How I Ran 140 Miles in One Week

Since this was the best week of training I have ever had, I would like to share it. Plus, for those that don't read my running log this is what it takes to succeed. For the record, this whole athletic thing that I am doing is all part of the 30 year plan that includes my career, and this blog. While you can say it is only physical, there is a link between the physical and the mental and the emotional, and I feel to succeed at the highest levels mentally and emotionally I personally need to physically strive for success as well.

In reverse order:

10/8	Run	Rail Trail	Long	21.0 mi	2:10:04	6:12
10/7	Run	Trails	Recovery run	11.4 mi	1:31:08	8:00
10/7	Run	Trails	Recovery run	8.7 mi	1:01:25	7:04
10/6	Run	Trails	Medium Long Run	16.0 mi	2:02:29	7:40
10/6	Run	Morning Run #1	Recovery run	2.6 mi	22:31	8:40
10/5	Run	random	Recovery run	5.5 mi	45:02	8:12
10/5	Run	Indoor Track	Strides	900.0 m	2:30	4:29
10/5	Run	random	Recovery run	4.5 mi	38:31	8:34
10/5	Run	Morning Run #3	Recovery run	3.5 mi	29:38	8:28
10/4	Run	Track	Fartlek	11.6 km	54:47	7:37
10/4	Run	Track	Recovery run	3.4 mi	27:46	8:10
10/4	Run	random	Fartlek	11.0 mi	1:16:03	6:55
10/3	Run	random	Recovery run	9.0 mi	1:10:52	7:53
10/3	Run	random	Recovery run	5.2 mi	43:53	8:27
10/2	Run	random	Recovery run	7.0 mi	51:02	7:18
10/2	Run	Rail Trail	Long	23.5 mi	2:24:55	6:11

Some key things that I took away from making this such a successful week in my eyes:

• Sunday I ran 30.5 miles, probably my single best day of training yet and for sure my best long run yet. 
• Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday I averaged over 8 minutes per mile pace.
• I had 15 running events (I don't count the strides as separate) which means I tripled on Tuesday and Wednesday. 
• In total I ran 24 miles faster than 6:00 pace. 
• I ran the two best long runs of my life this week.
• On both long runs I had company for most of each run and on the 20 miler I had my sister bicycling with a gatorade bottle in support. It made a huge difference. 
• I slept and ate a whole lot this week. 

Some mistakes I made this week:

• I neglected the exercises and core work necessary to be successful and stay injury free. I had a plantar flare up today (Wednesday).
• I pushed hard to get 140 because I wanted that number of miles but the effort I put in on Thursday and Friday, while not fast was a long time and is just now in the middle of the next week hurting me. 

30 Dreamers

The results from the Chicago Mathon are online and everyone tried to get the Olympic trials standard. Five people ran 2:18 and I am assuming their first qualifying race for the trials. On the other hand 30 men went out in 1:08-1:09 and ran 2:19 or slower. That's 30 people who trained well enough to run halfway on pace but had problems in the second half. Statistically only one in seven of the people who hit halfway on pace made the goal. I am sure that CIM will be nearly the same.

It's eye opening. I mean I'm only a 1:12 half marathoner this week. Those guys ran three minutes faster than my PR and tried to do it again. What am I doing!? Okay I know that this is a long term process and I fully expect to PR huge even if I do not run 2:18. Plus, I just ran 140 miles last week with 24 of them under six minute pace. I doubt many 2:20+ marathoners put down 140 mile weeks.

I'm just saying, the odds are stacked against my time goal this cycle, but you never know until you try. Seeing that at Chicago the odds were one in seven for those that made it halfway is motivational. I didn't think the odds were that good.

I Live in Iowa: Week 25

This was an amazing week for me, partly professionally and incredibly in terms of running. I worked 41 hours which was lower than normal because ran so much. Technically I didn't get as much worked finished as I would have liked but I worked on several different projects and progressed on all of them, so it could be worse. Then I learned on Friday that I might have an opportunity for a promotion. There is a decent chance that I do not get it, but the fact I am being officially considered is a significant recognition for me, in my eyes. It's like the Olympic trials, if you are there you have the chance to be an Olympian. So often just being in the game in the running is a success in my mind.

My running week was my best one yet! I ran 140 miles including my two best long runs, and three fartlek/hill workouts, and a set of strides. It was rewarding. Since I have never run 140 miles in one week I feel a little obligated to describe it run by run. Alas, I am tired so it may be a few days. I will tease you will with my Sunday: a 23.5 mile long run with the first six in 41:45, next six miles in 37 all of that with G the other University of Dubuque assistant cross country coach, and last 11 in 1:03 with a 5:21 and 5:29 mile in there in the middle. For me to average 6:11 per mile over 23.5 miles is good, to put down 5:30s and 5:40 in there near the end when I am tired is even better! That evening I went over to G's apartment (and C and S's appartment) and we did another seven miles around seven minute mile pace. That made it my first 30+ mile day of serious training and it was all run semifast. The beast part is I still have six hard weeks of training left!

My sister came to visit on Friday and Saturday and that was the extent of my socializing this week. If you want to work 40+ hours a week and run nearly 17 hours a week the only other thing you end up doing is eating and sleeping.

This World Keeps Changing

This was an interesting week. On October 5th Steve Jobs died. I know he had survived pancreatic cancer and a liver transplant, but it just seemed like he wouldn't die, at least anytime soon. People are beginning to wonder about the possible demise of Apple. I think that they put so much work into defining what made Jobs so distinctive that for the next several years, probably the next decade, they have nothing to worry about. Secondly, I can't help but think of the movie Tron or Batman how the son inherits the company. Who knows what the future will hold?

The iPhone 4S came out. It's cool because it has HSPA+ (3x faster data speeds), a better processor (up to 7X faster graphics), an amazing camera, up to 64GB of storage, and to top it all off it has this new thing called Siri which people don't really know what to do with yet.

Unemployment is still high, yet we can not find engineers! There are three open positions in our group for finite element structural analysis engineers for people with 1+ year experience and a salary of $70K+ that have been on the website for a month yet only 12 people have applied, and one is me and one is my coworker who sits behind me and we are just looking for a promotion.

Secondly, I hear about the booming oil and gas fracking industry throughout the midwest and tales of 2% unemployment where someone can find a job they day they arrive in town. Do you really want a job? Go to North Dakota.

On the European economic front they are having problems. We spent so much money, for so long that now it is time to pay it back. Let me tell you from experience it is fun getting into debt, but paying your way out of it is not easy. I am making more money now than I ever have but my standard of living is barely higher than it was in college. I sleep on an air mattress! (It is a double tall queen size.)

This is such an interesting time to be alive! I will be able to say that I watched the world go from no cell phones or Internet to ubiquitous cell phones with the Internet. We went from some of the greatest peace and prosperity to a 10 year old war and a long running recession and very slow recovery.

By the way, stocks on Wall Street have been up and down huge percentages recently (10% per day in some cases) and the more volatile stocks are in general the more money those in the market stand to make. If for no other reason that people are buying and selling and Fidelity, among others, is making a commission on each transaction. In other words, billionaires get richer and unemployed people in their 40s and 50s still can't find jobs.

The Great Recession is Not Going to Relapse... Yet

We are in the process of a paradigm shift, debt is not good, it is enabling, in the same way that a fake ID enables young kids to drink alcohol. We worry about Greece defaulting and low consumer confidence, but let us look at some factual things.

Since I have an amazing career at John Deere let me tell you about business. We can not find finite element structural analysis engineers. If you are looking send me an email. If the economy is so terrible why is it impossible to find anyone with FEA experience? Second we are hiring for our new Chinese construction and forestry operation and it is even harder to find FEA experience in China. India on the other hand is swimming in FEA experience. John Deere recently announced the new construction factories in Brasil worth something like $124 million. Third, we are having great orders for much of our equipment. Why the stock is down at 61 from 95+ a few months ago I don't know. (disclosure: I don't own any John Deere stock, but I plan to buy some within the next two years, perhaps as soon as this week although I don't have enough money to buy many shares at all right now.)

Things are not going to return to the way they were, at least I hope not. "Sustainable Growth" is 0.0% anything greater results in consuming the world eventually. We can not spend 101% of our income as a nation and expect to sustain that. Oh wait, that already collapsed. What necessitates a growing economy anyway? Why is a recession defined as two negative quarters instead of two quarters with growth of -3% or worse? What good can we do sweating the small stuff?

My advice, graduate with an engineering degree asap (and some FEA experience). If you are older, uneducated at the college level, or have a degree which only cuts you out for grad school, I have no advice. I suppose what you can do for yourself is come up with a value proposition for your career. What is my value proposition? Good question. Something like: capable of using his manufacturing experience from three companies and creativity from two patents pending along with an MS in materials science and BS in aerospace to create structures that are stronger, lighter, and thus more energy efficient than current products. Sounds good huh? All of that only took a minutes to come up with as well. If you can't come up with a reason to be hired instead of someone else you will have a more difficult time finding a job.

Finally, the iPhone 4S or 5 comes out today and orders will be huge! I realize that income distribution plays a part in Apple being so successful and that is part of the problem. I'm just saying that business and the economy is far better than a bunch of disconnect-with-business and disconnected-with-America media people and Wall Street people are saying. I probably listen to more NPR than them all as well.

Who is Jason Flogel?

There is absolutely no reason for you to have ever heard of Jason Flogel. Why am I telling you about him? He ran a 2:18 marathon in June and qualified for the Olympic Marathon Trials. He has a child and a wife and a regular 40-hour-per-week job. We have mutual friends because he went to Loras College here in Dubuque so I hear that he runs 100 mile weeks very consistently, but has dealt with injuries. He was apparently struggling with getting "faster" in the last year or so and I talked to his college coach who told him to run 4 x 200 starting hard and running the last one about as fast a possible. Thus even marathoners do speed work.

He is an example of accomplishing one thing that so many of us would like to do, qualify for that one big race. Plus he did it with a career, a child, and a wife. In the odd chance that he reads this: Congratulations Jason on running a 2:18 (and doing it while having a life)!

I Live in Iowa: Week 24

What a nice week! Like I've said, I have a great life. I worked 43 hours, mostly due to 9.5 on Friday. Work is going well. I am working on a project for one of the new forestry machines and due to the finite element analysis that I did, they will probably save 90kg (200 pounds)! This is important because this is a moving assembly on the working end of a machine. Which means that one pound from this assembly is worth perhaps five pounds from a less critical part of the assembly. It is an exciting prospect to be part of a team that is using the full range of tools available to us to make a product that will better fulfill the customer needs than what we currently make. Our current models are industry leaders by the way.

I ran 87 miles, after six consecutive weeks at 100 or more I needed some down time. I was tired. I did wrap up the month of September with 447 miles, one of my better months. I had three workouts this week. Monday I tried to solo a sub 16 5k on the indoor track at the University of Dubuque, but I was hitting 77s and a 78 and 79 so I stepped off after 2400 in 7:47, three seconds slow. Then I did some 800s and 400s and a hard hard 200 to get 5k of work in 15:53, which is okay. It's not what I wanted, but it's better than just 2400 of work. Thursday I did 10x2 minutes hard, 1 minute easy for a total of 29 minutes. I ran that with M my marathon training partner on Thursday afternoon at the Dubuque City high school meet. The former coach at Loras College (M's alma mater) is now the coach at Dubuque Senior High thus the connection. Plus I know a sophomore that runs for "Senior", as they call it around here. Then Friday, feeling good enough for another workout I did a seven mile progression on the heritage trail with the last three miles at 5:38, 5:25, and 5:19. So three workouts this week. That's a nice number and it is what I needed.

Coaching at UD is going really well. We had a hard workout Monday and a moderate workout Thursday. Saturday, nearly every runner on the team set a personal record. Plus, we are not even peaking yet. I am sure that we are going to have more breakthroughs the last three meets of the season over the next six weeks.

That was about my life.