Training Log - Friday, April 30, 2010

Richard and I met for a short 2 miler to loosen up our legs for tomorrow's challenge, the Strolling Jim 40 Miler in Wartrace, Tennessee. The weather forecast shows nothing but rain and strong thunderstorms. Should be fun. Our goal will be a sub 7 hour finish, but after talking to some previous participants, that goal might have to become a secondary target. Finishing the race is now the first priority. Apparently, there are some serious hills in addition to a course that consists purely of rolling hills anyway. I can't wait.

Training Log - Tuesday, April 27, 2010

The countdown continues, four days until Strolling Jim. I went for an easy 6 miler during lunch today. Perfect running weather. Low 60s with overcast skies and a light drizzle. It would be great to have this type of weather on Saturday, but the forecast is predicting thunderstorms all day and that is not what I call perfect running weather. Well, well, still better than 100 degrees with 99% humidity and no wind;-) Anyway, tapering continues. My cross training for tomorrow is actually a socer game with my men's team. Thursday, Richard and I will be going for our final run of the week prior to the race. We figure it is better to rest at this point. We'll do plenty of running on Saturday.

Training Log - Sunday, April 25, 2010

While a long run was on our schedule, Richard and I opted for a new, shorter run with lots of uphill early on. We ended up running about 7 miles with the first 3 miles uphill. Not a bad run. We ended up running a section on Monte Sano I hadn't run before, the Flat Rock Connector trail section from Bankhead Parkway. Once we reached the end of the road near Highway 72, we headed back through Oakwood and a couple of other roads I don't recall. Anyway, it was a decent workout to ring in our taper week. My body is telling me to rest, while my mind tells me that I'm not ready, I need more miles. Saturday is coming up fast and I am really excited about Strolling Jim, but I am also worried I did not log enough miles. I only have about 200 miles over the last 4 weeks. I hope that's enough. I'm just running to finish ayway. Well, in the upper half of the field, at least.

Training Log - Saturday, April 24, 2010

Well, well, a 12-15 miler planned for today turned into a 4 1/2 mile tempo run. Not by choice. Rather, the impeeding weather forced me to cut my run short. As a result, I tried to at least push the pace a little more than usual on my training runs. I really need to do that more often. I usually find a comfortanle pace and stick with it on longer runs. I should inject some pick-ups and tempos runs into those longer runs for sure. However, today I had to head home. Lightning and tornado warnings are a good indicator that it is time to cut a training run short. Anyway, that just means I have to get up early in the AM to get a longer run in. After that, it's time to taper for the Strolling Jim 40 Miler next weekend. I am really pumped about that one. Running 40 miles on my 39th birthday seems like an appropriate birthday present. In addition, it's been a while since my last ultra, so I am just ready to get back out there. My last ultra was the Delano 12 Hour Race in March.

Training Log - Thursday, April 22, 2010

'Twas that time again...hill work. Man,was it tough today. Richard and I opted to head towards the infamous Cotton Row hill. No "Eye of The Tiger" tonight (Sorry, you'll only get that reference if you've run the Cotton Row 10K before). One and a half miles there, all uphill already. the "hill" ten times and one and a half miles back. That was the plan anyway. Unfortunately, Richard "croaked" during the sixth uphill sprint. Sorry, Richard, I did feel for you;-( Hope you've recovered by now. So this is how my workout went. First time up the hill, I was definitely sprinting.Yet, Richard did beat me. I think he might have pushed just a little too hard early on. Second time up, I was still sprinting...though with a little less intensity, not for the lack of trying though. Third time, still sprinting...well, kinda. I know I was still thinking in my head that I was sprinting. And there were a couple of people that lived on the street that were shaking their heads while watching us run.So I am certain they also thought I was still sprinting...well, at least running. The fourth time, I was charging up the hill still, well...i meant to. Maybe it looked more like crawling but hey, the first letter was the same. Runs 5, 6 and 7 are a blurr. With the exception of loosing my running buddy half way up the hill on the sixth run. The eighth run marked the final climb up the hill, legs burning, lungs hurting, and heart rate near exploding. We had already run uphill all the way on our warm-up lap, so I figured we could cut out the last 2 uphill runs. It was a pretty tough workout after all and we deserved a break.

Training Log - Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Another 4:30 AM wake-up call, another night cut short. At least that's how I feel. But I do love getting the workouts done in the morning before heading to work. After leaving the usual meeting place at the office of my compadres around 5:15 AM, we kept a leasurely pace due to different ailments and pains within the running group. It seemed only James had fresh legs or at least he was acting that way, pushing at every hill. Well, that's really not unusual for James at all. In any case, we kept a slower than usual pace to stay together. The temperatures weren't really inviting you to the outdoors this morning either. How could it be down in the 40s again? Never mind, I just added an extra layer (wind breaker) and that kept me warm. Richard, on the other hand, did not and his "cold -blooded" genetic predisposition (I never used that term before;-) really made him miserable, to say the least. Apparently, his upper extremeties started to go numb on him, moving from the hands up to the elbows. Poor guy, especially with me more or less asking him to suck it up. We ended up running our usual Rainbow loop, a short two mile trail loop sandwiched between 8 miles of road running. It's a really nice way to break up the consistent pounding of the asphalt. Anyway, we all finished the run together, logging a little over 10 miles as planned. I did another short 4 miler after work on Indian Creek Greenway, which should keep me on target for my goal mileage for this week.

Training Log - Tuesday, April 20, 2010

After resting yesterday, I felt like I needed to crank it up a notch today. So after joing Richard on his run to the office and running back to my house to get ready for work, I had only logged 8 miles and felt like I neded to head out again for another 6 or so miles or so later in the day. At luch, I headed home to go for a quick 6 miles, but I really felt tired after just a mile into my usual UAH loop run, so I decided to cut it short and just run one 4.3 mile loop. Oddly enough, after mile 2, I got my energy back and I felt ok. But now I was already mentally prepared to head home after one loop. On top of that, I got hungry, really hungry. That is very unusual for me as I generally just get thirsty, especially as it gets hotter and hotter every day here in the South. As a result, I headed back after 4.5 miles and immediately raided the cereal boxes once at home. For some reason, I felt like eating huge bowls of cereal with ice cold milk. No idea why. Anyway, I logged 12 1/2 miles for the day and I am ready for more. I'd like to get 60 miles in this week before starting to taper next week for the Strolling Jim 40 Miler. I am excited and very nervous at the same time. For some reason, the race results posted for this race from previous years seem just a little too long for a road race. Well, well, I better be ready for anything. I hear a lot of "real" ultra runners participate in this event and it will be interesting for a newbie like me to participate in an ultra road event like this.