Cutting Back and New Kicks

This past week was a cutback week for me.  That meant I cut my running by about 25% from normal.  Normally I'm not a big fan of cutback weeks, but I do throw one in occasionally just because it gives my body a chance to more fully recover.  This past week however was pretty awesome:

Monday
Rested and hit the NordicTrac for about 30 minutes while watching hockey.

Tuesday
Ran 5 miles.  There were some snow flurries floating around in my headlamp beam.

Wednesday
New kicks arrived!  I ordered a pair of Saucony Peregrine shoes for use this spring/summer on the trails.

 Of course I had to try them on.  Out of the box they are the most comfortable shoes in my rotation.  I can't wait to start logging some miles in them.  I also got out and ran 6.4 miles (in different shoes) under a clear, starry sky.

Thursday
Got out and ran 4.5 miles in my new Peregrines.  Because of their lower drop (4mm), I wanted to try them on a shorter run.  I like them a lot already.  I can see we are going to get along really well once we get back on the trails.  Just have to wait for the ski trails to melt out which takes longer in the shade of the forest than it does in my sunny yard.

Friday
Really rested.  Helped my wife out with some chores around the house.

Saturday
4.8 miles on a cloudy afternoon.  It was so gray it hard to tell if it was 10 a.m. or 5 p.m.  It all looked the same.  In the flat light like that it's hard to see the bumps and dips along the road.  It all just blends into the white ground and gray sky.  Skiers will be very familiar with this phenomenon.

Sunday
An awesome 10.8 mile run at sunset.  It was one of those runs that just seemed effortless.  I could have just gone on forever.  My overall pace ended up being about the same as the half marathon I ran in last fall and it felt easier.  I would have been even faster if it wasn't for some intermittent GI upset towards the end.  I wasn't ill or anything.  My system was just telling me my choice of pre-run fuel (pizza) wasn't the best idea ever.

Have I mentioned I'm a bit of a nerd?  Something I enjoy doing before heading out for an evening run is checking to see which planets and constellations are prominent and then looking for them while I'm out there.  Google Chrome has a cool app called Planetarium that will show you what the sky looks like from your location at any time of day.  I check that and know exactly where to look for various things.  How cool is that?  Too often I end up trucking along, listening to a podcast, looking for Orion or the Pleiades and end up totally forgetting to do my fartleks or stride intervals.  Oops!

What is something you enjoy doing on your runs?  Bird watching?  Looking for specific plants and flowers?  People watching?  Feel free to discuss in the comments.

Week in Review, 2/6 - 2/12

My week in a tidy, summarized format:

Monday
Rest day.  Didn't even do any cross training.  Just rested.

Tuesday
7.1 miles.  15 degrees.  Clear sky.  Big, bright moon.  Orion was my constant companion.

Wednesday
8 miles.  15 degrees.  Clear sky.  Huge full moon rising over the eastern horizon while I ran.  The ice on the lake heaved and cracked as I ran along edge.  It sounded like a gunshot in the quiet stillness of the night.

Thursday
Rested.  Just wasn't feeling great.  A good night's sleep had me feeling 100% better the next day.

Friday
6.4 miles.  Snow and -5 degrees.  Just concentrated on busting through about 4 inches of new snow.  The wind was brutal.  Some drifting in the more open areas.

Saturday
6.2 miles.  Flurries and 4 degrees.  Windy and drifting snow.  Got the miles in and that's about it.

Sunday
12.2 miles.  Sunny and 15 degrees.  Bright sunshine makes a huge difference in how I feel during a run.  Especially in the middle of winter.  It's dark and cloudy here so much in the winter that any sun is welcome right now.  Loaded up some podcasts from Trail Runner Nation to keep me company on my run.

Total miles for the week worked out to 39.9.  What is it with me finishing .1 miles short of a round number lately? Crazy.

I've found for my long runs on roads, I enjoy listening to podcasts while I'm out there.  What are some of your favorites?  Share them in the comments below.

Lately I've been enjoying  Trail Runner Nation  and UltraRunner Podcast.  It's fun listening to knowledgeable folks discuss running while I'm running.

Running With La Nina

Wow, the weather over the last week or so has been absolutely fantastic for this time of year.  The temps during my last five runs have been 25, 35, 30, 26, and 33.  All of those are above zero.  Amazing for late January/early February.  Most of our snow is gone.  We've actually had several days of sunshine.  I know the ski resorts and snowmobilers are hating this weather, but I'm loving it.  It's so much more pleasant to head out when it's not -5 and blowing snow.

Last week was 41.9 miles.  Had I known I was so close to 42 I would have run around the block one more time or something.  Oh well.  That's life, eh?  Actually, that was a personal best for me for weekly mileage, so I'm really happy about that.

Some highlights from the past week were the waxing moon.  It was nice and bright in the sky in the evening.  On Saturday afternoon there were snowmobiles drag racing on the ice.  Those things are fast!  It wasn't just a couple of Bubbas out there fooling around either.  These were real racing teams actually racing.  My running route took me around the back of the pit area and there is more to drag racing snowmobiles than first meets the eye.

Another highlight is that I hit my goal weight of 150 pounds.  Hooray!  I haven't seen that weight since I was a freshman in high school.  The challenge now is to effectively maintain without going too low or too high.  Plus or minus a pound or two is fine.  More than that will be a problem.

Looking forward I plan to continue working on my base through February.  Sometime in March I'm hoping the snow is gone from the trails and I can get back into the woods.  If not, I will start incorporating some hill repeats into my running routine.  While I am a midpacker when it comes to trail racing, I intend to be a front of the midpacker and to do that I need to work on running hills efficiently.

Hope you all are having a great week!

Hello Winter!

Dear Winter,

Nice of you to show up finally.  You were only a few weeks late.  Please don't get too comfortable.  Spring is coming in March and you will need to be gone by then.


Yeah, so winter finally showed up with all the snow and cold those of us in northern climes expect.  To top it off this is my busiest time at work.  It has been a struggle figuring out my routine to get my runs in between working, eating, sleeping, shoveling snow and spending time with my family.

A quick review of January so far:

Week 1 - Ran just over 40 miles.  Weather was decent.  More autumn-like than wintery.

Week 2 - Ran 41 miles.  Weather was OK.  Started to turn wintery towards the end of the week.

Week 3 (so far) - Winter hit us full blast.  Miles were down due to stormy weather and busy work schedule.  Decided this would be a good time for a cutback week.

We finally have enough snow to break out the snow shoes and we're going to do that this weekend.  I hope the kids enjoy it.  I know as a kid I always thought it was fun to feel like I was floating on top of the snow.  It's fun, easy, good exercise and will teach the kids that just because it's winter it doesn't mean we are trapped in the house.

Week of 11/28 - 12/4

This was a fairly busy week from an overall fitness perspective.  The week before I had a nice cutback week and this week I started building miles again.  The plan is to work my base up to 40 miles per week.  This week I also started working on dropping another 10 pounds or so.

Ended up at 35 miles for the week.  Overall it was a good running week.  Hammies have been a little tender, so I've been keeping the effort easy and sticking to flat routes as much as possible.  This coming week the planned miles should be 35-37.  I'll work on doing more stretching and rolling to loosen up the quads and hammies.

On the weight control front I started using My Fitness Pal to log my food.  I like the simple interface and their database is huge.  I guessed my starting weight last Monday was about 165.  Tuesday when I weighed myself I was 163.5, so I was close on my guess.  Friday I was 160.9.  Not bad.  I want to get to 150-ish and then really learn how to maintain in 2012.

What's up with all of you?  How are the holiday preparations coming along?  Are you busier than a one-legged man in a butt kicking contest?

Midweek Stuff

Hey everyone.  Just kind of realized I forgot to do a weekly review on Sunday.  Oops!  Sunday was kind of a crazy day at our house.

A real quick review of last week:  Weekly speed work continues to go well.  It seems to be helping the rest of my running as well.  On Sunday I did my long run on the bike path so I could stay out of the woods (it's rifle deer season right now).  Ended up fighting a cramp in my left quad and hamstring for the last 6 miles.  Not fun but it seems to be all good now.

This Friday I have some field "research" planned for another installment of the Virtual Fall Trail Tour.  I hope you will enjoy it as much as I will :-)

If you are in the US, I hope you have a nice Thanksgiving!  For everyone else, have a great week!

Week in Review, 11/7-11/13

Looking Back
This completes my 2nd week in my build towards 40 mpw.  So far, so good.  This week I also incorporated my first official speed workout on Thursday.  Through the winter at least Thursday will be my speedwork day.  I run it on the road due to time constraints so it seems like a good way to put all that straight, flat stuff to use.  This past week also marked my first snow runs of the season on Wednesday and Thursday nights.  It was kind of neat to be running in the snow with my ball of light from my headlamp full of snowflakes.  However, in the back of my mind I also knew that I was going to be dealing with this until next April.  This fall has been warm and dry so I really can't complain.  I'm hoping winter is a bit on the warm side as well.

Looking Forward
Next week is another increase in mileage from 30 to 32 mpw.  Then Thanksgiving week will be a cutback week.  I wrote my plan with cutbacks to correspond with the holidays.  Might as well take it easy at those times.  Sometime in the near future my wife and I will make use of the personal trainer at our Y to help us with some core strengthening routines.  I know that's something I need to improve on for 2012.

This week I learned first hand to never spit into the wind.  Eww.  I think that might be a good running rule.

How'd your week go?  Anything in particular to look back on?  What are you looking forward to?

Week in Review, 10/31-11/6

Looking Back
This week I started back after a two week from running.  The first run on Tuesday was difficult to say the least.  Did some stretching and rolling on Wednesday and felt lots better.  Thursday's run was much improved.  Saturday's even better and today's run was simply awesome.  I knew in my mind that the first week back would be tough, but I still was a little surprised at exactly how tough it was.

This past week I ran 4 days.  When I made the plan to return that looked good for a sort of reverse taper.  Looking back that was the right decision.  After today's run I felt just right.  Not too tired, not too fresh.  If I had tried to run 5 days I think it would not have been good.  This coming week I'll be back to 5 days of running.

Looking at my log I realized I have approximately six weeks to run just under 100 miles to make my annual goal of 1100 miles for 2011.  Sweet!

Looking Ahead
My plan is to build to 40 miles per week.  I'm also going to work on adding either one day of hill work or speed work per week.  Speed work will consist of fartleks.  Either way it will occur on my shorter Thursday night run so I have a full day of recovery before my Saturday morning run.  One thing I want to do in 2012 is get faster and I think this will help.

How have things been going with you all?  Have you started thinking about 2012 goals yet?  Hope you all have a great week!

Weekly, a RR and new shoes

Just back from a week at the lake with my family.  We had internet and all, but for some reason I just didn't want to blog while relaxing at the cottage.

So, this weekly will cover two weeks...

Week 1 was active recovery after my half marathon.  Some short, easy runs.  On my Saturday long run I got caught in a thunderstorm.  Yikes!  Nothing else really notable happened from a running perspective.

Week 2 was far more interesting:
Monday - Ran in a local 5K with my wife, 9 year old daughter and my mom.  I set a new PR of 26:20.  Even more significantly my wife completed her first 5K!  Woot!  My daughter set a new PR for herself as well.  Yay!  It was awesome just being able to share the race with my family.  I hope to do that again sometime.
Tuesday - Got up early and did 5 easy miles.  We had our first frost of the season that morning and it was very chilly.  Brrr.  I hadn't brought anything with me for 30-ish degree temps, so I just made do with a long sleeve T-shirt.  My fingers were cold, but otherwise I ended up being fine.
Wednesday - Headed out in the evening for 7 miles under a gorgeous waxing moon.
Thursday - Rested
Friday - Another night run.  Kept my eyes peeled for northern lights as the conditions were optimal.  Didn't see any though.  Gorgeous night.
Saturday - Rested
Sunday - Long run on my home trails.  Got 10.1 miles on forest single track.  It was much warmer than it's been which pretty much kicked my hind quarters.  By mile 8 my legs were jelly.  Even though I wasn't feeling really good, I still ended up with the fastest time I've ever posted on that loop.  Also tried out my new trails shoes:  New Balance 876.

New Balance 876 notes:  My only other trail shoes are Nike Air Pegasus 27 Trail, so that's what I will compare the NB876 to.  The NB are stiffer and firmer in feel than the Nike shoes.  I found I had more trail "feel" with the NB.  The Nike shoes have a distinctly softer ride.  The NB felt like they had more bite on the downhills.  The Nike Air Pegs breathe a little better.  Good in the summer.  In the winter I think I will like the NB better.  The NB feel lighter than the Nike Air Pegs.  Not sure if they are, but it seemed like my cadence was better with the NB.  My legs seem to prefer the firmer ride of the NB for longer runs.  Time will tell if that's true or not.  In short, I like the NB876.  I'm looking forward to adding them to the rotation.

Hope you all had a great week!

First Half! A Race Report and a Weekly

This past week was notable in my running life because I ran my first half marathon ever.  On Saturday, August 27th I ran the North Country Run Half Marathon held on the Big M trails in the Manistee National Forest near Wellston, MI.

Most of the week was consumed with tapering.  Not sure if I did it right, but it seemed to work for me.  Took Thursday and Friday as complete rest days so I would be fresh on Saturday.  We'll pick things up with Friday.

Friday we had to put our dog down.  She has been a member of our family for 14 years.  It was tremendously difficult to say goodbye but we knew it was time.  We'll always remember her gentle nature and what a fine friend she was.  What was going to be a weekend of just celebrating a running achievement turned into celebrating the life of our furry friend and all the joy she brought our family.

It was time to pack up and go.  We got the camper hooked up and...  no lights.  What?!  Tried a different plug.  Still no lights.  Cleaned everything.  Still no lights.  Time was ticking.  If I was going to make packet pick up before 8:00 p.m. we needed a new plan and quick.  My wonderful wife suggested we tent camp instead and proceeded to get all the stuff we'd need and get it to the car in less than 30 minutes.  Wow.  Somehow we made packet pickup before they closed and still managed to set our tent up in the fading twilight.

Saturday morning came.  The whole family got up in the dark and they took me over to the race site and dropped me off.  The plan was for them to return at 1:00 p.m. or when I called, whichever came first.  The race director had some last minute details for us, the Canadian and American anthems were played and then the marathoners lined up and were off.  About 20 minutes later the Ultra folks lined up and then they were off.  Then about 20 minutes after that all of us half marathoners lined up, the race director said "go!" and we took off.  First a little .1 mile loop through the parking lot and then we were into the woods.  Did I mention this was a trail race?

For the first mile or two it was just one long, line of runners headed up the trail.  And I do mean up.  Up, up, up.  Surely there would be a down, right?  By about mile 3 or so the pack began to thin out and separate.  By mile 4 and the first aid station I mixed in with a small pack of people that I pretty much stayed with for the rest of the race.  We did a little passing back and forth but for the most part just clicked off the miles together.

It was a beautiful day to be in the woods.  Clear blue sky, cool temps, no humidity to speak of, and not much in the way of bugs.  There were times when I would just start enjoying the scenery and forget we were racing.  Then came the aid station at about mile 6.  Wow.  An incredibly steep climb up firetower hill, a brief moment to enjoy the view and gulp down some Gatorade and then back down that same steep trail.  My right foot had gone numb at about mile 4.5.  That climb and decent totally cured it.  I did not have any more issues like that the rest of the day.

From this small pack of intrepid half-marathoners there was a more seasoned gentleman than I that fell in behind me.  He said my pace was good for him and he didn't want to pass.  He called out the miles from his Garmin as they went by and was right there behind me all the way to the finish.  It was like my invisible runner that chases me suddenly became real.  I appreciated having him there to push me along and force me to dig deep.

Other than seemingly endless climbing and descending, the last 6.5 miles just clicked by.  One thing this course didn't have was any boring flat spots.  Whew, my thighs are still barking a little.

Then suddenly, there it was.  The final mile.  My small pack had strung out and there were just five or six of us now.  We all turned it up a notch and headed to the finish line.  I was only a few steps behind the guy in front of me, but I had nothing left.  There was no way I was going to catch and pass him.  Somehow I ended up with a medal the size of a dinner plate around my neck and someone was handing me a bottle of water.  Thank goodness for race volunteers.  We wouldn't be able to enjoy these great races without them.

This is what the race looked like to me:

Just a blur as I whizzed down the path avoiding tree roots and trying not to look too much like a noob.

The lead marathoners were finishing right with us mid-pack half-marathoners.  The coolest part about that is that I got to meet someone I only knew from Runner's World Online who was running the marathon.  He finished literally two or three steps behind me.  He was 4th overall in the marathon.  Cool!  Great job Thom!

My goals were to 1) Finish - DONE!; 2) Have Fun - DONE!; and 3) Not Be Last - DONE!  My goals I didn't tell anyone about were to finish in under 3 hours or a stretch goal of 2:45:00.  I finished in 2:41:59.  Yay!  I ended up calling my wife at 11:30 a.m. to come get me.  This left the rest of a beautiful day to enjoy some family time.

Post race the family and I went to the beach in Manistee, MI to relax:

After the beach it was time for ice cream.  Whoo Hoo!  One of the main reasons I run is for ice cream.  We headed on over to The House of Flavors in Manistee, MI and enjoyed some excellent ice cream in handmade waffle cones.  Yum!

The race was an awesome experience.  I can't wait to run some more trail races.

Last big week

Last week was my last big week (mileage-wise) before my first ever half marathon this coming Saturday.  Now it's time to taper, heal and trust my training.  Can't believe it's here already.  This is something I've been looking forward to, planning for and training for since last January.  I guess it's a goal race.

Race details:  It's a trail half marathon.  The course rolls pretty good, but isn't as technical as a western US mountain course.  We'll be under a canopy of maple and beech trees most of the time.  The trails are mostly single track.  Passing can be difficult, but I don't plan to pass much anyway.  The surface is sand, dirt, leaves and pine needles, some roots, and a few rocks.  My goals are to (1) finish; (2) have fun; and (3) not be last.

For anyone who will be at North Country 2011, I'll be the goofball smiling like a little kid on Christmas morning. I love trail running and it will be a blast to be around other people that love it too.

Last week I ran in more new to me places.  I ran Tuesday and Wednesday nights on the bike path between Charlevoix and Petoskey, MI.  Both were beautiful nights under a big, bright moon.  Little Traverse Bay was gorgeous in the moonlight.  The rest of the week was on my home routes.  I ended up logging just over 30 miles.

So, how's everyone been?  Any races coming up?  How's your fall schedule shaping up?

Chasing the Sun

Oops.  Missed a week.  Sorry about that.  I was traveling for work and got kind of busy so blogging about running got stuck on the back burner.

Lately I feel like I've been chasing the sun on my runs.  It's getting darker noticeably earlier now so I'm running more and more in the dark.  Time to make sure my headlamp has fresh batteries and all my reflective gear is ready to go.

So, a week in review.  As I said I was traveling for work, so getting my runs in was a challenge.

Monday - Rested
Tuesday - 3.1 miles up and down Sunset Hill near Central Lake, MI.  It was about 11:00 at night when I ran it, but from what I could see with my headlamp it was beautiful.  Startled a doe, came across some hillbillies shining deer, almost stepped on a possum.  Whew.  That was enough for one night.
Wednesday - Ran 6.2 miles on the Central Lake High School track.  The moon was almost full.  Much less exciting than the night before, which was awesome.
Thursday - 6.2 miles back on my home path.  Slow, but it felt nice to be back.
Friday - Rested
Saturday - 10.1 miles on single track forest trails.  There was a nice, cool gentle rain most of the time.  I had the trails to myself.  Awesome.
Sunday - 5 miles watching the sun set to my left and the moon rising to my right with night sounds all around me.  This was one to remember.

My trail half marathon is in two weeks.  I feel like I am prepared enough to finish, but not very fast.  That's OK though.  I'm only racing against me.  The fact that I get to spend the day with other trail runners and be out in the woods is what it's all about for me.

I learned the great quantities of garden fresh cauliflower taste really good, but don't make really good running fuel just before heading out.  Definitely did some crop dusting.

Hope you all are healthy and have been running well.  Summer is getting away from us too fast.  Do you have any fall racing plans?

Sunday Recap

It's that time again.  Time to look back over the last week and assess what went well and what didn't.

Tuesday - 6.2 miles.  Weather was not a factor.  It was clear and cool.  I was feeling kind of blah.  Just chalked it up to being busy at work and being kind of tired.
Wednesday - 4.5 miles.  Visited my winter route to see how it's looking.  It looked weird without snow.  The humidity was starting to move back in.  Best way to describe it was cool and clammy.  A bat flew within a few feet of me.  That was pretty cool.  Still feeling kind of blah.
Thursday - 5.9 miles.  It got darker sooner than I was expecting and I hadn't brought my headlamp with me.  I ended up sticking to lighted areas and guessing on the turnaround.  I came close to my goal of 6 miles, so my guess wasn't bad.  Felt much better than the last couple of nights.
Friday - Resting
Saturday - Got up early (for me) and hit my regular forest single track trail for 10.1 miles.  No boring flat spots.  It's all up and down.  Lots of deer flies.  Saw a couple of cyclists on the trails and for the first time ever, another runner.  There were a lot of deer tracks in the trail but I didn't see any.  The tracks looked pretty fresh.  I think they probably heard me coming long before I got there and they hid in the underbrush.  I was shooting for an overall pace of about 13:00 minutes per mile.  I ended up with 12:40.  I'm really happy with that.  If I am that fast in my trail half marathon, I'll be ecstatic.
Sunday - Just a few easy miles to stay loose. Kind of warm and muggy.

Ended up with 30.7 miles for the week and 135.9 miles for the month of July.  The monthly total ties my previous monthly best set in March, 2011.  August should end up around 110-115 as there will be a taper week in there.

It's only about 4 weeks until my trail half marathon.  Yikes!  For the next two weeks I'm planning to continue doing my long run on the forest single track.  Time on my feet on the trail is what I'm after.  I also need to be a little more disciplined about stretching and rolling regularly over these next few weeks.  Some of the blah feeling this past week was due to the fact that was really stiff after sitting all day at work.  I just couldn't seem to get loose.  I need to be more intentional about working on flexibility.

The garden is really starting to produce.  The cucumbers are continuing hot and heavy.  We are getting some new potatoes, string beans, summer squash, cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes, and broccoli.  Our peas are done for the year.  Who needs pizza and buffets right now?  There's plenty coming out of my own back yard.

Monday Monday

Rest day today. Too bad because it was 72, clear blue sky and no humidity. Awesome. Time to look back at last week and get a grip on this coming running week.

Last week I ran 30.85 miles. It was warm and muggy every night. Wednesday night at 8 p.m. the heat index was still well into the 90's so I ran inside at the Y. I know lots of us were fighting oppressive heat last week. I hope you get some relief this coming week.  The one thing I am happy with from this past week is the recovery from the medium and long runs seems to be shorter than it was a month ago.  I am reaping some fitness benefits.  Soon, it will be time for a mileage increase.  Maybe this week even.

I did my long run on Saturday evening instead of Saturday morning this past week. It felt lots better. I don't know, my body just prefers evening runs I guess. The one thing that was difficult was the deer flies. They were thick!  Those little boogers just love drilling me right in the back of the head.

Sunday we smoked a pork loin over apple wood.  My wife wrapped it in bacon first and injected some sort of beer sauce into it the night before.  It was awesome!  Then to make things even more awesome she made a homemade cherry pie from the cherries we picked last week.  Wow, much better than canned cherries.  It's all I can do to not just sit down and eat the whole pie.  I think I could live on cherry pie.

What's been awesome for you lately?

Week in Review, 7/11-7/17

Sorry for being MIA.  Work was very busy last week and that took priority.

Here's the summary of how the week went:

Monday:  Travel day for work and rest day.
Tuesday:  Got out close to midnight for a run under the nearly full moon around the golf resort we were staying at (Boyne Highlands).  Had to dodge the sprinklers.  Got about 3.4 miles in.
Wednesday:  Got out again under the full moon around the resort.  The golf courses are strangely silent.  No crickets, no frogs, nothing.  No night sounds at all.  Just the sound of sprinklers.  Got about 5 miles in.
Thursday:  Rest day and traveled Thursday night.
Friday:  Got about 6.2 miles in back on my home route.  Felt good to be back.
Saturday:  Got up early to beat the heat.  Got 10 miles in.  Later, went and picked cherries with the family.  Cherries fresh from the tree taste nothing like what comes from the grocery store.
Sunday:  HOT!  I slept in.  Too hot to run until evening.  I waited until the sun went down and got 5 miles in.  It was still 81 degrees at 9:30 p.m. and very humid.

This week I am celebrating my one year runnerversiary.  Woot!  I am planning to celebrate by...running!  LOL.  I am starting to see a fitness improvement on my 10 mile runs, so I'm thinking one more week of the current mileage and then I will bump my long, slow distance run up to two hours and fifteen minutes for approximately 11.5 miles.

Weekly food notes:  This past week we had dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings a couple of times.  I discovered the mango lemonade.  Yum!  It rocks!  It pairs with the mild sauce just perfect.  Watching the MLB All Star game on a tv screen that was about 15 feet across was cool too.  Saturday we had dinner at Thatsa Pizza in Traverse City, MI after picking cherries.  I loved it.  The crust was light and the toppings were substantial.  Just the way I like it.  We'll be going back there again.

Cucumbers are coming on in our garden hot and heavy now.  Very tasty.  I'm been eating them as fast as I can, but they grow faster.  Our peas are almost done.  The kids ate most of them, but I did get a few.  Peas from the garden are a special summer treat.  Too bad it can't last all year.  The tomatoes should start soon.  Probably by the end of this week we'll be able to start picking tomatoes.

What's your favorite summer produce?  Mine has to be tomatoes.  Garden tomatoes are packed with flavor.

Week in Review

This week I went 29.9 miles, did my third 10 miler ever and 2nd one in two weeks.  Had I known where I was at week to date mileage-wise, I would have added .1 miles to my run this evening.  Oh well.  Stuff happens, eh?  The good thing is that other than sweating a lot and working on hydration issues, the mid-summer heat isn't bothering me that much.  I just keep thinking about how cold those January and February runs were.

This coming week the plan will be the same as this past week.  I'm thinking two more weeks of a 10 mile long run and 30 miles for the week.  Then I'm either going to bump the miles or add more hill work.  I'm leaning towards the hill work as I will need to be strong on the hills for my trail half marathon.

We're in the time of year when pizza and buffets just don't sound as good as fresh fruits and veggies.  Still, my wife had me try a chicken bacon ranch pizza this week.  Yum!  I liked it.  Even though it wasn't traditional, I still enjoyed it a ton.  Thank you honey for the suggestion and for broadening my world!

What are your training plans for the week?  Stepping up the miles?  Adding speed or hills?  Cutback week?

Week in Review

Sorry I've been MIA this week.  Life has just been too busy to allow for blogging.

In all this past week was the best running week I've had since the end of March.  I hit 10 miles on my long run and really felt good afterwards.  My paces (not that I am real concerned about pace) were much more consistent than in the past 6-8 weeks.  In all of my runs I felt good the whole way, felt very little stiffness in my knees, calves or hamstrings, and the heat/humidity of a mid-western summer seemed to quit bothering me.

Something I started a couple of weeks ago is to move my weekly long run to Saturday morning.  It fits better in my schedule.  For some reason I also feel better throughout the run even though I am primarily an evening runner.  The only issue is that I am REALLY hungry all day afterwards.  We ended up at the Chinese buffet last night so I could re-fuel.  A couple plates of sushi and cocktail shrimp later and I was good to go.

In the coming week the plan is for a 10 mile long run again.  Also, I need to add more miles during the week to properly support that long run distance.  If I add a 3-mile 5th day and extend my Thursday run to 6.2 miles I'll land at 30 miles for the week with the 10 mile long run.  That's about where I want to be for the next 2-3 weeks.

Summer is great in northern Michigan.  Next week the dark, sweet cherries will begin to ripen and that means we get to go cherry picking.  Cherries fresh from the tree are the best.  Our family tradition is to go to the orchard in the morning, pick a couple bucket loads of cherries and then take them to the beach on Lake Michigan for a picnic.  By evening we have a nice pile of cherry pits :-D  Hopefully we'll have enough cherries left to freeze some.

An administrative note for the blog:  With my summer work schedule now kicking into high gear I am going to be posting on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.  Not that I hadn't already pulled back on the posting, but I wanted you all to know that I wasn't abandoning the effort or anything.

So, how was your week?  Did you have some good running moments?  Some forgettable moments?  Some burn the tape and never speak of them again moments?