Race Report – Run/Walk to Irish Fest

/ Race Reports / 4 minutes of reading

This article was originally posted by Ed at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

Race day – looking for a personal record (PR) – likely ready for that PR. Running the Run/Walk to Irish Fest 5K. Had trouble getting to the starting area but I had built in a good deal of extra time – always do. Then I had parking issues – the QPS parking lot machine wouldn’t accept any cards, only cash and did not give any change. So, I left and found a free street parking location – two hour parking – plenty of time to leave before two hours.

I checked in for the race and pinned the race bib (with timing chip) on to my Hillrunner shirt. I got myself in a relaxed mood, hit the port-a-potty and then started on a two-mile warm-up run. It was very warm out there and 100% sunny. I kept it easy at about an 8:30 per mile pace. At the end of the warm-up I was drenched with sweat – it was dripping from me! I was thinking that this may be a tough race to PR after all. I did some light stretching staying loose and relaxed (in the shade.)

Started to line-up for the start – there was some sort of system to get people to line-up appropriately but it was not announced or made obvious. I saw Andy Ruffalo and made sure to wish him luck and to race well – kinda silly since he is a great runner and racer but I did so anyway. I also noticed a race bandit right next to me a lady with black and grey hair in a pony tail and a purple shirt. That peeved me a bit as nearly everyone else paid for the race and she was going to benefit off us.

Then we all heard a whispery "ready, set, go" most of us could not tell that was the start of the race but by two seconds – we all knew to get going. I started out strong keeping an eye on the Garmin – I did not want to get out too fast. I held a good pace through the first half mile while working my way around some folks going a hair slower than I was. Hit mile one in 6:08 and was feeling good, on pace for a strong PR. During that first mile as we ran along the lakefront right next to the Art Museum a lady was kinda trapped against the rail at the lake and she kept "oh my God, this is so cool" over and over again as a fast, thick crowed of runners was blasting past her. The next half mile I worked my way through a couple of runners and was still on pace although a bit slowed running that half mile in 3:09. I picked up the pace a hair to get back on track for that PR.

Then it ended. Less than a quarter mile later a muscle in my lower back just seized up quite painfully. I immediately pulled off to the left out of traffic before slowing down and made my way to a picnic table. I shut off my Garmin and I sat there for a minute or two trying to stretch and massage that area. I was not going to end up a DNF (did not finish) so I started walking and then jogging the course. I was embarrassed and disgusted about how I was running and took off my Hillrunner shirt – I did not want anyone seeing that name with how I was running.

Coming into the last quarter mile were a couple of boys not older than 10! I gave them encouraging words and one of the boys took off with a great kick towards the finish line. I kept telling the other one to "go get him" but I think he was done and just eyeing the finish line. I started to accelerate a tiny bit being mindful of how my back felt. I didn’t even look at the time clock as I crossed the line – just did some more light stretching and massaging of my back and drank some water.

I did not look at results until today. 78 out of 800 and 7th out of 75 in my age group. Both put me in the top 10% of each category but I had a terrible day. I was on pace to make 17th overall and 2nd in my age group. I know what I am capable of now if race day is "my day."

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Race report: Hank Aaron State Trail 5K

/ Race Reports / 6 minutes of reading

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

There’s something about this race that keeps me coming back. I always think I can conquer the course but I never seem to be able to. I always seem to run slower than I feel I’m capable of. This year, I planned a strategy that I thought would help me finally conquer the course and I decided to give it a shot.

Going into this race, I was a little unsure of my fitness. The racing year started off positive with a couple solid races in May and early June. Then I got sick in July and spent most of the month sick enough that my training was really thrown off. I was still getting in some training but I was, at best, treading water for at least 3 weeks. Finally, about 3 weeks before this race, I began feeling good enough to plunge back into full training. I put up a couple solid but not steallar weeks of training and my confidence was returning. With a solid race strategy for this course, was I back where I was in May and June, when I was already in sub-17 5K shape?

I set out on race day to go after that elusive (on this course) sub-17 5K. The first mile of the course is essentially flat, looping around the Miller Park parking lots. I got out fairly well and found myself settling into a large second pack while watching a lead pack of about 12 pull away. By about 3/4 of a mile, I worked my way to the lead of the chase pack and set out on closing the gap to the back of the lead pack, which was already breaking up a little. Some of that chase pack was going with me and I found myself in about 13th place with a couple of runners coming back. Through the mile in 5:28, I felt like I was on target. Now starts the challenging first half of the second mile, though. I wanted to push a bit but not bury myself. I was gaining on 12th place but, just before passing, got passed myself. So I was still in 13th. Then a few more guys passed me and I tried to hook on to their backs. I’ve never been a terribly strong uphill runner but I didn’t want to give up too much on this climb. Still, I just couldn’t hang with them as they slipped away from me.

Nearing the turnaround, I found myself leading a pack and somewhere around 15th place. The leaders began coming back and I was beginning to eye up how to make the turn. I moved out a little so I could take the turn wide and keep my pace up some. Someone was on my outside and another worked in to my inside. As I went around the turn, I had to go a little wide for the guy on my inside and the guy on my outside fell behind me. I did manage to keep my speed up fairly well but now it was time to hammer. The course levels out near the turnaround but I was soon to be going down the hill. Even though it was quite gradual, I had to take full advantage of this if I wanted a good time. First, though, I spotted a UW-Stout singlet worn by one of the lead women and had to give a quick Stout howl. Once it’s in your blood, you can’t get it out I guess. Down the hill, I just couldn’t get my legs going. A few more people passed me down that stretch and I found myself near 20th place. Then, with cones separating the "out" from the "back" of the out and back course, some lady heading out crossed the cones right into my path. Maybe it wasn’t as close as it seemed to me but I felt like I was barrelling down toward her at a pretty high speed and there she was right in front of me, seemingly with no concern about me rapidly approaching her. She did get back on her side of the road before I got there but not before I felt a little panic. I think that threw my breathing out of rhythm and I found myself gasping and making quite audible grunting sounds for at least the next half mile. Not what you want at around 2 miles of a 5K.

I went through 2 miles knowing that mile took a lot out of me and I was off my goal pace. I just knew I didn’t have it in my legs to take enough advantage of the downhill to make up for the uphill. I heard the time, somewhere around 11:20, and felt pretty deflated. Then I reminded myself one of my reasons to be out there, to get a good solid effort in before the important races come up. You can do a lot of good things in workouts but there is no workout that simulates pushing to your absolute limit in the last half mile of a race on dead tired legs. You only get that on race day. So I kept pushing, kept digging, kept fighting. One or two guys passed me early in mile 3, then I held my position. I kept digging to get back up to them but couldn’t. I could tell there were at least a couple of guys right behind me but I couldn’t separate from them. One of them got me toward the end but I held off the other. Looking at the results, I actually held off the others. It looks like I led a pack into the finish line.

Final result: 21st in 17:50. Not the time or place I was hoping for but the best possible effort I could give on that day. In retrospect, I don’t think I was fading when I gave up the net of 8 places between the 1 mile mark and the finish. I think, when I took the lead of that large chase pack and set out to run down the stragglers of the lead pack, a good portion of that chase pack went with me. As the pack broke up, some guys ran off the front and those were the guys who passed me.

Whatever the case, it was what it was. This course got the best of me again. It seems like nobody gets the time they expect there, though. Everyone seemed to be short of their target times or what I would expect of them. As an example, Andy Ruffalo always runs sub-16. Usually in the 15:40s it seems. Even on courses that, on paper, look more difficult than this one. He ran 16:21. There was some speculation from some that the course was long. I can’t say one way or the other. I know that long, grinding incline in mile 2 takes its toll on me all the time. Whatever the case, maybe I need to adjust my expectations on this course if I go back to this race in the future. It seems like it is just a slow course for whatever reason.

In the end, I got a good workout in and I got some good practice pushing hard on tired legs, even while dealing with some demotivating events. I’ll build myself up from this experience and move on. Next up: Stout Alumni. Looking forward to pulling out the spikes!

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Recovery aids

/ Training / 4 minutes of reading

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

This spring, a runner I coach sent me this article and asked my opinion on it. Here’s how I answered (with a few edits and extra references).

I used to jump in the ice bath after every run. I used to ice anything that bothered me in the least and I’d take NSAIDs whenever something seemed wrong. I’d take antioxidants twice a day on my doctor’s advice.

Once I got out of college and didn’t have 50 gallon barrels and whirlpools with chest freezers full of ice right next to them and all the other resources of your typical collegiate training room, a lot of the “routine rehab” I did fell to the wayside. I just didn’t have the resources and facilities to make it easy and, after working an 8 hour day and spending 2+ hours a day running, didn’t have the time or energy to make it happen. You know what? I was just fine. I was running better than ever. So I looked at other things. I looked at icing every little thing that bothered me. I kept icing things that seemed like major problems but I didn’t ice everything that came along. Those little things cleared up just as quickly without ice as they did with.

Even earlier, I read a story of a runner who died from medical complications that were caused by his daily use of NSAIDs and I swore off using them as soon as I finished reading the story. Unfortunately, this was before every story was on the Internet and I can’t find it online but I do think this story points out some of the concerns.

Interestingly, alternating ice and heat was something I first heard about back in the early 90s. The idea was to reduce inflammation with the ice but increase blood flow with the heat. For probably over a decade, I have heard very little about it but it always seemed to work better for me than straight ice.

More recently, in the last 2-3 years give or take, there has been a lot of talk about whether these recovery aids really help us or lessen the training effect. In short, inflammation and muscle damage are the result of training stress and it’s the process of recovering from these things that stimulate our bodies to rebuild stronger. If we use all kinds of aids to lessen these things, are we affecting the stimulus and the response of our bodies? Here’s one example of this discussion.

Where I am now:

Personally, I’ve stopped taking antioxidant supplements. I try to get everything I need from my diet and there is reason to believe that mega doses may lessen the body’s response to training. Essentially, you’re sabotaging your training if this is the case. Besides, there are side effects to mega doses that are coming to light and aren’t very good.

As for ice and heat, I only do so when I have a problem that seems to be an impending injury. Then I alternate ice and heat on the problem spot. I haven’t done an ice bath since I graduated from college, although I can see the benefit of a post-race ice bath.

NSAIDs are out of the discussion for me. More hazard than they are worth.

One thing I am becoming interested in is hydrotherapy and compression in general. If you think about it, hydrotherapy is in many ways compression. Getting waist deep in water is essentially the most effective pair of compression pants you can find. Personally, I think simple low tech hydrotherapy of spending time with at least your legs submerged in water can make a big difference for runners. Whether the water is hot, cold or just right isn’t as important as the compression of the water on your legs. Whether I’m in a whirlpool with jets massaging my muscles or a swimming pool playing with my daughter doesn’t matter and I don’t have to tell you which one I can spend more time doing.

I’m also becoming more interested in compression socks for the same reason and because we don’t always have a pool available.

Now, I’m not sure if there will be a debate coming in the future about compression having the same drawbacks as ice baths but it’s an interesting technique and some of the concerns seem to be removed.

Finally, foam rolling and massage are widely accepted as very positive with, as of now, no negative side effects.

So what does this all mean in 5 sentences or less? I think ice baths are overrated, maybe useful after a race but overused in general training. Alternating ice and heat on a potential injury can be helpful but not on every little thing that comes up. NSAIDs are generally bad if used with any consistency. Massage and foam rolling seem to be very good and compression via socks or spending time submerged in water look promising. Hey, I got it all out in less than 5 sentences!

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Race Against the Goats

/ Miscellaneous / 5 minutes of reading

This article was originally posted by Charlene at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

Sunday morning I was just about to head out the door to go to church when the phone rang. It was the local police calling to inform me of 5 (FIVE) large goats in our yard. We live in town by the way. I went outside and saw 5 large shaggy goats with very large horns. Officer Mike and I decided that our only option on a Sunday morning was to call my Dad and have him bring the cattle trailer to town. We had no idea where the goats came from. While Dad was on his way I orchestrated a plan with my children and sleepy neighbors to herd the goats around the house and into the trailer. Our yard along with the neighbors is somewhat contained so I thought that if it did not work on the first shot we could circle the goats around and try again.

These were not tame goats. They herded quite well but were very wild and skittish. We had everyone in place and everything looked to be going to plan when the goats went totally crazy upon reaching the trailer and scattered. If you know anything about goats you know that they can jump up and over just about anything. For a few seconds the biggest of the billys was in the trailer but we were unable to shut the door before he charged at me and I scurried out of the way. I am brave but not that brave. 3 ran out the driveway and 2 jumped the back fence.

I chased the 3 down the street. I would say we were going about 10 miles per hour. I was wearing flip flops. I only stepped in goat poo once. I was able to run to the far side of the street and get ahead of them to turn them back towards my driveway. This was working well until they cut into a backyard and onto the railroad tracks. Dad and I were able to get them off the tracks and through a church parking lot. We chased them up a dead end street and they sought refuge in a playset. One goat chomped on a swing. We woke up that section of the neighborhood and with the help of Officer Mike again made a plan.

The plan was for Dad to back up the trailer between the two houses and we would herd them towards the trailer with volunteers from the fire department. You can all imagine how easy it is to again back up a 5th wheel cattle trailer all over a residential neighborhood. We managed to get 2 of the 3 goats into the trailer. The 3rd goat ran into a nearby shed.

We had her cornered and I thought with several of the largest members of the CFD that we would catch her for sure. I instructed them to corner her and grab her by the horns. Unfortunately they were not skilled goat catchers and she easily escaped. I followed her through the brush and back down onto the tracks and across several yards. A man on a bike was hot on her trail too and we searched for somewhere to corner her. She then swam across the river.

Officer Mike gave me a ride in the squad and we headed over with the Fire Dept and the cattle trailer to where she came out of the river. The firefighters had hoped to catch her there as it was a softball field and there was fencing to corner her with. She again evaded them and we chased her across about 10 yards until she took refuge in the local scrap yard. We called off the search for her then and decided that she could just live out her life there.

While all this was going on the hunt was going on in the local industrial park for the other two goats. My 10 year old daughter was in on this and one trailer loading attempt was made but failed. My dad told me that an employee of the plant where the goats were cornered decided to try to lasso Big Billy. Big Billy charged away and smacked into a office window full force. It did not break but did receive horn gouges. Dad said this event was quite humorous. Eventually the two goats made it into the 100 acre cornfield across the tracks. By this time we had firefighters radioing the goats positions and such but it was time to give up as it would be impossible to get them out of the corn.

Dad and I took the 2 goats to a nearby rescue farm. We rehashed with Officer Mike all the woulda shoulda couldas. In the end we just decided that wild goats are very hard to catch. The rescue farm did find a good home for the two captured goats.

Officer Matt did find out that the goats belonged to an infamous local farmer that all the other farmers hate due to how he treats his livestock and numerous shady business dealings. Once I knew who the owner was I understood why they were so wild and scared of people. He did not want the captured goats back at all. The two goats that escaped into the corn were spotted along hwy 151 that afternoon. The owner did go to retrieve those two goats by shooting them. I know that next to a busy 4 lane hwy that is what needed to be done but it still made me so sad that we did not safely capture them that morning. As frustrating as our wild goat chase was I did grow fond of them and they were really cool to watch when they were in my yard.

As of right now the 5th and final goat on the run is still chomping grass in the scrap yard. Even though it is a scrap yard it is quite woodsy and I suspect she will live out her life there as no one is ever going to catch her. Dad pegged her as the ring leader and one very smart goat.

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Man who killed Henry Dennis while driving drunk gets 90 days jail

/ News/Elites / 3 minutes of reading

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

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Two years after Henry Dennis was killed by a drunk driver while riding bike on a country road, the man who killed him got 90 days in jail. This follows several recent stories in Wisconsin about light penalties, usually just fines, for drivers who have killed bicyclists.

Dennis was riding his bike, on the paved shoulder of a county highway off the traffic lane, with a flashing headlight and a flashing taillight. The driver admitted that he saw the flashing red taillight. The driver, tested 2 hours after the incident, was above the legal limit.

This one hits me a little closer than usual because I had met Dennis on a couple of occasions. In my first ever Milwaukee area road race, back in 1998, I finished a distant second to him at the Samson Stomp 10K. I talked with him after the race and he just seemed like a great guy to me. In 2005, he volunteered to join Team HillRunner.com for the Madison Jingle Bell Run where he and friend Nick Winkel performed a front running masterpiece to lead the team to victory. I didn’t get to talk with him or Nick for long that day but they both were very gracious in just being willing to join the team and were very humble and gracious in the short talk I did have with them. They didn’t need to be out there trying to run hard in the cold and on snow covered roads but they were because someone Dennis knew asked them to join the team representing a website they had probably never heard of run by a person Dennis probably never recalled meeting.

Something needs to be done. From what I hear, this isn’t just a Wisconsin thing. This is the standard practice in many states. While laws state that pedestrians (including runners) and bicyclists have as much right to the road as motor vehicles, in practice it seems to be accepted that pedestrians and bicyclists are second class citizens. If a motor vehicle kills a pedestrian or bicyclist, it was an accident and the death is just an unfortunate consequence of our modern world.

I know I’m preaching to the choir but this is the wrong way to look at things. We have every right to be out there. We have the responsibility act in a safe manner but drivers of motor vehicles also have the responsibility to share the road and act in a safe manner around us, such as not driving out of the driving lane when they see a flashing light they should know indicates someone is there. In Wisconsin, we have a law that drivers are required to give a 3 foot clearance between their vehicles and pedestrians or bicyclists. This law and others like it are routinely ignored by law enforcement. For public safety, we need these laws enforced and we need people who kill pedestrians and bicyclists to be punished to the fullest extent of the law. 90 days is a disgrace. Cases where the killer gets off with nothing more than a fine are beyond disgraceful.

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