Embrace the hills

Great job running the hills on Monday! We ran one of the more challenging sections of the 1/2 marathon course, and still pushed ourselves on the striders. I can feel my quad muscles today. Saturday we're scheduled to run 6.5 miles, so I suggest trying to run 3-5 miles on a trail on Wed or Thurs. Nichole provided us some additional Monday workouts, as well as an adjusted 5K schedule. See below - as always, your feedback is welcome and appreciated.

Good luck to those of you running 5Ks, competing in triathlons, and biking this weekend.
Have a fun run on Saturday and we'll see you at the Wirth Beach House on Monday, July 27th.

Additional Monday options:

Monday July 27th: 1.5 mi warm up, 4x90 seconds hard (preferably some uphill), 3-4 minute recovery after each. Then 1.5 mi cool down.

Monday August 10th: 1 mi warm up. Then 2x8 minutes tempo run on trails. 1 mi cool down. (About 4-5 miles total)

Monday August 24th: 1 mi warm up, 4 x 45 seconds uphill repeats, 6 x 45 downhill repeats (or fewer if this is too much), 1 mi cool down. Emphasis here is learning how to run downhill FAST.

5K group options:

Saturday July 25th: 4.5 miles w/ 3 pickups in middle of run (group will do 6.5 w/ pickups)

Monday July 27th: 4 miles, 5 striders, strength (same as group)

Saturday August 1st: 5.5 miles (group will do 8)

Monday August 3rd: 4 miles, 5 striders, strength (same as group)

Saturday Aug 8th: 6 miles (group will do 10)

Monday Aug 10th:4 miles, 5 striders, strength (same as group)

Saturday August 15th: 7 miles (group will do 12)

Monday August 17th: 4 miles, 5 striders, strength (same as group)

Saturday August 22nd: 6.5 miles (group will do 11)

Monday August 24th: 3 miles, 5 striders, strength (same as group)

Saturday August 29th: 7.5-8 mile long run. (group will do 13 mile course)

Monday August 31st:4 miles, 5 striders, strength. (same as group)

Saturday Sept 12th: 5 miles (group will do 8). 3x15 second pickups during the run.

Monday Sept 14th: 2 miles (group will do 3)

Monday's run with the turkeys

Great job finishing the second Monday practice. We ran for about 35 minutes at a conversational pace. We headed out on the newly paved Luce Line trail and ran the ski trails by the beach and the back nine holes of the golf course. A highlight was seeing the pair of turkeys on the hill behind the club house.

Mary guided us through some core strength exercises - superman, plank, push-ups, bicycles. Jan led us in stretching.

A question came up - how does trail pace compare to road pace? This depends on the trail/elevation/terrain, and road pace doesn't translate well to trail pace. Some people find that they run between 2-4 minutes per mile slower on trails. For example, if you run 3 miles in 30 minutes on the road, you will want to run 36-42 minutes on a trail to go the same distance. Don't worry if it feels slower on the trail - start slow and listen to your body. While the pace is slower, trail running is great for improving balance, agility, and leg strength.

Next Monday we'll meet at 6:30pm at the Wirth Beach House parking lot on Glenwood Ave. Have fun on Saturday! (Saturday's meeting place is still the golf course club house.)

Coach Jennie

Great 2nd practice!

What a gorgeous Saturday morning for a run! Today we finished the first of our "longer run" Saturday practices, running between 4-5 miles on the trails at Theo Wirth. Richard led us to the mountain bike/running single track trails, which were a lot of fun. The trail is pretty hard packed, with some fun log jumps and a few rocks and roots thrown in every once in a while.

After the practice we took about 15 minutes to stretch. It's a good idea to do this after your run (recent research shows its counter productive to stretch before a run or race). Stretching, along with strength and training smart, are the three biggest ways you can prevent injuries. I ran the group through my typical stretching routine which included calf stretches, hamstring stretches, butterfly and glut stretches. We as coaches will try to run the group through some sort of stretching routine after each practice (time permitting).

Today's practice was a little longer than most Saturday practices will be. We'll typically start with our "topic of the day" and then we'll let the group amble off on the run. For those that don't want to go the whole distance, they can head back whenever and not have to wait around for everyone to finish.

There was some interest in running other trails around the Twin Cities. I'd like to get the rest of the group's feedback on this: would you be interested in exploring the TC trail system? If so, which trails would you most like to run? If there's interest we'll pick 2-3 different places and try to plan them pretty far in advance so people know about the change in venue. I'm a personal fan of Lebanon Hills and Afton, but Afton you'll need a State Park sticker and it'll probably be pretty far away for some of our runners. Any other suggestiongs? Comment here and let me know what you think!

Lastly, the question came up: do I really need trail shoes? I said at practice that while trail shoes are certainly nice I didn't think they were a necessity (not like skis are to learning to XC ski). However -- I continuted to run a bit after the practice in my road shoes, and my arches were definitely sore. They still are now. I don't ever get that. I'm pretty sure they were reacting to running trails without the support/stiff forefoot of a trail shoe. I just hadn't run the trails w/out trail shoes in a while -- so didn't know how nice they really are! :) So, if you're thinking about buying a pair, I'd recommend it. Again, they aren't necessary, just very nice to have. Runners World says the same thing: http://wiki.runnersworld.com/index.php/Choosing_a_Trail_Shoe

Hope everyone has a GREAT weekend and a fabulous Monday with Coaches Mary and Jenny!
~Coach Nichole

Afton Trail Run

5 hearty runners for the Finn Sisu trail team (if you wear the jersey, you are on the team!) ran the Afton Trail Run 25k this past July 4th. It was a great time, and thankfully I am able to walk down stairs today! The weather cooperated nicely, being as it was only 65 degrees, and we even got a bit of a drizzle for the last half of the race. If you are not familiar with the Afton Trail Run, it is one of the largest trail races in MN (the race filled up to the maximum 450 runners well before race day), and it is run on the trails at Afton State Park (called one of the countries 50 greatest running trails by Runner's World magazine). The course is - how should I put it - hilly. Check out the course profile for proof (and it is as tough as it looks).It took me (not the most accomplished runner in the world) 2 hours, 11 minutes, and 37 seconds to cover the 15.5 miles. I actually felt pretty good for the first hour, and was still moving well through 11 miles, but I was completely, entirely, walk-up-the-hills-by-pushing-on-my-knees-with-my-hands spent for the last 4.5 miles (that is almost 1/3 of the race, so I may have miscalculated my starting pace...). I did have a great time, and would definately do it again next year. The people were friendly, the course was well marked, and the burgers after the race were fantastic. I think I would skip mowing the lawn the day before the race though, as I found the muscles I use pushing the lawn mower to be the same ones that I use walking up a steep trail. Oops. That and I will get out for more long runs on trails. That will help too. Running on trails is a different animal than running on roads, and one of the trickiest parts of Afton is the steep downhills. Thank goodness for my Vasques. I don't know how people ran in normal running shoes.

The Finn Sisu runners did very well. James finished 5th overall!, Nichole was the 2nd woman overall!, Mark was the 2nd masters runner!, and Kevin and I had fun and looked good doing it :)

Mark, Me, James, Nichole, and Kevin

Saturday Meeting Time

Meet for the Loppet Trail Running Club at 8:30 on Satruday morning. Note--this is a change from the 9:00 start time in the brochure.

Trail Loppet Team - kick off!

Great job on the first day, runners! We successfully ran/walked for 42 minutes, forged our own trail at Theo Wirth (thanks, Mary), and had fun getting to know each other. Below are a few workout suggestions for Tuesday through Friday this week.

• Tues: 35-50 minutes cross training or trail running/walking
• Wed: 45 min easy trail run (you should be able to talk to a friend while running)
  
• Thurs: same as Tues
  
• Fri: rest or walk

The above schedule is just a suggestion. I try to remind myself that getting out and doing something is better than doing nothing - even if I only have 20-30 minutes. Feel free to create and complete workouts that fit into your lifestyle and schedule.

Friends - or anyone who might be interested in the Trail Loppet - are welcome at future practices. A reminder that water and restrooms are available in the chalet, but you may want to carry water with you on the runs. I recommend having some water with you for this Saturday's run.

Questions? Comments? Post to the blog or email us at
Mary: cheeseandbreadsticks@gmail.com
Jennie: jennielowrytaylor@gmail.com

Enjoy your Saturday run and we'll see you next Monday!

Trail Team Updates

The Finn Sisu trail team has been out running, and it is about time for an update.

Trail Mix Team Relay, April 18, 2009
5. TEAM SOCKS 3:52:47
James Sorenson (45:33), Brent Magnusson (1:00:06), Luke Twedt (1:02:26), Justin Scanlan (1:04:42)
I don't know if these guys would actually want me to publish these results. Apparently all 4 of them ran different courses, as they each got lost during the race, and only James must have run close to the right course (he ran the fastest time in the race, beating runner-up Matt Liebsch by 24 seconds). We will give them the benifit of the doubt, and chalk this one up as a learning experience.

25k Spring Superior Trail Race, May 16, 2009
1 James Sorenson M 26 1:56:25 First Place Man
2 Brent Magnusson M 25 2:05:54 Second Place Man
Brent and James ventured north for the Superior Trail 25k and came away with a one-two finish. I hear they still got a little lost during the race, but realized they missed their turn in time to back track and stay in the lead. Good racing guys!