Treadmills

My apartment that I live in just got two new treadmills.  I've been pushing for these treadmills for about a year now.  If you don't know me that well I'm a treadmill runner in the morning and in the evenings I'm more of road/trail runner.  The weekends I like to hit the roads or local trails.  I think it's a good balance.  Planning on racing tomorrow night at the local NMTC series so we will see what happens.  I'm trying to build my threshold a little bit with these races.  I have tons of endurance but need the speed so these races will help.

 Looking forward to this weekend heading to Seattle for a wedding.  One of my buddies from grade school asked me to be the best man.  I'm very honored to stand up for him.  Been writing my speech for the last couple of weeks.  Practicing out loud couple times a day.  I better not choke. Lets roll out some miles!

SHT Trail

Today we head up the North Shore for some trail running. I headed out with Dave S, Chris R, and Ryan F.  We took off in a comfortable pace not pushing to hard but I was not feeling really good.  My stomach was kinda flipping like a flap jack in a fry pan.  What ever though I still loved every second of my run.  The terrain was extremely difficult many ups and many downs.  I'm not talking about your easy rollers, I'm talking about some major power hikes ups and downs.  My running is really in a slump I can't seem to get my mojo going.  I think I'm still kinda tired from my trip to Canada.  Taking an easy rest of the week then working into some more structured workouts.  Ok enough of the negative thoughts.  I'm looking forward to this summer for more serious racing and training.  I'm planning on putting the focus tank on these next couple of months and really get fit. 

CANADA

Canada

I'm off to the mighty woods of Canada to spend some time with my cousin and couple of his buddies.  This will be my longest leg of not running in about a year.  I'm kinda nervous that I will loose fitness.  In the big picture though it won't even matter I know but you always think about it.  I've never been to this part of Canada camping so it should be an adventure.  Sounds like the bugs are terrible and it might rain perfect conditions for five days in the wilderness. I do really enjoy exploring and being away with no technology it kinda forces you to enjoy the company and yourself.  I'll keep you posted when I get back from the trip.  For those of you able to run these next five days you know what I'm going to say.  Roll out some miles for me!  See ya in a week.

Marketing Idea

I just came up with a marketing idea.  It has to do with running and I think it could really take off.  It's a relatively  simple design and believe there could be a small place for it.  It's in the design phase and needs some tweaks and such.  I'm going to propose it to a local company here in duluth to see what happens.  I'll keep you posted when done with prototype.  Lets roll out some miles..

Two Harbors into Duluth

Saturday I had a long progression run planned with Gregg Roberston, John Heitzman, and Dillion Johnson.  We planned to leave Duluth at 7 a.m. sharp for Two Harbors.  Along the drive up we placed water bottles strategically where we would needed them to refuel.  We lined up on the starting of Grandma's Marathon.  I looked at the others and my heart was starting to pound in anticipation of this run.  I heard all four watches beep and we were off.  The first couple miles were pretty controlled around 7:30 pace.  These miles felt super easy and one after another they passed with little or no effort and I was sitting really confident with my running.  We picked up the pace little by little coming in the 14th mile and I could tell I was starting to feel uncomfortable but still strong.  The wind was a straight head wind at about 15 miles hour.  The pace was now at around 6:30 pace.  Gregg could tell we were starting to hurt a little and he suggested that we start drafting each other to conserve energy.   We took turns leading the group for 3 min intervals to help break the wind.  I was hunkering down when I was in the back of the pack trying to focus and relax, when it was my turn to lead I took charge and jumped up into the front and lead.  It was really starting to get hard around 16 miles and I was starting to get nervous.  At round 18 miles things really started fall apart.  Keep in mind we were still running 6:30 pace into the wind so the effort was probably 6:10 pace or faster.  Dillion started to hurt and he dropped off the group and not two mins later I dropped off the group and started to really slow.  I had a 7:24 min mile around 19 miles in and I was kinda ticked about it.  I regrouped and the paced picked up I was feeling ok.  I was running alone for the last 2 miles and mentally it was difficult.  I could see the finish line and I gave it everything I had to bring the last mile in at 6:45 pace.  My average pace was 6:59 for 22 miles I was pretty happy about that.  Thanks guys for the great run lets keep rolling them out.