Minnesota trip with a few runs

Well we have one more day of vacation which includes a long day of traveling back home. I found a few minutes to update on the running portion before heading to bed.

June 21: Andi and I both got in 4 mile runs before loading up the boys and driving to LAX.

June 22: Recover day!

June 23: I ran my favorite 10 mile out and back run on the Theodore Wirth Parkway from my dad's house to Cedar Lake and back. I always have a good run when I visit and today was no different. I ran the first mile in about 6:45 and just kept on going. Total time for 10 miles was 68:30 (average pace was 6:50 which is marathon race pace). I was hitting 6:40s until mile 8 and 9 which are mostly uphill. It was a great run. It sure is humid out here. Here is a picture of the parkway from my dad's house.

June 24: Traveled to Gull Lake.

June 25: Andi and I ran 5 miles averaging 8:10 around the perimeter of Cragun's Resort where we stayed. It was almost exactly 1.5 miles around the resort.

June 26: I did a 6 mile evening run on the parkway. There is a 3 mile loop of the parkway that is a 1.5 mile straigh-away on both sides. I ran the loop twice to make 6 miles total. The first 2 miles were a warm up then I hit the next uphill half mile at vVO2max with a half mile recovery, then a hard mile at vVO2max with a mile recovery, and finally another uphill half mile hard and a cool down. I did not wear a watch so I have no idea what my splits were but the mile was almost certainly under 5:50. I finished with 4x100m accelerations in front of the house. I'm feeling pretty good right now, low 18:00 5k shape for sure.

June 27-28: Back in Minneapolis visiting friends and relatives.

25 miles total so far since my last post. Tomorrow we head back to California but Andi and I plan on running to Lake Harriet which is about 8-9 miles from the house. Well see just how far it is. The garmin has some trouble getting a signal with all the big trees around here.



The best running news since I have been on vacation:

1. High School runner German Fernandez broke the 29-year old boys 2 mile record running it in 8:34.40 at Nike Outdoor Nationals. See the race here.

2. The Olympic Trials have begun in Eugene, OR and the women's 10k finals were on the 27th. It was a great race with Shalane Flanagan and Kara Goucher both qualifying along with Amy Begley. See the results here.

The men's 5k and 10k and 1500m finals should be very exciting. Check out all the Trials news here.