Month: April 2026

A Classic Spring 10K

Ideally this would not have been a season debut but I have had a slow start to 2026. So in the final weeks of preparation the race sort of transformed from an A/A- effort to just run and see how it goes.

As I mentioned in last weekend’s post, over the past decade I have often had my best races of the year in the spring. However, my training was different during that time and I would be up to 60-70 miles a week by February or early March and not cross country skiing as much.

The three long ski races in February took a lot out of me, and recovery was more like from a road marathon and much of March was just getting my legs back. My build up was gradual but I did get 50 mpw average over the past 4 weeks, and that’s a good foundation. Nevertheless, last year on this same weekend I ran 38:16 for 10K. Originally, I had visions of trying to match that this year on th course here, but I could tell it wasn’t coming together.

A lot of my workouts so far have been sub-threshold and those have felt okay, but running at anaerobic threshold effort or under has not felt easy at all! I came in thinking that 6:20 (39:20) would be a solid goal pace for current fitness, over 6:30 (low 40s) would mean that I was off and would have a lot of work to do.

Race day was cool at about 45 F, a bit drizzly off and on, but hardly any wind. The course is a loop along the Mississippi River and it’s scenic along residential streets and bluffs that tower over the river. This race has been around since the 1970s and for a long time it was fairly big, and sometimes with some national class results in the open division. I actually ran it once in 1981 when I was working nearby for part of that year. I went out way too fast (10:10 for 2 miles) and finished 33:35 or 40 after struggling over the second half with mile splits in the 5:30s-40s.

Fast forward to 2026, I remembered that experience from all those years ago, and even though the race has a downhill start I put on the breaks within a couple hundred meters. The first two miles felt too easy but my split mile split of 6:22 was right on and 2 mile at about 12:42.

The course has just three hills of note but they are only about 30 to 38 feet (10-12 m) each, the two bridge crossings (at 2.4 and 5.5 miles into the race) are gradual at 1-2%, the middle hill is steeper, at 3.2 miles, roughly 5-6%. My 5K split was at 19:47, so a little off but not by much. The last 3 miles were difficult and I had to keep focus in an attempt to maintain pace. Fortunately the last km is a gentle net downhill and I could pick it up a bit as we crested the high point of the second bridge. I ended up running 39:33 (6:22/mile, 3:57/km) which was good enough to win my age group win (my teammate was close behind and ran with me through 5 miles) and 88.6 age grade–both of which I’ll gladly take for a season opener.

Next up a 12K next month for fun and grins, a fast 5K here, and then in June a masters championship 4 mile and then a bucket list (with a fast course) 1/2 marathon.

Getting in Gear

No races to report and I have been neglecting any updates, as in there has nothing to write home about race-wise. However, to get race ready you have to do weeks or months of groundwork. Here’s the post-ski season springtime update.

I love skiing and I think it has added years onto my running life and probably a fair amount of cardiovascular benefit, but for the short term it does slow you down. Over the past decade in Colorado I only skied 15-20 times a year on average and any slow down was very short term, just a day or two where I’d feel sluggish. In that time, however, the late winter-spring races were typically my best of the year and I had it dialed in pretty well. During my full seasons in the past (1980s-90s) and the Alaska years (2004-14), it would take about a month to getup to 40 miles a week and then about another month to get my legs back to the point where I even would want to line up for a race.

This was my first year back to the Midwest (since 1997) and for an actual ski season since 2014. I skied about 50 days and raced 130 km in February. I kept on the skis at least a couple of times a week for the first three weeks of March before calling it a year. Ski season was a success and I met most of my goals and I’m looking forward to next year.

The transition to running has not been as smooth as I would like. After the Birkie 50K I took a very easy week and just jogged a couple times and skied a couple more. By March 1 I turned the focus to running. With a good aerobic base I was able to jump into lighter workouts fairly seamlessly, maybe too quickly, but nothing was hard until the end of March when I did a 5K time trial (Park Run) at about 10K effort.

The table shows the miles each week and type of workout, in short hand. The key to the abbreviations are footnoted below the table.

WeekMilesWorkouts
136skate ski 3X6 threshold
ladder (threshold, LT21)
2394X6 LT12
343short fartlek (5X1 min)
3X 8, 1X 4 LT1-LT2
4508X 1K LT1
2X 6 LT1
5K CV3
5523X 10 prog. LT1, L2
1.6K, 1.2K, 1K LT1; 3X2.5 CV
6414X 6 min LT1
3X 7, 1X5, 2X 1.5 LT1; 4X 45 sp4
7584X 1K, 1X 1200, 1X800
829 (est. to be 45-50)3X 2.5 CV, 2X1, 2X 30 sp
  1. Lactate threshold 2 (HR 140s, pace 6:30s/mile) ↩︎
  2. Lactate threshold 1 (HR 130-140, pace 7:00 to 6:40/mile) ↩︎
  3. Critical velocity (HR 148-152,pace under 6:30/mile) ↩︎
  4. Speed (5K to 1500 m pace, pace 6:00 to 5:30/mile) ↩︎

This weekend’s 10K will be the first test of the year and I don’t really know where I’m at. To put this in perspective, over the previous three springs, last year I did 10K at 6:10/mile on a tough weather day, in 2024 25K at 6:26/mile, and in 2023 10 miles at 6:09/mile.

This year, breaking 39:20 (6:20 pace) for the 10K will seem like a big win. I just have to take it as it is and know that although my overall training volume (hours opposed to miles) is right where I have been in previous years, although I’m barely at half of the running miles. So I have to keep faith that know that I have built a solid running foundation the racing fitness will come, be it this weekend (say surprise sub 39), next month, or maybe even later in the summer.

Parting words in short, my philosophy is do the work, listen to your body and don’t overextend, and enjoy the process even when things are not quite where you would want them.