Blog Stats - I'm big in France

No running today - or the rest of the next two weeks.  I needed something to write about so I looked into the traffic on my blog.  I gotta tell you, I was really surprised how much traffic my little nerd page gets.  Yeah me!

Turns out I'm a big hit in France.  People from France have landed on my blog 476 times.  Pretty cool.  Canada and Brazil are neck and neck at 174 to 177.  Go Canada!  I even have peeps in Russia.  привет!


My most popular post by a land-slide is the titled MONDAY.  It was a post about my Pig getting out.  Who knew that would be the big winner?


Probably the most interesting piece though is how people are finding my page.  Imagine my surprise when the term "midgetville" made the top 10 list.  Yeah that's right - that means that there people out there searching for midgetville on Google...and found me.  I bet they didn't expect to end up on a running blog.  I'm a little scared about that one...


5 people have read my blog on their Playstation 3s, and 2 people have read it on their Playstation Portables.  I don't even know what those are.


The picture below is this week's info as of yesterday.  Rich, are you the guy still using Unix out there?

Alright runners, that's about it for tonight.  It is Snoop's birthday today - and Curtis'.  Happy birthday Snoop and Curtis!


Later dudes!

Dallas Marathon take 2

First let me start by sharing that all four of us got PRs in Dallas!  Holla!  Matt was 30 minutes faster, Tag was 12 minutes faster, Jake was 7 minutes faster, and I beat my previous best by a bit over 3 minutes.  Fantastic.  It was nice for 4 dudes from Iowa to roll into Texas and set personal marks.  


With that said, no one got their goal for the day - too bad.

Jake and Matt ran most of the race together.  Jake missed his goal by a measly 4 seconds - I will tell you that he has handled this near miss with maturity well beyond his years.  Great job Jake!  Soon 3:10:00 will be a distant memory and you will be rolling sub-3.  Guaranteed.  


Matt was a machine and rocked out a 3:13:00 using the 10-mile-a-week plan.  He had an amazing result - imagine what will happen for his third marathon?


Tag continues to get faster setting PRs every time he lines up to race.  Like many of us, Tag got caught on the final hills but was able to push through them and finish strong.


And then there is me   (I know, we finally get to talk about someone interesting) - anywho,  my plan coming into this race was to get below 2:55:00.  In the weeks leading up to the race I began to lose my confidence in my ability to get it done.  I don't think I had a single good run in the last three weeks of training.  I hate the taper - it doesn't work well for me.

By race morning those pesky voices in my head were already up and at it.  "C'mon Chris, you don't really think you can do it?" "just go for a PR, fight for 2:55:00 another day"...


Even though I wasn't brimming with confidence, I decided to go for it anyway.  


The start was really fast - or that's how I ran it anyway.


Miles 6-9 were uphill.  Nothing too steep or crazy, but they did a good job of keeping the pace in check.  Mile 11 was all downhill and very fast.  Mile 11 was my fastest and was the only mile below 6:30 okay, just barely - 6:29.


By the halfway point I was ahead of pace coming in at 1:26:34, about a minute ahead of goal. This was not necessarily the best plan for me.  I was averaging 6:36 pace which made me nervous.  Odds were that I couldn't hold that pace...boo.


I decided to keep pushing and see what happened.  The front side of the lake was into the wind - the wind wasn't too bad - maybe 12 mph.  I was able to stick with a group of 5 guys and we shared the duties pulling in the wind.  Not sure if my 5'9" helped the others when I was out front.


On the back side of the lake the wind was at our back and our group started to string out. I hung on as long as I could.  By mile 20 I was fading a bit - but I still had 6:38 pace with 10K to go.  No problem, right?


Problem is, we had to go back up the hills that we went down at mile 11.  Miles 20-22.5 were all uphill.  Again it wasn't brutally steep but they came at a bad time both mentally and physically.  My slowest mile was mile 21 at 7:14.  I tried to get my pace back after 21 but I couldn't get the legs back quickly enough.  I went negative splits 21-26 but they just weren't negative enough.  My last 5K was sub 6:50 pace - too little too late.  There was no one around until 1.5 miles to go when we reconnected with the half marathon folks.

Team Dallas - "We Run This Town"

Side note - I really enjoyed the half marathon people running 9 wide, talking on cellular telephones, stopping for no reason right in front of me, wearing their stupid 5 fingered shoes, and making me weave through them like Barry Sanders.  It wasn't that bad, the timing was bad though.  Tired legs + tired mind + lack of self awareness half marathoners = crabby Chris.  


The finish was odd.  It wasn't well marked but it came sooner than I thought it would.  And as you probably guessed by now (or because you already saw my results) I finished 93 seconds off of my goal.

"Just Shy" again

2:56:32 - a new PR and 49th overall.  In the spirit of "just shy", I missed being the top Iowa finisher by 9 seconds, I missed top 10 in my age group (good enough for an award) by one spot, and I missed beating Wisham's mark for 2010 by 61 seconds.


It's all good.  Now I know 2:54:59 is possible for me...


I had great time and a great weekend.  Tag, Matt, Jake and I spent 4 days together without altercations.  Thanks to my sister Teresa for being an amazing hostess!

I Phone entry

This is my first entry from my iPhone. I can tell you that 14 words into this and I am not digging it. Too small...that's what she said.

Anyway, just 5 days out from Dallas. I hate the taper. I am ready to get this thing over with. I am also ready to be done doing this blog entry from my phone.

Be right back...

...okay, I'm back and on the computer.  


I felt like an old man squinting at the tiny screen.  Back to the taper - I went to the gym tonight and ran for 28 minutes followed by Chinese at HyVee, followed by Pumpkin Creme cookies from Trader Joes, followed by updating my blog.  nerd


Two more days of work and time for a road trip.  Reno called today and said that he may sell out.  This wouldn't be the 4th time he bailed on a trip.  If no Reno, then Jake, Tag, and I will be cruising to Dallas as the 3 amigos...with fly boy Matt meeting us down there.


I am going to do a bit of work tonight and play some Angry Birds - if I can get the phone away from Mrs Brooks :) 


Later Dudes!

101 Posts - Dallas is coming

Welcome back - I am really just welcoming myself back to the world of blogging.  I was holding out for an epic 100th blog entry...turns out I already did my 100th entry.  This is my 101st entry.  Buzz kill.


Well runners, Dallas is less than a week away and there is nothing I can do to improve my fitness level now.  I'm pretty sure there are things I can do to mess it up though.  Any ideas?

Sat
Dec 4

Partly Cloudy

67°
46°

10%

9 Comfortable

Seasonal Affective Disorder 101

Sun
Dec 5

Partly Cloudy

63°
48°

10%

9 Comfortable

I would really like to get my PR at Dallas.  I would really like everyone to get their PR in Dallas - they can.  Right now the weather looks good for a forecast 7 days out.  46 degrees in the morning, no rain, no wind. I hope the forecast holds up!

Marathon Route Elevation Chart

This is a new route. It looks pretty similar to past years.  The uphill start is good...should help to keep the pace under control.  Not really excited about miles 19.5 through 22.  If we can gut our way through that the last 4 miles looks like a nice downhill finish.


Dexter is on and I can't blog and track a serial killer at the same time.


Later dudes!

Not just a running blog anymore

A funny thing happened at the gym today.  I pumped some iron.  I needed to start some sort of strength program...I have needed to start some sort of strength program for a while.


Pete asked me how long I have taken off from lifting.  I have kind of taken my whole life off from lifting.  So I guess almost 39 years would be the appropriate answer.  It may be a shock to some of you that I don't subscribe to a serious strength training program.  I have the upper body of an 11 year old Ethiopian boy...just hairier.  I know - gross.


Okay so what did I do?  Ran for 24 minutes at a pretty easy pace with Curtis.  We will just call it an even 3 miles.


When I asked Feldman if it was okay that used 30 pound dumbbells for my bench, she did well to control her laughter.  So I acted like a big boy and grabbed two 35 pounders and did 3 sets of 12.  The last set was rough.


Then I did chest press (or something else) 3 sets of 12 at 50 pounds.  Holla!


I couldn't eat dinner because I can't raise my arms.  Sad. Very sad.

61.45

I ran a lot more miles than I thought I would this weekend.  12 on Saturday & 20 today (Sunday)...adds up to 61.45 miles for the week.


Probably not the best idea for the week.  That was too many miles too close to Pikes Peak.  But, everything feels pretty good, just dead legs.


BTW - looks like I am going to do Dallas.


Weekly totals below

Count:	6 Activities
Distance:	61.45 mi
Time:	07:35:42 h:m:s
Elevation Gain:	741 ft
Avg Speed:	8.1 mph
Calories:	6,208 C

Tempo Attempt

Well, I tried to run a tempo effort today.  It didn't really go according to plan.


The plan was to run a 3 mile easy warm up / 3 miles at sub-6:20 pace / 3 mile easy cool down.


I don't think I got any of it right.  I ran the first three miles not so easy and then gutted it out through one tempo mile at 6:20 pace.  It was clear I couldn't go back to back, so I decided to run another easy mile, and then another tempo...and so on all the way to nine miles.


But I messed it up again.  My "easy" mile came in at 7:10 and I barely survived a 6:17 sixth mile.  That pretty much did me in, so I walked a mile and went home.  The story of my running career - slow miles too fast - fast miles too slow.      "It takes confidence to run slow, when your legs feel fast."


My splits are below...

1	00:07:08	1.00	07:08
2	00:07:15	1.00	07:15
3	00:07:14	1.00	07:14
4	00:06:20	1.00	06:20
5	00:07:10	1.00	07:10
6	00:06:17	1.00	06:17

The legs are still a flat.  I have almost no speed.  Looks like long slow runs are on the docket for me for a while.

I still want to get to 50 miles this week... 

Tough 20

Another try at animation

Well, yesterday was fun so I thought I would animate my blog entry again. This time it is actually about today's run. Hope you enjoy!  FYI - the other Robot is Curtis.  Mean little robot...

Nerd

I was trying a way to become a bigger nerd.  I think I found it.  I animated my blog.


Check it out here BLOG VIDEO

Geesh

I was reading up on post marathon recovery.  Looks like I did nothing right.  Here is what the recovery plan called for...

Recovery begins the minute you step into the finishing chute. Keep moving and start drinking, preferably a replacement drink such as Gatorade. Research suggests that refueling works best if done immediately after exercise, when the body is eager to absorb energy. As soon as your stomach can tolerate food, start eating. Most marathons provide bananas, yogurt and other easily digested high-carbohydrate foods. These are good for you. A long walk to your car or hotel room won’t hurt you. After that, get off your feet and rest an hour or two.


Here is what I did...


Got done running, stood around for 5 hours in the sun, ate a piece of pizza, had a beer or two,  walked 2 miles uphill, ran 2 miles downhill, took a 5 minute nap, ate dinner, next day hiked a small trail and hung out at airports.


No wonder I am still not back to 80%.

Rough Rough Twelve

This might take longer than I thought.  Recovery, that is.  Today was my first run post Pike Peak, and it was brutal.


Feldman, C-Man, Teresa, J3 and I went for a run close to the Capital Pursuit route.  The pace was at least 30 seconds per mile slower that usual but felt 30% harder than normal. Luckily for me, J3 ran a 1/2 marathon yesterday and Feldman raced a 5K yesterday.  Curtis was ready to roll though so we had to hold him back a bit.


My goal was to get back to full on training next Monday.  That may have to wait...


After the run we went to Baby Boomers for breakfast and some of their world famous speedy service.  By speedy I mean, we walked in around 9:30 and the food was on the table at 10:30.  Good thing we had no other plans.

John Deere 5K

Teresa's first annual John Deere 5K went off perfectly.  This was Teresa's first go as a race director and John Deere's first shot at hosting a race.


300+ athletes sign up for the event...plus another 80 or so kids.


All in all it was a great event!


Now back to me.  DUDE, how is it that my legs still hurt?  C'mon, it's been a week with no running and barely any walking.  This stinks.  I am not pleased with my recovery.  


Tomorrow's plan is to run at 7:00 with the gang.  We will see...

Pikes Peak Marathon

That was the hardest race I have ever done.  It's not even close.  Here I am writing this 70+ hours later and the soreness in my legs is not going away.


I went in to this race a bit banged up but feeling pretty good.  If everything went really well I was looking to complete the PPM in 5:30.  3:30 up and 2:00 down.  That would be good enough for top 100 based on recent year's results.


The day started off well enough.  Nick, Sam, Lizzie, Andy and I headed down to the start around 6:00 a.m.  It was a bit cool but the weather forecast told us that was going to be a hot day.  The forecast would be right.  I kept my fluids up and got amped up for the race.




The race started and I had made my first mistake about 30 seconds into the race and went out too fast.  I know it was dumb, but I felt good and a 7:46 first mile doesn't feel too fast.  I knew I was pushing my luck when at mile 2 people were cheering for the first place woman.  So I backed off...not because I knew I should, but because I was in a bad spot way too early.  The next two miles were really rough.   Just keep moving forward.  Miles 5, 6, and 7 felt good.  The course flattens out a bit through here and I was able to recover a little.

At Barr Camp my time was 1:36 or a minute faster than last year.  I thought there was a chance I could beat last year's ascent time.  After Barr Camp it gets steeper and the air gets thinner.  That is stating the obvious I know.  This stupid race just keeps going up and up.  My calf muscles gave up at mile three and were hanging on by a thread...maybe just a fiber.  By mile 10 my quads joined he fun and started to cramp.  This was starting to get fun.  


At the A-Frame I was at 2:22...still ahead of pace.  Still in pain.  My quads were not happy. The good news was that after three more miles of climbing I could completely destroy them on the way down.  It was about this time I began to see Nick closing in on me.  It was hard to tell how far back he was.  All the switch backs made it tough to gage.  It didn't matter though because there was nothing I could do to keep him from closing the gap.  I spent 2 miles with him in my rear view mirror.  I was certain Nick would pass me with about 1 Mile to go.  Nick must have hit a rough patch too, pretty soon he was starting to fall back a bit.  The last mile took me about 22 minutes.

The top / turnaround was odd.  Not sure what I expected, but when you get to the top, you get your bib signed and turn right back around.  I reached the summit in 3:39 (three minutes slower than last year and nine minutes off of my goal)  I was a bit delirious, a lot tired, and pretty sure I was short half of my brain cells from lack of oxygen...so, down I went.

The entire descent was a blurr.  My legs were burning and I have zero experience running down a mountain.  I knew that it was going to hurt if I went easy and it would hurt if I went hard.  So I went as fast as I could.  The less time in pain the better.  I was able to pass about 10 people on the way down.  It was very quiet on the descent.  The race had spread out a lot at this point.  There was a stretch where I didn't see anyone for a mile or so.   Just keep moving.  

The last two miles are really steep (what? really?) but they are on pavement.  It was hard to control the speed.  The last mile was the only sub 7:00 mile I had.  It also hurt the most.  My legs were in a full on revolt at that point.  I kept waiting for them to lock up.  Somehow they kept moving.

I crossed the line in 5:48:49.  I missed both my ascent goal and descent goal by 9 minutes each.  After doing this race, I am happy with the results.  Who knows how much my fast start hurt me.  I don't think it made a big difference overall.

Results -

                                             Ascent     Descent    Total
Chris Brooks                    3:39:34      2:09:15      5:48:49

Nick Elliott                        3:40:57      2:23:58      6:04:55
Elizabeth Burt                  5:01:31      3:13:16      8:14:47

Samuel Reno                    6:30:48      3:24:24      9:55:12


Sam's story is a whole other blog entry.  He had a great story of a day.  Needles to say, he cowboyed up and made the most of a rough day.  The best last place finish I know about.

Everyone did great! Nick and Lizzie both beat their Ascent times from last year, Sam made it an adventure, and our fearless Sherpa Andy was perfect in his support role. (Next year we support, Andy runs)  Delsin ran the Ascent the day before and got into a fight with the altitude.  The altitude had it's way with Delsin for while, but he came back strong and had a good finish.

So, another great Pikes Peak experience.  The race lived up to the hype and the legend.

Maybe next year the DOUBLE....

Tick Tock

Nothing too interesting to report tonight.  My dad is in town and came over for dinner tonight.  Good times.


If my unscientific rehab plan works, I will be back running on July 24th.  The 24th is the day of Bix...but I won't be running that.


Today is the 11th day of not running.  I don't know if I can take 17 more days of this.


When I get back at it, I will start with a 2-3 week reverse taper.  I won't be able to get my miles up to 50 a week prior to Pikes Peak.  The plan as of today will be to train right up to the Pikes.  I shouldn't have enough miles on my legs to need much a taper going into it.


Blah, blah, blah.  I am boring myself as I type this.


back in the water...

4th Weekend

We are back in Des Moines after a nice weekend.

Too much swimming.  But, there is a lot more swimming ahead.  Wisham got me into the North Y on Saturday morning.  I forgot my normal swim jammers and had to wear a very long pair of Brooks shorts.  They are pretty long when they are dry, but ridiculously long when wet.  They looked like kulats or man capris.  Great look for me and my short little legs.


I was able to swim for 45 minutes and do 15 minutes of core work.  Booooring.  The salt from the pool dried on my face and made my beard look even more gray / white than it already does.


Today I was back in the pool at PLF for the exact same workout.  45 in the pool and 15 of core.

This leg has to heal quickly.  I can't take it.


Teresa had two really solid runs this weekend.  She hammered out an impressive Bix @ 6 on Thursday and then got a PR for the 10K at Firecracker.


What else...we spent some time with Dave and Michelle, hung out with my Dad, met up with Chad, Dave, and Damian, had pizza with Megan and the girls, met Todd and Ronnie for a drink, went to Fischer Fest, and saw my cousin.  Fischer Fest was insane by the way...they should call it Fischerpalooza.  It was like Woodstock for families, but without the drugs and mud...although I did leave early. 


Other than that, it was a pretty quiet weekend.  I am looking forward to getting to work so I can relax.


check out my "other blog" at http://runchump.blogspot.com