My Big News

I’ve been thinking for a while now: it’s time to get serious about the Twin Cities 10 Mile in 8 weeks. Last week, I went on a long run of just over 8 miles, and it went well. And I planned on doing intervals on Friday.

On Thursday, I wrote a Facebook Note and tagged a bunch of my athletic friends. A few of these friends are coaches, a few are pro triathletes (who ill-advisedly added me as a friend), and the rest are speedy, speedy triathletes and runners. Here’s what I said:

Request for my Athletic / Fast / Coach Friends-

Here's my issue: I'd LOVE to break 60:00 in the Twin Cities 10 Mile just over 8 weeks away. But I don't know if there's time, and I don't know if I can do it. I'd like to at least get close. I'm looking for any and all advice on what I need to do to get near to that goal.

Background:
- At the TC 10 Mile last year (my first 10 mile), I finished in 1:02:43.
- 4 weeks later, I did my second 10 mile in 1:02:19.
- This past March, I did my 3rd 10 mile in 1:02:44.
- This spring, I set a 4 mile PR (22:42), a 5K PR (17:11), and a half marathon PR (1:22:51), and I felt like my running was the best it had ever been.
- 8 weeks ago (or so), I killed my old Oly Tri PR with a 1:15:37 (with a 38:14 10K).
- BUT, after that race, I took about 4 weeks completely off due to a sore tendon (or something) in my foot.

Now I'm running strong, feeling pretty injury-free, and I ran 8 miles (long run) last night in a fair amount of heat and everything felt great. That being said, I still only feel comfortable running 3 (MAYBE 4) days a week. The rest is tri training. (I still want to do a tri and a du this late summer, with the focus of my training being the TC 10 Mile.) Plus, if I run more than that, THAT'S when I get injured.

WHAT SHOULD I BE WORKING ON NOW? Crank up the endurance and then work on speed work? Build tempo runs, long runs, and interval training up together until a few weeks before the race? If you have any general or specific advice for me, I'd LOVE to take it!

Or, if you want to say something like "Steve, for $XXX, I'll build you a plan that can guarantee you a sub-60 10 mile," I might just bite! ;) Ha! But really, I'd be interested....

Any help would be appreciated!!!!! Thanks everyone! Happy training!

Steve Stenzel

I told Pharmie that I figured someone might get back to me saying, “Steve, I found this great 10 mile plan online last year, and I think it will fit you well - here it is...”

But something even better happened.

Coach Jen Harrison got back to me ASAP. She told me she wanted to coach me for a super, SUPER, SUPER low price. I couldn't believe it! I was thrilled! She wants to see what she can do with me. [That’s what she said.] She told me that if this were to happen, she had a few conditions:

Under TWO stipulations....you blog about it & listen to me. How is that? Let me know if you are interested. AND if you say yes, you must listen and behave!!!!

I asked her if she would restrict my diet, and she said “You can keep eating Chipotle but not cinnamon crap cereal.” I resisted the urge to hop in the car, drive 8 hours to Chicago, punch Jen in the face, and then enjoy a bowl of “Cinnamon Crap Cereal” while standing over her as her nose bled. And don’t be mad at me for that last statement – I RESISTED that urge. So that makes me a good person. ;)

Jen asked me a lot of questions to figure out where I was at with my training. She told me she’d start having workouts for me today (Monday). She also told me what to do for my intervals on Friday. She told me to do 4 x 1600 with LOTS more rest between intervals than I was used to. BUT, she wanted me to start in the 5:40 region, and drop to the 5:20 region. She told me that the 5:20 “...may be a tad of a stretch.” Telling me that it “may be a tad of a stretch” was enough to make me want to hit it right on the nose. So I went out and got it.

2:44 + 2:56 = 5:40
2:49 + 2:45 = 5:34
2:44 + 2:41 = 5:25
2:41 + 2:37 = 5:18

Heck yeah. I’d NEVER done a 1600 interval under 5:20, not to mention as my 4th interval!! First unofficial “Jen workout” in the bag, and it was a good one!

So I won’t tell you just how GREAT of a deal Jen is giving me for 8 weeks of coaching, but I’ll share with you what she told me to say:

OK to say you got some deal, but do a fun spin on it and tell them that IF you fall off the wagon and misbehave you owe me $499! LOL

*gulp*

Over the weekend, Jen sent me her plans for me for this week. She had me running nearly 40 miles this week alone. That’s great... only my last few MONTHS of training have been only 50 - 80 miles TOTAL (per month). So we scaled back and discussed what I could safely do without getting injured, she changed my weekly plan, and I’ve got a solid set of workouts set up for the week! She’s going to make me a man yet.

So stay tuned for these next 8 weeks and see what Jen Harrison can do to me. Now excuse me, but I’m off to do a run where Jen told me “If you do not want to puke on that last mile, you have not gone hard enough. That last mile better be killer...RECORD TIMES.”

Super.