Work your Weakness aka "Hey, Mike, STFU!" Challenge (Page 15)

Tempo run today...my first really hard session since my 5K race.  Faithfully did my core work and stretching.  I have a 5 mile race Saturday (very low key...probably only 100 people or so), and have never raced that exact distance.  I'm not going all out, so I'll probably ease up through M pace to T and hold there and maybe through in a kick at the end if I'm motivated.  Of course, I say that now and I can fully see me blasting out of the chute sub-7 and blowing up. 

RE:  strong vs. fast running...yeah, I can definitely understand the difference.  I've always felt more of a strong runner who powers through, rather than a scamper who is just fast.  Even years of playing basketball and volleyball did nothing to help my foot speed, but on the soccer field I could run down almost anybody.

By the way, Salty, my XC team called me "Caboose", for obvious reasons. 

Cool data.  :41/100y top speed...that's cookin'!!!

This doesn't really have anything to do with my challenge, but I was running yesterday near dusk, and took a shortcut ("")  through the green belt and ended up on a deer trail 

eventually it got narrower and narrower and I had to hack my way through a little bit. I do plenty of running on the trails but this was downright primitive, like running in the woods as a kid. It was especially cool because I live in the 15th largest city in the nation and we still have places like this. And mind you, I live in city limits. Not the burbs!

Beautiful!

And can I please call you "the goat" too?

Haha, sure, you can call me whatever you want. With the no urban dictionary meaning clause 

Now I need to find a race that has a 6+% grade for 26.2 miles and I can be "competitive"

WOW. That sounds insane!!!! Awesome write-up btw

I freakin' love this line, " I try to run by effort and HR, clearly looking more like a tourist than a runner-with my watch/GPS/HR monitor/fanny pack and camera" I've got to admit something to everyone here, I often run with a fanny pack. Yep, circa 1987. 

*PS looking at Kevin's blog now ...

Ohhhhh, I'm jealous of warm and humid right now :)

Strong work on the keep you running stretching/rolling/dropping/squatting stuff :)  I know what a wall squat is.  And I know what an eccentric contraction is.  But I don't know what an eccentric wall squat is.  Will you educate me?

I live 40 minutes from where I work, and remembering or having all of the right gear is one of my top obstacles to making it happen in the winter.  With the way the back of my truck looks, I find it hard to believe I can't have everything I would need for any weather situation, but apparently I can still regularly come up short;)

And, btw, all of you crazy x% grade likers are, well, crazy.  Crazy awesome.  That's got to be a strength to weight ratio thing, doesn't it?

Also, have you guys ever done a stair race?  I did one for the first time last year (40 flights, not super big in the stair race climbing world, and it was the most horrible 6 minutes of my life. Aaaaaaaaand, I'm doing it again in February. 

And Dale, are you asking Salty about AGN or are you contemplating AGN for yourself? 

Got a track workout this afternoon.  The workout is going to be 3 X (800 w/ 200 jog, 2 x 400 w/ 200 jog).  This workout I plan on running with a guy who consistently outran me off the bike this season.  Motivation to push me and maybe get into his head a little bit 

3, thank you very much! Nah, I am just saying that is the last time they were cool.

Yeah, I often do my long runs with one. I keep my gloves/phone/food/bus pass in there for emergency. I'm a no-nonsense racer but for training runs, I have to plan for the what-ifs a little more.

What do you carry all your crap in for a long run?

*My cousin has also insisted that I run with pepper spray too. So I keep that in there as well. 

I LOVE this! CHOOOO CHOOOOOO

Were you a midfielder?

For really long runs I'll stash a gel or two in my bra--I've got room like that--and I plan my run  by gas stations so I can get a drink.  I'm galactically bad at practicing nutrition on long runs and bikes.  Like, stupid bad.

I think that is all preference. I don't think you should hang your head. Unless you are having nutrition issues and bonking ...and ignoring it.

I get hungry when I run and my lady (and cousin apparently) make the safety rules so I just obey. It's the least I can do when logging the miles per week that I do.

I think you pose an interesting question of weight/strength. I was curious myself, what makes one a better hill runner than others. 

For long runs I have a fuel belt that I use to store gels.  There are fountains along the multipurpose trail I run, so I can refill bottles if I need to.  My rule of thumb is a gel or set of chomps for every 30 mins, so at most I only need to carry 6 gels for a long run.

On race day I'll use a SPI belt (which is just a fancy fanny pack....) to hold my gels, and I use aid stations for hydration.

Yeah, we have fountains, too so hydration is a non-issue. I feel so lucky to have those and am glad you do too!

You can qualify for the Oly in a sprint. Confusing, I know. 

Sprints are more common that Oly's are though.  How many true Olympic races happen in your area.  I have 3 I think in a calendar year.  1500m swims scare the average joe.

Dale, no pressure, I mean NO PRESSURE, but it's going to be a par-TAY! ;) The advantage to doing the oly is that you don't have to worry about the sprint on Sunday, knowwhatI'msayin?

I think we've even almost talked Salty into going--just for the party part.  BTW, everyone needs to plan their schedules to try to stay the night after the race--none of this "My plane leaves at 4 the day of the oly" crap;)

Matt, as much as I would like to try to do the oly/sprint thing, I know that I will be in sorry shape come Sunday morning.  But not so sorry that I won't come yell my azz off for you. And the other Matt. And Jen.  And whoever the hell else is doing the sprint. 

Ah, that is a good point. Kind of like 10Ks, eh? They are difficult to find!

Can we stay in the PRB brewery again?

Did you just walk/ride down to the course for the race?