I'm retired from racing. Really.

HOLY CRAP...

My dive off the deep end of ultra running may now be complete.  I have done something unimaginable even just a few months ago- I applied to the Barkley.  I wasn't one of the unlucky 35 souls who got officially accepted, but I was placed number 13 on the wait list.  And I've already moved up to number 11.  From what I'm hearing, 10-20 people get in from the list every year, which means my chances are very good.  And so, until further notice, I'm training and planning to run the Barkley this year!  Nuts! 

Lunch-10 miles with the biggest lunch run group ever, 10 runners. Quite the herd. Did upper body work after, something that I think will help at Barkley.

Finally caught up on 6 months of blogging, and a bunch of race reports (all except TNF San Fran).  Read here, if you want.  The entire 6 months is shorter than my Bear 100 race report, at least.

2012 Year in Review and a Look Ahead

To be honest, I have mixed feelings about 2012.  For no reason in particular, I don’t felt it was quite as good as 2011.  I ran the most miles ever and was relatively injury free, both positives.  I won 7 races ranging in distance from 1 mile to 50k and set 5 PR’s, including 4 in one race at a relatively-satisfying Umstead 100.  Winning StumpJump was an unexpected highlight.  But for some reason, I think I left a bit on the table.  Not racing Waldo was definitely a mistake, and I had a number of races where my performance range from a bit subpar (Uwharrie, Iron Mountain) to downright abysmal (TNF 50). 

For 2013, I expect myself to improve.  I plan to keep mileage about the same but want to increase the number of Big Workouts (especially hill work), which I feel decreased over the last few years.  Beyond that, I want to keep racing, running, and having fun. 

Planned races:

January- Harbison 50k

February- Mt. Mitchell Challenge or marathon

March- Probably Chuckanut 50k, if I get in the lottery

April- The Barkley Marathons, if I get in from the wait list (I’m number 11).  Yes, this is THE Barkley and is completely nuts.  I plan to train accordingly.  For the record, I never would have imagined running this race even a few months ago and now I find myself strangely excited.  If I don’t get in the Barkley, I’ll do Promise Land 50k

May- recover, or go Massanutten 100 (wait listed) if I didn’t do Barkley

June- nada

July- White River 50 (yup, 2 trips to Seattle for races)

August- maybe Laurel Valley 35, maybe nothing

End of year- plan to do TNF Atlanta 50, then Pinhoti 100, the Lookout Mtn 50.  Might do Georgia Jewel 100 or Grindstone 100 instead of Pinhoti 

Lunch- ab class then 8.5 miles with some of the guys.

Lunch, 5.5 ez with Todd and Aaron. Harbison 50k tomorrow as my first race of the year, basically a warm up. Should be fun.

Quick report- Harbison 50k today in Columbia, SC.  Nice race, almost all singletrack with some technical portions.  Lots of fun.  Felt good and ran well, considering I'm just starting training again and wasn't focused on this. Shaun Pope won it in 3:47, I got second in 3:58, and 4 total runners under 4 hrs.  The old course record was 4:10, so competitive race today.  I wanted to break 4 hrs (my PR is 4:06 as a split at Umstead 100) and win, but 1 out of 2 ain't bad all things considering.  Final stats were 3:58:02 for 31.2 miles with about 2000 ft climbing.

Update 2 months later- finally did a Race Report compilation, including for this race. It's all on my Greenshortsrunning blog.  

Lunch- wow, my calves are shredded.  My right knee is slightly tweaked, but pretty much everything else is ok.  I don't think my calves have ever been so sore, though.  Still limped through 5 miles, then did 20 min of Barkley upper body work.

PM- PM with Barry, Carl, and Aaron. Nice night for a run.

We have some nice weather coming. Fri to Sun will be high of mid 70's, low of high 50's. happy winter, everyone in Utah.

Lunch- 10 slow miles, then 30 minutes foam roller and BUBW (Barkley Upper Body Work).  Calves are finally not too sore anymore.

5 day weather forecast for 3 locations, Idaho Falls ID, Logan UT, and Greenville SC.  See if you can guess which one is which.  Nah nah nanny boo boo!

Lunch- 7.5 miles run and some bike.

AM- first per-work run since before Christmas. 8 ez. New, big TVs at the gym.

Lunch- 7.5 in the rain with the guys, then BUBW.

AM- Met Aaron at PM, and then Justin joined us at the top for part of it.  Nice, warm, very humid morning.  Added on some off-course hills as Barkley work.  I had wanted 3 hrs or so, but my right knee really started twinging so I cut it short.  Finished with 13.5 miles and somewhere over 2000 ft climb in 2:17 ish. 

We have about a week till our baby is due, so if I'm absent from FRB for a few days, that is why. 

Looking at my goals for the year, focused on workouts.  Last year, I did 12 workouts of at least 12 miles plus 5 races in the first half of the year, then 8 workouts plus 5 races in the second half of the year.  I want at least 30 BW this year.

Lunch- 10 miles on a drizzly day, then BUBW.

Lunch- 8 in the rain, mostly by myself.

PM- PM with a crew of 6, a new record.  Barry, Aaron, Carl, Justin, newcomer Seth, and myself.  Usual loop on a rainy, muddy, puddly night, except that everyone decided to run the last 3 miles back on the road.  Except that I didn't really want to, and someone challenged me to run the trails faster than they could on the road.  Game on- had lots of fun dashing and splashing my way down the mud for the last 3 miles at maniac pace, and beat 3 of the 5 guys.  Good times.  I needed a workout, anyways, and my knee felt ok.  Finished with 10.5 miles in 1:50 with 1400 ft climb. 

AM- 5. Tired today.  Not running/legs tired- sleepy tired.  Plus I've got a pretty decent cold.

Lunch- 8 with Phil in the rain.  It rains a lot around here.  We have one of the big 5k's around here this Saturday.  It's the only race I've done every year, and I set my road 5k PR there last year.  We'll see what happens this year.  I know Phil's gunning to beat me.

Pouring rain all day, plus a lunch meeting, leads to a 10 mile treadmill run in the late afternoon.  Listened to Crockett's podcast and watched Karate Kid II.  We even have a chance of snow tonight, which would be the first in over 2 years.

Am- 10 ez. The gym has 5 tv's and all 5 were covering Lance and Manti. Usually lance on 3 and manti on 2.

Lunch 8 on the trails by work. I caught a toe and went down hard. In a puddle. Hardest fall in years, bad enough it knocked the wind out of me and I had to sit down for 5 min recovering. Counted blood from 11 wounds and hit my knees so hard I seriously think I bruised my left kneecap. Could hardly walk the rest of the day. All this happened, of course, cause I have a 5k race tomorrow. Of course I do. Should be fun. If I can run that is.

AM- Ran Run Downtown 5k today, breaking my PR by over 20 seconds and taking 5th overall at a very competitive race.  One of the best 5k's of my life.  Good day.  Full race report on my green shorts blog. Race results here.

I have such an ultra-mindset that I don't even put any non-trail ultras on my race schedule (shown at left).  I wonder if that's a bad thing. 

I'm in the mood for some videos after my race yesterday.  The first is a cool animated running man.  The second is Matt Hart's first running video, probably my favorite.  The last is another Matt Hart vid that has lots of Hardrock 100 footage.  All reposts, but what's wrong with posting good stuff again? Bon appetit.

Onwards from AKQA on Vimeo.

Am- planned on a med run. Did 5 miles, then wanted to liven it up so did a mile at 10% grade and 6 mph. Then another mile of the same, and then another, but increased grade at the end to 15%. 1 flat. Mile bored me, so I did 4 tempo miles, then 1 cool down. 14 miles total.

Lunch- very tired and sore from Sat and my morning run. 3 hrs between runs is not enough recovery. 4 with Webster on trails, then 4 xt, then BUBW.

Going to the hospital at 5 am for baby delivery tomorrow. It might interfere with my runs, but that's ok. This is a very special, once in a lifetime experience. Ok, maybe four times in a lifetime.

At the hospital by 5 am today.  Just after lunch, our little girl was born- we now have 4 beautiful children.

Picked up the other kids later in the day and snuck in 6 quick miles before taking them to meet their new sister.  Pretty happy to get in a run any which way.  Tomorrow will probably be similar.  

Everyone came home from the hospital. Ran 10 at the gym in the evening.

Am- 12 at the gym

PM- 10 around the neighborhood on the chilly evening before dinner.  My garmin is wearing out (not beeping anymore and short battery), so I used some prize money from StumpJump to buy a Suunto Ambit, which I've heard great things about.  I wore both today.  I had heard the Ambit measures short, but it said 9.91 miles vs 9.94 for the Garmin- negligible difference.  Garmin said 601 ft gain/loss, Ambit said 591 gain/640 loss.  Pretty close again.  My avg heartrate was 133.

Also, I received a letter in the mail today with the Guinness World Record cert from the Greenville Track Club 100 x 5k we did a couple summers ago.  Guess I'm officially a WR holder- pretty cool.

Lunch- They started school at regular time today and then sent everyone home 2 hours later because of an ice storm. That they already knew was coming. And ended up barely hitting us. Annoying. Anyways, I went for a run around my home in the freezing rain (26 deg and rainy). Ambit said 750 ft climbing as I did some extra hills on the steep parts of the soccer fields. Did I mention the Ambit finds satellite signal in about 3 seconds? 10 miles in 1:22 (with lots of steep, short hills).

Lunch- 20 miles around home in just over 2.5 hrs with 1200 ft climb.  Felt ok, though a bit of a twinge in my left shin. 134 avg heart rate.

AM- 8- wore my Hokas and my shin felt pretty good

Lunch- 9 miles with the guys, plus BUBW.  Didn't wear my Hokas and my shin hurt.  Plus we got kicked off a little stretch of trail near work we sometimes run.  That sucks. 

Lunch- 8 with the guys. Topic of conversation was getting kicked off the trails yesterday.

PM- If it's Tuesday night, it must mean Paris Mtn.  A big group tonight- Justin, Carl, Barry, Seth, and new comer Josh. Wore the new watch which measured 4% shorter than everyone else's, plus a bit less elevation.  Hmm.  10 miles and 1200 ft at a leisurely pace in 1:50.   

Oh yeah, did I mention that it was a very pleasant 70 deg at 6 pm today.  T-shirts (or no shirts) for the entire run tonight.  Quite comfortable. 

AM- Planned on a big workout.  Ran on the GE track with Dan.  It was 65 deg, humid, and very windy.  At 6 am.  In January.  Is this really winter?  Anyways, 4 mile warmup, then started tempo.  I felt pretty good the first 3 miles, then struggled with the 4th, and fell apart the 5th (slowing to 6:30 pace) so pulled the plug.  Cooled down and went inside for some biking.  10 miles total running.

PM- Worked from home today to help out Marci and the kids.  Finally went to the gym in the evening for a 10 mile run.  I don't run at the gym often, but the free babysitting sure is nice.