31 January 2011

/

Only five days until I am leaving for Texas to attempt 100 miles for the second time in 3 months. It's taper time for Rocky Racoon. Richard and I met up at my house at 6:30 AM to run my usual old and trusted UAH loop. We took it easy, comtemplating our strategy for Saturday's 100 miler, starting at a 12 minute per mile pace with the goal to maintain it as long as possible, hopefully until mile 60. If I am able to do that, I might have a shot at a sub 24 hour finish. However, at the end of the day, I just want to finish, even if it takes me 29 hours 59 minutes and 59 seconds. We ended up running about 4.5 miles at a slow and easy pace. Let the taper continue...and the excitement build!

27 January 2011

/

I decided to go for an easy run after work today. Richard stopped by my house around 5:30 PM and we took off heading towards UAH for the usual short loop around the campus. Temps were almost perfect, just a little on the chilly side. Rich and I went the first mile trying to run much slower than usual, our goal being to mimic our target pace for the Rocky Raccoon next weekend. That didn't really happen as it is really really hard to run 12 minute miles when you are used to running significantly faster. It looks like Richard will be giving it his best shot next week.If he'snot feeling it after 20 miles, he will stop and continue running with me as mypacer once it gets dark. It should be lots of fun. There's a bunch of world class ultra runners in the field and it will be exciting to be part of a race where some really strong runners might go for a new course record.

26 January 2011

/

Two-a-days, I think that's what it's called when you do two workouts a day. When I left for my recovery run this morning at 6:30 AM, the temperatures were in the low 30s and on the local news channel the weatherman was talking about a slight dusting of snow. As I turned onto Holmes Avenue, rain started to hit my face. This made for a very cold faceduring my run. Thankfully, the rain stopped after about a mileand, instead, turned to snow. Nice, now my face was starting to get numb. I was recently reminded of running "naked" when I was reading someone else's blog. I hadn't done that in over two years, ever since I received my first Garmin Forerunner for my birthday. I admit, as I have stated before, I am a gear junkie. Wearing my Garmin and checking my pace every ten seconds is compulsory, so running naked was worth a try, especially considering that I was trying to start my taper for Rocky Raccoon. While I still wore my Garmin, I did force myself not to look at all until I hit the stop button at the end of my 4.5 mile run. I had opted to wear long running tights, a long sleeve tech shirt and a rain jacket plus gloves and a hat. Maybe a little overdressed after all.

I decided to go for another 4.5 miler after work, but because the weather was still kind of unpleasant, I chose to make use of my gym membership and run on the treadmill. I ran negative splits for the first time n a long time, which is so easy to do on the treadmill. You have so much control over your pace. I might start doing regular speedwork on the treadmill, if I can handle the monotony. I was lucky to find a treasdmill that wasn't already occupied. There were still lots of new year's resolution folks. Because of the snow storms we had in early January, many hadn't started their resolutions to get fit until the middle of January. Not to sound too mean, but that's probably why many of them are still around. Normally, the gym starts to empty out again in late January. I had a pretty good run finishing the last mile and a half at 7:30 minute per mile pace. Not really speedwork just yet, but a step in the right direction.

25 January 2011

/


What a race!!! Not my fastest 50K trail race by any stretch of the imagination, but that was clearly secondary today. I was lucky I even made it to the race start this morning. The picture below taken at Monte Sano State Park the day before the race (courtesy of my running buddy James Duncan) should have been an indication of what to expect race morning.

20 January 2011

/

Are you supposed to be able to feel your hands while running? I definitely didn't today. We started our short 4.5 mile run from my house after work today and headed towards UAHuntsville for our usual short loop, but the weather kinda surprised me...it shouldn't have...but it did. I was wearing shorts and a couple of tech shirts thinking that would be sufficient. It wasn't. We started out running in the high 3 with a light rain. One mile in, it started to sleet. Richard wasn't loving it. Actually he hated the weather and he let me know it, too. And with every comment from him regarding the weather situation it got worse. We went from rain to sleet to actual snow. Thankfully, I warmed up a bit. While we weren't lighting it up speedwise, we did go faster than usual when we just try to loosen up our legs before a race. Suffice it to say, Rich didn't have a good run, I did;-)

19 January 2011

/

'Twas a wet one today. I met up with the guys at Rich's house at 6AM for an easy 6 miler. We decided to run the Cotton Row 10K course. I suggested we actually run it in reverse for a change, allowing us to get the hill out of the way early on in the run. The temperatures were areound 38 degrees and we started off our run with a light drizzle. Thankfully, that rainy mist died down quickly and the temperatures were actually quite nice for the run. We are getting closer and closer to the Mountain Mist 50K this weekend and we ended up discussing each other's goal for the race.

17 January 2011

/

This morning I finally went out for a run again. It had been a week since I completed Disney and Mountain Mist 50K was coming up this weekend. I needed to get my legs loose. Truth be told, I really needed to run again. I was itching to go. I was still getting over a head cold and my achilles tendon was still kind of sore. I'm not sure what is causing the achilles issues, but it didn't bother me too bad during the run. It's just an underlying pain or nuisance that just does not go away. It's not keeping me from running, but I'm concerned that it might be an issue during my 100 mile attempt next month.

09 January 2011

/


Pre-Race
How would you start describing a race like this? Was this even a race report? I guess it was as much a gigantic event as it was a challenge, but I don't think "race" would be the best or even proper term to describe this past weekend in sunny Lake Buena Vista, Florida. It was definitely the biggest sporting event I ever got to participate in. My better half decided about six months ago that she was ready to train for and participate in her first half marathon, but she wanted it to be special. Since I had never been to Disney World and I had also promised my son long ago that I would take him there, it was an easy decision. My mother flew in from Germany and we made it a full blown family vacation by booking an 8 day stay at the Pop Century Resort at Disney World starting the week before race weekend. I decided that I would pace my fiancee to her first half marathon finish.

04 January 2011

/

My first training log of the new year is not about an impressive run but rather about location, location, location. About six months ago my better half decided to train for her first half marathon and when we thought about a great race to target, the Disney World Half Marathon came up. Couple that goal with my desire to finally take my son on his first trip to Disney World and our decision was made.

US STATES WITH 100 MILE RACES COMPLETED (15)

Create a map on Fla-shop.com

COUNTRIES WITH ULTRAMARATHONS COMPLETED (13)

Create a map on Fla-shop.com

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

SPONSORS

YOUTUBE CHANNEL

TRANSLATE

PAGEVIEWS

| Free Blogger Templates