I'm retired from racing. Really.

Pm- 8 around home. Been working from home the past few days, and now the in-laws are coming tomorrow which should help a ton with the 3 old kids and the newborn.

AM- Ran the Bench Marathon trail again for the 4th time since June, starting with Byron and Lester.  Rather cold- 22 deg at the start, 36 at the finish.  I was going to wear my running pants for the first time in 2 years, but Byron showed up in a singlet and shorts and shamed me to strip down.  The goal today was to set a FKT of 4:05, though sub-4 was preferred (fast goal of 3:50).  Ran pretty hard the whole way out, with Byron sticking close, never more than a minute or two behind.  What a great run- I really love this trail.  Hit the bench turnaround in 1:53, and swapped my gear for a couple minutes.  Byron arrived just as I pulled out at 1:55 (previous times I reached the bench at 2:08 and 2:06, so this one was a lot faster).  I've negative split twice, but that's difficult since the second half is net 500 ft uphill.  Anyways, pushed pretty hard (not 50k race hard, but 90% ish), though had a few gear issues (frozen camelbak hose) and pit stop that slowed me.  Finished in 3:53:37, a new FKT.  I figure I can maybe run 3:50 or 3:45, but probably not much faster than that other than a race.  Byron ran like a maniac and finished in 4:07, his fastest bench by a long shot.

Leg didn't hurt, which is good and a reflection on how good it is to run on dirt.  24 miles, 5000 ft climbing.  Wore the Suunto and it worked well, though the HR monitor doesn't work with a camelbak (chest strap messes up the HR sensor).  It agreed with the Garmin on distance with .1 miles, and almost the same on elevation, too.  Anyways, fun morning.  Now the inlaws come for 10 days so I better go clean the house. 

Am- 12 miles while watching recaps of the Super Bowl.

Lunch- 10.5 with the guys. Then 20 min of BUBW.

AM- Working a second shift test today, so slept in a bit and did a BW after a morning meeting.  Ran to the soccer fields and did laps on the .8 mile, paved trail.  It was about 40 deg, and the trail is moderately hilly and there was a brisk headwind on the side that is uphill- looking at my heartrate data, my HR was about 140 on the downhill sides and 160 on the uphill sides.  3 miles warmup, then started the workout with splits of 6:18, 6:32, 6:31, 6:20, 6:16, 6:21, 6:21, 6:13, 6:26, and 6:22.  About 6:00 pace on flat terrain, and the pace variations were generally related to which laps I had 2 uphills vs 2 downhills.  Felt pretty good overall, much better than last Wednesday.  Finished 16 miles overall in 1:49:35.

Hoped to be done with work at 8 pm to sneak in an evening run but testing took forever at work today and I didn't get home from work till 11. Going to sleep now.

AM- 10

Lunch- 10 more with the guys.  Rather tired and slow, unsurprisingly. 

Skipped the morning workout with Dan on account of very little sleep last night thanks to some daughters. Ran a while in the rain at lunch with the guys, then a bit of biking. Signed up for Paris Mtn 10 mile trail race on Saturday, which Justin and Barry are doing. First ever race on Hike Only Brissy Ridge, the roughest trail in the park. Should be fun.

Lunch- too little sleep for morning run again, so ran 6 with the guys at lunch and 4 behind GE.

AM- Expedition Paris Mtn 10 mile trail race.  Nice cool morning to do a beautiful trail race.  Saw Barry and Justin at the start, plus a few other fast folks like David Workman who beat me last year at Shut In run.  This is the first race I've seen that ran the most technical trail in the park, Hike only Brissy Ridge.  Race started decently fast, with a few people ahead of me.  After 3 miles, the 5 mile runners turned off, leaving only one runner ahead of me as we went up Sulphur Springs.  I caught him just at the top and pushed hard down Kanuga to build a gap on the guys behind me.  Then we hit Brissy Ridge and slowed quite a bit with all the root-covered steep ups and downs.  I'll admit, though, I struggled less on this steep section than I expected and was able to run almost all of it.  I could still see 2 runners within a minute or so of me at the road crossing at the top but I guessed I'd have an advantage the last 3 miles downhill since I know the trail so well.  Finished in 1:10, David was 1 min behind, and Barry and Justin were also pretty close.  Great morning on a run on a nice race (even had mile markers, rare for a trail race).  Ambit put the race at 9 mile and 1400 ft climbing.

I might get out on a run later today- we'll see.  I wanted 100+ miles this week but missed 2 runs due to lack of sleep/family. 

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

Am 8

Lunch 10 in a drizzle plus BUBW

Am- BW with Dan. Ran on GE track, 3 x 2 miles (well, 2.05 or so is 3 laps of the track). Times were 11:51, 11:39, 11:19. Going for memory. 16 miles total.  Definitely fastest miles on a workout in a long time, 5:48 to 5:40 avg.

Lunch- 7 of us went very slow for 6 miles.

AM- Had to be at work at 5 am, so finally got out for one run at 9 am.  Calves were very sore from yesterday and I'm tired from running and not sleeping, so I wanted to run as far as felt good then xt.  Ended up running 7 miles, then biked for a while.  Running was bearable only because of the Hokas.  Those things are a miracle on sore and recovery days.

Am- planned 10-12, ended up with 14 ez. Felt very good.

Lunch- 8 miles with the guys. Just a high mileage, easy recovery day.

Lunch- slept 8 hrs last night, it was heavenly.  Ran with a group of 5 at lunch around Shannon Lake (couldn't do Oak Grove lake cause the tunnel under the freeway was closed due to a fatal accident- scary).  8 easy miles.  BUBW.

Doing a nutso trail run as training for Barkley tomorrow.  Probably 5 hrs and as much vert and nasty trail as I can find.  It's supposed to be below freezing and rainy/snowing.  Like I said, Barkley training. 

AM- Pretty epic trail run today.  I was gone for over 8 hrs.  Goal for today was 20+ miles with as much vert as possible as Barkley training.  I normally don't like Jones Gap as it's too steep and technical, so it fit the bill for today.  Picked up Justin and he modified the plan by starting at Oil Camp Creek.  Temps were about 38 and none of the rain/snow predicted to start at 6 am- looks like the weather would be great.  We ran up .5 mile to Pinnacle Pass trail and ran up and over it (plus up and over and up and over- lots of ups), then very steep down to Jones Gap.  Then we ran up the steep Hospital Rock trail, climbing 1700 ft in less than 3 miles, half in one mile.  We then ran along Cleveland Connector.  It started snowing a bit at this point and we were excited- the most snow we had seen in a two years.  Little did we know that it would change from a touch of snow to huge flakes that quickly accumulated, just as we descended the most technical trail of the day (including several roped sections) to Rainbow Falls.  This 2 mile section dropped over 1600 ft and was quite interesting with tons of snow-covered rocks.  By the time we reached Jones Gap trailhead 40 minutes later, about 2 inches of snow had accumulated.  We decided that running back up Pinnacle or Rim of the Gap trail would be crazy, as they have some exposed, off-camber portions that are bad enough when dry, much less when snowy/icy, so decided to run the 4 miles back to the car.  It ends up the park was closed, too, due to the trecherous conditions.  We ended up hitch hiking with a guy in a gator, so I had a fun (cold) ride back.  The total run ended up at 16.5 miles (Ambit- 15.2, Garmin- 16.4, Sporttracks- 16.5) and about 4300 ft climbing (Garmin put it at 5600 ft) with 4.5 hrs running time and just under 5 hrs total time.  Didn't get my 20 miles, though.

Stopped by the store on the way home to buy some wool gloves for Barkley, as I was reminded today that fleece gloves are cold when wet!  Then played and went sledding in the snow with my kids!  Here's a few pictures of the adventure:

Some of the off-camber exposed rock to cross.  Weather looked very nice. 

Nice vista from Pinnacle Pass 

We would drop down to the left and ascend the ridge across the valley 

Just starting to snow- can hardly see it 

Descending the snow-covered-rocks with rope assist 

Rainbow Falls visible in the background 

 Snow everywhere

AM- 10 ez

Lunch- 8 more with the guys.  Pretty nice day for a run.  Although I did a mile by myself on the trails and got chased by a turkey. Several times, for a quarter mile or more.  He was pretty ticked at me for running in his territory, I guess.  First time for everything.  I found it humorous but was also willing to kick him or grab a stout stick if he got much closer (he pursued from anywhere from 20 ft to 40 yards back).

AM- Planned on 12 but was tired so I slept in a bit.  Still ran 12 miles, with 6 at increasing tempo (6:07 to 6:03 to 6:00 pace).  

Lunch- 6 ez

My race this Saturday is Mt Mitchell marathon, the shorter race of the Mt Mitchell Challenge.  The Challenge goes to the top of Mt. Mitchell, the highest mountain east of the Rockies.  All trail, lots of vertical, and lots of snow/cold.  Last year, for example, it was 8 deg at the start, well below 0 wind chill on top, and they had big issues cause all the water at aid stations froze.  After relatively little precipitation this winter, a lot of snow has fallen there the past few weeks.  Hopefully we can still run the race.  Here's a picture from earlier this month on the race course.

Lunch- 8.5 miles on the track and roads

Lunch 6 miles on a nice day.

PM- 4.5 ez with my dad in the drizzle.  Parents are in town this weekend to see the new granddaughter.

The marathon tomorrow should be interesting.  Freezing rain may require reroute, so that should be fun. 

Quick report- ran the very enjoyable, surprisingly technical Black Mtn marathon today.  Lots of mud, rocky trails, some ice, and cold rain.  A good time was had by all.  Full report later (today?).  Finished 2nd place, pretty happy with that.  Hard to beat a nice trail marathon.

Update 6 weeks later- finally did a Race Report compilation, including for this race. It's all on my Greenshortsrunning blog.  

AM- Legs are a lot less sore than I thought they would be, except when foam rolling.  As part of Barkley, I hopped on a stairmaster for 45 min, then ran 6 miles.  Feels strange to run after stairs.

Lunch- 8 more ez.  Definitely feel better than usual after a hard marathon, so that's a good sign.  My quads are still amazingly bombproof.  Still have to go easy to not risk injury, though. 

PM- Had to take my parents to the airport this morning, so no run.  Did make the Paris Mtn run for the first time in a month with Justin, Seth, Josh, and Barry.  13.5 miles on a chilly, foggy night after a long day of rainstorms.  It's somewhat mystical and eerie running through fog at night, very quiet.  We practically had the whole place to ourselves- only saw 4 people.  2:20, 1600 ft climb.

AM- 6 running plus 30 min stair climber.  Legs are still definitely recovering from the marathon.

Lunch- 10 with Jim and Dan.  Pretty nice day to run out, as opposed to the last 2 days when it was very cold and rainy (2 inches of rain in 2 days). 

Am- 11 Lunch- 8 more with the guys. Combine insufficient sleep with my highest mileage of the year, and I'm feeling downright worn out. Blah. Heck 2 of the past 3 days i didnt get home in the evenings until 9 pm. But taper for Chuckanut 50k starts next week, and that will lead into the Barkley, where I have moved up from 13 on the wait list to 3. At this point, I'm assuming I'll get in it.

I ran 378 miles in Feb.  If it had 30 or 31 days, it would have been in the 400's, which I've only done a few times.