Running Times, Online

I am sitting on my living room couch and feeling impatient.  For the past four days, I have been watching NBC’s coverage of track nationals and wishing that I was there.  Not watching.  (Although watching races in Track Town USA is a pretty unique experience.)  Instead, I wanted to be there as a competitor… in my Team Strands uniform… standing on the start line… poised to react to the sound of the starting gun… feeling fit and strong… with my competitive instincts alert and prepared to go….  Since the London Marathon last April, my fitness has returned, my mileage is back up, and I have been running three workouts per week.  I’m proud of the progress, but my speed was not quite where I wanted it to be for a 10k on the track.  I knew that I needed a few more weeks to sharpen up before racing again, so I decided to postpone racing until July.

Earlier today I had felt tired, but pleased with my long run (one hour and forty five minutes total).  I met up with Stanford star Teresa McWalters.  For the last half hour of the run, we did one-minute pick-ups.  We had begun early in the morning to avoid the heat, but by the time we started the fartleks, the temperature was already in the low 90s.  When we finally finished the run, I felt exhausted.  I drained my bottle of Peachy Keen Cytomax within 30 seconds.  Every inch of my skin felt like it was covered with a thick, slimy layer of sweat.  I was satisfied because knew I had put my maximum effort into the workout.

That feeling of satisfaction has been replaced with a new sense of energy and urgency.   I still know, without a doubt, that I ran my heart out, but my legs no longer register the fatigue from this morning’s effort.  In fact, I’m fighting a temptation to lace up my shoes and go for a second run.  My head knows this would be a terrible idea, but my heart is inspired to test my legs again.  I’ll do the smart thing and listen to my head.  (Plus, I couldn’t go for another run if I tried.  I’m starting to realize that I really am tired… too tired to even get up for a glass of water… but I’m really thirsty… I’m hoping that if I yell loud enough, my boyfriend will hear me and bring me glass so that I don’t have to use any of my own limited energy… he hasn’t heard me yet, would it be obnoxious to call him on his cell phone even though he is just in the other room?)

Rather than going for another run, I’m looking with enthusiasm at my upcoming week of workouts.  I’m imagining hitting my goal times with ease; improving on my workouts of the previous week; growing stronger and stronger; and arriving closer and closer to my first race of the summer.

Monday AM 10 miles, first 7 with Melissa, 1:17:48 tot. 10

PM 25 min warm up 10×20 second hills, 25 min cool down tot. 8+

XT stretching

Tuesday AM 10, first 8 with melissa, 1:13:31, tot. 10+

PM Comm. Ave 8, 59:38 tot. 8

XT stretching

Wednesday AM Comm. Ave 8, solo, 1:01:37 tot. 8

PM 3 w/up, 10k on Nashua track with ruben (Rex through 5k) 32:57 (5k-16:40, 8k-26:30) this is about date marathon pace, it wasn’t hard but it wasn’t easy either. Little under 4 cool down, 27:44 tot. 13

XT stretching

Thursday AM Newton Hills 10, 1:06:53 tot. 10

PM 8 on road, 1:01:34 tot. 8

XT stretching

Friday AM 3+ warm up, 23:57. progression run, not sure on distance, hopefully longer then 10k, 4 loops, 8:49.8, 8:45.1(17:34.9), 8:44.0(26:18.9), 8:36.6(34:55.5), 2 mins standing rest, bit under 4 cool down, 29:06 tot. 13+

PM In Bradford, 34min warm up, 12×12 second hill sprints, 20min cool down, tot.9

XT stretching

Saturday 8AM 1:07:57 easy in Plaistow, NH at Melissa’s race, tot. 9

2PM Silvermine extension loop 10 in Bradford, hilly loop, medium pace (about 80% goal mp), 1:01:02, felt pretty easy, tot. 10

8:30PM 6 miles shakeout with Melissa, 47:32 tot. 6

XT stretching

Sunday AM Newton Hills 10 easy, 1:12:14 tot. 10

PM road 8+ w/ Melissa (she dropped me actually), 1:05:19 tot. 8+

XT stretching

Summary 141 miles, two workouts, two short hill sessions, not in great shape that is for sure.  Still in some pretty good discomfort from the SI and achilles but I have to start the taper in 7 weeks, well 6 weeks now, so I’ve decided to begin training and do what I can and try to hold the body together with super glue and duct tape.  I don’t have much more, its the end of the week and I had a couple short nights of sleep so I’m real tired.

Quote of the week “The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows.  It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it.  You, me, nobody is going to hit as hard as life.  But it ain’t about how hard ya hit.  It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.  That’s how the winning is done!  Now if you know what you’re worth then go out and get what you’re worth.  But you got to be willing to take the hits.”  Rocky (from Rocky 6- which is pretty darn good.  I love the Rocky films, though I could have skipped #5, but really this was surprisingly good.)

6/25/09
Hello Everyone,

Hope all is well, my family (Jennifer, Pierce-almost 3 years old, Grant 6 months old) and I got back on Sunday from representing the USA as part of the 100K World Team.  Below is a picture of the USA 100K World Team the day of the race in Belgium.

Wardian and his 100K teammates in Belgium before the race

As mentioned previously the 100K World Championships was in Torhout, Belgium on June 19, 2009 @ 8:00pm (Belgium Time). Torhout is very near to the lovely city of Brugge and about 1.5 hours west from Brussels the capital of Belgium.

The 100K World Championship was part of the “Night of Flanders” road races which included a 10K, Marathon, 100K run and 100K walk. The “Night of Flanders” is a summer tradition in Belgium and a local fixture in Torhout.  The races start at 8:00pm and all the races run concurently all night and you could tell that people planned on meeting each other every year much like we do with the 4th of July or another of our holidays.

Families went to each others houses and set up tables along the course and had their dinners and drank beer and wine while the race progressed and the younger people went to the cities and danced the night away getting more and more excited to see us run by as the race progressed.  They also had rides for the and food for the kids and people to make sure that everyone of all ages was covered and my son Pierce’s favorite part was riding the “helicopter” and watching us run by (well probably just riding the helicopter but my wife said he was interested to see us come by every hour or so).

It was probably one of the largest crowds that I have run in front of during an Ultra and the people really knew and had a feel for the distance and what we were doing.

It was definitely a terrific experience and I can’t begin to describe how proud I was to be there and representing the USA.

Concerning the race itself, I and my fellow male teammates from the USA-Howard Nippert, Adam Lint, Todd Braje, and Chad Ricklefs all started the race very slowly and our intention was to run “harder” the last 50K.

By slowly I mean 40-41 min 10K, which doesn’t seem hard until you string 10 of them together and then it gets to be a tad more challenging.

We were not the only team that had this strategy, so there a large group composed of many different nations.  We ran with probably 20 guys from Belgium, France, Italy, Slovenia, Japan, Mexico, Australia, and that is saying something because in a US Ultra if you are running this type of pace you are most likely going to be alone, so it was really exciting and cool to be hammering with a large group of guys and knowing that everyone was there to win and represent their country to their utmost.

Around 30K the pack was still running together but by 50K the pack had splintered and I found out that the leaders at guy from Japan had an 11 min lead on me.

Well, I had probably run too easy the first 50K. I think I was around 3:25 or so for 50K which would put me around 6:50 for 100K but I was planning to go 3:05-3:10 for the last 50K and that would give me 6:30-6:40 pace and probably allow me to win the race.

The thing I am learning about the 100K is that things don’t always go according to plan and while I was able to cut the lead to 6:30 mins by 75K, over the last 25K the lead crept back up to around 13 mins.

I didn’t think I was fading and I actually ran one of the fastest laps of the day late in the race but the last 20K I was not as strong as I could have been.

I ended up 6th overall in a Personal Best of 6:53:17 and my teammates each had issues also and we didn’t win a medal.

The team race was won by Japan and a Japanese runner Yasukazu Miyazato (JPN), 6:40:44 also won the individual race.  It was actually a close finish as the Swedish guy in 2nd was charging at the end and finished less than 1 minute back.

Our ladies didn’t need any help as they finished 1st (Kami Semick), 4th (Devon Crosby-Helms), 5th (Meghan Arbogast), 7th (Carolyn Smith), and 19th (Connie Gardner) and won the team Gold Medal on the women’s side.  It was incredible to see them getting their medals and inspired to me to work even harder to be up on the podium next year.

I am still learning and think with some more solid races and training I can win the 100K Worlds next year in Gibraltar and I can’t wait to get out there and mix it up. I now know the guys racing and think that the last two (2) years have prepared me to be very successful in 2010.

Another race that I am planning to try and excel in is being run this weekend and I am lucky enough to be a part of it and head to Lake Tahoe, CA  to compete today. That race is the “Western States 100 Miler” (ws100.com) and the field is full of great athletes from all over the globe and is considered by some the premier trail 100 Miler in the country and world.

I am bib number #27 and the race starts on Saturday-June 27,2009 @ 5:00am (PST).

Herewith a way to track all the runners and me if you like “live” during the day on Saturday:

http://webcast.ws100.com/webcast.php

I think it will be an incredible challenge and I can’t wait to get out there and see how it shakes out.

Hope you all are running well and look forward to keeping you posted on how things are going.

Cheers,
Michael Wardian

First, I’m sorry that this is late. I didn’t get in last night till about 2:00 a.m. and I just went straight to bed after some stretching.

Monday AM 6 with Gary, road and trail in Colorado Springs, Achilles very sore, SI not much better tot. 6

PM Bear Creek 10 to and from Olympic Training Center, first 3 with Dan Browne and Justin Young, 1:12:06, Achilles bad, SI not good, tot. 10

XT Stretching

Tuesday AM 34:40 on road and trail with Gary, tot. 4++

Travel to Boston

PM Newton Hills 10, 1:09:38, tot. 10

XT stretching

Wednesday AM 4 in 30 minutes, nothing felt good, painful run tot. 4

10:30 AM Chiro and massage from Mika

PM Newton Hills 10, 1:10:56. I have had only a few runs that were less plesaant than this one. Very sore and painful in Achilles and SI after getting worked on. tot. 10

XT stretching

Thursday 8 AM to 9 PM travel to Peoria (OK, I actually got to Peoria at about 7:45 but we had a function/dinner at the local minor league baseball game which we went straight to so I didn’t get to the hotel until just after 9.)

9:30 PM 4.5+ solo, hot, still 91 degrees when I finished at about 10 p.m., 90% humidity, Achilles and SI much improved but still not great tot. 4.5

XT stretching

Friday AM 6 solo, 39:00, tot. 6

PM 6 solo, 44:38, tot. 6

Achilles and SI not feeling good enough that I was willing to do strides or drills after either run.

XT stretching

Saturday 6 AM 3+ warm up, 22:30, light drills, strides, race Steamboat 4 mile, worst race since college, finished somewhere under 20:30. Felt hard from about 100m on. Kim Smith beat me by nearly a minute. A lot of factors in any poor race, but one this poor there is no way to look past it–I’m horribly unfit.

I now face the biggest coaching challenge of my career. I have always said that if you’re fit it takes 8 weeks to be ready to run a great marathon. I have 9 weeks to get fit and get ready to run a marathon. This will mean I have to leave my comfort zone of what I know how to do and change things, break rules and guidelines I don’t like to break and really never be confident of the outcome. All of this with a banged up body.

Speaking about the rumble in the jungle world championship fight between Muhammed Ali and George Forman, Norman Mailer said, and I’m doing this from memory so it may be a shade off, “Bell run to end the second round and Ali dropped into his corner stool. The nightmare in the ring he had awaited his whole life had arrived. He had found a man he couldn’t outrun, who was stronger than him, bigger than him, a man he couldn’t beat. Ali stared forward like a man staring into the eyes of his maker.”  27:53 cool down. tot. 11

PM Hilly 10 on 15K course mostly. 1:08:27, very hot, very humid, tot. 10

XT stretching

Sunday AM Boredom run, which is 12, but I got lost so it ended up about 13.75, 1:23:29, 76 degrees with 100% humidity, man did it feel good at the times it was raining, legs real sore. tot. 13++

PM travel to Boston

XT stretching

Summary 92+ miles, 1 horrible race. I am a very proud person and I have had to swallow my pride, as any honest proud person must, many times in this sport. I’m not sure I can swallow it like that again.

Nate

Monday AM Chiro and massage with Mika

PM 7 easy w/ Melissa, 57:13 tot.7

XT stretching, myrtle

Tuesday AM 7 on alter G at The Sports Spa in Woburn, ITB still tight, wanted 10, 48:54 tot. 7

PM 7 around Res, parts with Melissa and Erin Dromgoole, 56:03 tot. 7+

XT stretching

Wednesday AM 10 around res, thought I would get 12 or more but ITB tightened a bit, 1:15:01 tot. 10

PM 8 on comm ave, solo, 1:04:02

XT stetching

Thursday AM Newton Hills 10 (Comm Ave. and Washington St.), 1:09:07 tot. 10

PM 7 with Melissa, 54:01 tot. 7

XT stretching

Friday AM chiro and massage with Mika

PM Newton Hills 10, 1:09:36 tot. 10

XT stretching

Saturday AM 40 mins easy, 8×12 second hills, 4 mins easy tot. 7-

PM 10+, 1:17:42, first hour with Melissa who was finishing with a 15-minute progression that ended up at a bit under 3:00 for the last half mile, then I added on a bit back at 7min pace tot. 10+

XT stretching

Sunday AM travel to CO springs for USATF world championship team marathon summit. Had a real nice conversation about training with Bob Larson and Gary on ride from the Denver Airport to the Springs.

PM 1:27:30 on the road and Fountain Creek trail, first 20 mins with Gary, 12++

XT stretching

Summary 93 miles for the week, and my first set of short hills, which felt OK muscularly, which is good and they not only didn’t hurt the SI but actually felt better then regular running on it, which is great. But my recovery was slower than usual, which is to be expected, as I haven’t done a set in a month, but a bit disappointing. I was hoping for a bit more this week but overall I’ll take it. I’m moving in the right direction, just not at the pace I want to be. But that is my ball game right now so I’ll embrace it.

I will try to get in at least a hill rep session and some strides this week, depending on how the SI is after the flight back Tuesday night. I might try to do a progression run Tuesday night, then I’m racing on Saturday at the Steamboat 4 Mile so that will be a nice test. It is also much hotter in the Midwest in June than it is in the Northeast, so it will be good to get a few days in the fire, so to speak.

I’d like to get at least 100 miles this week, if not closer to 120, but really, with the additional quality coming in this week volume is very very secondary and I will worry more about it the following week.

Quote of the week: “Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.”–Arthur Ashe