No Mt. Washington for me...

Saw this morning that I was not one of the lucky lottery winners for Mt. Washington this year, or did I have a resume strong enough to by-pass the lottery - ok I didn't submit the resume so I'm not 100% sure that I couldn't have gotten in...

It's amazing how easy this is to accept. I think I must be quite happy with what I've been able to do the past 15 years I've been running. Yea, I'd love to do more and will try new things every year, but it's nice to be in a place where not being able to do a race is really no big deal. Perhaps this has something to do with the older I get the faster time goes by. I know that Mt. Washington 2011 is right around the corner.

Lately I've been getting the biggest rush out of training. I was doing some 3 minute uphill reps the other day and Tima was running next to me barking at me to get moving. She was all over me having a great time out there with me, she's 9 years old and still the one pushing the training runs.

Came across this great cover of one of my favorite songs of my favorite band, the Pogues. Too bad Shane McGowan can't sing or speak anymore, but glad to hear covers like this.
I'm in Raleigh-Durham today and woke up with this car parked next to mine. I've bet Dr. Tommy that the guy that drives this car is 5'2".

Tuesday-Sunday

Climbed about 5,000' this week while making a point to do some faster work on flat - light rolling terrain this week with about 7.5 hours of running.
Tuesday - 1 hour steady with some nice uphill strides.
Wednesday - 50:00 steady - Flat
Thursday - 15:00 w/u, then a 60 minute fartlek on rolling trails, 1,150' of up/down during this hour. Hard/strong on the ups, steady on the flats/downs. 10 minute c/d. Great run today!
Friday - 15:00 w/u, then an 8 mile progression run on a very lightly rolling dirt road, up/down 650' for these 8 miles. 10:00 c/d. Felt comforable for the first 6 miles, then started to work a little on the 7th and struggled a bit on the 8th. Much better run than I thought, legs were a little tired during the w/u from the hill farlek the day before. Thought perhaps I went a little too hard on Thursday, but recovered nicely and put in some good work today.
Saturday - Legs very tired from T/F runs. Thought they would loosen up nicely after 20-30 minutes, but they never recovered. Went easy on the trails for 51:00 and 850' of up/down.
Sunday - Today was a good day for me as well as some nice learning on how I will recover. After feeling quite shitty yesterday I came back today feeling very well. So well, in fact, I dropped some prescribed paces about 15 seconds per mile on the flat farlek part of my run today. 1 hour of w/u and steady running on nice rolling trails, 700' of up/down during this hour. Then found some flat dirt roads in the area and did a 36:00 fartlek with the work being done between 6:45 and 7:00 pace. The 7's felt quite easy and very little recovery was needed so dropped the working pace down to 6:45 for the 2nd half of this 36:00 segmant. This pace was mostly comfortable, but felt more like I was getting the turnover and quickness I wanted. This was probably closer to what my 10k pace is at the moment. Managed to keep the total up/down for the farlek at 240'.

Treadmill 12%

I'm a "Single Dad" this week as Maureen's job has taken her out of town thru Saturday. Should be able sharpen up on my time management skills taking care of the kids, getting them to and from school, getting myself to work and fitting runs in. We might be eating alot of pancakes, speghetti and grilled cheese sandwiches this week.
Managed to fit in 45 minutes on the mill this morning at 12% grade for a climb of about 1,900'.

Fri./Sat. Dog Attack (attempted)

Friday I was able to get in 9 miles; 6 at w/u and steady/cruise, then the last 3 upped the effort a bit. Felt very sluggish at the start, but finished strong.
Saturday I got 1:54:00 in with some good work in the middle 45 minutes and some strides at the end. Felt pretty good today and a great run was almost ruined by a couple of dogs that came after Tima and I. I don't think they'll be doing that again. I expect their "person" won't be taking them anywhere near that trail either. Before the "attempted attack" I thought my max HR was about 170. I learned that's my max while running, there are in fact other max HR's that I have.
Here's what happened, Tima and I were on our way back from an out/back moving along quite well; Tima was situated about 7-8 feet behind me as she usually is at this point in the run. I see ahead on the trail a man with his 2 over-weight black lab mix on leashes. They see us and start to pull like sled dogs and this guy is having a hard to holding them back. I ease up and start walking and stay close to Tima because I know, from experience, that's who they want. Now these dogs are really pulling hard and this man is holding on, but they are dragging him. I'm thinking wholly shit here we go. I say to the man, as if I already know he will not be able to get control, "Will they bite?" At that moment, as he attempted to yank them back one slipped out of his collar and as he tried to get it back he let go of the other's leash. The first one was coming right at us and the other less than a second behind. Instincts kicked in (no pun intended) and I wound up and kicked the first one in the jaw as hard as I could. It was like an uppercut to his under jaw. I couldn't have asked for better contact, he fell to his side and stood up immediately, but in a freeze just looking at me. I was in that focused mode and heard nothing, but a moment after I could hear the aweful sound of Tima fighting the other dog. I turned to look and she had the other on it's back and it was squirming to defend itself. I grabbed Tima's collar and started running again, this could not have gone on any longer than 5 seconds, but as I recount the memory in my head it seems like 5 minutes. I gave a look back and saw that the man has a hold of both his dogs and I said "Get a fucking muzzel for those dogs." Then immediately looked down at my HR, 176!!
It was very obvious that these dogs hadn't been out of their yard all winter and this guy decided they could use a nice walk and some exercise. I think what people don't understand is that dogs need a job, if they have nothing to do they will make one up for themselves. In most cases it will be the job of Protector. When these dogs finally do get out, they still have the same job, and in our case today, they wanted to defend every square inch of trail/forest that was out there as well as thier "person." I have ZERO tolerance for this shit. This has happened to Tima and I about 5-6 times over the last 9 years and everytime it's been 2 dogs, never just one. Of course we've encountered thousands of dogs on the trails over the past 9 years so this certainly isn't a BIG problem, but it only takes one time of a size and breed of dog where Tima and I won't "WIN." I may consider carrying some bear spray. Slight soreness on the top of my foot, but it's almost gone now. I think the adrenline that was spit out at a HR of 176 took care of that right away.

I'm goin' to Jackson...

...look out Jacksontown. After a 5:30 flight out of Asheville this morning to Memphis, then a 90 minute drive I'm in Jackson, TN and I have not been able to get that Cash/Carter tune out of my head. The hotel I'm in is right next to Union University so I thought this would be a great place to get my run in and not worry about cars. Parked at the athletics field house and in less than 5 minutes I found the XC Team's very well marked 8k course. Very nice soft, golf course type terrain, felt good on my legs. But, going against a strong headwind in the middle of an open field on soft ground can make me feel really slow. Or, should I say confirm I'm slow? I did have a nice 1 hour run and threw some stides in as well. Quite happy I found what I found and was able to take it easy on the impact today while getting a good run in for the heart and lungs.

Hill Reps.

1:50:00 with 2,200' of up/down.

Started with 47:00 of Steady/Cruise, then went right into 50:00 of 2 min. H, 3 min. E x 10. All the 2 minutes hard were done going up at 10-15%, and the 3 easy was going back down the same hill. managed to get a total of 1,200' of climb during the intervals. Finished the run with a 13 minute cool down. Felt great and feeling more and more confident that the hip issue is behind me.

Steady Semi Long Run

87 minutes on a nice trail. 1,200' of up/down.

Went easy for a 15 minute w/u, then cruised at MAF for 45 minutes.

Ignored HR for the next 27 minutes and ran relaxed. Felt good.

Little Bear

Same as yesterday and still feeling good.

Since I hope to be hitting this road a few times a week I decided to name it Little Bear.

Lunch Run

Did and up/down +/- 960' on my favorite raod near work. The local cyclists train alot in this area and have painted different faces on the steep climb, they get increasingly "sadder." Hard to see the tears running from the left eye on this one. This is the face with about 50' of climbing left.

I kept it nice and easy and felt great. I love TT'ing this road during the M-F lunch runs and will incorporate this into my schedule soon.

12% Climb

1 hour on the mill at 12%. Average HR 140.
Felt good, a little slow, but most things were working well.
Weighed my shoes yesterday; the ones I had used during the Fall and early Winter were 7.6 oz/shoe. The ones I have now are 11.3 oz and 13.1 oz with the insoles that make my hip hip feel good. I feel a little clunky in these new shoes, but it's all worth it. I did notice, though, that when I'm barefoot I can sometimes feel a little soreness in my hip, like I'm still slightly over-pronating barefoot. I take off my shoes whenever possible (even at work). I'm wondering whether if I wear shoes more often my hip will benefit from that...

Recovery:

01FEB10

5 miles easy.

Felt sluggish until I threw some strides in at the end at a slight incline, then I finally perked up a little.

Threw my name in the hat this morning for Mt. Washington but it somehow got snot all over it. Who'd have a hat with mucus inside it? Anyway, hoping to get into this race and should know by the end of the month. If I don't get in I plan on running the trail to the top on race day to watch everyone hit that wall in the road at the end. My wife and I have family that live about 20 minutes from the start so we'll plan on going for a little vacation.