I am training for Bandera 100k Trail Race in January so this is why I am running this race in Palo Duro. I have been preparing for endurance running since last year. Currently my longest run is 20.36 miles. When I was in my forum the leader, Steve Zaffron was 70 years old and he was doing 100 mile runs in the Rockies. His goal was to be the strongest man for his age. This really inspired me.
I had stopped running in my early thirties because of knee injuries. I am 56 years old now. I had been telling myself that I could not run. So after Landmark Education training I started creating some possibilities and my life was being transformed. There were several areas that Landmark provided me with tools to make my life fulfilling. I transformed relationships at work, home and with my children, but I wanted more. I wanted to really challenge myself to do something that I had no way of figuring out how to do it except that I was going to take a big leap of faith and say that I wanted to do it. My goal is to run 100 miles.
When I started running again in February 2005 I did not have the idea that I would want to run. I actually got involved with an exercise program at work through the Cancer Association Active For Life. HT got a RunTex coach to come on campus to help several faculty and staff prepare for a 5k race that would benefit HT. I was planning on walking the event. What happened in the next few months was amazing, I got a pair of shoes and with the coaches help I started running.
My co-worker Stephanie Bond-Huie and I started running during lunch last year. She was training for this 50 mile trail race. At the time I could barely keep up with her on a four mile run. She was very encouraging with me and told me that I would love trail running if I would only try it. I thought she was nuts but I was inspired by her determination to run 50 miles. Well this year I signed up for the Rouge Running Trail 101 class. The prerequisite was to be able to run 6 miles without stopping. I spent the winter running loops around LBJ lake so I was very comfortable in running 10 miles without stopping. After running on a trail for the first time I was so excited that I could not contain myself. I thought to myself that I have gone all of my life walking on hiking trails and I never thought once to run on them.
I entered my first 10k trail race called The Saint and I ran it in 1 hour. I placed 102 out of 232 10k runners. I entered my second 10k race, a road race the Nike Human Race which I finished in 53 minutes. At the start of this year I made a goal to run 1,000 miles in one year. Currently I am at mile 767.27.
Now I am in a trail training class to run 100k at Bandera. When I signed up for the class I could not imagine how I would run 62 miles. I have never even run a Marathon of 26 miles. Once again I am using Landmark tools to create a gap or breakdown and then work towards creating a bridge to get across it. Along the way I am meeting new friends and getting a lot of knowledge about how my body works. One thing that I know is that when you hang out with people that say you cannot do something and you also tell yourself that you cannot do it then you most likely will have a tough time doing it. When you hang out with people who are doing amazing things and they encourage you to do amazing things then you will have an easier time accomplishing whatever you want. I am running with men and women of all shapes and sizes and they have one thing in common, they love endurance running. My trail coach is 55 years old and his wife is about 50. They both have run several 100 mile races.
So on Friday October 17 my wife and I will hit the road in our Dodge Cumins diesel and haul our 5th wheel Grand Junction to Palo Duro before. We plan to arrive dark and enjoy the pre race pasta dinner. I will start my run at 7 AM on Saturday. The course will be open for 7 hours. I am running 2 12.5 mile laps and one 6 mile lap. I run about 10 minute miles for 10 miles so I may average 13-15 minutes for the 30 miles. Stephanie tells me that the race crowd is pretty laid back. The canyon is beautiful so I will see the floor of the canyon for 30 miles on Saturday. We will hang out on Sunday and start back to Austin on Monday.
Last weekend I ran 16 miles. This weekend I ran 20.36 miles.
The LBJ Lake loop (minus the MoPac to Ist street 2 miles)
Total distance: 8.05 mi
Total Time: 1:34
Avg Pace: 11:40 per mi
Total Ascent: 1214 Ft
Total Descent: 1208 Ft
The Barton Creek loop
Total distance: 10.31 mi
Total Time: 2:26
Avg Pace: 14:12 per mi
Total Ascent: 3280 Ft
Total Descent: 3277 Ft
Total distance 20.36
I ran the race in 53:32:35 at 8:31 minute per mile. You can view my stats here. The Ben Harper concert was so fine. Ben played a solo on the tombolas during his first song and then threw the drum sticks in the audience and I caught one.
The race was a blast, but it was challenging. It was really hot and humid and there was little breeze. I am glad that I trained in the afternoon and evening during the heat so that I was prepared for this race. Running with 13,758 runners who were all wearing the same red shirt was amazing. As I looked up ahead of me I felt like I was a part of a flowing read blob that was winding it’s way through the streets of Austin.
Austin had more runners than New York or Los Angeles. which are much larger cities by population and area. There were more than 700,000 runners world wide running in the race. Out of the 750,000 runners I finished in 46,721st place. In Austin out of 13,758 runners I finished in 1,114th place.
One of the nice things that happened during the training for this event is that I met Pamela LeBlanc. I met her and talked to her before I learned that she was a journalist for the Austin American Statesman. Pamela writes a blog Fit City. It is nice to live in a city where you can actually meet people that write for your local newspaper and they are runners just like me.
Well all of the RunTex Fit City training and Nike club runs are over. I had such a fun time running and going to the bars after the training runs. I do not drink alcohol and do not go to bars. It was a refreshing twist to be in a hot and sweaty crowd of runners in a bar in Austin.
I ran in 100 degree heat from July 19 until last night training for the Nike Human Race on August 31, 2008. Last year I struggled to run back to back 10 minute miles on a tread mill. Last night I ran 7.02 miles around Lady Bird Johnson Lake from Mile 0 to the MoPac Brige to I-35 in 1:01:56.
Below is the pace that I ran each mile.
- Mile 1 at 8:07/mile
- Mile 2 at 8:15/mile
- Mile 3 at 8:54/mile
- Mile 4 at 8:29/mile
- Mile 5 at 8:25/mile
- Mile 6 and 7 9:48/mile (my cool down run)
The RunTex coach and Coach Ware (HT track) say that stress training helps make you run stronger. I have never measured my running until I started the Nike Human Race training. Now I have a Garmin 405 and it makes a big difference when I see how I am running. When I run hard the first few miles I stress my body. I still have to run but I will be running stressed. Later in the run I can feel my body recovering in the mile just after I run hard. My body will learn to recover and theI will develop a long distance pace. I did this last night but I did not think that I would keep the fast pace for as long as I did.
For now I am happy to be running faster and finishing 6 or 7 miles with energy. The trail training will be a new adventure in pushing for further distance.
My next training class is the Bandera Trail 100k Race in January. I start my Rouge training on September 13, 2008. I trained for a year to get in shape to do endurance running. I was inspired to do this by a co-worker Stephanie Bond-Huie. She ran a 50 mile race last year. Last year I was struggling to keep up with her on our 4 mile training runs from Huston-Tillotson where we work down Chicon to LBJ Lake and back. This year if I run less that 4 miles I feel cheated. I love running.
I feel very greatful to have a community of runners and coaches to help me reach my running goals. I am also happy that at the age of 56 I can run like I do and it is fun. For my training for the 100k trail race I am going to add yoga classes. The RunTex training included yoga instructors at the start of several sessions. I benefited from being asked to twist my body in goofy positions. I can not do yogo very well at thsi point but I can already see how proper structured streaching benefits running.
I did something that amazed me last evening. The RunTex training session finished with another 2 mile stress run. During a stress run you run about 70-80% the first mile and then you run was fast as you can for the second mile. This training is for running under stress at the end of the race. The first time that I did it a few weeks ago I ran the 2 miles in 15 minutes and when I finished I was really tired. This time I ran the 2 miles in 15 minutes 10 seconds and I was not exhausted like the the first time. I rested and talked to members of the class and when the coach said for the class to do a cool down jog I decided to run some more.
I looked up and saw some Nike Human Race pace setters with a group of runners at the water coolers. I decided that I would run with them. After we started runing I thought we would run at a 10 minute mile pace but after talking with a sweeper I found out I was running with the 9 minuted mile pace group. I ran with them for about four miles before stopping back at mile 0. I was really proud of myself that I had run a fast 2 miles and then run 4 more miles at a 9 minute pace.
My .29 warm up was 9.05 per mile. My 2 mile pace was 7:37 per mile. My 3.95 mile run with the Nike group was 9:13 per mile. My overall pace for the total 6.24 miles was 8:42 minute mile.