Fall Frolic Recap & Sunday Run

Although there were several frustrations throughout planning the race, the Fall Frolic turned out pretty good. We had a small surprise Saturday morning: The adventure race that we thought was in EGF had a checkpoint right where our race course crossed the river. Their race didn't bother ours much though. We ended up with 110 participants which was better than we thought we'd get. A lot of runners commented that they enjoyed the music on the course. There were also a lot of comments that runners were surprised by the hills as we made runners go over the dikes several times during the race. Overall, it was pretty fun to put on the event.

I was talking with one of the volunteers at the adventure race checkpoint who was the race directory's father. The adventure race sounded very interesting. I need to look into getting involved in one in the future.

I went for a 5.45 mile run today. The run went really well. It was really windy, but I started against it, and was able to run with the wind towards the end. I average a pace of 7:29 per miles, which is where I want to be at. I don't think I will be able to break 45 minutes on October 10th. My new goal is 46:30. I think that is a little more in my reach.

The Path Less Traveled

I went for a 4 mile run last night. I was planning on staying on the roads, but as I got up to the unpaved path, I was inspired to take the path less traveled. I really ran well on the path and kept a 7:30 pace through most of it. The path is mostly grass/dirt so I felt slowed down a bit. Once I got back on the tar I picked it up a bit and tried to finish hard. Good run though.

Its finally getting cold

I warmed up by running 2/3 of a mile with my dog around our block. I only had a t-shirt on and got cold during the run. When I dropped her off, I changed into a long-sleeve. I drove to Riverside Park to try to finalize the 5k. I ran 3.00 miles in 22:02 (7:20/mi). The pace felt pretty good. The course goes over the dike several times so I got a little bit of a hill workout.

Evening 5k

I haven't run my 5k loop for awhile, so I decided to do that at about 8:00 last night. I still could feel the chili I had for supper in my stomach, which gave me a small side ache, but I worked through it. The run ended up being 3.2 miles which took me 24 minutes to complete. Pace was 7:30. That was a nice pace that I'd like to try to keep over the 10k.

Thursday Night 4.25 Mile Loop

I ran my favorite 4.25 mile loop last night after work. The run felt slow, but I ended with a 7:22 pace which is really good for me lately.

Dead Garmin, Not Grandma

Ran somewhere between 6.5 & 7 miles last night with the group. I was running with Stacy about 2 miles into and told her "My Garmin just died." She gave me this OMG look which confused me. Then she said, "Oh, your Garmin. I thought you said your grandma died." Currently I have have two living grandmas and hope to continue to have two living grandmas for several years. My Garmin is alive again now too as it was put on the charger. I ran most of the time with Chris (I believe his name is Chris). He was a very nice guy. He is a dad and since I am about to become a dad, we had a good conversation about young children. Our run went 52 minutes but I am not sure exactly how far we went because of my dead Garmin.

SO Soccer State Tournament 2009

We played 2 games of soccer this weekend in the Special Olympics State Soccer Tournament. The first game was on Saturday. We played Dickinson. The game was a lot of fun. I scored a quick rebound header goal at the beginning of the game. Then they scored a quick two. After that, we settled down and was really able to play our game and make some good plays . We ended up winning 5-2. On Sunday we played Fargo for the championship. Both teams were having a hard time doing what they wanted. Very few shots were taken as most of the game was played at midfield. They did catch us a couple times though as we gave up to goals. We received 2nd place. The tournament was fun this year. Some things weren't great, but I've gotten to the point of expecting that and just living with it.

TNRG 9/8/09

On Tuesday, I ran 6.1 with TNRG. Run felt good. The run took me 46:45 to complete. Sara and Nate pushed the pace for the whole run. I kept up with them the whole way but was always a few steps behind. It was good to try to run with them as they are always leading our pack. I still want to get faster but thought the speedwork on Sunday helped out.

Biking the Course

On Monday, Stacy and I tried to bike the Fall Frolic courses. We ended up biking over 20 miles and not figuring out anything. We got a good workout out of it though.

Sunday Hill Repeats

On Sunday, I was able to get some hill repeats done at Emily's grandmas. There is a hill leading to Evelyn's driveway that is exactly a half mile. I ran the repeat 6 times: Invervals are as follows:
1 - 3:26
2 - 3:33
3 - 3:35
4 - 3:38
5 - 3:37
6 - 3:31

I was pretty happy with the consistency through out the runs. The workout was really tough, but helped me out a lot with hill confidence.

Morning 4 Mile

I got up this morning and ran 4 miles before doing anything else. I don't think I'll do that again. My legs were still sleeping. Most of the time I eat breakfast and stretch a bit but I was in a hurry today so skipped both. My body did not like me for it. My ave time was 7:52/mi. Good lesson learned.