Wheeler Farm Loops

I don't know if you noticed this, but you ran 30 miles today. With hills. With a late start. Well done!

Also, I opened up my new book "Running The Edge" and found a very familiar quote from a very cool person inside- you! They offered to autograph my book, but I told them I was waiting to get yours instead. Besides, none of them ran 30 miles that day;)

Andrea was on maid of honor duties all day, while I spent the entire day napping and reading, so it was easy to get out for an afternoon shakeout. I've been adding a mile per week to my LRs since I started at 20 in July.

I can't even remember what I said in the blurb for Run the Edge! :-) I hope it was good!

"The fire has to burn from within. In that sense, Running the Edge is a lot more important than any other running or motivational books out there."

-Jake Krong, Wasatch and Beyond

I think you're at an all time high on both your volume and intensity now. Keep healthy, stay balanced, run a good tune-up race, and I think you're on track for a great race at Chicago.

Volume yes, this is about as high as I'll go and is beneficial. Intensity, though, is a lot lower than I did in the winter/spring. That was by design - I wanted to re-gain my fitness gradually, and I know I respond well to high miles with token intensity sprinkled in. I was in bad shape at the end of June and had no choice but to be patient. After TOU 1/2 I'll actually start doing some marathon workouts - it will be a somewhat short cycle, but I feel confident that if I keep letting things flow naturally, I'll run fast this fall and continue to have fun doing it. Training right now is very much enjoyable.

Listen to coach Murphy. :) Awesome training day Jake. In my opinion which doesn't really mean anything, the high volume will give you an edge in Chicago.

If you can stay healthy and motivated through all that volume I'm sure it is very beneficial! I don't know of too many people that can stay healthy running as much volume as you are. It is impressive how you've built your body up to this point to where it can handle such high volume weeks. I'll see you at the starting line up at TOU 1/2 on Saturday. I probably won't see you for long though as you will probably be clear up ahead of me before long.

We talked about roughly this topic on this morning's run, Steve.

Physically - I can't really explain how I went from injury prone to this resilient. Perhaps it's more a mental thing. Back when I got hurt frequently, I didn't wear Saucony, so there's that! :-)

Mentally - we identified a couple keys to make 140 miles a week feel like half of that...

1) run commuting buys me an extra 30+ miles a week that I don't even think about.

2) strong support system, whether it's one person or several.

3) you have to really, really love running. Not just to be good at racing, but where running twice a day is what you really want to do anyways. I relish in these periods where I can run as much as I want... because I do honestly love it. Especially so when I feel myself getting fit and like I'm on the brink of accomplishing something.

There are more but I think I can turn this into a longer post on Wasatch and Beyond at some point :-)

What, you run 30 miles in a day and now you get a day off?

A nearly 3-hour run at poor man's altitude, I'm more than impressed! Did you enjoy yourself the whole time?

I did actually enjoy no less than 2 hours and 40 minutes of it. Maybe more. Towards the end I saw a small herd of ponies (my favorite type of horse) and a couple long horned cows! Those kinds of surprises are what keep you coming back for more.

That does sound like a good run. I like that you called the longhorns "long horned cows." You are so NOT from the south.

I think you could come to love humidity.

Not as much as I love ripping turns through cold smoke.