I've been thinking a lot about my up coming race plans and wishes for next year and beyond. What I want to do is complete all of the ultras in the state of Virginia, and most all in the mid-atlantic. Since the calendar is continually growing it is a good tough goal. The following is the schedule as far as I can see and includes what I have done so far: By month; Race, previous placing
January:
VHTRC-SLUG Red Eye FA 50k- (3rd, 4th )
Swinging Bridge 50k (9th)
February:
T.W.O.T- (finished one loop- want 4 someday)
Holiday Lake 50K++ (51st)
Reverse Ring 71 miler (2nd)
March:
Catawba Run Around - (6th, 10th)
Fairfax County 50K (?)
Elizabeth Furnace FA 50K (3rd)
Bel Monte 50mile (4th)
Chocolate Bunny 50k (?)
April:
Bull Run Run 50 (4th, 8th, 37th, 204th)
Promise Land 50k (16th)
24hr Adventure Trail Run (?)
May:
MMT 100 (2nd, 5th, 19th)
June:
Old Dominion 100 (?)
July:
Catherine's Furnace 50K (10th, 10th, 45th)
August:
*Anything here?????
September:
Odyssey 40- (2nd)
GEER 100k (13th)
MMT Ring 71- (4th)
October:
Iron Mountain 50 Mile- (?)
Potomac Heritage 50K (15th)
Andiamo 45 -(5th)
Grindstone 100 Mile- (2009)
New River Trail 50K (?)
November:
MMTR 50- (7th, 39th,80th)
December:
Hellgate 100k- (35th)
Magnus Gluteus Maximus 50K- (1st, 14th)
Boyers Furnace 40 (1st)
So basically I have a few more (of 28 total) Virginia ultras to complete. With hopes of checking a few more off in 2009.
Some Other East Coast Classics I want to do/ Have done:
North Carolina:
Uwharrie 40 (21st)
Mt Mitchell 40 (22nd)
Umstead 50 (6th)
Maryland:
JFK 50 mile (5th, 65th, 185th)
Catoctin 50K (6th, 29th)
Greenway Trail 50K (12th)
HAT 50K -(?)
West Virginia:
Capon Valley 50K (?)
Rattlesnake 50K (?)
Big Schloss 50K (swept in 04, run in 09?)
Highland Sky 40 (?)
Cheat mt Moonlight 50 mile (2009?)
Wow, I've got to get busy! But, I very much look forward to going to and experiencing new races. Here's to a good ultra season
Showing posts with label Race schedule. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Race schedule. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Sunday, November 18, 2007
JFK- 7:50
Saturday- JFK 50miles- 7:50
Well the day started off nice and crisp with frost all over and never seemed to warm up much. I felt tight and anxious as I jogged to the starting line in boonsboro, MD yesterday. I chatted with some folks in my VHTRC club and then ran on up to the line with Ultra studs and Montrail teammates Ian Torrence and Mark Godale. My thoughts went back to 2001 when I last raced this event and was on a totally different level. I hoped I would run close to what I did that day and knew I was in 6:45-7:10 shape based on my recent workouts and races.
A pretty well accepted conversion is to take your marathon time, double it, then add an hour to get a 50 mile time. Having run 3:01 three weeks ago, having had experience on this course, and knowing that a 7:00 time will place top 20 in this 1200 runner field I confidently started the race off in the front pack.
After the first two road miles passed in 15:08 I found myself in the top 20 with all the expected contenders ahead or next to me including fellow blogger Greg Crowther, MMTR 1st & 2nd placers (Eric Grossman), USA 50 mile road champ (Mark Lundblad), course record holder and legend Eric Clifton who at age 49 can still really move, and Montrail teammate Sean Meissner. And just besides me talking about trying to see if he could run top three and earn an entry into next June's Western States 100 via the Montrail Ultracup was none-other-than Mike Wardian. This guy is full of surprises and fresh of a 2:24:16 win in the OBX marathon (Nov 11th) here he was a "speedy road specialist" taking his time getting in to the racing apparently unconcerned with what Godale and the others were doing off the front. I thought hhmmmm he is probably going to win this thing. My previous thought to seeing this behavior was that he'd rip off the front.... lead for 30 miles and fade/drop out. Nope! Mike went on to run 5:50 which is the 2nd fastest time in the races 40+ year history! Wow!
Feeling great 9 miles in
After getting to the trail head I relaxed, kept my breathing in check and began to real off the rolling rocky miles of the AT with Leo Lutz with occasional passes back and forth with Clifton, Sean, and the western states course record holder Mike Morton who has just been getting back into the running this last year.
Although I had a plan of eating cliff shots and blocks every 30 minutes this didn't happen and hindsight says this played a role in the total muscular give out I started going through at mile 23.
At Weaverton Sean, Leo and I
I came off the AT with Eric, Sean and Leo and managed to set foot on the towpath at the 2:12 mark feeling ready to roll. This was 12 minutes of my split from the 2001 race, but certainly good enough to get me the sub 7:00 I wanted. I began eating up the miles with Eric running splits in the 7:30-7:45 range. This was exactly what I had planned to do, but, around the 3 hour mark my left hip-flexor pretty much went out and this pace was no longer possible. With a slow degrade by mile 26 I had been passed by a number of individuals including women's race winner Anne Lundblad. I was then forced into a run 5 minutes walk one minute pattern. I tried to stretch it out as much as I could and mess with my stride so I was not flexing as much, but it still sucked.
At 38 Miles, nutrition was very important. Note my Pup Oskar
I maintained this pattern doing 10-12 minute miles from mile 27-40. UGH!!! Not what I wanted and mentally I had to battle a lot with the desire to just give in an drop out where my crew awaited me at mile 38. I started focusing only on getting to the next aid station and that helped. By mile 38 ( 5:56 into the race) I was starting to feel better (as I had been really forcing the calories) and decided to press on. Soon enough I could see the damn and knew the towpath would end soon. Striding over the "9 miles to go" sign I was now able to run steady for more than 5 minutes at a stretch and refocused on breaking the 8 hour barrier. If I did 10 minute miles I would finsih in 8:00:28. I thought I could do it. Leaving the towpath at 6:35 into the race I realized my 26.3 towpath marathon split was a 4:23. Wow that is a full 68 minutes slower than the last time I raced here! WOW.
I put my head down and began to cover most of the remaining miles at under 9:00 pace with stops for aid and walking some of the bigger hills adding in. The miles rolled by and with my Wife and Dad cheering me on at the 4 miles to go point I knew I had it. Only on the road section did I reverse the trend of being passed and actually begin to reel in some other runners. As I approached the finish I was happy to have gotten myself back in the game, but a bit disappointed my body let me down. With all the training you just want it all to be super and feel great the whole time, but that happens very infrequently.
Happy at the Finish!!!
Others say I have too high of expectations for myself and that at 33 my glory days may be passed but I am certain this is not so. I just need to realize I can't recover like I used to and should have known that the MCM effort I put out 3 weeks ago was going to affect me more. I trained very hard in the time between that race and this one and should not have. My hip flexor and hamstring were bothering me almost every day.
It has been an odd pattern since 1999-2001 when I was racing well. I still go to as many races but I put out a higher effort level now than I did then in the majority of the races when you look at percentage of maximum capacity. In those peek years I did not race all out in 80% of the races I ran in. I was just in good enough shape that I could take it relatively easy and still place well. I often would just relax and run with the lead women rather than battling for the win. Since that time with fitness declines due to work/life/injuries/deployments/ect. I have wanted to be racing up front so badly that when I do enter a race I tend to put out a much higher effort level in each and every one. This obviously makes it harder to come back and race hard again. If I had run MCM at a reduced effort I am sure JFK would have gone better. I need to pick and choose better and realize I can't give a full bore race effort in such a shortened time span.
So I will continue to run ultra races and marathons frequently as I enjoy them, but will cut down on the ones I really go after it in. Next up for enjoyment- Hell gate 100k.
The story of the day though, was definately my puppy Oskar and his entertaining of all the crews
Well the day started off nice and crisp with frost all over and never seemed to warm up much. I felt tight and anxious as I jogged to the starting line in boonsboro, MD yesterday. I chatted with some folks in my VHTRC club and then ran on up to the line with Ultra studs and Montrail teammates Ian Torrence and Mark Godale. My thoughts went back to 2001 when I last raced this event and was on a totally different level. I hoped I would run close to what I did that day and knew I was in 6:45-7:10 shape based on my recent workouts and races.
A pretty well accepted conversion is to take your marathon time, double it, then add an hour to get a 50 mile time. Having run 3:01 three weeks ago, having had experience on this course, and knowing that a 7:00 time will place top 20 in this 1200 runner field I confidently started the race off in the front pack.
After the first two road miles passed in 15:08 I found myself in the top 20 with all the expected contenders ahead or next to me including fellow blogger Greg Crowther, MMTR 1st & 2nd placers (Eric Grossman), USA 50 mile road champ (Mark Lundblad), course record holder and legend Eric Clifton who at age 49 can still really move, and Montrail teammate Sean Meissner. And just besides me talking about trying to see if he could run top three and earn an entry into next June's Western States 100 via the Montrail Ultracup was none-other-than Mike Wardian. This guy is full of surprises and fresh of a 2:24:16 win in the OBX marathon (Nov 11th) here he was a "speedy road specialist" taking his time getting in to the racing apparently unconcerned with what Godale and the others were doing off the front. I thought hhmmmm he is probably going to win this thing. My previous thought to seeing this behavior was that he'd rip off the front.... lead for 30 miles and fade/drop out. Nope! Mike went on to run 5:50 which is the 2nd fastest time in the races 40+ year history! Wow!
Feeling great 9 miles inAfter getting to the trail head I relaxed, kept my breathing in check and began to real off the rolling rocky miles of the AT with Leo Lutz with occasional passes back and forth with Clifton, Sean, and the western states course record holder Mike Morton who has just been getting back into the running this last year.
Although I had a plan of eating cliff shots and blocks every 30 minutes this didn't happen and hindsight says this played a role in the total muscular give out I started going through at mile 23.
At Weaverton Sean, Leo and II came off the AT with Eric, Sean and Leo and managed to set foot on the towpath at the 2:12 mark feeling ready to roll. This was 12 minutes of my split from the 2001 race, but certainly good enough to get me the sub 7:00 I wanted. I began eating up the miles with Eric running splits in the 7:30-7:45 range. This was exactly what I had planned to do, but, around the 3 hour mark my left hip-flexor pretty much went out and this pace was no longer possible. With a slow degrade by mile 26 I had been passed by a number of individuals including women's race winner Anne Lundblad. I was then forced into a run 5 minutes walk one minute pattern. I tried to stretch it out as much as I could and mess with my stride so I was not flexing as much, but it still sucked.
At 38 Miles, nutrition was very important. Note my Pup OskarI maintained this pattern doing 10-12 minute miles from mile 27-40. UGH!!! Not what I wanted and mentally I had to battle a lot with the desire to just give in an drop out where my crew awaited me at mile 38. I started focusing only on getting to the next aid station and that helped. By mile 38 ( 5:56 into the race) I was starting to feel better (as I had been really forcing the calories) and decided to press on. Soon enough I could see the damn and knew the towpath would end soon. Striding over the "9 miles to go" sign I was now able to run steady for more than 5 minutes at a stretch and refocused on breaking the 8 hour barrier. If I did 10 minute miles I would finsih in 8:00:28. I thought I could do it. Leaving the towpath at 6:35 into the race I realized my 26.3 towpath marathon split was a 4:23. Wow that is a full 68 minutes slower than the last time I raced here! WOW.
I put my head down and began to cover most of the remaining miles at under 9:00 pace with stops for aid and walking some of the bigger hills adding in. The miles rolled by and with my Wife and Dad cheering me on at the 4 miles to go point I knew I had it. Only on the road section did I reverse the trend of being passed and actually begin to reel in some other runners. As I approached the finish I was happy to have gotten myself back in the game, but a bit disappointed my body let me down. With all the training you just want it all to be super and feel great the whole time, but that happens very infrequently.
Happy at the Finish!!! Others say I have too high of expectations for myself and that at 33 my glory days may be passed but I am certain this is not so. I just need to realize I can't recover like I used to and should have known that the MCM effort I put out 3 weeks ago was going to affect me more. I trained very hard in the time between that race and this one and should not have. My hip flexor and hamstring were bothering me almost every day.
It has been an odd pattern since 1999-2001 when I was racing well. I still go to as many races but I put out a higher effort level now than I did then in the majority of the races when you look at percentage of maximum capacity. In those peek years I did not race all out in 80% of the races I ran in. I was just in good enough shape that I could take it relatively easy and still place well. I often would just relax and run with the lead women rather than battling for the win. Since that time with fitness declines due to work/life/injuries/deployments/ect. I have wanted to be racing up front so badly that when I do enter a race I tend to put out a much higher effort level in each and every one. This obviously makes it harder to come back and race hard again. If I had run MCM at a reduced effort I am sure JFK would have gone better. I need to pick and choose better and realize I can't give a full bore race effort in such a shortened time span.
So I will continue to run ultra races and marathons frequently as I enjoy them, but will cut down on the ones I really go after it in. Next up for enjoyment- Hell gate 100k.
The story of the day though, was definately my puppy Oskar and his entertaining of all the crews
Sunday, September 30, 2007
G.E.E.R 100K Racing AGAIN!!!
After running the Odyssey 40 miler last weekend with its 9,oooft of climb and recovering pretty well, I decided last minute to go ahead and run the Great Eastern Endurance Run (GEER)100K this weekend as a way of getting a super endurance beat down to build from. I thus am abandoning my original plan to run the Towpath marathon (Oct 7th) in Ohio after spending next week in Chicago. I'm driving home Friday afternoon/eve and not waiting around in Ohio Saturday for a Sunday race...no need to be away from home if I don't need too! After a year away, I am not eager to be away much anymore.
After last Saturday's 40 miler I took two days off to rest up and felt pretty good the rest of the week doing 9,8, and 6 milers on Tues, Wed , Thurs...decided I would go to GEER, took Friday off and managed the TOUGH 62 miles with nearly 16,000ft of climb in 14:03. Good enough for a top 15 finish out of 80 entrants.
The 100K was absolutely beautiful. we ran along the blue ridge mountains with views of Charlottesville, the Priest Mountain. We ran on all kinds of surfaces: 5miles blacktop, miles of crushed stone roads, dirt road, jeep trail, and miles and miles of rocky/rooty/and even some soft pine needle smooth trail. All on one of the best marked courses I have ever been on.
All things considered it was a very good weekend despite getting up at 3am..driving 2 hours...running for 45min in the dark with no lights(whoops bad planning) running all of the daylight hours, then running for another 45minutes in the dark with my trusty Petzl headlamp and driving 2 hours back home....ugh tired. Best part about the race was the hot Lasagna at the finish line!!!!
I LOVE ultras!!!!!!!!!!
I started out conservatively following others with lights, then bombed down the first big downhill, settled in after a pit stop of trail and ran with good VHTRC friend and eventual women's 100k Champion, Michele Harmon, from mile 19 to 39. We then went back and forth with each other as we both took good spells and bad patches at different times. She pulled away from me on the climb from mile 51-55. And finished in a great 13:17. Congrats!
I made one big mistake... I ran miles 40-47 in 61 minutes. It was downhill, shaded and cooler, and beautiful...what can I say I fired up and trying to gain some time back after a long uphill climb. I simply over-ran, fell behind in caloric intake, and then bonked at mile 49 big time. I could not climb back out of it until mile 56. And even then I never returned to the good feeling I had enjoyed the first 8 hours of the day.
Another SOLID stomach run with NUUN and clif shot blocks doing the trick all day with some nibbling off the aid station tables as well. Gorgeous weather with temps 55-80-60 and sunny.
Now I have very clear plans for my JFK prep. Rest! With no long runs the next 4 weeks, but some quality marathon pace tempos set up I hope to run the Marine Corps Marathon On Oct 28th in the 2:50's.
In the running world news, congrats to Scott Jurek on defending his Spartathon 153 mile race title in sub 24 hours! And to Mark Godale on finishing 16th in 30 hours. And to the little Ethiopian hero Haile G on setting the marathon world record!!!!!! Amazingly at age 34.
After last Saturday's 40 miler I took two days off to rest up and felt pretty good the rest of the week doing 9,8, and 6 milers on Tues, Wed , Thurs...decided I would go to GEER, took Friday off and managed the TOUGH 62 miles with nearly 16,000ft of climb in 14:03. Good enough for a top 15 finish out of 80 entrants.
The 100K was absolutely beautiful. we ran along the blue ridge mountains with views of Charlottesville, the Priest Mountain. We ran on all kinds of surfaces: 5miles blacktop, miles of crushed stone roads, dirt road, jeep trail, and miles and miles of rocky/rooty/and even some soft pine needle smooth trail. All on one of the best marked courses I have ever been on.
All things considered it was a very good weekend despite getting up at 3am..driving 2 hours...running for 45min in the dark with no lights(whoops bad planning) running all of the daylight hours, then running for another 45minutes in the dark with my trusty Petzl headlamp and driving 2 hours back home....ugh tired. Best part about the race was the hot Lasagna at the finish line!!!!
I LOVE ultras!!!!!!!!!!
I started out conservatively following others with lights, then bombed down the first big downhill, settled in after a pit stop of trail and ran with good VHTRC friend and eventual women's 100k Champion, Michele Harmon, from mile 19 to 39. We then went back and forth with each other as we both took good spells and bad patches at different times. She pulled away from me on the climb from mile 51-55. And finished in a great 13:17. Congrats!
I made one big mistake... I ran miles 40-47 in 61 minutes. It was downhill, shaded and cooler, and beautiful...what can I say I fired up and trying to gain some time back after a long uphill climb. I simply over-ran, fell behind in caloric intake, and then bonked at mile 49 big time. I could not climb back out of it until mile 56. And even then I never returned to the good feeling I had enjoyed the first 8 hours of the day.
Another SOLID stomach run with NUUN and clif shot blocks doing the trick all day with some nibbling off the aid station tables as well. Gorgeous weather with temps 55-80-60 and sunny.
Now I have very clear plans for my JFK prep. Rest! With no long runs the next 4 weeks, but some quality marathon pace tempos set up I hope to run the Marine Corps Marathon On Oct 28th in the 2:50's.
In the running world news, congrats to Scott Jurek on defending his Spartathon 153 mile race title in sub 24 hours! And to Mark Godale on finishing 16th in 30 hours. And to the little Ethiopian hero Haile G on setting the marathon world record!!!!!! Amazingly at age 34.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
My boys
Well my boys are trying to get along. Look, we got them to pose together!!!!!
Puppy parenting continues to be fun....and challenging.
Running is coming along:
Monday- 10 miles- 82min
Tuesday- off
Wednesday- 19 miles- 3hrs (16 running- 3 walking cool down)
I know I need to do more of these steady longish runs. 90min-2 hours+ really works well for me when done on a regular basis. I need to get my yoga routine going again too. At least I am doing regular pull ups and back kayaking again. I already have shed some weight and am feeling fitter. Some races coming up soon:
Sept 22-Odyssey 40- as kind of an aided training run
Oct 7th- Towpath marathon- as a fitness test
Oct 28th- Marine Corps marathon- for a new PR???
Nov 17th- JFK 50mile- please please let me be fit enough to break 7hrs again!!!
Dec 8th-Hellgate 100K- for an experience
I will be off to Chicago to begin my prosthetics program for a 4 day mini-course at the beginning of October. Really looking forward to getting that rolling.
Great article today in the Washington Post on the new Amputee center being dedicated today at Walter Reed. Money well spent!
Monday, March 12, 2007
Schedule Changes
With the recent news that the Tussey mtn 50 race, which is serving as the USATF 50 mile road national championships, has moved its date to the 22nd of September, my fall racing plans are now greatly changed.
Since I have set the following goals for the fall: 1)Run a 50 mile PR, 2) Run a strong road marathon, 3) Be competitive in a USATF and/or Montrail Ultracup event. I think my new schedule is much more conducive to this.
I will kick the fall off with some running in my old stomping grounds of upstate NY. I hope to run in the Virgil mtn 30k in August and come back to Ithaca for a strong showing for my own pride at the Ithaca College Alumni XC 5k on Labor Day weekend. The same weekend I want to get on the Finger lakes trail for a strong run at the Monster marathon.
My best racing will hopefully take place in a 6 week period starting with the Tussey 50 in Sept. Then continue at the Baltimore marathon 3 weeks later and finishing up another 3 weeks later at the November 3rd Mountain Masochist 50 (an infamous 53-54 Horton mile event). I'll get to test myself against the best trail Ultrarunners in that one as it is a Montrail Ultra Cup event and a qualifyer for the Western States 100 in 2008.
If my body holds up I'll close out the year with a run at the 100K distance by competing in the crazy 12:01AM starting Hellgate 100K in my beloved Virginia mountains December 8th.
Since I have set the following goals for the fall: 1)Run a 50 mile PR, 2) Run a strong road marathon, 3) Be competitive in a USATF and/or Montrail Ultracup event. I think my new schedule is much more conducive to this.
I will kick the fall off with some running in my old stomping grounds of upstate NY. I hope to run in the Virgil mtn 30k in August and come back to Ithaca for a strong showing for my own pride at the Ithaca College Alumni XC 5k on Labor Day weekend. The same weekend I want to get on the Finger lakes trail for a strong run at the Monster marathon.
My best racing will hopefully take place in a 6 week period starting with the Tussey 50 in Sept. Then continue at the Baltimore marathon 3 weeks later and finishing up another 3 weeks later at the November 3rd Mountain Masochist 50 (an infamous 53-54 Horton mile event). I'll get to test myself against the best trail Ultrarunners in that one as it is a Montrail Ultra Cup event and a qualifyer for the Western States 100 in 2008.
If my body holds up I'll close out the year with a run at the 100K distance by competing in the crazy 12:01AM starting Hellgate 100K in my beloved Virginia mountains December 8th.
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