Run With Garrison

Aloha Everyone,
The past 2 weeks of training after my fun double 50k weekend has been a little rough. I have taken 4 days totally off and my weekly mileage sat around 66 and 43 miles each week for these 2 weeks. I only put in 2 solid efforts in the past 2 weeks. Last weekend, Jeff and I ran out to Dog’s house and back for a fun 20.7 miles. Wow, Jeff is fit and he kept the pace on target but it wiped me out for a few days afterwards. My other effort was today at the Hapalua Half Marathon here in Honolulu.

The course for the Hapalua starts at the Duke statue and runs a flat 9 miles around town before heading back for a lap around Diamond Head. The elevation gain/loss in the last 4 miles is around 700 feet. After 3 days off this week, I was a bit curious to see how today played out. I know I am in pretty good shape so I figured I would try to run a smart and even race. At the start line I saw local runner Joseph Bariyanga and I figured that I would try to keep up with him today. Joseph seems to run very even and often passes me during the second half of some local races. He is also a bit faster than me–if I can keep up, I knew a good day was possible.
It had been raining all night in on the island but things seemed to dry up a bit for the hour prior to the race start. No wind, perfect conditions with a race start at 6am. Unfortunately, around 5:58, the sky opened up and it absolutely dumped rain for most of the race. I was running with my iRun visor so I was able to keep the rain out of my eyes. The gun went off and I just stuck with Joseph around 6 minute pace. We stayed close thru about 5-6 miles and then he gradually pulled away from me. However, he was always in sight and I used him as my target for the rest of the day. My 5, 10, and 15k splits were 18:24, 37:29, and 57:19.
Over the course of the day, I was able to maintain focus pretty well and every time it really started to hurt (which was often) I just kept my thoughts positive and tried to keep my foot on the gas. I felt strong on both climbs in the last 4 miles and I feel that I ran a very complete race. My final time was 1:21:21, around 6:12 pace and I finished 9th among the non-elite racers and 2nd in my age group. This time is my fastest half marathon in Hawaii by 1:28.
Fun Fact: The gentleman who beat me in the 40-44 age group today won the 1993 Honolulu Marathon, the 2001 Boston Marathon and was the 1996 Olympic Silver Medalist at the Marathon– Bong Joo Lee from South Korea.

Anyway…sorry for the brief report, time to head to dinner:)

The plan for the next few weeks is to get my mileage back up and prepare for my monster April with the Oriflamme 50k April 6, North Shore Marthon April 14, Mt Diablo 50k April 20, and the Krakow Marathon April 28.

One final note–Pauline put in her first 18 miler today!!!!!!! She is working on a post for all of you to check out about her journey so far. We are hoping to get it online in the next few days.

Happy Running and have a great week!
Michael

Aloha everyone!
Just a quick update … Michael finished in 4th place at the Lake Chabot 50k with a time of 4:17:59 today! Another 50k planned for tomorrow…. will throw results on blog when they come in. Thanks for tuning in!

Aloha Everyone,
I had several goals heading into the week….
1) run my daily training runs at a much faster pace—around 7:30 pace
2) get in my first track workout of the year–5xmile
3) run 70-80 miles for the week
4) get in a nice 15-18 mile long run

And after all of this, I wanted to see what sort of effort I could muster at the Faerber 10k here in Honolulu.
Here are the results…..
This week I was successful getting in most of my runs at 7:30 pace or faster. But truth be told, I struggled to find the right pace–I think I ran some of these runs a bit too quick. Here is a summary of the daily runs this week
11.15 miles @7:18
8.01 miles @7:28
5.33 miles @ 7:15
8.41 miles @7:40
See what I mean–I need to pay closer attention to the Garmin and just learn to chill at 7:30 pace. Hopefully, I can make this adjustment soon.
2) I hit the track on a beautiful, windy day for 5xmile. It was a very, very tough mental day for me but I was able to manage averaging 6:09 for the miles. I was hoping for sub 6 average, but since I wanted to just go home after 2, I found a small victory in simply finishing the workout. Next time I know I can do much better.
3) weekly mileage totaled right at 75 miles for the week
4) Long run—due to a change in my work schedule, I ran the track workout Friday and the long run Saturday morning (followed by a 10k on Sunday—Yikes!). Anyway, the long run was great– I ran out over Diamond Head, thru Kahala and out and back on the highway along the marathon course. Thru 14 miles I was running around 7:17 pace and then the wheels started to wobble a little bit. Again, I like running this increased tempo and I know I will reap benefits in the long-term, but I ran this thing too fast. As I was finishing thru Kapiolani Park, I ran into Dave Carlson and Gerry Lindgren and they put some pep back into my step—Thanks Guys! The run totaled out at 17.55 miles at 7:26 pace.

And now onto the Faerber 10k–Not much of a race on my part to report. My warmup was fine but I was feeling tired from the efforts of the week. I was secretly hoping that I could pull some magic out and run fast like I did 2 weeks earlier, but it was not in the cards. I came thru the first mile with Jon Lyau and Andrew Taylor around 5:45 and then I just let them run away from me. Will came running up to me around 2 miles and I just let him go as well. My thighs felt like cinder blocks and my will to compete was waning. I turned the run into a tempo run until about 5 miles when I just made up my mind to finish strong. I took off down Diamond Head and just cranked thru to the park to finish in 19th place with a time of 40:15. At first, I was not too stoked about the performance, but after a little reflection, I am happy to put in a nice run at 6:26 pace at the end of the week—Mission Accomplished

Pauline also had a big Saturday by putting in her longest run to date–she cranked out 13 miles in around 2:20. She is right on target so far and I can see the excitement starting to bubble up in her. 12 weeks to go and I am so excited for her!!!!

Big Congrats to Shelby and Dianne for each earning 2nd place spots in their age groups this weekend at the local 10k and 5k races!!!!

This week–another trip to the track, a nice long run, a trip to tantalus, more 7:30 pace runs, another 70-85 mile week and——The Lottery Results are posted on February 6 for the San Diego 100—I hope I get in!!!!!!

Thanks for all your great comments! Please keep us updated on your training and racing!

Mahalo,
Michael

Aloha,

I finished up the weekend of racing with a nice little effort at the Chapson 8k here on Oahu. After such a big effort yesterday, I really had little idea as to exactly how I was going to recover and compete today. Last year at this race, I was 3rd overall with a time of 29:26 and I was fresh, fit and ready to head off to race the Rocky Raccoon 100. So I figured that if I could run in the top 10 and run sub 31, I would be very happy.

When I woke up this morning…Oh Boy Was I Sore. I headed out the door and started my warmup. It felt more like a shuffle than a run. I slowly warmed up and headed out to the race course for a little warmup over Diamond Head. As I was cresting the top, I saw a familiar figure running quite fast in the early morning darkness. It was Jeff and he was jamming a quick 13 miler as a warmup for today’s race. He turned around and ran down to triangle park with me and we maintained his quick pace. Running with Jeff pulled me out of my tired/sore funk and I started feeling like I could maybe run fast today. I also started thinking about the runners 5 miles away on the tantalus trails. They were all trying to finish one of the most brutal races on the planet–the HURT 100. In my mind, I decided that if things got tough during the race, I would think about how tough those runners are trying to finish the HURT. I certainly could gut out 5 miles under 6-6:10 minute pace.

As P and I arrived at the start line, I immediately noticed that the field was much tougher than the one that I raced against last year. A few of the top runners on the island were at this early season race. It was going to be fast and I was going to have to really get after it in order to get in the top 10. I found Jeff at the starting line, after his fast 15 mile warmup, and we just chilled and waited for the race to start. As soon as the starting horn sounded, a fairly large group of maybe 9 guys took off with myself, Jeff, and Will (the 3 of us usually race for the 40-44 honors) all running side by side about 20-40 meters behind the leaders in the first 400 meters. I made a comment about the 3 of us racing the “mature mens race” and then Jeff and I had a laugh about the “maturity” part of my comment. I think we are both just 2 big kids out for a run. Anyway, I settled into a rhythm and started to slowly chase down members of the field that started out fast.

I ran a very consistent race with excellent focus. I did not need to look at my watch, I was running hard and just trying to catch as many people as I could. I passed last year’s race winner as we started climbing Diamond Head, then I passed another guy as we made our way around the turn around at triangle park and I set my sights on Andrew, the winner of 2 races already on Oahu this year. I slowly closed on him and finally got within about 10 meters away from him as we hit the 4 mile mark. Then he started to pull away and it took everything I had to just maintain my effort. During the last half of the race, I thought a few times about the suffering HURT 100 runners and it helped me stay in my zone of focus. I came across the line in 29:40. I was stoked to run under 30 minutes. The effort was good for 7th overall and 1st in my age group. Pauline’s face was priceless as I met her at the finish. I think she really likes seeing me when i have to dig down to deliver a solid effort.

Wow, what a nice weekend of racing! I am feeling pretty good and I am certain these efforts will pay some solid dividends in February. I am now very happy that I decided to cut my race short at Kualoa a few weeks ago. I only needed a couple of days off to recover and allow my hip to feel better. I am now certain that if I kept going at Kualoa, I would not have had such a great weekend of racing yesterday and today.

On the week, I ran 96.55 miles and I am actually feeling better now, 5 hours after the race, than I did before the race. Now I can get back to training for a few weeks before running the Faerber 10k on February 3.

Big Congrats to all the runners at the HURT 100 this weekend–you are all absolute Beasts!!

Happy Running,

Michael

Aloha everyone,

Before writing a quick race recap, I need to apologize. In my haste yesterday to post before my flight, I left the most important member of my crew of my list of thanks. I stupidly left Pauline off that list. Her support is vital to everything I do in running and in life. Pauline delivers for me 100 times out of 100 and my carelessness let her down. I sincerely apologize for this. She is truly my inspiration and I am the luckiest man alive to have her in my life.

Time for a little recap…

Today I ran the Hilo to Volcano 50k and it went really, really well. This was my first ultra on the roads and it also turned out to be my first overall podium(top 3 overall) finish. I ran very patient and consistently throughout the race and was never in any serious trouble. The race was won by Billy of “Born To Run” fame and he broke the course record. I think I finished about 2 minutes behind him in second. I’m writing this on my flight home and official results are not online yet. I also think that I wound up running the 3rd fastest time in the history of this cool race. My time was 4:02:04 which is about a 7:52 mile pace for 30.8 miles running from sea level to about 3900′.

The race was a straight shot up the highway and the conditions were perfect. Kris did a great job crewing and hit me up with bottles at 15 and 21 miles. I am now looking forward to racing the 8k tomorrow morning

Time to land

Aloha!!!

Michael