Run the Keweenaw Report and Pics and Training for Toronto Begins!

Run the Keweenaw 25k Report

As I mentioned several weeks ago, Catherine and I traveled up to the northernmost point of the Upper Peninsula in Michigan to run in a trail race series called Run the Keweenaw. Although they had an entire weekend's worth of events, we only had time to run the final event which was the 25k race, and seeing that it would be the first official trail race for either of us (and the first ever run on trails for Catherine) this would be plenty for us. It also gave us a nice excuse to take a little road trip and spend some quality time together.

I thought it would also give Catherine a chance to see a fun place that I have a fond childhood memory of. During the summer of 1982, when I was 5 years old, my parents borrowed an RV that belonged at the time to my grandfather, and we made the trek up to the Upper Peninsula and eventually to Copper Harbor. My mom was kind enough to send a few photos from the trip:

My Dad and I at Lake Fanny Hooe in Copper Harbor, MI, with little KPH showing off the overalls!

My Mom and I outside of Houghton, MI

I had my eye on this race for a while, and I was really excited that Catherine was willing to come along. I decided before we left to run the entire race with her, enjoy the sights, and not worry about being competitive. It was the right decision, we had so much fun.

This report is mostly just a series of photos, as this was clearly a fun run for us, so it will take on a much different tone than my previous reports.

When we arrived in town, we set our tent up at our campsite near Lake Fanny Hooe, and I was pleased at how tiny the town was - everything was within walking distance and the town was very quaint. Our campsite was actually really pretty, we had a cool little stream flowing in the back of it.

Unfortunately, it rained off and on the night we were there, so no fun stories of campfires and smores. We went out to eat at a real nice little in on the main road in town and by the time that was over, it had already gotten pretty late so it was time to settle in and hit the sack.

We woke up the next morning and walked down to get our bib and t-shirt. Unfortunately for Catherine, the shirts were unisex, and she had asked for a woman's shirt. They promised to send her one, although unfortunately she has yet to receive it. The shirt was cotton, although it was some kind of hemp cotton and incredibly soft and comfy. It's become one of my favorite shirts.

We get to the start and there are maybe 60 people there. Nice. The race director comes to the start and says a few words and this is easily the most chill and relaxed of a start to a race ever. The race starts out on an asphalt road, but after maybe a quarter of a mile we are on a double-wide grassy path. After about a half mile of that it turns into dirt singletrack and we start climbing on switchbacks heading up one of the mountains, and I immediately am grateful that I decided to run with Catherine.

This is bascially how the first 90 minutes of the race was. Winding up and down switchbacks going up and down the side of mountains in the woods. It went by extremely fast for how slow we were going (12 or 13 minute miles?) because the scenery was just amazing.

Catherine stopping to pose in the woods

Passing a stream in the climb up

During the first half of the race we let a lot of people pass us, which was good, as we wanted to take photos and really enjoy the sights. Footing was pretty challenging at times, although we were both surprised it wasn't muddier given how much rain the area had gotten. I was running in my road shoes (Brooks Launch) and I would have loved some better traction. Catherine and I were really hesitant on the downhills for this reason, and if I were to ever get serious about running trails, this would be area number 1 of improvement.

We came out of the hills eventually and I saw a familar pond that we ran by at the start, and made it to an aid station that was near the start of the race. Having completed the first loop, we were pretty excited. I had a feeling we were at the back of the pack and the volunteers could not have been nicer. After refilling my handheld we were off, and after enjoying some easy running on a flat, crushed gravel path, we then enjoyed some views that were even better than the first half.

Passing by a dock near Lake Fanny Hooe

Getting an action shot on the second half

Crossing over another beautiful stream

This was a tough stretch of trail...

On the other side of the Lake, beautiful

Another sampling of the trail

The trail had a lot of these neat little wooden bridges, here's one of our favorite spots.

Climbing up on a bridge

Another nice view from the trail

Well, the second half was tougher than the first, but offered some really nice views. Unfortunately it did have to come to an end. We finished the race at 2:55:54, an average pace of 11:19. Well worth the trip up. I joked "Let's go again!" at the finish. I actually would not have minded another trip one bit, it was fantastic.

A couple more fun shots from Copper Harbor:

KPH after the race showing off the race t-shirt, as well as a landmark showing the beginning of US-41, which runs from Copper Harbor, MI, through Chicago, and terminates in Miami, FL!

A lakefront dock at dusk, overlooking Lake Superior

Some "WTF" Miles

A quick primer on WTF before we start: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=WTF, definition #2.

This pretty much describes my running up until today. I've just been running mostly easy miles, doing some fast stuff here and there, nothing too exciting. Although the heat wave we had last week truly brought out the WTF in me.

It was in the mid-90s for most of last week, and I decided that it would be more pleasant to run indoors for most of my workouts. Trying to maintain a base of close to 60 miles per week, I did 10, 8, and 12 mile runs, all indoors at the Wilmette Fitness Center track. Now this track is 12 laps to a mile. So last Thursday's run amounted to 144 laps! That was about as mundane as it gets, but at least it wasn't on the treadmill. Plus I had a bunch of ESPN podcasts to entertain me, so it wasn't horrible. However, I was thrilled to get outside to run the next day, as the weather finally cooled off a little bit and I was able to complete my week a little more comfortably.

I had a lousy 15 mile run last Saturday though during group training. Well, maybe I should correct that. The last 10% of the run was lousy. It was the first tough long run I've had in a very long time...looking over my log for Green Bay, I'm not sure I had any longer runs that I found difficult (although I had several quality days I wasn't thrilled with). That being said, I had two consecutive days of poor sleep due to storms or other factors leading up to this run. I guess it's a reminder that no matter how in-shape you think you are, proper rest is still a requirement for good training and everyone is going to have a bad day from time to time.

Since the Wilmette Fun Run at the start of July, I've had mileage weeks of 61.42, 58.75 and 55.40, which completes 6 straight weeks at 50+ miles per week. I am feeling very solid about my base headed into Toronto training.

Time to Get Serious

Today my official training plan for the Toronto Waterfront Marathon started with an 11-mile run, and FINALLY the weather here was pleasant and I returned to familar form somewhat. I do have a strange anomaly in my first week worth mentioning though.

I am following the 12 week plan in Advanced Marathoning by Pfitzinger and Douglas, which peaks at 70 miles per week and averages in the low 60s. The first week calls for a 15 mile run with the last 8 at marathon pace. I figure based on how I've been feeling and my recent race result that marathon pace for me right now is around 7 minutes/mile. The problem is, I have to pace 16 miles at 8:30 pace for CES on Saturday, which would ordinarily be the time I did the MP workout. So I'm going to try to do both, and hope it works out. I'm planning to modify week 1 to this:

Monday- 11 mile medium-long run. Done.

Tuesday - 5 mile recovery tomorrow.

Wednesday - 15 miles with the last 8 @ 7 minute pace (gulp)

Thursday - 5 mile recovery

Friday - 8 miles with 10 strides

Saturday - 16 mile medium long run

Total - 60 miles

Mileage-wise this should be fine, and hopefully I've built the base to handle both Wednesday and Saturday's workouts. I'm just going to have to wake up in the middle of the night to knock out the MP run so I don't melt, that's all there is to it. Fortunately I'll be back to normal next week and I don't have to disappoint Pfitz by screwing up his plans. I already feel pumped up though for Toronto, it's the power of the plan! No more WTFing, and I'm excited about it. All praise and glory to Pfitz and Douglas!