Running Shorts

So far this has been the fall of progress. Or, maybe, a return to form. Yesterday, as part of small-town Minster, Ohio's annual Oktoberfest, I ran their 10k in a new road PR of 30:12.5. As a testament to how competitive the race was, I only finished 7th (the winner finished in 28:33). Coming off of base training this summer, I've seen: a solid 10k win in 31:10 (faster than my time from last year's Thanksgiving Day Race), a runner-up 30-second PR at Hudy (my old PR was from 2011), and most recently a road PR in the 10k (my previous PR was 30:40 from 2011), which is a full minute faster than a month ago and is near-equivalent to the sub-30 times I was running on the track in college (track times are almost always faster than road race times). It's been a few years, but my training finally seems to be clicking and I'm seeing the results. As for the race yesterday, I had cautiously optimistic hopes going into it. I pushed too hard in training last Friday-Saturd...

As per my fall racing schedule from last week, I raced the Hudepohl 14k this past weekend. It's a fun kickoff to America's largest Oktoberfest celebration. The race starts at right outside of the Moerlein Lager House, between the Reds and Bengals' stadiums. Heading west at the start, the course basically makes on giant loop around downtown and Over-the-Rhine, passing many historic breweries and -- of course -- a couple killer hills. Like the past couple years, the competition was a little sparse; however, Michael Eaton from Louisville showed up again. He won last year by about a minute, (and is a 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier) so I knew I'd have a tough race ahead of me. I finished second to Eaton in 43:36 and couldn't be happier. The race went out fairly conservative the first mile, and then I tried to get into a good groove and ratchet the pace down a little bit. From the start it was just the two of us, and it would remain that way for the durat...

So now that it's mid-September (what?!), I just realized I should probably post my planned fall racing schedule. My last race of the spring was the Hyde Park Blast ( read about it here ), which ended on a bit of a downer. Trying to push through a nagging hamstring injury, my spring races didn't end as well as I hoped they would. Since then, I've taken about 2 months away from racing, instead getting in some quality training. My hamstring is fully recovered and healthy, my mileage is back up in the 90+ per week range, and I'm running regular 20 mile long runs, 60 minute aerobic threshold runs, and hill repeats. Training's going great, and I've been feeling great during it. With that said, I've actually technically started my fall season. Two weekends ago, I ran the Zero Prostate Cancer 10k here in Cincinnati. This year was the first year this race has offered prize money: $250 for both the men's and women's winner of the 5k and the 10k. I chose t...