Saturday, January 24, 2009

week 3

Time to get serious....I guess. Massanutten is really not that far off now. I have started to focus more and although not 100% focused in terms of trying to train to be able to race top ten. I have begun to bring SOME intensity back into the routine. This week was a bit wild with a 22 mile day midweek due to the inauguration metro/road craziness. I avoided it all by getting up at 4:30am eating breakfast then running the 11 miles into work. Worked a full day (7am-4pm) and then ran home another 11. Damn cold that day too. I have no idea how 2 million endured that wind chill. BURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

I have put in 5 days a week or running the last 4 weeks and am feeling good.

Sunday- 25 miles- 6:32-MMT course Garmin data here
Mon- off
Tuesday- 11 miles am, 11 miles pm
Wed- off
Thursday- 11 miles with 2 x 6:30
Friday- 4 miles
Saturday- 18 miles with Anne

80 total on 6 runs / 5 days

Monday, January 19, 2009

Week 2

Sun- 5miles on TM walking 9% grade
Mon- 4miles AM, 11 miles pm
Tues- 4miles on TM walking 9% grade
Wed- 4miles AM, 11 Miles PM
Thurs & Friday- off
Sat- 15 miles easy w/ Anne

45 miles run 9 miles walk- pretty cheesy week, but good stuff. I am recovering and ready for a big week 3.

sun- 25 miles on MMT 100 course in 6:35 with my buddy Sophie. Tuesday looks to be a fun 11 mile AM 11 mile pm commute run due to the city being shut down. Should be fun.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

GEER 100K

40% loss in your 401k got you down??? Here is a great pick me up. Russell and Frannie of the Charlottesville Running Co fame will be allowing the first 100 entrants into the 2009 GEER 100k to pay only 1/2 of the normal race entre fee. Thats right....you heard me. Pay only half price to enter a SUPERB race and get all the same treatment, shwag, ect....just pay 60 some dollars less. Entre opens Feb 2nd.

Here's to hoping the race has better temperatures than today does! burrrrrrrrrrrr

Sunday, January 11, 2009

The first week is history

Sunday 40 miles - 9:14 at Boyer's Furnace FA
Mon & Tues- off
wed- 3 miles walking 8% grade
Thurs- 4 am, 11 pm
Friday 4 am 4 pm
Sat- 8 miles with Anne

Time continues to roll on by with one solid 74 mile week in the books for 2009. My first long run in several weeks went very well for me with no issues or aches. Even my healing left ankle held up fine. However, some others did not fair quite so well. Check out the VHTRC page for the low-down here. This is the event I put on each year for the VHTRC. It started in 2006 when I wanted to run in the mountains with friends while home from my deployment and has grown into an annual event. This year I toned back the formality of it and actually ran the thing myself. Basically all I do is mark the course and set out aid ahead of time and then guide a group of like minded individuals around fort valley. Most are trying to train up for the MMT 100 of some similar event. It has been a lot of fun and the bon fire at the finish really puts a nice cap on a long day.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

2008 in numbers

366 days in a fine leap/Olympic/ Election year

211 Days my lazy self got out for some miles either running or walking

18 days I got out twice in one day

229 workouts- 217 Runs - 35 walks

2425 total miles for the year
2390 Miles running
35 miles walking

6.6 miles per day
11.5 miles per day my lazy self got OUT for something

11.01 miles per run in 2008

2.92 miles per walk in 2008

History:

1988-1163
1989-1592
1990-1749
1991-1761
1992-1857
1993-1317
1994-2121
1995-2207
1996-2056
1997-2233
1998-2803
1999-2067
2000-2787
2001-2986
2002-2551
2003-1681
2004-1753
2005-1901
2006-2490
2007-2772
2008-2425

My life time miles is now over 45,000

Thursday, January 1, 2009

2008 a fine year

Well that's it for 2008! Another year rolls on by. Don't they go fast. 2008 saw me graduate with a graduate certificate in prosthetics from Northwestern Univ and begin a slightly different career path in prosthetics only to return to physical therapy when the economy started tanking.

The shift back to PT has been a good one and I am very pleased with my outpatient PT work in Vienna where I have seen patients from age 7 up to 89. I have helped folks heal and rehab everything from toes to brain injuries. Perhaps the best part about the job is that it has a shower in the facility and is located less then one mile access from the W & OD trail.

My commute has evolved into a good routine of the following:
1.2 mile run to the metro, 15 minute ride to vienna station, 3 mile run to work in the morning
and I either repeat this in the afternoon, or if feeling tough I run the entire 10.75 miles home.
so I get in at least 8 and some days 15 miles. My aim as the MMT 100 approaches is to increase the number of times I run the long way home to 4 per week. It'll save me money as well!

weekends I plan on running the local Potomac heritage trail to get some quality rock running time in. and 1-2 times a month I will make the trek out to the MMT course for some actual miles on THOSE rocks. My planned long runs look like this:

Jan 4- Boyers Furnace 40 miler- encircling the fort valley with a bunch of friends
Jan 17-18- at least 26 tough miles on the MMT course
Feb 7th- 26 or 52 miles of the Wild Oak Trail
Feb 21- 71 miles -I want to actually complete the reverse ring this year to join the elite group of Masters of the ring.
March 14- EFA 50k on MMT trails
March 28th- Bel Monte 50k or 50 mile
April 11- chocolate Bunny 50k- on MMT course (a night run)

with this line up and the increased weekly mileage I should be rounding into good form by May.

As for the blog...I plan to return to regular weekly posts to update my training mileage. And yes. the more I run the more I tend to blog!

2008 wrapped up for me as my 7th best year of running in terms of mileage (2425 miles total) but most prolific with 20 races, of which one was a road marathon, 14 were ultras, and one of those was my first ROAD ultra. Here's to a great 2009!