2012: Time to rebuild

  It's time to get caught up on all the racing I have been doing in 2012.  At the start of the year, I was contacted by SOU to help build a training program for a Pear Blossom run training group.  It was part of their healthy campus initiative and I gladly offered my services.  I came up with a 12 week training program for both the 10 miler and the 5k, I also offered beginner and intermediate programs.  So whether I wanted to or not, It looked like I was going to be training for the Pear Blossom, so I figured that I might as well race it to.  We had a good response for the initial sign ups but the group would begin to dwindle drastically as the weeks rolled by.  I feel it was partly my fault because I couldn't be as involved as I would have liked.  For those of you who know me, my wife is an accountant and this is her busy time from January to April.  It is also my busy time at work after New Years so it doesn't leave much free time for any of us.  In fact, we agreed upon making this time of year our off season so we wouldn't be stressed about trying to squeeze in runs and follow a running plan.  We focused on strength training which isn't as time consuming.  I think the schedule will work out well in the long run.   I decided to share the training programs with the members of Anytime Fitness in Ashland and try to create a training group there.  We had a nice little group of runners that were committed to running the race.  In February, I was contacted by Nathan Olsen who was creating a Southern Oregon running group through meetup.com.  We decided to add our Saturday morning group run to the meetup group.  We started having more people show up and I find that I really enjoy the social group run. It brought back the good memories of the RVR group runs on Wednesday evenings that my schedule hasn't allowed me to run lately.  I hope to get back to running with that group this Summer.
  In January, I ended up racing in the Frostbite run 5K.  My wife and I planned on doing a longer run later in the day so I wasn't going to race but I had just enough money and motivation to sign up at the race.  However, I didn't have running shorts or any real running gear so I ran it in my cotton shirt and sweatpants.  It was definitely hot and uncomfortable but at least I had on running shoes.  I improved on my 5K time from the Pioneer run a little bit with a 21:41.

Heading out on my part of the relay at the Couples Truffle Shuffle.

I never can seem to catch the Rabers!

  Mid February, I teamed up with my son and ran the Couples Truffle Shuffle out at Griffin Creek Elementary school.  For those of you who don't know that race, it's a 10K relay with each person running a 5K.  By now I was starting to get in a few training runs each week.  I ended up shaving a minute off my 5K time from the Frostbite run.  The following Saturday my son and I went out to the Rogue River 5K where I ran the exact same time as the Couple's Truffle.  I was expecting a faster time since it was a mostly flat course but it didn't happen.  At least I can say I am consistent.

Reaching the turnaround at Rogue River!

Working to keep up with Chad Wikander (Co-race director of Granite Man) and Karl Pryor at TNT

   In mid March, I ran the TNT 6 miler directed by Hal Koerner of Rogue Valley Runners.  I have a real love/hate relationship with that race.  I like the varying terrain with all the hills and the mix of road and trail, but after the first significant hill, I always end up gasping for air the rest of the race.  I ran a 47:03 which was only a minute and a half slower than the last time I had run it.  With my minimal training, I was quite pleased with the result.

TNT always provides a nice mix of tar and trail

  Next my family and I made the drive out to Central Point for the Shamrock 5 mile run. I ended up running a 35:17 with a 7:03/mile pace.  I was feeling good about my racing as we were heading toward the Pear Blossom run.  However, I was having a hard time getting in my training runs at the end of March and my confidence began to fade.  Next up, Pear Blossom!