Redlegs Run Results

On Saturday, May 31st, Earth Drummer team members competed in the annual Redlegs Run 5k and 10k.
This is a really cool event that finishes on the field at Great American Ball Park, home of the Cincinnati Reds.

Redlegs 5k Results

WOMEN
Jennifer Wiest:        19:16,  3rd Overall Woman, 1st Place 25-29

MEN
Brian Denny:           15:52,  2nd Overall Man, 1st Place 25-29
Tilahun Abebe:        16:18,  3rd Overall Man, 1st Place 35-39
Chris Higginbotham 20:15,  6th Place 35-39


Redlegs 10k Results
Ryan Hopper:          34:34,  3rd Overall Man, 2nd Place 30-34

Lou Cox 5k Results

Several Earth Drummers traveled up I-75 on Memorial Day to complete in the Lou Cox Memorial 5k in
Dayton.  This event is the most competitive 5k in Ohio every year, and as in previous years, we had some excellent performances.

MEN
Landen Summay:      16:50,  First Place age 45-49
John Meyer:              17:18

WOMENBecky Clark:             16:59,  Second Overall Woman
Melanie Pliskin:          18:17, 3rd Place age 25-29
Debbie Bird:               23:30, 2nd Place age 55-59

Earth Drummers Fly at 2014 Flying Pig events!

Wow, what a full slate of running events at Cincinnati's own Flying Pig Weekend!  This event keeps getting bigger and better each year, and once again the Tri State Running Company Earth Drummers took full advantage of this great local racing opportunity.   This year's Flying Pig Weekend opened up with a Friday night road mile, followed by a Saturday morning 10k and 5k, and wrapped up festivities with the Flying Pig
Half and Full Marathon on Sunday.  Earth Drummers competed at a high level in all events.

In the Little Kings Mile, Becky Clark won the overall women's crown (plus some nice prize money and free shoes!).  She showed some great range following her big win 7 weeks earlier in the Heart 15k.  On the men's side, Matt Miele, continuing his comeback after a long post-high school layoff, placed 2nd in the 30-34 age division.

Earth Drummers turned in some excellent performances in the Flying Pig Tri State Running Company 5k, On the men's side, John Meyer, and Landen Summay won their respective age divisions, while Brandon Koroly, Chris Higginbotham and Tom Eckel notched second place division finishes.  Becky Clark took the overall women's crown, while Melanie Pliskin placed 3rd overall and 2nd in the 25-29 division.

In the 10k event, Earth Drummers scored a perfect 100% first place finishes, as Lindsey Manville (25-29) and Tom Eckel (60-64) won their divisions, Lindsey turning in a PR performance, and Tom returning to racing after a long lay-off from competition.

On the tough half marathon course, Joe Brown ran an excellent race to place 2nd in the 50-54 division, just 13 seconds out of first place.  Jennifer Wiest placed 6th out of 1176 competitors in the 25-29 division.

Our lone full marathon competitor, Rob Morwood, once again acquitted himself very well, finishing in 6th place overall after he and a few other competitors were directed off course in the early miles.


                                        FLYING PIG WEEKEND RACE RESULTS

LITTLE KINGS MILE
Women:  Becky Clark:       5:05,  1st Overall Woman

Men:       Pat Carroll:          4:37,  7th overall man
               John Meyer:        4:58,  11th overall man
               Matt Miele:         5:04,   15th overall man, 2nd in 30-34 division

TRI-STATE RUNNING COMPANY 5k
Women:  Becky Clark:       17:23,   1st Overall Woman
               Melanie Pliskin    19:02,   3rd Overall Woman, 2nd in 25-29 division
       
Men:       Brandon Koroly:  17:02,   4th Overall Man, 2nd in 30-34 division
               Landen Summay:  17:15,  5th Overall Man, 1st in 45-49 division
               John Meyer:         17:45,  9th Overall Man, 1st in 25-29 division
               Chris
               Higginbotham:      19:09,  2nd in 35-39 division
               Tom Eckel:           21:16,  2nd in 60-64 division

FLYING PIG 10K
Women:  Lindsey Manville: 40:19,  1st in 25-29 division

Men:       Tom Eckel:           42:46,  1st in 60-64 division

FLYING PIG HALF MARATHON
Women:   Jennifer Wiest:     1:34:02,  6th in 25-29 division

Men.        Lon Bussell:         1 28:22,  1st in 55-59 division
                Joe Brown:          1:29:16,  2nd in 50-54 division

FLYING PIG MARATHON
Men:        Rob Morwood:    2:44:01,  6th overall male,  1st in 35-39 division

Easy Recovery Runs Key to Big Improvement

The importance of Recovery Runs is so great that I've decided to devote my first ever blog on this new Earth Drummer website to that topic.  I'll try to be very brief in hope that you'll actually read this!

The biggest mistake I see with both experienced and newbie runners of all ability levels is that they run too hard on their easy days.  Following a quality training day, our body needs a break from hard training for at least one, and possibly, several days, depending on how hard the quality workout was and how fast the individual runner recovers.  In general, a younger runner will recover more quickly between hard sessions than a more "mature" runner.  The key to improving as a distance runner is to stress your body with a quality workout, run at a comfortable level (easy or medium effort runs) until you're relatively fresh, then hit your body with another quality session.  Training, in general, is really that simple.  Stress + rest + stress + rest,  etc., etc. = improvement.

The single greatest predictor of distance running improvement is CONSISTENCY.  If we constantly thrash our bodies without sufficient recovery, we get injured or over-trained and are forced to stop training.  If, however, we follow a hard training session with lighter runs until we're recovered, then continually repeat that process, we can't help but improve.  Many (most) runners who join the Earth Drummers Racing Team come in with the philosophy that the harder they run on a daily basis the faster they get.  Soon, however, they learn that if they follow the prescribed training plan, complete with recovery paces that they previously considered unacceptably slow, they reach levels of performance they thought were unattainable.  The main reason for this is that running more comfortably between hard workouts allows them to perform better on the quality 

training days.  And if we can hit the goal paces on the hard days, we can do the same on race day!

So, I encourage you to give this a try.  Simply try running at a pace that feels easy for a couple of days following your hard workouts and see if you don't enjoy training more and feel better in hard workouts and races.  Let me know how it goes!

Hey Runners!

I'm coach Randy Cox of the Tri-State Running Company Earth Drummers Racing Team.  I've coached
runners competing in events from 800 meters to the marathon for over 33 years, and I look forward to using this blog to discuss all things running-related.  You can check out my bio and coaching philosophy here at earthdrummers.com if you're interested.  Hopefully I can offer some things that will help you become a better runner and get more enjoyment out of our great sport.

Stay tuned!

Coach Randy Cox
Earth Drummers Racing Team