29 January 2010

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Ok, so the temps were in the low 40s and my running buddy Richard and I decided to go for a run after work, which was a first for us. We usually get the training runs knocked out early in the morning before work. As a result, we were confronted with a new problem, lack of daylight. Well, that gave both of us a chance to try out our new headlamps. Please read my review here. With both of us training for ultras that would take us into night hours, this would be a great test. We decided to go for a 7 mile run. This was our first real night trail run and we managed to cover 4.5 miles of trails and an additional 2.5 miles of roads to and from the trails. For the locals out there, we hit the trails in the following order: Tollgate Trail > High Trail > Bluffline Trail > Alms Wagon Trail > Wagon Trail > Alms House Trail > Wagon Trail > Railroad Bed Trail. Man, this was a great run. I didn't know running trails at night could be so much fun. But it is also dangerous with such technical terrain at night and the headlamps definitely came in handy. Especially since Richard decided to use one of the level trail sections to teach me some of his yoga moves, downward dog, I think. Actually, he just lost his footing and it looked more like a superman pose. Without the lamps, I am sure I would have eaten his right shoe as his legs came flailing back towards me. What a fun experience. Honestly, this was a great run. We had an incredible view of the city lights. Wow, from up here our town looks like a real metropolitan city. By the way, Rich and I decided to add another 50K ultra to our training regimen, the Black Warrior 50K. Should be a fun way to break up our weekly training run routine. By the way, last night's run completed our recovery week. Next week, we will be back to our usual training schedule.

26 January 2010

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I woke up at 5:15 AM this morning. Actually that is not entirely true. My Blackberry alarm tore me out a good night's sleep cut way too short. I still felt the soreness from Saturday's race. There were some minor twitches in my quads. No joint pain whatsoever. It still amazes me how little joint pain I have after an ultra trail race vs. a road marathon. The weather guys informed me that it was 32 degrees outside and that it wouldn't warm up much. I am putting on trail shoes (just in case), running tights, long sleeve tech shirt, winter running jacket, hat and gloves. My running buddy Richard and I decided to do an easy 4 mile round trip up and back down on the mountain road, since the trails were still in pretty bad shape after recent rain storms. We were the first ones ready to run again, while Mike and James were taking another day off. This is probably related to the fact that both Richard and I have major ultra races on our 2010 calendar, while Mike and James have not decided on their next major race, yet. I arrived at Richard's house at 6:05 AM and he was ready to go. Richard lives at the bottom of our largest local mountain, so it makes sense to take off running at his place, if we plan to hit the mountain trails. When Richard walked out of his door, he was carrying a backpack filled with 20 lbs. of weight. Not your usual running equipment unless, of course, you are registered to run a 150 mile 6 day multi stage race in Chile in March and you just received the race details in the mail. I could tell he was getting nervous. Maybe because he said that he was getting nervous. During this race, Richard will only be provided medical aid and water. He has to carry his own food and other items for these 6 days while running. Running side by side with Richard carrying that backpack and huffing with every step up the mountain, I almost felt like I was cheating or something. After all, my remaining major events for this year are a 12 hour run in Decatur, AL in March followed by a 108K run in Germany in June of this year. However, none of them require me to carry more than the usual bottle of water so I just have to keep training for more distance, not weight. We managed to get up the mountain ok going at a decent pace. After the two mile turnaround, we picked up the pace going back downhill. Downhills are my favorite part of every run. Overall, this was a nice little run to get back into training. My quads were a little twitchy but other than that, I felt great.

25 January 2010

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Pre-race
It's noon on Thursday and I couldn't wait to pick up my race packet at the local running store. I was the second or so in line for early pickup and already, my race number somehow got lost in the stacks of numbers. Well, well, I took it in stride, convinced that they would find it eventually, and they did. However, this gave me time to browse. I ended up talking to one of the friendly staff members at the store, who are all runners and who always have great advice for your next race. I finished the conversation with my goal of running "sub 6". They were all really impressed and I didn't quite understand why. I continued to ponder this all the way back to work until it finally dawned on me. Maybe I should have mentioned that I meant "sub 6 hours" and not sub 6 minute per mile pace, which would be no small feat on any trail run, let alone an ultra. Anyway, the race swag handed out was pretty cool, a nice short sleeve technical race top (North Face) in black with the signature Mountain Mist skeleton on the front and some Smartwool socks. That way, I would have a dry pair of socks for after the race. Judging from the local weather forecast, I would need it. That evening, I started getting my running gear and drop bag ready. Luckily, that water bottle belt I ordered online arrived just in time for the race, or so I thought, but more about that later. The evening ended with my fiancé suggesting that I take longer to get my running gear ready then it will take to run the race. Well, I can't help it, I am German and every little detail needed to be planned ahead.

US STATES WITH 100 MILE RACES COMPLETED (15)

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COUNTRIES WITH ULTRAMARATHONS COMPLETED (13)

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RACE CALENDAR

  • Mount Mitchell Heartbreaker 50M (Old Fort, NC) - March 23, 2024
  • Oak Mountain 50K (Birmingham, AL) - March 30, 2024
  • Southern States 200M (Delta, AL) April 12-16, 2024
  • Cocodona 250M (Black Canyon City, AZ) - May 6-11, 2024
  • Mohican 100M (Loudonville, OH) - June 1, 2024
  • Bighorn 100M (Dayton, WY) - June 14, 2024
  • Crazy Mountain 100M (Lennep, MT) - July 26, 2024
  • Eastern States 100M (Waterville, PA) - August 10, 2024
  • SwissPeaks 360 (Valais, Switzerland) - September 1-8, 2024
  • Indiana Trail 100M (Albion, IN) - October 12, 2024
  • Rim To River 100M (New River Gorge, WV) - November 2, 2024 (WAITLIST #99)
  • Charleston 100M (Mount Pleasant, SC) - December 27, 2024
  • The Montane Winter Spine 268M (Edale, UK) - January 12-19, 2025

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