After over 2 months off...

Before today, the last time I ran was May 6 with my son in his first 5k, The Bearwallow Beast. And before that was April 21st at the Smokey Mountain Relay. I had intended to take a little time off of running after the Relay because I started to feel all those little warning signs of injury. Plus, I had caught the the Cycling Bug, more specifically, the cyclo-cross bug.  I have been really enjoying my time on the bike, but I just don't feel I have enough time to maintain the level of bike fitness, as well as over-all fitness, that I'd like to. As I continue to get better on the bike I feel that my over-all fitness has suffered a little and that's why I decided to add running back into my routine. I've been able to do some pretty long rides without much difficulty and want to improve on that, but the amount of time it takes on a bike is just far more than what it takes with running.
Anyway, this morning I expected to have a good run since I had been cycling, but man, that 5 miles in 45:00 was hell!! Rude awakening, but probably should not have expected to feel comfortable at all.

Nonetheless, I'm pretty jazzed about adding running to my new found love of cycling.

Snow Fell

Some VerticALE Mile photos

VerticALE quick wrap up

All I can say is watch out Slim...

You don't tug on Superman's cape

You don't spit in the wind

You don't pull the mask off a ole' Lone Ranger

And you don't mess around with Tim.

Yeah, Tim went 11:58 followed by

John at 12:48,

Adam 14:12,

Clay 14:26,

Brandon 16:00

All on a 663' mile with the last quarter (run with 48 oz of PBR in our bellies) being a 253' fell climb in the dense fog - absolutely perfect for this fun run!

Our top 5's total time was 1:09:24!!

I would say, for myself, I had a great day of running and a poor day of drinking. My friend Brian summed it up as he was video taping us on the last quarter, he said to me "You have not properly trained for this Rick - far too much running and not enough drinking."

I can say that this is HARD. I can run hills and I can chug a beer, but I cannot BURP! This is the key folks, if your body won't burp immediately, it's tough to get the beers down. I went 18:54, spending 9:15 drinking and 9:39 running!

Great time with even better people - photos and video to follow.

The 1st Annual VerticALE Mile

My fellow WNC Runners are going to get together next weekend to hopefully start an annual tradition, the VerticALE Mile.

Yea, we nicked this from Nick, but what can I say, it's a great idea.

Won't be surprised if this guy goes close to 12:00 on this 650' mile.

It will be hard to wait a full year for the next one so I'm sure we'll do a few practice runs throughout the year. Hope to see a lot of you out there next weekend!!

8 Day Week 52 - 9,300' (609,200')

358 - 0'

359 - 3,200' - Little Pisgah w/ an extra 1,000' rep.

360 - 0'

361 - 0'

362 - 1,000' - Roads

363 - 1,300' - Mountains to Sea Trail

364 - 1,800' - Bear Wallow x 3

365 - 2,000' - Early morning Driveway reps x 10.

Week 51 - 6,000' (599,900')

351 - 2,000' - Driveway Reps x 10
352 - 0' - sick
353 - 0' - sick
354 - 0' - sick
355 - 0' - sick
356 - 2,200' sick of being sick - DW Reps x 11
357 - 1,800' Bear Wallow x 3

Week 50 - 12,600' (593,900')

Last week I listed the week as "Week 50", but realized this morning that this is Week 50! Went back and looked and saw that I mis-typed back on week 36. That's like finding some money in my pocket! With 2 weeks left in the year I'm just 6,100' away from 600,000.

344 - 2,000' - Driveway Reps x 10 - moderate effort.
345 - 0'
346 - 2,200' - Little Pisgah.
347 - 2,800' - Shut-In.
348 - 2,400' - Bear Wallow x 4 - moderate effort.
349 - 2,200' - Back Roads.
350 - 1,000' - Roads.

Nice and easy up Little Pisgah

It's going to be a while before I get sick of this climb.

2,200' and pick your path for a number of different ascents between 4&5 miles.

Then enjoy a fun descent.

Nice little place here just 100 meters from the trail head.

Week 50 - 11,200' (581,300')

344 - 1,600' - Driveway Reps x 8 - moderate.

345 - 0'

346 - 3,000' - Bearwallow x 5 with 4 x 1 mile reps.

347 - 1,000' - Roads

348 - 2,400' Driveway reps x 12 with middle 6 hard. 2:45, :48, :43, :43, :44, :27.

349 - 2,200' - Little Pisgah

350 - 1,000' - Roads. Did 3 flat 1/4'ers during this run - 1:25, 1:20, 1:20.

My new favorite hill - Golden Brown with a touch of grey.

Mile Reps

Did a few mile reps on a 650' hill the other day. Love this kind of weather and running through the fog!

A friend sent me this photo - cracked me up!

Week 49 - 9,900' (570,100')

Nice view this morning from the top. Had a large double Jesus, chased down with a shot of Zen while I was up here.

From here you can choose the shortest distance between 2 points, in this case 476' in .22, or continue on the gravel for another .9. My endurance fitness is down a little so I went with the .22.

Close call around the 2:00 mark here.

337 - 0'

338 - 0'

339 - 2,400' - Driveway Reps x 12.

340 - 1,000' - Roads.

341 - 2,500 - Hickory Nut Gorge/Little Pisgah Trails.

342 - 1,800'- Bearwallow x 3.

343 - 2,200' - Little Pisgah to the Summit this time!

New Pitchell FKT by Mark Lundblad

Great "race" report here.

Read this just after listening to Lucho on EP answering the question about demons ;-)

This is an amazing course that Adam Hill came up with - hoping Mark's run will lead to more FKT attempts.

Some video experimenting

Wow! Just watched these after I posted them and they are far too pixel-ly. Nothing much to see here, really.

Headed over to Little Pisgah this morning, but didn't do enough prep on the route and ended up just running up, down and around for a while for about 2,500' of vert. I guess I thought the route to the top was going to be real easy to follow, but about 1.25 miles in I suddenly had 4 different colored trail markers to follow - white, blue, yellow and red. This area can be like the Bermuda Triangle sometimes, so with the heavy fog and my lack of clothing I decided not to take any risks and just stick to where I was comfortable finding my way back. In the meantime, I decided to see how awful I was at video. This takes a good amount of practice! The first thing I need to do is SLOW DOWN!!! I think I get a little side tracked with the camera and scenery and forget about what I'm actually running up. Anyway, the next available clear day I have to run I will certainly be heading to the summit of Little Pisgah with a little better filming.

Week 48 - 8,400' (560,200')

330 - 0'

331 - 0'

332 - 2,200' - Roads

333 - 2,100' - Mountains to Sea Trail

334 - 1,800' - Bear Wallow x 3

335 - 2,300' - Turkey Quarters on Bear Wallow - see previous post

336 - 0'

Not a whole lot has changed with the knee. Took 3 full days off and it felt even worse. Monday's run, day 332, was awful, then the next 3 days my knee felt great. Seems pretty simple at this point - the knee feels better when I run, so that's what I'll do. At my age I should expect some aches and pains that come with the pounding of trail/mountain running.

8 Turkey Quarters w/225' each

Windy Wallow

Shakin' the legs out this morning on Bear Wallow listening to the sweet sound of what was in my face on the climb.

Week 47 - 11,100' (551,800')

323 - 2,000' - Driveway reps - easy.

324 - 0'

325 - 2,300' - Back Roads

326 - 1,000' - Roads

327 - 2,200' - Driveway reps x 11 with 2 easy, 7 hard, 2 easy.

328 - 3,600 - Bear Wallow x 6 nice and easy.

329 - 0' - Plan to take this day off as well as Sat and Sun. Knee feels great for some reason, but I know that a little break won't hurt anything so this is a good weekend for that.

Runner's knee

I think I may have a case of runner's knee. My knee is at its best while I am running and at its worst a few hours after runs and sitting. Some mornings its achy and stiff as well; a little sweeling, stiffness and all around achiness. It's my right knee(the good one) and the pain is on the inside part that's closest to my left knee, mostly felt on that bone that sticks out there. I've done a little research on WebMD and have realized this could be caused by shoes. It was about 2 years ago that I had a hip problem that was corrected with some insoles. Any suggestions out there on treating the symptoms as well as eliminating the injury? My knee feels the best while climbing so I am still a happy camper!

Week 46 - 10,700' (540,700')

316 - 1,700' at Sleepy Gap

317 - 0'

318 - 3,300' on Shut-In

319 - 1,300' Mountains to Sea Trail

320 - 0' - Was hoping to make THIS RUN with Mad A and Mike, but for sure next time. Love the fell runnin' portion of this one guys! Shirtless in Nov. no less.

321 - 2,000' on Driveway reps

322 - 2,400' Bear Wallow x 4. Temps in the 20's with high winds, but skies were clear with some great views. Saw my first icicles of the season.