I'm feeling fat and sassy

Long run in the hills south of Buffalo.  15 miles with an average pace of 8:05 and 1100 feet elevation gain.  Felt strong and the run was easy.  Weather was a little warm and I was super thirsty and drank 2 bottles full.  My right knee is a lil sore.  Luckily Monday is a rest day.  I have 1 more 40mile week left before I start me taper to the race!

Easy 4.5 on the treadmill (8:37).  Knee still a lil sore

This week was a longer tempo interval workout, 2 x 2miles. Did it on an old railroad grade by my house which is a mix of gravel and packed dirt

1 mile warm-up @ 7:56 pace (ave HR: 151)
Repeat 1, 13:01 (1st mile 6:28, HR 170, 2nd mile 6:33, HR 177)
2:30 rest
Repeat 2, 13:27 (1st mile 6:41, HR 169, 2nd mile 6:46, HR 177)
1 mile cool-down @ 8:10 (HR:155)

Bike commute as an x-training day

6 miles after work on the railroad tracks (average pave was 7:30)

Did 6 miles, did the first 4 a lil harder (<7:30) and easy the last 2

Did my last long run before my taper in the evening.  19.6 miles @ 8:24 with 1400 feet gain.  It was a horrible run.  I've been battling a cold and felt like junk, had no energy, and wanted to stop every 15 minutes (I compromised with a couple 5 min breaks sitting in teh grass picking wild flowers).  Plus it's was unseasonably hot and despite drinking 3 water bottles I was not drinking enough.  My legs hurt and felt dead.  BLECH!.  The only good think is that I feel good about slugging out the run and pushing through despite how it felt.  

Did a real easy 5.5 with Sadie (9:05 miles) adn felt pretty good.

 Also did the bike commute thing

Bike Commute

Ran 6 miles after work.  I initially started with Ralphie but it was too hot/humid so I dropped him off after the first 3 miles (ran at 7:48) and ran the last 3 by myself a little faster ( 7:14).  Felt pretty good but my shin and left butt were a little tight

Super Speed Workout!

Goal was to do 4x800m at about 15sec faster than my guestimated 5k pace, so I was shooting to do between 2:55-3:05 reps.

Did 1.7 mile warm up jog to the track then 4x800m with 400m jog recovery and a 1.7 mile cool down jog home.

 Repeats were 2:57, 3:01, 3:03, and 3:05

I was tired after working all weekend and it was pouring outside so I relegated myself to a treadmill run.  Rented "The American" on my way home and popped it in.  Pretty good movie, but I need to finish it.  Ran it @ 8:27 pace with a short break 1/2 way through.  Iced my shin after to keep it from getting worse.  

I have 2 weeks to my trail marathon and I'm pretty excited.  I'm not expecting much in way of my performance but I'm glad I've built myself back up to a place were the distance is easily.  We'll see how it goes

5 miles on the treadmill.  Average pace was 8:10.  Started at 8:27 and picked it up and ended at 6:30

5 miles at regular pace (7:36)  My marathon taper makes my legs feel AMAZING.  So much energy and speed saved up in them! 

Speed Work out on the old railroad grade

1 mile warm up (8:32)

3 x 1600 (6:06, 6:16, 6:22)  Felt full of spunk on first one which made the other 2 suck

1 mile cool down (8:56)

Sehgahunda Trail Marathon or There’s Mud in the Streets, It’s Up to My Ankles

Summary:  Finish time 5:11:30 (pace 11:51)

                      Place: 17 out of 114 (13^th male out of 85)

                      Elevation gain: 2400 feet

I survived but good god it was brutal.  The course is a point to point along a technical hiking trail that runs at the bottom of a gorge but there are 8 checkpoints situation on the road that runs the top of the gorge.  To get to these checkpoints you need to run up a gas pipeline access road that is waist high grass.  This is all good when it’s dry but this May we’ve had 2x the normal rain.  This meant that the trail itself was at least ankle deep mud about 50% of the time and the access roads were shin deep standing water/mud along with the grass.  Combine this with 2400feet gain and 112 stream crossings and brutal is an understatement.  So brutal that they relaxed the 8 hour cut-off time (assessed at each checkpoint) to allow more people to continue.  Not me but shows the mud! (pictures courtesy of Tom Taylor Jr and more can be seen at facebook.)

I get to the finish and get my packet and drive off to the start to get ready and we are off a little after 8.   The send off the women 15 minutes before the men and the relay 15 minutes after.   We are moving along nice and start to catch a few of the women.  I figure I’m in about 7^th place which is super amazing and I set up behind a guy and stay with him.  I was covered in mud about 2 miles in, there was no avoiding it.  The first checkpoint was hell and impossible to run it.  Soul sucking was a good description.   Ate some watermelon and continued on.  Same process with the route to aid station 2 and 3.  Aid station 3 was at about mile 15.5 and it was then I started to blow-up.  After that point it was pretty much just get through it.  It takes a little while but some of the men start to catch me and I try to stay with them.  Miles 16-22 involved lots of cursing and walking and frustration.  Finally after about mile 22 I start to feel a little better and run more and finally the trail picks up an old carriage road and follows this to the finish, NO more mud and I can pick up the pace to the finish.   I see the finish, power up the little hill and run it in (the song playing was Boomtowns Rats’ “I don’t like Mondays”, a song about a school shooting!)  I stumble around and walk it out.  Celebrated with a  delicious beer, ate some lunch and packed it home.

The ok: I wanted sub 5 but given the conditions I’ll accept my time. The average finish time was 25 min slower this year and last year was their inaugural race with a much weaker field that was ½ the size. 

The Good:  The experience was great, it was a totally crazy this to do.  The aid station volunteers were super sweet and cheered like crazy when they saw one of us coming.  Plus they kept me full of flat pepsi and red bull which was probably the only thing that kept me going.  My training prepared me the best it could have.  The elevation/hill were hard but nothing I was not prepared for.  The guy that beat me by 30seconds ran a 1:32:xx  ½ marathon last month and I figure that I’m in that type of shape right now so I guess I finished where I was supposed to. 

The Bad:  The mud was absolutely soul sucking.  If it was dry, it would be a completely different race and much more enjoyable.  I would NOT to do it again if conditions were like they were last weekend.  I also rolled my ankle towards the end of the race and pulled something in my foot.  I didn’t realize it until after the race when my realized I was gimping around.  I spent Sunday and Monday limping but it’s on the upswing now and should be better soon.

Bike commute in the 80+ heat.  My legs feel fine from the race but my foot is jacked up.  It's slowly getting better and I don't limp anymore.  Riding the bike is good cross training and helps shake my legs out