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Running:
My running this past week was again on the lighter side. Just continuing to put in a few miles with no real urgency to any of the training.
Monday I had originally planned to do a cross training day, but when I got to the workout room both the elliptical and the bikes were in use. Since it was such a nice day I just went for an easy 4 miles without the watch to warm up instead. I then did some lifting and stretching for the rest of the time. Tuesday through Friday I ran the same 5 mile route from work when I could get away from my desk. It was kind of a crazy week and I had to take the opportunity when I could. I got out anywhere between noon and almost 4:00. Tuesday I did the run in 37:09, Wednesday was 40:03, Thursday was 39.05, and Friday was 37:39. Saturday I got out fairly early and ran 10.5 miles in 1:28:32. Sunday I got out after the first round of storms and finished just before round two started. I ran 9.5 miles in 1:19:10. No hills this week, no real fast runs, and no long runs. It looks like my streak of 200+ mile months is about to end. With no long races for a while June is as good as any for a little bit of a cut back. So totals through Sunday 6/27.
WTD 44
MTD 158
YTD 1323
ODO 26489
Hunting:
Here are a couple of links hunting related I thought were interesting. The first link is some discussion on what is a proper maximum distance to take a bow shot at deer. I tend to agree with the blogger although my personal limit is probably closer to 25 yards. The second link is to an ingenious way to carry real rattling horns. If any of you have done this it really is a pain to carry real horns. They always seem to be in the way and clunking together as you walk to your stand. This design looks good to make them easy to carry. I will be attempting to do this with the pair I use.
Gardening:
Raspberry season is here. First a handful, then a pint, then a couple, then quarts until they peak. Right now I can pick several quarts of berries every day. I don’t have a real big area, but I have more than enough for me, neighbors, friends, and coworkers. The mosquitoes are really bad this year. Picking berries in the evening I don’t ever remember them being this bad. The other thing I started to harvest is kohlrabi. I think this is my favorite vegetable. From now until frost I will have a bag of cut up kohlrabi in my lunch every day. This past weekend I started trimming my large blue spruce around the yard. I also got my chain saw working and cut down a large leaning scrub tree that was creeping ever farther into the yard. I also used it to cut some of the lower limbs off some maples to lift the crown a bit. Sure have a huge pile of limbs and brush to burn next winter.
Can't believe it's the first day of summer today. Hope all you Dads out there had a great Fathers day weekend. Kind of a strange feeling for me over the weekend. It was the first Fathers day without one for both my wife and myself. While it was great to still celebrate my own fatherhood, it was just one of those firsts where I really missed my dad and things felt quite empty when my thoughts drifted that way. If I was not up north with him over this holiday there was at least a lengthy phone conversation regarding the latest fishing stories and goings on.
Running:
Looks like I missed my chance to run Grandmas marathon in decent weather. While it wasn’t overly cool at least the temps seemed reasonable. Most of the running would have been in the 60 degree range. There was a fairly strong west wind that would have been in your face the whole way. This is likely as good as it gets for Duluth in later June and certainly better than any time since I started running marathons in 2004 and paid attention to it. I just wish they could hold signup open a little longer as long as the race isn’t filling up in recent years. Having said that I’m sure they need to close it to plan and most people are not like me and need to sign up for something to have training motivation.
This past week was another on the lighter side for me. I was able to fit another 5k race in on Saturday though. More detail on that in the weekly recap. I really need to rethink my training. I realize I’m getting older, but I refuse to believe my days of setting PR’s is past me already. I took some time over the weekend to really examine my 2006 running log. 2006 was a good year running for me. I set PR’s in 5k, half marathon and marathon distances. One big difference is that most of the year I was about 10 pounds lighter. My understanding of how much this could impact pace is 2 seconds per pound, per mile over ultimate running weight. That could be 20 seconds per mile for me if that is right. The biggest mileage difference I see is that most months I ran far less. I did have 3 or 4 huge months coinciding with peaking for Boston, Grandmas, and the Lakefront. The other months were far fewer miles with most runs only 4 or 5 miles per day with long runs on the weekends of 10 to 12 miles. The shorter runs were almost all done in the 6:45 to 7:30 average range.
Monday last week was an off day. I chose to take it completely off.
Tuesday I ran my 5 mile work loop during my lunch break. I tried to run it a bit faster, but the legs felt heavy and tired despite the off day. I ended up finishing in 37:03.
Wednesday the legs still didn’t feel right. I ran the same 5 mile route in a slower 40:09. I made it back just prior to a huge downpour. Hearing the thunder in the distance pushed me the last couple miles or I would have been much slower.
Thursday I did my hill repeat workout. This was probably the warmest temperatures I’ve done this in. I finished the 8 repeats and the total 7.5 miles in a pretty good 1:04:05.
Friday I was debating taking another rest day, but it was such a nice day I decided on an easy 4 miles instead. Didn’t even take the watch just went out to enjoy the time outside and get away from my desk for a bit.
Saturday I headed to Delafield to run in a local 5K. I’ve run this race every year since 2006. This race has never been my best despite it being close and I think accurately marked. This race used to be in the afternoon and part of the “Taste of Delafield” weekend. I never did like racing in the afternoon. It also had been the weekend after Grandma’s marathon, so pushing through a 5k was a little tough. This year the race was moved up to an 8am start. I thought I would try a little different tactic and try and start slower and speed up through the race. This did not work out that well. I fell into about 25th place before hitting the 1st mile and was not able to improve on that at all. I even had one person pass me in the last half mile which never happens. I tried, but just had no response to be able to keep up. I did OK finishing 2nd in my age group with a time of 21:30, I just really thought I could do about a minute better than that. A lesson learned I guess that for me I have to give it out of the gate and hold on to do my best at the 5k distance. With warm up and cool down runs I got a total 6 miles for the day.
Sunday morning I made it out early for 13.5 additional miles. I ran over familiar ground, just modified the run taking different loops than usual.
WTD 41
MTD 114
YTD 1279
ODO 26445
Hunting:
With the rain this past week the corn I planted in the food plot has all sprouted. The rows look as complete as any I’ve planted in the past several years. Nice to get this off to a good start. The tree house I built for the kids when we first moved in (turned into a hunting blind) is really in disrepair. The heavy winds and storms along with growth from the tree have caused many of the boards attaching it to the tree to come loose. It will have to be torn down and rebuilt sometime this summer. I guess knowing it will only be used as a hunting blind now I can build it differently and better for that use.
Gardening:
This is one of those rare occasions where I actually feel caught up with lawn and garden chores. Not having to spend hours watering things has helped. I still have things to do such as trim the yard evergreens, weed and edge the flower beds, and apply some mulch but this is the normal time to do these things. I’m not scrambling because the time to do a certain chore is behind schedule or due to be completed for best result. Over the weekend besides the usual lawn mowing chores, I got the garden completed weeded, the pumpkin patch weeded and tilled once more, and also tilled between the rows of corn in the food plot. Things look pretty right now, but the back feels it though. On Fathers’ day before we went out to dinner I spent a couple hours trimming bushes and cutting brush at my mother in laws. It was due some care. It felt good to help her out a bit. On a sad note it appears the Mother's day weekend frost made a bigger hit on the cherries, apples, and plum blossoms than I first thoughtl. Not much of any of these fruits are left on the trees.
Running:
I have some catching up for the last week since my last post. This was a pretty good week for running. With no long races on the agenda it’s a little harder to stay motivated to put a bunch of miles in. Last Monday I took a planned off day. I took the day completely off to rest. I will take at least one day off for a while and Monday seems to work pretty good especially if my longer run of the week was on Sunday. Tuesday because of a combination of the rainy weather and a situation at work I was forced to take an unplanned day. Again not really a problem since there is no long race on the horizon. Wednesday I got out for my typical lunch time run of 7.5 miles in 58.05. Thursday I ran my hill repeat workout which I had skipped for a couple weeks. Total distance 7.5 miles in 1:05:02. I’ll be trying to run this at least once a week again for a while. If for no other reason to just mix things up a bit. Friday I ran the 7.5 mile route again in 1:01:21. Saturday morning early I got out for 10.5 miles in 1:27:13. This was baby turkey day. I saw several flocks of turkeys with hundreds of chicks on this run. They startled me several times as they scurried about on the side of the road as I passed. Sunday I decided to head west from my house up around Pretty lake instead of my usual South routes. I ran one loop around the lake and then south around Ottawa Lake and Hwy ZZ. It was a good change of pace. I ran 14.5 total miles in 1:59:45. Totals through Sunday:
WTD 47.5
MTD 73
YTD 1238
ODO 26404
Hunting:
Saturday I was able to get the food plot tilled where I wanted to plant the field corn. I prepared enough of the soil to make six rows and was able to then get them all planted. Also planted one row of giant grey stripe sunflowers that the wildlife seems to like.
Gardening:
The garden continues to come in pretty well. Strawberries are at the peak right now. I have been able to pick at least a gallon every other day this past week. Sunday we made strawberry and strawberry rhubarb freezer jam, and also made a strawberry rhubarb crisp. The crisp was awesome. All of the rows of seeds seem to be germinating pretty well. Only a couple of spots will need to be filled in a bit. We seem to be getting just the right amount of moisture and good temperatures for now. The crows are driving me crazy though. The other morning I watched as they pulled a few of my pumpkin plants right out of the ground to eat the seed that had just sprouted. Luckily I chased them away before they killed too many plants. I replanted these few spots and also put some rubber snakes out to help scare the crows away. This works as they haven’t been around since. I need to fix up my scarecrow too and get that out there soon. Last year the one I made had shiny helium balloons tied into the long sleeves of the shirt. The movement and sparkles coming off the balloons seemed to work pretty well, at least for a while.
Running:
Looking at a race calendar last week I noticed that one of the local 5K races I usually run was coming up. The weather looked reasonable so Friday I decided to give it a try the next day. At first I considered taking the day off Friday, but with two days already off I went out for a fairly easy 4 miles in 31:52. Saturday morning I made my way to Oconomowoc to run the Yellow Brick Road 5K. Interesting that they had a local theater company there with all the Wizard of Oz characters. Something strange about Dorothy starting the race. I took off with a group of about 10 runners that I could see most of the first mile. There was a lead pack of about 3, a middle pack of another 3 or 4, and then a few people running with me. I passed the first mile mark at 6:15. This was a little fast for me. I was really sucking air so I backed off a bit. One guy went a little past me, but no one else did. I passed the second mile marker at 13:09 so much closer to where I should be and was feeling more comfortable. Right around here the middle group all had missed a turn. The turn was marked properly and easily viewable so I don’t know what happen to them. The guy just in front of me started that way too, but I wasn’t going to follow him. He asked me which way, and I said I’m following the signs not the people ahead of us. Good choice. Three miles in I was at 20:05, but no longer matched the markings on the course. The third mile had to have been marked incorrectly. I ended up with no one else passing me with a time of 21:36, but my Garmin read 3.25 instead of 3.10. I was pleased to be 5th overall and 1st in my age group. I would have been 8th or 9th had the runners ahead of me not gone off course. I think I would have still been 1st in my age group. If the course had been marked correctly I would have been solidly in the 20’s which is where I thought I would be. I still have some work to do to break 20 again. Sunday my legs were a little tight from the faster pace I think. I still managed to get out in the morning for 10.5 miles in 1:27:55. This marked my lowest weekly total of 40 miles in many weeks.
WTD 40
MTD 25
YTD 1190
ODO 26356
Hunting:
Ordered some special field corn seeds online from R.H. Shumway for the food plot. These seeds are supposed to have a shorter time to maturity than usual field corn and are produced for northern climates. I should have more than enough time to get them to maturity if I plant by next weekend. There appear to be lots of deer again in the neighborhood this summer. I saw several on my run Sunday, and the back field have many sets of prints in the bare dirt.
Gardening:
I see all of the seeds have started to germinate in the garden with all the moisture. Now with a little sun and temps that don’t get too warm everything should get off to a good start. I had to replant one row of potato’s that wasn’t coming up. Digging up some of the seed potato’s it looks like they rotted in the ground. About a month ago when I got them in it was pretty wet and I was a little worried. I don’t know why only one row was hit so hard though. Plenty of time to get a full crop in. Strawberries are coming in good right now. I’ve been able to pick several quarts every other day for a week now. Nothing better than home grown berries. Besides the usual lawn mowing and pond cleaning chores I got a few other things done this weekend. I also pruned some of the low hanging branches on my maple trees to lift the canopy a bit to let more light in. I was able to get the last of the annual plants in the ground, and even trimmed my 100 or so Christmas trees. Lot’s to do yet, but at least I feel caught up with the “have to do” stuff.
Running:
Well I decided to bypass Grandma’s marathon in Duluth again this year. I really do love this course and think it could be a PR course if the weather were right. I just kept having bad feelings about how warm it might be again this year. I will probably be totally wrong, but it has been exceptionally warm since April and from as far as the long term forecast goes out it doesn’t look like this will change much. I guess the worst part is feeling like a lot of training was wasted. I put in a lot of miles this winter and spring to have only run one marathon (Trailbreaker). Because of that decision I didn’t do much running this week. My training for the next couple of months will be geared towards becoming faster again. Hopefully I can run some 5k’s consistently below 20 minutes this summer before starting into the fall marathon plan. After my 15 mile run on Memorial day I took two days completely off. I really felt beat up anyway from the combination of lots of miles and lots of physical work in the garden. Today I managed to get out for a 7.5 mile lunch time run in 55:29. The legs still didn’t feel as fresh as I would have expected from the days off. Last week I was able to pick up a pair of new Asics Speedstars for $30 including shipping off eBay. This is at least 60% off normal retail. I love it when I score cheap shoes like that.
Hunting:
I decided to look out on the Waukesha Conservancy website and noticed the deadline for hunting applications is coming up on June 30th. I applied last year but didn’t have my name drawn. One of the properties is adjacent to the property I bow hunt already. Each year only a few hunters are picked by drawing to be given access. It would be nice to have another option this fall.
Gardening:
I am really happy about the good dousing of rain we got last night. Usually it seems the storms pass all around us, but last night we were in the bulls eye. The TV said we got in the neighborhood of 2.5 inches in this area. I currently don’t have a rain gage up but sticking a ruler in a bucket I had outside I showed over 3.5 inches. It looks like the garden took most of it OK. I just hope some of the small seeds that hadn’t sprouted yet didn’t wash out of the rows. I’ll know in a few days. I finally got out to take some pictures of my garden. These are the baseline pictures as only a few things have sprouted so far.
Running:
Another week has just flown by. Still have not signed up for Grandma's marathon. I have until the end of the day today to decide. After seeing the issues with heat at the Madison marathon this past weekend I have this bad feeling about Duluth in 3 weeks. The last few years have been brutal temperatures for running at that race. I read an article just this morning this was one of the reasons they were guessing attendance is expected to be the lowest in years. Last year the temp reached 80 degrees by 10:00am in downtown Duluth. I've been training so well and have no issues though so I may still take a chance.
Since my last update I got out Tuesday 5/25 for 7.5 miles in 1:2:45 during my lunch break. It was really hot this day as most of the last couple weeks have been. Wednesday I ran the same route in 59:44 even though it was still warm. Thursday was my day to pick up the pace a bit so it's a good thing the temperature and humidity both dropped. I ran the same route as the previous two days, but pushed the pace a bit. I ran the 7.5 miles in a new record for this year of 55:03. The 7th mile was at 7:00 min pace and the last .5 was at 6:40. I hit 200+ miles during this run for the month. That makes 5 in a row for 2010. Friday I ran the same 7.5 miles again in 1:2:20. Saturday morning I ran from home my usual 10.5 mile route. I ran it in 1:31:05. Sunday I again ran in the morning the same route as Saturday. I ran it in 1:31:59. This brought me to 56 miles for the week. On Memorial day I was able to get out in the morning after the rain quit for 15 miles in 2:7:18. This 15 miles brought me to 247 for the month of May, which is my highest monthly total this year.
A bonus on the Monday run is that I found a $25 gift card to a restaurant laying in the road. When I checked the balance online I found out it had not been used yet. Who says there is no such thing as a free lunch? Cool!
My monthly totals for this year:
Jan 243.5
Feb 241.5
Mar 204.5
Apr 228.5
May 247.0
YTD 1165
ODO 26,331
Hunting:
Not much going on here, except I was able to get the plot tilled where I intend to plant corn in my food plot for the deer. I've planted both sweet corn or field corn over the last several years. When I plant sweet corn it creates some extra for me, but the raccoons get more than the deer of what's left. With field corn it has lasted all through the winter, but that's mostly because it isn't as popular. Not sure what I will grow yet.
Gardening:
What a busy week. I was able to get all of the garden in finally. The exception being those rows of beans, corn, and lettuce where I plant a little every week or two weeks to make the season last longer. Now to get some rain so I don't have to spend so much time watering everything. The pumpkin patch took the most work. Spent almost all of Monday preparing the hills for planting, and actually got the seeds in the ground this morning. It was kind of fun to take monthly pictures of the garden last year to see the progression take place. I intend on doing that again. I'll likely post the first ones within a few days.
