SNOW IS COMING

Finally starting to feel better after my food poisoning episode last week and now we're suppose to get over a foot of snow tonight/tomorrow. I used to love the snow but now if we get anything over 3 inches I have the hardest time running. It never used to be like that, just the last few years. Maybe it's because I run alone everyday and I just want the run to be over with?!?! Who knows!!!

Update on my Training the last 2 days: Yesterday I just ran a easy 7.5 in the morning at 6:07/mile then later one of my high school athletes (Chloe) wanted to run. I meet her up at the high school and did a 3.5 miles at her pace, she hasn't been running sense the end of XC season. I let her go any pace she felt good at and even tho she was tired (out of shape tired) she ran 6:56/ mile. I wish I had that kind of talent and not really run and just come back and go sub 7/min on icy sidewalks. TODAY: I ran my 8 miler at easy 6:31/mile it was pretty windy and chilly so I just took it easy. My second run was alone, Chloe had a school thing that was out of town so she suppose to run on her own. I ran a 4 miler at 6:11/mile; It was a out and back into the wind at 6:15ish pace then Steady state coming back, wind at my back but it was hillier going home. Felt good going 6:05 average on the coming back part. TOMORROW: It's going to be hard getting out and running but I'm sure I'll be out there twice, Maybe if we get all that snow people will get out and shovel the sidewalks and the city will plow/salt the roads...I'll keep my fingers crossed!!! Hope everyone stays safe and RUNS HAPPY!!!

Long Run

Sundays usually = Long run for me and seems like most other people. The reason I get the longer run done on Sunday because I run alone and I want to get the run done early in the week. The second reason has to be most people are either sleeping in or in church so I don't have to worry to much about crazy drivers who don't like runners.
I'm trying to get my long runs back up to 15-16 miles by late feb/early march so last week I did a 12 miler and this week I wanted to get in 13 miles. I didn't want to do the normal loop out in the country which is pretty hilly, so I kinda made up a loop where I don't normally run which usually makes the run go by a lot faster with different things to look at. I started the run out wanting to go around 6:30 pace but the first 1/2 mile I was at 6:15 pace and it felt like I was jogging, so the 6:30 pace idea was out the window. I decided to just keep going at the nice pace because usually I slow down towards the end of the run. I got over by Meijers and I was feeling awesome (last week I felt terrible on the long run), so I continued at the pace I was going and figured I was going to be a little short so I had to figure out where I was going add on. I got over by the Honda store and I added on around a mile on and continued back over by down town and back home plus a couple min to make sure it was a total of 13 miles. My time was 1:20: 07 which is 6:09 pace, a little faster then what I wanted to do but I think it helped because it was a different area to run at which made the time go back faster.
The rest of the week I want to get back up to 75-80 mile range and try to get in some longer tempo/fartlek workouts. Were suppose to get 6+ inches of snow Wednesday so that might not happen. Wish I had a treadmill sometimes so I could get a good workout in with out having to worry about ice/snow. Hope everyone winter training going well...

Run Happy

Brooks update / Running

Just received a email from Steve from Brook ID program saying
"Sorry for the radio silence and thank you for your patience. We have run into technical difficulties in setting up your Brooks ID account, discount, and free product on BrooksRunning.com. We expect to have your account and discount working by end of this week. Your free product code should be ready by the end of next week. We apologize again for the delay and any inconvenience. We will send another email when we have an update. Thanks for your understanding."
-I can't wait to be able to start ordering the best running gear in the world again. I'm already making a list off of Brooksrunning.com website of what I'm going to get!!!

I'm starting to feel better after my 2 1/2 days of having Food Poisoning, I got in another 12 miles today. My first run was nice and easy 8 miler at 6:39 pace which is pretty easy, just to get my legs feeling better after yesterday I didn't know If I would be able to walk today. I was really sore in my Quads/back/stomach/head/neck from getting sick and my fabulous Idea yesterday to do a 12 miler in the morning then 3 mile at night. However, today at the beginning I was just a little sore in my quads but I think most of that was running on the slushy snow. The second run was a lot better and I took it easy again with a 4 miler up by Baker College. Tomorrow I'll probably just go nice and easy again and try to get around 10 miles. This weekend I might try and find a low key race if the weather is halfway nice and not snowy.
--Run Happy

**** Just got down watching U of M vs. Michigan State Basketball game and it was a pretty good game. Luckily U of M was hitting a lot of 3 pointers with the biggest one at the end by Stu Douglass which sealed the game **** Hopefully this is the turn around point for both the Basketball and Football team vs. Michigan State !!! Go Blue!

Start of 2011

Hello again, I'm going to try and do this blog again. It's been a long time sense I've wrote on here.

I've been running smarter and better then I've ever had before. I'm not running a ton of miles but I'm more consistent then I have been sense back in college which is almost 3 years now. I ended up 2010 with 2,929.5 miles which is the second most miles I've ever had. It's been almost 2 years sense I've been injured (knock on wood). I haven't really looked to much into it yet but I want to try to run a marathon this year. The first one I just want to finish because I know if I go for a certain time I will "die" and I know mentally I wouldn't be able to do another marathon.
I'm also really excited to be running for Brook ID program (PACE), Second year with brooks Id but first on the PACE team. I hope I can inspire more and more people because Brook running is the best shoe I've ever ran in. I am also running for GU energy which is exciting because with training for a marathon you need good recovery after each run and on the long run and hard workouts the Gu gel helps so much. I hope everyones 2011 year is going well and please follow me if you want on twitter and facebook....(johnsonxc) Run Happy!!!

Week update

I'll start off with my middle school coaching, We have are first meet this coming wednesday vs. Portland which should be interesting cause we really don't know how any of the kids are doing. It's really hard to share the track with the high school team doing workouts. I am doing the girls/guys distance coaching and I have two girls that are going to be pretty good. One of them I knew was going to be good, she's one of my high school xc runners sister and I got another girl that came out of no where that just doesn't want to stop running. Other then that the sprints/field events should be really interesting. I'll update about it next wednesday.
My training has been pretty good this week I upped it back to 60 miles last week and plan on going up to 65/70 miles this week. I've gotta start doing tempos and fartlek because all i've been doing is easy/steady runs everyday. I'm feeling "blah" the last 2 1/2 weeks so maybe i'll get a faster tempo in the next couple days.
Yesterday we had a SVSU reunion at Chris and meagans house in midland which was pretty fun. I got to see some people i haven't seen in a long time. We plays some word games and then later on in the night they played some drinking games. Some of the girls and a few guys made some cookies haha which were pretty good. So overall it was pretty fun, but didn't get out of control like I thought it may with some of the people that were there can make it real crazy. Run Happy....B. Johnson

Martian 10k

Yesterday I ran the Martian 10k down in Dearborn Michigan. I was signed up as one of the elite runners for the 10k race. I was almost going to not show up because it was so far away, but I did go and it took me 1 1/2 hours to get there so I had to leave at 5:30 am. I got there and didn't know where to park and where the sign in place was. So luckily it was right there by the park so I could find it easy. I went to sign in and I found out I was to sign in in the "Elite" tent, lol I was like ok, where is this at. I'm looking everywhere and I find it by the start/finish area. I get a tag that says "Elite Athlete" and I get a warm tent to get ready and they had free food. I was waiting and I was like holy crap theres 4 Kenyan runners and a bunch of D-1 runners and finally I find another "playmakers" runners and we get warmed up and we got to cut to the front of the race.
The start I am up with the top guys but I knew I was in trouble when I hit in 5:00 which is to fast for the shape I'm in right now. I fall back and I got lucky another guy was with me to help push myself most the race and we go through 5k in 16:00 which is to slow and I'm dying with 2 miles left I just can't go any faster, I could go forever but couldn't go faster. (I only done one speed work out in the past 4 months) I keep trying to drop the guy with me at the end and then I do on one of the up hills in the last 1 1/2 miles. We are within the last 1/2 mile now and I look and i have about 5-10 sec lead on the next guy so I wasn't to worried but the 5k/half marathon runners are finishing with us so i lost track of the guy behind me but luckily I had enough left to beat him by 3 sec. I felt great at the end and got in 5 mile cool down with playmakers guys and some other elite guys. winner was 30:20's which is flying, but the weather was awesome and very little wind. I was 14th overall and 33:04 (5:19 pace).
The next few weeks i'm going to increase my mileage and try some speed work and try to get in a fast 5k by may or june....I want to get my middle school kids going so hopefully some speed work will get them going.

Hope all is well and Run Happy

Quick Update

Hello everyone, hope you had a great easter weekend like I did. Now its time to get back at the hard training and get rid of all the candy you may have ate. Last week after my half marathon was pretty tiring because I wasn't use to all the hard pounding for 13.1 miles. It got better by the end of the week and now I feel back to normal. I only got 60 miles in with some 800 repeats at 10k pace but I feel pretty good for my upcoming race on Saturday April 10. The race is called the Martian 10k down by Ann Arbor Michigan, I was invited by the people running the event so I get to run it free for Playmakers Racing. I just hope I run a good race and not get blown out by the elite runners in the field. It's spring break so I get to get in some good runs this week even tho its a down week but I'm only having middle school track practice on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Well I'll write more on how the race goes on Saturday. Hope everyone's training going great and RUN HAPPY!!!! B. Johnson