Old Man Still running

More than a foot of snow fell overnight.  I ran nine miles on the treadmill.  I'm officially tapering now, turning my attention to Across the Years 48-hour race in Arizona, in 8 days from now.  Looking at the competition, a top-3 finish isn't totally unrealistic.  Two of the runners are world-class or at least on national class.  I don't think I can touch them.   But the rest of the field are possible to beat.  In past years, 180-190 miles usually wins the race.  I'm hoping to at least go over 150, but hoping for 170.   It all depends on how the feet hold up and avoiding over-use injuries.  You just never know will happen.   Two years ago when I ran the 24-hour race, I watched a world-class runner (who must hold many records) break down and slowly walk around the track for hours and hours.

I'll likely go out kind of fast and will lead for awhile, I know I can't hold back in the beginning.  The race favorite will start 24 hours after me.  I chose to start with the first group on Dec 29th because if you start the second day, there is far more passing going on because of the slow runners on the track who have been at it for 24 hours.  Instead, I'll be one of the slower runners on day 2 that the second group has to pass. Hopefully I'll be at least 100 miles ahead of the second group when they start.

Crazy, crazy, crazy.  But I think I'm ready.  I run lots of flat miles the last couple of months and my legs seem to be happy doing it.  I'll be bringing my son Kevin with me and he will crew and pace me.   We'll have a tent set up inside a huge heated tent.  Hopefully I won't have to do much snoozing in it.

I expect to finish out this month with about 450 miles total.  My PR month was 400 miles in 2008.

p.m. 6 more easy treadmill miles.

Treadmill.  Just maintaining, tapering, trying to keep the weight down.

Treadmill, weights, core.

Easy taper treadmill run.  Totaly tapering now.  Just keeping the taper pains away.

You can follow my progress online at Across the Years 48-hour run starting Wednesday, 9 a.m. You can also send me messages through the website.  Every hour or two, they print these out and deliver them to my mail box.   So send me rude messages or anything to make me know you are watching and that I need to stop being a slacker and run.   It helps to know someone is watching me.

The website is at: http://www.acrosstheyears.com/

The track is a custom soft track that goes acournd the property at Nardini Manor.

An interesting FAQ about the race is found here: http://www.acrosstheyears.com/faq.html

Nice tuneup run.  11 miles at 8:55 pace.  All systems go.   Good taper week, just 45 miles.  One more short run Monday morning and then the real fun starts on Wednesday.

Tested some Kinesio Tex tape that the running foot expert recommends.  I'm sold on it.  It is better than Elastikon.  Nice stuff, stretches great, breaths well, and attaches to skin and holds on.  It is also smoother than Elastikon, so you can even use it on toes and not worry about rubbing.