I'mm Baaaack

Well after a few days out of the loop our newest member of the family is home and all is well with him (Eli) and my bride. Having had three others I don't remember this being so time consuming maybe because I have three others who consume a lot of my time. Anyway I've gotten a bit behind on things so am trying to catch up. The Mid week workouts have been posted, with everyone pretty much doing what they did last week. I was able to see quite a few of you out at the Seafair Torchlight 8K on Saturday night as I fulfilled my job as Elite athlete coordinator and spotter for KIRO calling out the leaders of the race from a cool bright red corvette pace car. I’ve never seen a race from that perspective it was pretty fun to see how it played out.

Now that a lot of you have had a couple of weeks of hill work in I imagine that you should start seeing some large improvements in your overall fitness. Make sure to make the most of them so that they have a greater effect. As I tell most the best way for you to do this workout is to get pissed at the hill. It maybe your friend but from time to time friends have tiffs. So get angry and just work the hill hard. I’m sure next week when we have the pace run (time trial) you’ll see a nice improvement from last month.

As me move through August remember that on Labor Day (Sept 3) the Super Jock n Jill half marathon will be out in Woodinville. For those running a fall marathon this race comes at perfect time. There is nothing like this to test your fitness as you prepare for your race, so I would mark this down on your calendar. It’s a fairly flat course which affords the opportunity for a fast time.

Ok I’ll see you tonight.

Mid week, Training, Baby , $$

The mid week workouts are posted. For those doing hills if you did one set last week (3) then do two sets. If you did 2 sets (6) then 3 sets tonight. If you did 3 sets last week then lucky you only 3 sets. For rest of you it’s pretty much business as usual. Remember hills are your friends!!

Remember for a lot of you we’re in the meat of the schedule so the work you do now which is the most intense will also be the workouts that probably ultimately determine how your races in October go. So try to make the most them. Most of you have made solid improvements over the last few weeks so I’m sure that will continue on through this phase. As my college coach said “you just got to rub a little tough skin on”.

Ok with Chuckit #4 due on Thursday my attendance might be a little flaky over the next couple of weeks. I might also be a little slow on the e-mail reply trigger so cut me a little slack if I am.

One more thing, with Chuckit #4 (Eli)coming into our lives my wife will be out of work for a few weeks so she won’t be getting a pay check. I know some of you owe the chuckster a little $. If you could send it my way that would be grand. Most of you know I’m pretty flexible with this and let it slide and I don’t really mind it much but for now it would great if you could help us out. I would hate to have to barbecue the goats ;)

Hills, Cold and Goats

I’ve posted the midweek workouts and a lot of you are starting hills. Some a little late because we stayed with the tempo runs a little longer as a lot of you were enjoying them and some a little early but there are only a few of you and that meant running tempo runs by yourself so I put you on hills a little early. A lot of you know the drill when it come to hill work but for those who don’t know about them here is a description. I’ll also go over it with everyone so that they are clear on the workout.

Those of you training for the earlier fall events are reaching the toughest part of the schedule which also means the part that will be the most beneficial. That being said make sure that you take care of yourself with good nutrition, plenty of rest and taking care of your body. Something that you can do that really seems to help my legs out a long with icing is to soak your legs in cold water. I’ve been doing my long runs with someone who after the runs goes down to shilshoe and wades into the water and lets nature take over letting the cold water and wave action work over his legs. I living with my goats a bit out and away from Puget sound have another way of doing it. I use the Shower massage. I get into the shower and work it over my legs with cold water (of course the goats aren't allowed here) for a few minutes and then change over to hot water repeating for about 20 minutes. It’s very important to end with the cold water. The thing I like about this is that I don’t have to subject body parts that don’t really like to get cold to any part of the cold process. Another thing I like about this method is that I can isolate any particular sore spot. You would be amazed at how good your legs feel after this treatment. So whether you do it in the sound or in the shower treating your legs to a little cold. Ok I’ll see most of you the next couple of nights on the hills.

Acclimatization, Impressive Mid Week, Pacer Love,

This week we had a good example of what you’ll be doing over the next few months as you train for the fall races. What I’m talking about is acclimatization. This week it was to the heat. After Tuesday and Wednesday 80 degrees seems rather nice doesn’t it? You would have said or thought that a couple of weeks ago. So now think about your training this way. If we get you out of your comfort zone from time to time what wasn’t comfortable a month ago now is. If running hills now seems hard after we do some hill work they won’t seem as hard and so on. As your long runs get longer what once seemed long won’t any more. So if nothing else after this week those hot Saturday morning long runs won’t seem so hot.

I was very impressed by the turnouts this week on Tuesday and Wednesday. The heat was making me a little soft and I thought about cancelling the Wednesday night run, I also thought that not many would show up. It did put a dent in the turnout but you know it was pretty solid. In another moment of softness I thought about changing the workout from the Pace Run (Time Trial)to something else but you know what the majority wanted to do that darn pace run. They did slowed down by the heat but they did it with no complaints. Like I said I was impressed and I told them now they had something to tell their kids about how back in 07 despite the grueling conditions they had to get out and do the workout because it would make them better runners.

A message sent to the Seafair race director about the pacers.

Hi- I wanted to take a moment to let you know what a terrific job the 2:20 pacers did for the Half Marathon today. The two women (I didn't get their names)( that would be Lynn and Cindy) were enthusiastic and very consistent. It was a joy running with them as they helped pace my friend to her personal best time. Thank you again for supplying such terrific pacers. Sincerely. Craig Wood

Thanks to you both and all of the other pacers and volunteers who helped out. Great job to those that ran the races, there were quite a few PR’s on a tough course. Running the ½ marathon myself I think you would run 2 min faster on a flat course.(maybe it just wishful thinking ) Any way great job to all.

A new member of the Chuckit Family (our fourth) will here on the 26th so the next few weeks for me might be a little come and go. I will keep you up to date if I’m unable to make a workout or so.

Mid Week, Seafair

Since most of you will be running the 2-Mile Pace Run(Time Trial) tonight(except if you ran the Seafair marathon or half) I won't be posting the workouts. To make it a little easier, crowded and less dusty we are going to run two heats. 14:00 and faster will go first. Everyone else will go right after the first heat. It will be on the hot side tonight so make sure that you don't overdo it on the warm up. With warmer weather it's easier to warm-up. Those of you who ran the longer races over the weekend just run the warm-up and maybe do some light strides to warm-up.

With everyone who paced, volunteered and ran the races over the weekend at Seafair there were about 60 of you out at the races this weekend. It was great to see all of you. There were some good running especially for Ian and Erin who both ran the Marathon which with the warmer weather and the hilly course had outstanding runs. There were over 20 Chucksters in the half and I was even able to get my big butt around the hilly course. Yes it’s true I can run, but I forgot what it’s like to run hard over a hard course, whew that was hard, but I did finish ;) Great job to those that ran and thanks to the pacers who did another outsatnding job and to the people who volunteered on short notice.

I’ve updated the 2007 times list with the times from the weekend. If I missed you let me know so I can add you. Those who paced the whole half I didn’t put in your times as you more or less had training runs. If you want though I can add them.

Mid Week, Hydration II, Andy, Ironman CDA, Volunteers Needed !!

As tomorrow is the 4th of July we so won’t be meeting in Kirkland. Speaking of Kirkland that little group has swollen to about 30 people on Wednesday nights, which would be an all time high for the eastside group. That makes my trek up to those parts very much worth it. I do expect those Wednesday runners to get their workout in this week.

The workouts for this week for the most part are the same as last weeks. Click here We’ll be doing the 2-mile pace run(Time Trial) next week. Those running Seafair this weekend: If you’re racing then keep it pretty easy this week. Especially with the warmer weather which has sprang up quickly. You don’t want to overdo it since you haven’t had much of this to run in. This is a time you might want to think about hydrating but remember don’t overdo it. If you’re pacing than I might suggest that you run some mile repeats at your given pace to get a feel for it before the race. Tonight would be fine instead of the planned workout.

Back to hydration. Many of you know that one of my other jobs is working on web sites, one of the sites I manage is RUNOHIO at any rate I posted an article on Hydration there yesterday that you might find interesting. The Athlete's Kitchen - Fluid Facts for Runners. Give it a read. Also if you need to hear firsthand about hyponatremia and over hydration ask our resident expert Anna as she had some issues with that recently and remember to check out her training log on the web site as she heads into week 3 of keeping it. GO Anna!!

In this month’s issue of Runners World there is a little piece on the fine looking lad pictured in the upper left corner of this. I believe it’s on page 8. Great Job Andy.

For those of you that are Tri fans a big shout goes out to those Chuckster’s who completed Ironman Coeur d'Alene. The wind was blowing white caps on the lake so much so that they allowed people to opt out and do it as a Duathlon but not our hardy Chuckiteers they finished in fine fashion. That is a long day as you can see by the results. Longer than I would be willing to put it.

GLEN MOORE 13:56:43
JIM CADE 14:05:48
STEPHEN HARDING 13:22:48
MS. BERT CHAVEZ 15:02:25

Ok I asked last week for Volunteers for this weekend’s Seafair marathon and half. 4 of you have offered, they need a lot more. They are really in need. I had two different people call me from Seafair yesterday and the second one I think is near a break done of some sort. If you have the time it would be greatly appreciated. For those who are new to the group and running this would be a great opportunity to see a race in action without having to do all of the work. All you’ll need to do it stand in or bring a lawn chair and sit and direct people in the right direction. It doesn’t get any easier than that. As a bonus you get a free t-shirt now how can you say no to that. Contact me ASAP if you can help out it would be appreciated.

Have a great 4th and I’ll see you this weekend.