Saturday morning, I'm sipping my tea (ok i had a few gingersnaps) and getting ready for a 90 minute or so run. I'm pretty pleased its above 0*C and ill get the run in before a rain storm approaches.... I will running very easy as I took an unscheduled spin class yesterday and I can really feel my hamstrings this morning - foam rolling them out before I go.

I see that the Ultra Trail de Mont Blanc registration is closed - did you get in Perfesser?

Happy saturday, A

Welcome back to running, Ze! You got it done yesterday! How did it feel?

How was your run, Ayola? Did the weather hold out?

It does not look like PerfesserR got into UTMB, if I looked at the list correctly.

How's the training going, Puke?

Dutchie, did you get out with Spooky this past week?

I ran 10 miles on the trail yesterday and had a really good day out there. My confidence is coming back; I'm not so timid about falling again. This means I'm able to lift my eyes and look about 2 feet in front of me! Much better than looking straight down and planning every single footstep. That can really slow you down! My back is feeling nearly normal and I've been doing my core exercises, so I was much more nimble.. Still not a lot of spring in my step or elasticity in my muscles, showing I still have work to do; but I was happy with the run. The rain held off and it was not cold; so quite the contrast from last weekend's wet and miserable run.

Today I'll be running on the paved bike trail (8 miles) and expect to find my pace has increased (due to healing up) from 3 weeks ago when I last ran this route. I'll be logging off here to go do some stretching and massage balling first to iron out the bumps from yesterdays effort.

Hope everyone is making the most of their weekend!

Hi!

What a morning! Clear, crisp, sunny, glorious! By my book, it's a sin to stay indoors on such a day!

However, my wife is recovering from a bad flu, my daughter came home for the weekend, my parents came over for lunch, had a lot of cooking (more like dish washing, actually) to do, my son had a basket ball game at 15:00... Well, I managed a 8 km run late in the afternoon... But it was OK.

And I am slowly closing in on the bunny. I am now only 4 rabbit-days behind. Maybe I get it before the end of the month! Watch out, bunny! Here comes the turtle!

Ayola, you can run for 1:30, don't be too weary of going for 2 hour runs. (But I should say that longer runs such as these are a lot easier on beautiful places, like mountains or flat beaches during the low tide.)

Cheers,

Ze

Hi everyone,

bad news on my part. I came down with a particularly nasty case of bronchitis last week and am only just recovering. Still coughing and tired, but I am doing better. From past meetings with bronchitis, I know it will be at least another week after the coughing stops before I can even trust my lungs to be able to breath any harder than a slow walk. Maybe I can manage some strength training next week.

Puke: I'd trade with your holiday any time Your course sounds really interesting. We all could do with some insight in ourselves.

Happy: hooray on the confidence coming back. And the back feeling better! Your trail runs sound like a lot of fun. We don't have trails around here. Well, we have "horse trails", but those are just grassy paths through the woodland around here.

Ayola: always good when other people keep an eye on your runs.

Ze: it's always nice to have family over, and you did get a run in. That's good!

Glad you felt well enough for some TM time, Dutchie. Hope the shop has some answers for you on what is making the racket.

Keep up the good work, Ze!

Ayola, are you still going out for a 2-hour run tomorrow? Pretty cold where you are now, right? Is there much snow or ice on the ground?

Tarawera is Freaking IMMINENT!!  A live tracking link would be great or just tell us your bib number in case we need that to look it up. Great that it’s on a Saturday there/Sunday here since we mostly have Sunday off and can actually follow you, Puke. Sounds like a wonderful holiday at the beach. Sooo jealous! Also jealous of the personal development training course you participated in. I’ve been giving those topics a lot of thought recently, trying to turn my attitude around. I’ve been somewhat successful and, as I’d hoped, I’m feeling better about my running because of it.

It's supposed to be dry here tomorrow and then start raining on Sunday for the next week. So, we've decided on a 7-mile trail run tomorrow afternoon when DH gets off work. Then a longer run in the neighborhood on Sunday.

I need to make a new training plan to start Feb 1 with some back-to-back long training runs leading up to the May vacation. Maybe that should be "back-to-back-to-back" since it's a 3-day "event." I read a suggestion online last night having to do with training for a multi-day event which said to do a LR the distance of the longest day (of the event) and follow it with a run the next day at 75% distance.  Using that, I'd do a 15-miler one day and an 11-miler the next; not sure what the third day would be....stay in bed? ha! ha!  It did not indicate how often you should do this, but said your weekly mileage should equal the distance of the "event," which in this case is 45 miles.  It all sounds a bit daunting. So I need to get busy now my back is better and start proving to myself that I can do this thing.  Gotta make a plan. Any and all advice welcomed.

I just agreed to run a trail 25K on Feb 15 with the gal I paced in the GOAT trail HM last September. It's more like 27K in reality, but who's counting Ks, right?  25 or 27 - both are farther than I've run since the marathon in October. Nothing like throwing down the gauntlet, right? We'll treat it like a regular weekend long trail run and not pursue a time goal. So it should be a fun adventure.

The total length of the trail is about 45 miles.

From the website:

"Each day will include around 15 miles of running with options for more.

Day one will be between 14 and 15 miles.
Day two will be between 14 and 15 miles with options to add 4 to 12 more miles
Day three will be around 12 miles with options to add 4 to 10 more"

I have three solid months to prepare. Just need to do some smart planning.

The harder thing might be trying to pack everything I need for such an excursion into a bag the size of a grocery bag! Simply impossible!!

I put the link in my sig line. It's clickable and has some enticing photos.

Hi Jeff!  GREAT to hear from you!  How's life?