Wednesday, September 30, 2009

30SEP09

5 miles, 41:15 on Treadmill.
Very easy, felt great.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

29SEP09

8 miles - 1:15. +/- 1,250'.

Did an out and back on the "easy" section of the Shut-In Ridge Trail. http://www.shutinridgerun.com/
Felt really good after about 20 minutes. Did some yoga/stretching this morning.

Monday, September 28, 2009

28SEP09

4 miles easy.
Just started feeling good at the end of the run.

Made a deal with myself this morning. No speed work until I drop the 10 pounds. At this point speedwork is not important and the risk of injury is too much with the increase in milage and the amount of impact involved with speedwork done with the extra pounds. I'll be faster 10 pounds lighter anyway; so I'll look at weight loss as speedwork.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

27SEP09


16 miles - 2:28. +/-2,100'

Felt pretty good, did not have the energy I had at the end like I did yesterday, but that's expected with 33 miles for the weekend. Did an out/back on a rolling dirt road. There's an 800' climb from 6.5 - 8 miles where the road ends at the Blue Ridge Parkway. The start to the 6.5 mark has exactly the same amout of up/down, 650'. I ran this section at the same pace both out and back, I'm very happy knowing I kept the same pace/effort from start to finish. 1,450' of climbing heading out and 650' coming back, ran 1:18 and 1:10. Maureen&Kayle&Riley met me at the turnaround where they picked up Tima, gave me a new shirt, 2 bananas and some fluids.
All positives today with this run, but the best part was having the family meet me at the turn around.Spent 10 minutes with them as the kids insisted on running all the way back with me. After a couple of uphill reps with them Maureen convinced them to come with her. Her technique was well noted. She told them that they could go home and find all the clothes that didn't fit them anymore and donate them. Once they did that they could pick out a toy. They left me in the dust as they were racing Mommy back to the car. These really as the best moments.
Looking ahead a little I feel ready to try an 18/18 in 2 weeks. We'll see how next weekend goes first.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

26SEP09


17 Miles - 2:25. +/-1,000'


This was a strange run indeed. Had to do some juggling to fit this in today with a few other things going on. Ran 7 miles on the Shut-In Ridge Trail with Tima, my running partner. Then came home and put in 5 miles around the neighborhood, then stepped right onto the treadmill for another 5 miles while the kids did their chalk art on the garage floor. Had a lot of energy during the last 5 miles and hope this continues for the 16 I have planned for tomorrow.


On the way to Shut-In this morning I was listening to The Lemonheads 1992 album It's a Shame about Ray. Great version of Mrs. Robinson and my favorite song Allision's Starting to Happen had my HR up just enough to get right into the 450' climb that starts the run.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Accountable for Accountability

As I hold myself accountable for holding myself accountable I think it's beneficial to make public what I need to work on most in following through with this 5 months of specific training.
1) Build a strong base. I have not had a good base since 2004 when I'd run the Whiskey Row Marathon in early May. I loved putting in alot of miles thru the winter in Flagstaff, AZ.
2) Diet. I'm 10 pounds over weight at the moment. In the past I'm usually about 5 over and it quickly comes off with increase in milage. In an attempt to have some really good nutrition and save some time with shopping and cooking I've decided to use a local place for my meals. I've done the math and compared to what I would spend on myself at the grocery each week the difference is very small. So I don't see this as a $70/week expense since subtracting what I already spend on food needs to be considered. Veg-In-Out http://www.veginout.net/home.html
I'll be eating the basic breakfast, cereal and friuts/breads, and eating fish once a day with the prepared meals.
3) I love running hard, but never seem to practice running fast. For example, in the past I've done alot of 15% grade at a 15 minute pace followed by a 9.5% Double IPA; I really enjoy this stuff. However, I will need to add some flat fast stuff to my training to be able to run comfortable at a faster pace.
I believe these 3 components will be a big help for the 40 miler in Feb.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

First Post

The Mt. Mithchell Challenge, Feb 27, 2010, is a 40 mile race, 20 up, 20 down; goes to the top of the highest mountain east of the Mississippi. Yes, it's a few hundred feet higher than Mt. Washington., but does not have the amount of vertical in the short distance that MW has. The best we can do here is 3,700' in 5.5 miles. The MMC covers 4,324' in 20 miles. http://www.blackmountainmarathon.com/
This is my first attempt at an ultra and this blog has 2 major purposes: 1) I believe it will keep me accountable. I feel like I haven't followed through with long term training in the past 4 years and think that if I have even a few regular readers commenting and providing training tips I will feel a little more committed. 2) Training advice.
My training approach is building back to back long runs. At the moment, I'm running a 20/10, 20 on Saturday and 10 on Sunday every other week on a gentle rolloing dirt road. On the other weekends I'm running for the same amount of time/effort, but on single track often with steep ascents/descents. I want to build this to a 20/20 by the end of November and then start working towards a 30/10 as a peak run around 3-4 weeks before the race. I want to build as slowly as possible and would like the runs to feel "easy." I do not want to just bury myself and be useless the rest of Sat/Sun.
I will start posting my training starting Saturday and look forward to some feedback.