A few Changes, Spud Run

First off you may notice that I gave the blog a little make over appearance wise. A little spring cleaning you might say. Anyway I think it looks a little more lively. Mid week workouts will be posted shortly.

Another big change and think is pretty exciting is I've added a new level of membership. I call it PTP - personal training plans. Over the last year the groups growth has leveled out a bit. This will allow me to do what I have wanted to do for some time and that is provide a more personal approach to the training. So now we have PTP.

So the way it works is that you pay the fees as they have been and have access to the group and current training plans so nothing will change in that respect but if you want a more personal training plan based on your goals and abilities you'll pay an additional $100 (for 6 months) I'll then send you out a questionnaire and based on the information I receive from that I'll put a plan together. Also I'll provide a weekly log sheet for you to complete. This will give me an idea on how you're doing. The monthly plan will remain you'll just pay the extra $100.

If you have any questions about this let me know and if you're interested you can go here and sign up.

Also this weekend many members are planning a 20 miler known as the spud run. He is the info provided. It's certainly a fun way to get your run in.

From Bert Chavez bchavez@expedia.com

Chuckalicious! Can you please forward this to the Chuckit crew (document and info below)?

Start: 730am

Paces: Various

Distance: About 20 miles

Bring: Extra Clothes and Glen will place in my car

Cars: Can someone please volunteer to park another car at Alki morning of? Glen and I will drop off my car at about 645am- we can bring you to SJJ. Here is my cell: 206-434-7766. Glen, I and another kind soul will be able to take folks back to SJJ after breakfast.

Breakfast: Alki Café after the run. Please stash money for breakfast!

Route (see attachment) : Heading toward Shilshole, cross the locks (water break if needed at the locks) and go out of the park like we normally do.

Go down W. Commodore Way (the long boring road that's industrial), hang a right on 23rd Ave W, right on W Emerson Pl, left on Gilman Ave W (you're now in Magnolia), Gilman turns into 20th Ave W- IF you start going up the hill, turn back because you should be taking a subtle left and go downhill with the railroad tracks on 20th Ave W all the way until it dead ends (next to the railroad tracks)- you will see the bike trail at the very, very end of the gravel road where the fence is. Take a left when you get to the bike path.

Get on the bike path, and just stay on the bike path. You will eventually get to Elliot Bay Park, also known as Myrtle Edwards Park (water break if needed at The Happy Hooker) , then to the Sculpture Park- keep going.

Then you will get on Alaskan Way (where the infamous naked man/boy water fountain is located- don't ask. . .) where all the piers are- just keep going (water break if needed at the Ferry Terminal) . . . This is going to be a long flat stretch where you will pass all the piers, ports, ships (99 will be on your left side when you get close to Spokane St) until you get to S. Spokane St- take a right and get on the bike path. You're on your way to West Seattle now.

Keep going down S. Spokane St on the bike path (it will become SW Spokane St.) Go OVER the Harbor Island bridge on the bike path (you should see the West Seattle bridge above you). When you're over the bridge, you're going to come to a big intersection (Delridge is one of them). Cross the street toward the Chelan Cafe- that's where SW Spokane St continues and get back on the bike path behind the Chelan Café (smell the bacon). Keep going on the bike path.

Then turn right on Harbor Ave SW, the bike path continues (you're on your way to Alki now). Keep on Harbor Ave because you're on your way to the finish. Please enjoy the beautiful view of Seattle even though you're feeling pooped (well some of us will be).

At this point you can keep running, curving left around the point, until you reach Spuds (on the left) or the Statue of Liberty (on your right). You may need to do a little extra out and back to hit your 20, OR call it good.

Please enjoy the Spud Run. Eating at Spuds is optional. : D

I'll be taking my phone with me: 206-434-7766. Glen's cell is: (425) 273-1734.

Please forward to anyone who you think maybe interesting in joining us!

Mid Week 3/23-24

The mid week workouts are posted in the group section of the community by event, please add your self to a group if haven't already so that you can receive an e-mail notification when I post the workouts. Those who ran at MI this weekend and gave it a hard effort should probably plan to run this workout on the easy side. Everyone is different and recovers differently but I would error on the recovery side of things.

I've updated the results for the race on Sunday with some additional times that I over looked. They're updated here in the blog as well as on the web site.

The training plan for the Rock n Roll half starts next week so if you have been waiting it out until then you might want to get those rusty legs out there and start lubing them up so that you can Rock n Roll at Rock n Roll.

Should be a great night for a workout I'll see you then.

2010 Mercer Island Half Marathon

Great job to everyone who ran yesterday at Mercer Island, it rained for about 10 min but after that it turned out to be about perfect. This allowed many to achieve PR's. I've posted those times that I could find as well as pictures from the race. If I missed any one time wise let me know and I'll add it to the list.

Also thanks to Joy and Dan Mendes for opening their home for us after the race and letting us enjoy great company and of course great food.

It's always great to see people outside of the group and meet their other half's and children

Andrew Bryant 1:24:53
Jason Epstein 1:29:34
Larry Parker 1:29:32
Sumanth Donthi 1:30:21
Clayton Tredway 1:31:23
Dan Mendes 1:35:24
Neil Morton 1:37:13
Alicia Britt 1:39:41
Sankara Narayan 1:41:35
Thaisa Way 1:42:10
Megan Thompson 1:43:01
Jennifer Margolis 1:43:11
Lisa Walker 1:43:22
Steven Brooks 1:43:54
Amy Roe 1:46:12
Adarsh Rema 1:46:13
Jennifer Downing 1:46:31
Anand Vijayakumar 1:47:25
Bridget O'Connor 1:48:42
David Stodden 1:49:08
Tien Doan 1:49:22
Tom Decoy 1:49:29
Dana Caldart 1:49:41
Susan Ward 1:49:57
Lisa Wood 1:53:06
Bert Chavez 1:54:00
Shauna Pirotin 1:54:23
Willow Maurice 1:54:43
Seanna Browder 1:57:41
Linda Oakley 1:58:24
Joseph Cunningham 2:01:04
Catherine Porciuncula 2:01:55
Barbara Mierzwa 2:03:34
Corrie Vaa 2:03:58
Laura Karassik 2:05:25
Margaret Steck 2:14:32
Pradnya Dharia 2:29:06

Mid Week / Mercer Island Half Marathon

With the Mercer Island Half coming up this weekend and many of you running it but also training for a marathon a later down the road I would look at this race as more or less a hard training run / time trial. I wouldn't cut back to much this week and I certainly would run your mid week work out as planned, giving it full effort, you've got plenty of time to recover before Sunday.  Certainly if you are training for this race alone you'll cut back this week.

As always after the race on the Sunday Joy and Dan Mendes will be hosting a post Mercer Island ChuckIt party. If you can make it please attend as there is always lots of food and it's fun to hear all of the race stories. Even if you're not running show up for the festivities. Here's the info:

Hello fellow chuckit runners. Joy and I will be having our annual post Mercer Island race day party. (We cannot remember how many years it has been, so maybe someone remembers.) We think it is our 7th annual.

We love having everyone over to enjoy the afternoon after the race, but don't feel that running is a prerequisite to coming over to party.

We welcome everyone, spouses, kids, friends, or significant others. There is always lots of food as our friend Bob Cox will be catering the event again and Joy will be making her famous spicy Italian soup.

Don't be shy, come over if you know us or not, the more people the better.

Good luck in your race if you are running, and we hope to see you afterward.

Daniel and Joy Mendes

8245 SE 36th St.
Mercer Island, WA 98040
Home phone (206)236-8139
Dan's cell (206)920-9104
Joy's cell (206) 595-9524

Directions to Dan & Joy Mendes’ House for the Post Mercer Island ½ Marathon Day Race Party



Address: 8245 SE 36^th St.
            Mercer Island, WA 98040
Home Phone: (206)236-8139
Dan’s cell: (206)920-9104
Joy’s cell: (206)595-9524

From the Downtown Mercer Island area:
Head South on Island Crest Way.
Go Left on SE 39^th St. – (this is a small street that only goes left. If you get to the light at 40^th, you went too far)

Make an immediate Left onto 84^th Ave SE.
Go past the church which will be on your left, and then make your first left on 36^th Ave SE.
We are the 3^rd house on the left.
Parking is limited, so you may want to park in the church parking lot.

Mid Week 3/9-10

Myself I'm sicker than a dog, it's unlikely I'll be making the trek north tonight and at this point I'm not sure about tomorrow either. I'll work on your workouts for this week a little later. Everyone in the fam was sick last week and I was thinking that I might just make it through unscathed but it was not to be.

We had some group member head south to Napa and post some great results over the weekend. 
Melissa Frank-Huff 3:37:15
Lily Unk 3:40:49
James Cade 4:18:34
Susan McIntosh 5:12:59
 great job everyone.

Ok back to bed to recover from this effort.

Mid Week 3/2-3

Ok we're getting to that time of year with Napa this weekend Boston and Big Sur around the corner in about 6 weeks followed by Eugene and Vancouver in about 8 weeks so a lot of you are focusing on track work to sharpen up on the work you've done this winter. So it's time to focus on speed and getting faster.

With that I've added a new wrinkle to the midweek workout for this particular workout. And yes the 2 mi TT is just another workout. The plan today is to run the TT, rest for about 5 minutes and run 2x 1 mile at your marathon or half marathon race with 2 min rest in between. There is a one mile loop around the park that we'll use for that. (In Kirkland we'll just use the track)

The idea here is to put in a hard effort and then maintain your marathon race pace when you are a bit tired. I thinks it's important to get a feel of your pace when you've put in a hard effort much like you'll feel at 20 miles of your marathon. The nice thing about this work out is that your marathon pace should seem a lot slower after just having run 2 miles hard. This will also make you think about your pace and focus on keeping it slower.

For those who are interested in where they are as far as your time goals for your spring races, I put together a table using the 2 mi tt to project based on a hard 2 mi effort and what you might run for 5K up through a marathon. Down at the bottom of this page you'll find it.  I've used it for years and it's pretty accurate. rarely does anyone run slower than it projects. So it's a good tool to get an idea of where you are fitness.  Remember those of you with race 6-8 out I would think next months TT will give you a truer idea as well as the Mercer Island half coming up soon.