Focus

I am putting a focus on fitness again. I have been running very little lately. Partially due to a nagging cold and congestion, and partially due to the work / life balance being out of whack again. Luckily I have started back with my early morning core fitness group on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; and now the gym is offering a boot camp class on Monday and Wednesday evenings. Yeah, I may be a little obsessive at times, but now that I have the first week's soreness behind me, it should all be loads of fun!

Last week I had a couple of short and early road runs just trying to ease back into things, then I hit the trails on Saturday afternoon. I bought some new trail shoes, Mountain Masochist 2, so I had to give them a spin. I ended up doing 6 miles out on the trails and had a great time.

I missed a lot of the colors, but the trails are still beautiful right now...almost picture perfect!

I initially planned to take it easy and avoid the hills, but halfway through I was still feeling good so I took the hilly route on the way back.You cannot see them here, but off to the left out of the picture were a couple of deer that watched me as I took this picture.

I took these pictures with my phone and the zoom isn't real great. The deer was about 100 yards away, I have him circled but it's still pretty tough to see it. He is hiding behind the tree, you can barely make out his head to the right and his rear end the the left.

Some areas of the trail are still calf to knee high with grasses and weeds. This time as I was cruising along and found something a little sharper than the average weed.

That's about the extent of things now. My plan is to run the Ice Age 50 miler in May and maybe  a 50K sometime in the very early spring before that. Beyond that, I really have nothing planned.

How is your training going? Any big races on the horizon?

Vets Day Trail Race

I had the opportunity to participate in the 4 mile Veterans Day Trail Race in Kansas City this weekend. I LOVE the challenge and variety that trail running and racing offers. Most of my training this year has been with longer more aerobic runs so a 4 mile trail race was quite the challenge for me. I was pretty much redlining most of the run, and after the first 2 miles I did walk some of the hills just to get my heart rate back under control.

It was a new course through the Wyandotte Lake area in Kansas, there were several areas of the trail that were cambered and leaf covered. I was one of the lucky few towards the front that did not take a wrong turn off of the path. As you can see, just by looking at the course here, it would not be difficult to do so.

The course is almost all single track which made it difficult to pass. But, being a fairly low key race, everyone moved when asked. There were no huge hills like Run Toto Run, but there were plenty of little ups and downs to keep a person challenged. Here is a snapshot of the elevation.

I started fairly close to the front because I knew it was going to be difficult to pass once we got into the trees. I let a few people jump out ahead of me knowing that some of them would fall back as we got into the race.

 I was able to pass quite a few people but after mile 3, I was passed back by two of them. I kept right on the tail of one of the guys but just didn't have the strength to pass him back again. He didn't walk any of the hills but I was able to make up my ground on him on the flat and downhill sections. I was hoping that he was going to wear himself out running up the hills. He was pretty tough and was able to stay in front of me. I finished the race in 31:04 and 10th place overall. As you can see by the times here, it looks like pretty much everyone behind me took a wrong turn on the trail.

This was a fun race and also very difficult. I had the pleasure of introducing trail running to a friend from Bethany and also had the opportunity to meet fellow Dailymile badass Sherrie who recently ran 54 miles on 9/11.

It's Tuesday and I am still a little sore from the rocky and uneven terrain but I can't wait to get back out there again!

Attempting to smile for the camera.

Yeeehaww!

Excuses

I thought about writing a lot of long winded excuse about how busy I have been at work and haven't had time to run or exercise much. This may be true...but, we are all busy, I am not the only one that works long hours. I just didn't have a plan or a goal in mind.

I changed that. I have a training plan and even a race or two up my sleeve.

It's times like this that remember just how much I need running. I am a much calmer and nicer person when I run. It helps take the edge off. I hit the road at 5am Monday morning. It was just a little 40 minute run, but it made the entire day oh so much better.