Christmas Cross / 21-27 Dec

Celebrating Boxing Day or what is more commonly known as the 2nd Christmas Day in the Netherlands, I opted to run Kerstcross (Christmas Cross 10K) with my German training partners, Jurgen and Boris.  I intended to run the cross country race as a tempo training run and not at full race effort, because only by Friday I felt that I had recovered from Mescherbergloop.

The race was held in the Brunssumerhiede, which is where Jurgen and I put in most of our runs during the work week.  The course consisted of 2 small loops and 2 large loops.  When the gun went off I immediately found myself in about 15th place. I held back in the first small loop knowing how difficult the course was, and that I'll slowly reel in runners as the race progressed.  I picked off a couple runners on the 2nd loop, but it was the 3rd loop (1st large loop) in which I caught and overtook many runners, mostly on the hills.  On the 4th and final loop I saw the yellow shirt of Dutchman Roger Rousseau and my German friend Boris.  I realized that I had been running fairly good when finally I had these guys in sight.  Unfortunately, their lead on me increased over the last mile as they were battling for 3rd place.  I finished in 5th overall with a time of 36:53, which is irrelevant in a tough course like this one. All in all, it was a good and fun day for our training group as Jurgen, Boris and I took 1st, 3rd and 5th place overall, respectively.

Next race on the schedule is the New Year's Eve 8K race (Trier Silvesterlauf) in Trier, Germany.  I will be pacing Haile Gebrselassie through the first 50 meters of the race. 

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21-27 Dec

Mon: 9.2M easy; sore quads - ouch!

Tues: 8.5M easy; still sore

Wed: 9.5M easy; still a bit sore

Thur: 10M easy

Fri: 10M easy

Sat: Kerstcross 10K - 36:53 5th place; 10.5 miles total

Sun: 14.8M easy

Weekly Total: 72.5 miles

Pre-race coverage of Haile Gebrselassie at the 2009 Berlin Marathon

Watch the pre-race video clips of Haile if you have some spare time.  Some great insights of special instructions to his pace makers, what Haile eats the morning of raceday, etc.  There are many clips (click on Menu or let it automatically run into the next clip).

Haile pre-race coverage at 2009 Berlin Marathon

14 - 20 Dec

On Sunday I did a trail/XC race (Mescherbergloop 15K) in the snow, which was a first and by far the most difficult and fun race of the year. It's the same race I did last year in which I wore road racing shoes on the muddy course. I certainly did not make the same mistake. This time around I wore the La Sportiva Crosslite, which I highly suggest if you're looking for a lightweight trail or XC shoe that gives excellent traction.

The course itself was grueling with lots of steep uphills and downhills, uneven surfaces (plowed farmlands) and 180 wooden stairs to climb. Throw in the snow and you could only imagine how difficult the run was. I ended up running 5 minutes slower (1:01:50) than I did last year (56:41) and placed 9th overall in what was a very strong field of runners.  The race got the best of my quads and now I'm spending these next few days doing easy running to recover.

Here's the training summary for the week of 14-20 Dec.

Mon: 10M easy

Tues: Noon - 5M easy; PM - 9M including 15 x 300 w/ 100 rec.

Wed: 10M easy

Thur: 10M easy

Fri: 9M with the last mile at half-marathon effort

Sat: 7M easy

Sun: 15K trail/XC race in the snow; 13M total

Weekly Total: 73 miles

7 - 13 Dec

Check out this running clip. I'm not sure if that's his normal running form, if he was suffering (sure looks like), or if he was psyching himself out. All I can say is that's some unique running style. A 2:16 marathoner....maybe we should give it a try.



7-13 Dec

Mon: Noon - 5M easy; PM - 5M easy
Tues: 9M including track workout 4x200 + 2x400 + 1x800 + 2x400 + 4x200 w/ same distance for recovery
Wed: 9M easy
Thur: 9M easy
Fri: 10M including 2M tempo + 1M easy + 1M tempo.
Sat: 9M easy
Sun: 16M steady easy including 10 x :30 @ ~5k pace w/ 1' easy

Weekly Total: 72 miles

30 Nov - 6 Dec

Congrats to friend and fellow All-Army runner Kenny Foster, who ran 2:23:04 at the California International Marathon.  It was a 7-minute PR for Kenny.  Wow!!!

Good week of training.  Still working on the base fitness.

30 Nov - 6 Dec

Mon: 8.5M easy
Tues: 9M including 1600 (5:19), 1400 (4:37), 1200 (3:51), 1000 (3:11)
Wed: 9M easy
Thur: 9.5M including 2.5 miles at tempo effort
Fri: Noon - 3.75M easy; PM - 7.25M easy
Sat: 9M easy
Sun: 15.5M steady easy

Weekly Total: 71.5 miles

23 - 29 Nov

Here's last week of training. 

Mon: 8.2M easy
Tues: 8.3M easy
Wed: 10M including 6 x (2 x 200 w/200 rec + 1 x 400 w/ 400 rec)
Thur: 9M easy
Fri: 10M including 4 miles at tempo effort; very windy
Sat: 8.5M easy
Sun: 15M steady easy

Weekly Total: 69 miles