30 November 2011

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My newest accessory...courtesy of a strained peroneal tendon.
Unfortunately, I keep accidentally rolling my ankle when I'm just walking around and forgetting that I still have a weak ankle, but it isn'r really painful. I'll just continue to "actively" rehab my ankle. I didn't get to get my run in today until after it was dark and since I didn't know the local area very well, I decided to just hit the treadmill for the workout of the day.

26 November 2011

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Another cool T, a medal and a gift card...nice!
I had almost forgotten about this race as it was one of those events I registered for during one of my race registration frenzies. I get into those about 3-4 times a year when I'm looking for new motivation. Well, I'm glad that I did register.

25 November 2011

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First long sleeve T-shirt and a first place trophy for my age group.
After rolling my left ankle at the Dizzy Fifties last Saturday, my expectations for this race were pretty low. Actually, I was just happy to be able to toe the line. Then again, every time I do, I try to lay it all out there and that's what I did, injury or not.

23 November 2011

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Success! I took my first ginger steps this morning on an easy 4 miler. I met up with Rich at 6:30AM for a slow 4 miler around the UAH campus. This would be the first test of my ankle and the new ankle brace. I am happy to report that I was able to run only with slight discomfort that was mostly caused by the actual brace, not by the injury. However, I also realize that I will not be able to run without a brace or some other stability device any time soon. I just hope I'm able to continue to run and train, period.

20 November 2011

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Can you tell something's amiss? Right, the finisher's swag!
Three words or an acronym describe my third consecutive Dizzy Fifties participation: "Did not finish" or "DNF". However, as much frustration as this has caused, there really was nothing I could have done to prevent this. I was properly trained and ready to attempt a new PR and my first sub 5 hour 50K race. Unfortunately, things turned out very differently.

17 November 2011

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I definitely needed my music today. It's been kind of a crutch for me, since I hadn't been doing a lot of solitary running workouts until just recently, when I started to training for a BQ marathon time at Rocket City.

16 November 2011

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My training schedule called for a slow 8 miles at sub 8:30 pace. I had waited until after I got home from work to get today's run in. The weather was not pleasant in the morning with showers, thunderstorms and tornado warnings looming, so I opted for an afternoon run.

15 November 2011

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First off, I'd like to thank AC/DC and Die Fantastischen Vier for providing the entertainment during today's workout and for pushing me to complete the workout as required. While most of you are familiar with the first reference, the second reference will only be familiar by my friends & family back home. The last few weeks I have been relying more heavily on music to keep me going during my speed workouts. While in the past I've been running with my usual running buddies without the use of music, the usual suspects (you know who you are) have either been slacking or busy doing other things or just taking a well deserved break. As a result, it's been "back to my roots", doing my training runs on my own most of the time and utilizing music to keep me going through the tougher workouts.

11 November 2011

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A Brooks finisher's shirt AND a medal, very nice!
My marathon training schedule actually called for a half marathon as a training run two weekends ago, but I shuffled my schedule around so I could do the Huntsville Half Marathon that I hadn't done in two years. While I had done other halfs since then, I had my last PR at the 2009 event. With my new marathon BQ goal, it was time to get serious again and try for another PR. Since my marathon goal was already very ambitious, the pace my training plan called for for the half marathon distance was just as ambitious when compared to my 2009 performance. I actually needed to go at least 22 seconds per mile faster than my previous PR just to stay within my target pace. This would be fun!

10 November 2011

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I was struggling to make it out of the door for my run this morning. Temperatures had dipped into the 30s and I wasn't really digging the cold just yet. After a short internal discussion between myself and I, it was decided to just get it done. My training plan called for a one mile warm up and a 4 mile brisk run at sub 7:18 pace followed by a one mile cool down.

09 November 2011

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Today called for a slow 9 miles at sub 8:30 pace and luckily, James texted me last night to see if I was up for an early morning run. Everyone else was tied up otherwise somehow and we were both confident we could run 9 miles at the target pace together.

08 November 2011

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Alarm went off at 5:30AM, I was out the door at 6AM. Rich was a no show due to stomach problems. Mt training schedule called for 3x 2 miles at sub 7 min pace with 400m recovery jogs and a one mile warm up and cool down.

06 November 2011

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Thanks to daylight savings time, I got an hour of extra sleep Saturday night and it was much needed. My alarm went off at 5AM. I had devised a plan that allowed me to get my long run in without interfering with my family activities. My son had a state cup soccer game that morning in a neighboring city so I figured I'd get a head start on the trip and run to the game.

04 November 2011

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After I completed my toughest workout to date at 7PM last night, I received a text from Rich asking our running crew to meet at 5AM for our favorite Monte Sano "hill workout", starting our run at Five Points up Bankhead Parkway and onto Tollgate Trail all the way to the Ranger Station on top of Monte Sano State Park for a nice 10 mile out and back. This run is basically 5 miles up the mountain followed by 5 miles straight down the mountain on some seriously technical trails.

03 November 2011

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Today was the toughest workout yet on my current marathon training schedule. The plan called for 12 miles at sub 7:36 pace, which is actually faster than my previous half marathon PR from 2 years ago. Yes, it has been indeed two years since my last half marathon. I have been running at least one ultra marathon per month over the last two years, but road half marathons and marathons have been few and far between.

02 November 2011

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The workout for this morning came at me faster than expected. Even though I did yesterday's workout in the evening, I had no choice but to do today's workout in the morning due to other family activities this evening. That meant a shorter than usual break between workouts.

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I decided to move Monday's session to today. Thankfully, it was a fun. My training plan called for 6 mile Fartlek plus one mile warm up and 1 mile cool down for a total of 8 miles. I decided to do it after work to give myself yet another opportunity to sleep in just a little in the morning.

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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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