A Different Kind of Workout

Most of the time I like to write these posts about how training is going or the most recent races I have participated in.  Last weekend I didn't give much of that a thought as I traveled to Columbus, Ohio to visit my brother.  I was slowly recovering from the relay race the weekend before and was little worried as to how I was going to fit in marathon training while out there.  I decided to say screw it and not run and allow my legs some time to recover and just enjoy myself.  It's not like I was going to be sitting on my ass all weekend.  We had some golf planned and were then attending a three day rock festival known as Rock on the Range.  It was going to be a much different weekend of workouts for me.

Aside from running and triathlon one of my other longstanding passions is music.  I listen to it all the time.  Running, while in the car, sitting around at night. I probably buy at least a CD a week.  And I have my brother to thank for influencing my tastes.  We've listened to rock since we were kids and he even took me to my first Ozzfest shortly after I graduated high school.  We used to go to concerts all the time when he lived in Iowa so I was really looking forward getting to see over forty bands with him again, a bunch of which I had not had the privelage of seeing yet.

The first day of the concert began with an early morning round of golf, which was unfortunately shortened to 9 holes due to some lingering fog.  It was probably a good thing because I broke my 3 iron and was shooting like crap.  Once we got that out of the way it was on to the concert venue where we tailgated for a bit before starting a night of rock infused fun.

Ready to Rock!

The day opened with a couple of bands on the main stage that I had never seen before.  Love and Death and the Hollywood Undead both put on good shows.  We headed over to the side stage for most of the rest of the night.  I was looking forward to watching In Flames.  They were one of the first bands I listened to when I first started running to lose some weight so many years ago.  They've released a few more albums since then, all of which make it into a normal rotation on my running playlists.  We got right down in front for them and the show did not disappoint.  Afterward, we headed back to the main stage to watch Korn cap off the night.  I've seen them a few times, yet their show never fails to deliver.

In Flames!

After one exhausting first day, it was hard to think we had to do this another couple of days.  I woke up a little sore and tired, but after a few morning wakeup beers was ready to do it again.  The second day was probably my favorite of the three.  It was busy day, with a lot of back and forth between the main stage and the side stages.  Pop Evil started on the main, then over to Young Guns on the side, both bands I started listening to this winter/spring.  Back to the main for All that Remains, which is always in my running playlists. Then back to the side for Otherwise, who was a staple of marathon training last fall. Halestorm on the main, Red Line Chemistry on the side, Bullet for my Valentine on the main, Black Veil Brides on the side, and Papa Roach on the main. After a quick bite to eat it was back up front for Three Days Grace, who was employing an inordinate amount of pyrotechnics for such a hot day.

Up next was Stone Sour, who we made sure to get as close to the stage as we could.  They were one of the first bands I listened to when I started training to race.  I can vividly remember runs where I listened to their entire first album.  I've seen them before, and Corey Taylor always puts on a great show.  That night was no exception.  Smashing Pumpkins wrapped up the second night, but we were so tired that we actually left a bit early before they wrapped up their set.

Stone Sour

Day three rolled around, and despite being exhausted and sore, I was still ready for a good day of music. Sick Puppies opened the day, followed by Sevendust.  I took my first shot ever at crowd surfing during their set, and it was more fun than I would have imagined. 

1st time crowd surfing

Red was next on the side stage and then Thousand Foot Krutch, whom I did some more surfing for.  Back to the main for Skillet. 

Skillet raising up their strings

Then I got up nice and close for Volbeat, who has been one of my favorites since hearing Still Counting several years ago and at the top of my list for "Need to see" bands during this concert.  Needless to say they played a fantastic set and I had a ton of fun just a few rows back.  After that I scrambled over to the side stage to watch David Draiman's Device.

It was time for some old school rock after that.  Bush played, followed by Alice in Chains.  I was surprised at how old Jerry Cantrell looked and how great of a show they still managed to put on.  I went crowd surfing again during Rooster and Man in the Box, during which I got dropped hard on my head.  Had bruises all along my shoulders the next day, but it was worth it.  Soundgarden wrapped up the evening of nostalgic rock and capped off a great three days of music.

So the weekend was a ton of fun.  I was sore in places I usually don't get sore when running.  A good core and upper body workout.  My brother and I are already looking forward to next year's version of the concert.  It took me a little while to detox and get back into running this week.  My legs were experiencing all sorts of odd pains, but I managed to get in a decent long run yesterday and feel like I should be able to be back on track this week.  Just in time for Dam to Dam on Saturday.

  

Market to Market Relay: Race Recap

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to partake in my second race of the season, and it was a unique event at that.  The inaugural Iowa version of the Market to Market Relay was held on Saturday.  It is a seventeen stage, 73 mile race starting in Jefferson and ending in downtown Des Moines.  I have always wanted to participate in a race like this so when my old friend Jack contacted me a few months back about joining one of their teams I immediately said yes.

We are Runners and We are Runners Too

We fielded two six person teams, "We are Runners" and "We are Runners Too" and met up in the early morning hours to head up to Jefferson.  At 6:30 am the wind was already blowing hard and we knew we were in for a blustery day. The good news I guess was that it wasn't snowing like the weekend before.  The van ride up was fun as I got acquainted with my running mates for the day.  We had some time to kill at the start line before our wave went off so we watched the wave before ours go off and tried to stay warm.  We were in the last wave of the day, dubbed the "championship wave" since we had a legitimate shot of doing very well in our division based on our estimated finish time.  That info surprised me a bit and I figured I may just have to run a little harder if we were going to be competitive.

We are Runners - Pre Race

Soon enough we were ready to go and Brian led us off.  It was indeed a stacked wave as he later related that he ran the first mile at a sub 6:00 pace and was near the back of the pack.  He held his own just fine though and reeled in some of those who went out too fast.  The rest of us loaded into the van to meet him at the second check point.  There wasn't a whole lot of down time after arrival at the exchange point and before long our second runner and team captain, Jaime, was taking over.  Then we all piled in the van again to do it all over again.

My first leg was leg 4 and I took over from Jack who ran a smoking first effort.  The leg was a straight shot south down the Raccoon River Valley Trail for 4.8 miles. The best part of that was that there was a sweet 20 mph tailwind shoving me along.  It wouldn't be so sweet in later stages, but I was able to relax, let the wind do half the work, and save the legs a little.  As I started the leg I could see one guy far up ahead in a black shirt and I made it my first goal to catch him.

Taking part in my first relay race I was quickly introduced to some new lingo.  Overtaking another runner in the race was referred to as a "kill" and the goal was to rack up as many of those as you could.  Starting in the final wave of the day and fielding a fast team we were set up to score quite a few kills.  We marked each one the team accumulated in chalk on the window of the van until we ran out of window space. Or maybe we just lost count.  Either way there was a lot

So I kept black shirt in my sights and slowly reeled him.  And I do mean slowly.  After the first couple miles ticked by it seemed I hadn't even closed half of the original gap.  Either he gassed the next two miles or I picked up the pace, but I eventually caught him shortly after the 4 mile mark.  The remainder of the leg I managed to pick off a few more people.

Miles: 4.84
Time: 31:12
Pace: 6:27 min/mi
Kills: 6

After that it was back in the van to recover a bit while the other runners on the team continued to kick butt. Ryan and Liz had stellar first legs and soon enough we were preparing to start the second cycle of stages.  Everyone was running hard and having so much fun it was just a great group to be a part of.  By the time stage 10 rolled around I felt like I could at least run again, having fueled and recovered a bit, and was ready to do my part for the team.

The route was now heading east so that super sweet tailwind was no more.  Now it was a pain in the butt crosswind that tried to blow you off the trail if you weren't paying attention.  There was a decent tree line along the trail, but every now and again there would be a break in it and you'd feel the wind full bore.  So the second leg was much more of a struggle than the first, but we had caught back up to the meat of the teams running so the kills were plentiful.

After the first couple miles I was feeling pretty spent.  I decided to just put my head down and run and not look at my garmin to see where my pace had fallen off to.  Apparently this strategy worked somewhat.  I just kept trying to catch the next person ahead of me and didn't glance at the watch until there was about a half mile left to go.  That made it seem like only a half mile and bringing it in didn't seem quite so bad, and looking at my total pace for the leg it really wasn't as bad as I thought it was.

Miles: 5.11
Time: 33:14
Pace: 6:30 min/mi
Kills: 17

More recovery time in the van while my teammates had a go at it.  Again, they were all running great in that nasty crosswind, and the team was slowly ticking off their final legs of the day.  As the late stages of the race unfolded we were certain we were locked in a close battle for 3rd place in our division.  By the time my final leg came up we were still behind by a bit.

Luckily for me my last leg was also my shortest, a mere 2.8 miles.  I kept telling myself that it would be a piece of cake.  That wasn't even a 5k!  I took the exchange from Jack, who came running in dueling with top hat guy, and I promptly took out top hat guy's teammate on a downhill section that made it feel like I was flying.  Less than a 5k, no reason to hold back now.

Apparently the legs didn't get the memo that I wanted to run fast because they were complaining big time.  I did the best I could to keep the turnover going.  The stage wound through water works park and it was easily the my most scenic leg of the day.  It took my mind off my unresponsive legs a bit at least.  With a half mile to go I started to ratchet up the pace until I was doing my best attempt at a sprint to finish things off.

Miles: 2.81
Time: 17:59
Pace: 6:24
Kills: 16

The Final Handoff

When I passed the "baton" off to our anchor leg, Ryan, we were still behind the third place team.  As our team had waited at the exchange point they had identified who our anchor needed to catch so when we arrived near the finish line the anticipation to see who would show up first was growing.  The finish area was in a unique spot in that you could see a good half to three quarters of a mile across the river to where the runners were running along.  Both our team and the one we were competing with for third was squinting and trying to see which runner was coming along first.  After a false alarm or two, Ryan finally came into view hauling ass along the river, with the other dude nowhere in sight.

We happily joined him for the final short group run through the finish line.  It turned into more of a haphazard free for all as no one could match each other's pace, but we eventually all crossed the line for a hard earned finish.

Final Stats: 10/205 OA, 3/66 Open Div.

The second team finished not too long after ours in a very respectable 25th place, and we all met up for a post race celebration after such a productive day.  I thoroughly enjoyed my experience and feel truly grateful to have met and run with such a great group of people.  Running for the the most part is a very individual sport.  You can go to races with friends, but you're the one racing the clock (or the field).  For this race you have to rely on your teammates and it is the sum of their superb efforts that produce the final result.  The best part about this team was that while we were competitive, there was a constant positive vibe and sense of fun from all of the members. That's what made the day.  The time and placing on the final scorecard was just an added bonus.

We are Runners - Post Race

The big 5-O

Well, another good week of training is in the books and I set a bit of a milestone in the process.  This was my first 50 mile week since before Chicago last fall.  Last December I came really close to hitting the 50 mile mark, but ended up getting injured with the peroneal issue just beforehand.  This spring I've finally been able to slowly (maybe not slowly enough) get back to a reasonable mileage, and after the another solid week I rounded out at 52 miles for the week.

So what does that mean?  Well, that means I am ready to start the official marathon training plan that will put me ready to run in the beginning of September.  And where would that be? Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  Oh yeah. You know that destination race that everyone is clamoring for. In reality it's supposed to be flat and fast and if I put up a qualifying time I could run Boston in the spring.  That would be ideal.

Of course a guy still needs his outs.  An early September race means I could potentially be ready for a late November/early December marathon.  After putting all my eggs in the Chicago basket last year and spectacularly breaking my collarbone mid-training it will be nice to have some options this year.  My eyes are set on either Richmond late November of California International early December.

No matter what I choose I'm excited to start the official training plan this week.  Had a great long run today, covering 15 miles in 1:55, which was way faster than I anticipated.  Got a relay race this weekend that I'm looking forward to.  I'm tempted to call this the official start to the season.  Lots of miles and races in the foreseeable future and that has me excited!