a long time since I bought road shoes and this Asics 2000 series still have a comfortable fit and just the right amount of cushioning. They weigh in at 11.9 oz so they are comparable with my Brooks Cascadia trail shoes which I also love.

Any way, beautiful weather for getting out there and running. Here is a map of my run which was all on roads, sidewalks and dirt roads.


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Here is a video for Tom Waits song Come On Up To The House. No connection to anything I posted here other than like spring days this song just makes me feel good.

The world is not my home
I'm just passing through

Tuesday 4/15/08

I usually schedule Mondays as a rest day. This week Monday was no exception. I tend to run a little harder on the weekends so by Monday I need to allow my body time to recover. For that reason I like Mondays, unlike the Boomtown Rats*.

Despite having rested on Monday, Tuesdays I usually do a recovery run. Nice easy pace usually on trails. I try to keep my heart rate fairly low so I take it easy on the uphills sometimes slowing to a fast walk if the hill is steep or long.

This weeks Tuesday run I ran through the trails near Argo Pond, along the boardwalk, into Bandemer Park, across the railroad tracks and over the bridge into the Barton Nature Area, a quick run through Bird Hills and back through Kubler-Langford Park, back across the rail road tracks and then along the bike path around Argo Pond finishing at the Canoe Livery. All those words to describe a 5.59 mile recovery run. Usually I just say I ran through Bird Hills. I think I'll stick with that from now on. :-)

I'm not sure how much you can tell from looking at a map but here's a map of my run.


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*In case you are not familiar with the Boomtown Rats and their song "I Don't Like Mondays" you can watch the video here:



The song tells the story of Brenda Ann Spencer who went on a shooting rampage at an elementary school in Cleveland back in 1979. As an explanation for the shootings which killed the principal and the custodian and wounded 8 students and a police officer she simply said "I don't like Mondays". Knowing that this song is actually quite chilling. And this was from an era where school shootings were unheard of and such events still shocked a nation.

Training Week of 4/7/08

I'm not sure how interesting people will find this but I plan to start posting a weekly summary of my training. I'm not sure how much detail I will go into but I'll try to a least give a brief rundown of the previous weeks workouts. Here is what last week looked like:

M - 5.44 miles - recovery pace on the trails at Pinckney Recreation Area. Great day to run trails - temp near 70, relatively low humidity - I love spring

T - 4.83 miles - another easy run on the trails near home - quick run through Bird Hills

W - rest day

T - 9.52 miles - medium long run with strides - I forgot to program my watch and I wasn't near a track so I estimated 7 x 20 second strides - all road running

F - another rest day

S - 7.15 tempo run through Gallup Park. 25 min warm up followed by 35 minutes at T-pace, short 5 minute cool down.

S - 11.34 mile long run on the trials at Pinckney.

total weekly mileage = 38.28

Do you want to know how to determine the proper pace to run for your tempo runs? Pick up a copy of Daniels' Running Formula. Jack Daniels is one of the best running coaches in the United States and the book is full of useful information if you are looking to improve your running. Many of us tend to run our easy runs too hard and our hard runs too easy. Jack Daniels can help you take some of the guesswork out of it so that you get better results from all the effort you put into training. I highly recommend adding this book to your running library.

Spring is back. Get out there and run.

Spring has arrived in SE Michigan!

It's finally starting to warm up and I am excited to run some trails. My last few runs on the Poto have been great - I can actually feel earth beneath my feet rather than snow and ice. The past few days have been warm and it looks like we have some more warm weather in store. I think my slump is over.

So I made a couple of adjustments to the plan - River Bank is out, Dexter-Ann Arbor is in. I have the trail half coming up at the end of April which I will treat as a hard training run. The plan from there is to focus on Grand Island and then the 50 miler at North Country.

These past 2 weeks have been good for me. I have run consistently, not necessarily logging a lot of miles but I am back out there.

Thanks to all who have left messages. It's good to hear from all of you.