Monday, June 28, 2010

It's Time

Last week as I was discovering my fitness, I realized that I wanted to race soon. Erock told me about a 4 mile elite race called the Hydes Park Park on Saturday night. I planned on doing that but late in the week I decided to drive home and visit with the family for a few days. Anytime I get a chance to come home, away from work or races, I will take it. The Hydes Park Blast race seemed like a good one after seeing the results they must have changed it to a 5k, and the times were very competitive. Anyhow, my first race of the summer will be this coming Saturday in Jackson. I have ran this race for the past 3 years and it is always a good time. Last year Josh Linkous edged me out for first by .4 seconds. This year, it will be just as competitive.

Since my training is picking up and I am feeling very good about everything, I am going to start posting my weekly training log. It will give me a good chance to sort things out and see what I did in a bigger view. Here was last week.

Monday 6/21
AM: 8 miles at Hangover with Eric. Some of the hardest rain we have both ran in. 58:26
PM: 6 miles to Fire Tower with Corey. 42:30

Tuesday 6/22
14 miles in 1:45:00. Two loops around the main trail at Reece's and added on up to the Fire Tower.

Wednesday 6/23
14 miles in 1:42:00. Met Keegan at Great Seal and had a great run with him on some of the best groomed trails I have ran on in the summer. Had a good conversation going the entire run. Felt great on the hills

Thursday 6/24
13 miles in 1:30:00. Only road run of the week. I like to get out and run fast every once in a while. But, I like it to be mostly on back roads or dirt roads. And this is what it was. Nice climbs and I was able to get a few mile splits from the mile markers. Kept a few under 7 minutes.

Friday 6/25
AM: 8 miles in 1:00:00. I like to run twice a day whenever I drive home. This was up to the Fire Tower and around.
PM: 8 miles in 58:30. Back home for another hour.

Saturday 6/26
10 miles in 1:11:00. Home in Meigs County running on the familiar gravel roads.

Sunday 6/27
16 miles in 2:00:30. On my way home I stopped at Strouds Run and got two hours in. The trails were sort of overgrown in sections and cobwebs were everywhere! Luckily, my last hour was cobweb free since I went out and back and I had already cleared them! I felt great all the way through the two hours.

Total Miles: 97
Total Time: 11:47:26

Over the 10 hour per week range for the third consecutive week. Here soon I will be over 12 hours and even 13 and 14 later in the summer. All in all, as I gain mileage, I am gaining a lot of confidence. Enjoying every run and every step and I look forward to racing and more miles this coming week!

WMO

Friday, June 25, 2010

Gone, Gone, Gone

Once again, it has been a mere two weeks since my last post. Many thoughts have been floating around in my head but I can never come up with anything to write about. Even now, I do not have anything interesting to write about, I am just in front of a computer and feel like it has been too long in between posts. Nothing is new. No major trips. No races. No injuries. I am just plugging along, beating the heat, but most of all, enjoying every step of every run.

When I last posted, I was in the middle of my first week at 90 miles for the summer. I ended up doing 91 that week. The week after I also did 91 miles. This week, I am planning on hitting 95 or so. It is definitely nice to have no set plans. Running on roads is an uncommon thing, and if I do, it is only to get to a trail or a gravel road of such. Gravel roads are my choice if I do end up running on a road. Hangover has been visited 2 or sometimes 3 times a week. There really is no better place to train for cross country then out there. I run on trails the other days, either at Shawnee State Forest or out in Brush Creek.

Two weekends from now, I plan on heading down to Virginia to meet up with Eric Grossman and some of his friends, to run what he is calling Back to Back Hurricanes. Basically, we are running 26.2 miles on Friday and again on Saturday. This will be a test for me, as I will learn how my body holds up to back to back days of longer runs. I believe the longest back to back days for me is probably 21 and 17 or something like that (excluding the 40 and 9 that I did in May). My long runs this summer have been 16 miles, a couple times a week and they have felt very smooth.

Summer is Great! And it is almost over!

WMO

Friday, June 11, 2010

Summer Dwellings

Summer is in full force here, and it shows because I haven't posted in a while. There is no Internet at Reece's so when I post it has to be from the library on campus. I only come into town a couple times a week. For the most part, summer has been pretty normal, not much going on. Summer is a time for a lot of running and that can get pretty monotonous which is why most people have a hard time keeping consistent training during this time of the year. But, I do not mind the simpleness of it and summer training has always fared pretty well for me. Also, I have been golfing a lot. I have a deep passion for golf going back when I was 8 years old, but the past three years in college, I have only went out a few times each year. Now, working at the golf course with free golf, I go for a round 4 or 5 times a week. I have enjoyed it thoroughly and might be talking about golf on here a little bit.
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Although I have been golfing more than ever, I have managed to build up the mileage pretty quick. I am in the middle of my fourth week since taking a couple of easy weeks and will more than likely hit 90 miles for the week. I am sure once my miles start getting higher, golf will become a little more sparse. I am planning on trying out for the golf team later this summer though, with no expectations. My runs have been up and down. One day I will run 10 miles and feel sluggish and other days I can run 2 hours and feel great. From experience, I know this is the process. Once I get to a higher level of fitness, those bad days will not come around as much. Right now I know that I am about 10 days from being very fit again.
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See, sounds boring to a typical person. Yet again, I am not a typical person. I somehow find enjoyment by running in 90 degree heat with bugs swarming all over my face. Summer has always been fun for me. Maybe its the fact that I can eat an extreme amount of food or soak in the pond after a run. Whatever it is, I like it.
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WMO