14 miles

On Saturday, Scout and I went on our longest run yet...14 miles. My plan was to run a nice, relaxed run along the Clear Creek down to the Ralston Creek heading East. However, as I walked outside and stood in the driveway waiting for my Garmin to find a sattelite, I felt a stiff breeze coming from the NW. So, we changed out plans and ran down to the Clear Creek and followed that trail out to Golden and back. We averaged 8:51 on the run, and I was tired at the end. That was probably a bit too fast, but my excuse is that we had a slight downhill on the way back and a bit of a wind at our backs. That's my story and I'm sticking to it :)

You would think Scout would look like she does in this picture after running 14 miles...tired and relaxed. But no. She was running around the yard like a crazy dog, playing fetch and harassing Lady (my cousin Anne's dog).

I need to get moving on soliciting pledges for the scholarship. I'm not sure that the scholarship will happen this year or next. Graduation at Groton is May 18th, and I should have a dollar amount solidified for this year by May 10th, so it may work. My job for today is to get the contact info from JC for the Foundation staff that can set this up. I don't really want people sending checks to me but would rather have the $$ going directly to the college. I know they have professionals on staff that take care of this stuff. I'll do my research. Also, I need to write letters to Coach Luecke's former athletes telling them of this opportunity. My mom sent me all of their names from yearbooks past so that I didn't have to tax my memory in figuring out who may be interested in contributing. She also agreed to make copies and do the mailing...a regular secretary. Nice. Now if I can convince her to come and live with me and do all of the other stuff I don't like to do...clean, cook, do laundry, dishes, grocery shopping, etc., I'll be set. Mom, doesn't that sound like a good idea? I know you read this so feel free to post a comment with your reply.

Ugh...SICK! and now on the mend

Sunday morning 3 a.m. I woke up very sick...bad stomach bug. Perhaps the sushi from Saturday night? Not sure... Barfed every 30 min. until early afternoon. Not a pretty sight. I was left very weak and 5 lbs. lighter.

Tuesday I was able to eat a regular meal so I decided to go for a slow and brief run. Scout was happy since she had been laying around since Sunday while I was prone or puking. No Garmin, no time or distance goals, just a run to see how I felt. Surprising well in fact.

Today (Thursday) Scout and I set off for Crown Hill. This is one of my favorite places to run. Today a coyote was running along the trail just in front of us for about a half a mile. I've seen it before on or very near the trail. It seems to be very comfortable around people, which is quite unsettling.

I didn't really know what this run would be like. I wasn't sure if I had fully recovered from the bug or if I would still be weak. As we set out, I didn't look at our pace until after mile one. I was surprised to see it at 8:47 as it is an uphill mile to get to the park. As it turns out, that first mile was our slowest. Over the 9 miles we averaged 8:33 min/mile. I'm very happy with that. It seems that my training in conjunction with a little time off is really working.

All in all, I'm happy with my training so far. I've made a massage appointment to work out those kinks and keep me feeling good. Only 11 weeks to go!

Snowshoe!

Last weekend I was very happy to have my friend Heather come to Denver for a visit. It was great to see her again. On Saturday we went up near Henderson mine to snowshoe. It was a beautiful day! The trail head was crowded with like-minded individuals, but soon we were off roading it through the trees and all was well. The snow was great! Scout had a wonderful time and was dog-tired at the end of the day. Heather has some pics she took of the day and once she shoots them over, I'll post.

Long, slow runs...

I'm not a big fan of long, slow runs. The entire time I am supposed to be running at a slow pace, I think "I can run faster than this. What's the matter with me?" And then I speed up and the long run is no longer so slow. But this, evidently, is what gets me into training trouble. I get burned out and then I'm not able to complete the long runs I need to in order to train properly for this marathon. I joined a running club this winter, Runner's Edge of the Rockies. I learned that I should be running all of my long runs at one minute per mile slower than I will be running the marathon. That means I should stay at around 9:30 pace. I've been trying really hard to stick to this plan and not make my runs faster than they should be. Perhaps running the long runs faster than 9:30 pace is a sign that I'm getting better and the training is working?

On Friday, Feb. 8th I ran 5.5 miles around Crown Hill Park. This is a beautiful open space park with an outer loop of 2 miles, and an inner loop around a lake of 1.2 miles. And the entrance to the park is exactly 1 mile from my house. Scout is always an excellent dog in the park, and gets tons of praise from other people as we pass by just because she is heeling nicely. I think they are all just jealous because their dogs pull them all over. Frankly, I can't take any credit for how good Scout is. She came to us last year already trained. We adopted her from the Colorado Prison Trained Canine Companion program http://www.coloradoci.com/ . While in "prison", she learned all of her basic commands (sit, down, come, heel, wait). So my only job was to stay consistent with her training. Makes it easy for me! That day we stayed consistent over all of the miles and ran an even 9:30 pace. Right on target!

Sunday was our longest run yet...12 miles. We started this run at the Golden Spike at I-76 and 54th Ave. in Arvada. We followed the Ralston Creek through Arvada to 72nd and Ward, then turned around and ran back. It was a beautiful day, in the mid 50's and sunny. Lots of people were out with their kids and dogs on the trail. Seeing so many people made the time go by quickly. Scout again was on her best behavior, running right beside me the entire time. Pace? Now this is when I get myself into trouble. Average pace was 9:07 for the 12 miles. Mile over mile was fairly consistent ranging from 8:56 to 9:19. The variance comes from slowing down to get around people hogging up the trail or going around huge puddles of water from the melted snow. You can see by the elevation (indicated in green) that the first 6 miles were slightly uphill. My slowest mile was actually mile 6 at 9:19 and the fastest mile was mile 8 at 8:56. I was tired at the end, but not so much that I couldn't keep running if I had to. Hopefully this is a good sign. And another good thing...no knee pain!

Scholarship

Here is more information on the scholarship mentioned in my introduction. On December 23, 2007, my high school cross country and track coach, Rob Luecke, passed away at the young age of 47. He left behind a lovely wife, Becky, and three beautiful kids Chelsea, Austin, and Hannah.

Both Rob and Becky attended Jamestown College and moved to Groton shortly after graduation. Rob was a 1st grade teacher and a coach. My first encounter with Coach Luecke was in 7th grade basketball. I don't ever remember having a conversation with my parents (or with myself for that matter) about going out for basketball. I just found out about it from some friends and showed up on the court. Why not? I didn't have anything better to do that day, I guess. Coach Luecke introduced himself and I remember thinking...wow, that white guy has an afro! He had a huge head of curly hair, and a welcome back Kotter mustache. Under that mustache was a perma-grin. He was always smiling.

I remember well that I didn't have a clue as to what I was doing on the basketball court. I couldn't dribble, couldn't pass, couldn't shoot, and definitely couldn't do any of that while moving. All I was good for was running back and forth down the court. So after that very long first season of basketball in 7th grade, Coach Luecke pulled me aside and said "I think you should go out for cross country." You see, he was also the XC coach. Evidently he felt I might have more success doing something that didn't require coordination of any kind. My response was, "but can I still play basketball?" Coach said "No". But of course, as he did this he had a smile on his face.

So I became a runner. Little did I know that this seemingly insignificant moment would have such an impact on my life. Running became part of my identity. It gave me direction and a purpose. I gained confidence in myself where I had little before. Coach Luecke taught me the value of hard work, dedication, committement, and teamwork. I believe these values still hold true for me today. He taught me to push through the pain, when you feel like you cannot run another step, push through just a bit further, and then a little more. Before you know it, you've gone further than you ever have before, or faster, or both. This became somewhat of a metaphor for my life. Work hard, push through the hard part because the pleasure on the other side will be worth it that much more. I learned that even if I didn't win the race, I could still be happy with my self and my performance if I could honestly say I did my best.

I chose Jamestown College after graduation for a couple of reasons. First, it was where Coach Luecke had gone, and I had a great amount of respect for him. Second, I was impressed by Coach Jim Clark and the quality of his women's teams. And third, my mom finally go sick of me messing around so much during my senior year that she handed me the papers for Jamestown and said "sign". This was probably another momentous occasion as I was certainly headed down a shady path during the later part of high school. Having made that committement to college had been enough to make me straighten up. It's amazing the amount of insight a mother can have.

So Jamestown College became my home for the next four years. Coach Clark is an amazing coach. From the very beginning he believes in potential. His recruits aren't always the state champions, the record holders, the best of the best. They are generally an ecclectic mix of accomplished athletes and those that have a lot of room for improvement. Coach Clark can get you to perform at your highest potential through his rigourous training schedule, but also simply by believing in you. He believes that you will do nothing less than your best. And more often than not, that's what he gets.

All of that and you are still wondering why I titled this blog entry "Scholarship". Well, what I would like to do is set up the Rob Luecke Memorial Scholarship which will help pay for one Groton student to attend Jamestown College each year. For this year, I would like to collect pledges on the number of miles I am running to train to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Pledges can be made as a certain amount per mile, per leg (because Scout runs with me we have six legs), or a one time $ amount. I expect to run almost 500 miles by May 10th, the qualifying marathon. My total as of today (2/10/08) is 73 miles.

Alternatively, if you are a runner, walker, or cyclist, you can pledge on your own miles instead of mine. I am looking at ways to accept pledges from this site, but I'm not there yet. If you would like to make a pledge, you can respond with a comment to this post, or you can email me at reneemcdonald86@hotmail.com . The cost of Jamestown College for the 2008-2009 academic year is $19,885 for tuition, fees, room and board. That's a hefty amount for most Groton families. My goal is to raise $1000. Let's see if we can do it!

Weekend Runs

I'm a little behind on my posting, so don't be confused by the post date. I've been trying to get over a head cold for the past week, and it's not getting much better. As I set out for my planned 11 mile run on Saturday 02/02, I realized that it probably was not wise to run this entire distance outside in the cold, feeling as sick as I did. So I ended up running only 6 miles. I began at my house, ran down the Clear Creek trail, around the middle school, along some of my favorite residential streets and then circled back home. The route is quite hilly, and it felt like I was running with a bag over my head, so I was surprised by my pace once I was able to download the information from my Garmin. My average pace was 9:16 min/mile. I hope the Garmin does not lie! Since Scout was not aware that we were supposed to run 11 miles, she was happy with six. Too bad she can't come to the gym to run the rest on the treadmill.

On Sunday, 2/03 I went to the gym to complete the mileage for the week. I decided to do some "speed" work to gauge my fitness at this early stage. After a 2 mile warm-up at 10:00 pace, I did three half-mile repeats at 8:00 pace with half-mile rest periods between at 11:00 pace, followed by 1.5 miles at 10:00 pace. This did not feel bad at all. Perhaps I should be running these repeats faster, or do more of them? I'll have to ask my friend, Scott, who is a marathon coach. The best thing about the gym on Sunday was that everyone was watching the Super Bowl so I had the place to myself. Because it was so empty, I took some time to lift and do some plyometric drills after the treadmill.

Monday was a day off from running. I haven't slept well for the past week or so with this cold, so I was very tired. I fell asleep at about 7:00 and woke up at midnight...just in time to go to bed! Now it is 7:00 on Tuesday night and I'm off to the gym again. It is cold and icy outside, so no running in the dark. Scout has to be ok with just a long walk for today. This is how she entertains herself when she doesn't get to run with me. She's a good dog!

Holy Snow!

Scout and I started this run at about 5:30 p.m. The sky was overcast with a few small flakes coming down. By the time we got to the Clear Creek trail (1 mile), it was snowing pretty hard. I love to run in the snow. It is very peaceful. My plan was to run 6 miles as we were meeting friends for trivia and beer at 7:00. However, the snow was so gorgeous I decided to keep going and run a few more. However, by the time I turned around at mile 4, the sky was dumping! 2 inches had fallen on the trail in about 40 min, and it was still coming down hard. I had 4 miles to get back home, and the wind was now in my face. So much for the peaceful run! Now it was head down and hammer home. I had to stop under each overpass just to get the crusted snow off of my eyelashes and clean off Scout's face so she could see. Here are some pics taken when we got back.

Average pace for this run was 9:13 min/mile. Miles 1 & 2 were right at 9:00 pace, and miles 3 & 4 were tempo at 8:31 and 8:35. Then I turned around into the wind and ran 9:30's for the next 3. Mile 8 was the slowest at 10:14. As you can see from the elevation, we live on a big hill, so that last mile up is certainly a challenge for me. Hills are not my friends.

Long run #1

January 26th was my first long run of the training plan. With the Brookings Marathon just 16 weeks away, I'd better get moving. This run was on one of my favorite trails. I call it the Easley trail run because it begins just off Easley Road and 44th Ave. in Golden. Much of the part that I run is a dirt/gravel maintenence road along a drainage ditch. At about mile 3, the trail passes under 64th Ave. and turns to cement. Here it becomes the Ralston Creek path as it travels up and around the Ralston resevoir and then east into Arvada. I like this trail because it is often deserted except for the deer, coyote, and fox in the area. This day was unusually warm for January (53 degrees), so there were more people that usual out on the trail including those hiking, riding horses, and bikepathletes (i.e. bike path racers, weekend spandex wearing warriors). Scout and I made sure to stay out of the way of the bikepathletes.

Average pace over the 10 mile route was 9:28 which is about 1 min. per mile slower than my race pace. Range was 9:00 - 10:13 / mile, with the 10 min mile at mile 5 where you can see from the elevation chart I gained 176 ft. I did not wear my heart rate monitor as it rubs too much on the long runs and hurts. Once I get into speed and hill workouts, I'll wear it more often.