overtaking haynes

did a 7 mile trail race today. didn't get to run yesterday cause couldn't wake up early enough in the morning (since i actually work now) and went to see my old dog who my brother is helping to take care of while his new parents are away. needless to say i felt pretty good today with the day off and low mileage. I decided to wear road racing shoes since the distance was so short and not my clunky trail runners. MUCH better, I felt so much more nimble and light. mentally it was good.

I went out kind of hard i guess although it never feels hard until after 3 or 4 minutes especially if the first 3 miles are climbing. there was this really fast road runner guy who beat the guy who wins all the trail races pretty handily last year and he broke his own record again this year and easily won by 4 min over him and 7 over me (who i just checked on and consistently runs 5 mile road races in the high 25 minute range). So i settled into 3rd place and lost site of the 2nd place guy after about 4 min which when it is Ben Nephew is pretty good for me. Must be the shoes :) I'm running alone until mile 2.5 when there is a break in the trail and no marker. i go left and then think i should just go straight which was the right decision thankfully. i lost probably 10-15 sec there and got passed in the next minute by a tall skinny looking guy who at least looked fast. I knew after mile 3 people said you could double your time and predict your finishing time so i was thankful that it would be a lot easier. There was a beautiful view i caught out of the corner of my eye but wanted to pull back the 15 sec that i now trailed the guy in front of me. As the trail got a little technical and downhill i completely recovered and caught up and passed the guy by mile 4. then there was a dirt road which we ran evenly on and some rollers. I couldn't shake him but i wasn't red lining yet...i was hoping that the trail would steepen and get more technical....with one mile to go it did and i accelerated as fast as i could on the downhill and sprinted the next uphill to get out of site and discourage my opponent. it worked and i ended up beating him by 50 sec. it was awesome to have a runner to push you...Luckily too cause he was my age and would have gotten the medal instead of me.

after the race we were lucky enough to have a clean and cold river to clean off in. Awesome race!

hopefully tomorrow i can get a nice long run in.

got a later start than i wanted today but it was pretty cool and not too sunny. i've started liking my road shoes more than my trail runners even on trails because they are lighter and my 2 year long chronic ankle injury seems to be disappearing. i forgot my 2 water bottle holder which was ok cause i did 2 different trail loops that i could go back to the car. the first was at 11.4 miles and i had won some peanut m and m's from the race and had those to snack on as well as energy drink. i went back out and at mile 16.5 and 2 hrs 35 min my gps lost the satellite signal and I kind of have to guess exactly how far i'd gone. I had averaged 9:24 up to that point and i was feeling my legs. I ran till the watch read 3:08 and change and if i had kept that pace would have run just over 20 miles which is what i'll give myself cause i tried to increase the effort slightly to keep pace. felt pretty good and refreshed. must have been all the low mileage weeks till now. no race this next weekend but a 20 mile trail race the week after up in northwest MA. i really want to put on a trail race and have become serious about it. i'll have to inquire with the town and see if it is even possible...

slow 10 min mile recovery run...11.6 miles on new shoes, really like them. 

1hr 32 min run in the morning. it's not pleasant adjusting to shocking myself with waking up 2hrs earlier than normal and running in the mornings. about 2.5 miles of trails...3.4 of road and the rest dirt road. i like my running route a lot. 20 miles on brooks. will see if i do an am workout tomorrow...i doubt it, highly doubt it! it's much easier to plan your schedule than to actual do it. if the closest track wasn't more than 10 min away maybe. 

26.6 miles on brooks...almost didn't go because waking up at 5:30 to pouring rain...and thunder isn't very welcoming. run 1hr 1 min....kind of fun though on the dirt roads. hopefully i can wake up early to get in more miles...will be tough. left inner ankle acting up the day after my 20 miler...just kind of tight...the outer ankle no longer hurts but has decided to move...definitely no time to ice or stretch anymore

7.8 miles am...about 3 miles on trails, only 3.4 on road.

was planning on about 5 or  6 in the afternoon...but crazy lightning storm with hail.

power line was knocked down right near house and closed our road. i got 0.3 on the treadmill before power went out...decided to risk running outside....but no sooner did i open the door i saw a lightning strike 20 feet from me which set our house alarm off. the previous day a large tree branch fell 10 feet from hitting me...
 

started running at 5:31 am, the earliest start of the year. i saw a bat right when i started which freaked me out cause i've had bad experiences with bats...having one fly into my lips a number of years ago. 47 miles on brooks. 

 5.4 mile trail run am...planned on doing a 5k race in the evening but for some reason i was feeling a little sick and my right testicle was hurting which i think had to do with a muscle strain.

 
4.26 trail run pm, took it real easy...so not to aggravate anything

10 mile trail run am 1hr 41 min. drove with my dad to the trails so didn't have time to do a longer run. super technical...i keep wearing my montrail trail runner shoes hoping they'll stop giving me blisters on the back of my foot. i don't understand it...i've had at least 7 pairs of these shoes and never had a problem...just on my right foot. i decided to toss them. 

 7 mile trail run pm...wore road runner shoes...1hr 10 min.
 

can't help watching the olympics at night so ran after work. 1hr 2 min trail run. was a cool 67 out. i'm thinking about purchasing an altitude tent to sleep in at night. they are 5-7000 dollars which is pretty steep but if it is like taking epo it seems like a good alternative. anyone have any idea how much this would improve a marathon time if i slept at 12,000 feet every night?

Between that and running in an ice vest....the running times could be almost elite high school...but that's probably pushing it  :)
 

1hr 7 min trail run. started with my brother and finished with him but he walked a little bit and i ran more. didn't really want to go out today cause i felt tired from watching too much olympics late at night. felt pretty good though out there. 

1hr 47 min trail run. i hate people with crappy dogs. i got snarled at not once but twice by the same dog. once each way on an out and back. seriously...when you have a crappy dog that runs at people gnashing it's teeth you can't have that thing off the leash. i was close to kicking it but it was wussy enough not to try anything. 

1hr 14 min trail run

I drove the almost 3hrs to this race across the road from mt greylock. it was a new course from previous years for some reason and consisted of two loops. i had no idea what to expect and decided to wear my road running shoes and not my heavy trail runners or worn out road racers because of the distance. I didn't enjoy wearing the road shoes at all as the course was extremely muddy and technical. In fact the trail was very overgrown. 4 of the to 5 people in the race got off course and lost at least several minutes including myself. I was no worse off than anyone else really. I didn't feel that great for some reason. I didn't feel like i was pushing myself or trying very hard but for some reason couldn't get myself to go faster. The winner wrote a blog saying how this race destroyed him and he wasn't sure he was going to finish and he is done with this type of trail racing. I feel like i'm getting back into good ultra marathon shape and losing my speed a bit but getting some good endurance . i'm hoping that next year i can improve even more with higher mileage. Glad i went but was a long day driving 3.5 hrs to philadelphia after the 6hr round trip drive.

2hr trail run in new trail running shoes from asics. pretty comfortable, my dad loves them and i'm trying to start wearing lighter shoes and i wasn't happy with my last pair of montrails. no shoe comes close to the rock protection and for some reason when i landed with my left foot on a root and it landed a certain way i got an excruciating pain in my foot. thought it was some sort of stress fracture for a moment but there was no pain when i just ran and didn't bend it so i'm not worried right now. glad to run again after 2 days in philly. 

did a tempo run on the trails today. hadn't done any speed in a while so was nervous about it. Did a 2 mile warmup and then picked carriage roads that were not too hilly. held 6:40 pace for the first 4 miles but then could only manage a 6:57 last mile as i tightened up and finished in 33:37. Cooled down another 2 miles. I love my new trail racers. They are pumas trailfox II. The size 12 could be a half size smaller but since i ordered them online i'm going to deal with it. Very comfortable and they feel very fast and responsive. will try them out in a 14 mile trail race this sunday.  

1hr 8 min trail run in asics trail shoes

easy trail run

Really enjoyed this race. I had people around me who pushed me through the halfway point which was up hill. A long probably 900ft climb was really painful. The run down I pushed almost too hard to enjoy as i tried to drop someone who beat me the previous week and saw there was also another guy 52 who beat me the previous week as well and passed me when i took a wrong turn. I was able to hold them all off. I love my new puma trailfox racing shoes and can't recommend them enough. Wish I was faster but am just not...the winner beat me by 15 minutes which is a really sick time for a course like this one that was mostly on a jeep road and not technical, but it climbed 1900ft total. Not sure if i'll drive the 3hrs to race next weekend. May do another 70 mileage week instead of the 55  I do during race weeks. I'm planning tentatively on a trail marathon 2 weeks from now.

this trail run took me 55 min! Felt sore for the first time in a long while...not super sore but had nothing...

1hr 53 min trail run. still recovering. Most trail races aren't on dirt roads so it was much faster speed than i'm used to i guess. Hoping for a tempo run tomorrow. we'll see how i feel. 

I'm really glad i took yesterday off....i just wasn't recovering from the past 2 weeks of racing. I decided i'm going to start doing more quality runs in prep for the marathon and not worry about mileage at this point 2 months out. I'll hit at least 55 a week but want to start incorporating more tempo runs and even VO2 max workouts in to get some speed back which i've surely lost since the spring. I repeated a 5 mile trail circuit i did last week. Last week I held 6:40 for the first 4 miles and then a 6:57 for 33:37 total time. This time I started out 6:58 and was scared i was all burned out and sucked....but then i hit mile 2 in 13:34 or 6:36 pace...better...then I hit 19:55 or 6:19 for the 3rd mile and then 26:30 or 6:35 and then finished in 32:59 barely! for a 6:29 final mile. So that felt good. 2 mile warmup and 2 mile cool down. have decided to do wapack 17.5 mile trail race this weekend because it's 3 day weekend that i didn't realize. It will be a good head to head against haynes after our 3 months of individual training. i must say that i don't think i've improved really. i think i've stayed the same....maybe i should be scared! i'll have to check what his time was at the 5 mile training race was tonight.

8.4 mile trail run in asics. 1hr 20 min

4.7 mile trail run, probably too many hills for the race tomorrow. inner left ankle has been bothersome all week. it used to be the outer part, go figure...

Woke up at 4:20am to get to this race on time...Was initially excited that none of the really killer fast guys were there and I had beaten all the people at least once this year who ended up beating me so I was disappointed that I was 15 min back, 5 mins at the turnaround. I just didn't have it today. The worst was getting passed at the end by a 54 yr old. He has now beaten me in the two longer races but I can barely take him in shorter races. He ran a 2:51 marathon at Boston last year and he is clearly better than me in endurance right now. He also weighs 113lbs. Oh well...at least I beat Haynes :)

I think the race every weekend is starting to take it's toll on me. 22 mile race then a 14 mile than a 17.5 mile and then this week a marathon trail race which doesn't look easy by the elevation profile. I was hoping that everyone is going to do the 50k the week after since this is the first year of the marathon. If only the 5 or so people that beat me every week aren't there i have a chance to win...although my running prowess is not there right now....

Haynes and i decided to switch to a marathon with a net 370ft elevation loss in order to get better marathon times...i'm beginning to worry that breaking 3hrs isn't going to be as easy as i originally thought after 4 months of track workouts earlier in the year.