Long Run Solutions

Pheasant Hunting South Dakota

Have you ever been on a Magic Pheasant Bus? In your dreams? Or, maybe sometime in the 1960's you took a trip....let's skip that one.

Well folks, I can tell you that I have indeed been on THE Magic Pheasant Bus and I can tell you that it was a great ride. Better yet, you too can take a ride if you go to hunt at Pheasant Cove Outfitters.

Pheasant Cove Outfitters is not your run of the mill South Dakota hunting experience. It is many times better. First of all, if you are looking to rough it, this is not your place. So, you might be thinking..."Well then, what is an outdoors geek like you doing there?"..."Aren't you all about roughing it?"

I guess the answer to that must be yes and no. The biggest reason I was there was because it was a chance to do something with my dad. He is the guy on the right in this picture. He is 74 years old and I bet you ten bucks you wouldn't guess that if you were sitting next to him and if you hunted with him you wouldn't believe he was that age. One fun story from this trip is that we were out to dinner on the final night of our trip with a group of 15 guys. My dad was sitting across the table from me next to a tall slender older fella who I actually heard say to my father, "Well, when you get to be as old as me it.....". My father looked at him and said, "How old are you?" To which the tall older fella proudly said, "Seventy-one".

Is that funny or what? I smiled and thought how lucky I am to still hunt without a thought or concern with a guy you might never guess is 74 years young.

Marv and Carol are the owner operators of Pheasant Cove Outfitters and they do a terrific job. The food is home cooking and it is excellent! The bar is open and has just about whatever you might want. And, getting a limit of pheasants was never really a question. We saw and shot a whole bunch of pheasants. I'd show you pictures, but dead pheasant pictures are just not that interesting. Check out  Pheasant Cove's website and go to the picture gallery for a whole bunch of dead bird pictures.

The lodge is very comfortable and the dogs were great. Hmmm. This is starting to sound like an advertisement. Suffice it to say Pheasant Cove Outfitters is a top notch pheasant outfitter in South Dakota.

Thanks to Marv and Carol for the excellent trip. Thanks especially to my Dad for going along for a fun hunt.

Another Good Week of Training

What a difference a couple of weeks have made. After struggling mightily through in a 5k two weeks ago, I've got two good weeks of workouts behind me and I'm feeling confident again.  

Because of bad weather, I worked out indoors again Saturday and consequently I did mile repeats instead of a 5k. I felt strong through 7 mile repeats running them all at my goal pace of just under seven minute miles. I'm not saying I wasn't feeling fatigued during the last couple of repeats, but that will take care of itself over time.

I also found my calf muscles during my Tuesday workout this week. It reminds me how important it is to mix things up a bit while training. Since I've been feeling good, I decided to add a little spice to my Tuesday run. Often I will do some pickups during my workouts. Early in my training I will do .1 mile pickups at about race pace. Slowly, I move those to faster than race pace and lately that has been around a 6:30 per mile pace. And then I move the distance to .15 mile and then .2 mile and eventually I will do some at .25 miles. For now I've been running at a 6:30 pace for .2 miles. This week, I added some incline work as well. And, wow! I guess I've been missing my calf muscles big time.

Here is what my treadmill workout looked like:

1. Warm up 20 minutes. Included a two minute walk and then jogging at between 8:30 and 9:00 mile pace.
2. From here on out I followed the this schedule:

• at 22, 32, 42, and 52 minutes I ran a 3% to 5% incline at an 8:30 pace 
• at 26, 36, 46, and 56 minutes I ran .2 mile pickups at a 6:30 pace         
• at 29, 39, 49, and 59 minutes I walked for 1 minute
• all of the time in between I jogged at an 8:30 to 9:00 minute pace

The key for this workout is that it was within the heart rate parameters I want to stay in during mid week workouts and it challenged my muscles and my lungs to be efficient. Ultimately, I learned that I need to be sure to keep some focus on my calves. Strong calf muscles will be critical to peak performance in my upcoming marathon.

This Saturday will be my first long run at 15 miles. As long as the weather is decent, I'm not anticipating any problems and I'm looking forward to incorporating some longer runs.

    

Back on Track

Recovery from a bad workout can be tough. Instinctively, I want to go out and work my butt off and push through the problem with challenge workouts. My head tells me to toughen up and overcome. My experience tells me that can be a very bad decision. Think of what a blow it could be to a persons confidence if they piled on another bad workout. And talk about pressure. Even though ego says go for the glory, common sense will say take a step back if you want to get back on track.

• The first thing I have been working on is getting over the mental part of failing. And one of the best ways to get there is to take stock of past experience. My failed workout happened while doing speed-work, so I reviewed what my strengths and weaknesses are to get a clue where to go next.

  Clearly, one of my strengths over the course of time has been to put in good speed workouts and incrementally improve my times. Having talked to hundreds of runners about workouts, I know that speed work is so disliked by many runners that they don't do it at all. So I need to keep in mind is that I am already ahead of the pack because I regularly incorporate speed-work.

• Second, when I step back from the problem I can see that the reason I see failed speed-work as such a negative is that it has been consistently a positive. I'm just not used to any result other than complete success. 

• Lastly, my workouts are built around Saturday being my premier workout day. The midweek workouts merely support the increased speed and endurance that I build through Saturday workouts. When I fail on Saturday, it feels like a failed week when really that is not the case.

With that said, this week has been a week of great workouts. My total focus has been on having good workouts and I have made sure that has happened in the following ways.

1. Being consistent - This is the time to make sure I don't skip any workouts. I have made sure to stay consistent with my workouts
2. Enjoy - I have tried to make sure not to get into a hurry and put any extra pressure on my workouts. Also, I have made sure to do my workouts at a time when I normally feel good.
3. Realistic Expectations - As I pointed out earlier, my mid-week workouts are done only to support my Saturday workouts. I don't need crazy mid-week expectations. My only expectations were to put in the minimum time necessary to support my weekend work.

My results were really great this week. I had four confidence building mid-week workouts where I challenged myself in spots, but generally kept it pretty easy. My only "non-negotiables" during these workouts were minimum time requirements. Other than that,if I felt like walking, I walked. If I felt like a 6:30 mile pace, I ran a 6:30 pace. Or a 10:00 mile pace when I felt like it.

On Saturday I did mile repeats. Mile repeats are not as tough as 5K runs, but the the last couple can be especially tough. In this case, because of the weather I was on a treadmill which I believe adds at least 10% to the difficulty level. And, things went very well. I completed them all in the time I wanted and I feel like I'm back on track.

Wow! What a difference a week makes.

        

Blake Marquardt Art - Fall 2008

My son Blake is an artist. Many of you have checked out a few of his drawing and painting that I have posted in the left column. If you haven't, take a look.

Blake is currently attending one of the finest liberal arts colleges in the country, Hastings College. I should post more of his art from this semester, but he has mostly been drawing nudes. So I'm going to pass on putting them in this post. But, I will add them to the overall portfolio that I have posted.

Below is my favorite from this past semester. I love the texture and detail of this drawing.

  

Crash and Burn Speedwork

I quit. I could not get it done. For the first time in my running life I quit on a 5k speed work run.

Two weeks ago I was happy to finish in 20:58. I was shooting to get under 21 minutes. It's early in my training program and I thought under 21 minutes was a modest goal. As it turned it took everything I had two weeks ago to make that time.

This week I decided to cut 30 seconds off that time and shoot for 20:30 and it turned out to be a very big mistake. To bonk in a workout is not my style. I normally figure over the course of a six month training program I will probably have one really cruddy workout. It has never happened this early in my program and it has never happened on speed work.  I have always considered speed my friend.

Ultimately, I need to run 19:37 to match up with a 3:15 marathon prediction. And that should not be out of reach. I ran a time not far from that last March. And in February I ran a 20:00 flat.

So what happened and how can I avoid this kind of disappointment and mental blow in the future?

1. I had no business going for 20:30. Looking back, I had no significant workouts over the last two weeks that  made me feel like it was time to go for a better time. In fact, most of my workouts had been inside on a treadmill which means slower pace.

2. Shooting for worthwhile goals always leaves you vulnerable to failure. However, realistically assessing when to go for it and when to stand pat is critical to the mental part of training. I vow to be better at assessing my level of fitness for the remainder of this training program.

3. The wind was brutal, gusting at or above 25 miles an hour. These conditions are not very conducive to running a challenge goal on a track. Next time I find myself in this situation I will need to ratchet down my goals for that training session.

I think that pretty much covers it unless someone has advice for me. Now, I need to get back on track and get my confidence back.

Wisconsin Gun Deer Hunt 2008

Somehow I neglected to write a post on our Gun Deer Hunt in northwestern Wisconsin. As is often the case, the weather turned pretty crisp for opening morning. We awoke to temperature around 15 degrees which can be tough to stay warm in while sitting in a tree stand.

The winner of the longest stay in the tree award was my brother Kurt. And, he was rewarded for his stay on Saturday afternoon with a nice 8 point buck.

 

These three are part of the poker playing crew. Notice what happens when someone forgets the poker chips. Go ahead and look close, those are puzzle pieces.

  I'm not sure what the guy on the right is doing, maybe he is scared of cameras. But one thing for sure, those are two fine young men with him.

The only deer harvested was the one shown above. I think our lack of additional success may have had something to do with the gusty winds. We did not see as many bucks as normal.

All in all we had a great a hunt.

Here I am

OK. OK. quit bugging me. I have been sooooooo busy. I have so much to say and so many posts to do I don't even know where to start. My real slide off the writing and posting wagon started in the second half of November. I keep thinking I will get back on track and then I just have not been able to.

For those of you wondering, I have been killing birds and hunting deer and working out like a mad man. All the stuff you might expect me to be writing about. And, as promised, my experiment regarding heart rate training continues.

Soon, I will actually post something! I can feel a string of posts coming everyday for a week starting soon. Hopefully tomorrow.