Rhett

110 days

AM. It was a beautiful morning today.  51 degrees, calm, and still.  If every morning was like today, I would be in running heaven.  Also, today was my first pain-free, niggle-free run since November!  I did 5 easy miles on my hilly course then did some core work some of which came for the Oregon Project videos that Blake told me about.  Hopefully by adding in these exercises I can continue to run injury-free.

PM.

I went out and played soccer with the Spanish group from church tonight. I was able to contain myself and kept my effort level way down and didn't hurt myself!  For me when playing soccer that is quite the accomplishment. I still covered about 2 real easy miles in the hour and a half we played. Afterwards I did some stretching while watching TV. 

109 days

AM. 25 minutes bike trainer. 25 minutes core. 
 

PM. 5 miles on the trails in Kingman after work. Unfortunately my pubalgia was a bit aggravated from playing soccer last night so I took it easy. 

108 days

AM.  Pubalgia still aggrivated this morning so I did a weighted vest hill repeat walk/easy jog.  Ended up doing 15 hill repeats hiking up and jogging down for a total of 600 feet elevation gain and 5 miles. After that I did my Oregon Project exercises.

107 days 
 

AM. 40 minutes bike trainer. Oregon Project core work. 

106 days

AM. Goal for today was to spend 5 hours on the trails. It was a bit windy but otherwise a nice day. I ended up getting in just under 25 miles with 3300 feet elevation gain on pretty technical trails. 
 

PM. After finishing the run, showering, and getting a bite to eat, my son and I took off for Brianhead for a ski weekend. We got here in about 5 1/2 hours. My legs tightened up a bit sitting for that long so I did my Oregon Project core work for the day and now they feel much better. I'm super excited to ski tomorrow!

105 days

i spent the whole day skiing with Cade. We had a blast. He has become a really good skier and is pushing me to be better. I wasn't sure how my body would feel today after going 25 miles yesterday. On the first run of the day my right knee hurt but then it loosened up and I had no other issues the rest of the day. 

15 weeks 

Weekly Review 
 

I feel like I had one of my better training weeks of the year this past week. I only logged 42 miles but 25 of it was on one really good trail effort. Everything was at a super easy pace though as I am still babying the lower right pubalgia strain. I've found some exercises that seem to be helping with it though. The week culminated with a wonderful day of skiing with Cade. I did do my Oregon Project core work 5 days this past week as well which I'm hoping will help keep me healthy. Thanks Blake for telling me about that. 
 

I'm hoping to increase my daily mileage a little bit each day and may mix in some strides after one of the easier days to get a start back into increasing leg speed gradually. I'm not sure what I'm going to do on my long day. I need to come up with something new. 

103 days

AM.  6 hilly but easy miles followed by OP core work.  Everything felt really good this morning.  I hope it all feels just as good tomorrow.

PM. I didn't feel well when I got home from work so I didn't do anything but relax tonight.

102 days

AM.  Slept in hoping to get feeling better. It definitely helped.

Lunch.  3 mile walk.

PM. I ran on the trails in Kingman after work totaling 6.5 miles then made the hour drive home and wanted to get in my OP core work but my legs had stiffened up so I walked for half mile on the TM and then did it. 

101 days

AM. Before bed last night I was watching a Utube vlog about not increasing mileage too fast so this morning I decided to sleep in a bit then just do some weighted vest walking hill repeats. I did 2 miles then my OP core work

PM. 2 miles on TM then some pull-ups and push-ups. 

100 days!

Really only 100 more days to pepare for my 50 miler on my 50th.  That doesn't sound like a like.  If I can stay healthy during that time, I think I'll be ready.

AM.  30 minutes bike trainer.  OP core work.  8 x 200 m strides with 200 m walk recovery.

99 days

AM. I wanted to explore some new trails so I did some research on some local trails and found Dead Burrow Canyon which looked intriguing. I drove to the start and headed out on the adventure with some vague directions that somehow got me to and through the canyon. It was really cool, one of those things you don't expect out in the middle of nowhere. After successfully navigating through the canyon with some scrabbling involved, I started looping back towards the start but I had only been going a little over an hour so I found another trail that took me away from my car and just started exploring. There were times I wasn't on any trail and I climbed up and over a bunch of ridges and through a bunch of washes. Somehow I ended up navigating back to my car having covered about 15 miles in 3 hours with 2000 feet elevation gain. 
Oh, and I did see a lot of burrows. No dead ones though. 
 

98 days 

I got up early, had some breakfast, then got all my bike gear together. I met up with the group. Craig was ready to go so we took off without much chatting and rode hard and steady for the full 36.5 miles with 2300 feet elevation. 
When I got home Doone was heading out for a walk, so I went with her.  We did 2 miles. It was a nice cool down from my ride. Than I did my OP core work. 

14 weeks

Weekly Review 

I've had this ongoing lower right abdominal pain for a few months that gets better for a day then worse then mild then severe. I would have sworn I have pubalgia, aka sports hernia. It totally feels like a muscle issue, but I've been watching videos trying to figure out what to do to help it and I came across a sports doc who said it may be a nerve problem from compression of my lower vertebral discs. Seems weird but he suggested I pull on the skin where the pain is and do the movement that causes pain. I did it and the pain decreased by a good 90%. Now if this was a muscular problem that wouldn't have done anything. Anyways so I've been working on lower back decompression exercises and sure enough, I feel a ton better. I'm excited to run tomorrow morning and see how it feels. 
I had a good week of training with a little increase in my daily mileage, but I only got in a 15 mile long run so my total for the week was 3 miles less than last week. I did however get in a long hard ride on Saturday. That felt good 

This next week will be the 3rd week of my second 4 week block so I will increase mileage a little more each day and try to get in a longer run on Friday before I start my recovery week the next week. I did my OP core work 6 days and will continue to do that. I'll mix in some bike trainer during the week and my even play soccer tomorrow night if my lower ab thing feels ok. 

96 days

AM. 7 hilly miles at easy effort.  My lower righ ab thing felt really good today!!!! I won't say it was 100% but probably 95%.  I'll take that as long as it doesn't flare up again.  Maybe I will get to 100% soon.  Here's hoping.  ThenI did my OP core work. I'll probably go play soccer tonight.

PM. I played soccer tonight and had a lot of fun. The good news is my lower ab thing gave me very little problem. The whole decompression thing is working!  The bad new is I pull my left hamstring sprinting for a ball. I did play for about 90 minutes so I'm going to give myself 2 miles for that. Unfortunately I won't be running for a few days. 

95 days 

Just as I suspected, I woke up with a stiff and sore hammy so I opted to sleep in and rest it. 

Lunch. I walked for 2 miles during lunch at an easier pace than normal as to not aggravate my hammy. 

PM.  35 minutes bike trainer followed by a 3 mile TM walk and then some OP core work skipping the exercises that stress the hammies.

94 days

AM. My hammy is already feeling a  lot better but not good enough to run on.  Wednesdays I usually do weighted vest walking hill repeats anyways, so that is what I did for a total of 5 miles and 800 feet elevation gain. I'll do some more walking tonight along with my OP core work.

PM.  2 mile TM walk then OP core. 

AM.  I started on the bike trainer for 25 minutes to warm up my legs and then was going to try and do some strides outside.  I started with a very slow jog and immediately knew my hammy was not ready to run yet so I bailed and went back inside and did my OP core work.

92 days 

Rovey's Needle. I had a patient tell me about this cool rock formation south of town that looks like honeycomb so I decided to go find it today. I found pretty good directions on Altrails and was there after 2 miles of running and scrambling up dry waterfalls. The rock structure was one of the neatest things I've seen out in the desert around here. Then I found some jeep roads to continue the run. After about 7.5 miles my hammy started hurting pretty good and I decided to continue the adventure hiking. After about 4 hours I realized I didn't have much idea where I was. Luckily I had thrown in extra fluid and calories into my pack so I knew I would be fine for about 6 hours and I just started heading in the direction I thought I should go. I kept trying to find my footprints to follow but I definitely made a few wrong turns and had to double back. Eventually I could se Rovey's Needle but the roads kept winding and it seemed like I wasn't getting any closer. I kept plugging along and at about 5:30 hours starting getting a little worried but then I eventually made it back to Rovey's Needle a little before 6 hours on the trails. I drank up the last of my fluids and hiked out the last 2 miles confidant I was going to make it. I arrived back at my truck about 6:30 hours from the time I left. It's a good thing it was a cool morning or I would have run out of fluids way earlier. 

91 days

AM. 45 mile group ride with my new bike. It definitely helps to have a quality bike. 
 

PM. Center referee boys varsity soccer match. 2 miles. Good hard fought game. Hammy was sore so not a lot of fast running to keep up with the play. 

13 weeks 

Weekly Review 
 

I had my highest mileage week of the year, 48 miles and I put in some good miles on the bike as well, 2 bike trainer days and one long ride of 45 miles. It was a good week for week 3 of training cycle 2 since next week will be a recovery week. If I hadn't pulled my hammy on Monday it would have been better, but maybe that injury is just what I needed to keep me from pushing too hard this week. 
 

With this upcoming week being a recovery week, I'll cut back on my daily mileage to around 5 miles a day, but still get out for some sort of longer adventure on Friday. Saturday I'll keep my ride shorter as well because I'm in charge of a youth hike at 9 am so won't have time to go long. I'll definitely spend my extra time each day doing my OP core workouts and stretching and rolling. Then the next week I should be ready to start ramping it up again. 

89 days

AM. It's recovery week so I was going to sleep in a bit, but I woke up early anyways so I got up and did a little stretching before my run then set of for an easy but hilly 5 miles.  My left hammy tightened up on me about 3.5 miles in so I cut the run short and walked home totalling 4.4 miles.  Then, I sat in the hot tub for about 20 mintes.  That felt good.

PM. Rest. Went to bed early. 

88 days 

Lunch. 2 mile walk. 
 

PM. I went up to the Hualapais for the first time in a few months. There was still a lot of snow up there making it difficult to run on the trails but I made the most of it with hiking and running where I could. I did 5 miles with 1800 feet elevation gain peaking above 8000 feet. When I got home I did my OP core work. 

87 days

AM.  4 mile hill repeats with weighted vest running up walking down. Then OP core workout.  Hammy felt a lot better today. Still not 100% but probably 90%.  Lower ab issue still hovering around 95%.  I wish it would completely go away. Its been with me since early November.

86 days

AM. It was crazy windy this morning!  I headed out for a nice easy trail run.  Did 5 miles.  Hamstring took another step forward since yesterday.  I'm going to upgrade it to 95%.

PM. OP core workout. 

85 days 

I "ran" Crossman Peak up and down 5 times for a total of 18 miles and almost 9000 feet elevation gain. The fifth time up was a struggle.  Going up was mostly power hiking.  
 

84 days 

AM. I only had about 90 minutes to ride this morning with the group but I made the most of it and rode hard with a little over 1200 feet climbing for 26 miles. Then I was in charge of a youth hike. It took us 90 minutes to go 2 miles. I can't believe how bad of shape some of those teenagers are in. Maybe they need to get outside and moving a bit more. 

Weekly review 

12 weeks

Good recovery week. Overdid it Friday with too much elevation gain. Then did a hard but shorter than normal bike ride Saturday so quads are sore. Didn't do as much core as I wanted. 
 

Back to more miles next week.