Joy and Pain

Remember this song?

If you have been a runner for a long time you have most likely encountered a lot of joy and some pain.

Today I took advantage of the awesome 75 degree weather and tested my foot out on the trails.

When I told my wife that I was going to do some trail running she warned me that it might be muddy out there today. Hello Mrs. Obvious, that's one darn good reason to be out there!

 My left heel is still pretty tender and my trail shoes don't have quite as much cushion as I would like in them. I decided to try pulling the insoles out of a pair of my Asics and adding them into the shoe. It worked great. I also shortened up my stride and found it kept from aggravating my heel too badly.

I decided that I would alternate running for 7 minutes and walking for 3 minutes just to keep myself from overdoing things. That also worked out well as I was able to run for 80 minutes without much trouble.

I did some mud surfing down a couple of hills and splashed through 6 little stream crossings.

Definitely a joyful part of my day!

Yikes...as I write this, I have 56 days until the Ice Age 50.

Back to Back

Ice Age training is still pretty spotty but I have still managed to get in a few quality runs. This week I did back to back 12 milers on the trails. Both runs really went well and even though I ran pretty much the same course both days, there was a big difference in the trail conditions. Saturday was dry and dusty, Sunday was rainy and muddy. Good clean fun!

I was a little tired towards the end of my run today but I still managed to finish fairly strong and only about 6 minutes slower than yesterday. With the muddy conditions I am very pleased with my finishing time.

The warmer temperatures make the trails still look like fall.

It's a tough march up that hill, especially when muddy,
but it's really fun bombing back down it!

I was amazed at how bright orange the leaves were today.
This is a really pretty area of the trail

Because it rained all night there was no shortage of standing water or muddy areas

This creek bed was dry most all of last year.
It's not flowing, but it's a start.

There really is sort of a trail here. They did some clearing this fall which
created a big open dirt area / mud pit.

This trail area provides a good combination of mostly flat areas where you can really get some speed going of you choose to do so, and several challenging hills that will leave you gasping for air on the way up and praying not to fall on the way down.

Below is an elevation comparison between my 12 mile run and the first 25 miles of the Ice Age 50K from last year.

12 mile trail run

25 miles of Ice Age 50K

I believe that they are fairly comparable other than not so many flat areas in the Ice Age. 

This weekend was a great test of endurance before I participate in the Psycho Wycho Run Toto Run 20 miler in a couple of weeks. It is one of the toughest courses that I have ever run. It is a 10 mile loop that you choose to run from 1 - 3 laps. I am going to run two laps (20 miles) because I don't think I am ready to run another 50K right now. Especially on this course!

All in all it was a very solid training weekend. I am trying to focus on good recovery habits such as stretching and rolling. We have also started to shorten up our core workouts a little and add in some yoga for the last 15 minutes.

At the end of the day, you can't hardly beat a nice long meditative run on through the rain and mud out on the trails.

Signs of a good time!

Neighborhood Run

I decided to take vacation this week. It's pretty much a stay-cation, but it will allow me to shed some stress, catch up on some things around home, and get some good training runs started.

Today, my first day of vacation, was an absolutely beautiful day for a run; so I thought would share it here.

No fancy trails, no wildlife seen, just a good road run with some nice rolling hills. This run really gives me a chance to tune out and just enjoy the experience.

Another great part of running out here is the elevation.

I am really hoping that running these hills will help with my 50 mile training. Most of the Ice Age Trail is fairly flat as I recall, but there are some rolling hills.

The High

I didn't run outside yesterday, but I did get up early enough to get to the gym before work. I spent 40 minutes on the treadmill and I wasn't really into it for the first 10 minutes.

Then I got rolling along and just lost myself in my thoughts. Many people don't really care for the treadmill but I find that I can zone out and pretty much meditate through my runs. Treadmill runs also give me an opportunity to really focus on my form and cadence.

I had a great run yesterday morning and I felt fantastic from that run all day long, I definitely was riding the runners high throughout the day. It was an awesome day and now I am ready to begin an awesome weekend with family.

I have not made any progress on my weight so far but it has been difficult for me to away from the holiday treats. I need to plan ahead for healthy eating and as I increase my mileage the weight should drop fairly quickly. I weighed in at 185 this morning and my goal is to reach 170-ish. I have found that 170 is a pretty optimal running weight for me. I have noticed though, that as I get older, I can't just run the weight off like I used to.

I wish you all a happy and healthy new year!

133 days until the Ice Age 50!

Chill

Even though we have snow, it has not been terribly cold here until the last couple of days.

2 days ago I was still running in shorts
29F
I didn't notice it until I uploaded the picture, but there is a ferocious cat beside me, waiting for the right moment to pounce on its prey.....stupid cat.

I had a short and sweet Christmas run this morning, but the weather was much different.

8F / -4 windchill

The photographer refused to go outside in the deadly cold for this picture.

Enter the Running Ninja!

I am grateful for my winter running gear. 

It is quite the assembly of brands including Under Armour (hat, baklava, pants, and undershirt), Manzella windproof gloves, Mizuno breth thermo shirt, and breath thermo shirt and socks, and my Road Runner Sports wind blocking jacket. 

It is not always easy to muster up enough will to get outside when it is this cold but I am always glad when I do.

Are you a cold weather runner?

What is your favorite winter running gear?

Winter Trail

Winter trail is here again

Balance

I took off from work a little early yesterday thinking that I would go easy out on the trails and get a couple of hours in on my feet. I struggled a little from the start but kept pushing on, I figured that I would loosen up and   fall into a nice comfort zone in my run.
After about two miles it just wasn't happening for me. It was colder and windier than I had expected and had not brought a hat with me. I was in a hurry getting out the door and forgot to grab my trail shoes. I decided that maybe this run just wasn't meant to be.
Maybe I needed a rest day.
So I took it today.

I hired a coach a couple of years ago because I find it difficult to not over train  I was at a point back then that I was running twice a day and sometimes felt like it wasn't enough. I knew that I wasn't doing myself any good.

I have 142 days to train for this.

My first attempt at running 50 miles.

Therefore I must listen to my body, train smart, and do my best to remain injury free.

That may be the toughest challenge of all.

The Next 145

145 Days until the Ice Age Trail 50

6 miles mostly power hiking

There is a short window of training so I have do my best to be smart about it

183 lbs

24 miles for the week

Here are some photos from the trail today

No snow yet

Lots of critters on the trail, and a few hunters...

Lots of mud...

Even a little blood...

Amish Run

I haven't been running much lately but when I do, it's all mostly been out on the trails. I got the itch to do a long run on the road today. I was curious as to where my pace would be, most of my trail runs have been pretty casual. I typically run some hills and walk some hills and stop to take some pictures while on the trails. It's been a good change for me lately.

I headed out this afternoon after work, feeling good I decided to run the Amish Route. The Amish Route is a half marathon distance that runs right through the heart of the Amish countryside. Lots of horse and buggy traffic, goats tied up in the front yard, dirt roads, all sorts of interesting things to see. I had not run this route in quite some time and found it to be a real challenge. The entire run seems to be up hill or down hill.

Here is the elevation chart from today.

I started out feeling great for the first 8-9 miles then I started to struggle a little. Running 13.6 miles with almost no training was not the smartest thing that I have ever done but I did enjoy all but the last couple of miles. It was a perfect day for running, and for being poorly trained, I am happy with my results.

I hope you were able to get out there and enjoy a run today!

"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." - Oscar Wilde

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?

Building a Strong Foundation

Looking back at last weeks Ice Age Trail 50K I think that there are three key factors that helped me complete this race.

First, I was under trained. It's easy to over-train and be tired going into an event. I was plagued with bouts of painful plantar fasciitis and had to take a couple of full weeks off from training earlier this month. My longest run going into this race was 22 miles. I felt good after the 22 miler which gave me confidence that I could go another 9 miles to complete the race.

Secondly, feeling good after my long runs rather than completely drained was another big part of my strategy. I slowed things down and incorporated a run / walk strategy. I removed the pressure of pace (mostly) from my training regimen and concentrated on building strength and endurance.

Finally and most importantly, I focused on building a strong foundation for core and strength. I know that I have mentioned this before, but I truly believe that this was physically what got me through my first 50K. Not only just finishing , but finishing strong and feeling good.

Since February I have been meeting up with a group three times per week for about an hour of some good core exercises. I try to change it up every few weeks for variety and add or subtract an exercise if it seems too easy, or even too complicated.

Here is our workout plan and I have also included a demonstration video for some of the exercises.

• Warm up by jumping rope for 1 minute. (great cardio jump start, if you have not jumped rope for awhile, give this a shot!)
• Forward lunges, alternating legs for 1 minute. We generally do this with weights in our hands, this is optional, you can work up to it.
• Reverse lunges, alternating legs for 1 minute.
• Squats - 1 minute. We started out using weights originally with the squats, we now do them without weights but hold the squat position for 10 - 15 seconds at times. Sometimes we have a little contest for some fun to see who can hold it the longest. This is awesome work for the quads, great for hilly runs!
• Push ups - nothing fancy, just do your max push ups. I personally can do about 30 on my good days. Some of the others in my group can do a few more.
• Flutter Kicks - 1 minute (it's great if you can do the full minute, if you have to stop a few seconds and continue that's ok too.)
• V-ups - I tell everyone that the goal is to do 30 and more if you can. Here is a quick video on how to do a V-up. Note: My form is not nearly as good as shown in this video.

• Russian Twists - 1 minute. Some members of our group do this with a weight in their hands.
• Reptile Push-ups - No time limit, just do as many as you can. Demonstration video below.

• Full Body Crunch - our goal is to do 30 or more of these.

• Bicycle Crunches - 1 minute
• Standard Plank - 60 - 70 seconds.
• Side Plank Rotation - Our current goal is to do 20 reps on each side. 

• Oblique Crunches - 1 minute on each side
• Plank with leg lifts - we raise each leg for a 10 second count and have worked up to 5 reps on each side.

• Stability Ball Leg Raises - goal is 30 + reps.

• Stability Ball Bridges - I don't have a completely accurate video of this one, we actually add a step where we roll the ball out to an reverse plank type position after the bridge. We do 30 reps of this exercise.

• Stability Ball Jacknife - 30 reps.

That's the end of round one, we do this entire routine twice. We do shorten up the second round for sake of time by reducing the Russian Twists, flutter kicks, and bicycles to 30 seconds rather than a full minute. This workout generally takes us about an hour and 10 minutes. This includes a water break here and there. Sometimes I try to push it and decrease the intervals between exercises. Sometimes we are a little slow transitioning to the the next exercise, speeding it up definitely increases the difficulty of the entire workout.

Disclaimer : Completing these exercises is difficult and certainly not for everyone. This workout is simply a conglomeration of exercises that I have put together from previous workouts and research over the last few months.

Ice Age 50K

I did it, I completed my first ultra-marathon!

So...here is how the weekend went.

I had been planning this event for quite some time with my partner in crime Tom. He is a great friend from Sioux Falls and a fellow DailyMiler. Tom is a strong runner with an awesome attitude and we had decided that we were going to try and run this (our first ultra-marathon) together. Coincidentally we actually ended up at packet pick up at the same time on Friday evening. This worked out great because we were staying at the same hotel. Tom brought his cheerleading /support crew, his awesome wife Sara, and I brought part of my crew, my mother!

After checking into the hotel we all went for a nice relaxed dinner and retired for the evening. I did my usual pre-race ritual of getting everything ready to go for race morning. The biggest difference for me this time was that I was mentally treating this race as more of a training run than a race. I really did my best to keep things simple. My main fuel sources were Gatorade in the Camelbak, Apple Cinnamon Hammer Gels, and Salt Stick Caps.

Race morning was a breeze. I wasn't nervous about the race, I was ready to take it easy and have a fun long run. I woke up a little early and was able to eat a little breakfast and relax before we left. It was a beautiful morning, nice and cool, with a slight drizzle when we left the hotel. We ran into a little bit of rain on the way to the start but it quit before we got there. Being in the high 50's, it was just about perfect!

The race is in the beautiful Kettle Moraine South State Park. I am not exactly sure how many miles of trails are in the part of the park, but I do know that it is well over 100! There are some great photos of the event located at Running in the USA Photos.

The race started at 8:15am. Tom and I started at about the middle of the pack. The first 13 miles was a 6.5 mile out and back on mostly single track trail with lots of rocks and roots. It wasn't crazy difficult but you had to pay attention, I came close to falling a couple of times and there was rarely an area where you were not going either up or downhill. I was grateful that this was the first portion of the race, it would have been a lot more difficult on tired legs. My plan was to stay well hydrated with my Gatorade and take a gel and a salt tab every 45 minutes. I was having so much fun that I had lost track of time, luckily Tom reminded me to take my first one. I knew that could cause a serious problem so I paid more attention after that. At the 6.5 mile aid station I downed a glass of Coke and had a bite of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I knew I wasn't going to be able to survive on just gels and Gatorade. We stopped a different aid station on the way back and I tried a cup of Mountain Dew. Let me tell you, it was very tasty at that time! Our pacing for this section of the run ranged from 10 - 14 minute miles. We stopped at the two aid stations probably a little longer than we should have but then again, we were not racing. Tom and I seemed to pace each other well on this trail, he really kept me in check and we had a lot of fun joking about the hills and chatting with other runners along the way.

At mile 13 we were back at the start/finish line aid station and I was feeling great. This area works out really well for friends and family members keeping tabs on their runners. It was awesome to get everyone's encouragement on the way through! I got to see my family and asked them to have a 5-hour energy ready for me when I came around the next time. I also let the AS workers refill my Camelbak with Heed. I have used Heed before but I had not recently trained with it so I was a little hesitant. But, I had gone through all of my Gatorade and probably close to 30 oz of water so I thought I would give it a shot. I knew I needed the electrolytes. Luckily it did not cause any problems with my stomach.

The next section of the course was 2 - 9 mile loops on the Nordic Trail. This is a cross country ski trail and I assumed that it would be fairly flat and a smooth sailing couple of loops. I was wrong. It was actually a mostly open trail but there were lots of small but challenging hills sprinkled throughout. This is the part of the trail that really reminded me of running in Missouri. Tom and I stuck with our plan and power walked up all of the hills and ran what we could. I knew Tom had been struggling a little on the first part of the run and I kept asking him how he was doing and he always replied back with a smile and said "fabulous!". Tom is the type of person that could fall and break his leg and would tell you that everything was great while he crawled his way to the finish line. He is THAT tough and has THAT kind of an attitude!

At around mile 15 I was ready to go, I felt bad leaving Tom but he insisted that he was ok with it, so I carried on at a comfortable pace. I mostly ran alone for the rest of the race. I had a few of the hardcore 50 milers pass me and I was able to slowly start picking off some runners ahead of me. Unlike road races, my goal really was not to pass anyone but to just keep making forward progress. I kept a conservative pace for the remainder of the first 9 mile loop. 

I cruised back into AS 2 and my family was there cheering me on and handed me the 5-hour energy that I had asked for. I refilled my Camelbak with a little more Heed and hit the trail again. My goal on this loop was to start pushing the pace a little more. I still power walked up the hills but I ran a lot more freely down the hills and ran strong on the flats. This allowed me to pass a few more runners too.

I was relieved to finally reach AS 1 which was 1.5 miles from the finish. It's funny how that last couple of miles can seem so long. I cruised into the finish at 6:14:25 for an average pace of 12:04. I had really hoped to finish in under 6 hours, but I am not disappointed in my performance at all.

I finished 73rd out of 155 finishers, 14/26 in my age group, and 53/109 for men.

Here is me smiling at the finish line. I had such a great time all throughout this race and I had awesome support too! The people directly behind me in this picture are most of my support crew. Thank you to my mother, father, sister, brother-in-law, nephews, and Tom's wife Sara. It would not have been nearly as much fun without your great support!

Finishing with a smile after 6 hours, 14 minutes,  and 25 seconds!

This was a well organized race with great aid stations. The volunteers were super friendly and helpful. The course was beautiful and challenging. I would strongly consider the 50 miler next time. Entry fee included a nice long sleeve tech shirt and 50K finishers received an Ice Age 50 key chain. 

My awesome sister and nephew!

The sweet looking blister I earned!