Tuning up

Army 10-miler is getting closer. Due to lost confidence I'm not sure what to expect. Still, I had quite nice tune up workout this morning. I did 3x2000m'400m (each 6.40) with rendo and easy effort. I felt way better than before Philly even if I ran a bit faster. It's not that bad. Yesterday I ran twice and did some type of core workout.

I just realized that I'll miss my chances to watch Half-Marathon WCs or Chicago marathon online on October 11th. World champs will provide an interesting setting: six tough Kenyans (2 under 59, rest under 60 minutes), Zersenay Tadesse and a potential NR for USA since Ritz is around. Then in Chicago among others there is a Finn, Mårten Boström, chasing after a qualification for next Summer's European Championships.

Workout Tuesday

I see the future by repeating the same routines every week.

So: 6:30 AM, HCC's track, cruising 6x1000m'300m (3.12-3.08), feeling rendo, pretty nice weather. Yesterday I felt rather heavy partly because of Sunday's rather long bike ride. Today was better, but hamstrings were tense.

Workout Tuesday

6:30 AM, track, extreme cold (65F) added with a nice sunrise. Legs were stiffer than week ago, but I managed to run 5x1000m'400m with rather rendo (=relaxed) feeling. However, both hamstrings are pretty tight which means that once again I really have to stretch more. But it's so boring. I had scheduled a core workout for yesterday, but instead I found myself at the M&T Stadium among 60.000+ people watching Ravens vs. Jets. Maybe I do some core exercises today. Or maybe not.

In addition Nate Jenkins's after-the-marathon interview (he had pretty tough race), one other interesting interview was Matt Tegenkamp's where he shortly talks about the tv coverage of distance races here in the US. And I thought that the scarce visibility of distance running is only a problem in Finland. Teg is a professional athlete, who gets paid in his work and still he is worried about the future. All in all, US distance runners had a wide participation in Berlin, which as such already indicates the future potential embedded in their work.

Even if Finns have Jukka Keskisalo (8th in steeples in Berlin) and had Janne Holmén (he ended his great marathon running career two moths ago), we have clearly lost our competitive edge in general - even at the European level. We really respect those national top-level Finnish guys who put a lot of effort in their training, but in general I think that in Finland we are still watching too much backwards (1970s) without accepting the enourmous work load still laying ahead. Where is the much needed knowledge spillover to get more and more potential runners on the road and track? Old geezers are buzzing behind the corner, of course, but do they have any wisdom that could be provided to make distance running popular again... Many concentrate on blaiming other sports for taking away the potential runners, but that's not the solution. Blaiming others... To me the team-based approach - partly due to college running and very supportive pro-teams - has been one of the visible secrets enabling the current upswing in the US distance running. That kind of approach (excluding the college part) should also be applied in Finland, right? Most likely yes...

Ok. Now back to work.

Workout Tuesday

It's only couple of hours until men's steeple final starts. Go Jukka!!!! [edit: Jukka was 8th with 8.14 - second best time ever in the fastest final ever... Ezekiel Kemboi 8.00,43]

Despite of that I found myself again on track at 6:30 AM. I planned to do 6x1000m ~3.15, but since I ran them slightly too fast (3.12-3.06) I did only five repeats - with rendo effort. The reason for not running the last repeat was that I wasn't willing to tweak my hamstrings. First, of course, I was suprised that am I really that wise that I'm thinking ahead. Then I was disappointed, but almost instantly remembered that Dieter Baumann also quitted his workouts "early" if he ran his repeats too fast. Well, he also had much more powerful toothpaste than I'm using...

Workout Tuesday

Sunday was a day off and instead of running we drove down to WV and mountainbiked for 2.5 hours - in muddy and wet conditions. But nice views they have over there... Yesterday legs were still hurting from Saturday's long run, and accordingly, easy 6+ miler was pure (good) pain.

Today I found myself on track already at 6:45 AM. Weather was much more pleasant than it has been during the last couple of weeks, and maybe that was the reason for extremely rendo feeling during the workout. I did 10x400m with 300m jog at faster pace (73.3-67.9) than 1.5 weeks ago. Nice!

Workout Tuesday

7:00 AM, HCC's track, 6x1000m'400m (3.17-3.13), slightly too humid weather. In general I felt just ok, but more rendo (=relaxed) feeling would have been fine.

In a couple of hours Universalsports.com has a live coverage from Monte Carlo Super-GP, where Finnish Jukka Keskisalo is aiming at the new Finnish NR (~under 8.12,60) in steeples. Hopefully that helps me to get rid of the post-TdF depression...

Edit: Damn it! It was so close. Keskisalo ran 8.12,93 (4th place). In addition, Monte Carlo/Monaco GP provided several good results and PRs for US runners.

Workout Friday

7:00 AM, track, 10x400m'300m (75.0-71.2), humidity, feeling great, mainly rendo. In the evening it is time for AC Milan vs. Chelsea, and tomorrow morning for a long run in B-More.

Nice Tuesday

I overslept twice today, and thus, I hit the track only at 7:00 AM. Running felt okay and I rolled 6x800m'400m (2.35-2.30) + couple of 200s. Nice and easy. Next up work and TdF - and Warped Tour.