Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Day 113 and 114 of 123

Well, now I've got a bit of a quandary. I did my workout yesterday - 7 miles easy, if you're interested - and actually ran fairly well. Here are my pace numbers:



My leg did not feel great during the run though and this morning, it feels worse.

So...

Do I shut it down for a number of days and try to get it healed up somewhat? We're about 8 days away from the race. How much fitness would I really lose? Probably not too much. I'm pretty sure I'm going to end the race with a sore, injured leg, one way or the other, but I'd rather not have to start the race with a sore leg.

I think I'll probably take a couple days off, maybe more, and see how it feels.

Sigh...again.

If you're wondering about the workouts:

-Saturday: 8 miles easy
-Sunday: 8 miles easy

Northwest Running and Triathlon Calendar - September 2013

Fall is coming and the triathlons are almost gone...

But just check out that list of trail runs! Let's get muddy!

Let's race!

-Green Text for Trail Runs
-Red Text for Marathons and Half Marathons
-Blue Text for Triathlons and Duathlons
-Orange Text for everything else, the normal 5k, 10k, etc

RACES FOR WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 23rd to SEPTEMBER 29th

September 27th / Mountain Lakes Trail Run 100m / Olallie Lake, OR

September 27th / The Bear 100 Trail Run 100m / Preston, ID

September 28th / Double Robie and Aldape Challenge Trail Runs Marathon and 16.6m / Boise, ID

September 28th / Squirrels Gone Nutz Trail Series 8.2m and 3.13m / Great Falls, MT

September 28th / Independence Heritage Trail 5k / Independence, OR

September 28th / Red Lizard Stumptown Cross Race #1 / Portland, OR

September 28th / Tehaleh Trail Runs Marathon, Half Marathon, 10k and 5k / Bonney Lake, WA

September 28th / Silver Lake XC 5k / Maple Falls, WA

September 28th / Enchanted Forest Wine Trail Run Half Marathon and 5k / Grants Pass, OR

September 29th / Tread Lightly Trail Festival 8k / Helena, MT

September 29th / Wild Moose Chase Trail Run 25k, 10k and 5k / Spokane, WA

September 29th / Multnomah Falls Trail Run 5.6m / Corbett, OR

September 28th / The Oregon Marathon and Half Marathon / Banks, OR

September 28th / Quilcene Oyster Half Marathon, 10k and 5k / Quilcene, WA

September 28th / Sporty Diva's Run at Chambers Bay Half Marathon, 15k, 10k and 5k / University Place, WA

September 28th / Race 2 the Summit Half Marathon, 10k and 5k / Horseshoe Bend, ID

September 29th / Idaho Wine Run Marathon, Half Marathon, 10k and 5k / Caldwell, ID

September 29th / Race for a Soldier Half Marathon / Gig Harbor, WA

September 29th / Bellingham Bay Marathon, Half Marathon and 5k / Bellingham, WA

September 28th / Methow Valley Off-Road Duathlon Olympic / Winthrop, WA

September 28th / Road to Recovery 5k / Bend, OR

September 28th / Bite of Broadview 5k / Seattle, WA

September 28th / Speedy 10k / Spokane, WA

September 28th / Stomp Out Abuse 5k / Spokane, WA

September 28th / Run for the Poor 5k / Vancouver, WA

September 28th / Scrubs Run 10k / Lebanon, OR

September 28th / GETFIT Gladstone 5k / Gladstone, OR

September 28th / Epic Grind 10k and 5k / Gaston, OR

September 28th / Geoduck Adventure Run 5k / Olympia, WA

September 28th / Run from the Cops 5k / Puyallup, WA

September 28th / Run 10 Feed 10 10k / Seattle, WA

September 28th / Seattle AIDS Run 5k / Seattle, WA

September 28th / Spartan Beast 21k / Sun Peaks, BC

September 28th / Summer's End 10k and 5k / Covington, WA

September 28th / ORRC Best Dam Run 10k and 5k / Estacada, OR

September 28th / Lafayette Chief's Run 5k / Lafayette, OR

September 28th / Run Into Fall 10k and 5k / Salem, OR

September 28th / Signs of September 5k / Salem, OR

September 28th / Hope for Haiti 5k / Helena, MT

September 28th / Friends of Chapman Fun Run 5k / Portland, OR

September 28th / Big Bend Community College Dollar Dash 5k / Moses Lake, WA

September 28th / Harvest Run 5k / Stanwood, WA

September 28th / Elliott Benson Memorial 5k / Maple Valley, WA

September 28th / King of the Hill 5k / Spokane, WA

September 28th / Rescue Run 10k and 5k / Arlington, WA

September 28th / Yeti Run 5k / Medina, WA

September 28th / Bubble Run 5k / Portland, OR

September 28th / El Puente Bridge the Distance Run 10k and 5k / Milwaukie, OR

September 28th / A Run Through History 5k / Kalispell, MT

September 28th / Miles for Mileage - M4M / Oregon City, OR

September 28th / Miles for Montessori 5k / Idaho Falls, ID

September 28th / Run the Rift Craters Fun Run 10k and 5k / Arco, ID

September 29th / Spartan Sprint 5k / Sun Peaks, BC

September 29th / Beat the Burn 5k / Seattle, WA

September 29th / RiverBend 5k / Springfield, OR

September 29th / Fight for Your Life 5k / Saint Paul, OR

September 29th / Run for Your Mama 10k and 5k / Bigfork, MT

September 29th / The TEN Miler Run 10m and 5k / Eugene, OR

September 29th / Corvallis Fall Festival Run 10k and 5k / Corvallis, OR

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Day 112 of 123

OK, today was your last official tempo workout of the program. It should have looked something like this:

-warmup
-10 miles at marathon goal pace
-cooldown

My workout did not quite look like that. Although my leg felt better than Monday, I'd only say it was about 70%. So I cut the run off at about 7 miles and just tried to keep my pace under 9:00. It was a success in that my leg didn't hurt terribly at the end of the run like it did on Monday, so I'm hoping it will keep improving.

See you tomorrow.

Go buy the book:

Boston Marathon Sets Dates and Field Size for 2014 Race

They expanded the field to 36,000 and you can start to register on September 9th!

Check it all out right here.

New Course for Leadman 250 in Bend

Read all about it here and here.

Yes, the LeadmanTri in Bend will have a new racer-friendly bike course and a new spectator-friendly run course. Or so I hear.

Best Running Song for August - Pogo - SquareBob SpongeMix

Is this the oddest song I've ever featured for the Best Running Song of the Month?

Yes. Yes, it is.

So the artist's name is Pogo. Check him out here and here.

Pogo takes little snippits of music, sounds, vocals, and noise from TV shows and movies, clips them together and mashes them up into wonderful little songs.

Here's another one of my favorites from Pogo. This one comes from the Pixar movie "Up."



And if you're looking for something much, much, less family-friendly: the Pogo cut using Pulp Fiction is just incredible.



It's interesting, I actually find the videos that go with these sort of distracting. If you listen to them without watching the video at the same time, I think you can appreciate that these songs are amazing works of art all on their own.

Some of them are available from iTunes, so go and get your favorites. These will be fun to run to, for sure!

Rock that Run!

Past Best Running Songs: July: Fitz and the Tantrums / "Out of My League" June: Atlas Genius / "Trojans" May: The Mowgli's / "San Francisco" April: Spacehog / "In the Meantime" March: Youngblood Hawke / "We Come Running" February: Yolanda Be Cool / "We No Speak Americano" January: The Naked and Famous / "Young Blood" December: Of Monsters and Men / "Little Talks" November: The Black Keys / "Little Black Submarines" October: Cold War Kids / "Hospital Beds" September: Bloc Party / "Octopus" August: Matt and Kim / "Let's Go" July: Gemini / "Blue" June: Joe Jackson / "Got the Time" May: Tiesto vs. Diplo / "C'mon!" April: Grouplove / "Tongue Tied" March: Foxy Shazam / "I Like It" February: Foster the People / "Don't Stop" January: Hot Hot Heat / "Bandages" December: Camp Lo / "Luchini aka This Is It" November: Wolfmother / "Joker and the Thief" October: Phoenix / "1901" September: Matt and Kim / "Daylight" August: Collie Buddz / "Holiday" July: Pretenders / "Tattooed Love Boys" June: The Wombats / "Moving to New York" May: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros / "40 Day Dream" April: Foxy Shazam / "Unstoppable" March: Pharrell / "Fun Fun Fun" February: Puff Daddy / "Come With Me" January: We Are Scientists / "The Great Escape" December: Cee Lo Green / "F**k You" November: Tokyo Police Club / "Breakneck Speed" October: Two Door Cinema Club / "Something Good Can Work" September: Stone Temple Pilots / "Cinnamon" August: Louis XIV / "Guilt by Association" July: Devo / "Fresh" June: Saliva / "Your Disease" May: Metric / "Gold Guns Girls" April: OK Go / "This Too Shall Pass" March: The Hours / "Ali In The Jungle" February: Los Fabulosos Cadillacs / "El Matador" January: White Rabbits / "Percussion Gun" December: Deftones / "Knife Prty" November: The Kooks / "Always Where I Need To Be" October: At the Drive In / "One Armed Scissor" September: Silversun Pickups / "Lazy Eye" August: Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros / "Johnny Appleseed" July: Deathray / "I Wanna Lose Control (Uh Oh)" June: Raconteurs / "Salute Your Solution" May: Tea Party / "Save Me" April: Bloc Party / "Like Eating Glass" Ever: The English Beat / "I Confess"

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Day 110 of 123

If you're the teacher's pet that you should be, than today's workout consisted of:

-warmup
-6 x 1m at goal pace - 10 seconds
-6 x .25m recovery in between
-cooldown

If you're the kid in the back row carving "Just Do It" into the desk with a pocket knife, then you took today off to rest your touchy leg.

No need to remind me which kid I am.

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Day 109 of 123

It doesn't seem quite right that I could make it through more than 100 days of the Hansons Program just fine and then get an injury two weeks away from the race...but there you go.

I was supposed to do 8 miles easy today, but my leg was really hurting. I did about 6 and a half, and probably shouldn't have done that. I think I'll skip tomorrow's speed workout - there's no way I'm doing speed work on a very sore leg - then I have my regular day off on Wednesday. With luck, the leg will feel a little better on Thursday.

Sigh...

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Day 107 and 108 of 123

I'm liking this slightly cooler weather. It definitely makes the running a touch easier. Especially since Dixon is still closed for another week, so I can't get to an indoor treadmill even if I wanted to.

I don't like that my right leg is still very touchy. I don't like that at all.

Saturday:

-10 miles easy

Just trying to keep it between 8:30 and 9:00. Except for the soreness in the right quad area, I didn't feel too bad during this one. Here are my pace numbers.



Sunday:

-10 miles easy



Leg still sore. Ran this one mostly on the trails at Willamette Park. The Western Oregon University cross country team also seemed to be working out there today. They made me feel old, fat and slow...but that really isn't too hard to do. Here are the numbers for today.



A little slower than yesterday, but I was on trails for a good part of the run, so it was expected.

We won't have anything longer than 10 miles until race day now. Hopefully, that will help my leg heal up.

Two weeks out.

Go buy the book:

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Day 106 of 123

All right, Friday's workout...which is the Hanson's Thursday workout that I swapped to Friday.

It was the tempo workout for the week. Ten miles at marathon goal pace. Which for me, these days, is pretty much up in the air. I've also got an ouchie quad, which is my first injury of any kind since I started the program and has got me in quite a grumpy mood.

Anyway, I was just trying to keep my pace under 8:30. I also cut the entire thing a little short because of life (my ride was ready to go before I was done). You, however, are a superstar and will run the entire workout because that's just how you roll.

Here is a look at my pace.



Not bad, not great.

Remember to throw in a short warmup and cooldown. The total workout should be around 11-13 miles.

Northwest Running and Triathlon Calendar - September 2013

If you ever wondered why they call Marathon Maniacs maniacs, this is why...

The Center of the Nation Marathon Series - Five Marathons in Five Days! All of them in the lightly populated and race-light center of our great nation. And to save time and money, three of them are within 200 miles - just fly into Rapid City, South Dakota and run three marathons in three days while never having to change hotels!

If you didn't already know, this kind of thing is put together for runners that want to run a marathon in every state in the US. Or even crazier, every state in the US in one calendar year.

Yes, runners are freaking insane.

Let's race!

-Green Text for Trail Runs
-Red Text for Marathons and Half Marathons
-Blue Text for Triathlons and Duathlons
-Orange Text for everything else, the normal 5k, 10k, etc

RACES FOR WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 16th to SEPTEMBER 22nd

September 20th / Goats in the Dark Trail Run 3.2m / Helena, MT

September 21st / Priest Lake Trail 50k, Marathon, 25k, Half Marathon and 5k / Priest Lake, ID

September 21st / Cle Elum Ridge 50k and 25k / Cle Elum, WA

September 21st / Middle Fork Trail Run 50k and 20m / North Bend, WA

September 21st / Veteran's Family Trail Run 5k / Keizer, OR

September 21st / Discover Lake Sylvia Fall Festival Trail Half Marathon / Montesano, WA

September 21st / Snoqualmie Ridge Trail Run 5m / Snoqualmie, WA

September 21st / Standhope Trail 60k / Sun Valley, ID

September 21st / Big Bear Stampede Trail Run 8k and 5k / Gardiner, MT

September 22nd / Nitty Gritty Off Road Race Marathon and Half Marathon / Red Lodge, MT

September 22nd / Flagline 50k and High Alpine Half Marathon / Bend, OR

September 19th / Center of the Nation Series Marathon and Half Marathon / Albion, MT

September 21st / Columbia River Power Marathon, 50k, Half Marathon and 8k / Umatilla, OR

September 21st / North County Wine Run Half Marathon and 9k / Battle Ground, WA

September 21st / Indian Summer Half Marathon and 5k / Richland, WA

September 21st / Howard's Medical Army Base Race Half Marathon and 5k / Selah, WA

September 21st / River Run Half Marathon, 10k and 5k / Wenatchee, WA

September 21st / Sweathouse Half Marathon / Victor, MT

September 21st / Cash Coulee Half Marathon / Conrad, MT

September 22nd / The Rogue Run Half Marathon / Medford, OR

September 22nd / Champoeg Park Half Marathon and 5m / St Paul, OR

September 22nd / Happy Girls Run Half Marathon, 10k and 5k / Forest Grove, OR

September 22nd / Self Transcendence Ultra 7hr timed / Seattle, WA

September 21st / LeadmanTri Triathlon Olympic++ and Olympic+ / Bend, OR

September 21st / GoldenMan Triathlon and Duathlon Sprint / Goldendale, WA

September 21st / Grand Columbian Super Triathlon, Duathlon and Aquabike Ultra, Iron, Half Iron and Olympic / Grand Coulee, WA

September 21st / Last Gasp of Summer Open Water Swim 2m and 1m / SeaTac, WA

September 21st / Cape Disappointment Triathlon Sprint / Ilwaco, WA

September 21st / Discovery Lake Sylvia Fall Festival Triathlon and Duathlon Sprint / Montesano, WA

September 22nd / Portland Triathlon Olympic and Sprint / Portland, OR

September 21st / FitOne 9k and 5k / Boise, ID

September 21st / Albany 2 Rivers 10k and 5k / Albany, OR

September 21st / Prefontaine Memorial Run 10k and 5k / Coos Bay, OR

September 21st / Beaver Store Dam 5k / Corvallis, OR

September 21st / Forest Grove Lions Run for Sight 10k and 5k / Forest Grove, OR

September 21st / Kiss Me Dirty Mud Run 5k / Portland, OR

September 21st / Reed College Odyssey 5k / Portland, OR

September 21st / Bubble Run 5k / Everett, WA

September 21st / The Color Run 5k / Tacoma, WA

September 21st / Cooks Hill Challenge 10m and 5k / Centralia, WA

September 21st / Newport Autumn Bloom 10k and 5k / Newport, WA

September 21st / Running with the Rain 5k / Port Orchard, WA

September 21st / Sandblaster Extreme 5k / Kalama, WA

September 21st / Valleyfest Run for a Cause 10k and 5k / Spokane, WA

September 21st / From Here to Hear 5k / Eugene, OR

September 21st / Rock the Beach 10k and 5k / Cannon Beach, OR

September 21st / Run for Hope and Health 10k and 5k / Salem, OR

September 21st / Deutschesfest Fun Run 10k and 5k / Odessa, WA

September 21st / Ferndale LEFT 5k / Ferndale, WA

September 21st / Gator Gait 5k / Auburn, WA

September 21st / Providence Gran Fondo 5k / Walla Walla, WA

September 21st / Puget Pacer 5k / Tacoma, WA

September 21st / Dirty Duck 5k / Eugene, OR

September 21st / Body and Soul Run 5k / Roseburg, OR

September 21st / Redmond Ricochet Run 5k / Redmond, OR

September 21st / Celebrate Women's Fitness 5k / Eagle, ID

September 21st / Panther Power Dash 5k / Paul, ID

September 21st / Color Me Rad 5k / Billings, MT

September 22nd / Komen Race for the Cure 5k / Coeur d'Alene, ID

September 22nd / Azrael's Wish 5k / Hillsboro, OR

September 22nd / Oktoberfest Monroe Stein Dash 5k / Monroe, WA

September 22nd / Fremont Oktoberfest 5k / Seattle, WA

September 22nd / Heroes Run for Cervical Cancer 10k and 5k / West Linn, OR

September 22nd / Survive the Burn 10k and 5k / Salem, OR

September 22nd / Portland Parks $5 5k / Portland, OR

September 22nd / Moon Tree Run 10k and 5k / Cave Junction, OR

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Day 105 of 123

Well, I've progressed a bit these days. It used to be that I'd do my fast workouts too slowly. Now, I'm doing my slow workouts too fast!

OK, first, let's remember that I'm not on the exact Hansons schedule today or tomorrow. That is, I am on the exact schedule, only reversed. Clear? Good.

So today I ran the Friday workout of 6 miles easy. Tomorrow I'll run the Thursday tempo workout of 10 miles at race pace.

So today...

What can I say? I had complete cloud cover and temps in the mid-70's. It was the best running weather I've had in literally two months. So did I go a little faster than I should have?

Yes. Yes, I did.

I did a route with a bit of uphill on the first three miles, then turned around and came back home, getting the downhill on the second half. Here are my splits.



Yes, those splits on miles four, five and six are way, way too fast for an "easy" day. But I never felt like I was pushing it too hard. I felt pretty easy the whole way, so I just kept going.

Of course, the issue may come tomorrow. Hopefully, I didn't waste my legs today for no good reason when I'm trying to run 10 straight miles at tempo pace tomorrow.

We'll see.

Go buy the book:

Northwest Running and Triathlon Calendar - September 2013

Wow, this is a pretty extensive and impressive list for mid-September.

That's 67 total races in one weekend in the Northwest...if you're counting. Enjoy it while you can. We're definitely coming down to the wire on triathlons, and trail runs and eventually marathons will also start to slim down in the weeks ahead.

But not yet!

Let's race!

-Green Text for Trail Runs
-Red Text for Marathons and Half Marathons
-Blue Text for Triathlons and Duathlons
-Orange Text for everything else, the normal 5k, 10k, etc

RACES FOR WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 9th to SEPTEMBER 15th

September 10th / Sprague Homecoming Run 5k / Salem, OR (Tuesday Night Cross Country!)

September 14th / Hagg Hybrid Road and Trail Marathon / Gaston, OR

September 14th / Mount Helena Trail Run 5.6m / Helena, MT

September 14th / Pine to Palm Trail Run 100m / Ashland, OR

September 14th / Chehalem Challenge Trail Run 14m and 5k / Newberg, OR

September 14th / Plain 100 Endurance Run Trail 100m / Leavenworth, WA

September 14th / Puffer Butte Trail Run 5m / Clarkston, WA

September 15th / Two Bear Marathon / Whitefish, MT

September 15th / Friends of Mt. Tabor Tar n Trail Run 10k and 5k / Portland, OR

September 15th / Mud and Chocolate Trail Run 3m / Bellevue, WA

September 15th / Tunnel Lite Trail Marathon / Snoqualmie Pass, WA

September 15th / Dirtyfoot Trail Race 10k / Bend, OR

September 14th / Kickin Assphault Half Marathon and 10k / Great Falls, MT

September 14th / THIRTEEENPOINTONE Half Marathon / Ammon, ID

September 14th / Newport Half Marathon / Newport, OR

September 14th / RODS Racing Charity Race Half Marathon, 10k and 5k / Meridian, ID

September 14th / Discovery Trail Half Marathon / Long Beach, WA

September 14th / Montana Marathon, Half Marathon and 10k / Billings, MT

September 15th / You Go Girl Half Marathon and 10k / Tacoma, WA

September 15th / Black Diamond Half Marathon / Enumclaw, WA

September 15th / Scenic Half Marathon, 10k and 5k / Sandpoint, ID

September 14th / Black Diamond Triathlon and Duathlon Half Iron / Enumclaw, WA

September 14th / Columbia Crossing Swim 1.5m / Pasco, WA

September 14th / DU it to Fight Breast Cancer Duathlon Sprint / Soap Lake, WA

September 14th / Hidden Springs Duathlon Sprint / Boise, ID

September 14th / Tri Fresco Triathlon Sprint / Eagle, ID

September 15th / Series 33 Vancouver Triathlon Olympic and Sprint / Vancouver, WA

September 15th / Kirkland Triathlon Sprint / Kirkland, WA

September 15th / Black Diamond Triathlon and Duathlon Olympic and Sprint / Enumclaw, WA

September 13th / Run from the Cops 5k / Mukilteo, WA (Friday Night Race!)

September 14th / Harvest Classic 8k / Nampa, ID

September 14th / Running Amuck 5k / Butte, MT

September 14th / Eagles' Flight 10k and 5k / Adair Village, OR

September 14th / Race for the Arts 10k and 5k / Portland, OR

September 14th / Run for Food 5k / Klamath Falls, OR

September 14th / Oktoberfest Road Race 10k and 5k / Mount Angel, OR

September 14th / Dam Run 5k / Sweet Home, OR

September 14th / Race the Reaper 6m / Yamhill, OR

September 14th / Shoebox Run 10k and 5k / Arlington, WA

September 14th / Waterfront 15k / Bellingham, WA

September 14th / Guts and Glory Dash 5k / Kennewick, WA

September 14th / 9/11 Heroes Run 5k / Mercer Island, WA

September 14th / Run for the Orphan 5k / Everett, WA

September 14th / Winning Marriages 10k and 5k / Vancouver, WA

September 14th / Firehouse Five Foundation's Remembrance Run 5k / Phoenix, OR

September 14th / Anne Jackson Memorial 5k / Burlington, WA

September 14th / Footsteps for Fertility 5k / Boise, ID

September 14th / Brighter Futures Color Run 5k / Olympia, WA

September 14th / Walla Walla Against Drunk Driving 10k and 5k / Walla Walla, WA

September 14th / The Great ISU Ambush 5k / Pocatello, ID

September 14th / Connell Harvest Trot 5k / Connell, WA

September 14th / Hell Run 5k / Carnation, WA

September 14th / Simplot Greenway Run 10k and 5k / Pocatello, ID

September 14th / Run for Recovery 5k / Yelm, WA

September 14th / Rim 2 Rim Race 7.5m and 3.5m / Twin Falls, ID

September 14th / Barefoot Boise 10k and 5k / Boise, ID

September 14th / The Human Race 5k / Spokane, WA

September 14th / Palouse Days 10k and 5k / Palouse, WA

September 14th / Swan Valley Square Scoot 5k / Swan Valley, ID

September 14th / Run Wright to the Pub 5k / Tacoma, WA

September 15th / Congo Kids 5k / Springfield, OR

September 15th / Wings of Karen Bra Dash 5k / Maple Valley, WA

September 15th / Round About 5k / Deer Park, WA

September 15th / Seattle Run Series 10k and 5k / Seattle, WA

September 15th / Komen Race for the Cure 5k / Portland, OR

September 15th / MADD Dash 5k / Seattle, WA

September 15th / Kilometers for Cancer 10k and 5k / Kenmore, WA

September 15th / Half Way to St. Patrick's Day 5k / Corvallis, OR

September 15th / Bigfoot Road Race 10k / Bend, OR

Naked Triathletes!

No, really...

Well, not really, but sort of...

Anyhoo, if you're into that kind of thing, here's a teaser.

And another teaser...with more skin!

And, of course, you've got to buy the new issue of Inside Triathlon to see the rest.

Skin!

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Day 103 of 123

OK, today was a "strength" training day. In other words, the speed/strength sections of the workout should be done at 10 seconds faster than your goal pace. For my Boston pace of 7:50, that means I should have run 7:40's. Of course, now that I'm doubting that I'll run Boston pace, I was thinking I might try to do today's strength segments around 8:15 or 8:20.

...and, of course, as soon as I thought that, I actually had a decent workout and did all the strength segments right around 8:00.

Yes, I have no idea what I'm going to do in three weeks. None.

Tuesday:

-1 mile warmup
-4 x 1.5 miles at goal marathon pace minus 10 seconds
-4 x .5 miles recovery in between
-2 miles cooldown (I had to run home, so it turned out to be two miles)

It was a hot one today, so as you can see from the map, I found a fairly shaded loop and ran it four times, then ran home. Well, the first mile of the loop was shaded, then the last .5 mile, I just ran around the rubberized square "track" at OSU Legacy Park. Absolutely no shade on that section, but at least it's nice and flat.

I felt pretty good during the strength sections. Better than I had felt since we got back from vacation. But man, were my legs dead on the two miles home. Oof.

Day off tomorrow.

Go buy the book:

Northwest Running and Triathlon Calender - September 2013

All right, two big events this weekend:

-The Skagit Flats Marathon

-Best in the West Triathlon

One is where I will try to qualify for Boston (probably not) and/or set a new marathon PR (definitely) and one is where none other than OSU grad and superstar triathlete Blair Bronson runs one of the best triathlon festivals in the Northwest.

You can't go wrong.

Let's race!

-Green Text for Trail Runs
-Red Text for Marathons and Half Marathons
-Blue Text for Triathlons and Duathlons
-Orange Text for everything else, the normal 5k, 10k, etc

RACES FOR WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 3rd to SEPTEMBER 8th

September 7th / Alsea Falls Trail Run 20k and 10k / Alpine, OR

September 7th / Dash Point State Park Trail Run Half Marathon and 10k / Federal Way, WA

September 7th / Running Trails with the Men in Green 5k / Bellingham, WA

September 7th / Volcanic Trail Run 50k / Mt. St. Helen's, WA

September 8th / Newcastle 5k / Newcastle, WA

September 8th / Moscow Mountain Madness Trail Run 50k, Half Marathon and 5m / Moscow, ID

September 8th / Health Heart Home Classic Trail Run Half Marathon, 10k and 5k / Corvallis, OR

September 7th / Gateway to the Gorge Half Marathon, 10k and 5k / Troutdale, OR

September 7th / Lake Chelan Shore to Shore Marathon, Half Marathon and 10k / Chelan, WA

September 7th / Salmon Marathon / Salmon, ID

September 8th / Skagit Flats Marathon and Half Marathon / Burlington, WA

September 8th / Bozeman Marathon and Half Marathon / Bozeman, MT

September 7th / Aluminum Man Triathlon Olympic and Sprint / The Dalles, OR

September 7th / Swim Across America Open Water Swim 2m and .5m / Seattle, WA

September 7th / Cottage Lake Tri and Tri Again Triathlon Sprint / Woodinville, WA

September 7th / St. Anthony's Duathlon Sprint / Saint Anthony, ID

September 7th / Lake Stevens Triathlon Olympic and Sprint / Lake Stevens, WA

September 7th / Tsunami Triathlon Sprint / Usk, WA

September 7th / Best in the West Triathlon Half-Iron, Olympic and Sprint / Sweet Home, OR

September 7th / MAC Dash Triathlon Sprint / Madras, OR

September 7th / Palouse Triathlon Sprint / Moscow, ID

September 7th / Garden City Triathlon Olympic / Frenchtown, MT

September 8th / Tri Turtle Tri Triathlon Sprint / Seabeck, WA

September 8th / Escape from the Rock Triathlon Sprint / Seattle, WA

September 8th / Lincoln City Triathlon Sprint / Lincoln City, OR

September 7th / Run Fido Run 5k / Eagle, ID

September 7th / Garden Spot Run 10k and 5k / Canby, OR

September 7th / The Color Run 5k / Portland, OR

September 7th / Walk, Roll 'n' Run for UCP 8k and 5k / Portland, OR

September 7th / Sublimity Harvest Festival Fun Run 10k and 5k / Sublimity, OR

September 7th / Dayton Fiesta Run 10k and 5k / Dayton, OR

September 7th / Heroes Mud Run 5k / Snohomish, WA

September 7th / Patriot Day 5k / Boise, ID

September 7th / Free to Breathe 5k / Tacoma, WA

September 7th / It's My Ability Race 5k / Boring, OR

September 7th / Cantrall Classic 5k / Springfield, OR

September 7th / Warrior Dash 5k / North Plains, OR

September 7th / Beaverton Fun Run 5k / Beaverton, OR

September 7th / The Dirty Dash Mud Run 10k / Missoula, MT

September 7th / Race to the Bar 10k and 5k / Astoria, OR

September 7th / Beat Beethoven 5k / Caldwell, ID

September 7th / Twin Towers Commemorative 5k / Spokane, WA

September 7th / Zombie Escape Run 5k / Helena, MT

September 7th / PES Parent Club Back to School 5k / Philomath, OR

September 7th / Reynvaan Memorial Run 10k and 5k / Hoquiam, WA

September 7th / Kelso Highlander Festival Kilted 5k / Kelso, WA

September 8th / The NAMES Foundation 5k / Bothell, WA

September 8th / Serenity Lane Race for Recovery 5k / Eugene, OR

September 8th / Sundae Sunday 10m / Spokane, WA

September 8th / Women of Wonder 10k and 5k / Seattle, WA

September 8th / Race for Justice 5k / Everett, WA

September 8th / Pints to Pasta 10k / Portland, OR

Elmore Leonard Dies at 87

In my opinion, the best writer of all time. I know that sounds crazy about a guy that wrote crime novels and westerns, but it's true. Leonard's writing is the most effortless prose I've ever read. It just flows. It's fantastic to read.

Here is a story from the New York Times.

And a story from his hometown newspaper, the Detroit News.

And here's a bit from Wikipedia.

And Elmore's website.

If you're not familiar with Leonard, pick up these four books at your first opportunity:

-Out of Sight

-Forty Lashes Less One

-Pronto

-Tishomingo Blues

Trust me, you read those four and you'll end up reading them all. And it will be time well spent.

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Day 102 of 123

And we're over 100 days into the program. Three weeks to go until the Skagit Flats Marathon.

Before we get to today's workout, let me say a quick word about the last two weeks of my Hansons plan...

It was hard.

Fitting training into vacation is always tricky, but also trying to do it in Florida...in August...is just plain tough. The heat, the humidity...the running around and around on a big ship...hey, I'm not going to complain about being on vacation, but those workouts were brutal.

Back to today:

Monday:
-6 miles easy

My legs still have not recovered from my late, late night getting home on Saturday night/Sunday morning, then running a 16 miler yesterday. I did not have a great time out there today.

Onward!

Go buy the book:

What is the Fastest Bike Tire for Triathlon?

If you're one of those people that can't study enough, can't research enough, can't tweak your triathlon training and racing enough...have I got just the thing for you!

Here are about 20,000 words on the fastest, bestest tires for triathlon. And right here is Part Two. Yes! Part Two! Greg Kopecky and Slowtwitch.com tell you all that you need to know...and more.

Enjoy, A-types.

Want to Run the California International Marathon? Hurry!

As you may know...or not...the CIM pretty much sells out every year. And some years it sells out months early, like in August.

So head right over here and sign up. Fast!

And let's face it, there is literally NO CHANCE that you could get worse weather than we had last year.

One Million Nike Fuel Points

Yeah, I don't know what that means either, but apparently, it's a lot.



I don't feel particularly fueled, but there you go...

Eugene Marathon Moves to July 27th

Sort of a surprise here. The Eugene Marathon had been the Spring Marathon in Oregon. But they just announced that they're up and moving the whole thing to July 27th for 2014. Same announcement over on the Eugene Marathon's home page here.

I realize they're trying to sell it with "little chance of rain" and as part of Tracktown's big event, but...

I'm seeing a lot of negative comments about it online. I think people were pretty happy with the early spring date. A mid-summer marathon may mean "dry" but it also means "hot." I guess we'll just have to wait and see how it all plays out.

Hansons Marathon Method Workouts - Days 88-101 of 123

Updates might be shaky for a bit, so let's take a look at the next two weeks of workouts.

Monday, Day 88:
-Easy 6 miles

Tuesday, Day 89
-warmup
-2 x 3mi at race pace - 10 seconds (7:40 for me)
-1m recovery runs between the strength runs
-cooldown

Wednesday, Day 90
-Off

Thursday, Day 91
-warmup
-9 miles at race pace (7:50)
-cooldown

Friday, Day 92
-Easy 6 miles

Saturday, Day 93
-Easy 10 miles

Sunday, Day 94
-Easy 10 miles

Monday, Day 95
-Easy 8 miles

Tuesday, Day 96
-warmup
-3 x 2 mi at race pace - 10 seconds (7:40 for me)
-.5m recovery runs between the strength runs
-cooldown

Wednesday, Day 97
-Off

Thursday, Day 98
-warmup
-10 miles at race pace (7:50)
-cooldown

Friday, Day 99
-Easy 7 miles

Saturday, Day 100
-Easy 8 miles

Sunday, Day 101
-Long 16 miles

There you have it. Wish me luck.

Go buy the book:

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Day 87 of 123

Yep, it was the long one today. My second attempt at 16 miles, the longest the Hansons ask for in their program. And I've got to say, this one went MUCH better than my try at 16 miles two weeks ago in Ellensburg. It's good to be home.



Pretty steady pace for a 16 miler. Again, pay attention to the "Avg Moving Pace" as that removes the stop lights from the equation. The only outlier is the 9:40 on the 14th mile, and that one had the biggest climb of the day, as you can see here.



I was also helped greatly by leaving at 6:15am, when the sun was just thinking about coming up. As I sit here now, at 3:15pm, and it's 90 degrees outside, I just thank god I ran early. I had mostly shade for the first hour, then just light sun, but still cool temps for the rest of the run. It made a huge difference.

Go buy the book:

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Day 85 and 86 of 123

OK, let's catch up.

Day 85 - Friday
-Remember, this was actually Thursday's tempo workout that I moved a day later.
-This one should have gone like this:
--1m warmup
--9m at 7:50 pace
--1m cooldown

In reality, I cut it a bit short at the end. Real-life stuff getting in the way. I just didn't have enough time. I almost got it done though.

--1m warmup
--6m at pace, or close to it



--2m inside on the treadmill at about 8:45
--no cooldown

Some good and bad here. I was happy to finally just get outside for a tempo workout. I was pretty happy with my pace for the six miles outside. It was hot and I wasn't exactly always on a great surface, but I felt like I was getting at or near my pace without too much effort. On the other hand, I was supposed to do 9 miles of tempo, and I didn't do it, and I'm not sure I could have done it.

Hmmm...

Day 86 - Saturday
-8 miles easy

Tired, hot, dead legs, stomach ache...brutal. Good thing Carson was on her bike keeping me company or I may have just turned around early on this one.

Long one tomorrow.

Northwest Running and Triathlon Calendar - September 2013 - Labor Day Races!

Sorry kids, but it's back to school time...

Sort of an odd schedule for Labor Day Weekend. Definitely not a lot of races total, although there are plenty of trail runs to choose from.

Let's race!

-Green Text for Trail Runs
-Red Text for Marathons and Half Marathons
-Blue Text for Triathlons and Duathlons
-Orange Text for everything else, the normal 5k, 10k, etc

RACES FOR WEEK OF AUGUST 26th to SEPTEMBER 2nd

August 30th / IMTUF Ultra 100m / McCall, ID

August 31st / Bunker to Bonneville Trail 50k / North Bonneville, WA

August 31st / Hartman Cross Country 5k / Redmond, WA

August 31st / Rogue Valley Trail 100k and 50k / Jacksonville, OR

August 31st / Lake Padden Relay and Trail Run 10.35m / Bellingham, WA

August 31st / Hardesty Hardcore Trail Run 14m and 5.5m / Oakridge, OR

September 1st / Payette Lake Trail Run 30k, 8.6m and 5k / McCall, ID

September 1st / Fort Townsend Trail Run 4m / Port Townsend, WA

September 2nd / Little Cross XC 5k / Pasco, WA

September 2nd / ORRC Wildwood Trail Trial 10k / Portland, OR

August 31st / Pocatello Marathon, Half Marathon, 10k and 5k / Pocatello, ID

August 31st / Umpqua River Run Half Marathon, 10k and 5k / Roseburg, OR

August 31st / Sunriver Half Marathon for a Cause 13.1m / Sunriver, OR

August 31st / The Inferno Obstacle Run 13.1m / Portland, OR

August 31st / Sporty Diva's Bad Azz Back 2 Back 50k, Marathon, Half Marathon, 10k and 5k / Lacey, WA

September 1st / Sunriver Marathon for a Cause Marathon and Half Marathon / Sunriver, OR

September 1st / Oregon Wine Country Half Marathon / Carlton, OR

September 2nd / Labor Day Half Marathon and 4m / Redmond, WA

August 31st / Titanium Man Olympic Triathlon / Richland, WA

August 31st / Bonney Lake Triathlon Sprint / Bonney Lake, WA

September 1st / Steve Braun Memorial Triathlon Sprint / Orcas Island, WA

August 31st / Blackberry Festival 5k / Bremerton, WA

August 31st / Over the Narrows 10m and 5k / Gig Harbor, WA

August 31st / 7k at Seven Bays 7k / Seven Bays, WA

August 31st / Sunriver Run for a Cause 10k and 5k / Sunriver, OR

August 31st / Mud Madness 5k / Salem, OR

August 31st / Run 4 Hope 10k and 5k / SeaTac, WA

August 31st / USA Freedom Run 5k / Seattle, WA

August 31st / Dash with the Debs 5k / West Linn, OR

August 31st / Red Lodge Fun Run for Charities 10k and 5k / Red Lodge, MT

September 2nd / Brews Cruise 5k / Eugene, OR

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Day 84 of 123

OK, once again, I'm switching up the Thursday and Friday workouts this week. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. The Hansons have their tempo days on Thursday, but my legs, for whatever reason, are at their absolute worst on Thursdays. They feel as bad as any day of the week, which is pretty odd since it's the day after a rest day, but there you go. So remember, this is not the recommended schedule.

Thursday:
-7 miles easy

My legs were sooooo stiff on this one. I didn't have to worry about keeping the pace easy - that took care of itself. Strangely enough though, the sore legs made my pace very even:



There's a stoplight in there, but other than that...that's a pretty smooth pace.

So, Friday will be the tempo day. Let's hope the clouds hold and my legs come back a little bit. I could use a good one.