Week 8

37 miles - on 3 runs

Sunday- Wednesday- off... quads SORE, legs dead
Thursday- 11 miles PM- wow, quads still SORE!
Friday- 4 miles
Saturday- 22 miles with Anne in her last prep run for the National Marathon

A recovery week, with legs feeling okay early on until I ran on them Thursday. Wow that hurt. I had to stop and walk frequently. I did manage to make it through the long run Saturday touring the mt Vernon trail with Anne.

I hope to get the mileage back up for Week 9.

Miles January- 273, February- 263

Week 6

Sunday- 10- miles on Potomac heritage trail
Monday- off
Tuesday- 4 miles
Wednesday- 4 miles AM
11 Miles PM- with 3xmile 6:25, 5:56, 5:41
Thursday- 5 miles
Friday- 4 miles
Saturday- 20 miles with Anne

Some good trail and my first speed workout of the year after last weeks tempo run. Things are coming around. I took it real easy this week baby-ing my Achilles after the Sunday trail run in the mud really flared them up.

Long runs for the year of 18, 20, 20, 21, 26, 40 with a REAL biggy coming next week when I attempt the Massanutten Reverse Ring 71 miler. wish me luck

Week 5

Solid...not super, but solid 65 miles

Sunday- off
Monday- 4 miles Am, 11 milesPM
Tuesday- off
Wednesday- 4 miles Am, 11 miles PM- tempo last 8 miles sub 7:00
Thursday- 11 miles
Friday- 4 Miles
Saturday- 20 miles- 3:21 with Anne

Reverse Ring 71 miler is now just 2 weeks off

week 4

Crappy weather for most of the week. DC area is not prepared for snow/ice like upstate NY. For sure! Wednesday I actually ran in and out to work wearing my yak tracks. I was the only employee to get to work on time. In fact I beat everyone else in by 2 hours. I actually ran right down the street in the yak tracks in a few places. Sidewalks are still glare ice even now in shady areas where the sun can't reach. Saturday I went to Charlottesville for a run with fellow VHTRC ultrarunners around the Rivanna ring trail. My garmin read 20.7 miles for the loop (data here) Although I planned a double loop, but the legs felt trashed and I called it a day after the first 4 hour loop.

January turned into a decent month with 273 miles.

This week was pretty weak due to the weather: (correction I am WEAK)
sun, Tues, Thursday- off

Monday- 4 miles am, 11 miles pm
Wednesday- 4 miles am, 4 miles pm
Friday- 4 am, 4 pm
saturday- 20.7 miles

Lets hope for a better week next.

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

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!

Time to Throw Down

Week 2 post Hardrock
3 runs = 29 miles 1 easy, 1 speed, 1 moderate

Now, feeling recovered and well motivated it is time to start throwing it down. I hope to put in more miles in the month of August than I have ever done in one month. My current record is 380 miles from June of 1998 (last 11 years monthly mileage seen here) Getting in a 400 mile month would be nice.

For motivation I am using the following:
Mark
Sean
AJW
Barbara

and good VHTRC buddy Sophie

On the personal side, no luck finding a house yet!!!! :-(

Week 7

Solid week: 63 miles- 9 runs, 1 tempo, 1 stair workout

Sunday- off
Monday- 7- easy
Tuesday- 7 AM, 7 PM - into head wind 44:02!!!!
Wednesday- 7AM, 7PM- sore calves
Thursday- 7 easy -
Friday- 7 easy following 6 sets x 18 floors stairs
Saturday- 7AM, 7 PM

Feeling okay, a bit overwhelmed.....settling in for a stretch of 5 tests in 4 days....Lab final, oral exam, practical exam, written lower extremity tests, written final exam..

Evaluate and RATE ME!!!!!!!!!!!

Catawba Run Around

36 miles- 9:53 (9:11 moving time)

The Dragons Tooth

Tinker Cliffs

Joe Clapper scaling the Dragons tooth in 40mph wind gusts and flurries

A great run in less than ideal weather on Saturday in catawba, VA. I got to run around the town on the Appalachian trail and the OLD Appalachian trail before it was rerouted. Very cool run. GPS map and data here!!!

I have been really busy lately so more to write later and pictures of Catawba too.

For now a Mileage update:

January- 210 miles
February- 236 miles

in the first 60 days of 2008 I ran 31 times for an average run of 14 miles per run

Long runs for 2008 are: 22, 31, 31, 34, 36, 38, 41

Keep That average up!!

Thursday- 17 miles- 2:27
Friday- 5 miles 41min last mile 6:20
Sat & Sun- off traveling
Monday- 13 miles- 2:00

I am doing a good job of keeping the average mileage per run up in 2008. About 13 miles per run so far. This is similar to 2001 when I averaged around 4 days of running per week but managed to put in 2,975 miles for the year. (My biggest year ever) Lots of time off for recovery (and life) but I'm making the runs I do get in count.

A few good ones on the treadmill lately... 17 watching Pirates of the Caribbean- worlds end, and 13 today watching an oldy... Jurassic Park. Oooohhhh cloning is futuristic!

Getting pumped for 40 at Uwharrie Saturday

Finally got 25,000

Friday- 5miles- easy TM

Well with November's 227miles I have now finally topped the 25,000 mile mark in the millennium mile challenge. As far as lifetime miles I am at 40,000 now and will get in my 5th year over 2500 miles in 2007.

For me the last 18 months have been consistent and I am finally starting to get fit again. Looking back 2002-2006 was pretty poor with a 36 month stretch in there with almost no months over the 200 mile mark. ugh!

Finding the Dirt

Monday- 8 miles rolling hills 61min
Tuesday- trail exploration 1:18 (7 miles??)

I finally found some good dirt here in Richmond. I got onto some single track along the river and managed to tour around Belle Isle (and took time out to read the interpretive historical signs...1000+ Union soldiers died on the island ((an open air prison)) during the civil war). It was a good run and I have already come up with a way to weave this trail system into a long run from my house. Exciting! You see I am lazy... through and through LAZY. I only run loops or set runs that are convenient. When I lived in San Antonio and found a 3 mile loop in my neighborhood. That is all I ran. and 3 miles felt like a long ways. Yet when I lived in Charlottesville I created a 15 mile loop in town connecting two sets of trails, and also worked out a 10 mile loop in a park. So I ran 10 or 15 most days of the week. Is anyone else this silly??

So now maybe I'll start putting in some real miles. a look at the last few weeks shows some consistently good numbers, but not great:
50, 61, 57, 75, 85, 21 (in Chicago), 68

A big congrats goes out to VHTRC stud Keith Knipling on his Virginia slam finish this weekend

Finished finally!

Tuesday- 9.5 mile with 3 @6:49 pace
Wednesday- 7 miles easy

Well I got the running log conversion project (from paper into an excel spreadsheet) back out and finished it up completely last night.

The log starts in 1984, with daily entries beginning in 1987 and continuing completely since.

Some stats: 42,002 training miles to date (39, 679 miles running 2,323 miles walking)

545 races competed in....

And counting!

more of the same

Tuesday- 6 miles- 45:34
Wednesday Am- 4 miles- 36min
Wednesday PM-7 miles- 63min with Drills and Striders

I heard from one of my Walter Reed former co-workers today...So here is a shout out just in case anyone is reading. I hear the ever revolving door of staff rotations on to greener...no make that sandier pastures, is in effect. (two staff members are off to Iraq)
Who knows perhaps I will find my way back to working WRAMC again in 2008...just not wearing a uniform :-)

I was pleased to feel some lingering soreness in the old legs today. Monday's 8 miles at Lactate Threshold was enough to tear me up a bit. Stress and adapt right? Today was a very boring day in the clinic. Funny how I hate to be busy but I hate NOT to be busy just as much.

So how am I doing with this training thing? Well, since starting the Jack Daniels training plan, I have gotten in the following strong runs at or longer than 90 minutes with 3-8 of the miles at a good pace:
Date- Miles
3/23- 14
4/2-13
4/4-15
4/7-18.5
4/10-15
4/13-16
4/20-21
4/23-16
5/2-12
5/5-40- first LONG run of a planned 3-4
5/9-13.5
5/12-13
5/14-17

My weekly mileage has been fair and consistent for a few months now. Not as high as some would say is needed, but I think the key for me is to continue to do and recover from the hard efforts, more so than pounding out many slow miles.

Weekly mileage since the first week of Feb:
54, 62, 49, 52, 70, 82, 51, 51, 78, 70, 62, 53, 53, 95, 53
or 62.3 per week the last 15 weeks.

Ideally the next 5 weeks should be pretty heavy mileage-wise and I will attempt to double a lot to average 75 or so. Then it will taper back in July.

Stay tuned!

March Mileage Check

Well another month down in the Sinai! Very exciting. I managed to just miss a 300 mile month by getting in a solid 295 for March. This was up from Feb and Jan, but about the same as Nov and December. I am averaging 8 miles per day in 2007 (722 thus far). Since adding speed work to my program I have put in the following weeks:
70, 82, 51, 51, 78

Overall I am feeling good and continue to walk that fine line between being super psyched up and doing too much, and not doing enough to see optimal results. I need 12 more good weeks and then I'll start to taper off just about the time I touch ground back in the good old USA. I Can't wait!

Feb 25-March 3rd Week Summary

Sun AM- 3miles-walk, PM- 7 miles-58min
Mon AM-4.5- easy, PM 7- w/ 3xmile -5:46ave
Tue - PM- 10miles- 1:22
Wed- 5.5miles walk (tired so listened)
Thur- AM 3mile-jog, PM-8- 1:06
Fri- PM- 10miles- 1:15 (first run with IPOD)
Sat- AM- 8miles 1:01, PM-4 miles walk

Total- 70 miles, one speed session, no long runs

Had planned for a 12-14miler with the last 5 miles at lactate threshold pace, but the body was not liking that so I'll get it in tomorrow.

Stress and adapt....and if you don't allow time for adaptation no improvement can occur.

Training Numbers Check In

Okay, lets take a look at the numbers:
Nov-307 miles
Dec-294 miles
Jan-206miles-
The January mileage took a dip as I was tapering for the HURT 100 miler and then recovering from that wretchedly tough race. I also was home in Virginia on mid-tour vacation, then traveling back to Egypt. Since arriving back here I have been consistent, but getting in a lower mileage than I would like.

48, 54, 62, 49, 52 the last five weeks

Now that I seem to be recovering better from the weekend beat down runs, I hope to build it back up to 70mpw for a month and then 80's in April, 90's in May, and the big triple digits during June. I am not a huge mileage runner, but in general I have run better and recover faster when I am maintaining a higher volume. If you wanted a snapshot of my monthly mileage look here at the million mile challenge. Running a 400 mile month is a definite goal prior to leaving Egypt, as well as, logging my 40,000th lifetime mile. (roughly 39,300 currently)

I am in a situation now where many of the distractions of a normal life (commutes, household duties, quality time with family) do not exist for me in Egypt. So I figure I might as well take full advantage of it and run my butt off!