Introduction

Jeff Sandene loves to run. Like many runners, he also likes to keep track of his running progress. This website and blog is an extention of his running passion, and his way of sharing thoughts, stories, ideas and resources with the “running community.”

While Jeff is among the committed runners “in the pack”, he’s never been a recognizable or memorable participant in the North Texas running scene. On a good day, if the race is small enough, he may place in his age group. However, most of the time he is in the pack, somewhere behind the leaders and naturally-talented, excellent runners. On July 20, 2009, Jeff entered the 50-54 age bracket and is looking forward to running better this Fall and maybe placing well in his new age group.

Jeff trains during all twelve months of the year with various goals, or “seasons”, as he refers to these time periods.

New Year’s Day
The third Monday in April, Patriot’s Day in Massachusetts, is Jeff’s “New Year’s Day.” This is, of course, is the day of the oldest and most famous marathon, the Boston Marathon. Jeff first qualified for the Boston Marathon in 2005 and has qualified every year since, through 2010. He ran Boston in 2005, 2006 and 2008. He missed Boston in 2007 due to injury and in 2009 due to qualifying after the race had closed for registration. Jeff’s Boston Marathons have been great experiences, but not great races.

May & June
The goal during these months is recovery and maintanence. This is a time to take break from high mileage marathon training, and mix in a healthy dose of rest to help the body recover and recuperate. However, training is not completely shut down, and an interesting by-product of the rest is that the individual runs often improve in pace and intensity.

July – September
This is the beginning of Jeff’s Summer/Fall Training Season. These months lay the training groundwork for the plethora of Fall racing opportunities. During this time, Jeff measures his Fall Training Performance Statistics versus previous years to gauge his level of fitness and endurance.

October – December
This is the best time of the year for North Texas Road Races. During the Fall months, North Texans are blessed with a tremendous variety of road race distances and locations. For casual and serious runners the question is not, “When will there be another race?”, rather “How will I pick which race to enter?” The premier North Texas, Fall road races are the DRC Half Marathon, the Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot, the Fort Worth YMCA Turkey Trot and the Dallas White Rock Marathon, Half Marathon and Relays. Popular races are also produced by the Plano Pacers, Thurston Racing, Mellew Productions and all the North Texas Running Clubs.

January – April
This is Jeff’s Boston Marathon training season. These months mean high mileage training and usually includes at least one full marathon as a long training run. Jeff says, “Hey, if I’m going to run a 23 mile training run, I might as well run 26.2 miles and get a medal!”

 

We look forward to sharing running, training and racing stories with all the visitors to this website.

Thank you for visiting “Running in the Pack with Jeff Sandene.”