Rhett

8 miles on the trails this morning keeping it nice and slow.  With my race this week I may take a few days completely off.  For a marathon I'd want to keep doing some short faster paced runs, but for a 50 miler it's ok to start off feeling slow and stay that way the whole race. :)

AVALON 50 (Miles that is)

I came into this race undertrained by last year's standard, but hopeful that I could run a smarter race and therefore beat last year's time.  To make a long story short, I was about 15 minutes slower this year but finished 3 places higher in the overall standings (10th) and received a nice little plaque for 3rd in my AG.  I think I was 5th or 6th last year, once again proving it's all about who shows up.

Now for those interested, here's the long story.  The main reason I ran this race this year is because last year Blake felt undertrained so only ran part of the race and wanted to do the full thing this year, so we signed up a couple of months ago to do it together.  An injury about 6 weeks ago made it so he couldn't run, so I went to the race by myself.  Although I met a lot of runners and had a good time, it was definitely way more fun with Blake along last year.  

On Friday, I drove the 5 hours to Long Beach, took the hour ferry ride to Catalina Island, checked into my hotel, did the bib pick and drop bag drop off thing, had some dinner, and was in bed falling to sleep about 8:30 California time.  I had my alarm set for 4:15 but I woke up at 2:30 after sleeping soundly for 6 hours and couldn't go back to sleep, so about 3:00 I got up ate, took a shower, got dressed and ready to race.  I left my hotel room about 4:50 and walked about 2 minutes to the start and we were off at 5:00 sharp.  It was dark so everyone had on head lights.  The first 4 miles climb about 1500 feet so it is really cool to look back down and see the long string of lights going down the mountain behind your.  I started off very conservatively and was at 55 minutes 5 miles into the race. Then all the ups and downs started. I had a bunch of miles in the 7's (Miles 8, 9, 15, 17, 18, 24, 25, and 34) but also a lot of miles in the 11s or higher (2, 3, 4, 20,29, 30, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 42-45, and 47) with my 2 slowest miles being mile 3 and mile 45.  I even had a couple miles in the 6's (14 and 50).  It's just such a crazy race that is dictated by the elevation changes.

Through 28 miles I was exactly on 9 minute pace to the second.  If I could have held that I would have finished in 7 1/2 hours.  Unfortunately at mile 41 my calfs started cramping mildly so I had to back way down and do a lot of walking for a few miles until I could run without cramping.  After I knew I wasn't going under 8 hours I started just finishing with easy running in the 8's for the last few miles (downhill) and right as my watch hit 49 miles the #1 female caught up to me and excitely exclaimed that she was the first female.  I gave her some congratulations and told how amazing she was doing and then, like any gentleman would do, dropped the hammer so I wouldn't get chicked. :)  I ran as fast as I could just hoping that my legs wouldn't cramp up and turned in a 6:53 last mile.  To her credit she finished just 6 seconds behind me.  I couldn't believe she had kept up with me.  After they took her picture she came up to me and thanked my for running hard to the end because it helped her finish faster, so I felt less of a jerk for not wanting to get chicked.

Anyways, I don't think I will do that race again.  I would like to run 50 where elevation changes are not so much of a factor and where I don't lose my toe nails.  Until I ran this race last year I had never lost a toenail running and I'm going to lose another one this year.  Darn steep downhills.  Now it's time to recover and to start to think about Boston.

I finally got out for my first run since my 50 today.  I wore the HR monitor and kept the HR under 140.  It was really slow but I got in 8 miles.  Legs felt pretty good but not perfect.  I always think they are 100% recovered from a race until I actually go out and run. 

10 easy miles mostly on the trails with HR under 140. 

7 more easy on the trails HR under 140

When I built my new office I Putin a shower so I could run to work. I hadn't had a chance to use it because they had to fix a few tiles that were cracked, but it is fixed so I decided to run to work. I made my way there via a long loop through the desert first. 17 miles later I was at work. I showered up, had a quick snack and got to work after throwing my running clothes in the wash. I also put in a washer and dryer so I could wear the clothes on the way home and they would be clean. After finishing up with my last patient I changed back into my now clean and dry running clothes and ran home. It was raining and windy but it was fun. I took the most direct route home. It was just over 3 miles. 3.1 to be exact, a 5k!

I needed a nice little recovery run this morning after yesterday's double so I strapped on the HR monitor and ran 8 trail miles keeping the HR under 140. 

10 on trails, just realized I have been posting everything 1 day ahead of schedule so I am actually posting Thurdays run on Wednesday but on the Monday spot.  That's confussing.  So anyways, I'm calling my shot for tomorrow.
 

10 easy miles on the trails keeping my HR under 140. Legs felt really peppy this morning. I think I will do some hard hill work tomorrow. 

It's time to get serious about marathon training so after a 1.5 mile easy run to my favorite hill, I did 30 minutes of hill repeats, then ran back 1.5 miles nice and easy. I'm hoping to get in 1 day of hill repeats or some other fast runnning each week and then on Fridays when I do my long run, finishing up with mp miles.  I'll keep everything nice and slow (HR under 140) to build the aerobic system and stay injury free.  Boston is just 3 months away!

10 easy on the trails this morning.  My HR was a lot lower this morning than normal, pretty much in the 120s the whole time but at my normal trail running pace.  Guess I was feeling good today after the hill repeats yesterday.

I stayed on the roads for my entire long run this morning.  I figure I need to get my legs and feet used to the pounding.  I started with 10 miles keeping HR under 140 then ran miles ll and 12 at mp.  I'm calling 7:00/mile mp for now although I could hardly hold that pace for 2 miles today.  Then did 5 more miles with HR under 140.

It felt good to run faster again, but I was surprised how hard it felt.  The good news was my HR dropped right back down under 140 within a minute or 2 so carciovascularly I'm fine, I just need to get my legs ready for the faster running.

17 total

10 easy, HR under 140, on the trails. 

1.5 easy warm up, then 40 minutes of steep hill repeats, then 1.5 easy cool down for a total of 7 miles