Yeah the snow is gone

I hope all had a great Christmas. Well we're back to dry land again or should I say snow free land, for those who were able to get out and get your workouts in I'm sure have noticed how much easier your running seems now, like I said there is some benefit to running in those conditions. Now that the weather is allowing us (for now) to get out and get some workouts in make sure that you don't try to pick up where you left off especially if you didn't run at all for a period of time. It's best to ease yourself back into it,  you'll benefit more from that then trying to force it. Fortunately the bad weather came when most are just starting to ramp up for next spring so most are in trouble of losing much fitness.

The midweek workouts are posted and you'll notice I'm trying something different, I'm using an easier format one that allows you see what everyone else is doing. This is just quicker for me to put together and I'm sure for your to find your workout. If you're on the roster than you should be here. Everything is in order of your planned races in alphabetical order so just scroll down through the races and you should find your name. I did it this way so that you could see who else is training for race,

I'm still in need of some volunteers for the race on Thursday morning, if you can help out please let me know, it would be appreciated.

I hope all have a great new year and a year filled with running successes.

Tomorrows meeting is on, Reso Run Help Needed

We will be meeting tomorrow as things are warming up and starting to melt away. Not fast enough for my liking. Hopefully you were able to get out and get some miles in. Maybe not fast miles but at least some maintinence miles to maintain what you've built up.

For those planning to train for the Mercer Island Half that schedule started this week.  For those who are training for a spring marathon and plan to run Mercer stay with your marathon plan, that should get you there with no trouble.

Next week the 2009 Resolution Run will be run on Jan 1. I know many of you are planning to take a dip in the lake. For those of you including me who would prefer not to, you can hangout with me helping with the race. I need to get about 25 people to help out. You would show up between 8 and 8:30 depending on what job you're given, which might include helping with registration, course marshal, helping out at the finish and such. I'm allowed to offer you free entry ino another Promotion Events, event later in the year in return for your help.

Let me know if you can help out ASAP so that I can make plans for you.

Winter Wonderland II

Well in 10 years of leading our merry group I don't think that I've ever canceled a workout this early in the day and even though we had 13 souls who came out on Saturday I have my doubts about who might show up tonight and with the roads and I'm sure the track a mess I think it's best that I cancel tonight's workout. Not to mention I would hate to drive up there and stand in the snow by myself for an hour or so.

As far as workouts go ( I won't be posting them today) we really won't be able to do much as far as the track goes so everything will have to be on the road so probably the best thing to do would be do a longer tempo run and if you can find a flat dry place do some strides. With this kind of weather the best you can hope for is maintaining fitness unless of course you have access to a treadmill where you could do a tempo run or even a hill workout. So for those who have that in their plan and have access to one that is what I would do.

I do think that there is a benefit to running in this kind of weather believe it or not, you work your legs a little harder but I think the most beneficial outcome is that you have to think about being balanced. If you over stride you tend to slip more so you are forced to run a little more economically, meaning you take shorter strides keeping your hips and legs under you. Pretty much what they teach you in Chi Running, but hey you don't have to take a class or read abook to learn it, just run on snow and ice. Running economically obviously is an advantage for your racing and training as well as for your 1/2 marathons and marathons so all is not lost, enjoy the benefits.

I still plan to meet on Saturday so hopefully most of this stuff is gone and we can get back to training. In the mean time have a great Christmas.

Winter Wonderland

Well winter has made it's abrupt entrance and the questions about running in the cold weather have started, no your lungs won't freeze so you still can run. I would say that this is probably my favorite kind of weather to run in. To me the air has a texture that you feel when you breath it in. I have lived in places where this is the norm for winter so I'm sure that helps out. That also helped me learn that my lungs aren't going to freeze and trust me I have run in much colder weather than we are currently enjoying.

As far as do we meet in this kind of weather for our workouts, we do. If the roads are bad however we won't. It's supposed to snow tomorrow so if it's bad out on the roads it's likely that I won't be driving to Kirkland. To run in these temps I would recommend a hat, a nice base piece for your upper body and maybe a cotton shirt over the top as the cotton will draw the moisture away and with it this cold it's nice and dry out so the moisture will evaporate, plus the cotton gives you a denser layer to help keep the cold out. You may also want to put a light shell on or vest to keep cold out a bit more. I would also recommend a pair of pants or tights and don't forget gloves or for those who's hands get a bit colder I use mittens as they keeps your hands warmer.

I was in Spokane over this past weekend for the USATF Club Cross Country Championships and with the wind chill it was anywhere from 10-15 degrees with a nice 20 mph wind blowing pretty steady and not a single lung was lost in the competition.  I put together a slide show from the race if you would like to see www.clubnorthwest.org

I'm  having some computer issues today so I'm unable to post the midweek workouts.  Most are just continuing on with the same thing from last week. Those training for Napa are on hills although I'm not sure of the condition of the winter hill and whether or not it's got ice on it so we may have to make a game time decision on that workout.

The roster is rounding out nicely now that the new year is approaching with a little over 100 of you having made plans for next year so the training groups are starting to get a little fuller.

With the new year approaching I myself have made some plans for next year and will be adding someone to help me out with our crew. Her name is Regina Joyce and she has been running for many years and has a great deal of experience as she has been one of the areas top local runners.  I'm excited about working her as I think she will help bring some fresh ideas and a lot of energy to the group which will free me up some and allow us both to work with you a bit more one on one. She'll be attending our workouts starting tonight so come on out and meet her, she is much nicer than I am ;)

Mid Week

Got to make this quick as I have a lot going on today. We had a 4 people run down in California over the weekend coming away with some nice results in the CIM Marathon.
NANCY    DUNBAR 3:31:42
PAUL    LITWIN 3:50:04
TERRY    WONG 3:50:36
SUZANNE    POTTS 3:56:54
Nice job people.

I see the roster is starting to fill up nicely again. Good to see some of the newer faces from the summer are game for more running adventures.

Today's (Tomorrows) workouts feature many running tempo runs along with some strides. I think a good way to do theses tempo runs is to group up based by pace and run it together. Makes runs in weather like this go by a little quicker.

Those running Goofy's challange next month I decided to keep your track work on the strength building side with an emphasis on volume rather than speed hopefully building a bit more strength for your two day ordeal.

Looks like Eugene is going to be the run away winner for marathon of choice next spring.  The nice thing about this is that Vancouver is on the same day and believe that Tacoma is as well . Should have some very nice groups training for those this winter and spring.

I will be out of town this weekend so Cary will be running thes how this Saturday so it should be business as usuall.

Now that we're pretty much done for the year Marathon and half wise (except for those running in Cal and TX this weekend) it's time to start planning for next year. So heading into Chuckit's 10th year so far a bunch are training for events at Disney and it looks like Napa will be a popular venue along with Eugene and of course Boston.

Those of you training for these events it's time to get on the ball. With the holidays coming it's sometimes hard to find motivation but often it's the work you do now that will determine how you'll fare come race time. You're building a base that will allow you to do more with the training that's coming down the line and those are the workots that make you faster. So even though it's dark and raining and cold so as they say "you gotta git er done"

For my part, I went through the roster and did some major damage, clearing out all those with out future races / goals posted including all of the those ran Seattle. So if you go to look for a workout and nothing is there that would be a big hint that you need to update the roster or I screwed up and you became a casualty in my deleting frenzy for which I most humbly apologize. Please add your race / goal again.

Also with this being the end of a big training / racing period many of you are up for membership renewal. If you could take care of this sooner rather then later I would appreciate it as you can imagine with many people coming and going it get's a bit confusing. Also I must admit that I'm in a bit of bind as I was using a nice little data base that I made (probably a bad idea) the last few years to keep track of everyone and last month it became corrupt and I can't use it so... I don't have your membership info, I do have your applications and I can go through those but if you could help me out that would be great since over 10 years I have quite a few of them. Those who paid on-line I can also get.

For those that need t-shirts I still have plenty so let me know if you didn't get one and I'll set you up with one.

At the expo over the weekend I spoke to the race director for Rock n Roll and was given the green light for Chuckit to provide the pacing at the June race. I'll send more info out on that as I get it.

Seattle Marathon / Half

Well another Seattle Marathon and half has come and gone. Great job everyone from those who ran, paced or worked the water stop. There were easily over 100 Chuckit members involved at some level and I want to thank you.

I want to thank Glen Moore who each year does a fantastic job putting together the water stop and making it work very well as well as providing support for those that work it.

Also David Arthur who pretty much just works out with us Wednesday nights in Kirkland. He donated $200 to the water stop fund which helped it be the best stop in the race I feel safe to say.

I posted those times that I found and I'm sure I missed some, be easy on me if you point out that I missed yours. I also put together a photo gallery of those pics I found useful of those I took and kept. this is always the most challenging place for me to take pictures each year. I'm not sure why but it's always tough. For those who are of the impatient type I've also loaded to my picasa account for viewing as well.

For those that I have worked with this last summer and fall and are moving on , it's been great working with you and I hope was able to help you with your running. It has been a pleasure seeing you work hard and accomplish many things with your running. Good Luck with your future endeavors, for those that are coming back for more lets get ready to do some more.

Atlanta Half (Thanksgiving Day)

LISA BOYADJIAN

2:04:40

Seattle Half Marathon
CRAIG SCHIEBER 1:27:14
ANDREW BRYANT 1:28:17
ROBIN SHERWOOD 1:37:40
KASSANDRA BARGFREDE 1:38:12
ELIZA LAGERQUIST 1:38:25
SANKARANARAYANAN VENKATARAMAN 1:43:21
ERIC OTT 1:45:01
MICHELLE TAYLOR 1:50:30
BRITTANY COOPER 1:53:26
MARK ZAPPACOSTA 1:53:46
CRAIGE BLACKMORE 2:00:06
LAURA KARASSIK 2:10:27
PARIKSHIT POL 2:11:10
HEATH WARD 2:11:19
KELLY ZANT 2:11:26
ARJUN SUNDARARAJAN 2:11:36
AUDREY WALLER 2:13:48
EMILY NEFF 2:15:35
PRANEETHA MARTHALA 2:16:22
HAREESH VELDANDI 2:16:38
TAMI HERLOCKER 2:17:44
TERESA VAN HORN 2:17:56
JANET PALMER 2:25:15
BHAVNA KRISHAN 2:30:38
GANESH RAMESH 2:32:38
RAGHUPRASAD GOVINDARAD 2:37:17
TAPOJA CHAUDHURI 2:37:30
SHARI SPARLING 2:40:26
VIVEK ELANGOVAN 2:48:16
ROHIT CHAUDHRI 2:53:25
JYOTI GAWADE 2:59:03
NARMADA JAYASANKAR 3:01:41

Seattle Marathon
DANIEL LASTER 3:20:31
LORYN WEINSTEIN 3:42:10
RENE CRICKENBERGER 3:46:24
MARLA ELLINGSEN-TOTAH 3:50:55
KRISTA MIRHOSEINI 3:52:04
TIMEA TIHANYI 3:52:49
JOSH ROMOFF 4:09:49
ROBERT SCHRAEGER 4:09:49
ADARSH REMA 4:23:45
ANDREA MILLIKAN 4:26:14
LAUREN THRONSON 4:26:59
RAMI KARJIAN 4:35:27
CAREY PERRIN 4:35:27
SARAH WANG 5:01:13
MONICA CALLEN 5:36:06
GUIDO AVERSA 5:36:06
DEBORAH KUKREJA 5:46:02
SRIDHAR MADHUGIRI 5:46:38