Ben's Training Log

Grandmas Training Archive

SUMMER 2006 ARCHIVE

Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Weeks 7,8,9
Week 10
Week 11

Hello everyone. Since we are opening the store soon I thought I would start posting my log on the site to give people a little bit better idea of who I was and to give people who are interested a little insight into some high level training. A big reason that Matt and I are opening this store is so we can give back to the running community. For me, an easy way to do that is to share my training. American Distance Running has seen a huge resurgence over the past few years and I believe that the internet is a big reason for that. I know that when I was in college I was constantly reading interviews from the nation’s best runners and trying to figure out what they were doing that made them so good. It was because of the information that I read that I began to experiment with higher mileage. When I did that I became a lot better runner. It is important for today’s high school runners to see what is out there at the elite level. I am not saying that high schoolers should be running the amount of miles that I am running, but I just want them to know that it is a big world out there and kids across the country are doing some amazing things and they can too.


I hope you enjoy this log and feel free to email me at ben@bigriverrunning.com if you have any questions about things that I am doing. I love talking training and would love to help anyone out with their own goals and ambitions. So here goes:

Week 1

Monday July 3: 8 miles at the Monday morning group run. Ran the first 4 with Matt and Dan Quigley before pulling away on the second loop.
Tuesday July 4: 8 miles solo.
Wednesday July 5: 7 miles with Matt and Thomas.
Thursday July 6: 0 miles.
Friday July 7: 4 miles, we worked all day and only had time to get in 4 before the KFNS Poker tourney (in which I finished 16th out of nearly 200 by the way). O yeah and Matt was 18th.
Saturday July 8: 10 miles with Tim Bradley and Tommy Albes. Nice run- did the 'ol Kenrick Seminary loop. Later in the day I got destroyed in the Header tournament. 3 and out. A travesty for a defending champ.
Sunday July 9: did not run.

Weekly Total: 37 miles, 5 runs.

Week 2

Monday July 10: 8 miles at the high school group run. Today marks the real beginning of training for me as it is now 12 weeks out from Twin Cities. I do not feel very fit right now, but there is a long time to go.
Tuesday July 11: 10 miles with Brian and Albes at 5:30 am in South City. Good to see the young lad willing to get up early and pound some miles!
Wednesday July 12: 10 miles. Ran with Tim from South City to Forest Park, ran for a couple minutes with Jason, Zac and Liam who I haven't ran with in a while, and then Tim and I toured the Forest Park Cross Country Festival course before heading home. Might have been a touch over 10. Humid as all get out- took an ice cold shower afterwards.
Thursday July 13: 8 miles. Ran with the top group at the St. Louis Cross Country Camp. Pretty easy pace. Legs just don't feel right though.
Friday July 14: am 4 miles. pm traveled to Kirksville with Matt for a coaching clinic and first aid class. Nice to be back in our old college town. Unfortunately, I forgot my running shoes! I had really been looking forward to running some of our old loops. Instead I walked down to the track and jogged 2 miles in my barefeet around the infield and did 8 solid strides.
Saturday July 15: Big fat zero. When I got back from the 'Ville I was quite tired and did not feel like running. Plus, my legs have felt like garbage all week so I opted for a massage in lieu of a run. Jen did the honors and no wonder I had been feeling bad. I had huge knots in my IT Band and calf muscles in my right leg. Truly this was my own fault as I did nothing to properly recover from Grandmas.
Sunday July 16: Ran 15 at Castlewood with Matt and Brian. Felt way better after having been worked on the night before.

Weekly Total: 57 miles, 7 runs.

Week 3

Monday July 17: 8 miles at the Monday Morning High School Run. Got going pretty good with Adam and Brammeier. pm 6 miles with Adam at Forest Park- felt quite good.
Tuesday July 18: am- 10 miles at 5:30 with Brian. pm- easy 4 miles at SLUH camp with the kids.
Wednesday July 19: THE BIG STORM! I was at Forest Park when the big storm hit. We had just sent the kids out for a time trial on Central Fields when the winds came roaring in and I had to bust ass across the field and tell them to stop. They all had to run back to the cars and then we just sat there and watched it for and hour. I t was crazy stuff. I can easily say that is the fiercest bit of weather I have ever seen. Anyway, I was supposed to do a fartlek with some guys from the Racing Team afterwards but we scrapped it and I had to mark another zero.
Thursday July 20: am 3up/ 40 minute Hill Circuit at Tower Grove Park/ 3down. Ran this workout with Brian. Mike had us do the same workout that I did before US Cross last winter. It is a long uphill at race pace followed by a short jog recovery down the hill and then into a 150 meter float and then another short jog back to the start of the loop. The loop only takes about 2:25 so you do the hill a ton of times. We put it to each other pretty good. Fun stuff. pm- 4 miles with Brian at Queeny. We talked about the big American money that Chicago has this fall, but decided to stick to the plan and run Twin Cities.
Friday July 21: am 6 miles pm 8 miles with the top group at SLUH camp. I did some drill with the boys. Geez I am not used to that stuff.
Saturday July 22: 18 miles. Ran at Castlewood with Blair Porter's group. Great bunch of guys and I had been wanting to run with them for a while but stuff kept coming up. Anyway, they had about 20 or so people out so it was a nice group. Brian and I finished up with Brammeier who is looking tough and I think will certainly make an impact at Florida this year.
Sunday July 23: easy 9 miles solo to get my prescribed 85 in for the week. Felt like garbage which I am pretty sure is a direct result of me losing my new shoes last wekk (still have no idea where they are) and having to run in old ones for the past few days.

Weekly Total: 85 miles, 9 runs.

Week 4

Monday July 24: am 12 miles with the Monday Morning High School Run. I ran 3 loops and Phillip Bascio from CBC ran 3 as well. They are training hard as a group and should have quite a squad this year. pm 4 miles (in new shoes!!)
Tuesday July 25: am 7 miles with Ben Murphy-Baum at Forest Park. Met up with Liam and Jason as well. pm 5 miles, felt pretty chipper actually after a very productive day at work.
Wednesday July 26: am 4 miles- chipper feeling was gone. pm 2.5up/ 40 minute fartlek doing 3 minutes hard, 2 minutes easy/ 2.5 down. Did this one with Brian, Tim, and Ben Murphy-Baum at Central Fields. Very hot out but I thought we did a nice job. Brian and I pushed each other pretty hard.
Thursday July 27: am 4 miles pm 10 miles at Queeny at the Group Run. Felt like garbage- it was nice to have a group there. Ran with Matt, Adam, Billy Bell, Joe Fuchs, Tim, and Katie. Lots of talk about the kickoff!
Friday July 28: am 8 mile with Lyons. We rolled at a pretty decent clip- probably as quick as I can go at 5:30 am.
Saturday July 29: am 10 minute shakeout at 6am. Mississippi Mile- 2up/1 mile race/3.5 down. Very fun race. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a mile race. I knew going in that I would have to get away from Matt and Brian mid race if I wanted to steal this thing. The race begins on a steep uphill at the IL side of the bridge for about 6-800 meters, then flattens out for a bit before a big downhill for the last 600. Brian and I set the pace through a 68 second quarter, then hit the half in 2:15. I moved right there hard and Brian went with. We gapped Matt by about 10 meters and entering the downhill I thought I might have this thing. Brian and I were neck and neck with a quarter to go (both thinking we had it). Then with 300 to go Matt went by like we were standing still and made us look quite slow! He ran 4:20, Brian was 4:23 and I was 4:25. Ah well. Speedy I am not. pm 5 miles with Lyons, fun run, laughed about getting our butts kicked earlier in the morning.
Sunday July 30: Black Sunday. 18 miles. Ran downtown loop with Brian, Jason, Danny, Joe P., and Joe Con. 13 miles in I ran out of gas from the heat and struggled big time coming in. Probably ran like 8 minute pace for my last 2 miles. Felt like crap the rest of the day. This heat is stupid.

Weekly Total: 97 miles, 12 runs

Week 5

Monday July 31: am 4 miles at the final Monday Morning High School Run. Went only 4 so I could set up the food and get ready for the attendance prizes and such. Lots of fun- we had 40 kids there and gave away some great stuff including a Prefontaine shirt signed by Alan Webb that says, "I hope Pre would have been proud of me- Alan Webb, Miler." Thanks to everyone who came out. pm 10 miles at the Chubb Trail with Matt and Kevin Crean. I got movin and pulled away on the last 4-5 miles. Felt pretty good out there- nice to be in the shade.
Tuesday August 1: pm 2up/ 5x1mile at 4:40 pace with 3 min recovery/ 2 down. This is a workout I have completed many times, but never attempted in this kind of heat. Anyway we had a lot of guys out on the track doing some different things so it was a nice atmosphere. Brian and I were supposed to hit the 4:40s with Matt and Adam pacing us through the first 1k of each one. We hit 4:38, 4:40 on the first 2. On the third one the heat got the best of Brian but I held on and hit 4:39. On the 4th one, Brian just jumped in for the last 1k so I had pacers all the way around and hit 4:40 but was really hurting. I told Mike I wasn't sure about the last one so he had me just do 1k with everyone else. We hit 2:54 no problem. In hindsight I wish I would have just done the whole mile because I think I would've hit it but it is nice to leave the track with a little left in the tank. Fun to have a nice group together on a tough night.
Wednesday August 2: am 6 miles solo. pm 8 miles in Castlewood. Ran the first 5 with Brammeier and the last 3 solo. That kid took me up some big hills.
Thursday August 3: am 6 miles- left the house at 5:30 to meet Brian but we missed each other so it was a solo jaunt. We did eat breakfast together at the Courtesy Drive-In as the Morning Grind guys from KFNS were broadcasting live from there. We had slingers which for those of you who don't know are famous in South St. Louis. They consist of a hamburger pattie, 2 eggs any style, and hashbrowns all smothered in chili with cheese and onions on top (if you want). I just took the cheese and no onions- I didn't want to seem like a pig. pm 9 miles, met up with Brian for most of it and we were hitting a pretty good clip.
Friday August 4: am 10 miles with Matt. Felt ok.
Saturday August 5: am 10 min. shakeout with Brian at 6:30. 2up / Cross Country Kickoff 5k / 5 down. First of all- what a great day for St. Louis running. We talked this thing up all summer and basically every competitive runner in the area on the guys side came out to run. That made for a really fun atmosphere. As far as my race went- I just had one of those days when I felt great. Went out in 4:48 for mile one with Brian and Zac Freudenberg (who I knew was fit coming in). I tightened the screws a bit on mile 2 as did Zac and we came through 2 in 9:31 so a 4:42 second mile. It was just he and I at that point so I moved not long after the 2 mile mark and got some distance as he had looked good up the hill on each of the first two loops. I was able to hit the hill with about a 10 meter gap and then really extended at the top. I felt good all the way in except for thinking the finish was about 100 meters short of where it actually was so I slowed for a couple of seconds before realizing my mistake and came across the line in 14:45. I was pleased. The team ran great, going 1,4,7,9,10 for a winning score of 31. Props to Tim for outkicking Tipper!
Sunday August 6: 20 miles. Brian and I left from his house and got out the door pretty quick and were 6:10 pace by mile 2. We got to the park and met Zac, Jason and Liam to do the Clayton loop. After a couple easy miles we were right back to 6:00 and by the time we were in U City we were 5:40s and then into the 5:20s. Jason was pushing hard and I was hanging on with Brian. Eventually it got down to Brian and I and I was hanging on for dear life. I made it all the way to the second hill on Macklind before hitting the wall. Brian looked great and continued home at 5:20-5:30 pace. I struggled in the last 2 miles but still ran 20 in about 2:02. Probably could have done without Strassenfest yesterday.

Weekly Total: 94 miles, 10 runs.

Week 6

Monday August 7: am 8 miles, 9 with the one mile warmup over to the park.. easy run with the SLUH boys- did some strides afterwards which I'm sure my coach will be glad to hear.. pm 5 miles solo- very humid.
Tuesday August 8: 10 miles at Forest Park. Must have lost 2 gallons of sweat out there.

Weeks 7, 8, 9

Okay, so I haven't posted in a long time. Sorry about that. Opening a running store is tough stuff. Basically starting on August 9th, a day I was supposed to do a workout, but instead laid down floor for 8 hours and did not run, my training has taken a backseat to the store. What has been bad for my running has been great for business though as I have put all my energy into getting the word out about Big River and we have been rockin and rollin at the store which has made my lack of fitness easier to swallow. I have managed to get a few good days in. I did 8x600 with Brian in 1:41-1:42 on Aug. 16th. The next week I ran 2x3 miles in 15:00 and 15:06, pacing Brian through his 3x3 mile workout. This week I paced him through his 2x1, 10 mile tempo, 2x1 workout but I hadn't run in the two days prior to that so I felt not good (and I only did 2x800, 3.5 mile tempo, 2x800). This morning though I went to the track by myself to do 6x800 ( a Frank Shorter staple) and ran 2:17/2:20/2:16/2:16/2:15/2:11. Not the best workout ever by any means but I turned the corner in terms of feeling sorry for myself. I wanted to cut it short after 2 of them but I just kind of willed myself to keep going and I came away from it feeling pretty good. I have a ten mile race on Monday morning in Illinois called the Scenic 10 mile. I am in good enough shape to have a decent race if I take care of myself these next couple days. Anyway, I'll get back to regular log posting starting now- I just really have no idea what all I've run over the past three weeks so I figured this was a better way to catch everyone up. - BEN

Saturday September 2: 8 miles in Forest Park, ran some of it with Joe Porter. Did some strides as well.
Sunday September 3: 6 miles in New Lenox, IL with my boy DeBold. Felt stiff after the long drive but did some barefoot strides on the grass afterwards and felt quite good.

Week 10

Monday September 4: 1.5 mile shakeout with Lyons at 5am. 3up/Scenic 10 mile race. 16th place, 50:25/ 2down. Well, this race ended up being a lot of fun. As you know from what I wrote above I am not in the best shape, but I figured I could run 5:00 pace pretty easily for at least 5 miles and would just have to get tough after that. The race went out and a big pack of Kenyans went right to the front and hammered, going for the course record bonus (which they got). A second pack formed with myself, Brian, a couple guys from Wisconsin Runner Racing Team, and a couple other Americans. We hit the mile in 4:56 with Brian pretty much setting the pace for the group. You go into the the woods at about 1.5 and run on a paved path (which was really fun by the way). Anyway, Brian and I pulled away from the group running our mile splits just under 5. I was just trying to relax and take it one mile at a time. I thought about letting him go a couple times, but what would the point of that be. I figured I was here so I might as well run it like each mile was my last. I made it out of the woods still with Brian as we hit 5 in 24:50. A little past 5.5 I did finally let him go but still hit 6 just under 50:00 pace. The next three miles were slow for me and I got passed by the two Wisc. guys but went hung on to the second guy and kind of raced him in over the last mile (5:03) to finish up in 50:25, not bad all things considered. Brian ran great and finished 13th (second American) in 50:02 which is a really solid time and leads me to believe that a sub 2:20 Marathon will be no problem for him.
Tuesday September 5: am 4 miles easy, real easy. pm 6 miles easy with Joe and Joe.
Wednesday, Thursday September 6 & 7: can't exactly remember which was wich but one of these days I did not run and one of them I ran an easy 8 miles. Most of my days were spent getting ready for the meet.
Friday September 8: 2up/ 6 mile fartlek with Lyons (2 minutes hard/1 minute easy) 3 down.
Saturday September 9: Did not run. I was up at 4:30 am setting up for the 1st annual Forest Park Cross Country Festival!!! The meet went great and was a huge success. I think the kids had a great time out there competing hard with a meet announcer and all the bells and whistles that a big meet should have.
Sunday September 10: met the group at 7 am and ran about 12.5 (Clayton Loop).

Weekly Total: 56 miles, 6 runs. ouch.

Week 11

Monday September 11: nice 10 miler with Lyons around the city. Ran around the reservoir on Grand as well as down by SLU and back through Forest Park. Actually it was probably 11.
Tuesday September 12: Ran 6 miles solo when I got back from the store. Starting to feel like the fitness that I had built up in late July/early August is finally wearing off and I am basically out of shape. Now that the meet is over though I can run this race in Decatur on Saturday and then get back to some serious training where I'm up over 100 miles again.
Wednesday September 13: My main job today was to help Brian with his 2x6 mile workout. It was a tough day though. I had to do a lot of jogging/walking at SLUH practice to get the mile repeat course measured and marked. Then they ran it wrong on the first one so I had to jump in and lead 1200 meters of their second repeat at about 5:05 pace. Anyway, after practice I headed over to meet Lyons and decided to try and run his second 6 mile with him. Did about another 2 miles of warming up and really didn't feel into it. Made it through 3 miles with him in 15:20 and called it a day. Felt like garbage. I did keep going but quit taking splits. 2 down.
Thursday September 14: Big Fat Zero. Long day at the Store and had no motivation to run at 9:30 when I got home.
Friday: am 3 miles easy. pm 4 miles with Alan in Decatur.
Saturday: Shoreline Classic 15k. 3rd place, 47:05. ran a 10 min shakeout run at 5:00 am with Alan then drank a lot of Powerade, took a shower, had the ol' cup of coffee and headed to the course. We did a 2 mile warmup after which I still did not feel super pumped about what was about to take place but at least the race atmosphere was there so I had some adrenaline kicking in. Plus, there were a lot of Kenyans which always gets me jacked up. Anwyay, the race went out quick with the Kenyans setting the pace and I was the only American to follow. We came through in 4:54 for the mile and then ran another 4:54 for mile 2 with things stringing out early. Matthew Chesang (who is pretty darn good) pulled away and never looked back, setting a course record of 45:19. I was running 5th right behind the guy who won this race last year. We eventually made our way up to the third place guy just before 6 miles (which I hit in 30:06). I made a move at that point and pulled away from them into third where I stayed the rest of the way. Hitting 6 in 30:06 I thought I might hit sub 47 but miles 7 and 8 were over 5:10 before closing in 5:00 for mile 9. Still ended up five seconds faster than last year. Essentially, I pulled this one out of nowhere although it just shows me how fit I should be able to get as I begin my next training segment getting ready for the Houston Marathon in January. 2 down.

Check back for more soon, because I am going to make sure I keep this up-to-date.

- BEN