40 Mile Week

This week, the last week of Feburary is the 2nd highest mileage week I've ever had. Last Sunday the 10 mile group run, then Monday the 4.5 mile group run before the Road Runners meeting. Rest day Tuesday,then Wednesday a 5 mile tempo run with/for Marsha, 1/2 mile warm up and a 1/2 mile cool down ended up at 44 minutes and a 8:45 pace. Thursday off and another 5 miles Friday morning with Abra and Marsha, 9:19 pace and 50+ degrees when we ran and 30's by afternoon. Then to top off my running week, Dan D. arrived here this morning at 8:00 a.m. and we took off to meet Chuck 1.5 miles later and run a nice long COLD loop around Medina in 2 hours and 20 minutes, we dropped Chuck off when he was around 12 miles and we continued on to get to 16 miles on the nose averaging a 8:47 pace for the day, of course bringing that average pace down by running the last mile in around 7:30. A nice finish for a cold, windy barely 20 degree day.

After Marathon Recovery/Rest Week

UNTIL TODAY, I took 3 days off after the marathon and ran for the first time on Thursday, just a real easy 3 miles at about a 10 minute pace. I never run that slow but was a little cautious and a little sore. Then took Friday off and went out to dinner with Mike and Jane. We went to Ruby Tuesday and I had ribs and chicken for the 2nd time there and can't wait til I can have them again, some of the best ribs I've ever had. The group run was scheduled for Sunday at 11:00 and we wanted to check out the Chippewa intlet trail and see if it was passable. So Saturday Marsha and I drove down to Buckeye Woods and parked and ran the trail only, the first 2 miles were directly into the strongest wind we could remember running in, about 19.5 minutes and then 2 miles back with a huge push on the back in about 16 minutes. A little wet and muddy but ok for Sunday's run. We had a nice showing again for our group run with 9 people running, it was 22 degree's but after the first mile I warmed up quick, we ran almost 10 miles with the last 2 around a 7:40 pace (Dan D. and I were doing our best to catch Bill H.) and it felt good to feel almost back to normal just one week after the marathon. Attendees today: Left to right Back Row: Dan D., Bill H., Ladd, Denise Y., Lisa G., Front Row: Marsha, Pete M., Don G., and Chuck D.

16 x 400 - - - SNOW - - - NOT

The plan was to do our last set of 400's for our training for the Nashville Marathon, we will start doing pace runs next week. We got about an inch of snow last night, which wasn't so bad, as the track was pretty clear, the temp was 19 and 4 with the windchill brrr. The problem was the wind and continuing snow. Half of the track was clear, and half was under a 1/2 inch of ice. We ran a 1 mile warm up (nothing warm about it), then started doing our 400's using half of the track so we had to do a U turn right in the middle. First 2 went ok then it started snowing so hard that you could hardly see the otherside of the track. By lap 4 we were white, covered in snow and at that point it started to get very slippery. By lap 5 you couldn't see the track and you couldn't see the foot prints from our last lap, needless to say it was coming down very hard! We finished a very tough 8 x 400's, did a 1 mile cool down and called it a day. It was a good workout, 8 x 400 1:45-1:50 each (with a u-turn...)

Last Chance for Boston, Ladd's 2nd marathon

Did my final prep run Friday morning with Chuck, 4 miles in exactly 32 minutes. Took my final rest day Saturday and ran the LCFB marathon today. Marsha and I made a nice getaway weekend out of this and went down early Saturday and spent the night. The host hotel for the marathon was a bit expensive so we didn't plan on spending the night but a week before the marathon Marsha called a hotel nearby and found a nice room for over 50 bucks cheaper than the host hotel. We had a nice evening out and got a pretty good nights sleep that I wouldn't have got had we drove there really early this morning. The funny thing was we left the room about 15 minutes before the start of the marathon this morning and to make up the point two of the 26.2 they backed up the start line from the finishing mats and the start of the race was about 20 feet from where my truck was parked and maybe a 1/2 minute walk to our room. How convenient, Marsha parked her chair right by our hotel and had quick access to all our stuff. The plan for this run was I'd run the first half and Marsha would join me at some point near the middle but she was a little concerned about running my pace for half a marathon. I thought of a strategy or a few but just didn't know what to do, thought originally that I'd do 8 minute miles til Marsha joined me and then slow down to 8:15 to 8:45 and hope to break 3:50. So the race begins and I go out a little fast but felt so good, as the miles passed I thought boy am I gonna pay for this pace later but kept going. It was almost 30 degrees at the start so I wore my cw-x tights and my Under Armour cold gear shirt and at 5 miles was getting a little warm so I yelled to Marsha to please go grab a thin long sleeve tech shirt and I'd change at mile 6. I get to mile 6 and just stop to change but had to peel gloves, gps, hat, shirt, glasses and shirt that was stuck to my skin, after wasting almost a full minute I take back off and notice about a half mile later that the gps was off and changed to a custom set up screen and I had lost my pace screen, I handed it off to Marsha and she got it back but now I don't have my exact time or distance. In the marathon they were supposed to tell the runners after 1 hour what mile you were at as you crossed the mat as it was a 1 mile loop we had to run 26 times. Sure there were times that a lot of runners were crossing together but they never called my laps as I went thru, finally at mile 21 Marsha ran up to them and said what mile for bib 97 and they announced it that one and only time. My 5k split was just under 23 minutes, 10 k split was 47:07 and my first half was just under 1:40. I knew this was too fast for a full marathon but knew that I had built a pretty good cushion for my new PR. Marsha did some warm up laps without me and joined me a little here and there til she jumped in to run the last 6 miles with me. She says to me "don't let me slow you down" and I try to not laugh. I still felt good but was starting to slow a bit, with 4 miles to go I was starting to get some calf cramps and a little cramping inside the knees like I did in Akron, the last 3 were getting tough and with 2 to go I started getting shooting pain that caused a little more walking than I liked but I had no choice, would have walked more but was getting pushed (thank you, Marsha) to get back to jogging and hit 3:35 and that's exactly where I finished at 3:35:34, 17 minutes off my Akron time. I was 38th person across the mat of 137 runners (500 runners in all at the beginning with the 5k, 10k, and 1/2 marathon runners) and 13th in my 10 year age group of 31, I hate 10 year age groups, 95% of races are 5 year age groups. I had fun except for those last 3 painful miles.
Here are my mile splits:
1 -8:50
2- 7:19
3- 7:27
4- 7:35
5- 7:27
6- 8:31 shirt change
7- 7:32
8- 7:33
9- 8:15
10-7:23
11-7:11
12-7:56
13-7:54
14-7:51
15-8:06
16-8:01
17-8:03
18-8:30
19-8:23
20-8:39
21-8:50
22-9:12
23-9:17
24-9:37
25-10:39 ouch
26-9:46

What a taper week in mid February

This is my taper week before the Last Chance for Boston Marathon this Sunday. Marsha and I ran 4 miles Monday at around a 9:30 pace, then according to her book I was supposed to do 4 miles at marathon pace Tuesday so I put on shorts and a long sleeve shirt and ran 4.5 miles a tad to fast. 1-7:44 2-7:45 3-7:58 4-7:20 , I hope to try for a 8:15 to 8:30 pace in this marathon but of course it's been in the 50's and 60's today and Sundays high is supposed to be in the mid 30's but I can't complain about that really for this time of year. Today I should have taken a rest day but it was just to warm, I did 3 easy miles in just over 25 minutes. Tried to get Marsha to go and even waited for her to get home but she wasn't feeling up to it after her long run this weekend and her many 400's in speedwork last night. I'll take tomorrow and Saturday off with just a few slow miles on Friday and hopefully be ready for a new PR on Sunday. My only goal in this weather for now is to try and beat my only marathon time of 3:52, then again if I can beat that then I really would want to break into the 3:40's, so my official goal is 3:49:59 0r better.

February 10, 2009 - speed work

Lisa and I did 16 400's tonight. This was a pretty tough workout, we worked really hard! We were supposed to do each 400 at a 2 - 2:10 pace. I did every one between 1:54-1:59, I was amazed that I was able to stay so consistent. Lisa did exactly what she was supposed to do all of them at 2-2:07 pace. It was a great accomplishment!

My Nieces

These are my nieces, Samantha, Allyssa and McKayla, my mom, Grandma Gilly and my kids, Kyle and Cassie.

15 miler

Lisa and I have been doing most of our long runs and speed work together training for Nashville. Today was 15 which is the furthest she has ever gone (before today, the furthest was 13.1). We had wonderful weather 36 degrees and overcast (who else but a northerner would call that great weather). We met at Bonnie Park in Strongsville and headed north on the path. We made it 2.5 miles then had to turn around because the road was flooded (over a foot of thawing snow will do that), that was about the only problem we ran into. Lisa did great. She was a real trooper, ran into some leg cramping problems at around mile 12 (yes, Lisa I did hear you, I was just "ignoring" you... sort of, just didn't want to make it worse by talking about it!). It was great!

Today, Ladd did 10 miles with Chuck as he is tapering for his marathon next week. After today's run he feels more than ready for it! Good Luck Ladd!!

The plan is that I will run 12 miles of the marathon with him next Sunday. Guess I will count it as a tempo run.

One Week Into February

Spring is inching closer and it's feeling like it in early February, it was almost 50 today. After our group run last Sunday Marsha and I ran 4 miles Monday night before we picked up pizza and Tuesday afternoon I did my test run for the Prediction run that we ran this morning. On Tuesday I headed out and did a mile warm up and then cleared the gps and ran 3.1 miles in 22:49. Not to bad for being in a situation that there is no reason to push myself. My prediction for todays 5k was 21:55 but after we arrived in Cuyahoga Falls and found out that the course was full of ice/snow/water and lots of turns I knew that my time would be hard to hit. The race had 270 people (largest crowd ever for this race) and we ended up starting in the middle of the pack which was way to slow for the first half mile, after the starting pack broke up a little I was able to pick up the pace quite a bit but still had lots of slow downs with all the turns.
I ended up finishing in 22:48 and finishing in 72nd place of the 270. Marsha predicted 24:44 and finished in 26:37 and 141st place. After the race we headed to Rochne's for breakfast and the awards. We had a good showing from the Medina County Road Runners today with 6 of us in all showing up today. Bill Henry also attended (my subway running buddy) and Dan S. from work and his brother also ran.

SuperBowl Sunday Group Run

MEDINA COUNTY ROAD RUNNERS

8 MILE - GROUP RUN

02-01-09

This group run started at the McDonald’s just south of Medina, the weather was perfect and we had a great group. Let me explain GREAT weather, earlier this week we had a foot of snow in a very short period of time, so the roads have been very difficult to maneuver, look at the large pile of snow behind us! Temperatures have been very cold! Today we got into the 40's felt like Spring. We did this run as 2 pace groups, one at 10:30 and one at 9, from what I understand both went about 30 seconds faster than their expected pace, which is pretty good, can't always be right on. Left to Right: Janet Sproat, Sharon Sibilski, John Gorsek, Frank Dwyer, Dan DeRosha, Ladd Clifford, Kim Albright, Marsha Clifford, Shelby Buell, Don Gaither, Randy Albright, Debbie Scheel, Not Pictured: Lisa Grafton and another gentleman, who I am so sorry I can’t remember his name. Also, 2 people joined the men en route.