Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Less than 2 weeks to Rocky Raccoon 100

and I've been sick, hurt, beat up, ran through the ringer, etc. Seriously, I am really beat up and it's only 12 days until race day.

I'm just getting over a sinus infection and pink eye, oh! the joys of having kids. They bring everything home from school to share with their parents. I still feel that I'm pretty lucky as I made it all the way until my last weekend of training before I got sick. I seriously thought I would get sick way before that time. I don't know how many runs I completed that were 30+ miles, only to spend the rest of the day chasing the kids around the house, or taking them somewhere to play (or maybe I just tag along because I want to play too) and then follow it up with 5 hours of sleep and repeat.

I think my body just finally said, "Enough is enough. if you want me to carry your dumb ass 100 miles through the Texas trails then you better give me a break." My hip is getting better though. Motrin stick should come back down since I shouldn't have t eat those things like jelly beans on Easter morning anymore.

I am getting pretty excited to run though. I think it will be a great experience. I think I've learned enough patience to understand how to run such a long distance. I know I can't have a great run in the first 50-60 miles, all I can do is ruin the last part by trying to go too fast too soon. I really want to avoid going into survival mode any sooner than necessary.

We'll see what happens. I can't wait to find out!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Bridle Trails 50K



Yes, my shirt is on inside out on purpose. I'm not into advertising for free. In principle anyway.


The more I run off road the closer I find to coming what I'm looking for - that perfect event or activity - the one that makes you feel like, "This is what I want to do!" I know of many people that have a career which gives them that sensation, but not me, I have a job that pays the bills that allows me to play outside; definitely not a career. Sure, I was in Kirkland, the anti of playing outside to get away from everything, but deep in the woods in the pitch black, with no other runners around, ducking from yet another bat swooping at my head, I almost forgot I was so close to civilization. The tunnel vision of my headlamp trying to locate every thick mud bog played tricks on my mind. With the ground such a dark chocolate it was hard to tell if you were going to step in something stable or soupy. After a while I got sick of trying to figure it out and just ran straight. Each lap was more and more peaceful as the night sounds slowly increased and the traffic on the nearby roads slowly dissipated. I'm really starting to get into the ultra off road crap, it is so nice to run with either a few people you know, or solo and enjoy being outside. The older I get the less I care about my time or place in the "race," and the more I enjoy still being able to get out and enjoy a 31 mile run through the muddy woods. Glen and I were going to run together for the most part, but he became a bit impatient with the early traffic from the shorter races and went into race mode disappearing in the woods ahead of me.. I hung back, ran with Terry Sentinella for a while since he is also running the 100 in TX next month, and enjoyed the ride. I just ticked off each lap and stayed consistent, my last 5 laps were within 1 minute of each other. Somehow I passed Glen, but neither one of us could figure how since the run is all single track. Another 30+ mile training run checked off and now less than 4 weeks before TX. I don't know if I should be getting excited or scared...
I finished - 8th in 4:31
Glen - 19th in 4:50

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Mayday Mayday!!!!!

Had a tough training week last week. 80 or so miles. A nice comfortable 32 miles on Saturday and then a horrendous 21 miles Sunday. I kind of had a feeling that Sunday was going to be a bad run. All week long my runs sucked. I wasn't getting any sleep either. But I figured I would just tough it out and eventually I would feel fine.

Plan B

I started off OK. The weather was prefect - mid 40's with clouds. I set the GPS to run 21 miles @ 8:30 pace - usually fairly easy to maintain 8:30's during a training run no matter how bad I feel. Anyway, everything was going great for the first 8 miles. Except for some reason the 8:30's were a bit harder to maintain. Most times I use the GPS "virtual trainer" to make sure I don't run too fast so I don't wear myself out on these runs. This run, however, it took a little bit of effort to maintain the pace. The next thing I kn0w I'm out of power. I didn't bonk. I just couldn't really run anymore. So I had to pretend I was at the end of a 100 mile run and go into survival mode. I walked 1/10th of every mile for a little bit, then I ran 2 mile and walked .15 of a mile. Eventually I started feeling a little bit better, although I ended up finishing my run 20 minutes slower than I wanted to. But I learned a lot on this run. Be patient. Your legs will come back. Keep your nutrition up and you will be fine. It wasn't a disaster, it was actually very beneficial. Now I just need an easy week to get all my systems running strong as the 100 miler isn't all that far away.

Next up...Bridle Trails 50K in Kirkland. And I am going to run easy, nothing faster than 8:00 minute miles!!! I have to keep telling myself that.