Trail by Hills

This past week can be summed up by hills. It started with a hilly 16 miler at Afton State Park home of the Afton 50k and 25k, and I finished up the week with a hilly 12.5k race part of the Trail Mix 50k team race. I finished 3rd overall with a 5:50 average and along with my friends Jim Felling, Brandon Heebink, and Jason Philliphi won the team competion. It was fun doing a team race again and I enjoy doing these races from time to time to race for someone other than yourself. Overall I felt the race went well I was within control throughout, but wished I woudl have pushed a little harder after passing 3rd place but somehting to improve on.  Next race on schedule is Chippewa Ice Age 50k this coming Saturday. Another high mileage week instore for this week. Just putting in the miles.

The Wood Duck Diaries

Since the Human Race or should I say gut check training has been going well. I ran on some new trails in Lebanon Hills Park, the eastern most portion. There is a 2.1 mile or so loop around a lake that is perfect for workouts. The goal is to try and get a workout on those trails once a week or every other week. 

Another positive are my races from last weekend. Last Saturday I went up to Bunker Hills park on the north side of the cities to run the Bunker Hills 2 mile and 8k. The goal was to get in a hard effort in the 2 mile (junk in the legs) then come back and try to run goal marathon pace in teh 8k (5:50) pace. I ended up running 10:35 for the 2 mile (no splits) and 28:14 for the 8k (5:41 pace with a 5:22 3rd mile) I took first in the 2 mile by 7 secs and was runner up in the 8k with the same time as the winner.

After winning the 2 mile was cooling down with 2nd place when he told me he was doing the 8k as well. We decided to have a gentleman's agreement that if we were way up front at the finish he could win the 8k and that way we both went home with a first place. It worked out well and it is always amazing the nice people you meet at smaller races when compared with the big one.

The next 2 races are Trail Mix 4x12.5k team race next weekend and the Chippewa 50k the last Saturday of April. I am going to try and get better at posting at least once ultimatly twice week with some tips and insites on running.

The good, the bad, and the ugly

Its been a few weeks since I have posted. Lifes has been busey and never got around to updating my blog. I have run a few races since my last post, Midwest Snowshoe Champioships, and the Human Race 8k in St. Paul, Mn.  The fact there was snow for the snowshoe race in Cable, WI was amazing. It was only my 4th time on my snowshoes all year.  The course was groomed but the slushy snow made for a tough 10k and I had to settle for 3rd about 2mins behind thw winner and 50secs behind my friend Jim Felling. I ran about 2mins faster than last year on the same course so that wasa plus. The good from the weekend was winning the 4x3k, having the fastest split of the afternoon, and having a good time with my friends.

The second race a week later did not go as plan.  80 degrees and windy on Sunday in March doesn't always make for teh best race conditions. Mentaly never was in teh race and just kinda went through the motions. I have realized over the last week that you have to shoot for a goal race or races inorder to give your training some directions and focus. Otherwise all you are doing is running into a foggy haze with no bright light house in sight.  I have come up with some goals for the rest of 2012.

Goals
5k - 15:25
10k - low 33 or sub 33
Run a solid 50k
Run 2:35 marathon

Within the the next week to 10 days I am going to pick some goals races to focus my training towards.  Until then keep running

Time to catch up and Snow running

I realized I hadn't posted about last weeks training and this week is almost over with so I figure I would post a quick run down of the weeks training.

Sun 2/26/2012	Morning Normal Run		14.5 Mi	1:44:00	7:10/Mi
Mon 2/27/2012	Morning Normal Run		10 Mi	1:09:00	6:54/Mi
Tue 2/28/2012	Morning Normal Run		11 Mi	1:15:00	6:49/Mi
	Night Normal Run		5 Mi	35:00	7:00/Mi
Wed 2/29/2012	Morning Normal Run		14.5 Mi	1:45:00	7:14/Mi
	Night Normal Run		5 Mi	34:00	6:48/Mi
Thu 3/1/2012	Morning Normal Run		10 Mi	1:05:00	6:30/Mi
	Evening Normal Run		5 Mi	35:00	7:00/Mi
Fri 3/2/2012	Morning Normal Run		6 Mi	41:00	6:50/Mi
	Afternoon Hill Training		10.5 Mi	1:10:00	6:40/Mi
Sat 3/3/2012	Morning Normal Run		10 Mi	1:09:00	6:54/Mi

Sunday I ran at Afton State Park with some friends. Its a great park with a lot of trails, hills, and home to the Afton 50k and 25k at the beginning of July. The 2 workouts for the week were a hill workout on friday with Shad and Timmy and a 14 mile trail run in slush/snow/ice on wednesday after we recieved thick wet snow fall tuesday night. All I can say is that tired out the legs. I am a big fan of snow running when either there is not enough snow for snowshoeing or snowshoes are not available.  It strengthens the legs and lungs like a tempo with out having you go anaerobic. Total mils for the week was 101.5.

Tomorow I am racing my first snowshoe race of the winter in snowshoes in Cable, WI. The race is teh Midwest Champioships so it should be competive.  The race distance is 10k with a 4 x 2.5k relay in the afternoon. I will have another post on Sunday recapping the week and race.

Sickness

The last few days of this week I caught a little cold and it brought up an interesting thought in my head, when you get a cold should you run through it or take afew days of all physical activity?  I have tried both options and have had mixed results.  When going to school full time or working taking a need day off and getting extra sleep seems to yield the best results.  After the day off I  always run the next 2 days easy and the distance on those days varies on the severity of the illness. Running wise this has been a pretty solid week up until getting sick.

Sunday easy recover run
Monday easy
Tuesday Easy run in the snow
Wednsday 10x1min hard on ski trails in spikes with 2mins in between
Thursday easy
Friday 6x1mile at MP (5:55) average with 60-90 sec recovery (sick)
Sat off (sick)

My running log can always be viewed online at www.running2win.com under profile kdonovan.

I decided to start up a new blog that will follow my running, training, and life as I work towards my goal. The posts just won't be about my weekly runs and workouts but also insite into my training mythology and other running knowledge I have gained in 13 years of running.