12 wins, 5 CR's, plus four 2nd, five 3rd, 4th, 4th, 5th, 5th, 9th, 16th, 20th, 28th, 38th, and 62nd place, with 1 DNF
Short-Term Running Goals:
Goals
Enjoy running, stay fit (and maybe lose a few pounds). Play ultimate frisbee.
4 year coach of Langston Middle School- love it
Long-Term Running Goals:
Unretire at some point
Run a sub-6 hr 50 miler
Win a 100 mile ultramarathon
Personal:
I have five cute kids. And I have some rockin short green racing shorts- I wear them mainly because it embarrasses my wife so much. I like ultimate frisbee, trail running, reading, and cheering for the Denver Broncos! And I have the absolute best wife in the world. And I used to run for the now-disbanded national Team Pearl Izumi- Ultra!
Here a great article from someone who voted Obama last election, but now will be voting Ron Paul in 2012. Very short, thoughtful read.
Lunch- 10
PM- A local high school student asked me to help him break out of his 7-min pace he runs every day, even in his cross country races. After some warmup, we ran a 6 min mile over very hilly terrain, then a 6:40. Then we did some sprints, 100-300 yards, very fast (4:00ish pace). 7 miles total.
Lunch- ez 7. We had a few cooler weeks (i.e. low 90's), but now summer has returned with mid-upper 90's again. Still hot.
Ron Paul post of the day (yes, this is now a recurring theme on my blog)- Here's another great article about why Ron Paul can win the 2012 election, despite the media doing it's best to portray him as either insignificant or an outsider. If you don't know much about Ron Paul, please read some of his writings.
Awesome trail run with Barry, who just returned from 2 weeks in Alaska. Left at 5:40 am, drove to Rocky Bottom, where we jumped on the Foothills Trail to run to Sassafras Mtn, the highest point in SC. Then we continued on to Hickorynut Mtn and Bald Knob overlook. The trail is generally runnable, but never flat (and it sure seems like both ways are uphill!). Long runs definitely go faster when you have someone to talk to, and it's nice to alternate as the spider web sweeper. UROC wants a video from their elites, so Barry and I put together several shots of me running with his camera- definitely added some time to the run. We even texted Marci from the top of Sassafras, just to make sure she wasn't in labor (baby due Sept 9). We pushed it fairly hard all run, even as the heat increased to a very muggy 90 deg. The last 4 miles, in particular, we were pretty much all out though I felt spry and energetic. Quads got a good bashing, which is exactly what I wanted. Finished 20 miles exactly with 5400 ft climbing in 3:40 (10:58 avg- Sportracks said 20.5 miles with 6100 ft climbing), followed by a nice stream soak and chocolate milk (courtesy of Barry and his girlfriend, Ally, who met us at the finish for their 15 mile hike immediately after the run). Drove home, arriving 7.5 hrs after leaving. Great run, felt good, especially compared to last Sat. Highest mileage week of the year. One more hard week, baby pending, then 2 week taper to UROC.
PM- 13 miles at Paris Mtn with Barry, normal loop plus fire tower. Only 75 deg, which was wonderful, plus my legs were fresh from only 1 run this week. 2000 ft climbing. No walking the uphills- and my foot didn't even hurt.
No baby yet. Marci is due on Friday, but it looks like we'll keep with tradition of coming late. I do have a 2 mile race Fri night, so hopefully they don't overlap!
Also, I registered for Umstead 100 today, which is next March. Actually, I didn't get in the regular registration due to a computer glitch (race filled up in ~10 minutes!!!), but then saw they have a competitive entry procedure, so got accepted that way. Should be fun- it's a well run, very fast 100 miler (oxymoron?) only 4 hrs from my house. I'll be aiming for a smoking fast time, knock on wood. Very excited.
BMW Performance Center Classic (2.04 Miles) 00:10:37, Place overall: 17, Place in age division: 2
Easy Miles
Marathon Pace Miles
Threshold Miles
VO2 Max Miles
Crosstraining miles
Total Miles
10.00
0.00
0.00
2.00
0.00
12.00
AM- 6 ez
PM- BMW Performance Classic 2 mile race. The only BMW factory in America is in Greenville, and they have a sweet track where they teach driving skills on a multitude of surfaces (slick track, wet track, curvy, hilly, etc). I felt sore and tired, but wanted to do my best at what was obviously a young guy's race (quite a few high schools showed up). At the start, I found myself just behind the lead pack, about 25th place by 400 yards, and just caught the guys who fell off pace. I didn't get passed after the first few minutes, but just don't have the speed the young guys do to stay with the pack. First mile was slight downhill and was 5:07, where I pulled slightly ahead of Masters runner and teammate Philippe. Second mile was more uphill with a headwind, though I bagged 2 or 3 more guys and ran 5:30. 10:37 total, good enough for 17th place out of 659 runners (Garmin's seemed to measure 2.04 miles, which would give me 10:24 for 2 miles). 11 guys ahead of me were teenagers, 4 were in their 20's, and only my co-worker Jim was in his 30's. Like I said, a young guy's race. Enjoyable, esp. the tons of pretzals, cookies, fruit, and sandwiches at the finish, plus they had the results online by the time I got home. My pregnant wife (9 months pregnant today!) and kids did a great job cheering, too. 6 miles total.
On a related note, GE had won the open division for 52 straight Corporate Shield races, competing against the other Greenville companies. The streak dated back to 2005. However, at the race 3 weeks ago, Michelin won. I skipped the race to do the Xterra race. If I had run, we would have won. So, I promised our team captain a new era of GE domination. We won today's race- a new streak has started.
Now it's time to look at what's happening at Wasatch 100 for the first time today, then shower and sleep before my last long run tomorrow before UROC. 2 weeks!
AM- Paris Mtn with Barry. We ran every single trail in the park with minimal overlap (I think there are ~14-15 miles of individual trail). Nice day- 65 at the start, 75 at the finish. Finished with 18 miles and ~3000 ft climbing in 2:52.
The past 7 weeks have been my highest 7 week period ever. My previous highest 7 weeks was 627, while the past 7 weeks for me have totaled 665 (95, 102, 103, 81, 90, 104, 90). It's finally time for full-on taper leading up to UROC.
AM- Wanted a mini-workout. 4 warmup, 4 at 6:00 pace, 2 cooldown. Total 10 miles in 1:09.
Lunch- 6 ez.
Today was my last double till after UROC. I'm looking forward to being able to sleep in. Well, except for having a newborn in the house- that might prevent some sleep. Unfortunately, the little guy still doesn't want to come- 4 days late and counting.
Goose egg- zero miles. At the hospital from sunup till almost sundown- Zach had a few problems crop up and is now in NICU. But it looks like he'll be fine, even if he stays in the hospital a few days longer. Some days, running is at the bottom of the priority list.
PM- 9 ez. Ran 1.5 of them with McKinley peddling alongside on her bike, the first time we have ever done that. Marci and Zach both came home from the hospital today and are doing great.
Lunch- 7 ez. Legs feel typically sluggish for this stage of a taper, but I was able to move at sub-7 pace without trouble, so that is good. And no tptp.
iRunFar preview of UROC is up for this weekend. Looks like I snuck in the analysis.
Lunch- 4 with Jason in a downpour. Wet, but not cold.
Looks like UROC is going to be muddy. They are having lots of online video coverage- red carpet interviews of the elites and a panel Q&A Fri night, and 2-hour delayed race coverage on Saturday. All at ultraroc.com.
Having all of this happen in the biggest, most competitive, highest-profile race of your life- Priceless
Pretty much sums up my day. Thanks for your support, everyone. I'll put up a full report sometime later this week, but it might take me a few days just to watch all the wonderful UROC videos they put up and read the iRF twitter updates.
As a quick summary, it was a great race and I'm glad it came together like I thought it would. Like Ian Sharman said, it was brutal- tougher than I expected given the amount of road. But it was something awesome- running through the clouds 7 hrs into a race, pushing it harder through the entire ultra than I ever had before (hence the MP miles, and many were as hard as any 10k I've ever done), but somehow knowing that I would be able to still maintain for the 2+ hrs left. With 1 hr to go the clouds lifted and I saw a beautiful sight- Ian Sharman in 4th place one minute ahead, Matt Flaherty in 3rd place another minute ahead, and Michael Wardian in 2nd place one more minute up. If that doesn't motivate you to make yourself hurt even more, nothing will.
What, you really think I'm going to run today? You gotta be kidding. Soreness was a 7 out of 10, probably the most sore since SGM years ago. Far more sore than after the Bear 100 last year.
Lunch- ran 5.5 with Phil and Jim. First run since UROC- most of my soreness is gone, except in my hips. Definitely feel tired and sluggish, though- good thing I'm not trying to set a 5k PR anytime soon.
Want to see something really scary? Watch the photos of my finish, starting with the first, in slideshow mode. Hide your women and children first, though. (Yes, I'm very aware Burt and others will use these pictures to mock me extensively. Rightfully so.)
Lunch- 5 running, 1 super intense xt (In it to win it obstacle course competition at work- our coed team took first place overall, which means we get gift certificates or something). Barry is running the popular StumpJump 50k tomorrow, so hopefully it goes well.
