The last two Saturdays I have been spending some quality time with family. On the 15th Anne and I ran the Richmond marathon together in 70+ degree heat and humidity. On the 22nd my brother Tim and I ran the JFK 50 miler together in temps ranging from 15-35 degrees with a stiff wind blowing. Both were tough!!!
Looking back at the last 15 months since returning from Egypt and leaving the Army I have raced a bit excessively...even for a the fringe population of ultrarunners I hang out with. All told I have done 2 official marathons and 18 ultras. Although I keep saying I am about to cut back...train more and become more fit and competitive racing selectively and trying REALLY hard. I doubt it will happen. Mentally it is pretty hard for me to have a big goal and solely work towards it only to have something beyond my control like sickness or weather ruin my chances of pulling it off. I have gone the other way and end up going to multiple events running with a "hey I'll have fun with this one" attitude and generally just enjoying myself. I have come to grips at long last with finish placings and race times well off what I have done previously.
Goals for 2009 at this point include a possible run at MMT 100 again and maybe a 24hr run.
Or MAYBE a through run of the towpath and its entire 184.5 miles.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Recovery Week
2 runs 15 miles
Thurs- 6 miles easy
Sat- 9 miles w/ 3200m-6:29-12:42
I took it easy this week resting up for the up coming beat downs. I want to be feeling really good as I will be running the Richmond Marathon with Anne Saturday and then the JFK 50 miler with my brother Tm on the 22nd. Its good to be fresh.
My quads had some soreness Sunday and Monday on the stairs and I could tell I had worked a bit harder than I have in a while. So I fell into the pattern I often go into. Big runs....big recovery.
Since I ran Hardrock in July I have only run 58 times for 584 miles. Or 10 miles per run. October was even more extreme with 17 runs with an average of 13.4 miles per run. I don't get out often but when I do I make it count.
This should change soon as I will be starting a new job with a commute I hope to do M-F of 10 miles. I plan on driving or biking into work M/W/F and running home, then Running in and driving/riding home on T/Th. The consistency should be great.
Wish me luck
Thurs- 6 miles easy
Sat- 9 miles w/ 3200m-6:29-12:42
I took it easy this week resting up for the up coming beat downs. I want to be feeling really good as I will be running the Richmond Marathon with Anne Saturday and then the JFK 50 miler with my brother Tm on the 22nd. Its good to be fresh.
My quads had some soreness Sunday and Monday on the stairs and I could tell I had worked a bit harder than I have in a while. So I fell into the pattern I often go into. Big runs....big recovery.
Since I ran Hardrock in July I have only run 58 times for 584 miles. Or 10 miles per run. October was even more extreme with 17 runs with an average of 13.4 miles per run. I don't get out often but when I do I make it count.
This should change soon as I will be starting a new job with a commute I hope to do M-F of 10 miles. I plan on driving or biking into work M/W/F and running home, then Running in and driving/riding home on T/Th. The consistency should be great.
Wish me luck
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Change
Quote of the day:"If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer ... It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled - Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America."- President-elect Barack Obama.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
MMTR 50
38th- 9:31:57
WOW! What a fine day. Best weather and prettiest foliage in all of the over 70 ultras I have run in. I had a great time running on the beautiful course this year starting conservatively and working my way up through the field. One bad patch between 24 and 31 miles and then ran well moving strongly regaining those that passed me and then some. I even managed the last 3++ miles (4?) from the last aid station in under 30 minutes. Man it felt good to finish that strongly after having such a tough go in the last ten miles of the Andiamo 45 last month.
More importantly I probably had one of the best races in terms of stomach/fuel/electrolyte management I've had in years. I used water only in my hand held bottle, but drank some coke at the aid stations and used 12 packs of gels and ate some pringles, M&M's, and fig newtons along the way. All of which are favorites of mine. I did have 2 pit stops (mile 22,28), but did not experience the un-draining stomach/bloating problems that have plagued me so often.
WOW! What a fine day. Best weather and prettiest foliage in all of the over 70 ultras I have run in. I had a great time running on the beautiful course this year starting conservatively and working my way up through the field. One bad patch between 24 and 31 miles and then ran well moving strongly regaining those that passed me and then some. I even managed the last 3++ miles (4?) from the last aid station in under 30 minutes. Man it felt good to finish that strongly after having such a tough go in the last ten miles of the Andiamo 45 last month.
More importantly I probably had one of the best races in terms of stomach/fuel/electrolyte management I've had in years. I used water only in my hand held bottle, but drank some coke at the aid stations and used 12 packs of gels and ate some pringles, M&M's, and fig newtons along the way. All of which are favorites of mine. I did have 2 pit stops (mile 22,28), but did not experience the un-draining stomach/bloating problems that have plagued me so often.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Trying to be Solid
Oct 23- 18 miles blacktop bike path
Oct 26- 18 miles blacktop roads
Oct 27- 12 miles on C&O towpath
Oct 29- 13 miles trail, bikepath, road, sidewalk you name it
Today's run was a new loop exploring the amazing area I now live in. I started from my townhouse and ran hilly roads to a trail that connects into the Potomac heritage trail, that connected to the Chain bridge, then ran the C&O towpath to the Capital crescent bikepath, to the bike/pedestrian path and sidewalks linking me to the Memorial bridge. I crossed the GW parkway then ran the mt Vernon trail north to Roosevelt island and then got on the Potomac Heritage trail again and ran it to a connector trail before finishing my run up Quincy blvd. a sweat loop. I got to go (closely)by the Lincoln monument, Georgetwon, Kennedy center, Watergate bldg, Arlington National Cemetery. What a nice tour.
Next up...MMTR 50 er.....53 miler is coming up Saturday!
Oct 26- 18 miles blacktop roads
Oct 27- 12 miles on C&O towpath
Oct 29- 13 miles trail, bikepath, road, sidewalk you name it
Today's run was a new loop exploring the amazing area I now live in. I started from my townhouse and ran hilly roads to a trail that connects into the Potomac heritage trail, that connected to the Chain bridge, then ran the C&O towpath to the Capital crescent bikepath, to the bike/pedestrian path and sidewalks linking me to the Memorial bridge. I crossed the GW parkway then ran the mt Vernon trail north to Roosevelt island and then got on the Potomac Heritage trail again and ran it to a connector trail before finishing my run up Quincy blvd. a sweat loop. I got to go (closely)by the Lincoln monument, Georgetwon, Kennedy center, Watergate bldg, Arlington National Cemetery. What a nice tour.
Next up...MMTR 50 er.....53 miler is coming up Saturday!
Friday, October 24, 2008
Urban Assault Ultra
Okay this is my next dream. Now that I am living in Arlington I am surrounded by an amazing network of within the city trails. Some dirt, some gravel/crushed stone, some paved bike path. My biggest impression is that they are everywhere!
Some fo the trails I have explored completely in the last month include:
W&OD- paved- rails to trails- 45miles
Potomaac Heritage Trail- dirt- rocky nasty-18 miles
Capital Crescent Trail- paved-13 miles
Mt Vernon Trail- paved-18 miles
4 mile- run Trail -paved-7.5 miles
Custis Trail- paved- 4 miles
Bluemont Connector- paved- 2 miles
The above culminated with yesterdays cool run. Here from Garmin. Its called the Arlington triangle loop and it took me 2:39 to cover these 18 miles. I did get a little lost where the trails don't quite connect, but they are currently pooring concrete and bulldozing to make them do so as I type.
Previously I have run a series of connecting trails linking rock creek park to battery kimbal and grover archibald allowing me to run dirt from walter Reed's 16th street entrance all the way to fletchers boathouse and the C&O Canal. As well as running the bike path system thru rock creek- which is 20 miles long
Other area trails include the grandaddy of them all the C&O canal towpath = 184 miles
A great resource is linked here
My plan is to one day lay out a route that allows a completely urban trail ultra of 50+ miles. With all the above choices it shouldn't be to hard! It looks like you could start/finish at Fletchers boathouse and do a figure 8 loop into rock creek park connectinginto the crescent trail run south to the C& O then into the Arlington triangle loop and it'd be close to 50. hmmmmmmm
Monday, October 6, 2008
I'm Not Dead
Really, I'm not it has just been a REALLY long time since I had Internet and felt like posting.
Life: Things are going well! Anne and I are now in the new townhouse and living large in Arlington. We both are working and the cat and dog continue to attack one another to stay amused.
Joey- the cat is not thrilled about the city life and having to stay inside, but he does now have 4 levels to run around on and perhaps more importantly....find hiding places.
Oskar- the dog is happy about everything as a general rule. He now enjoys city block walks and having to have his master pick up his (Oskar's) poop..... Who is really the master anyway?
In my running life I must admit I don't do well with change and living in strange places and having odd schedules and traveling a ton and having a million new duties that I always seem to deem more important than running. Thus my last 4 weeks since leaving Richmond have been all in the 24-38 mile range. Wow sucko!
Anne's running has been going well and we have successfully done long ones of 15, 18, and 20 miles in this time span. She is averaging 30 miles a week now... You go Anne!
A return to normalcy?? Well sort of. I managed 4 runs last week ( an 8 and a 20 with Anne) and a 10 on the C&O towpath.....which I think is my favorite place to run ever. And a whopping 45 miler. The later being the VHTRC's Andiamo run which covers the entire W&OD bike path trail from Purcelville into Shirlington. This was loads of fun for the first 34 miles. Then the last 11 took over 3 hours and resulted in my first bouts of running induced vomiting in over 20 years of running. Pretty amazing GI tract killing pain honestly. Lasted well into the night keeping me up and out of bed from 1-3AM even.
If all ultras were like the first 30 (50k split in 4:58 running easy with 60sec walk breaks at all mile markers) I'd run ultras every few days. If all ultras were like the last 10 miles. I'd never run one again.
Life: Things are going well! Anne and I are now in the new townhouse and living large in Arlington. We both are working and the cat and dog continue to attack one another to stay amused.
Joey- the cat is not thrilled about the city life and having to stay inside, but he does now have 4 levels to run around on and perhaps more importantly....find hiding places.
Oskar- the dog is happy about everything as a general rule. He now enjoys city block walks and having to have his master pick up his (Oskar's) poop..... Who is really the master anyway?
In my running life I must admit I don't do well with change and living in strange places and having odd schedules and traveling a ton and having a million new duties that I always seem to deem more important than running. Thus my last 4 weeks since leaving Richmond have been all in the 24-38 mile range. Wow sucko!
Anne's running has been going well and we have successfully done long ones of 15, 18, and 20 miles in this time span. She is averaging 30 miles a week now... You go Anne!
A return to normalcy?? Well sort of. I managed 4 runs last week ( an 8 and a 20 with Anne) and a 10 on the C&O towpath.....which I think is my favorite place to run ever. And a whopping 45 miler. The later being the VHTRC's Andiamo run which covers the entire W&OD bike path trail from Purcelville into Shirlington. This was loads of fun for the first 34 miles. Then the last 11 took over 3 hours and resulted in my first bouts of running induced vomiting in over 20 years of running. Pretty amazing GI tract killing pain honestly. Lasted well into the night keeping me up and out of bed from 1-3AM even.
If all ultras were like the first 30 (50k split in 4:58 running easy with 60sec walk breaks at all mile markers) I'd run ultras every few days. If all ultras were like the last 10 miles. I'd never run one again.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Catching up
Wow, been a while since I posted. Been busy prepping for the move and watching the Olympics. a couple solid weeks (56, and 52 miles the last two on 5 runs per week each). Still not as motivated as I should be.....I really need a scheduled day and lifestyle. This should improve soon as I start my new job on Monday! Too bad I can't move into my new house until Sept 16th.
So some highlights of the last few weeks:
8/6, 8/11, 8/18 I did the same workout. One of my favorite quickies. I run to a track and do a 2 mile run where I run the straight a ways hard and jog the curves. this amounts to a 16x100m surging run. this is much like the 30 sec hard 30 sec easy workout many folks do. I always end running the second mile faster as each successive 100m strider feels smoother and faster. On the 6th I ran 13:50 for the 2 miles, then 13:37 on the 11th and 13:02 on the 18th with what felt like the same effort.
On the other end of the spectrum I got out to Shenandoah NP for four serious climbing/descending and trail running on the AT and other technical trails. I had great company in Sophie and Jeff Wilbur of charlottesville. I ran an 18 mile loop on 8/7 and 8/9 that has over 4,000ft of climb and on 8/15 and 8/17 I ran a tough 21 miler with over 5k of climb. All these runs took between 4:05 and 5:02 to run. For me this is the perfect length of time to be out on my feet pounding and still be able to recover well. In the summer with an early start I will go through 100 ounces of fluid and take in around 800 calories on such a run. This puts me on the verge of being hungry and helps increase my bodies fat mobilization abilities.
Today Anne and I headed to Ashland, VA for the Patrick Henry 1/2 marathon and managed to complete our goal by covering the distance on tired legs at goal marathon pace: 1:59
Fun stuff, highlighted by attending a pre-race talk given by Maureen Ackerly about the US Oly trails marathon in April. This amazing runner is a 39 y.o. mother of 2 who happens to be a partner in a big law firm. Talk about juggling life responsibilities and still manage to PR in the marathon! Amazing.
So some highlights of the last few weeks:
8/6, 8/11, 8/18 I did the same workout. One of my favorite quickies. I run to a track and do a 2 mile run where I run the straight a ways hard and jog the curves. this amounts to a 16x100m surging run. this is much like the 30 sec hard 30 sec easy workout many folks do. I always end running the second mile faster as each successive 100m strider feels smoother and faster. On the 6th I ran 13:50 for the 2 miles, then 13:37 on the 11th and 13:02 on the 18th with what felt like the same effort.
On the other end of the spectrum I got out to Shenandoah NP for four serious climbing/descending and trail running on the AT and other technical trails. I had great company in Sophie and Jeff Wilbur of charlottesville. I ran an 18 mile loop on 8/7 and 8/9 that has over 4,000ft of climb and on 8/15 and 8/17 I ran a tough 21 miler with over 5k of climb. All these runs took between 4:05 and 5:02 to run. For me this is the perfect length of time to be out on my feet pounding and still be able to recover well. In the summer with an early start I will go through 100 ounces of fluid and take in around 800 calories on such a run. This puts me on the verge of being hungry and helps increase my bodies fat mobilization abilities.
Today Anne and I headed to Ashland, VA for the Patrick Henry 1/2 marathon and managed to complete our goal by covering the distance on tired legs at goal marathon pace: 1:59
Fun stuff, highlighted by attending a pre-race talk given by Maureen Ackerly about the US Oly trails marathon in April. This amazing runner is a 39 y.o. mother of 2 who happens to be a partner in a big law firm. Talk about juggling life responsibilities and still manage to PR in the marathon! Amazing.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Trails are Awesome
After 3 resting weeks following Hardrock I was able to get in a good one this week:
61 miles on 6 runs including two(2) four hour runs on trails. Man were they fun! On both Thursday and Saturday I had great company while trotting the trails above the Charolottesville reservoir. We ran the moormans river road loop traveling up to, then 8 miles on the Appalachian trail in Shenandoah NP and back down. Thursday Jeff and I even got to see two bear cups. This is a loop I used to run nearly weekly when I was getting my masters at UVA.
GPS tracks of our runs. Saturday's run with Sophie shows the actual route while Thursdays run the garmin unit lost reception under the heavy canopy and overcast skies. (Here)
Today Anne and I continued to build her long run for this Novembers Richmond marathon by doing a fun 13 miles on the course.
After 12 hours of running in the last 4 days I am feeling incredibly good
61 miles on 6 runs including two(2) four hour runs on trails. Man were they fun! On both Thursday and Saturday I had great company while trotting the trails above the Charolottesville reservoir. We ran the moormans river road loop traveling up to, then 8 miles on the Appalachian trail in Shenandoah NP and back down. Thursday Jeff and I even got to see two bear cups. This is a loop I used to run nearly weekly when I was getting my masters at UVA.
GPS tracks of our runs. Saturday's run with Sophie shows the actual route while Thursdays run the garmin unit lost reception under the heavy canopy and overcast skies. (Here)
Today Anne and I continued to build her long run for this Novembers Richmond marathon by doing a fun 13 miles on the course.
After 12 hours of running in the last 4 days I am feeling incredibly good
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Trying to make it Ours
Ahhhhhh Arlington! Good stuff. Moving back to NOVA. Start work Aug 25th. Close Sept 15th. Can't wait for either!
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