Treadmill Hill Striking

Last night, we decided to run a few miles at the HTRC. We tried to hit the treadmills, but they were all busy, and there were three treadmills malfunctioning!
We met Nacho Medina working out on my favorite treadmill. I took some slow-video of his running.

Hill-Striking on Treadmill

VFF on Treadmill

Interestingly, he is hill-striking. It will be interesting to video shoot him at different speeds and see if his running form changes.

Week # 13 and Tokyo Marathon 2017

Wilson Kipsang obtained first place running Tokyo's Marathon in 2:03:58 breaking the Tokyo record. That is an average pace of 4:43 min/mile! It's amazing to see how a person can run at that pace for 26 miles. 

Finished week 12 with more than 50 miles. Yesterday's long run was 20 miles. Beautiful 5 mile course on Lake MacBride (five miles each way). Garmin. Ran for three hours and average pace was 9:02 min/mile. Tried Gu after six miles and energy bar after eleven miles. Ran the first eleven miles on gravel road with the Altra shoes, and the rest of the miles with the Nike shoes. 

Altra shoes hurt my big toes when running downhill. Erin suggested I need a larger size. Jeff said they look like clown shoes. Ha-ha, they do! I will keep running in these shoes and see how I feel for April 9th.

Week #12

Here I go! another week of over 50 miles of running. Ran four times on the treadmill and every time I did it in my VFF. Sometimes I feel some pain in my feet, but it goes away. Yesterday's long run was 16 miles, Garmin, @ 8:58 MPM pace. Weather has cooperated. It does not look like February. It feels more like April's weather. I wonder if running at 9:00 MPM is good training for the marathon. I'd wish I could do a few miles at around 8:30 MPM.

Week #11

This is week #11 of the marathon training towards BQ in Saint Louis! Did a long run yesterday @ North Liberty (14.6 miles @ 8:53 MPM pace). The wind in front of us was so strong it made half of the run extremely difficult. It was an excellent workout when running against the wind. Garmin. Ran with Dan, Dave, Keith, and Erin. Kim ran with us just for a couple of miles. Dave treated us with some nice breakfast treat after the run in his man-cave. This man-cave is a very nice room decorated with lots of medals, pictures, and posters from his races.

Did a 5K walk/run/walk on the treadmill using VFF (Garmin). I started with a 5K trying to be very cautious. Also, just walk @ 3 MPH and run @ 5 MPH. Plan to keep running 5K on the treadmill wearing my VFF.

Eventually, I'd love to be able to run barefoot or in my VFF. For now, I plan to take it very easy and do the best I can to stay injury-free.

Week #10

Week #10 is here and I am continuing to be injury free! I have been logging lots of miles each week without getting injured. I also had a couple of Sunday long runs under my belt (16 and 18 miles). I feel a little bit tired and my feet hurt in the mornings, but other than that, I feel alright. I also noticed a little bit of weight loss. I hope to continue to lose a few more grams of fat!
Have been thinking about my marathon goal. I believe, the smartest thing is to run with the 3 hr 40 min pace group and see how I feel. Other than that, it will be a disaster. That is 8:23 min/mile pace.
I listened to an episode of Sage Canaday (VO2maxProductions) where he talks about how to avoid the 22-mile-wall in a marathon. He recommends logging lots of miles to the training program, to get the body used to the long mileage. Sage also recommends running several miles at marathon pace or faster. That I normally don't do. I guess, at least, I should try running at marathon pace. I'd wish I could do some half marathons at marathon pace, to get my legs used to it. Unfortunately, there are no half marathons nearby at this time.
I hope that logging miles using the walk/Run method counts. At least, I am logging lots of miles each week!

Week #9

Starting week #9 of the 18 week training program. Ran 7 miles this past Saturday and 18 miles on Sunday. Also, ran/walked on the treadmill after running outside. My feet are fine, but my legs feel a little bit tired. The bottom of my right foot was hurting after 15 miles on Sunday. I tried to modify my landing, and it seems like it worked because pain went away. I also used injinji (five-finger) socks. I believe these socks and especially the Galloway run-walk program is allowing me to increase my mileage without getting injured.

Amana Freezer 5K Run

First race of the year. I have been following my marathon training program very religiously. I had to think a few times if I could run a 5K in week #7 of the 18-week marathon program. Honestly, I was concerned if I could run a 5K race. Trying to stay as healthy as I can, was somewhat scared about running a fast 5K race.
Pushed the Garmin start button and didn't look at it during the race. Just started following my rabbit (this guy about my age that has similar running skills than me -Thanks CB!). As usual, I was able to hang on to him for the first mile (@ 7:05 min/mile). But then, I felt I could keep up that pace, so I hanged on to another runner (AJ) and looked like had to leave behind my rabbit.
Reached the middle of the race and tried to run downhill faster taking advantage of gravity. Then, road became flat again and had to just keep the pace. Tried to catch a few front runners, and I did!
Felt pretty good when finishing. Last 0.3 miles ran @ 5:34/mile. That helped to finish with a 7:00/mile pace overall. Finish time: 21:45 min.

Finished in fourth place in my age group (sucks!). There are three runners that I admire finishing before me (below)! They remind me to be humble and keep working.

David Robertson, 59, 6:35/mile, 20:26 min
Rick Colton, 56, 6:45/mile, 20:59 min
Brett Roehlk, 54, 6:59/mile, 21:42 min

Horacio Olivo, 54, 7:00/mile, 21:45 min

Garmin-Connect: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1536062520