USATF Pacific NW Masters Cross Country Championships

Oh man... what did I get myself into? On a lark I signed up for the USATF Pacific NW Masters Cross Country Championships.

Last time I checked cross country runners are f'ing FAST. Martin on the other hand? Not so much.

Still, the Seattle Running Club (the running club that I joined) has a small contingent of folks that enter cross country meets every fall and so I figured I would give it a go. Besides, this race is very close to home, gotta like that. It's supposed to be a 2 km loop in Woodland Park and Masters run this loop three times. How hard can 6 km be? See below.

Okay, truth be told I slipped on my way to the toilet (the asphalt parking lot was covered in wet moss). Just trying to keep my streak of falling down at every off-road run I do alive it seems. :(

My goal today was to hopefully post sub 7:00 miles and still enjoy myself. I managed to do the first and in retrospect also did the second but man was I breathing hard out there... my lungs are my weak link for sure.

I got to Woodland Park fairly early as this was my first ever cross country race and I wanted to not be surprised by anything. Since the weather was super I managed to walk the entire course, get my number and then helped Eric Sach set up his tents so that SRC would have a 'home'. Shortly thereafter the new race singlets showed up and I pinned on my number.

After getting all geared up Eric, Win Van Pelt and I jogged one lap to warm up. Then it was time for some last minute sipping of bottles, stretching and what's that you say? Masters need a second number pinned to their backs? Nice. So with 15 minutes before the start I grab my age-specific number and pin it to the back of my singlet. And then we lined up.

GO!

The start was down a hill so of course I took off too fast. At the one mile marker this guy was shouting times and as I passed I think I heard him say, "Six minutes!" Oops. Not that I could have maintained this pace if I wanted.

The field strung out pretty quick and soon I was running with a small pack of guys who looked like they were in their early 50s. After one lap there was a gap behind me and a gap in front of my pack so my goal was to hang with these couple of guys. Over the course of the last two laps I managed to pass about three people and one guy passed me and my 'pack' got reduced to just one person who I could not hang with in the end. I went from being right behind him with one lap to go to about 50' behind with half a lap to go and that's about how we finished.

In my age bracket I stunk up the place but compared to other SRC members I did about as well as I hoped I would which was a nice surprise. If you look at my GPS data below you will see that I started out too fast, slowed down a bit, recovered/sped up some and then died a little toward the end. That's because this is exactly the kind of running I have not been doing. :) But SRC was super supportive and everyone seems so nice. I'm glad I joined this club.

Another nice surprise was seeing Alec Duxbury out there on his cyclocross bike escorting the leaders of each race around the course. I guess his wife is a runner and he's been doing it at this event for years. Good for him and it was fun to chat and catch up.

Here are all the pictures and video.

Sleep	6
Waking HR
Body Weight
Body Fat
Breakfast	5:30 AM - 2 bananas w/almond butter, tea 7:00 AM - 3 Perpetuem Solids, water
Lunch
Dinner
Workout Food	8:30 AM - gel 9:30 AM - gel The hour before the start I sipped off a bottle w/1 scoop HEED and 1 tablet Nuun.
Injuries
Therapy
Time of Day	10:00 AM
Workout Type	race
Weather	upper 50s, muggy, overcast, dry sky, damp ground, calm
Course	2 km rolling loop mostly on grass with some gravel path, one street crossing and one short section of pavement.
Results	9th - Masters 45-49 [I was last in my age group!] official results
Time	25:12
Distance	6 km
Pace	6:49 min/mile
Equipment	Brooks PureGrit
Clothing	Brooks Infinity Short III, SRC singlet, Teko organic SIN3RGI Light Minicrew

Technorati Tags: USATF,Cross Country,Pacific NW Open/Masters Cross Country Championships,USA Track & Field Pacific Northwest

Lake WA Blvd run

After puttering around the house all day doing various projects...

I finally got outside. And you know what? It was a really nice day. It was in the mid 50s, mostly dry (just a light mist on the way home) and there were loads of other people out riding and running. Nice.

There were also some aggressive dogs out.

The goal today was to try and go faster again, just like yesterday. I guess you could all today's workout an 'opener' of sorts. I say of sorts because it wasn't really an organized set of efforts, just me trying to get in a negative split and a little push at the end.

Once again it was not easy to breath when the pace got down to a 7:00/mile pace but I'm confident that will improve as I add real speed work in the future. On the upside I was able to average almost 7:00 for this run and that, even though it was not a long run, is a new 'best' for me this fall.

As usual, I stayed on the dirt path that parallels the sidewalk as much as possible. It's just more fun and I'm dodging fewer people that way. Everything was honky dory until I got close to Seward Park. I was approaching a couple of women walking the same direction with their dog and was just about to say something like, "Nice dog..." when I passed them and the dog freaked out, jumped up and bit (clawed?) my ass.

C'mon people.

It did break the skin but it's not serious. It was one of those times when you can make a big stink out of the incident and ruin your otherwise very pleasant run or just carry on. I opted to just carry on. Albeit holding my left butt cheek for the next 20 seconds. After turning around at Seward and running back I passed the same women and this time they kept their dog on a short leash...

I think there was the slightest wind out of the south today because I felt something as I was running toward Seward and then nothing as I ran home. I'm sure that helped my negative split. :)

I pushed kind of hard as I closed on Mount Baker Park Beach and so had to walk a few steps before jogging up the hill back home. I'm glad I got out. It was also kind of fun to run with no bottle or anything else in my hands.

The only bummer was I had gorged on leftover Halloween candy all day long... Since breakfast all I had eaten was box after fun-size box of Milk Duds. Maybe 10 in all? With 4 Milk Duds in each box that's a lot of caramel and my stomach started to tie up in knots as I pushed the pace coming back home. Oops.

Sleep
Waking HR
Body Weight
Body Fat
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Workout Food
Injuries
Therapy
Time of Day	3:30 PM
Workout Type	tempo
Weather	mid 50s, light drizzle on the way home, calm
Course
Results
Time
Distance
Pace
Equipment	Brooks Launch
Clothing	Brooks Infinity Short III, Teko organic SIN3RGI Light Minicrew, Patagonia Capilene 1 Silkweight Stretch T-Shirt, Brooks Podium LS shirt

Technorati Tags: Lake WA Blvd,Mount Baker Park Beach

treadmill run | bike commute

Okay, today was "use the treadmill at home" 2.0 and it went much better. As you might recall, the last time I ran indoors at home I activated our house alarm and woke Shelley. Not so good. This time I planned ahead by turning off our alarm before I started and I even grabbed a fan to augment the open windows. Much better.

I was hoping to go a little faster as I have entered my first Cross Country running race Sunday but it didn't really work. And really, it was to be expected. I have done exactly zero (real) speed work. As I increased the pace it got harder and harder to breath and I never was able to go as fast as I had hoped I would be able to. Oh well.

When I finished running as was cooling down with a few minutes of walking I suddenly remembered that some people use treadmills to power hike so I thought, "Hey, I'll give this a try too!" I cranked the incline up to 10% and that felt fine at 3 mph. Then I upped it to 12% and that still felt okay. Then I increased the speed to 4 mph and it was not easy.

So now I have a goal: maintain 4 mph at a 12% incline for an extended period. How long is 'extended'? I'll start with 15 minutes and see if I can work up to 30 perhaps? We'll see.

Since it was dry I hopped on my bike and rode to work. Wow... it feels like ages since I have ridden anything. I need to go for a real ride (on a real road bike) here and soon.

Sleep
Waking HR
Body Weight
Body Fat
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Workout Food	water (I drank almost an entire bottle during my 35 min workout this morning!)
Injuries
Therapy
Time of Day	run - 6:00 AM
Workout Type	run - tempo
Weather
Course	run - treadmill, 1% incline
Results
Time	run - 30 min + 6 min experimenting with hills
Distance	run - 4.2 miles + .2 miles
Pace	run - 5 min at 7:30, 20 min at 7:00, 4 min at 6:30, 1 min at 6:00 walk - 5 min walking at 8-12% incline and 3-4 mph just to check it out
Equipment	run - Brooks Launch commute - Raleigh Mojave 8.0
Clothing

core

Oh man... the procrastination monster got me today. :(

I made it to the gym in the morning but I had to leave work early so worked through lunch and did not get in my noon run. No problem I figured, I'll do it when I get home. After hanging out while a locksmith addressed our locks it was just about time for Shelley to get home. Did I still want to run? Not.

Oh well. I need this time of year to be about fun so should not beat myself up about it.

I did mix it up a tad today. On my last long run my adductors cramped up a bit and I think it's because I am not riding as much as I used to. Cycling works these muscles plenty (all that gripping the saddle action) so I never had to worry about it. Now that my cycling has tapered off drastically I might need to supplement? We'll see. Good to see my adductors are still much stronger than my abductors anyway. I kept it light so I would not get sore.

Sleep
Waking HR
Body Weight
Body Fat
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Workout Food	water
Injuries
Therapy
Time of Day	5:30 AM
Workout Type
Weather
Course	ball leg lifts 3 x 40 back extensions 3 x 40 clam knee lifts 100 each leg side leg lifts 100 each leg leg scissors 100 push-ups 20 twisters 50 each side - 12 lb. hip abductors 3 x 30 - 100 lb. hip adductors 3 x 30 - 100 lb.
Results
Time
Distance
Pace
Equipment
Clothing