I'm retired from racing. Really.

PM- Start the taper for my 30 mile race this weekend in Virginia.  Easy 12 miles today in about 1:50 with 2150 ft climbing.  Of course, I ran it all at Paris Mountain, doing a few random loops.  Saw a few runners out today, and hikers and bikers.  Nice evening.  And I finished at 8:15, so the first time this week I finished while it was still somewhat light (which results in 2-3 min faster per mile versus the dark).  Left ankle is a bit tweaked from rolling it on Monday, but nothing some ice shouldn't fix.   

PM- Work picnic, which consisted of 4 full hours of paintballing.  Awesome.  And all the free paint balls you want.  Tons of fun.  And my 9 welts don't hurt too bad.

Followed that with 7 easy miles.  Marci is coming into town tomorrow, so I can spend the weekend with her.  That will be nice.  She can even crew me at the aid stations for the Iron Mtn 30 miler on Sat. 

AM- Ez 4 with 4 strides.

Official report on my green shorts running blog.  Summary- a beautiful, exceedingly runnable (yet still very rocky/rooty) trail race across the spine of the Iron Mountains of Virginia.  Very well-run, well-marked race.  29 miles with a surprising 7500 ft climbing and 7500 ft descending (take that, Logan Peak!), all of it between 2000-4000 ft.  I took 1st place by 40 minutes, beating the course record by over an hour, as aided by my gorgeous crew (Marci).  Very enjoyable day.

Weekly total of 95 miles with over 15000 ft climbing.  Good stuff. 

Both of my achilles were very sore all day, which is a tad worrisome.  Iced a few times, then ran 3 easy miles on a little loop at Paris Mtn with Marci. 600 ft climbing.  She heads home early tomorrow morning :(

AM- Wanted some good miles today without straining my aching Achilles too much, so did 8 miles cross train with 6 miles run before work.  

Lunch- 9.5 miles with Jim, moving at a decent clip (~6:45 avg). 

Lunch- 7.5 easy miles with Jason, 600 ft climbing, in 58 min.

PM- 11.5 slow miles around Paris Mtn in 1:52 with 2200 ft climbing.  I caught a toe once and actually fell, a very rare occurance for me.  Left Achilles is extremely unhappy with me- I'll bag the trail runs for the next 2 days and do only flat stuff to let it rest of Saturday's long run, my last before the Bear.  Better to be healthy than injured.  Scheduled a massage for Saturday, too.

Achilles hurt enough today that I decided it deserves a few days off.  So I cross-trained like the dickens during lunch and after work.  I'll do the same tomorrow, then maybe can do my long run on Sat.  But only if I feel a lot better.

PM- 9xt

I added a few pictures from last week's race on the race report. 

No run today to rest the achilles, though I might go biking.  It's raining right now- I think I'll go enjoy a little walk in 70 deg weather.  I'm a bit lucky right now, actually- the mountain where I was planning to run is currently in the middle of a huge, severe thunderstorm.  The storm appears to be several hundred miles long with lots of ominous red spots on the radar map- not fun at all.  

Ah, who am I kidding- I'd rather be running in the middle of the storm than stuck at home!

Massage later today. 

Lunch- 6 running miles- first run since last Wed.  Achilles was still a bit tender and noticeable, but not painful.  And no pain post-run.  I'll keep doing short, flat runs (i.e. no Paris Mtn, unfortunately) as long as my Achilles permits till next week.  After all, this is already my taper, and I was only planning to run 50 miles this week.

PM- 6 more at dusk on the .68-mile, rubber GE track, with fireflies lighting my way.  The track is very close to my apartment, soft, and flat, which my legs appreciate. 

Random notes- my Timex Ironman watch has been randomly resetting itself, so I ordered a new one.  It arrived today- I think it is my 4th or 5th Ironman in 16+ years.  Apparently I'm pretty skinny right now, since I had to tighten it to the smallest hole for it to fit.

My out-of-shape resting heart rate is ~50.  My in-shape is 41-43.  I measured it yesterday at 38, and that was during the afternoon rather than immediately after waking up.  Lowest ever.  I guess I'm in good shape, plus getting older.

PM- 10 miles on the GE track, avg 7:10 pace or so.  Warm, but not too bad.

Lunch- I planned to cross-train today, but I felt good enough to run.  After 20 min warm up, I decided I felt good enough to do some speed, even though it was the hottest day in a few weeks (92 deg and humid)- so I ran 2.04 miles in 11:39 (5:42 pace, including 5:30 for the last .68 mile).  And I felt great- despite the lack of speedwork this summer, I felt very relaxed- it felt like 6:15 pace, but I was moving much faster than that.  I bet I could go do a 5k tomorrow morning in the "cool" and set a PR.  That makes me feel good about my fitness, despite my lack of high mileage or speedwork since July.  I'm sure the 1000 ft elevation helps, but the 92 deg weather doesn't.  I have definitely acclimated, though, as I wasn't sweating much.  Finished the 8 mile run in 53:58 (6:44 avg)

Lunch- a run and a bit of biking.

To alleviate my taper boredom, I enjoyed writing my most recent blogspot post.  Enjoy.

On a related note, my empty apartment has had exactly one thing of importance on the floor ever since I moved in last month.  It is used often.  Can anyone tell what it is?

If no one gets it right, I'll post a close-up shot tomorrow. 

AM- 6 easy xt miles.  One week from today, my two year build-up will come to fruition... 

Lunch- 10 easy yet sluggish miles on a warm day along the Swamp Rabbit trail.  I included a few sections of the Cleveland Park trails, which consist of 4 different singletracks, though they aren't connected and range in length from .35 to .6 mile.  Better than all pavement.  80 min.  

Congrats to everyone who ran TOU today! 

Time for the annual, pre-race mileage review.  All dates refer to pre-race weeks.

I'll admit that I didn't really want to see the stats this year, because I was convinced my sub-par August (406 miles in 2009, 337 miles in 2010) would sink me.  So I was very surprised to see my mileage totals are slightly higher across the board for 12, 24, and 36 weeks pre-race.  This is even more surprising when I consider how many of my runs were trail runs this year, which take significantly more time versus road runs.  In fact, I didn't have a single road run for a 5 week period!  I spent many, many more hours running this year than ever before, and ran tens of thousands of feet more vertical than any other time.

I ran more 15-19 mile runs in 2009, and many of those were Big Workouts.  I didn't do many BW this year, which is a weakness.  Instead, I did a lot of 10-14 mile trail runs.  Most importantly, I had a lot more long, long runs (26+ miles)- 1 in 2009 versus 8 this year.  That will come in useful this week.  I also had a few injuries this year that resulted in more days off. 

Conclusions:  More miles, long runs, and vertical run than ever before = good.  Slightly more injuries plus no BW = bad.  I am not in the best road marathoning shape of my life, like I was last year.  But I am in the best trail ultrarunning shape.  Next Saturday, I put it to the test.  But no matter what happens, I am excited.  Not nervous, just excited to have a fun time and enjoy a great day in the outdoors.

Lunch- 5 xt

Sluggish.

Lunch- 3 miles with 4 strides.  Less sluggish.  90 deg and humid- looking forward to Utah weather!  Plane leaves at 6:30 tomorrow morning.

Woke up at 4:50 am EDT.  Left for airport at 5:22 am, reached gate at 5:50 am- living near a small airport has definite benefits in terms of time savings.  Saw my family for the first time in 5 weeks- very nice.  No run, except running home from Cody's house.  Spent tons of time packing enough stuff to occupy a small country.  Good to go tomorrow.  Results will be posted live for each aid station on the Bear100 website. 

The Bear 100 race report is finally posted.  After not seeing my family for 5 weeks pre-race, I spent my post-race days with them rather than on the report.  And, since I have been building up to this race for 2 years, the race report is a touch long.  Enjoy.