MId Week, Eugene

Well many of you will running this weekend in Eugene. Good luck to you. We had a couple of members venture south to Big Sur Dana Mason 3:57:41and Tim Baccus 4:15:31, Big Sur is a very difficult and hilly course one best run for the view than for a fast time.

For those of you running in Eugene, remember your race and it's outcome is usually decided in the first few miles. Put together a plan and stick with it. The first few miles should seem easy, enjoy them. If you're struggling early on then you need to slow down. If you're on your goal pace and it seems easy, great, enjoy. At some point the race will start to get difficult, I'm a believer it's how you handle that, that determines how you finish. One of the best things you can do is relax, check your breathing, are you tight somewhere? Check your form, straighten up. Shake your arms out. Use your arms, they'll help your legs go forward. Remember when you were doing your hills how your arms helped? I always found a nice cup of water over my head would give me a nice little jolt that would wake me up a bit and help me focus on the job at hand

I think the best thing I can say is that you've done the work and if your goals are based on your work then just let stuff happen. You've put a lot of work in and you have to believe in that work. Don't over think things. Yes it will get hard but many of the workouts you did were also hard, they were hard to help you deal with this situation.

I think many believe that if you workout harder your race will be easier, nope, you just get faster, hopefully ;) Running 26 miles is pretty far piece so you'll be tired no matter what. You run it harder you'll get tired earlier. The trick is to find running hard and running too hard. If done right you're running too hard at the very end.

Many of you are trying for your PR's this weekend and I believe you can get them. Do you? One advantage you have is that many are probably receiving this same advice above, think they are listening then come race time they throw it out the window. They will go too fast early and falter later. They are all ducks on the pond for you. They will all start to come back to you and later in the race they will come back faster, use this as motivation to keep going, pick them off one at a time. It's actually a lot of fun and makes the race seem a bit easier.


Again good luck. Most of all have fun and have faith in the work you've done and just take care of business.

Mid Week, upcoming races and planning for shorter events

Well Boston and has come and gone for another year. With many great results from our members.

Next up is Big Sur and the La Jolla half this weekend with Eugene around the
corner.

So far this year we have been blessed with great weather for your big events which always helps when it come to results and I think also the bad weather we've had recently for your long runs makes all weather more tolerable.

Also let's not forget the hard work you've put in, the good weather is just icing on the cake of great results I'm sure you have/will received from the hard work you've put in.

For those of you finishing up with big events for the spring it's time to ponder future events. With Rock n Roll filled up (and no I don't have any connections to get you in) it would be a good time to focus on the shorter races and work on getting PR's (Personal Record) for those that will only make you faster in the end for your longer races.

One of the nice things about training for shorter races is that it's less time consuming, you certainly have to get a longer run in but nothing like 20 milers. Also the focus of the training is different so it gives you some variety through the year. When I was training hard in the old days I would always have a track season, road race season, a marathon season and a cross country season and would tie them all together so that each would help the other. So basically I would have 4 different directions I would head with my training through the year but each would help the other in the end.

If that's not your bag ( I would encourage you to consider it anyway) it might be time to start thinking of the fall and the many races that are run then. Training schedules for the early fall races have started as well as groups in the Chuckit community.  Portland, Chicago and Twins Cities groups have been created.

At  any rate if you need advice for your shorter or longer races or or recommendations for either please don't hesitate to ask.

Chuckit Boston Results

Was a great day for running Boston today. Many members of the group took and most had great performances. Great job to all.

As always I looked pretty hard for everyone's results but as usual there were a few I couldn't find. I you're missing let me know how you did.

The Results are posted here.

Quote of the year, by Austrian Gunther Weidlinger in Vienna for Sunday race

For those of you with upcoming events here is something to consider.  The way I look at it, it all comes down to this on race day.  No matter how you've trained in the end it also how you think:

"No risk, no fun! I am planning to run the first half in 64:30 to 64:45 minutes. If it should turn out that this is too fast for me it will get very tough in the final part of the race. But a marathon is not a children’s birthday party! If I don’t try going for 2:09 I will never find out if I am capable to do it. That is why the marathon is special – you can not try that in training before the race.”

Mid Week, upcoming races

Congrats to those that ran a very long way over the weekend at the MT SI 50K.
3    Joe       Creighton      M30   Seattle            WA     3:44:43
15   Patrick   Niemeyer       M34   Seattle            WA     4:28:22
33   Gwen      Forrest        F31   Seattle            WA     5:11:20
48   Wilson    Soong          M36   Issaquah           WA     5:49:57
you're all a tougher person than I am, that's a long way to run.

This weekend we have the Wenatachee Half Marathon and of course on Monday is the Boston Marathon.  Good Luck to all.

The mid week workouts are posted with many of you on the track finishing up for your race in the next month. There were many great times posted last week at the Time Trial a hint of good things to come I'm sure and of course it shows that you've been working hard. Keep it up!! You're almost there.

Today's my daughters birthday so I'm not going to make the trek up to Seattle but I do expect that you'll get your work out in.

Again good luck to those that are running over the weekend. You've worked hard and I'm sure you'll run well.

Mid Week planning

Congrats to all of those that went long on Saturday, I don't remember a more blustery and bitter day this year. Will for sure add to your toughness.

Many of you are tuning up on the track now for up coming events. Let's make sure you maximize those workouts. One of the best ways I can think of doing that it to plan for them. Have an idea of how you are going to approach the workout. Plan your pace, plan your rest interval. Think a head about the weather. What are you going to wear? All of these will help you prepare mentally for the workout. This preparation will make the workout easier and help you get the most out of it.

In many respect it's like preparing for your race. In a way that is what you're doing. In your race you don't want to start at a pace that you can't handle, same with these workouts. You need to pace yourself.  You're trying to run as hard as you can proportioned over the duration of your work out so keeping the pace even is very helpful. Certainly you can plan to finish faster than you started but there is the key word again "plan".

If nothing else this practice of planning for practice will help you in preparing for your event. You will be used to thinking about things in advance and leave you less to think about on race day. You'll also be used to planning for and running a pace that you feel you can run.

So let's plan for the workout tonight.