30 June 2012

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Ed and I were the only ones ready to get a run in this morning and we met up at the hiker's parking lot at Monte Sano State Park. We were going to get in about 13 miles, at least that was the plan. We headed out on our first loop and would you believe it, I got us lost...on the freaking South Loop. Well, kinda lost anyway. We ended up running the Boca Trail twice because we took a wrong turn. Oh well, by the time we got back to the parking lot after just 4 miles, I was done. I wasn't feeling it. It was hot and I was annoyed and Ed was ready to call it a day, too. But then we saw the TP2 and some other WRH folks just about ready to take off on their 7AM trail loop. Tim had already run 5 miles and I figured we might as well join these guys for another 6 or so miles. Wow, the pace they chose was definitely faster than I expected, but it was exactly the type of motivation I needed. At least we ended up logging 10 miles and that was better than nothing. We also got to run with a bunch of cool runners, which made for some interesting conversation during the run. Next weekend, I will have to raise my game and log at least 13-15 miles.

29 June 2012

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Tough but slow trail run this morning. After last night's speed workout, I was kinda glad Rich wasn't feeling his usual self with heavy legs. Ed was ready for anything, as usual. Since Rich felt sluggish and wanted to go slow, I was only happy to oblige. Even though we went at a very slow pace, we still had to climb 1200 feet on the 4.75 mile outbound leg. There was an added benefit to slowing down and "smelling the roses". We got to see a skulk of foxes, a family of three just 100 feet or so below our trail after we climbed to the top of Monte Sano on Cold Springs trail. Ed, Rich and I managed to beat the heat by taking of at our usual 5AM time slot and we even got to enjoy a cool breeze as we reached the top of Monte Sano. I made sure I hydrated at the fountain at the Ranger Station before we continued back down the mountain. The humidity levels have really been getting to me, increasing my sweat rate to levels well above previous summers.

28 June 2012

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108 degrees Fahrenheit, that´s what the thermometer in my car´s computer was displaying when I got in to drive to tonight´s track workout at Grissom High School. When I arrived, there were already 10 or so runners warming up. Wow, I didn't expect a lot of folks to brave the heat tonight. Shannon had come up with the following workout: 4x mile repeats at sub half marathon pace with 2 minute recovery jogs or walks and a 1 mile warm up and 1 mile cool down. Both Shannon Jacobs and Eric Charette were kind  enough to slow down to my fast pace for a couple of laps to pull me along. I ended up running 6:40 minute per mile pace average for all 4 repeats. Not bad for a sweltering speed workout on a completely exposed track.

27 June 2012

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Hill repeats, yay! Well, that's what I told myself when the alarm went off at 4:30AM this morning. Anything to get up and motivated, right? I met Richard, James and Ed at the old Randolph School on Drake Ave. We did a 1 mile warm up to the bottom of the nice hill at the end of Drake Ave (towards the mountain) before starting our 10 hill repeats. We did eight 2 minute hill repeats followed by 3 minute recovery jogs back down   the hill before continuing further uphill after the eighth hill repeat to do two more repeats at the last and steepest road section on Drake. While this one is shorter than 2 minutes, it certainly is steep enough to make grown men weep...especially when you've already done 8 repeats. We finished out the workout by looping around for another 1.5 miles for our cool down to finish our run back at Randolph. I am glad I dd it, but I am also glad I dont have another workout scheduled for the next 36 hours:-)

26 June 2012

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What a perfect evening for a couple of short cross country races. The Facebook and Twittersphere had been blowing up with "smack talk" between Cary Long, David Bier, Jason Shattuck, Mike Dehaye and myself. Well, Mike has not been actively "talking" but he's involved by association. Basically, all guys mentioned have been running pretty close to each other over the various race distances and the Summer Cross Country series have given us all an opportunity to push each other at least once a week over the various race distances of 1, 2 & 3 miles. I actually think these friendly competitions have already made me faster and I would venture to guess that the same is true for a couple of the other guys as well. I can just see the Fall 5K race PRs falling already.

Jason and I both decided to take it really easy over the 1 mile distance. As it happened I ran it in 9:30, but there really is no reason to push the pace over this distance as it is the warm up mile for almost all runners.

When I lined up for the 3 mile distance race, I wanted to make sure I stayed with Jason. I knew he would be at faster than me, the question was by how much. I figured staying with him would give me a  decent time. I also kept an eye on the other usual suspects. I knew if any of us stayed close until the final half mile that it would be quite a final stretch. As it turned out, Mike pulled away early and Jason did the same. I stayed with Jason until the half way point, were I started to loose sight of him for a while. However, I started to see Mike again and I decided to try to stay with him similar to the week before. When we reached the final half mile, I spotted Jason again just 10 seconds or so ahead of us. I decided to try to push past Mike and just like last week, he did not drop off. We pushed each other to the finish, shortening the gap to Jason as we crossed the finish line. I ended up with a new personal CR of 20:46, almost 30 seconds faster than before. Will I be able to break the 20 minute barrier this year?

This afternoon, I also decided to run the 2 mile race distance for the first time. I fully expected to crumble as it was hot and I felt exhausted, but to my surprise, I was able to run a nice pace, finishing 6th in 13:28. These XC runs have added a fun weekly tempo training session to my 100 mile training plan. I look forward to another fun filled Tuesday next week.

25 June 2012

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Richard finally joined Ed and me for our Monday morning Pratt Ave Ranger Station out & back 10 mile trail run. The humidity levels and even early morning temps are getting tougher every day. Once again, I looked like I had just gotten out of a pool when I completed this morning's run. We kept a slow pace, walking some of the steep climbs at times, catching up on the last couple of weeks and discussing the upcoming events. It looks like I will have a solid crew and pace team for my Georgia Jewel 100 Mile attempt in September. If indeed I am able to ramp up my mileage to include a few 75+ and even 100+ mileage weeks prior to the Georgia Jewel, then I think attempting a sub 24 hour finish is a possibility.


I have been adding more hills and even track workouts to my training schedule to become faster as well, so hopefully that coupled with the added mileage will get me ready. Oh yeah, I also had my first "real" tick encounter when I arrived back home this morning. One of those little buggers had attached itself at the bottom of my right calf just above my  ankle sock. As I was wiping the dirt off my legs on my front porch before entering the house, I noticed one little speck of dirt that was rather resistant. I quickly realized that this was indeed a tick. Thankfully, it had not burried its head under my skin, yet and I was able to pull it off and dispose of it. Its feet were rather clingy, I have to admit and it is something I'd prefer I would not have to deal with, but it's either taking the risk and being cautious or not running trails at all this summer.

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Another cool shirt for a cool event...and a nice bottle and some Hammer product samples to boot:-)
Today, I moved outside my comfort zone once again. This time, I toed the line at the 2012 Heel & Crank Duathlon (2.5 mile run, 10 mile bike, 2.5 mile run). What was I thinking! I hadn't been on my bike, a bike, any bike really, in a long time. As a matter of fact, the last organized bike ride of any distance greater than 2 miles was last year at the AYCE century ride. So why did I sign up for a duathlon? Well, I wanted to change up my training a bit and throwing in a bike ride between two short runs sounded like a great idea...until I actually had to do it.

I arrived at the race site at Research Park in Huntsville, Alabama almost an hour before the 7AM race start. Finding a spot on the bike racks was a "first come, first served" activity and not knowing anything about how these events worked, I figured better be safe than sorry and show up a little early, instead. Once I arrived, I quickly found a place to "hang up" my bike. Afterwards, are started roaming the crowd to find some familiar faces. I knew there there would be at least 4 coworkers of mine at the race as well as a few running buddies as well. I managed to spot most of them for a little pre-race chat to calm the nerves. Almost all of them had either borrowed a bike, failed to train properly or were first timers like me and while I was confident in both my ability to run and my ability to "cheat" my way through the bike leg. After all, I had a decent road bike. Yes, it was from the early 1980s, and yes, there has been a lot of progress since that time, but it was actually a very light bike and it truly was a high end bike of its time, a Cinelli bike handmade in Italy and weighing in a just above 20 lbs, which was incredible for a steel frame bike. How much difference could some serious bike training coupled with a serious bike really make, right? Well, I was about to find out the hard way.

I met up with Timothy Pitts at the starting line and both of us seemed a little outside of our element. Like me, Timothy was more familiar with trail running than with road biking, but we figured we would push on the runs and see what the bike leg would hold for us. Since Timothy is a faster runner than me, I decided I would try to stay with him as long as possible to accomplish a decent time on the first run. I managed to stay with him and we both transitioned to the bike leg pretty much at the same time. When I checked my time for the first 2.5 mile run later, I was very happy to see the clock at 15:53. I added just over 50 seconds during the transition before starting the bike leg.

I remember seeing Tim grab his bike in the transition area and we both pretty much left at the exact same time again. He passed me shortly after the start of this leg before I passed him again later on, but we basically stayed pretty close to each other once again. This section was new territory for me. I didn't know what to expect. I had had a very good first leg, but how long could I hold off the real cyclists. As it turned out, not very long. Not only that, when I started to get passed, it seemed like I was literally standing still as they flew past me. And this would repeat itself multiple times over the course of 10 miles. I would pedal for a mile or so and here they would come, three at a time, passing me at close to twice my speed (my average speed was 20mph for the entire leg, so you do the math). While I handily beat some of them during the first running leg, they took back the time they lost and then some. It was quite the humbling experience, but it was still a lot of fun. I did manage to get into a couple of duels out there with a couple of other cyclists. I would pas them on the climbs and they would fly past me on the downhills until the final mile, where I was able to hold them off for the remainder of the bike leg.

I completed the bike leg in just under 30 minutes and added another 50 seconds in the second transition before the final 2.5 mile run. I was feeling pretty good until I dismounted my bike and tried to start running. What the he!!? Why are my legs so wobbly? Why can't I run faster? Why am I so exhausted? What is going on? Once again, I tried to keep Tim in my sight, but it became clear to me that I just did not have the motivation (or maybe fitness?!?) to stick with him for the entire leg. I decided to let him pull away and tried to settle in a slower pace instead. Not long after, a couple of runners tarted to pass me. I did not care, which is very unusual for me. When I reached the first water stop, I just wanted to cool off with some water and walk for a bit. So I did...I doused my head with a cup of water and grabbed two cups of Gatorade to hydrate...all while walking. Ugh, if I wanted to get this over with, I probably needed to get running again. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the first two legs of this race, but the last leg felt pretty brutal. Clearly, I had pushed just a little too hard early on. Fighting the two tri athletes earlier during the bike leg was probably not the best idea. I was sure I was paying the price for it now. But man, it sure was fun while it lasted.

I was merely able to manage what felt like a slow jog at this point. There were still a few runners passing me, but I kind of settled into a steady slow pace and I knew I could hold this for another mile or so without killing myself. Then I started hearing someone breathing behind me. I figured he or she would just pass me and I would be on my way, but it seemed he was laboring just as much as me to get this done. Since he didn't pass me and he did not fall back, I figured he'd make his move on the final stretch. I never turned around, but I could tell this would be a push to the finish. Dang, why do I get sucked into these things? I could've just let him pass me...but with less than .5 mile to go there was no way I was going to let anyone pass me without a fight. It was on! I slowly picked up the pace and he stayed with me. I knew it was a guy just by listening to his labored breathing. I also remembered that I had my age marked on my calf, so this guys must have realized that I am in his age group and he was going to move past me in the final standings. He had licked blood as they say and so had I;-) I knew there would be one last incline before the finish and that's where I would try to put the hammer down. As the road rose before us, I started to shorten my strides and pick up the pace fast. I wanted him to just say to himself, "heck no, this is stupid, why should I pick up the pace on a hill just to beat one runner? I'm not playing this game". And he did fall back a little. I kicked a little harder and when I crossed the finish line, I was just glad to be done and happy to not have been passed one more time on the final stretch. When I checked the results later, I realized that I barely beat the guy by 3 seconds. Thanks for pushing me, buddy, I truly appreciate it!

Thanks to the organizer and the team of volunteers who put on a fantastic event. I will be back next year for more fun in the sun...but better prepared for the bike leg;-)

22 June 2012

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Ed and James joined me for today's 5AM trail run up to the ranger station and back for a 10 mile roundtrip. This run has about 1300 feet elevation gain and is our staple run on Mondays and Fridays. Tollgate and Cold Spring Trail provide plenty of very technical (rocky) sections and plenty of elevation gain. Even better, we're able to get good downhill running in as well on the return leg. As I've learned from way more experienced ultra runners, it is just as important to training downhill running as it is to practice the uphills. The humidity continues to add to the strain of uphill running the last couple of weeks. Hopefully, cooler temps or lower humidity next week will help me run faster, again. Today, we kept a slow and easy pace on my request. The speed workout from last night was still in my legs and I was slightly dehydrated for the first time in a long time.

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My third track workout in this training cycle...well, ever, really. Only 5 or 6 runners showed up at the Grissom High School track tonight to enjoy* (*Shannon speak for "suffer") a good speed workout. Shannon Jacobs prepped a workout of a 1 mile warm up followed by 3x 800m repeats at 5K pace with 1 minute recoveries followed by one 1200m repeat at 5K pace before a 1 mile cool down. This was actually shorter than the original workout he had planned for us, but all of us appreciated the adjustment  since it was extremely hot and humid. I did truly enjoy the workout and I am looking forward to next week's session. Hopefully, the addition of track workouts will not only help me with my 100 mile training, but also help me permanently move under the 20 minute mark for the 5K distance.

20 June 2012

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I decided to join my wife tonight on her run around the UAH campus. It was extremely hot and we decided to keep it short. The 3.5 mile run suited me just fine after running hill repeats this morning. My second two-a-day running session in the last two weeks, but I'm keeping them very short. Tomorrow, I have my weekly track workout session at the Grissom High School Track.

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Hill workout! James suggested to change things up a bit today, so Ed, James and I met up at the old Randolph School parking lot to head about a mile down the street on Drake Ave towards the mountain, where we started to run 10x 2 minute hill repeats with 3 minute recoveries, slowly working our way up the entire section until we ended up on the last and steepest section of Drake Ave for our final two repeats. We continued on to complete a 1.5 mile cool down run before arriving back at the school parking lot. These repeats felt tougher and I was sure that the elevation gain was significantly more than our usual Cotton Row hill repeats, but I was wrong. We only climbed an additional 100 feet (total of just over 1000 feet) vs. "puke hill". The weather was just right, not too hot with a little breeze. By the way, maybe it was the lack of oxygen in my lungs after the 6th or 7th repeat, but I could have sworn I saw Eric Charette walking one of his dogs. Shout out to you, if it was indeed you, buddy! If it wasn't you, my apologies to the person I yelled and waved at, instead;-)

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More heat, more humidity, exact same time in the 3 mile race as last week. That about sums it up. Well, almost. I took it very easy over the 1 mile distance, chatting with Cary Long and hearing about his Chattanooga Stage Race adventures (or would suffer fest be more appropriate;-) from the previous weekend.

Me right between masters runner "par excellence" Marty Clarke and local ultrarunning legend DeWayne Satterfield...in a race?...yeah, for about 2 seconds;-)


For the 3 mile race, I wasn't even sure if I was going to race at all or just trot along. It took me a little bit of looking around to find a couple of runners that had beaten me in a few of the shorter distance races lately and I figured it was time to see if I could "return the favor" so to speak. I won't mention any names, you know who you are, but it has been eating at me just a little that there are a couple of runners who I recall beating in some races last year that have been beating me in these same races this year. Nothing like a little healthy (or unhealthy) competition to make myself train and run harder:-)


I started the race at my usual pace, but slightly slower than last week. The return leg felt harder this week, so I backed off a little and tried to do the hills slow but steady to preserve some energy for later. I had passed one of my "nemises" about 1.5 miles into the run and I spotted the other just ahead of me. I decided to get behind him and try to relax. I had no plans to push at this point, just hang with him to see what happens. When we ran the final loop around the soccer field, I decided I would see if I can pass him on the final .25 miles. Just as that thought crossed my mind, Kathy Youngren passed me, and might I add with ease. No matter, I am man enough to handle being chicked, especially by a great runner like her;-) I kicked it into high gear, hoping I had enough push left to pass without getting passed again. I don't think I've kicked that hard in a race in a long time. It took all I had and I could her his footfalls right behind me, picking up the pace along with me. We pushed each other to the finish and I managed to stay ahead...for the first time in quite some time.

I L-O-V-E healthy competition to push myself to the max on the final stretch. Thanks guys.

P.S.: Good luck to Rob and Kathy Youngren who are about to embark on a great adventure in Hungary at the Ultra Balaton and to HTC's "el presidente" Eric Fritz, who will be challenging the great Western States 100 Mile race next weekend. I hope both Kathy and Eric recover from their recent injuries enough to not only do well but to enjoy the experience. Good luck, guys!

18 June 2012

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Week 3 of my latest 100 Mile Race training plan got under way this morning with what was supposed to be an easy and slow trail run from Five Points up Pratt Ave to Bankhead Parkway before getting on Tollgate Trail and Cold Spring Trail to the Ranger Station (now burned down) across the Convenience Store on top of Monte Sano Mountain and returning the same way we came. This is our usual Monday and Friday morning 10 miler providing challenging trails and enough ascending and descending to be quite challenging without the need to go fast.

Well, someone forgot to tell James...and Ed, for that matter. We somehow managed to run up the mountain at or near record pace and while we all agreed that we would not push it on the way down, that´s exactly what we ended up doing. In fact, we all set new PRs. Using the same standard of measure I used the previous attempts, my Garmin Forerunner 310XT showed a total time of 1:27:34 and an average pace of 9:12 minutes per mile for 9.52 miles and 1300 feet of elevation gain. Not too bad for a training run. I just hope I can continue this momentum throughout my training. It is going to be tough to have a shot at sub 24 hours at either Georgia Jewel 100 or Pinhoti 100 with my abilities, so my training is crucial to my success. I guess that´s true for everyone:-)

17 June 2012

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Today called for a long run, but we went for a fairly short 11 miler. However, it was a trail run with plenty of climbing on trails I had not previously been on on Huntsville Mountain and Green Mountain. The total elevation gain was almost 1800 feet, 500 feet more than my usual Ranger Station out & back trail run. Ed, James, Jason and I went out at 6AM for a fantastic out & back trail run providing some fantastic views of Huntsville and the surrounding areas once we reached the ridges of the mountains. This was Jason's backyard and he picked the route for today's run. I was glad to check out some different trails. Looks like there are endless trail running possibilities in Huntsville and not just on Monte Sano Mountain. 

15 June 2012

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Since there really never can be a ¨bad¨day on the trails, let´s just call this one a so-so day on the trails. It had nothing to do with the trails and everything to do with me and my legs and how pooped I felt. I guess the speed workout just 11 hours earlier was still with me. While James was pushing ahead, I kept hanging back on the way up the mountain. When I reached the ranger station, my time was still surprisingly reasonable. I decided to keep it slow, trying to give my body time to recover for tomorrow. I know, you can´t recover while running, but let´s just call it ¨active¨ recovery, since I was running pretty slowly. Our run did take an interesting twist on the way down. While on our return leg on Cold Springs Trail and just before crossing Bankhead Parkway, we looked up and spotted a Ford Focus ¨wrapped¨ around a big tree, which kept it from heading down onto the trail 30-40 feet below. We climbed straight up to see if assistance was needed, only to find to other passers by, who were on the phone with emergency services. Apparently, both the driver and passenger of the vehicle had abandoned the car after impact. Both airbags has been deployed and the entire front end of the car was compressed. I am definitely glad that no one appeared to be too hurt to leave the scene, but I have my suspicions about why the car appeared abandoned after the wreck. Oh well, James and I got an extra climb in and, thankfully, we didn´t need to employ our first aid skills.

14 June 2012

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The weekly track workout was on the schedule today and I officially met Shannon Jacobs, the guy that's kind enough to organize and run these track workouts week in week out. There were about 15 people attending the session today, including my co-worker friend David Scarlett and his daughter. Hopefully they can make it out a few times this summer. We met at 6PM at the Grissom High School track. This was only my second track workout...ever. Shannon had come up with a great Fartlek (Swedish word for "speed play") workout. We would warm up for 1 mile or 4 laps, followed by 3 minutes at just under 5K pace with 1 minute recovery jogs until we completed about 12 laps or 3 miles, followed by a 1 mile cool-down. I was shooting for a 6:30 minute per mile pace and was able to stay under or just around that pace for the most part. It was a great workout and a nice way to get in my first two-a-day of this training cycle.

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A quick unplanned easy run this morning to battle the guilt from eating ice cream late last night. The temperatures were still cool enough, 70s with a light breeze. I decided to visit my trusty ol' UAH loop for a short 4.5 mile run. I kept the pace easy at 8 minute per mile pace. I didn't want to spend too much energy this morning since I knew I'd have the track workout scheduled after work today. Everything felt fairly loose.

13 June 2012

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Hill repeats at 6AM this morning. Streets were busier than usual with runners as well, but we're the only ones crazy enough to do hill repeats on "puke hill". Our fellow runners never failed to give words of encouragement though as well "sprinted" up the hill. Ed and I were the only guys in town for this workout today. We ended up doing 10x hill repeats with a 1 mile warm up and cool down. Cross training at lunch will be it for the day.

12 June 2012

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Week 2 of the Summer Cross Country Run series and I decided to treat the 1 mile distance like a warm-up. I ran a nice and easy 8 minute mile on the dot. For the 3 mile distance, I wanted to push the pace. I figured I could push harder than last week, considering that I took it easy on the 1 miler. Apparently, almost everyone else was thinking the same thing and I ended up just behind the same folks as last week, even though I ran the 3 miles a minute faster than last week.  While I was able to maintain my goal pace for the first and final mile, I dropped my pace on the second mile that includes the "little" hill climb.

If I can continue to improve my pace week to week, that would be great training progress. For now, my goal continues to slowly increase my mileage to above 50 miles per week, while maintaining my current training schedule including hill repeats, track workouts, the cross country races, a couple of trail runs and a long trail run on the weekend. Once I reach 50+ miles, I will start to add two-a-days to increase mileage in an effort to keep risk of overuse injury low.

11 June 2012

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What is it with rain on Mondays? The last two Mondays, I got rained on every time I headed up the mountain. This time, Richard and I met at his house at 5AM for a Ranger Station out & back trail run. This is a great training run on very technical (rocky) terrain on Tollgate Trail and 1300 feet of climbing on the first half of the run, followed by 1300 feet of descent on the way back. This 10 mile run has become  staple training run for me. Rich and I got soaked during the entire run and footing was quite challenging as the rocky trail surface was extremely slippery. While it as muggy outside, the temperatures were rather mild, almost cool. 

10 June 2012

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Go Green...or just a clever way to reuse/recycle race numbers?
This was the first time I was in town to run the Alabama A&M race and it was perfect timing. In its 41st edition, the course was shortened from 10K to 5K. In addition, the new RD James Falcon changed the course from a road course to a cross country course. If some folks were hoping to find a course flatter than the 10K road course, they were disappointed. The 5K had a couple of surprises in store for its participants and they were both placed in the final mile of the race.

I arrived just after 7AM after receiving a couple of text messages from Jason Shattuck about how to find the race start. I had never been on the A&M campus except for my wife´s Master´s degree graduation a couple of years back. Sure enough, I drove right past the race start even with Jason´s instructions. Luckily, I spotted a couple of runners in my rearview mirror, just in time to step on the brakes and ask for directions.

Jason and quite a few other familiar faces were already there wondering was this new race course had in store for us. After chatting with a few folks about there upcoming ultra adventures, we got ready to line up. The race started at the old historic A&M football field. We would return here to finish the race after running a final lap around the field. The race started at 7:30AM sharp and after leaving the field we turned left on the road before getting sent onto the ¨cross country¨ part of the course about a quarter mile further down. The race would take us across grass fields towards the lower area of the campus and towards Chase Road. The first mile was rather fast, which was expected considering that it was mostly downhill. I knew I would pay for that sooner rather than later. Sooner arrived just half a mile later. Jason started to pull away from me rather fast and I decided not to give chase. Truthfully, I was too exhausted to give chase, which is ironic, since we were now running along Chase Road.

Mile 2 was 30 seconds slower and still reasonably fast for a cross country course, but I knew the worst (or best;-) was yet to come. We would climb back to were the race started and rather than doing it in one stretch, we would go up, down and then up again. What a great way to finish this race. When I entered the football field with one lap to go, I was spent. I had backed off a little in pace, because I didn´t want to end up dry heaving at the finish line again. I finished at a steady pace for 16th overall (out of 137) and 2nd age group (out of 21). There were quite a few familiar faces finishing ahead of me today, another reason to train a little harder;-)

Receiving my age group award while supporting Germany for EURO 2012:-)

08 June 2012

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James, Ed, Richard and I met up this morning at 5AM for a Pratt Ave Ranger Station Out & Back trail 10 miler. Richard had had a rough week and bowed out after 2ish miles while James, Ed and I continued on. We didn't break any speed records, but we kept a steady pace. The weather was fantastic once again. I was "almost" a little chilly at the beginning of our run. Came across an Armadillo, which just kinda hung out on the side of the trails, either not aware or too lazy to move as I was approaching.

I am closing in on my first week of full training and I am feeling pretty good...aside from overall muscle soreness. I will have 40 miles for the week by tomorrow, which is a great start to my renewed training schedule.

07 June 2012

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My first track workout in years. I had decided to add something new to my current training program to help me get faster over every distance and to change up my new (old) training routine. I showed up at the Grissom High School track to work out with the local ¨Need for Speed¨ training group not knowing what to expect, but thankfully, there were a few familiar faces. Not having done a formal track workout ever before (I´m an old dog trying to learn a new trick;-), I didn´t know what would be expected of me, but when I learned that I wasn´t the only one fairly new to this, I was slightly more relaxed.

The speed workout lead this week was Lynn and she had something for us called the speed ladder workout, I think. We would start at 10K pace and get progressively faster. We started with a 1 mile warm-up followed by 1600m at 10K pace with a 400m recovery jog, followed by 1200m at 5K pace with a 400m recovery jog, followed by 800m at 5K pace with 400m recovery jog, followed by 400m at 1 mile pace with 1 mile cool-down. I made sure I went progressively faster, starting the first mile after the warm-up a little slower than I thought. I made up for it by going faster than originally planned on the remaining ladder workouts. It felt pretty good to do some speed work with purpose. I´m sure my hill repeats help my speed, but there is nothing that replaces a good old fashioned track workout, or so I´m told by folks with much more running experience than myself.

Thanks again to Lynn for organizing and running this week´s workout and thanks to all the other folks participating for making this not only a purposeful but fun workout.

06 June 2012

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Second week of hill repeats. We decided to run Cotton Row hill repeats this morning and to increase the repeats back to 10 after taking it easy last week with 8. On top of it, James decided that we should check out the "old" Cotton Row hill, Dill hill, after we completed our workout, so instead of heading straight back to Richard's house, Ed, James and I decided to include Dill hill in our cool down mile on the way back. Temps were perfect in the low 60s and while I struggled through my repeats, I am glad I got them done. Day three and training is still going well;-) Cross training is up next during my lunch break.

05 June 2012

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I participated in my first Summer Cross Country Runs this afternoon, but I only ran the 1 and 3 mile distances, skipping the 2 mile distance in recognition of my extremely sore body (i started cross training yesterday) and in anticipation of the hill repeats workout scheduled for tomorrow. I fully intend to run all 3 distances next week.

I got to talk to a few fellow runners just before and in between races, exchanging race schedules for the next few months. Quite a few guys running 100 milers in the near future. The 1 mile distance was the first race and I stupidly laid it allot there, just like all the young high school kids out there to kick off their summer training for their upcoming cross country season. When I lined up for the 3 mile distance I was mostly recovered and willing to push the pace again, this time just a little more conservatively from the start. I stayed with a couple of guys until they left me in their dust. I clearly have some serious training to do to get back up to speed and to be comfortable with more distance again.

04 June 2012

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My 100 mile training has officially started again. Ed and I met up at Rich's house (everyone else chickened out for different "mostly legitimate" reasons;-) for a nice ranger station out and back trail run starting at Five Points for a total of 10 miles. After taking it easy for a couple of weeks, we decided to take an easy pace as we climbed Monte Sano on the Toll Gate Trail. It ended up being a twilight run with plenty of rain and some thunder and lightning. I usually avoid running in lightning, but the weather actually looked fairly decent with only a slight drizzle when we took off. The temps were nice enough and the rain provided a nice cool off during the run. The first 5 miles of the trail run gave us about 1300 feet of climbing before we descended the same elevation on the 5 mile back leg.

03 June 2012

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I decided to join my wife for a nice early morning loop around UAH after a nice cup of coffee. I ended up taking her to the Cross Country course from yesterday´s Eurocross 5K78K race along the way to show her the creek crossings that were so much fun yesterday. We ended up with almost 5 miles at an easy pace. The weather has been absolutely perfect the last couple of days, just the way spring is supposed to be. Looking forward to starting my serious training regimen again next week in preparation for the reamining big goals of 2012, the Georgia Jewel 100, the Pinhoti 100 and hopefully a few PRs along the way;-) My goal is to run one of those two 100 Milers in under 24 hours, which is going to be a very very serious (nearly impossible) challenge.

02 June 2012

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Unfortunately, I only had time to run the 5K distance.
This race was definitely a spur of the moment type of thing for me. I signed up the night before. I was still reeling from my poor performance at the Cotton Row 10K just 5 days earlier and instead of putting pressure on myself, I decided to just have a great time. After all, this race was apparently known for having racers jump across hay bales and run through a creek multiple times, so this was going to be about fun and nothing else, for me at least.

I arrived 30 minutes before race start, giving myself and my lonely supporter (my son Mace) enough time to check out the course. There were two courses, a 1K loop to be run 5 times for the 5K race, and a 2K loop for the 8K race. Both would cross a creek multiple times, making both events extremely challenging and definitely not a place to go for a PR. The 5K course would have racers cross one waist deep section of the creek as well as a more shallow knee deep section. I would find out soon enough how I was going to handle that.

I lined up at the starting line just before 8AM. While there were over 150 runners at the starting line, I only recognized but a few folks. Jason was one of the familiar faces and I decided to stay just behind him early on and to just let him go, if I perceived my effort to be too strenuous. I wanted to have fun, I didn't care about anything else. Of course, as soon as I crossed the first creek and I saw my son cheering for me, I knew I couldn't just walk it in, I had to at least make an effort for a respectable finish. I kept my sight on Jason, but I wasn't going to be too concerned if he pulled away.

Before I knew it I only had one loop left to run. I still saw Jason, but he had pulled ahead. I decided to push a little on the final quarter mile. When I crossed the finish line, I had completed my first Eurocross 5K in just over 23 minutes, just about 30 seconds behind Jason, good enough for 14th overall and 3rd in my age group (40-49). Jason was able to add another top ten finish to his resume (well done, buddy!).

Hopefully, my son will be able to run this race himself next year, if soccer tryouts fall on a different weekend. I know I can't wait to do this race again next year, when I plan to do both the 5K and 8K distances. I haven't had this much fun at a 5K in a long time, if ever. Thanks to the RD and the volunteers for putting on such a fun event.

A perfect coaster for the post race summer ale;-)

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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