For those of you that don't know, the USA Track and Field Club Cross Country Championships will be held in Spokane on December 13th. Since the race is right in our back yard - Montana's athletes have stepped up and we'll have great representation at this National Championship event.
Running under the banner of the Big Sky Distance Project, we'll have an open men's team (5 runners), a masters men's team (6 runners), an open women's team (7 runners), and masters women's team (5 runners) and one 60+ male individual runner. That gives us 24 runners who will make the trek eastward to Plantes Ferry Park in NE Spokane.
The buzzard will provide more info as we get closer to the meet.
See you on the roads, tracks and trails
The Muddy Buzzard
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Another Mile Marker -
Well, it took a while; but, the buzzard is close to being back to some semblance of normal mileage. Last week saw a 40-mile week. That was the first time I've seen that type of mileage since the week of March 23rd. And, today I put in a pleasant 10-mile on the roads and trails northwest of Plains. It's the first time that I've had an individual run in the double digit mileage since March 30th.
While my overall pace is still lagging behind what I'd like to be at - it's coming along, slowly but surely. I'm trying to take the return to full fitness sort of like you would approach a long run. Just going from mile marker to mile marker.
Between last week's mileage and today's 10-miler, I've passed another marker. There's plenty of them still ahead; but, we'll take solace in all the one's that we've put behind us.
See you on the roads, tracks and trails
The Muddy Buzzard
While my overall pace is still lagging behind what I'd like to be at - it's coming along, slowly but surely. I'm trying to take the return to full fitness sort of like you would approach a long run. Just going from mile marker to mile marker.
Between last week's mileage and today's 10-miler, I've passed another marker. There's plenty of them still ahead; but, we'll take solace in all the one's that we've put behind us.
See you on the roads, tracks and trails
The Muddy Buzzard
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Catching UP
Can't believe that this much time has passed since I last posted.
Problem is just too much of everthing.
There were the last few weeks of the high school cross country season to get through.
Work has required a bit more travel than earlier this year.
Have been spending most of my free time working on my house, especially trying to get the basement finished.
And, as I get healthier and healthier, I'm able to get in a few more mile; and, that's just adds more time to an already busy day.
But, I can't really complain - In the end, I'm being pretty productive and enjoying living here in NW Montana. But, let's get back to the running and catching up a bit.
First and foremost, let's talk about Montana Cup. Big kudo's to Pat Judge and his crew in Helena. The organization was great, the course location was spectacular and the finish area set-up was fantastic. The course, as seems to be the trend at Montana Cup, was a bit extreme. There were two serious - Mountain Goat type serious - climbs in the race. And, the first one wa more reminiscent of a mountain/trail race rather than a cross country event. But, that's part of the allure of the Cup. The course is guaranteed to be a unique challenge.
Matt Winter continues his great fall racing picking up the win on the men's side. Rachel Brewer of Great Falls pretty much dominated the women's race. For my money - the performance of the day came from Ray Hunt. Even setting aside his know penchant for sandbagging, his 43 year old legs kicked a lot of young gun ass. One of only 5 performances under 21:00, he beat the second master by over a minute. It was a hell of a race for the founder fo the event.
For more on the Cup, check out http://www.montanacup.com/ResultsPages/2008/2008.htm
Just like building up the mileage - posting again feels good. I'll try to be better about being more timely in my comments - especially as the Big Sky Distance Project gets ready to compete at the USATF Club Championship Cross Country meet in Spokane.
The Muddy Buzzard
Problem is just too much of everthing.
There were the last few weeks of the high school cross country season to get through.
Work has required a bit more travel than earlier this year.
Have been spending most of my free time working on my house, especially trying to get the basement finished.
And, as I get healthier and healthier, I'm able to get in a few more mile; and, that's just adds more time to an already busy day.
But, I can't really complain - In the end, I'm being pretty productive and enjoying living here in NW Montana. But, let's get back to the running and catching up a bit.
First and foremost, let's talk about Montana Cup. Big kudo's to Pat Judge and his crew in Helena. The organization was great, the course location was spectacular and the finish area set-up was fantastic. The course, as seems to be the trend at Montana Cup, was a bit extreme. There were two serious - Mountain Goat type serious - climbs in the race. And, the first one wa more reminiscent of a mountain/trail race rather than a cross country event. But, that's part of the allure of the Cup. The course is guaranteed to be a unique challenge.
Matt Winter continues his great fall racing picking up the win on the men's side. Rachel Brewer of Great Falls pretty much dominated the women's race. For my money - the performance of the day came from Ray Hunt. Even setting aside his know penchant for sandbagging, his 43 year old legs kicked a lot of young gun ass. One of only 5 performances under 21:00, he beat the second master by over a minute. It was a hell of a race for the founder fo the event.
For more on the Cup, check out http://www.montanacup.com/ResultsPages/2008/2008.htm
Just like building up the mileage - posting again feels good. I'll try to be better about being more timely in my comments - especially as the Big Sky Distance Project gets ready to compete at the USATF Club Championship Cross Country meet in Spokane.
The Muddy Buzzard
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Mountain West Redux
Last Saturday was quite a glorious day for a cross country meet. And, the hosts (Mountain West Track Club) and the athletes (1,500 strong) certainly put on a great show. The meet is an opportunity that few high school athletes get to experience. A challenging course that is double flagged througout. Thousands of cheering fans and top quality meet organization. What more could you ask for as a fan of distance running.
As the buzzard circled around overhead, he was left with a few lasting impressions.
First, what a great festival of races, color, excitement and determination. To look out over the north end of the University Golf Course and observed the sea of tents, the legions of runners and the hordes of fans put a smile on the old birds face.
There were some great individual performances. Drew Coco of Whitefish continued his dominant season and ran away from the boys field over the last mile.
The suprise of the day on the boys side had to have been Ryan Ketterling of Joliet. A solid performer in years past, he made a huge step forward with his strong 3rd place finish.
On the girls side, Kelly Dennehy of Butte made a stunning surge over the last 100 meters to make up almost a 20 meter deficit and finish fractions of a second out of first place. The state meet should be a doozy on the AA women's side with Dennehy, the Aragon sisters of Billings Senior, Keely West of CMR and Heidi Turner of Bozeman.
From team standpoints, the Bozeman girls will be hard to beat. And, if they can continue to run at this level, a Nike Team National slot isn't entirely out fo the question. But how about the Whitefish girls. Running agains the best large schools in Montana and several Washington powerhouses, the "A" school pulled out a 3rd place finish. And, this despite their nornal #1 runner (Loni Hanson) running a sub-par performance. Pretty impressive stuff.
On the boys side, the team titles at state in all classes looks to be as wide open as it has been in years. The boys team titles should rival the AA girls individual races for excitement.
See you back in Zoo Town for state on October 25th.
Before then, see you on the roads, tracks and trails.
The Muddy Buzzard
As the buzzard circled around overhead, he was left with a few lasting impressions.
First, what a great festival of races, color, excitement and determination. To look out over the north end of the University Golf Course and observed the sea of tents, the legions of runners and the hordes of fans put a smile on the old birds face.
There were some great individual performances. Drew Coco of Whitefish continued his dominant season and ran away from the boys field over the last mile.
The suprise of the day on the boys side had to have been Ryan Ketterling of Joliet. A solid performer in years past, he made a huge step forward with his strong 3rd place finish.
On the girls side, Kelly Dennehy of Butte made a stunning surge over the last 100 meters to make up almost a 20 meter deficit and finish fractions of a second out of first place. The state meet should be a doozy on the AA women's side with Dennehy, the Aragon sisters of Billings Senior, Keely West of CMR and Heidi Turner of Bozeman.
From team standpoints, the Bozeman girls will be hard to beat. And, if they can continue to run at this level, a Nike Team National slot isn't entirely out fo the question. But how about the Whitefish girls. Running agains the best large schools in Montana and several Washington powerhouses, the "A" school pulled out a 3rd place finish. And, this despite their nornal #1 runner (Loni Hanson) running a sub-par performance. Pretty impressive stuff.
On the boys side, the team titles at state in all classes looks to be as wide open as it has been in years. The boys team titles should rival the AA girls individual races for excitement.
See you back in Zoo Town for state on October 25th.
Before then, see you on the roads, tracks and trails.
The Muddy Buzzard
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
Small Victories
Okay, so sometimes all that you can do is take the small victories.
Since my patellar fracture, the road back has been long (or short if you want to talk about running miles) and slow (literally and figuratively). On top of that, I've been fighting a tight IT band the last week. So, to add salt to the wounds, I've had to back off my mileage even more. And, damn, when you are doing limited mileage as it is, backing off isn't where you really want to be.
But, in exchange for backing down the mileage a bit, I've tried to make the "quality" count. (Of course, quality is all relative right now !!!!) And, over the last two days, I've had a couple of small positives.
On Wednesday, I did my first run of averaging under 7:00 per mile - doing a 5K course in 20:30.
Today, I did a hard mile in the middle of my 3-mile run and was able to go sub-6:00 (5:55).
Neither are stunning achievements. But, given the fact that it's only been about 8 weeks since I was able to even start running again, I guess that's some decent progress. And, even a month ago, I was really struggling to be at 8:00 pace. So, I guess I'll take the good where I can find it, try to stay positive and keep moving forward.
I know that it's going to come back and that I'll be back to where I would like -------but, why does it have to take so damn long :-)
See you on the roads, tracks and trails
The Muddy Buzzard
Since my patellar fracture, the road back has been long (or short if you want to talk about running miles) and slow (literally and figuratively). On top of that, I've been fighting a tight IT band the last week. So, to add salt to the wounds, I've had to back off my mileage even more. And, damn, when you are doing limited mileage as it is, backing off isn't where you really want to be.
But, in exchange for backing down the mileage a bit, I've tried to make the "quality" count. (Of course, quality is all relative right now !!!!) And, over the last two days, I've had a couple of small positives.
On Wednesday, I did my first run of averaging under 7:00 per mile - doing a 5K course in 20:30.
Today, I did a hard mile in the middle of my 3-mile run and was able to go sub-6:00 (5:55).
Neither are stunning achievements. But, given the fact that it's only been about 8 weeks since I was able to even start running again, I guess that's some decent progress. And, even a month ago, I was really struggling to be at 8:00 pace. So, I guess I'll take the good where I can find it, try to stay positive and keep moving forward.
I know that it's going to come back and that I'll be back to where I would like -------but, why does it have to take so damn long :-)
See you on the roads, tracks and trails
The Muddy Buzzard
AK at the MM
It was the classic running sandbagger story. My training hasn't been going well lately and I've been running like crap. So were the paraphrased words of Alan King in the week leading up to the Montana Marathon 1/2 marathon event. Yet, in spite of the pre-race gloom and doom, AK went out and had an exceptional time trial last Sunday. And, I say time trial since he finished the race about 10 minutes (almost 2 miles) ahead of 2nd place. Running 5:22 pace, he hit the line at 1:10:22. Not a bad day for feeling like doggy doo.
To see full results of the Montana Marathon, check out http://perfect-timing.org/results/2008/mtmarathon/index.html Among others, finishers included ultra and trails studetee Nikki Kimball and Senator Max Baucus.
Next up for Alan will be the UM Cross Country Invitational as part of the Big Sky Distance Project.
The Muddy Buzzard
To see full results of the Montana Marathon, check out http://perfect-timing.org/results/2008/mtmarathon/index.html Among others, finishers included ultra and trails studetee Nikki Kimball and Senator Max Baucus.
Next up for Alan will be the UM Cross Country Invitational as part of the Big Sky Distance Project.
The Muddy Buzzard
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