I'm retired from racing. Really.

Lunch 10 with Barry on a bit of a cool, drizzly, foggy day.

AM- 3 mile warmup, then planned on a 7 mile tempo.  Felt like crap right from the start, but slogged through 3 miles before slowing it down.  After about a mile, I felt better and decided to give it another go for at least 2 miles.  4 miles later, I had my 7 mile tempo (averaged 6:11 miles, I think).  12 miles total for the run.  Good lesson in not giving up too early when you don't feel good at the start of a tempo.

Lunch (aka 3 hours after my first run)- 8.5 more with some of the guys.  Felt much better than expected. 

AM- 7 easy.

Lunch- 7 more.  Yawn. 

PM- 5.5 miles.  Looks like 38 deg and rainy for the 6k trail race tomorrow.  And the almost 2" of rain the past 4 days guarantee it will be muddy and fun!

Had a great time running the very muddy Foothills Drifter 6k trail race this morning- report on my Green Shorts running blog.  Finish the week with a fun race, some good mileage, and feeling strong to continue progressing in the coming months.  I feel like I'm starting to get in shape.

AM- 6.5 easy

Lunch- 8.5 more with the guys. 

PM- Paris Mtn with Barry (but no Timber this time).  Usual run- Barry's house on the road to the canal trail to Turtle trail to Mountain Creek trail to Sulphur Springs trail to Fire Tower trail to Kanuga trail to North Lake loop to Pipsissewa trail to Brissy Ridge trail, then back to Sulphur Springs to Mountain Creek to Turtle to canal to the road home.  1:53, 12.5 miles with about 2200 ft gain/loss.  A bit cold out, and I didn't have my warm gloves.  Very nice to be on the trails, and it's light enough that we don't have to turn on our lights till over half way through.

Lunch 8 with a pretty big group.

Quick 7 at lunch.  Scrubbed the morning run, so I'll do it tomorrow, instead.

AM- 4 run, 4.5 bike.

AM- This morning's run was probably the second most enjoyable February run of my life, only behind last year's Rocky Raccoon 100.  Barry and I drove out to Issaqueena forest again, parking a few miles south from 2 weeks ago.  The first 8 miles included Timber, Barry's dog, as we cavorted around the singletrack in sub-freezing temperatures.  Then we dropped off Timber and found even more singletrack.  We ventured all over the very twisty, never flat trails before finding the Waterfall area.  The entire Waterfall area is maybe 1000 m by 600 m, but has probably 7 miles of trail crowded in that area, and we ran about 11 miles there.  The trails are beautiful, narrow, soft singletrack that literally twist back and forth, almost on top of themselves, climbing and falling the entire time.  Simply splendid.  And the temperatures rose rapidly, such that I went from UA Coldgear and warm gloves to just a t-shirt in 5 minutes.  It was pure enjoyment, running on great trails with good company.  I just about killed Barry so ended up doing the last few miles by myself.  I felt great all the way to the end, pushing hard and running fast.  It's fun to be getting in shape.  

I finished with 21.5 miles (though it may have been more, since I'm sure the garmin missed a ton of tiny switchbacks) in 3:15 (9:05 avg).  Really not sure about the elevation, since I have never had a run with so many small yet continuous ups and downs.  Garmin says 5050 ft climbing, SportTracks says 2700 ft.  I know it was more than 2700 ft, and garmin often overestimates by 50%... so we'll call it 3400 ft (not that it matters).  Anyways, a great run.

I wanted to show just how twisty the trail is and how it almost runs over itself in the Waterfalls area.  Here is a map...

...another map... 

...and my GPS trace.  Amazing- the scale on this is 500 ft, so this whole area is about 2000 ft by 3000 ft (~.2 sq mi), but it has 6-7 miles of trail!

AM- BW before work.  3 miles warmup, then 8 miles tinman tempo (ended up with 49:16, 6:09 avg), then 2 miles cooldown.  13 miles total 1:27.

Lunch- 8 miles with the guys, including some nice off-road stuff (i.e. little jaunts in open spaces between neighborhoods, etc).  Rather tired by the end.  

I had to front-load my week because Marci's grandpa passed away over the weekend, so she and McKinley flew to Idaho this afternoon.  I'm home with Aspen the rest of the week.  Fortunately, a guy at work is lending me his jogging stroller and the weather is gorgeous (mid-60's), so I should get some outdoors time each day to keep from going crazy. 

PM- 10 miles with Aspen in the jogging stroller on the Swamp Rabbit trail.  It was one of those days where it seemed to be uphill with a headwind both ways.  I guess that's what happens when it's the first stroller run since July.  78 min.

PM- 9 with Aspen and the jogging stroller on Swamp Rabbit trail.  Nice day, 63 degrees.  Aspen is a really good kid in the stroller, entertaining herself by looking at things and pointing out airplanes and dogs. 

2 of my 3 roads shoes are above 400 miles and nearing retirement.  Fortunately, I received 2 new pairs of Pearl Izumi shoes in the mail today.  First new shoes in 7 months, which is probably the longest I've gone without buying any in years.

PM- More of the same, easy 6 with Aspen, plus a bunch of stops to play on toys, swings, etc.  68 deg- nice.  Tomorrow has a 75 deg high.

 Reason 297 I love my 2 year old:  After we ran down a hill and said, "we went fast", she looked up at me and said, "I want to go really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really fast!"  (I think she actually said "really" more times than that, too- I didn't count, but was amazed how many times she said it).

I think I'm in love.  Scratch that- I know I am.  With Isaqueenah Forest.  Marci had lined up one of her friends to watch Aspen for part of Friday, so I used that time to go running.  I wanted to run at least 23-24 miles, but figured I might get as high as 28 if I felt great.  Once again, I drove out to Clemson.  It was already 62 degrees and sunny when I started at 10:30 am, and I would end up running through the hottest day so far this year, finishing in humid 81 deg temps.  Given that I haven't run in more than 65 deg temps, I was roasted.  And it really gets me excited for 95 deg temps this summer.  

I stopped by the store to grab some gatorade, sunscreen, and granola bars on the way, and all would prove useful.  I started the run with just 1 bottle and ventured towards the southern most portion of Isaqueenah, an area Barry and I had not yet run.  It was delightful.  One of the things I like best in this forest is the wide variety of fauna- one minute you're running on pine-needle covered singletrack with thick forest all around, then you're running in bushes, then in a beautiful deciduous forest, then some grass along a lake.  Very nice variety.  The initial new singletrack was much longer than expected, and I ended up milking my one water bottle for 11 miles and 100 minutes before I reached the car again, with this entire leg being new to me.  I could tell I was bonking in the heat, so refueled and set off again, this time double-fisting.  I felt ok, but wish I had a few S-caps with me.  Lesson learned.

Sure enough, the previous lack of water caused me to slow from the 8:30 avg pace I had been running for the first 90 minutes to 10+ min pace.  Interestingly, miles 11-14 were all between 10:41-10:44.  Then my food and hydration kicked in, and my pace improved back to normal, though the continually increasing temps weren't too fun.  After my refuel, I ran the middle part of the forest to the Isaqueenah Lake trail, winding around to the north parking lot, then eventually over to the waterfalls area.  I gained a strong second wind around mile 19, which carried me to mile 23.  At this point, my right arch was hurting and I probably should have headed to the car a mile away.  Lacking any brains, though, I instead ran a short loop in the waterfalls area, then finally crawled back to the car just before mile 26, sufficiently tired.  Yup, I ran my first (almost) marathon of the year, 90% on singletrack and 10% on dirt road.  Good times.  It was definitely my first "hot" run of the year.  

Finished my 26 miles in 3:57 (9:06 avg) with about 4500 ft climbing/4500 ft descend.  After 7 straight weeks of increasing mileage, next week is a much-needed recovery week- I don't really care how much I run.  Maybe 40 or 50 miles.  

I swung by a grocery store to get some recovery food before my 60 min drive home.  I got 2 pints of my recovery drink of choice, chocolate milk, and a footlong sub at the deli.  They had just run out of normal sub bread, so made it on a loaf of french bread.  Holy cow, that thing is huge!  It didn't fit in their sub bag, and I could only eat half of it.  Now a few pictures, just for fun:

Today's twisting run through the forest

Overlaid with the other 2 runs here

Zoom in to show the amount of detail- lots of turns

You try figuring out how much elevation change this is...

PM- 4 around Oak Grove lake with Aspen.  70 deg and sunny- very nice day.  Legs were appropriately tired after a long run.

Typical lunch run 8 with the guys.  Did a few situps and pushups after- I figure I better start doing a little bit of stuff like that.

PM- 9.5 with Barry at Paris Mtn.  Beautiful weather- 70+ deg when we started, 68 when we finished at 7:30 pm.  Took a little easier and shorter route today, as part of my recovery week.  9.5 miles in 1:25 with 1500 ft climb/descend.

8 xt.  Cause I needed it.

Lunch 6.

xt 8

AM- My mom is in town, so we drove to Paris Mtn, where she took a hike and I took a nice run.  I felt great, not surprising due to my super-easy recovery week.  My normal PM run averages 9 min pace or so, but today I averaged 7:43 pace.  We parked at the upper lot and I did some big loops around Kanuga/North Lake, etc.  Went down to the lake twice.  I went fairly easy the first 4.5 miles, then started pushing the pace more as I had runners to pass.  I finally reached a junction with only 10 minutes till I was due to meet my mom, and decided to really fly by taking the long route.  The next half mile over rolly, technical terrain was sub-6 pace, and the 1.5 miles back to the car were about 6:25 pace- definitely the fastest I have ever run on those trails.  It was a blast dodging rocks and trees, going up and down the trail.  Good run- 9.5 miles in 1:11, including 1200 ft climbing with equal descending.  Now off to Asheville with the family.  And back to the normal mileage next week- should be 80 miles or so.

Lunch 10 with a big group- half broke off to do a workout, the other half (including me) did lake laps.  I ventured to Rolling Green trail and European Circuit trail by myself at the end.  77 deg and sunny- I need to get a hat so my head will stop getting sunburned.  I know summer here will be too hot, but the weather right now is splendidly perfect.  

I finished the first 2 months of the year with 528 miles, 127 more than ever before.  That's partially a reflection of how much easier it is to run in SC during the winter, but also bodes well for the spring/summer races.