Tag: race

August 2011

Photo of the Day

August 2011

Running

1 mile into DHS alumni race

A couple good races, and lots of good training. I feel better acclimated to the heat than ever before. There’s lots of races coming up this fall I’m looking forward to.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 13.54 Mile 3 4.51333 Mile
February 33.47 Mile 7 4.78143 Mile
March 71.64 Mile 10 7.164 Mile
April 31.12 Mile 6 5.18667 Mile
May 71.9569 Mile 10 7.19569 Mile
June 85.87 Mile 11 7.80636 Mile
July 49.47 Mile 7 7.06714 Mile
August 116.34 Mile 13 8.94923 Mile
Total 473.407 Mile 67 7.06577 Mile

Running 2011 8

Cycling

Comp

I had my best ever performance in a cat 4 crit, along with lots of good practice races at Carondelet park. I’m looking forward to Gateway cup (which is a big deal around here), a series of four races this weekend, starting tonight.

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 41.1 Mile 9 4.56667 Mile
Pocket Rocket 87.31 Mile 6 14.5517 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 289.98 Mile 10 28.998 Mile
Total 418.39 Mile 25 16.7356 Mile

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 35.32 Mile 4 8.83 Mile
February 0 0 0
March 3 Mile 1 3. Mile
April 36.25 Mile 7 5.17857 Mile
May 272.94 Mile 25 10.9176 Mile
June 344.02 Mile 26 13.2315 Mile
July 306.77 Mile 12 25.5642 Mile
August 418.39 Mile 25 16.7356 Mile
Total 1416.69 Mile 100 14.1669 Mile

Cycling 2011 8

Walking

Art

I really do enjoy walking, but now that I’m healthy enough to run and bike more it’s really not a tough decision to spend my time doing those instead of walking.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 56.9 Mile 16 3.55625 Mile
February 47.6 Mile 14 3.4 Mile
March 83.4 Mile 24 3.475 Mile
April 84.3 Mile 26 3.24231 Mile
May 64. Mile 19 3.36842 Mile
June 57.3 Mile 17 3.37059 Mile
July 14.5 Mile 7 2.07143 Mile
August 31.7 Mile 9 3.52222 Mile
Total 439.7 Mile 132 3.33106 Mile

Walking 2011 8

DHS Alumni Cross Country Race

The 2011 DHS alumni cross country race turned out to be nearly identical to the 2010 DHS alumni cross country race. The course is a little bit tougher than a typical XC course, thanks to the addition of a long technical single track trail. There was a small handful of DACC/DHS/SHS runners ahead of me. I finished in 11:47 for the two mile course, just a few seconds faster than last year. I was once again the first alumni finisher, once again finishing a few seconds ahead of Jared Anderson, with Todd Orvis once again a few seconds further back. The major difference was this year I wore a hat.

1 mile into DHS alumni race

2011 halfway

First lap

2010 halfway

Finishing the DHS alumni race

2011 finish

Finish line

2010 finish

The race was a lot of fun. The whole extended family (parents, grandparents, aunt, cousins) came out to watch. I saw plenty of familiar faces, including my (now retired) high school coach who I probably haven’t seen since I graduated. Once again I went to the Custard Cup after the race, where I once again ran into Jared. And my grandparents.

Gravois Kiwanis 5K Cross Country Race

The Danville High School alumni race last August rekindled my passion for cross country racing. Cross country races take place on grass, and while they’re usually more challenging that road races, they’re usually not quite as tough as trail races. They’re a happy medium of speed and technical challenge.

After moving to STL I ran a big cross country race, where I got trounced by the big city competition. Then a few weeks later ran a much, much, much smaller race. Then cross country season (fall) ended, I got injured, I recovered, I got in shape again, and fall is fast approaching. I found a cross country 5K down by the river last weekend and I figured it would be good to get a race under my belt before this year’s DHS alumni event.

I didn’t know what to expect given my two previous STL cross country races had 117 and 9 participants, respectively. I showed up an hour before the race started and there were like 8 cars in the parking lot, so I quickly determined it would be closer to the latter. Many XC courses consist of loops run multiple times, but this course was one continuous 5K path. I decided to run the entire course as a warmup. I didn’t want any surprises during the race. There was a risk this would leave me tired for the race, but it seemed unlikely. The older I get the longer it takes me to warmup and on most of my 7-10 mile runs lately I’ve been at my best during the middle few miles.

Gravois Kiwanis 5K

Participants trickled in and by the time the race started there were 45 runners. Only two or three others looked potentially fast, but looks can be deceiving. Right from the gun a guy about 10 years my elder took the lead and I stayed on his shoulder for the first mile. I quickly noticed I was struggling to keep up with him on the downhills, but I had to hold myself back on the uphills. He started to slow around the mile mark, by which point we had a huge lead on the rest of the field). The next uphill we reached I passed him, trying to make it convincing. I built up a 20 second lead pretty quickly, which stretched to 45 seconds by the finish (though I later learned he had to stop and tie his shoelaces, D’oh!).

So I won, following up good performances at two bike races earlier in the week. Speaking of bike racing, this is the first foot race I’ve run using bike racing tactics, which is still weird when I think about it. I didn’t go all out from start to finish, as I typically do. I followed other people’s moves, played the waiting game, attacked at the right moment, then soloed to the finish line. I don’t think I’ll have many chances to do that, particularly in bigger races with stronger competition.

The awards were Christmas tree ornaments, which was unique.

Born to run

That makes it two races I’ve won since high school, both 5Ks, one road, one cross country. It was a fun race on a good course. I would have liked to have run faster, but I wasn’t mentally prepared to do that all by myself at the front. My next two cross country races will have tough competition, so I’m hoping I can run a bit faster in those.

Edwardsville Crit

Edwardsville Crit course map

Due to my knee problems over the winter I got off to a late start with competitive cycling this year. I’ve been doing the Tuesday night practice crits at Carondelet Park the the past six weeks or so. Today I finally rode my first race race of the season, the Edwardsville Criterium.

Edwardsville Crit bib

The race started at 1pm. It was 97-ish˚F. A fairly large group started, seemingly well over 50. Despite my best effort to get towards the front at the start I found my way to the back of the pack and I spent the first third of the race yo-yoing off the back. I had to close a number of gaps left open by riders in front of me. By the halfway point I moved up about midway through the dwindling pack.

Cat 3

(photos from cat 3 race)

The race didn’t particularly suit me. It had seven corners, four of them sharp and narrow. Let’s just say cornering isn’t my specialty. It was flat. I prefer hills. It was hot. I’d take 40˚F over this any day. That having been said, I’ve been making strides in each of these areas.

Corner 2

When the lap-remaining count reached single digits I started moving up a few places each lap. When the bell rang with one lap to go I was sitting comfortably in the top ten and still moving up a bit. Unfortunately my efforts to move up from so far back took their toll and I had nothing left for the final sprint. I got swarmed with about 200m to go and fell to 17th before crossing the line. 42 riders finished.

Machines

So it was a good race, not great. This was actually the first cat 4 crit where I finished with the lead group (it’s been over a year since I last raced). It was also the first race where I brought my spare wheels to the wheel pit, though thankfully I didn’t have any mechanical incidents so I didn’t have to use them. There was one crash about five laps in that I safely navigated around. I don’t think anyone was injured.

Mike leads cat 3

I recognized a number of other rides from the Tuesday night races, but I don’t actually know any of them. The only person I knew there was former Wild Card rider Mike, who rode the cat 3 race later in the afternoon. That race had a nasty crash in the final corner of the final lap, with two or three guys flipping over the barricades into the crowd. Yikes!

Solo winner, sprint for 2nd, pileup in last corner

The Macklind Mile

That’s right, it’s August 5th and I’m writing about a race that took place on July 4th. I remember reading about the Macklind Mile shortly after we moved to St. Louis last fall and bing intrigued. I haven’t run such a short race since high school, though I’ve always kind of wanted to. I thought I would do speed work all spring and be ready for it this July. In reality I did one speed work session on the Wash U Track… five days before the race… and my hamstrings were still sore on race day. Needless to say the race didn’t go quite as I had hoped.

1.0

The one thing I (and everyone else in the race) had going for me was that the race was largely downhill, making the times artificially fast. I started too fast and I paid for it during the second quarter mile, which was slightly uphill. The last half was all downhill, but I was so tired by the halfway point I could no longer push. I just cruised on in to the finish line. I crossed the line in 5:01 (44/318 OA, 9/68 AG), a time I would have been happy with on a flat course. I can’t help be be a little disappointed after seeing just how much downhill there was. It was okay, but not great. Maybe next year I’ll actually train more appropriately.

Ready to run

After I finished Will ran his first race, which was very exciting. You can read all about his race here.

May 2011

Photo of the Day

FlickrCalendar 1

Running

DSCN4475

Running has been going well. I have 2-3 good training runs per week and I even finished the month off with my first race in half a year, the U City Memorial Day 5k.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 13.54 Mile 3 4.51333 Mile
February 33.47 Mile 7 4.78143 Mile
March 71.64 Mile 10 7.164 Mile
April 31.12 Mile 6 5.18667 Mile
May 71.9569 Mile 10 7.19569 Mile
Total 221.727 Mile 36 6.15908 Mile

Running 2011 5

Cycling

Guess who’s back on the bike.

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 50.6 Mile 11 4.6 Mile
Big Red 29.75 Mile 3 9.91667 Mile
Pocket Rocket 58.04 Mile 6 9.67333 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 134.55 Mile 5 26.91 Mile
Total 272.94 Mile 25 10.9176 Mile
Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 35.32 Mile 4 8.83 Mile
February 0 0 0
March 3 Mile 1 3. Mile
April 36.25 Mile 7 5.17857 Mile
May 272.94 Mile 25 10.9176 Mile
Total 347.51 Mile 37 9.39216 Mile

Cycling 2011 5

Walking

Hiking the Chubb Trail

More cycling equals less walking, but I’m still getting out and stretching my legs on most days.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 56.9 Mile 16 3.55625 Mile
February 47.6 Mile 14 3.4 Mile
March 83.4 Mile 24 3.475 Mile
April 84.3 Mile 26 3.24231 Mile
May 60.4 Mile 18 3.35556 Mile
Total 332.6 Mile 98 3.39388 Mile

Walking 2011 5

University City Memorial Day Run

A scant few hours after my last race I slammed my knee into a wall trying to step over a baby gate. You wouldn’t think this would knock me out of commission for several months, but you’d be wrong. All winter I struggled with running and particularly cycling. It took forever just to be able to do any training, let alone the type of training necessary to begin racing again. It’s a shame, because last fall I probably had the best fitness of my adult life.

Over the past couple months I’ve been gradually increasing my training, both running and cycling. For the most part now I can run and bike without much (if any) knee pain, though my knee is generally still a little sore after workouts. Last week when I was in Urbana I ran the Second Wind fun run at Meadowbrook park. Without any fast training I ran three miles in 18:41 with a friend, with some serious negative splits. On a lark I decided this meant I could probably start racing again any day now, just in time for the Memorial Day 5K run in our new hometown of University City.

I ran much better than I expected, finishing in 18:25 (5:55/mile pace), only 30 seconds slower than the Danville Memorial Day 5K last year. This was good enough for 8th place out of 850 finishers, and 1st in my age group. I felt no knee pain. I dealt with the 80˚F morning heat and blazing sun as well as I could have hoped. I dealt with the couple of hills as well as I could have hoped. I think with a few more miles in my legs this spring I wouldn’t have slowed down so much during the 3rd mile, but I’m still pleased.

November 2010 Stats

Photo of the Day

Running

Chubb trail

A lot of good, hard miles run in November culminated in a pretty good showing at the FOLEPI 4-miler. Immediately after the race I slammed my knee into a wall and I’ve been in near constant pain since then. I can’t remember a time when a non-athletic-related injury took me out this badly. It sucks.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 109.05 Mile 10 10.905 Mile
February 76.18 Mile 8 9.5225 Mile
March 84.86 Mile 10 8.486 Mile
April 83.15 Mile 9 9.23889 Mile
May 57.95 Mile 7 8.27857 Mile
June 17.98 Mile 3 5.99333 Mile
July 54.62 Mile 8 6.8275 Mile
August 65.78 Mile 9 7.30889 Mile
September 107.4 Mile 13 8.26154 Mile
October 144.087 Mile 17 8.47573 Mile
November 131.57 Mile 15 8.77133 Mile
Total 939.827 Mile 111 8.46691 Mile

Cycling

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 34.4 Mile 6 5.73333 Mile
Pocket Rocket 48.24 Mile 6 8.04 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 35.57 Mile 1 35.57 Mile
Total 118.21 Mile 13 9.09308 Mile

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 166.25 Mile 20 8.3125 Mile
February 140.67 Mile 12 11.7225 Mile
March 508.83 Mile 18 28.2683 Mile
April 318.98 Mile 13 24.5369 Mile
May 365.89 Mile 20 18.2945 Mile
June 447.97 Mile 22 20.3623 Mile
July 390.59 Mile 19 20.5574 Mile
August 223. Mile 15 14.8667 Mile
September 146.5 Mile 17 8.61765 Mile
October 303.29 Mile 19 15.9626 Mile
November 128.21 Mile 14 9.15786 Mile
Total 3145.78 Mile 191 16.4701 Mile

Walking

Stroll

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 28.66 Mile 9 3.18444 Mile
February 51.45 Mile 16 3.21563 Mile
March 34.7 Mile 10 3.47 Mile
April 44.35 Mile 11 4.03182 Mile
May 48.75 Mile 14 3.48214 Mile
June 64.2 Mile 16 4.0125 Mile
July 56.3 Mile 15 3.75333 Mile
August 56.75 Mile 16 3.54688 Mile
September 28.84 Mile 7 4.12 Mile
October 32.1 Mile 12 2.675 Mile
November 15.9 Mile 4 3.975 Mile
Total 464. Mile 132 3.51515 Mile

FOLEPI River Trail Classic

Another Thanksgiving in Peoria means another chance to run the unique FOLEPI river trail classic. The four mile race takes place on a paved shared-use path where the final three miles are entirely gradually downhill. This makes for super-fast running. In my 3rd attempt I set a new PR, despite the very strong headwind nearly the entire length of the point-to-point course.

Interestingly, I executed the race more like a bike race than any foot race I’ve ever done before. Usually that’s probably not a great idea, but it somehow worked out well. I tried to start conservatively, which put me about 30-40 places back right from the gun (err, whistle). After a few hundred meters we turned into the wind and I hunkered down behind someone tall, hopping from one person to the next as speeds varied.

3/4 mile in I found myself in a bit of a conundrum in that I had moved past everyone in my group and there was a sizable gap up to the lead group… and they were also moving faster than I was. Rather than continue at my own pace I did what I wouldn’t hesitate for a single second to do in a bike race, though in a running race it was unthinkable–I burned a match. I put in a huge effort to accelerate and not only stop losing ground to the lead group, but also catch back up to them. The gap was probably only about 20-30 meters, which seems fairly small. But I’d say it took more than a minute running over 12mph to close the gap. I caught up right as we passed the first mile marker (the flat mile) in 5:18. It was a bit faster than I hoped, but I was in good position. Or so I thought.

Not a moment sooner than I joined the group did we hit the downhill where the group exploded. What had been 10 guys tightly bunched together blocking the wind for me quickly turned into singles spread out across the path. I stayed behind a young guy for the next mile or so just trying to recover from my earlier acceleration. But you can’t really recover running at that speed.

As we passed the 2nd mile marker inside of 11:00 another guy came up from behind and passed us. Not really thinking in my hypoxic state I latched on behind him and took off. This guy maintained a very steady pace, which was good. I stayed glued to him, as he was running exactly the pace I wanted to be going. In the final half mile he started to waiver a bit so I moved in front of him to return the favor for him blocking the wind. He seemed to recover a bit, as he passed me with a couple hundred meters to go.

I finished in 22:05 (5:31/mile), my fastest time yet at this race. This was reassuring at a time when I’ve been doing lots of long runs and very little speedwork. I was 10th overall and 2nd in my age group (behind the guy who I ran with most of the race).

Bubba Cross 3

Having missed out on doing any cyclocross races last year (something about a newborn child and the races being three hours away in Chicago) I was excited to be closer to the action this fall now that we’re living in St. Louis. I found a series of events that not only included cyclocross bicycling race, but also cross country running races. Jackpot.

Bubba Cross #3 Women's Race

Start of the women’s race

On Sunday I headed southwest to Antire Park off of I-44 for the third event in the series. I showed up an hour early for the 5K XC run. They were still setting up the course and I saw few competitors. I wondered how many people were going to show up. After waiting around for 20 minutes or so I went to register for the races, only to discover I didn’t bring enough money with me to pay the entrance fee. Shit.

I ran back to the car and bolted out of the parking lot, back onto the highway to the next exit where I found an ATM and made it back to the park with 20 minutes to spare. Only this time the registration line was much longer. With 10 minutes to go I finally registered and prepared my clothes, shoes, number, etc. With no warm up I toed the line with a whopping five other men (one was a small child) and three women.

Three of us stayed together for the first mile in a little under six minutes on a horribly lumpy and uneven course. One faded away as I led with another guy on my heels. I couldn’t tell whether he was toying with me or struggling to keep up. As we finished the first of two laps my GPS read 1.97 miles. This was going be the longest 5K I’d ever run. Shortly into the second lap the other guy flew past me and pulled away decisively. Question answered. I slowed quite a bit on the second lap, now knowing I was running 30% farther than I had planned. I finished in second with an okay, but not great, run.

Bubba Cross #3 Women's Race

Women running over the barriers

After the run was a juniors race and a womens race, so I had a little bit of time to recover. I changed clothes, got my bike ready, and headed out for a practice lap. Oh, my, goodness. I thought the course was rough on foot, but it was nothing compared to trying to ride a bike over it. This was the bumpiest ground I’ve ever ridden on something other than a mountain bike. Perhaps I should have brought my MTB.

Bubba Cross #3 B Race

First lap of the men’s B race

The “C” race was after the womens race. Despite my best intentions I ended up with a shitty starting position, which became even shittier once I started and people were passing me. In my cyclocross experience there’s a very high correlation between one’s position 400m into the race and their finishing position… and I was 3/4 of the way back in the field.

Bubba Cross #3 B Race

Jumping the barriers in the men’s B race

Bubba Cross #3 B Race

Jumping the barriers in the men’s B race

On the few smooth parts I opened up and made big gains, only to lose some of it on the more technical and bumpy sections. At one point the jarring of the bumpy ground was enough to knock the chain off the rings and I had to do some delicate acrobatics to get it back on while coasting downhill. I gradually worked my way up, passing a couple people each lap, but it wasn’t fast enough. I was going nearly all out for 50 minutes, which after a hard run earlier in the day left me exhausted. I rolled across the line 18th of 41 finishers. Cyclocross, despite being very enjoyable in a masochistic way, is one of my least successful athletic endeavors, and this race was no different. Finishing in the top half of the field is about all I can hope.

Cyclocross is hard.