blake runs – Page 9 – as a hobby. mostly marathons. usually in the morning. sometimes while pushing a kid or two.

Race Report: XC12K in the Boise Foothills

Today I was my 34th birthday. What better way to start a birthday than with a fun race in the morning? I ran in the XC12K for the third time and had some fun, along with some painful racing.

(XC12K = Cross Country 12K)

XC12K Background

The XC12K takes place every year on the first Saturday of August. I first became aware of it in 2013 when they put a flyer in the packet for the Race to Robie Creek. I ran it in 2013, 2014, then again this year (2016). One thing I love about it is that it’s only $25 if you sign up early!

The ~8 mile course is pretty fun. It starts at Fort Boise then goes right into the foothills. The course has some steep uphill during the first four miles, then some steep downhill and a little uphill in the second four miles. Except for the first and last half mile, the course is all on a trail. There are some fun points where the hills and switchbacks let you see runners ahead and behind you. There are also four water stations, which are nice during the warm and dry August weather.

The XC12K is organized by the Bogus Basin Nordic Team (I think). The organizers offer some prize money as well: $100 for 1st place, $50 for 2nd place, $25 for 3rd place, and $25 to the first runner to hit the top of the first steep hill (at about 2 miles). (All the prizes are for both male and female runners.)

Pre-Race

I signed both Cyndi and me up for the 2016 XC12K. This meant we would need a babysitter, and fortunately my mom was able to come to our house at 6:50am so we could pick up our bibs and get ready before the 8am start time.

I was excited for the race this year as I thought I had a chance at a top 3 finish. However, I was unsure of how I’d be able to perform after running the Morgan Valley Marathon last Saturday. I have never ran more than ~7 miles the Saturday after a marathon, and this race would require about 8 at full effort.

To prepare, I did some light workouts in between the marathon and the XC12K:

Sunday and Monday I rested.
Tuesday: 17 minutes on the elliptical followed by a 30 minute stationary bike ride.
Wednesday: 30 minutes on my bike followed by a 1 mile light jog.
Thursday: 4.75 miles with the first three miles progressively faster and the fourth mile pretty hard. It was a mix of recovery and speed.
Friday: rested.

This was definitely the best I’d ever felt the week after a marathon, due in part to my 95% (rather than 100%) marathon effort and in part to being in better shape. I really didn’t hit the wall in the marathon so my muscles weren’t as shredded as usual.

Packet pick-up before the race was fine. I did a little warm up and Cyndi and I snapped a pre-race photo. We lined up and started running at 8am.

XC12K pre-race — Cyndi and I getting ready to run the XC12K

2016 XC12K

The start of the XC12K was really fast, as usual. I thought I could do the race anywhere from a 6:00 to a 6:40/mile average pace, but I knew the pace would be volatile due to the big hills. I could tell everyone was moving fast and my watch was showing ~5:40/mile pace. I tried to hang back a little, but I also didn’t want to separate too much from the lead group in this relatively short race. After about a half mile I was in about 10th place. However, I started passing a few people and runners especially slowed down once we hit the first big hill. On the hill I was able to get to 4th or 5th place.

The top runners extended their lead and by the top of the first big hill before Mile 2 I could see that I was a couple hundred yards back. I settled into 4th place and the runners continued to spread out, including the space between 3rd place and myself.

At Mile 2.5 there is a steep half mile hill, and I noticed that I gained some ground back on runner #3. I also noticed that my quads were really burning already, and it occurred to me that I haven’t done much hill training lately and I was going to pay for this. I figured the guys around me also had burning quads, so I should just keep going.

There’s a nice section from Mile 3 to 3.5 that goes around a big hill while maintaining about the same altitude. I really enjoy this portion of the course and I was able to maintain or gain a little ground on the runner ahead of me. I also noticed that we were extending our lead from the #5 runner and beyond. Meanwhile, runners 1 and 2 were extending their lead on the rest of us.

At Mile 3.5 there’s a really steep hill. I hit it hard and was able to move into 3rd place part of the way up the hill. I also felt like I was gaining on runner number 2. I was very relieved when the hill crested and the descent began. I was now half way and it was (almost literally) all downhill from here.

I soon felt noticeable effects of my marathon the previous week. My legs, especially my quads, were much tighter than I expected and I was feeling a little weak and dizzy. I focused to stay on my feet and keep pushing the pace. It also got pretty warm as the sun was shining and the temperature was 68F at the start.

In fact, runner #4 was still close behind me and I was scared he’d pass me. I tried to accelerate hard after any curves or uphill sections of the trail. I found my lead slowly, but surely, expanding as we crossed through Miles 6 and 7. I also found that any hopes of 2nd place were being dashed as the second place runner was getting pretty far ahead of me.

Finally we were approaching the end of the race. The last time I checked I had a comfortable lead and I was relaxing a bit. With about 1/3 mile to go I sneaked a peek back and saw 4th place closing the distance and coming up fast. It startled me and I immediately kicked into my highest gear, running scared. I really wanted that $25!

I checked again after 150 yards or so and saw that my kick must have demoralized his sneak attack as he had let up. I was very relieved that I didn’t have to fight any harder, and even more relieved when I could finally stop after crossing the finish line.

My time was about 53:22, which works out to a 6:37 pace according to my watch. I’m not sure my watch was very accurate on the distance though, so my pace may have been slower than that.

Cool Down

I really love the XC12K and look forward to running it in the future. I don’t do many trail runs, and they are generally more interesting than running on a road. I was surprised by the difficulty of the race this year. I really wanted to walk a few times, and the runner behind me didn’t let me take it easy on my pace.

After shaking hands with the guys in front of me and behind me, I got some water and some post-race snacks. Then I started a slow cool down jog as I waited for Cyndi. I headed to my car to grab my phone and I was pleased to see my high school cross country coach, Tracy Harris. I hadn’t seen him in quite a while so it was good to catch up with him.

I doubled back on the course and was able to get some good photos of Cyndi as she finished her race.

Cyndi nearing the finish of the XC12K. This is at ~Mile 7.5, which is the only road portion of the course.

We waited around for the raffle and awards. Unfortunately we didn’t win the raffle, but I was quite happy about the $25 cash that effectively reimbursed my entry fee 🙂

Then we headed home where I could finish out my birthday with some presents, yard work, cake, free root beer floats at A&W, processing peaches from our tree, a BBQ, and a fun board game with Cyndi and friends.

Agricola after the XC12K — Cyndi and I finished in a rare tie in Agricola.

Race Review: Morgan Valley Marathon

A shooting star, a skunk, some angry dogs, a beautiful sunrise, verdant farms, goats, little rolling hills, magnificent mountains in every direction, great organization: these were some of the things that made the Morgan Valley Marathon a memorable event that I would happily do again.

Background

My youngest brother, Jake, was getting married on July 30 in Utah. Since Utah is chock full of marathons and Idaho (my home state) isn’t, I decided it might be worth seeing which events were happening around that time. (I might as well run a marathon if I’m going to be in Utah, right?) I found two prospective marathons: the Deseret News Classic on July 25th and the Morgan Valley Marathon on July 30th.

I’ve wanted to run Deseret News for some time, but it was looking to be a busy week at work so I didn’t think I could get away for a whole week. It took place on Monday this year in conjunction with Utah’s Pioneer Day.

That left the Morgan Valley Marathon. It’s a fairly small event — about 100 runners in the marathon, but more than that in the Half and also some in the 10k and 5k. I only found one or two reviews of the marathon online, and they were very positive. I finally decided to sign up about two weeks before the race as I didn’t have any injuries and felt that I could have a good run. We had actually ran/driven through the area during the Ragnar Wasatch Back in June and I knew it was a nice area.

The Morgan Valley Marathon Course

The Morgan Valley Marathon course is a little challenging. It takes place around 5.000 feet, with some little rolling hills throughout the course. No big hills, just little rollers. The course is basically a loop, although there is a little backtracking on one section. Net elevation change, therefore, is zero, but the gross elevation gain (total climbing) was about 620 feet according to my Garmin.

That describes the course’s difficulty, but not its beauty. The course turned out to be right up my alley. Most of the course is on along a lightly used country road with hills on one side and green farms on the other. There were American flags proudly displayed, tethered goats taking care of weeds, cows, horses, deer, and even a skunk. As if that wasn’t enough, the course is in a valley which means huge, rocky mountains in every direction. Moreover, since the start time was at 5:30am, we were graced with a gorgeous sunrise on a thin layer of stratus clouds. The only downside to the course was a ~4 mile stretch near a freeway which was a little noisy. Otherwise it was amazing.

Here’s a shot of part of the course, but imagine it under a morning sunrise:

I think the Morgan Valley Marathon course was my favorite I’ve ran so far. I probably preferred it to the St. George Marathon.

Tapering and Preparation for the Marathon

Given that this wasn’t a great course for a personal record (elevation, rolling hills), I decided to do a softer taper than normal. I didn’t want to do a full taper and interrupt my training too much. I went backpacking to Hell Roaring Lake two weekends before the marathon, which meant no long run that weekend (although I did do a 14 miler on the Wednesday before backpacking). The week before marathon week, I did 13 miles on Monday, 9.5 miles on Wednesday, and 14 miles on Friday. I also cross trained and did a little recovery running on the other days. I’d never done a 14 miler the weekend before a marathon, so that was somewhat experimental.

I did a full taper the week of the marathon: 6.5 miles Monday, cross training Tuesday, 5 miles Wednesday, 4 recovery miles Thursday, and resting on Friday (actually driving).

I caught a cold starting on Tuesday, so I did everything I could to shake it. This included drinking a ton, some vitamin supplementation, medicine, and zinc lozenges. My main fear was getting a cough, but I was very blessed to be feeling mostly better on Friday as we drove to Utah.

We had a pretty big family lunch of pizza, salad, and fruit on Friday. I only ate three slices of pizza but I ate a lot of salad and watermelon. Since my brother was getting married on Saturday, we had a little bachelor party for him on Friday evening. They all wanted to do sushi, so I joined in despite never having really tried sushi. It was pretty good and I ate quite a bit — a variety of rolls mostly. I figured the rice would work well for the carbs, although all the fish was more questionable.

I got to bed a little before 11pm on Friday, and then I woke up at 2:45 (ugh). We were staying with a friend in Springville, UT, which is 1.5 hours from Morgan, UT. I hit the road just after 3am, all alone, and arrived in Morgan at about 4:30am to pick up my packet and get ready.

Picked up my packet in the wee hours of the morning at the Morgan Valley Marathon.

I started finally feeling pumped at about 5am. Up until that time I was a little concerned about my unusual taper, my cold, and my lack of sleep.

Is that a Creamies trailer I see? Something to look forward to after the Morgan Valley Marathon.

I lined up with just under 100 other runners at about 5:25. I talked to a guy named David who told me he had ran a 1:21 half in Wyoming (at high elevation) and did a lot of trail running in the mountains. This was his first marathon.

The Race

The gun fired and we began the Morgan Valley Marathon. I really didn’t want to go too hard in this race, particularly early on. About a quarter mile from the start I saw a nice meteor cross the twilight sky to my right, which I thought was pretty cool. I held myself back really well for the first half mile as three runners took the lead ahead of me: a lady named Rosy, David, and another guy named Matt. They ran stride for stride about 30 yards ahead of me for a while, so I decided to catch up with them. I did so at about Mile 1, but then I let them go again as they were going too fast for my liking. I figured the lady meant business since I haven’t seen many women go out that fast in a marathon.

A police officer in an SUV with the police lights on escorted us for the first 3 miles or so. We went through a neighborhood from about Mile 1 to Mile 2. I trailed the three leaders by 50-100 yards. After the neighborhood we started running by houses on farms. Then at about Mile 3, I heard some dogs and saw the three runners ahead of me have to stop and shoo away two big dogs that were in the road from a nearby house. Luckily the police escort noticed. He got out of his car and was yelling at the dogs by the time I got there. He guided them back to the house and presumably knocked on the door and woke the family up so they would get their dogs on a leash.

There was a right turn at mile 3.5 and I noticed that Matt started to fall back from David and Rosy. I stayed about 100 yards behind Matt for the next few miles while David and Rosy slowly pulled away.

Around Mile 4.5 of the Morgan Valley Marathon we made another right turn and this is where I really started falling in love with the course. There was a hillside on our left and beautiful farms along our right. The road wasn’t closed, but there was hardly any traffic. It was a little curvy and very rural. I saw a deer at in the hills at one point, and I’m sure I could have seen more had I opened my eyes a bit more.

There were also a lot of goats near the road. They would be tethered to a tree or pole in order to keep the weeds down (I presume).

Right at Mile 7 I was minding my own business when I spotted a skunk crossing the road ahead of me on a direct intercept course. I’m so glad I noticed it! I would have ran right into it. I quickly moved to the other side of the road and even stopped to wait for it to cross. It raised its tail but luckily didn’t spray me. I passed by once it ducked into the weeds.

There were plenty of aid stations. They were placed about every two miles along the course. I was worried about hydration since the low on Friday night was 62F, and I figured it would heat up in the last hour of the race. I drank Powerade at several aid stations and water at some of them. When I woke up at 3am, I had downed a Gatorade and then some extra water before the race.

I noticed I was started to gain a little on Matt. It was just a few yards per mile, but I was definitely closing. We turned right again after Mile 9 and made our way through a little town called Stoddard, established 1860 if I remember correctly. I liked this since I live right by Stoddard Road (in Idaho). We approached the freeway and crossed it over an overpass. I spotted Rosy and David as they turned left after the overpass and determined that they were about 3 minutes ahead of me at this point.

Around Mile 12 there was a quarter mile hill. Not too steep, but probably the hill I noticed most. I worked my way up and then went down pretty fast.

I finally caught Matt after the half way mark. That’s when I first learned his name and we talked a bit. He had done even less tapering than me, although he said he normally ran 70-80 miles per week, which is a lot more than me. After talking to him a bit, I found that we had many similarities: we’re both in our mid-30s, we had both PR’d and BQ’d on May 21st with sub 3 hour marathons, and we were both just hoping for low 3:00’s in this Morgan Valley Marathon. He was very friendly and it was nice to talk to him after running behind him for the last 13 miles. We stuck together until around Mile 15, at which point I sped up a bit and started to separate from him.

I felt some tightness around Mile 13, but I still felt good. In miles 15-18 I felt pretty strong and the tightness hadn’t worsened. I tried to surge a bit to take advantage of it while I could. I don’t think I actually sped up, but I did hold my pace pretty well.

Around Mile 15 I noticed the sun was shining. From then on the temperature slowly increased. However, it wasn’t as bad as I expected. It was a bit warm in the last three miles, but I didn’t feel like it affected me. I think my focus on drinking extra fluids paid off.

Around Mile 18 I choked down a Gu that I had picked up earlier on the course. I felt like my stomach could handle it, which was unusual for me this late in a marathon. I wanted the caffeine boost and the nutrition for the last few miles. A couple miles later I ate my last piece of Gu Energy Chew. The total consumption for my marathon included: two packs of Gu Energy Chews, one Honey Stinger Waffle (Gingersnap), one Gu, and a bunch of Powerade.

There was a little more uphill in the second half of the marathon, but it really wasn’t too bad. I didn’t mind the little rolling hills as they provided a little variation.

After Mile 20 I found myself slowing down unintentionally a few times. My mind would wander and my cadence would slow. When I realized it, I would immediately pick it back up, mainly by focusing on faster cadence.

I looked back a couple times for cars and for other runners. I had pulled away from Matt, but I could still see him and I was worried I would slow down and he wouldn’t.

At Mile 23 we turned left and joined up with the half marathoners. This was nice to have some company and a little more excitement. My pace was faster than the half marathoners at this stage, so I was passing people from this point forward.

One word on the Morgan Valley Marathon organization: it was spectacular. There was a volunteer at every turn and I never really had to worry that I was off track. This was important since the marathon was so spread out. I literally only saw three other marathon runners after the first half mile. I only saw Matt from Mile 13 to Mile 20. Then it was just me and the half marathoners that I saw.

The only issue I had with organization is that on the left turn at Mile 23, the aid station was on the wrong side of the road. I would have had to cross the road to grab a water, and I really didn’t want to, so I just didn’t drink at that point. It wasn’t a huge deal since I was almost done and I had consumed so much water already, but it was the one spot I thought could be improved.

I was doing a lot of math in my head to see where I’d end up. I had already eliminated the idea of matching my PR, but I was thinking about hitting sub 3:00:00. It seemed like I was about 30 seconds slow, which I didn’t think I could make up in the last couple miles, but I kept pushing.

This was by far the strongest I’d felt in the last miles of a marathon. I pushed hard for the last mile, and saw that I actually did have a shot at a sub 3 hour marathon. After Mile 26 I picked it up even more, but alas, I came in at 3:00:08, just 9 seconds shy of 2:59!

Post Race

Standing in front of the Morgan Valley Marathon finish line... with a Premium Creamy in my hand. — Standing in front of the Morgan Valley Marathon finish line… with a Premium Creamy in my hand.

I was really happy with my time at the Morgan Valley Marathon, and with my 2nd place male finish. David and Rosy ended up finishing at 2:53. This was the second marathon in which I had taken 2nd to a first time marathoner that I talked to before the race (the first was the Mt. Nebo Marathon). Of course, since Rosy beat me I was 3rd overall.

Top 3 male and top 2 female finishers of the Morgan Valley Marathon

Matt finished just two minutes behind me. He had a great race as well and I’m guessing he’ll PR again in his fall marathon when he’s more rested and has an easier course. I’m hoping to do so as well, although I need to pick a marathon to run first.

I drank some chocolate milk and ate a couple Premium Creamies and chatted a bit with Matt and David. They handed out awards pretty fast, and we snapped some photos afterwards.

Morgan Valley Marathon finish line and post race party

By 9:30am I was back in the car to make the 1.5 hour drive back to Springville. I spend some quality time with family that afternoon and had a fun time at my brother’s wedding that evening.

After the Morgan Valley Marathon I went to be a groomsman at my brother's wedding. — After the Morgan Valley Marathon I went to be a groomsman at my brother’s wedding.

The Morgan Valley Marathon was a great experience. Kudos to the race organizers who put on a great event. The course was striking and fun to run. Between the Morgan Valley Marathon and the Ragnar Wasatch Back, I have a new appreciation for that area of Utah.

Family Backpacking to Hell Roaring Lake

Over the weekend Cyndi and I took our three oldest children on a backpacking trip to Hell Roaring Lake. This was a trip I was looking forward to for some time and it turned out great.

Two years ago Cyndi and I did a backpacking trip in the White Clouds area without any kids for our 10th anniversary. We hired Cyndi’s niece to babysit while we were away, and it went well. I determined that I really wanted to make backpacking a yearly venture for our family, but the kids were just too small to make it worth it.

Fast forward a couple years and our children have grown: Paisley is 9, Cosette is 7, Fielding is 5, Perry is 3, and Luna is 1. We decided to take the three oldest and leave the two youngest behind with grandma. This simplified things significantly and allowed us to do a somewhat challenging hike.

We set out late Thursday morning and ate lunch on the way. Our start was later than I wanted, but it wasn’t a big deal. We arrived at the trail head at about 3pm. We attempted to follow the dirt road to the second trail head, which would have saved us a couple miles of backpacking, but the Honda Fit just couldn’t make it up the road without doing some damage.

My pack was about 55-60 lbs, as I was carrying a couple sleeping bags, a bunch of food, and a large tent that could fit all five of us. Cyndi had a stuffed pack as well with a couple sleeping bags in it. Paisley was carrying all her clothes and a sleeping bag, and Cosette and Fielding each had a small backpack with their clothes, and Cosette also had some water. Literally 20 yards into the trail Cosette said, “My shoulders hurt,” which I thought was really funny.

The trail climbs about 300 feet in the first mile. Then has some smaller, intermittent climbs through the rest of the 5 mile trail. It follows the creek that flows out of Hell Roaring Lake, and there are some pretty views of the creek along the way. The trail is partially shaded, but a lot of it is in the sun despite nearby pine trees.

I brought some fruit leather that provided a boost for the kids (and me) early on. We took breaks about every mile, and usually dished out some snack to keep them occupied. I took on Fielding’s backpack after about a mile, and talked Cosette to keeping her backpack until 2.5 miles. Paisley trudged along with her pack and didn’t complain. She did wonderfully. We were all ready to be done by the time we saw the lake just after Mile 5. We picked a camp site near the end of the lake since everyone was anxious to get their packs off and there was a nice one available.

The lake is beautiful, as expected, with a nice creek running out the east end and rocky peaks surrounding the west end. The Finger of Fate points to the sky among the rocky cliffs in the west.

I didn’t expect good fishing as I knew that Hell Roaring Lake was a pretty popular destination, but after setting up the tent I headed out to see what I could do. We weren’t very hungry since we had been snacking the whole way up, so we weren’t ready for dinner yet.

I tried fishing among all the logs piled up on the east end of the lake, and sure enough my first cast was a snag. I didn’t want to lose my lure on my first cast, so I waded out to retrieve it in the cool, but not freezing, water. I cast again from the spot of the snag while standing waste deep and caught a fish on my 3rd cast. I caught a couple more fish in the next half hour and had some bites besides that. I took the fish back to camp and we had some trout (albeit small ones) along with our rice dinner. Our kids all love trout and picked the skeleton clean.

That night we had s’mores and went to bed around 10pm.

After a decent night I woke up at about 5:45am. Paisley followed me and we headed out to do more fishing. We ended up hiking a few minutes up the south side of the lake to find a deep spot. I landed a decent size fish pretty quickly and Paisley was jealous. I coached her a bit and she soon landed a bigger one. She was really happy and after trying our luck a little longer, we headed back to camp and had more fish along with our pancakes. These fish had probably three times more meat than my fish from the previous night, which was a good thing since I struggled to cook decent pancakes in a little mess kit.

After breakfast it was time for our day hike. There are four lakes over the ridge on the west side of Hell Roaring Lake. Two of the lakes have fish in them (they’ve been stocked by Idaho Fish & Game every couple years). I wanted to at least check out the lower lake and figured it would make for a good day hike.

We set out on the south side of the lake and made quick progress along the trail. Eventually we needed to break away from the main trail and head northwest before the main trail turned for Imogene. We found a small trail to follow and started making our way over. Fairly soon we were bushwacking through some dense brush and over logs to cross several small streams. I figured we’d come across a trail going up the steep hill before long, but we never found it. Once we were near the main creek that flowed from Hell Roaring Lake #2 to the main Hell Roaring Lake, we started heading directly up the steep hill.

We had to do some significant boulder hopping, and the horse flies were making it somewhat miserable. It took a lot of encouragement to keep the little ones moving and I had Fielding and Cosette on my shoulders at several different points. We eventually started coming across some cairns, and this provided some nice goals for the kids to aim for and a nice distraction from the difficulty of the hike.

We finally rounded the top of the hill and found the lake we were looking for. It was quite nice. It provided a nice view of the Finger of Fate and was graced with a waterfall high up the next incline.

We ate lunch, refilled our water, and the kids played. Paisley and I each caught some fish. It started to get windy and partly cloudy. The difference in temperature when a cloud was overhead was pretty startling. After spending about an hour at the lake, we headed back down.

Shortly before we headed down, an older gentleman was making his way up on his way to summit Decker Peak. We decided to head the direction he came up, and we were pleased to find a nice trail all the way along the north side of the creek down to Hell Roaring Lake. The trail was still steep, but it was WAY better than boulder hopping down the mountain.

The trail came out and around the north side of Hell Roaring Lake, so we took it all the way back to camp. Even though the trail was easy to follow, it had a lot of brush and downed logs, so we were all scratched up and exhausted by the time we got back.

Cyndi and I tried to convince the kids to just hike out that afternoon as we weren’t looking forward to sleeping in the tent again and hanging around camp for a couple hours. The kids wouldn’t have it. They wanted to camp one more night, so we fished a bit more and played in the water. We ate a nice dinner and packed up as much as possible to get an early start on Saturday morning.

In the morning we made oatmeal and hot cocoa, cleaned up, and hit the trail around 7:30am. The kids did about as well as on the way up and the backpacking went at a similar pace. It was nice to go downhill this time. We only passed two hikers on our way out, which was a surprise.

Everyone was happy to reach the car and everyone but me fell asleep within 30 minutes.

We had a great time overall and I look forward to more of these in the future. The hike was just challenging enough for our kids without overdoing it. I can’t wait until they are old enough to do a 50 miler with me!

(4×4) x 400 – Happy 4th of July!

Happy Independence Day!

To celebrate the 4th of July, I decided to run 16 (or 4*4) 400’s. I wouldn’t have minded doing them on the track, but since I didn’t want to take the time to drive to a track I just ran them on the road. And since I was running on the road, I figured I might as well run in the shape of a giant “4”. It wasn’t quite as big as last year’s “4”, but that’s ok.

The 400’s went pretty well. I averaged 82.5 seconds on them. I haven’t done 400’s in a long time, and I’ll need to do them faster if I hope to break a 5 minute mile again. However, I thought that this was a good start and it was definitely a solid workout.

Happy 4th!

New Running Workout: Crescendo Diminuendo Run

I’ve been doing pretty much the same workout regimen this whole year to improve my running (and mostly to train for my May marathon):

Run intervals on Monday (various distances)
Cross train Tuesday
Tempo run Wednesday
Cross train Thursday
Long run Friday

My tempo runs on Wednesday usually consist of a warm-up, followed by 5-8 miles at a steady, fast clip, and then a short cool-down. For some reason I didn’t feel like doing the same old tempo this week. Yesterday I gave it some thought and came up with a fairly challenging and fun workout (I use the term “fun” very liberally here).

I call the workout: Crescendo Diminuendo

The Crescendo Diminuendo run is basically a tempo workout with some speed variability built in. I suppose it’s not a true tempo since it get’s pretty fast and it’s not steady. The idea is to start at a pace slower than normal tempo, then increase speed at a steady rate in 1/2 mile to 1 mile increments. The fastest mile should be half way through the workout. Then slow back down at the same rate.

Here’s a description of the Crescendo Diminuendo run I did, what my targets were, and what I actually achieved:

Description	My Target	My Result & Comments
1 mile warm-up	1 mile @ ~7:30/mi	7:28. Felt pretty tight after some hard workouts in the past few days and some yard work yesterday evening (digging a ditch)
1mi @ marathon pace +15 seconds	1mi @ 7:00	6:54. I was still warming up here and it was nice to continue to loosen up.
1mi @ MP	1mi @ 6:45	6:42. Not too challenging yet. Feeling better and better.
1mi @ MP -15s	1mi @ 6:30	6:27. Now I was starting to move. I began to wonder if I could hit the upcoming pace at my toughest mile.
1mi @ MP -30s	1mi @ 6:15	6:13. There was a small down and uphill towards the end, so I made sure to speed up on the down to bank a little time for the up.
1mi @ MP -45s	1mi @ 6:00	5:50. I started out on a downhill which was really nice as I got my legs moving fast. However, I’m happy to report that the second half of this mile was still <6:00 🙂
1mi @ MP -30s	1mi @ 6:15	6:13. I didn’t immediately slow down from the previous mile, so that gave me a good head start and kept this mile on pace despite a slight uphill at the end.
1mi @ MP -15s	1mi @ 6:30	6:21. The first half mile was fast with a little downhill, then I started to lose focus and get a little lazy the second half. I caught myself and sped up at the end to stay under my target.
1mi @ MP	1mi @ 6:45	6:38. I thought this would be easy, but the second half was a little challenging for me as I was beginning to wear out.
1mi @ MP +15s	1mi @ 7:00	7:07. I kept the first half under 7:00. I wasn’t too concerned about keeping the second half on pace as I was ready to start cooling down. Also, I had a little uphill to deal with.
Cool-down	Cool-down.	7:15. This was only 1/4 mile, so I took it fairly easy although I was still moving at a decent pace.

You can see from this that my run had some decent symmetry:

Overall the Crescendo Diminuendo run was a success. It was different, kind of fun, and kept my mind engaged. It was nice to have different targets rather than the same target over and over. In fact, my tempo runs often don’t have a defined target until I get going, so this was definitely a change.

Interestingly for me, my overall average pace was exactly the same as my tempo run last week on the same course where ran steady for ~8mi @ 6:20-6:25 pace. That tells me I got the pacing right for this run.

I’m hoping that in 2-3 months I can improve enough that I can lower all my targets by 15 seconds. This workout actually gave me some confidence as I wasn’t sure I’d be able to hit those targets. I’m coming off of a hard week for me. I also dug a ditch yesterday evening and didn’t get sufficient sleep. Perhaps if I’m a bit more fresh I can already drop a few seconds.

I did this Crescendo Diminuendo run on mostly flat terrain with only small rolling hills. If you were to do it on real hills, you may have to go by effort rather than pace.

Maybe this workout already exists somewhere, but I hadn’t heard of something like this. If I were more knowledgeable or fancy, I would have some nice descriptions of how this particular run helps your lactate threshold, mitochondrial uptake, etc. etc. Really though, I feel that any challenging run can help you get better, so this was one that was a little different and changed things up. I definitely believe in mixing things up to achieve performance gains. The Crescendo Diminuendo run did that for me.