Support the locals!

The University of Texas will be competing in the 2009 NCAA Cross Country Championships in Terre Haute, Indiana this Monday, November 23. Thanks to local Austin business Flotrack, you can watch the race right from your computer on their website.
If you prefer the television version, you can set your DVR to record the weekend’s races; they will be shown on TV at 11am CST on Monday, on Versus.

What: Men and Women’s NCAA Cross Country Championship
Channel: Versus
Date: Monday, November 23
Time: 11am-12:30pm

Who knows, maybe you’ll see University of Texas Women’s coach and Rogue coach, Steve Sisson jumping up and down on the sidelines!

*What’s Versus?  Used to be called OLN.  Tour de France is on that channel, as well as NHL, etc.   Check your cable provider for the channel.  On AT&T U-Verse, it’s channel 640 (1640 HD)

More free beer

Thirsty?

Rogue Equipment can help you out! Tonight, November 19th, we will have a keg of Fat Tire, info on the upcoming Decker Challenge and shoe giveaways in addition to the usual – and awesome – crowd of Rogues that gather here for each month’s happy hour.

So come on by, have a beer (or three), find out about the Decker Challenge, take a shot at some free shoes and talk running (or whatever) with fellow runners. We’ll see you here!

Happy Hour
Rogue Equipment
500 San Marcos St.
Austin Tx 78702
Thursday, November 19
6pm-??

Baby Aspirin?

We’ve addressed the controversial issue of taking ibuprofen and other NSAIDS before workouts and races, but what about aspirin?

There is a theory emerging about sudden cardiac death (the cause of several deaths during the recent Detroit Marathon) being caused by an interaction of muscular breakdown and plaque – something that could, in theory, be prevented by aspirin.

At this point it is all theory, and the number of running deaths is extremely minimal when you consider the millions of people who run marathons, but it is still a fascinating topic and worth a read.

Dealing with Disappointment

by coach Amy Anderson

As you hear about race results in San Antonio, you may feel like everyone but you had a great day. Some people *did* have amazing races on Sunday and we can be genuinely happy for them, even while acknowledging that it was a brutal day for many others. Heat and humidity take a very real toll on the body and on most people’s race times and you should realize that your finish time was not a reflection of your true capabilities.

It seems unfair to have trained through the hottest summer in Austin history, hoping for and expecting a crisp cool race day. But the fact is that the weather was out of our control, as it always is. Some athletes chose to resort to Plan B, by diverting to the half marathon or by dropping out of the race altogether. Others chose to gut it out, knowing that big rewards require big risks, and it was a risk they were willing to take.
Whatever your choice, you made the best decision you could at that time, and there’s no sense second-guessing it now.

You invested 6 months of hard work, and for some of you, the investment did not give you the return you expected. I usually recommend that you give yourself 24 hours to cry, whine, sulk and generally be miserable. During that time, acknowledge your feelings, but don’t hurt anyone else or bring anyone else down about their own race. Be open about your frustrations with your coach, and perhaps with a close friend or family member who can relate and empathize with you.

When your 24 hours is over, it’s time to think about what — if anything — you could or would have done differently. If the answer is “nothing”, then it’s time to put it behind you. Otherwise, learn from your mistakes, make corrections, and push through your disappointment. The race itself shouldn’t be considered the end-all/be-all of your achievements; the past six months have been full of big steps and big accomplishments.

Try to find some positive qualities about the experience, perhaps the friends you made, the great breakfasts you shared, the good workouts you had, the lessons you learned and the hard work you put in that will pay off next time.

As bitter a pill as you might be swallowing, try to remember that if you never experience disappointment, you’ll take your successes for granted. A less than stellar race will make your next achievement all the sweeter.

Team Rogue Elite in The Statesman

The Austin-American Statesman published a great article today on Team Rogue Elite and the direction that we are trying to go in establishing a post-collegiate development team – check it out!

Handling the heat in San Antonio

The San Antonio Rock n Roll Marathon and Half Marathon got off to a rather warm start yesterday – much warmer, and much more humid than anyone had expected, much less hoped for!

Despite the unfavorable circumstances, over 200 Rogues lined up at the starting line with months of hot, humid summer training behind them. If anyone could handle the heat, it was a Rogue! Luckily the sun stayed hidden and we turned out a slew of great performances and PRs, helped not only by the training and incredible Rogue presence, but also by the great crowd support and music performances along the flat course.

Team Rogue Elite made a great showing as Allison Macsas finished third overall in the women’s half marathon with 1:18:58 while Kyle Miller and Darren Brown finished 3rd and 4th with identical times of 1:09:11.

There are plenty of photos from the day – please find yourself and tag yourself! – and so many results that I wouldn’t know where to start. If you have a PR or a story or a photo that you want to share (and I’d love to share it!), send it to allison@roguerunning.com.

Congrats to everyone out there, it was amazing to see what an impact Rogue made in that sea of runners!

Rogue Roadrunners: Kicking Butt in SA

by coach Karen Smith

The Rogue Roadrunners – formerly known as Team Rogue North – had another solid group performance in San Antonio for the Rock and Roll Half and Full Marathon. Our team had 18 people doing the half marathon and 2 others using this as their final Team Race of the Season doing the full marathon. In addition to the team doing well overall there were several individual standout performances and even a few PR’s!

The results were as follows:

Full Marathon:

Kyle Brown who PR’d by 3 min., placed 41rst over all, he was the 33rd male finisher, and was 4th in his age group posting 2:55:57- a 6:43 pace Way to go Kyle!!!!!!!!

Carey Jung also braving the marathon in the hot and humid conditions finished in 3:59:08.

Half Marathon results:

Jim Gelb: 1:30:49- 6:56 pace and 12th in his AG- Yay McGoo!!!!

Andy Webb: 1:31:19- 6:58 pace and 15th in AG- and a PR!!!!!

RF Barnes: 1:38:41-7:32 pace

Trevor (Dr. T) Turner: 1:39:29- 7:36 pace

Megan Ballard: 1:42:33- 7:50 pace- PR!!!!!!

Kirsten Lotter: 1:44:41- 8:00 pace- 16th in AG

Jeff French: 1:45:20- 8:03 pace

Mike Hull: 1:46:08- 8:08 pace- Big PR from the Hilly half in Austin!!!!

Brian Plunkett: 1:49- 8:21 pace

Amy Bush: 1:52:29- 8:35 pace- PR!!

Andi Kelly: 1:55:02 – 8:47 pace

Kris Algert: 1:55:34- 8:49

Lori Plicque: 1:56:47- 8:55 pace- PR!!!

Laura Kate Amhrein: 1:56:53-8:55 pace- PR!!!!

Josh Baker: 1:57:13- 8:57 pace

Erica Haring: 2:07:43- 9:15 pace, PR!!!

Belle Hoverman: 2:07:44 9:15 pace- 4th in Division!!!!!!!!- Yay Belle!!!!!

Daniel McCab: 2:09- 9:54 pace

Andrea McCabe: 2:17:33- 10:33 pace

Now we move into our final phase of training before Houston! Go Roadrunners!!!!!

Put your ‘extras’ to work!

We’ve received a great response to our call for donations to the Settlement Home and will be handing it all over next week; if you can and want to help out, don’t forget to bring your donations by as soon as you can! Tomorrow’s long run is a great opportunity for those who will be here (there is a box next to the wall that divides the training side and the store). Larger sizes, especially jogbras, are especially needed!

If you missed the email on Monday, here is some background for you:

We runners tend to spend a lot of time focused on ourselves – our mileage, our diet, our training schedule, our race plans, our recovery. Here is a way to shift that focus to a group of children that lack the luxury of ‘me’:

The Settlement Home in Austin works with female child abuse victims and provides housing for high risk girls in CPS custody. They have a Run Club that they started over a year ago that approximately 20 girls take part in. It is a struggle to provide shoes and clothing for the girls to run in, and there is little to no money in the budget to allow the girls to enter local 5Ks, which they are all eager to do. They are able to buy some second hand clothing with their small budget; some of the girls are running workouts in cut off jean shorts and converse all star shoes.

As runners, we all have plenty of old, rarely used clothing lying around, taking up drawer space, and also understand what a positive force running can be. Lets help these girls experience the positive; please bring any women’s running clothes or gently used shoes to Rogue this week; we will get it to the Settlement Home. Please don’t bother donating items that are beyond retirement – we are better than that!

**The girls are of all different shapes and sizes, so chances are whatever size you are there is a girl that can fit into the clothing or shoes. One of the most needed things, however, is jog bras for the larger girls, all of whom are forced to run without ‘support’ at this point.

Trust your training

Especially intended for those racing in San Antonio this weekend, this bit of confidence-boosting pre-race advice from coach Amy Anderson is excellent for any runner, at any point in their training, to be reminded of.
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If it’s your first marathon, you wonder if you can run 26.2 miles. You haven’t done it in training, so how do you know if you can do it on race day?

If you have a time goal, you wonder how you can run 26.2 miles and average MGP while doing it. You’ve done all your long runs at long run pace. Maybe a few MGP miles thrown in a Lab, certainly some quality workouts at MGP, but not 26 of them! So how do you know if you can do it on race day?

It can be a very scary thing to wonder if you can run an average of marathon goal pace for 26.2 miles, because it isn’t something you can “test” in training. You can practice by running a few miles at MGP. You can practice by running some [very] long runs. But you can’t put it all together in training, because the risk of injury and burnout are too high. Race day is “exam day” and it’s normal to wonder if you’ll pass or fail.

So how do you know?

Trust your training. Similar to studying for the final exam, you’ve done all the work. Your training is behind you and you did it. You went to class (your quality workouts and long runs), you did your homework (your midweek runs). [And by the way, if you didn't, you can decide next time what you want to do differently. But for now, own your training; it is what it is] Trust your training. Believe in it; it will pay off. It’s worked for hundreds of other Rogues and it will work for you.

Trust yourself. You have to believe that your goal is achievable. You CAN perform up to your capabilities. If you’re having trouble buying into that, trusting that you can do it, then review your 10 positives. Put them on post-it notes on your bathroom mirror, the dashboard of your car, your computer screen. Carry them with you everywhere you go for the next couple of days. Trust yourself. You can do this.

And then there are the words of a very famous, very successful coach, Dr.George Sheehan :

“Trust in the magic of the day.” That quote is in my head before every race I do. You can do things on race day that you simply can not do in training. You draw energy from the spectators and from other athletes. You have supported aid stations all along the way. You’re tapered, rested, well nourished. Race day is the peak of your mental and physical training. When it all comes together on race day, it is magical indeed. Trust in the magic of the day.

Miss McDougall?

Chris McDougall at Rogue Equipment

Chris McDougall, author of Born to Run, spent a couple of hours at Rogue Equipment yesterday signing books, chatting with the crowd and walking around barefoot. He also gave an intriguing, light-hearted talk about his book, his thoughts and his experiences with the Tarahumara before taking any and all questions. A great, enthusiastic crowd showed up, the books sold out and the afternoon was deemed a great success – whether you made it or not, you’ll want to check out the photos!