'There is no secret'- Bruce Denton

I figured I might as well get a post out before Twin Cities even though I don't really have anything to say. I'm getting sick, and I feel like its a take care of myself first- schoolwork later kinda deal. Whatever though, just a runny nose and scratchy throat so that shouldn't impair me that much as far as running goes. The Tigers just beat the Twins, scoring seven unanswered in doing so. They're done, stick a fork in them. Running-- um, I did 6, 6.5-ish on Tuesday in a little over 52 minutes. A solid pace, and I felt so strong doing it, I just felt in control the whole way. I didn't even stop at the midway mark for water that's how confident I felt.

I picked up a flyer for the St. Thomas 'Wellness Center 5k' because it fell upon the one week in October I don't have a race scheduled so I thought it would be cool to race every weekend. Biggest Letdown In America. Ever. Its not even a real 5k, its a four person relay that adds up to 5k. I'm going to get on my soapbox here:

This event is billed as one to build fitness and have fun. Really though? I mean really? Fine, you get the camaraderie of being on a team like that. Its kind of like Ragnar I guess, only 64 times shorter. Again, I guess I'm in shock. I mean I was all pumped for this. I was going to get purple and white racing flats and dominate everyone. Instead, you get to run a .8 mile leg- are you kidding me? Another thing, the flyer had all over it ONE PERSON CAN NOT RUN ALL FOUR LEGS. Now they want to discourage people from running distances? I would expect better, but then, it is a free race. Has society really regressed so far that most people can't even run a single mile? I sure hope not.

I'm off to read The Norman Shield, the official book of Sigma Chi. So far, its been great. The brothers are awesome, the pledges are awesome, I'm just having an all around great time. I can not wait for initiation. I'm going to need a suit though, and $355 bucks- that's going to be a tough one.

I'f you're in the St. Paul area and want to see a minimally- clothed young man run past you, I'm bib #14552 on Sunday, race starts at 7:05, but I'm in the slow coral, so It'll be a while.

Race report: A day late, several dollars short.

I ran the Twin Cities XClassic last Sunday, and boy. I mean, oh, man, that was really hilly. On my Tuesday run my Teammates was telling me that it was pretty hilly, but that was ridiculous. It was like you went up a hill, then you went down, and then up again; you really couldn't get a break. It was like if you were just a regular, consistent runner, you were screwed. You almost had to be a power runner to succeed on that course. The few parts that weren't hill were uneven because we ran on a XC ski trail, so it got ugly real fast. Plus, I was wearing XC spikes, which were a bad choice because I got zero traction. Whatever though, I could make excuses all day long but at the end of the day I just didn't show up, I was a trainwreck; albeit a fun trainwreck. The best part by far was the boy scout camp. They were so loud it was amazing! plus, when I ran through there on my warmup they were cooking pancakes and bacon. Next year I'm going to run with a spatula so I can grab some pancakes off the grill and keep moving. As far as the administration side, Sam pulled it off with out a hitch. The only thing is, I took a right and went to the finish chute near the end where I should have gone left to do another loop, so that added a couple minutes to my time. I don't know if that's so much the race guy's fault than my stupidity.

Today I just did a shakeout easy run. I went with a couple girls who were running 5 minutes and walking one (I think, I wasn't really paying attention.) So we got about 2 and a half, three miles in in half an hour. Nice aerobic effort, and it'll probably be the same aerobic work- I may mix in one speed workout in there- for the countdown to Twin Cities.

I run this

Whats up guys? I'm tired, i'm just feeling so lethargic; there's a pot of Coffee brewing at 6:49 at night with my name on it. Since I don't really know what the weekend will hold (I'm going to Greak tomorrow, then Prior Lake the next day,) I'm doing my homework tonight. No biggie, drinking coffee, listening to the Wild play the 'hawks, and watching Cretin- Derham Hall play out my window. That's one thing I like about the Sophomore only floor, you really feel no pressure to go out and get trashed every day of every weekend. I'm not anti fun, I'm not the Fun Nazi, but If I have stuff to do then I'm going to do it. I think people realize that in college you can find a party any day of the week, any time of the day and they can go get wasted or whatever pretty much any time you want. Whereas when you're a freshman, you feel like you have to go out Friday and Saturday, because you've got to put your nose to the grindstone Monday through Thursday.

I started running at night, like late. I usually do my :30 at 9, 9:30, but this Thursday I did my five miler at 10. It was pretty well lit, so it wasn't like I was going to end up on the side of the road with stab wounds on University Ave. Plus, I had nothing on me, not even my school ID or room key (I had my Road ID though.) It was awesome, a really good time. I sung Sweet Caroline, Build Me Up Buttercup, Living on A Prayer, and The Final Countdown a couple times at the top of my lungs. It was really good stuff.

Today, I ran 12.6 at an 8:50 pace. Not much to say about this one, it was cold and wet. Another great route. I'll try to not separate my shoulder patting myself on my back. I took a hot shower for like a half hour after my run. Best shower I've had in a while. Now I've got to make up a schedule for October as far as training goes. Plus, I got an invitation letter from Sigma Chi, so I'll go to their pledge ceremony Sunday. I love listening to hockey.

This is not an intervention.

Hi, I'm Matt, and I'm an addict. I'm addicted to running. You here that a lot, that people are addicted to running; that they feel guilty if they didn't get their 6 mile tempo in yesterday, but is that a bad thing. From my perspective its not. I can see the other side, that if you run too much you get injured, if you're form is weak you get injured. However, I don't feel guilty taking days off, at least planned days off. This current plan I'm ending next week calls for me to run six days a week with an off day on Monday. Do I miss running Mondays, yeah, but after a while you get in the habit of not running Mondays. Its the six days I do run that I feel guilty missing. I was hurting yesterday, and I got dropped by my group at mile two- ish, so I just went home; but I still felt bad. Like I said, its an addiction, but not a bad one. There's a reason why they start chronic drug addicts on running-- to trade one addiction for another.

Okay, so you heard my heartbreaking tale of dropping out at mile 2. My hip flexor was killing me-- my vast medical knowledge tells me that happens because of lack of core strength-- or it could have been that I was doing a good 8:00 pace to get to my running group, then met them halfway and moved to 7- somethings (or what felt like it) with no warmup. Ether way, I didn't log anything, and I ended up doing 45 minutes of core on the infield and a couple hours of icing. Todays run was amazing though. It felt easy, I went fast, really fast. I did 8:05's for 4 and a half miles, and like I said, it felt like nothing. Here's the route, it was a good one:

Now I have to figure out how to get to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts this week/ weekend. Plus, I need to find a ride up to Cleary Lake Park in Prior Lake for the 5k this weekend.

Get going. Get up and walk if you have to, but finish the damned race.

I guess I owe a race report? I ran the Snelling 5x5k relays at Pike Island. My club had two teams on the mens side, one masters team, and one open team. We went in to Race day having 4 people on my team (the open team) for a five man relay. We were prepared in advance and actually had something that resembled a strategy and a relay order on race day. That all went to hell in a handbasket when we returned from our mile and a half warmup and found out that our fourth leg decided not to come. So, we had one guy run legs 1 & 5, the other guy run legs 2 & 4, and I was leg 3. I was calling it the recovery leg because I'd give them time to recover... because I'm so slow. The trail itself was pretty nice. Mostly packed dirt with some sand mixed in, I had to run to Run'n' fun the day before and get some blanks to wear in my XC shoes; in hindsight, I should have at least brought my spikes, but oh well. I was bib #98, but definitely not the 98th fastest there-- it was serious business, son. I mean there was no one jogging it, it was like all out give 'em hell every leg. I ran 24:32- I think (that was my watch time, at least) and was probably the slowest guy there, but thats fine for the first race of the year. I ran my first mile in 6:42, and I looked down at my watch and swore really loud, because that means there's an 8 plus minute mile coming somewhere, and that's bad news.

Our team finished in 1:50- something (I got a little careless with the watch,) but it was a good time. Next week I'm in Prior Lake for the Twin Cities Running XClassic. I'm told this one is pretty hilly, so I'm all set up to run a slower time, but that's cool I guess, I've got to fit the speedwork I'm supposed to do in somewhere. Its tough training for two things at once, but at least the long runs match up. Allright, I'm out to read the rest of Thucydides, and then hopefully get a shakeout run in at like 9 to flush the legs.

One quick thing that I should mention. I saw on facebook that Run For The Fallen is selling t- shirts. They're near the top of my shopping list, btw. Check out runforthefallen.org. Its a great project. To all those we've lost in combat, thank you for your service, your country is eternally grateful. I think a mile is the least we could give our fallen heroes.

Stop Me!

Get it? its like 'Stop Pre' except you know... okay that was pretty brutal. If anyone ever asks you to do a long run on Friday afternoon, say no immediately; learn from my mistakes, kids. It didnt help any that it was 80 degrees ether. There was some rhyme and reason to this though, believe it or not. I supposedly have a XC race on Sunday morning (assuming I can find a ride to the unspecified location its being held at) and that's usually my recovery day from my Saturday long run. If I went long Friday, I could do a :30 easy run before the race. I guess its tough training for two things at once. The course itself was really fun. I ran down Marshall, which was okay but you wouldn't want to run it after dark unless you can run well wearing a flak jacket. From there I hit up John Ireland Boulevard, then I looped around the Cathedral, then went down Kelogg and looped around Rice Park and the X, and finally back on John Ireland for a run up to the Capital. Then back Marshall to Cleveland and down to Randolph for some garbage miles. Get that? don't worry, I'll post a map-- it was a good run.

So, what else was fun? I ran past St. Paul Central High School when school was just getting out, so I had to bob and weave through all the kids getting on the busses for a couple hundred meters. Lets just say, had I been wearing spikes, there would be more than a few casualties. I was running up close to the end of Marshall, and some kids were playing on the sidewalk when I ran past them they high fived me. Pretty cool, shows its almost October. Oh, and I finally Quentin Cassidy'd some poor guys car. I felt terrible about it, but I guess running over some guys car is better than getting killed by it. I was at an intersection, and I waited for the walk signal to cross. I didn't see this car coming up the street I was crossing, and he was turning left (without a signal) while I was crossing the turn lane. He stopped, but just barely and he was pulled out pretty far. To go around him, I'd have to run in the middle of the intersection, and I wasn't about to get killed that way. So without thinking, I strided up and over the hood of his car-- probably not the best decision I've made, but I didn't really have any time to react.

I felt good, really good. It took a mile or two to shake off the soreness of yesterday's double, but then I felt like I was standing still and everything was flying by around me. The way back though was an absolute hammer fest, I mean it was brutal. Lotsa hills, I'll post the elevation chart too.

My name isn't Forrest!

Seriously, I might kill the next person who thinks its perfectly original and really funny yelling "Run Forrest Run" at me. It seemed like every other block someone would say that, it got really old really fast. It seems I'm doing a lot of two a day workouts lately, but its no big deal. I'm not going like 10 and 6, its going 4, with a track session at night. Its more like my nightly shakeout run than anything, I don't do any fast stuff with the goal of just putting 3 or 4 miles on the shoes. That's also when my core workouts happen as well. So, today's run. Easy 3.3 miles in 26 minutes or whatever. I ran a new loop, and you're never supposed to do that, but I figured 4 miles couldn't hurt me. The night session wasn't really planned, but it was kinda fun anyways. The running group I belong to was practicing practically right outside my window on the UST track, and I had to give my coach a check. So I go down there, and he wants the money after practice, so I agreed to put in a few miles and ran up to my room to grab some shorts. I did 2x400, 3x200, and 3x300, and threw away the watch. I dunno, I'm a little sore now, but nothing that won't come out within the first couple miles.

Where have I been?

I think there's a few steak knives sticking out of my back from all the backstabbing my coworkers have done to me lately. I work three days a week. Three days a week, how hard could that be? 22 hours in those three days. Plus I worked for this guy 5 hours on Saturday because he was doing a trail marathon. THATS SO SWEET I WANT TO DO A TRAIL MARATHON. So, other than that, running's been good to me, I've been good to running; no earth shattering events there. Chafing is at an all time low, coffee consumption is at an all time high. I've been going to a couple events at the Sigma Chi house, I think I'm going to pledge. All the guys there seem really cool and it isn't going to be like an Animal House scenario. See, Fraternities got banned at UST in the 90's when the star basketball player fell through a beer rotted floor, but somehow Sigma Chi got grandfathered in. However, they can't have a real Fraternity house (you can't call it a frat ether) so its just four guys in a house. Thats all I can divulge, because if I tell more they'd have to kill me, and being dead is detrimental to your health.

Anyways, I went running with some guys from the Fraternity on Monday, at like 10:00 at night. I love night runs. I ran twice on monday. I did 6x300 then 5x100 striders on the infield and then a 3 miler at night. Mind you, none of this was hard, but it was still time in the shoes. I ran my 7 mile tempo with the TC group today. It was nice, pretty brutal at the end though. Did 8's the whole way which was nice. I may have found myself a Cross Country racing gig on the weekends too, so I can put those spikes to good use. Stay tuned.

3weeks until race day

And we're off

First off, I'm typing this from my iPod, so don't rip me too much for the spelling mistakes. School started for me on Wednesday, so I just got done with my first day. Class from 8:15 to 1:30 makes for a long day, but no class tomorrow. I work 7 or 8 hours though. So Tuesday night I subbed my speedwork for the 50 minute tempo. I left my log in my room, but I went a bit longer than fifty. I went 6.5, and I wasn't concentrating on my pace, but I was around tempo pace. In my true fashion, I went out way to fast, and I thought I was done at the water stop on the Minneapolis side of the bridge loop. I had put a solid 1,000 meters on everybody else in the group at the water stop, and then I jogged for a bit and waited up for the rest of the group. It was pretty hot, I was drenced by the end, and went to my floor meeting like that too, it was pretty hot. Wednesday was just a 30 minute run, but it was ugly. It had just rained, and the air was all sticky and humid. Once again I was drenched, and it was streight to the washer to wash my stinky shorts and singlet.

So, I'm posting from my iPod because I got kicked out of my room. My roomate's got some girl over, and I voulenteered to go to the basement. You call that something in college, but I can't say what because my mom is reading this. I tell you what though, girls have to be out by midnight. I'm not too keen on going to bed at midnight or 1:00 and waking up at 6:15 to go to work on a speedwork day.

baby, we were born to run

Can you believe it? they're actually beginning to pave some of the roads around here, which makes them more difficult to run on. They smoothed it down really well so its hard packed overnight, and they put a layer of crushed rock down, so it would be real easy to turn an ankle. Lame. I still ran it, I had to be slow and careful, hence 8:44's and the and the ankle pain, although I didn't pop my pills before the run so that may be the reason too. Todays run was just about as perfect as you could get it. Mid 60's for the run and it just felt effortless. The first mile was a little tough, and I went out around 9:30, but no big deal. I walked the four miles to Run'n Fun yesterday to pick up gels, and man, was it busy. I ended up getting the GU Vanilla Bean with caffeine. They work a thousand times better than the Power Bar gels I had been using. I shot one for "breakfast" before my run, and one around mile 7 or 8, and that did the trick.

I also picked up a paper training log to help with motivation. Its cool. I ran 41.5 miles this week-- 5:46:52 on the roads, with and average of 8:21 per mile. I also tried on the Brooks Ravenna. Those are some pimp kicks, as the kids these days say. I went a mile in them in the store, and they were so nice. Just the right amount of arch support, plus they held my foot in so nicely. At the pace I'm going, I'll be due for a new pair of trainers in two months, and the Ravenna's are definitely on my short list.

Run like hell and get the agony over with

Today was my great big running extravaganza. An eight mile tempo fun fest. Like I said last post, I stuck to my "nutrition" plan of a gel before and a gel after, plus some alive before. Despite people saying that running on pain killers is bad, I've never experienced any negative effects. I ran down a hill, turned left, ran up a hill, then ran down a huge hill, and that was the first half of my run. I tell ya, if you ever get a chance, you've got to run down Randolph. You get a real hill workout, and its just beautiful right around the onramp over 35E. I never realized Randolph was a County Road though, that made it very difficult to cross. I'm sure glad I didn't run my 14 miler down that way though, that hill is brutal. I negative- splitted the run, but I'm almost sure that was a mistake. I mean I just bombed the uphills. I saw some girl I know when I was running up the quad. I hadn't seen her all summer, so I gave her a hug-- I probably should apologize, because I doubt that was a very enjoyable experience. I was pretty much a salt shaker when I get back to the dorm, I could tell I was pretty dehydrated.

Running is my girlfriend.

How's that for a slogan? I should put that on a shirt and see how many stares I get. So yesterday I went on an easy 5 miler that I made into a pretty tough 5 miler. I think I ran 8:08's and they felt easy; I hope that doesn't come back to bite me on today's run. Oh, and on my way back to UST I had to dive off the sidewalk to avoid getting killed by an overzealous pack of bikers. I'm a little scratched up, but nothing that will stop me. My singlet I was wearing looks like I'm a murder victim though, its all muddy with smears of blood-- I can't wait to do laundry. Other than that it was really good. One gripe I have running by the river is the first mile, mile and a half there's probably a thousand people, and you can't really get a stride going. After that, there's nobody. I mean you can run for miles and only see a few people. I can't complain though.

I have an eight mile tempo scheduled for today, so I'm going to run to Run'n Fun and back, which is a bit over 8, but whatever. I love running new places, its the best. I'm going to shoot a goo before the run, then shoot one after, because my nutrition is absolutely shot right now. I mean I'm a mess. Plus, I've got to go to Run'n Fun tomorrow to get some more gels, hopefully the caffeine ones, get some running posters for the establishment, and maybe try on some shoes?

I'm not at all looking forward to my run on Sunday. 14 miles, and then its move in weekend, so I'll probably climbing seven flights of stairs to get to my dorm. Can you think of anything more fun? Maybe I'll start at 5am so I can get to use the elevator

Silly City of St. Paul, Trails are for Runners

This post has been a long time coming, its been a while. The City put grass seed over the running trails that cut through the center of Summit Avenue up to who knows where (I haven't run out of trails yet, there's at least five and a half miles out there.) Now, when I say trails, don't think trail running; think road running that happens to be on dirt. Its a single track trail, so its really hard packed with very little give. Whenever I can, I'll go as far away from that trail as I can and run on the grass. There are some parts, where you weave through a bunch of trees, where it can't be helped, but that's my favorite part. But, everyone else goes on the dirt trail that shoots through the middle of Summit. I don't know who they're kidding, they're never going to grow any grass there


So, where'd I leave off? I dont know, really doesn't matter. I moved in to my dorm last Tuesday, its like the St. Thomas run camp here. I work, I run, I listen to the Sox game, I go to bed. There are maybe three people on my floor, and they're all football players, who like to talk about that great fly pattern they ran in practice, so I pay them no mind. Sometimes, I run before and after work, just because I'm bored, but I never log two runs.


So I had my dreaded, doom and gloom speedwork on Tuesday. Just me, alone on the track; 7x1000 meters. It really wasn't hard, except  went crazy hitting the split on my watch, so that went to hell. I ran around 5:45's, and they felt really good. I ran in the Dirt Dogs, and I started to feel them the 6th and 7th 1000, but they were fine. Again, my calves hurt a little, but nothing I couldn't deal with. 


Wednesday, was an easy 30 minutes. I dunno, seems like kind of a waste of putting my shoes on, but whatever. I'll do what the plan says. You know, I might have gotten in over my head with the volume, but I've never missed a workout-- I think I've only shortened one workout-- so there. I ran the entire thirty minutes on dirt, and it was awesome. The signs were like "Road Closed" and I'm like "Wrong, Road Open." I ran past a worker going home, and he just stared at me. It was cool.