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?

Inner Peace

In this crazy-fast paced multi-tasking world we live in, thank God we have running. Nothing slows the world down and brings such a calm peacefulness to the world like a run.

The Ice Age Trail Race is now less than a month away. I have been battling aches, pains, and this stupid plantar fasciitis all year. I took a good week off again to try and let my foot heal up. It felt better, but still gives me plenty of trouble.

My running goal today was to go 18 miles and not feel completely wiped out when I finished. I ran it easy and walked the hills whenever I felt it necessary and then some. I took a SaltStick Cap before I started and then one every 5 miles. At that time I also put down an Apple-Cinnamon Hammer Gel and carried 40oz of Gatorade in my Camelbak. My planned worked well, I did not worry about pace (for the most part), I concentrated on going easy, feeling good, and enjoying the entire experience.

The verdict?

Success!

Although my foot was bothering me the last few miles, I managed to finish with pretty close to a 10 minute pace and I feel good.

I sincerely hope that your Sunday run was also a great success!

In mid-August I will be cycling 100 miles to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Please consider making a donation to this great charity!

Training Again

Recovery seems to be coming along ok right now. I still have some fairly painful plantar faciitis off and on these days. But if I stay on top of it and keep my calf stretched it minimizes things. My plan is to run no more than every other day. This should allow me to recover well and be able to build back up to some decent mileage quickly (I hope). It went well for the first week so far. I had two 5 mile runs and finished up with 14 today. I will slowly lengthen each of my runs for the next 6 weeks and then do little to no running the week of Ice Age until the actual event. I truly hope this works out. 


I have continued my strength training, it has been a lot of fun and a great challenge being able to workout with others. It is interesting being the "teacher" of this group. I feel that I have to be the strong one and push everyone to improve, but not so much that anyone gets hurt or feels like they can't do it. I try to keep them all encouraged and point out their progress. They are a tough bunch, there are 4 of us men ranging from 42 - 54 and a young lady in what I would guess is her very early 30's who is tough as nails. They are an awesome bunch to meet up with at 5:20am  - 3 days a week!


 If you spend much time in a vehicle and are interested in ultra running, check out the Talkultra podcast. It is on iTunes and they have interviewed some real ultra-legends such as, Gordy Ainsleigh, David Horton, and others. It's definitely worth checking out!


Finally, here are some pictures from today's 14 mile run. Now that spring has arrived, the trail looks much different than it did just a few short weeks ago. I had the pleasure of seeing 3 deer and 3 turkey this morning in close proximity, I love it!

One of the muddy stream crossings.

The sweet smell of spring was in the air today!

Ultra Madness

It's official, I have caught the bug. 50K training started this week. Registration opens next week. The allure of running on challenging trails for 5 or more hours has proved to be irresistible. Care to join me?

How could you not want to run in a place that looks like this?

Photo Credit to dirtrunner100.blogspot