I run therefore, I am!

Well good morning! You know, I was thinking about you while I was biking today. I was thinking about how you and everyone else on this fastrunningblog could probably run faster than I bike. So depressing! That's about the time I increased my speed. LOL

You are funny! I did a half ironman in burley Idaho this year and there was a 40 mph wind right at us on the bike and I kept looking down at the speedometer and it was reading 8 mph and I thought, crap I can run faster than this! So I know what you mean on the bike. I do like to bike every now and then, but it feels like Im cheating. You cover way more ground quicker. Its freezing up here right now! its 40 degrees out and very nippy.

Ha! I don't concider it cheating... I worked my little tail off. Actually, my legs are screaming right now. LOL It probably isn't from the bike though. I had the *brillant* idea of running uphill yesterday. ha! You think I'd be smarter than that!

Its not cheating, I was just kidding. I did my hills this morning. Yesterday I went into the Minnetonka cave and hiked 884 stairs with my 6 year old daughter piggy backing on me. I hear you on that. Thats good you found some hills in the desert there! So I guess your tail is gone now huh!? I lost mine awhile ago. You are well on your way!

Well... thankfully I wasn't cursed with the "Hopkins Tail"... so yeah, it's almost gone LOL.

How nice of you to carry your 6 year old on your back as you hiking up those 884 stairs. How did she get down? LOL I bet you were exhausted. Did you carry her back too?

Yeah, it was 442 in the cave up and down there and back 442 stairs. There was a part they call stairway to heaven that was 71 steps and Bailey counted everyone for me bless her heart! Its a cool little cave about 1/2 mile long and they guide you into it.

I still felt guilty for not putting in any miles for yesterday. It was actually snowing a sleet slush on us so i wussed out from camping and all and I didnt have any warm running gear.

Yup, my kind of fun!!! But, the weather was perfect!!!

Ok Kelli, you win it was cold ok! The water was warmer then the air yesterday.

I like cold, just not TOO cold!

I hate any cold as you can imagine. I have no meat on these boney bones. No reserve nothing! Warm is where its at! I can take it up to 100 and thats my limit

Well, it might be time to migrate south for the winter! LOL

Should I rub in how nice it was here this morning... or would that be salt in the wound?

Its not salt in the wound until its eight degrees out with inversion.

Good point... I honestly can't imagine weather *that* cold.

And I cant imagine it being over 110! Hot in the City tonight!(Billy Idol) good song!

Nice workout Walter. Unfortunately the cold weather is starting to present it's ugly head. What's your next race?

I may do TOU marathon and pace someone in the 3:15-3:30 range. If not then I wont. Im scheduled for SGM though. My age is finally shining its ugly head on my body! Its hard to rebound from a marathon. I learned that when I did Ogden too close to Boston. Im proud of you for an awesome win! Your in the Kenyan elite group now!

Hey, where are you on planning our party in SG???

KELLI I will post an add in the discussion forum soon and see if anyone local wants to volunteer their house and if not then we'll have it in the park. Either way its a must do event! We'll have plenty of entertainment when I show up. Lol jk ok when you show up with your kids! I crack myself up!

Is fartlek a real word?

Yes Lucia, its a real word! Fartlek, which means "speed play" in Swedish, is a form of conditioning which puts stress mainly on the aerobic energy system due to the continuous nature of the exercise. The difference between this type of training and continuous training is that the intensity or speed of the exercise varies, meaning that aerobic and anaerobic systems can be put under stress. Most fartlek sessions last a minimum of 45 minutes and can vary from aerobic walking to anaerobic sprinting. Fartlek training is generally associated with running, but can include almost any kind of exercise.

I hope you thought I wrote that. I was obviously paraphrasing. jk I copied it out of wikipedia. Its your Swedish word of the day ok!? Ill teach you some German if you teach me your native tongue.

My kids are staying home!!! You will have to provide the entertainment.

OH MY---on the whole Fartlek thing. I thought you sounded like Sasha (the man is a walking calculator, dictionary, you name it when it comes to running!) Then as I kept reading it I thought, "There is no way in heck Walter wrote that on his own." So, I am glad you fessed up on that one.

I dont know about my kind of entertainment Kelli!

Are you saying im dumb Kelli? You know I aced all my term papers in grade school! So there!

So a fartlek is a hard interval workout?

Here's the Argentine word of the day: "maratón". Surprisingly, when Argentines talk about a "maraton" they don't mean a 26.2-mile marathon. Maratón to an Argentine means simply a race, of any distance. So they'll say something like "I ran a 10k "maratón" last weekend". I don't know if that's how the rest of the spanish-speaking countries use the word or not. I just find it interesting

That makes sense! I think alot of Americans get that confused also. Ill tell people I ran a marathon and they'll say oh a 5k? NO a Marathon, 26.2! Why cant we just incorporate that in America Lucia? We dont really have to run 26.2 to run a marathon do we? lol Very interesting. I think you have something there! You Argentinians are a smart bunch!

No, I am not saying you are dumb. I am saying you were pulling out the runner talk, which I do not usually here you do. You are very smart!

Okay, so funny. I tell people I run marathons and they say, "How far is that"? or "I did one last week" and I'll say, "which one" and they say something like, "Bluffdale 10k". Totally the same thing. Ha, ha.

Interesting... I thought in most of the world a marathon distance is pretty standard and well-known.

I know what you mean, Michelle - and you try to correct them while not sounding too arrogant, right? hehehe...

So, Wall-e, is a fartlek workout basically an interval workout, or how is it different?

Exactly Lucia. You can't say actually you are totally wrong and I run way further than you in the same amount of time. Ha, ha.

A fartlek is basically running a fast pace for a certain distance followed by a slow pace recovery for the same distance. You repeat that for however long you want to. We did a 2 mile fartlek the other day with 2 minutes on-2 minutes off.

Thanks for making sense of my dictionary response for Lucia Michelle. Im with you though, I love watching people say a marathon huh? How far is that? 26.2 what the h*@# are you glutton for punishment? lol.

Walter I would save your legs for STG and not do TOU. I decided I'm not going to do TOU you just because I like doing it. It's only two before STG. If you want to get a huge PR in STG save your legs.

Kory, Im confused, I was thinking Id run a 3:30 with a lady thats trying her first marathon that runs really well but wants a 3:30. Or my other scenario was to start out with a 7-7:30 mile for 10 miles and then do tempo runs in between water stations which is 2 miles. I could do 2 miles hard, 2 miles light. What do you think? too much to late? I deffinitely wont get at the start with Sasha and those guys. I would bust out a 2:40 for sure if I started with them. I was also thinking of starting after a warmup, and running a tempo at the start with the fast runners and then stopping at the first aid station and doing aid to aid tempo runs. I dont know like I said, Im confused.

if you were thinking a hard tempo I would do a three mile warm-up in the race then do a 8 to 10 mile tempo and then drop out of TOU. The problem is your still running 26.2 miles and thats a lot two weeks before STG ( I did this last year, when they were three weeks apart and ran TOU at 2:46 and STG at 2:39, but I wasn't as fresh for STG and felt I could have ran it faster if I didn't run TOU). You really want to peak at the right time for STG. Doing a hard tempo for 10 miles and dropping out would be perfect downhill training for STG. I don't think you would be at your peak for STG if you ran the whole thing. Just my nonsense opinion. You want to give time for your muscle fiber to heal for STG and feel fresh. Now, if you running TOU and STG for just quantity than run both. Buy if your wanting to run STG for a quality peak time skip TOU.

I was originally thinking about running TOU, but when I saw it was two weeks from STG I said no way.

Yes for sure, I want SGM to be my race of the year so that is some sound advice. Your right with the extra miles. My legs are not recovering as quickly as they used to. That would be a great downhill workout too! I think its close to 13 or 14 miles of canyon right?

I almost thought about driving up there (TOU) that morning of the marathon and running the 13 miles as a tempo and then dropping out and driving home. But I can do the same thing here with less expense.

I think you would be smart and hold off for STG. I had to do the same thing with the Pocatello marathon, and hold off on a prior Marathon that I wanted to run three weeks earlier, but I knew I wouldn't be at my peak performance. I think this helped me do a pretty good job on the Pocatello Marathon last week.

Now I need to layoff and hope I'm ready and fresh for STG. From what I've heard there's going to be a big pace group for 2:30 there. I hope I'm able to hang on.

Trust me and save your legs for the big race.

You could even do a hard tempo this Saturday, and track work next week and still be plenty fresh for STG.