Training Week 2/24/2014-3/2/2014

Monday marked the beginning of my "full-time" student teaching and with it a reduced energy level that made getting out the door everyday this week a struggle with the exception of Saturday - more on that later.  I suppose it's fair to say that I have a fear that when I begin teaching this fall, I'll struggle getting out for runs and lose the fitness I've worked so hard to achieve over the past couple years.  However, I think about the many people I know and look up to that have full-time jobs and still train and run at a very high-level and tell myself that if they can do it, I CAN do it!  At the end of the week, I still managed to log 61 miles in roughly 9 hours of running!  Here's how it unfolded:

Monday: 6.5, 230' 1hr
With Rudy recovering from Mt. Cheaha, Mike Jones recovering from Mt. Mitchell, and most of the other folks missing, the Monday evening Ultra VT group run was fairly tame compared to previous weeks.  It was really an "old guy" run as Mike and Darren split off after 3 miles or so leaving Robbie, Jordan, and I to bring up the average age of the group run and have "old man" talk.  For some reason, I wasn't feeling a burrito and opted to pass on my usual post Ultra VT group run Moe's Monday.  I know, I know; I'm a disgrace to Moe's Foursquare Mayors all over.

Tuesday: Rest

Tuesday is now my usual rest day and I observed it this week.  I'm not really too sure what happened on Tuesday - the week was a total blur.

Wednesday: 9.6, 440' 1.25hr

I stayed after school for a professional development seminar and when I did finally get home I debated whether to run or to choose the easy excuse to say "I'm too tired" to get out and run.  I thought about what Dr. Horton told us during the pre-race meeting before Holiday Lake, "The five minute rule: if you do something for five minutes it's often easier to keep going than it is to stop.  If you get out for a run in the cold weather it's easier to keep running then get dressed for the cold weather to only run five minutes" and used this to get me out the door on my run.  The loop I did is one of my "go-to get in 8 or more miles" loops in Blacksburg.  I had told Michelle to meet me at Moe's at 6, which meant that my run wasn't limited by my willingness to get miles in but rather "how many miles can I run and not be late."  I arrived at Moe's at 5:59 and then stretched quickly before grabbing dinner with my best friend :-)

Thursday: CELEBRATE!

Well...Thursday was AWESOME!  I should've gone out for a run but I came home in such a great mood after training to be a substitute teacher for Montgomery County and on-campus interviews that I decided I wanted to just sit around and enjoy the moment.  I suppose this is a bit cryptic and for now that will have to do but I saw something on Instagram this week that sums up how I feel, (filtered version)"Good things come to those who wait GO OUT AND MAKE THINGS HAPPEN!"  I did not plan to have two rest days this week and consequently ended up a bit short on volume but what I missed out on in terms of volume by taking the extra day off I more than made up for in attitude!

Friday: 7.2, 730' 1hr

Friday followed suit with the rest of the week and I told myself I would go out and get 5, 6, or 7 miles in depending on how I felt.  I have two options when I leave my apartment complex in terms of what direction I want to go; both lead downhill.  I choose to head down toward the valley knowing that regardless of the route I took I would eventually have to climb back up the hill.  I felt pretty good for most of the run but around 4 miles my stomach started to let me know it wasn't happy with my choice to eat an apple before my run.  Coincidently, I listened to a Podcast on Saturday that discussed this very issue, eating an apple prior to a run, something I will NEVER do again.  I think I've done this before and didn't learn my lesson...this time I did.  Although I didn't have to stop and empty the contents of my bowels in a yard...I nearly had to and wound up walking the last 1/2 mile home.  Sometimes you just have those runs...which hopefully do not involve the runs.

Friday marked the end of February and my highest mileage month of running - ever.  I logged 238 miles, or a little over 2.5 times what I did in 2013.  However, what's even more impressive as I look at the numbers between 2013 and 2014 is that in January alone, after taking the first 8 days of the month off, I logged more time running than I did January and February combined in 2013.  I feel strong and seeing the benefits of putting in 6, 7, or 8 hours of running on the weekend is totally worth the pain in the moment.

Saturday:  21.5, 1950' 3.25hr

Creek that parallels Ellett Rd going down into the valley.

On Saturday morning, I got up early, ate breakfast, and headed out for a long run down in the valley.  I had scoped out a run using the course feature on Garmin Connect but didn't know how long the trails were at my destination.  I was meeting Michelle's dad, Marvin, to grab lunch before the basketball game at 2:30, which meant that I needed to back at my place and ready to leave by 1PM.  I set out around 9 and headed down into the valley via Ellett Road, which gave me roughly 3:30 hours to run before I needed to get back and clean up for the game.  I was excited to try out my new vest that had arrived on Friday from RunningWarehouse that was an exchange for the AK vest I had returned after wearing once on a training run on the Holiday Lake course.  

Structurally sound?  I think not.

The issue with the AK vest, aside from the lack of storage, was that my ribs were sore for days after wearing it for one 16 mile training run because of how the bottles sat on ribcage.  I decided to give the Scott Jurek vest, also made by Ultimate Direction, a try because unlike the AK vest it comes in three sizes (sm, med, and lg) and I fell right in the middle of the medium whereas I was at the high end of a small and low end of a large for the AK vest.  The vest works SO WELL!  Last year, I talked about running motivation in a blog post and that sometimes a new piece of gear can serve as the little needed additional motivation to get out the door for a run.  This vest did that and more; it has me itching to get out for more long run adventures!  

Eventually, I made my way out to Falls Ridge Preserve (mile 8.5), protected by The Nature Conservancy, and decided that I had enough time to go explore the trails.  There are really only two trails out there, both are "lollipop" style trials with the first that you arrive at being a 1.5 mile loop and other, the Bradley Trail, branches off the first loop and goes up to a peak to make for a total of about 3.5 miles of trail.

About 100 feet in you come to this awesome waterfall, I took some video with my phone and uploaded it to Instagram during the run!

 

There are lots of water features out there along the trail and the conservancy website lists the falls at 80'.  I didn't see anyone else out on the trail and the quiet and remoteness was needed after a long and busy week.  The Bradley Trail, which is the lollipop that winds around a peak called Mill Knob, reaches just over 2000'.  Upon leaving Falls Ridge Preserve, I knew that I had about 9 miles left and around two hours until Marvin would be picking me up.  The run home along Lusters Gate was pretty uneventful and although I've ridden that section of road many times on a bicycle, I was able to appreciate the beauty of the valley in a new way running it.  The last bit of the run is climbing out of the valley up the "Blacksburg Infamous" Harding Road climb.  It. Stinks.  At the end of the run, I had managed to log 21 miles in a little over 3 hours and put a solid dent into my weekend volume.

Sunday: 16.4, 600' 2.25hr
Sunday marked the 29th running of the Blacksburg Classic, which I ran last year but opted to not run this year.  Instead, Michelle and I went and watched and cheered on several of our friends who were running.

In order to be able to watch the race Sunday afternoon, I had to get up and out the door early again on Sunday for another longish run.  I was shooting for 15.1 miles to make it an even 60 for the week but when I got out to the new and recently paved section of the Huckleberry Trail I decided I would just go a little further.  I ended my run at Chipotle, a decision I immediately regretted because I had to lug it back up the hill...that I walked instead of ran.  I got home a few minutes after 12 and we were out the door by 12:45 headed down to the start of the race.

The start of the 29th Annual Blacksburg Classic!

There were 5 folks from the Ultra VT that were running including Jordan and Kristen Chang, Guy, Rachel, and Alex.  I also saw a bunch of other folks out there including two of my professors and Gef who I ran with on my long run last Sunday.  We brought Gillie along and Michelle took photos while I Vuvuzela'd the runners as they went by.  It was pretty awesome!

Jordan Chang looking strong on the first of two downtown loops!

Guy Love and Geffrey Moy (left) and Kristen Chang (right) completing loops 1 of 2.

Much heckling occurred!

Probably my favorite shot of the day - Michelle did a great job!

Michelle and our wild little one!

More heckling!

Jordan took 2nd overall!

Guy Love and Geffrey Moy finished 5th and 7th respectively.

Good times were had by all!

Totals for the week:

Distance: 61.3

Elevation: 3945'

Duration: 8:46

It was another strong week of training and I'm feeling confident with the back-to-back runs I've been putting together on the weekends.  As of posting this, Umstead 100 is 31 days away!  I am simultaneously excited and nervous.

100 miles isn't that far.  ~Karl Meltzer

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My First 70+ Mile Training Week! 2/17/2014-2/23/2014

The week started off pretty slow and by Thursday I was worried about whether I would get in the volume I wanted for the week.  One thing I've been thinking about over the past month as my training has ramped up, is why am I running this 100 mile race in April?  What's my motivation?  I've done a great job in terms of putting in the miles and logging long runs but I'm not too sure about why I'm doing it?  Nonetheless, I hit 71 miles for the week, a new personal best and my first time logging weekly mileage in 70's!  The volume was noticeable this week and I struggled getting out the door for nearly every run aside from today's long run.  Anyways, this is how last week unfolded:

Monday: 7, 250' 1hr
The weekly Monday night Ultra VT group run was a good time as usual and involved a bunch of "RIGHT!"'s as we swept through downtown Blacksburg.  My legs didn't feel too bad during the run considering the effort at Holiday Lake 50k on Saturday and the strenuous running we did in the snow.  It was a solid start to the week before a bit of a mid-week break.  For some reason I was pretty drained on Monday but the group run got me out the door and helped hold me accountable.

Tuesday: 2.5, 20 min.
I used to have a rule that I wouldn't go out for a run that was less than 4 miles because it wasn't worth my time.  As I've run more over the past couple years, that number has slightly shifted with my average run distance toward the 7-8 mile range.  On Tuesday, I came home exhausted and with zero motivation to run but Michelle decided she wanted to get out for a run so we headed down to the Huckleberry Trail with Gillie for a casual run.  Unfortunately Michelle has been battling some knee issues, which flared up pretty early into our run and consequently cut it short.  Sometimes you have to take it a day at a time and let it happen.

Wednesday: Rest
The day got the better of me and I decided to take a day off for both mental and physical recovery.

Thursday:  12.3, 1300' 2hr
On Thursday, I got home pretty early from class and took Gillie out for a run before I headed out on my run for the day.  Gillie is usually good for 2-3 miles but after that she gets too tired and I worry about her getting hurt.  I read somewhere that when you run with a dog they should always be in front of you and when they're not it's time to call it a day.  Perhaps I'm already an overprotective parent?

After tiring out the pup, I headed out for a run for me and ran down the hill from our apartment toward the valley.  I cut across on a road called Happy Hollow, which is anything but happy and ran on almost an entirely new route!  It was pretty awesome!

After my run, Michelle and I made some amazing bacon, kale, caramelized-onion calzones making the dough from scratch in the KitchenAid mixer.  

Friday: 9.8, 680' 1.5hr

On Friday, I took Gillie out for another quick jog before heading out for my run where I ran into Pawel and Gef on their run and joined them for a mile or so.  Hence the abrupt turn around on Plantation Road on the map two activities below.

Saturday: 19.2, 4650' 3.75hr

Apple Orchard Mountain Summit - 4225'

My alarm went off at 4:15 on Saturday morning and I dragged myself out of bed to head over to campus so that I could grab a ride to Bedford for a training run on the Promise Land course.  Alex (pictured right below) will be running her first ultra at Promise Land, which I did last year, and sent out an email seeing if anyone would be interested in joining her for the training run Saturday morning organized Dr. Horton.  The three of us (Rachel is left in the photo below) made the drive up to Bedford Saturday morning and arrived at Promise Land Youth Camp just before 7.  We found Guy Love parked at the gate, who had camped the night before, and after changing into our running clothes headed up the 2.5 mile climb to aid station 1, where everyone else was beginning their runs for the day.  

The scheduled run allowed runners to see 12 miles of the course but by adding the starting climb we tacked on an additional 5 miles.  We also added a little side trip up to the peak of Apple Orchard Mountain and then hopped on AT to descend from the peak to the Sunset Field aid station on the course to make it 19 miles for the day.  The run was fairly slow because of the considerable amount of snow on the trails, which was kind of a slap in the face after Holiday Lake the previous Saturday.  The snow was just soft enough that your foot would break through right on toe-off so it was faster to walk some sections than it was to run.  After the run, we stopped off at Blue Ridge Bagels for the perfect post run lunch!  The bagels were delicious and the place had so much character!  I would HIGHLY recommend stopping there if you find yourself in Bedford.  Yum!  

Sunday: 20, 1100' 2:40
Despite the tough day on Saturday, I had committed to heading down to Draper to run on the New River Trail with Pawel and Gef on Sunday morning.  Unfortunately Pawel's foot was bothering him but Gef was still up for getting in a run and we made the short drive down 81 to Draper, VA a little after 9:30AM.  Pawel and Gef had planned to run 20 and although I really wanted to get in 20, I also didn't want to be a hinderance to them if I wasn't able to maintain their training pace of 8 min/miles.  I decided to give it a try and was surprised how my legs felt after such a long day just 24 hours prior.  We managed to tick off 12 miles before getting back to the car to refill our bottles and grab some food.  It took a lot of energy to get back out on the trail but we managed to complete all 20 miles in just under two hours and forty minutes or roughly a 7:50 pace!

I was super pumped to have finished this run because it required me to dig deep and push through when my legs were tired.  It was a pretty huge confidence boost to knock out 39 miles over the weekend and hit a new weekly high miles of 71 miles.  Unfortunately my stomach was pretty upset after and the Five Guys burger I had been thinking about, and got me through some of the tough parts of the run, didn't happen.  Sad panda.

Totals for the week:

Distance: 71

Elevation: 8000'

Duration: 11hr

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Where's Waldo...Thursday? GoPro Photo-a-day 1/1/14-1/16/14

Wow.  Where did the first half of January go?  To date, I have run 28 miles in the month of January.  A stark contrast to the mileage I was putting in during the second-half of December.  My low mileage is partly due to fact that I took the first week of January off.  A much needed recovery.  During the last week of December, I logged the most miles I have ever done in a week - 65.  Tough to swallow that I will do thirty-five more than that in a single day (hopefully) at the beginning of April.  During the peak mileage week and for the entirety of December, and for all of 2013 for that matter, I ran pain free **knock on wood** but toward the end of the month I began to notice a slight amount of "discomfort" in my right foot.  I decided a week off from running would be a nice way to begin 2014.  I was surprised to discover that during the during the first week of January when I was taking time off from running, I had the worst quality sleep that I can remember and I began noticing pain, specifically in my right knee, that wasn't present prior to taking time off.  What gives???  The good news is that my knee only gives me trouble when I'm sleeping, and not when I'm running, so perhaps I'm doing something to agitate it while I'm sleeping?  Anyways, that's kind of the state-of-my-state.

In bigger news, I passed **tentatively** my Praxis II exam on Tuesday morning!!!  I'm ecstatic (if the three exclamation points didn't give that away).  I say **tentatively** because while you receive your score at the end of the exam, you do not receive your official score until 10-15 days after taking the test.  I believe this is because they normalize the scores - hopefully my score doesn't go down and stays above the required passing score. I was really really stressing about this exam because it could have prevented me from student teaching in the spring and consequently pushed back my graduation.  I dedicated a decent amount of time studying for the exam and it was nice to see that my hard work paid off.  What I find interesting is that the state of Virginia raised the passing score from a 147 to a 160 beginning January 1st of this year.  The ETS considers a score of 165 excellent and even provides a certificate for earning such a score, aptly named the Recognition of Excellence Award.  This means that individuals in my program, who will graduate with the same degree and at the same time as me, are not required to earn the same score that I was required to earn.  Pretty silly but a Pass is a Pass and I'm glad it's behind me!

When Michelle and I were home for the holidays, we received our first wedding gift - a GoPro Black Camera!  IT. IS. AWESOME!  We decided that because we're getting married this year and because we received this awesome and incredibly generous gift, we wanted to take a photo-a-day with the camera.  Below are the first 16 days of January!

1/1/2014 - Playing with the GoPole in the car!

1/2/2014 - Michelle and I studying in the Graduate study room :-(

1/3/2014 - Grocery shopping.

1/4/2014 - Evening walk with Gillie.

1/5/2014 - "Dad!  I told you I don't like having my photo taken!"

1/6/2014 - Nothing too exciting here.

1/7/2014 - Virginia Tech vs. Syracuse at Cassell Coliseum 

1/8/2014 - My first run of the year - Running in Jefferson National Forest.

1/9/2014 - Making pizzas is a standard thing around here - 

Buffalo chicken was the first of the night.

1/10/2014 - Out on a dreary afternoon walk with Gillie.

1/11/2014 - First photo Michelle took with the GoPro...studying???

1/12/2014 - The moment before impact.  

Michelle took a nasty spill off the slackline right after this photo was taken.  

I was taking a time-lapse. 

1/13/2014 - College Avenue promenade after grabbing dinner at Moe's on Monday.

1/14/2013 - Whoopsie!  This photo came out a little blurry...there's a bit of a learning curve!

1/15/2013 - A night walk with Gillie!

1/16/2013 - Dinner this evening!  (Eat Fresh!)

So that's what we've been up to!  Michelle takes her Praxis tomorrow morning (send her some love!) and then I've got the VCLA Saturday morning - sad panda.  Sad panda because I was planning on running a local fat ass (a free or cheap organized ultra event) right at Jefferson national park but my VCLA is now Saturday morning.  Silly school getting in the way of running!  Yesterday was exactly one month from Holiday Lake 50k, which will be my first race of the year!  Aside from that, I begin teaching at a middle school during the first week of February and I'm totally pumped!  Oh yeah - last thing, we got a slackline and it's awesome and incredibly difficult!  I foresee lots of fun this spring with it!

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