French Lick 10K

ChornyRuns! - One word summaries!

Life: Scattered
Coaching: Exciting
Training: Conservative
Racing: Overdue
Nutrition: Vitamin-D

Life

A Blog entry... there's an idea. So, what have I been doing since the 8tuff miles in February? That's a good question. I've loved. I've lost. I'm loving some more. I've worked hard. I've been lazy. I've traveled a lot with the track team and enjoyed some great performances from my steeplers this past outdoor track season. I didn't race because of an Achilles tendon injury, took some time off from running, traveled a bit on my own to Salt Lake City, Park City (my favorite) and even zipped through Teton and Yellowstone National parks. Training is back on and ready for some more intensity. I feel like I've been all over the place for the last 2 months, so I'm looking forward to getting into a groove with life again.

Coaching

Just to recap. The outdoor season was fantastic. DeSean Turner and Andrew Poore went 1,2 at the Big Ten Outdoor Track and Field Championships and gave us an amazing performance in front of a home crowd. They both ran fast enough to qualify for the U.S. Championships in June where they got a taste of their first big time championship race. Their season and personal bests (8:43.44 and 8:44.10) were the 22nd and 26th fastest by an American in 2010 and climbed to 5th and 6th on Indiana University's All-Time Records list.

On the Women's side, Sarah Pease was the Big Ten Runner-up and went on to place 4th in the Steeple Chase at both the NCAA Championships and the U.S. Championships. Her season and personal best 9:56.91 was the 6th fastest by an American this year and is the New IU School Record. Sarah's fellow steeplers also had a very successful year with 5 others running times that now populate the All-time IU top ten performance list. 4). Caitlin Engel 10:31.27 5.) Breanne Ehrman 10:40.46 6.) Erica Ridderman 10:45.40 7.) Samantha Ginther 10:46.53 and 8.) Kelsey Duerksen 10:46.98.

BUTTTT, now it's Cross Country Season and the Hoosiers are Amazing. Last week was our first big competition of the year at the Adidas Wisconsin Invitational. On the men's side, we have a very impressive top 5 followed by a solid 6, 7, 8, and 9. Going into the meet they were ranked 26th in the NCAA and there were about 7 teams in the race that were ranked in front of them, including #6 Wisconsin. Well, well, well... Patience was the key, and in the end, the Hoosiers won the meet and beat Wisconsin by over 30 points (for those of you who don't know... in cross country, your top 5 runners are scored based on their finishing place, therefore the low score wins. i.e. 1,2,3,4,5=15 points and a perfect score.) Here are the results... The next week, the men were ranked #7 in the NCAA.

For the Hoosier Women, going in the the race, they were not ranked in the top 30, but were very close. With a solid 5th place team finish, the young team, led by Sarah Pease's 7th place individual finish, managed to bump a couple of ranked teams, and are now ranked 24th in the NCAA. Results

Next up, Chili Pepper invite this Saturday at Arkansas.

Training

I've dealt with many small and not so small injuries over the past decade and I'm trying to be nice to my body. I've only climbed up to 60 miles a week at the most, but have primarily stayed between 50 and 60. I'll admit, I've become afraid of the pain that I used to simply deal with and I might need to readjust my feelings about that as I increase my intensity. I've been running workouts and some have been pretty solid, but no stand out workouts that have been overly impressive. This past Saturday I ran my first race since the spring and going into it, I had no idea what to expect...

Racing

French Lick 10K. Very pleased with my performance and fitness, but not with the outcome. I didn't know the course very well, but was told that the first 2 miles climbed up hill and then the last half was 'rolling'. I found out that 'rolling' means something completely different to people from Indianapolis than it does to people from Bloomington. I was planning to hang back for the first 2 miles and then race hard and wear people out on the 'rolling' hills. We were out at a very conservative pace, 5:27 for the first mile, 5:46 for the second, on a steady and solid incline. I let a few guys get a lead, about 80-100m and then started to slowly close the gap. The problem was... the rolling hills never showed up to help me. I spent the last few miles catching back to within about 40m of the top three, only to watch them start kicking in to the finish. I have to say, I was very pleased with my last 4 mile splits. 4:52, 4:42, 4:45, 4:53 and I think I'm ready to start training more. :)

Nutrition

Vitamin D has been studied more than anything this past year. "Vit D affects virtually all aspects of our health." Watch this video

ChornyRuns! the 8 Tuff Miles on St. John

Most photos courtesy of Don Hebert Photography and my half naked body.

What an amazing time it is down in the Virgin Islands. The sun shines, the Islands float and the water's not frozen. Last year I was in the Islands for 3 weeks and learned about a race on St. John called the 8Tuff miles. I heard that it was a very tough course that climbed 1400ft and ended with a couple downhill miles. I also heard that there was a $3000 cash prize for the first person to break a 5:45 per mile average; 48:02. The course record was 49:20 and was run by Jeremy Zuber who had won for something like 5 or 6 years in a row. What a great challenge! I did not know the exact course, but I had driven some of the roads when I was there last year, so I had seen some of the hills. My impression was that I would have a good shot at that time-bonus, but it is so hard to tell on those hills... especially in a car.

Going into this years race, I knew that it would be suicide to skip the hill training, but I have to say, I was not in great 'hill' shape. I added about 3 hill workouts in the 4 weeks leading up to the race, and I think that helped me to get in hill climbing mode. The hills here in Indiana aren't as long as those hills on St. John, but it did the trick.

Strategy for the race was based completely on speculation... I had no idea how fast I could expect to run downhill, so I didn't really know what pace I would have to hold going up. My thoughts were to aim for about 6:15 avg up the hill (first 5 miles), and that would leave a 4:55 avg down (last 3 miles).

Before the race, I had heard about a couple of other contenders that were showing up to go after the big prize, so I was a little nervous. One guy was a supposed 2:20 marathoner, and then a 1:06 half marathoner. At top shape, both would have been great competitors. The marathoner thought it would be a good idea to run the last 4 miles of the course 4 days before the race, and I think his legs were still shot on race day. The other was dealing with a hip issue that was not sure to be a hindrance or not. With his hip vs. my Achilles Tendon, it was a toss up.

My Achilles somehow felt great for the race. The gun sounded and off we went. The first hill starts about 600m into the race and lasts through mile 2. First split, 5:51. Felt good about that, but then we ran 6:29. At this point, I wasn't sure if we were going to run fast enough. The 3rd mile was quite flat, and we actually ran 5:21, and here I knew that one of us was going to get the time. The marathoner had fallen off the pace early, and Chris (half marathoner) and I were leading the pack up the hill. Miles 4 and 5 have a few hills that are steeper than the first long hill, and slowed us down to a 6:41 mile. Mile 5-6=11:02 and this brought me into the down hill. As we crested the highest point, Chris was leading me by about 40-50 meters, and I was thinking that if he was fast on the downhill, I might have trouble catching him. I started to open up and ran 4:42 for the first mile downhill and caught Chris pretty quickly. I was hoping I hadn't gone too hard too soon, because this was a solid constant downhill, and I didn't want to blow out my Quads. But, I threw in a 4:19 8th mile and cruised in to the victory.
Final time was 46:26 and I was quite happy with that. I got the time bonus and the $300 in Beer Money from the Tap Room, a local bar. I tried to spend all the Beer money, but I still have over half of it left. I guess I'll have to take another trip to the Islands soon. I hope to make it back next year to defend my title, but we'll have to see what the calender looks like. I was so sore for the next 4 days...everywhere. Next time I'll do a lot more hills before the race.

The race was very well run, and it looked like a lot of people had a great time. My cousin Kendall ran the race and was still on her feet at the end, and I think my Uncle may have been motivated to run next year. It was very much a party atmosphere after the race and I think some people started to celebrate right after the race, at 8:30 in the morning.