The Star of the North Games

Running hard

The Minnesota Star of the North State Games were this past weekend. Overall it was a very fun meet for me and the kids. My son came home with five medals so he was very excited. It was a little tough on my daughter because she was the youngest one there, but she ran hard and told me that she did her best. That's all you can hope for. As another Beachbody Coach, Traci Morrow recently said, "You don't have to be the best. You just have to be your best."

For the third year in a row they listed me as being 20 years older than I am. Normally it is a pain because they put the heats together ahead of time and it's hard to get put back in with the younger group. I will often try to run with the college and high school kids if I have the option. This year they organized the heats at the meet so we had the ability to combine the age groups. I forgot to correct them this year when I picked up my medals so I'm hoping I didn't take someone else's gold medals away.

200 meters

My primary focus is on the 400 meters, but I also wanted to post a good time in the 200. I had a goal of getting under 24 seconds which I thought was reasonable since I ran a 24.04 indoor and indoor times are typically slower than outdoor. I also don't think I have run under 24 seconds since I was in my 20's. The 200 was a pretty competitive race as well with a combination of high school, college, and young masters runners in my heat. I ended up just getting edged out by one of the younger guys. I got to talking with him after the meet and found out he is a college student at UW-L who is an assistant coach for our school's high school track program. Small world.

200 meter finish

So my goal was to get under 24 seconds in the 200 meters. My time - 24.00. I can't be too disappointed, but  I was so close. That's when you really start over-analyzing the race. If I had only leaned a little earlier...or come out of the blocks a little faster...or pushed a little harder around the corner. I guess it gives me something to shoot for at the National Championships in August.

My 400 was pretty uneventful. I was mainly running out by myself so I really just had to focus on what I was doing because there wasn't anyone else there to push me. It's at times like this that practice, discipline, and relaxation all come into play. I ended up running 53.30 which I was happy with. I know I will need to get under 53 at the National Championships in order to place in the top three so I've got a little work to do over the next month.

4 x 400 relay

The best thing about the meet was being able to watch my kids run. My son has really improved on his racing and takes it seriously. My daughter also ran very hard. They both ran the 100 and 200 meters, and my son ran the 400 meters, 4x100, and 4x400 relays with some other kids. Probably my proudest moment was after the meet when my son said that he would like to start training for long distances. I said he can do that if he wants and we can get into some 5k races. He said he means the 400 meters. He wants to train for it so he can get better. Nearly brought a tear to this old man's eyes.

All done

Getting Ready for the State Games

Even T is getting some foam rolling in tonight

Tomorrow is the MN State Games so it's a busy night of getting ready. I'll be running the 100, 200, and 400 meters. Both my son and daughter will also be running. My daughter is five and this is her first track meet so she'll probably just do the 100, but possibly a 200 as well. We'll see how the 100 goes. My son will run the 100 and 200. He's signed up for the 400 so if he wants he can run in that, but it's up to him. You never know what kind of mood the kids will be in. It usually depends on how well they do or think they might do. I can almost be assured that if my son thinks he can win a medal in the 400 that he will run it.

So tonight is a stretch/recovery night. I don't do a workout on the day before an important meet so I can give my legs a break. I also try to get some foam rolling in to work out some of the knots in my legs and upper back. I used to go to a massage therapist a couple of days before a meet, but if I'm not in really rough shape I can get by with just the foam rolling. I recently purchased a smaller Rumble Roller that I can bring along with me to meets. The larger one that I have does not travel well, but this should fit right in my bag so I can use it between races.

I only had one track workout this week, but next month I will go with two. One will be early in the week and the other on the weekend. This meet tomorrow will take the place of a workout. Then next weekend is the Warrior Dash so I will definitely need some recovery after that.

Well, I've got some foam rolling to do and we've got an early morning. I'll post our results later this weekend.

Sioux City Reunion

We took a trip to Sioux City this past weekend for a reunion at the college my wife and I attended. It's been about five years since we have been back and a lot has changed. The event was a reunion of folks who were a part of a tutoring program for Vietnamese kids who had recently come over to the United States. Our fraternity was involved as our main community service project. We volunteered time at a local church tutoring students of various ages after their normal school day was done.

It was great to see how the program had such an impact on the lives of not only the students, but also on the teachers and volunteers. The main message that I left with on Saturday night was to not pass up opportunities to make a difference in your community. When you see a chance to be a positive influence, take it.  The people who put this program together are some of the most selfless people that I have ever met. Our Chapter Advisor for the fraternity, Gene Ambrosen, has been a  mentor to so many people over the years. He is a shining example of how we can make a difference and pass along valuable lessons to future generations.

In the words of Gene-O - "It's important that the "new generation" know the importance of giving of themselves. The only way that happens is for each of us to continue to show them "how it works." We must continue to demonstrate it for them by our actions."

On the Track Again

This would be mainly a recovery week based on my P90X2/Asylum hybrid program right now. I would still have a few more intense workouts to start the week since I started in the middle of a week originally. After the MN Masters Championships my legs have been pretty sore. I'm especially having issues with my left calf so I am going to try to be careful with it. I am quickly realizing as I try to get back to running more that this is going to be an issue for me all summer. To help this I picked up some new shoes for my Beachbody workouts.

On my way from from St. Paul I stopped off in Rochester and tried on a lot of shoes. I need a pretty specific type of shoe which is not as common because I tend to supinate when I run, meaning that I run on the outside of my foot. This limits my shoe choices since more people pronate or run on the inside of their foot so there are more shoe options for them. I picked up a pair of Reebok RealFlex shoes for my training. I also tried on some running shoes and found a pair that would work well, but were pretty expensive at the store. I will probably check online to see if I can get a better price.

I was scheduled for X2 Plyocide tonight, but I decided to run at the track instead. The kids just started tennis lessons and wanted to play that evening. I figured I would do a quick workout at the track and then play tennis in place of the Plyocide workout. I had a workout in my training log from last year where I did a quick 300, 200, and 100 with a walk recovery in between. The pace is not fast, but the intent is to simulate the end of a 400. With a warmup and cooldown I could get that done in about a half-hour.

So here was the workout:
Distance         Time         Rest
300 meters     43.35       200 walk
200 meters     28.03       300 walk
100 meters     13.11       Cooldown

Then we played tennis as a family for about an hour. The kids have these low-speed tennis balls that I had never seen before, but I love them. They don't go very far and me and my son were able to get some pretty good volleys in. I could run down just about anything he hit to me because the ball moved so slow so it was a pretty good workout. My calves are feeling it now, but it was pretty fun.

Now I'll follow through on my recovery week which will consist of a couple of core workouts, yoga, and stretching.

A Windy Track Meet

We had the USA Track and Field Minnesota Open and Masters Championships today and boy was it windy. The meet was in St. Paul which is about a two hour drive for me. Since it was forecast to be in the 90s we decided to have the rest of the family stay home so I went up by myself.

For anyone who knows me, there is one thing that I really dislike and that is wind. I guess it's all those years up in the flatlands of the Fargo/Moorhead area. It's also an issue I have with losing my breath when I run into the wind. I don't know if it's the way that I breath while I am running, but it is very difficult for me to catch my breath when running into a strong wind. Today's wind up in the Twin Cities was between 20 and 30 miles per hour.

For the 400 meter race there was a cross wind where it really hit me at the final turn. The worst part was there were a bunch of small buds on a couple of trees that were blowing right into our faces. They were going into my mouth and eyes while I was making the turn so I had to put my head down and take short breaths. Very frustrating going into the final 100 meters. My time was a little over a second slower than my time at the Indoor National Championships. World Champion Antwon Dussett was also in the race and it didnt' seem to affect him, so I need to find a way to do better despite the conditions.

The 200 meters wasn't any better. The wind shifted to being in our faces for the entire home stretch with a big gust hitting us with about 30 meters remaining. I ended up running over 25 seconds for the first time in a long time, so that was disappointing. I still came home with two gold medals, but it's the clock that's my main opponent right now.

In the end, considering that I have only been to the track for one workout so far this year I guess I can't be too hard on myself. It is an eye-opener that I have some work to do before the National Championships in August. The good thing is that there is enough time. I have another meet in two weeks so I will shoot for some better times. I've got a good plan for the next two weeks which will include 3-4 track workouts, P90X2, and the Asylum.

Time to focus and stay on track, no pun intended. As someone once told me, "Don't be defined by the past and don't underestimate the potential that you have." I've got a new goal to run under 53.5 seconds for the 400 in two weeks and under 24.5 for the 200.

First Real Outdoor Track Workout of 2012

I'm falling behind on a lot of stuff right now. It's hard to stay motivated when my mind keeps shifting to other things I should be doing. One key that I heard one of my workout buddies on Team Beachbody say was that motivation will only last for so long. Then discipline needs to kick in. I've been doing pretty well with the P90X2/Asylum hybrid, but getting out to the track and posting to the blog have suffered lately. Since there are two recovery days each week on that program I will try to work it in where my track workouts and meets take the place of a recovery day.

I do have an outdoor meet this weekend. It's the Minnesota and Regional Masters Championships. I always thought it was unusual that the Championship meet is the first outdoor meet of the season, but they use the same venue as the MN State High School meet, which is Friday and Saturday. I assume that they have staff and equipment already from the High School meet so that is the best time for our meet.

I'm already feeling some soreness and some calf issues so I don't want to push it too hard this week. I wanted to get a little speed work in, but nothing too fast. I alternated 100 and 200 meters at about race pace with a walk recovery. Here's basically my workout and times:

Warmup - 10 minutes

Distance      Time       Rest
100m         13.45       200m walk
200m         27.91       300m walk
100m         12.84       200m walk
200m         26.72       300m walk
100m         12.76       3 minutes

Four practice starts with blocks on the 400 meter start curve.
Cooldown

Here's the quote of the day from Shaun T -
"Sports performance is about combining the strength of your heart with the strength of your mind."