"So long as there is breath in me, that long I will persist. For now I know one of the greatest principles on success; if I persist long enough I will win." (Og Mandino)
Rest day for me, which is good since I'm sitting on the couch with a heating pad attached to my neck and a muscle relaxer making me feel fairly good. Took off my sweatshirt yesterday and WHAM! - my neck went haywire. By the time I got up this a.m., I couldn't lift my head without holding it with my hands, and after two hours at work, it got worse. This has happened before. I should be much better by tomorrow . . . hopefully.
In the meantime, it's just me, a heating pad, munchies, and the remote control.
Leslie Living and Running Behind the Redwood Curtain -------------
Trail Runner Nation
Sally McCrae-Choose Strong
Bare Performance
Queen of 3rd Place
Leslie - UGH! Hope that loosens up quickly. There are so many teensy muscles in the neck and along the spine, and when one of those little buggers gets persnickety it's amazing how it can ruin your day!
Time to get it in gear if I want to hit 2000 mi again this year. Lots of easy miles in store. This happens every year, though, and it seems to always work out since the weather is starting to cooperate. Easy 10 this am and it wasn't even a little hot when I finished.
Ex runner
I'm on Day 2 with the neck. It's better, but not 100%. A least I can raise my head up without having to support it with one hand. I briefly contemplated running this morning, but realized that would probably be stupid. So I will adjust my schedule and will more than likely run Fri/Sat/Sun instead of having Friday as a rest day.
Til then, it's heating pad, light stretching, and drugs. Yee Haw!
Arla - I need to do some figuring to see if I can make it to 2000 and still have a rest after Weaver Basin. If I do, it'll be my first time to hit the mark.
jfa
This may be the first year in 5 that I won't make it to 2000.Can we use yearly averages?
Nice 15m tonight. The first half was straight into a 30mph wind.It was fun coming back though.
Leslie - Woot! To me, hitting 2000 is a mark of consistency. It's about 38.5 miles a week on average. Factor in life, down time, tapering and what-not, and it's a respectable figure!
Joe - Didn't you have something else going on this year?
Easy 6 in the dark this am, weights tonight.
Seems to me, he did.
38.5 miles a week? I'll be talking to Coach Gary about this.
I'm healthy again - well, at about 95%. It still bothers me to tilt my head forward or back, but I have more range of motion when doing so. I was actually able to look down at the scales this morning.
Yesterday morning did 5 EZ miles, which felt great, and this morning did 8 miles with 3 tempo miles embedded in the middle. I'm getting better at the tempo running (i.e., I'm not taking off like I've been shot out of a rocket and trying to maintain the effort), but am still looking for that point where I could run a tempo pace for an hour. I was close this morning, so that made me happy.
A local guy I met at Mt. Hood in July ran the Pine to Palms 100 Mile Endurance Run this past weekend in the mountains outside of Ashland, OR. A very hard 100-mile trail run at altitude with three big climbs (ie 6000 feet of elevation gain in 10 miles for one climb alone). He and a few other runners got derailed early in the race either by poor trail marking or trail bandits (someone removing the markings) and ended up running 15 miles before he hit the first aid station, prior to which he was forced to drink out of a creek as he ran out of fluids.
1st AS - no electrolyte drink and hardly any food.
2nd AS - electrolyte drink but hardly any food.
3rd AS - no food or water.
4th AS - no food or water (had access to crew at this point, and they shared what little water and food they had with other runners).
5th AS - no food or water. At that point, he had to drop as he was so depleted by the lack of nutrition and hydration.
He contacted the RD - who is a highly accomplished trail runner - regarding all of this. The RD apologized and refunded Chris' entry fee, but then tried to justify the lack of provisions on runners wasting water and injured runners spending too much time in the aid stations. This is inexcusable, and for the third year there are major complaints by the mid and back of the pack runners about inadequate provisions for them. Conversely, the front runners love the race and I can only ascertain this is because adequate provisions are provided for them. I respect this RD for his accomplishments as a trail runner (he won Hardrock this year) and from everything I've heard he's a nice guy, but suffice to say I would never participate in a race for which he is the RD, regardless of the distance.
He has stated in the past that he devised this course with the great ultra runners in mind (i.e., not people like me or, obviously, Chris). If that is the case and the mid and back of the pack runners are not as important, why open the race to them at all? Why not have limitations, i.e., open only to those who have recently completed a comparable 100-miler in, say, 24 hours or less.
Jim -forgot to mention about your post last week - BUSY! Amazed that you got any runs in. Is that pic you posted the dry land corn? It sure looks dry alright!
Leslie - that's astonishing to hear about such lousy support on such a long race. Something like that could be deadly. Guess I'm lucky to have done American River, I felt like there was a munchie buffet at every aid station. I loved it! I think I actually gained weight that day. *urp!*
Speaking of tempos, supposed to do some today, not sure how much, maybe 3 or 4 mile repeats? Most of the time, I really enjoy these types of workouts. It definitely was hard to figure out that they're slower than you might think. I have to keep going back to the pace calculators to confirm, yep, gotta slow it down. If you can keep yourself reined in, it's a lot more fun to do them.
If you can keep yourself reined in, it's a lot more fun to do them.
Have you been talking with my coach??
Heh. I wish I would listen to him. Doesn't help that my Garmin died and I'm timing myself with my old iPhone and the Nike+ app. My workout was supposed to include 2 x 2 mi tempos at 8:10 - 8:15 pace. After doing the first one at 7:58 (oops), I only got in a single mile for the second one. Still a good workout, hey that's what counts.
Top 'O the World!
Howdy Folks! Hope you all are well!
I haven't gone back to read much yet & don't know if I'll get to ... lots of other stuff I'm trying to get read right now.... sometimes I seem to have several books (mostly kindle versions) going on at once. Trying to get some more mileage these past few weeks, still have that Bear Chase thingy (50K) on the 30th. Having a tough time. The chronic fatigue part of my crap is really a challenge right now, weight is up, as well as the chronic poor air quality (wildfire particulates) is making breathing a challenge. Went to a new Doc today - homeopathic endocrinologist. I'm still mentally fighting with stuff! Although he's listed as a sports doc, he's not a big fan of endurance sports He's an Atkins fan .... And he's out of network & friggin expensive!!
I get to see Kelly again soon! She, Doug & I are all signed up for the Monument Marathon in Scottsbluff, NE. on Oct 13!
Got in "roughly" 10.5 decent miles yesterday - 5.5 in the am w/Mairead & a cpla chatty neighbor pauses & then 5 later with Doug @ the Snug.
Garmin is dying... It's always reading shorter than everybody else's distance lately & now it's stopped beeping at all. Haven't tried the iphone app....I do try to run without my phone!!!
Cindy- sorry to hear about your issues. Hope the new doc can fix what's ailing you.Say Hi to Kelly for us! I had a good friend from my Navy days visit over the weekend. He lives in Colorado Springs. Glad to have reconnected with him as I now have an excuse ( and place to stay) for going skiing out there.
Leslie- yes that trail race sounds like it should be an invitational kind of thing. Not too cool to short change us non-elites. Concerning the tempos/intervals, I use the shot -out -of- the cannon method myself. That is, I get a faster start than called for, for about the first quarter of the interval, then slow down to the prescribed pace. I like that better than having to speed up at the end.
Arla- your Garmin? That's your 610? I was going to inject my experiences of my faulty Garmin 610(s) on the review thread, but was hoping that my experience is not the norm. I just received replacement #6 today. This time they gave me a new one as opposed to a refurb. We shall see. In their defense, they have supported mine well past the 1 year warranty and the tech support people I have talked to are excellent.
Fighting yet another cold this week but getting it done.
Yesterday was 4 easy in the am, then the evening workout was 3 , 1 mile intervals with 2.5 minutes rest jogs. 8:15, 7:56 , 7:45. I'm hitting all of my training paces and feeling good. 45 days to go......
Cindy! {{{HUGS!!!}}} And give Kelly a big hug for me when you see her.
Don't get too sick, Joe. There's a nasty bug going around here. I have myself wrapped up in a hazmat suit.
This is a hit and run post - 3 EZ miles this a.m., tomorrow 20 out on the logging roads all by my lonesome.
Worked my fanny off at work today - Bookkeeping Friday. It always kills me. Now I'm off to the tub for a warm soak, a good book, and some popcorn.
Nite -
My 20 miles today were so-so. My legs were tired, but again I had trouble getting nutrition down. It's a cycle for me, and one I continue to work on. The other issue I have is almost constant dry mouth/thick saliva (sorry if that's TMI), which means I have to force myself to NOT drink too much. All I could think of almost the whole run was how good a root beer float sounded! Ended up with a Mickey D's caramel frappe instead. It was a pretty good substitute.
A childhood friend of mine has been posting on Facebook some pics of us she found over the last few days. It's been a hoot looking at them, and has brought back some great memories.
It was Amy's birthday (left w/cat). We had a blast - scavenger hunt around the neighborhood, talent show, frozen training bras. What more can a bunch of girls ask for!
Our 8th grade class went to San Francisco for a week. I'm assuming this a pic taken on the way TO San Fran as I remember during the first couple of days of the trip getting extremely homesick. Poor, Mrs. Davis, one of the parent chaperones. She worked hard to get me over that hump.
Hello? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
7 slow miles after church, then I washed windows while The Hub began the painting process. Found out it isn't at easy as he thought it was going to be. At the paint store, he had two difference brushes. Me: "Is one of those for me?" Him: "No." Me (just looking at him for a beat): "You don't trust me do you?" Him: a sheepish look. . . . . come to think of it, I should've sat my tail on the couch, ate bonbons, and watched movies while he was painting.
flatland mountaineer
6.2 field checking miles, went pretty well, a little hip sore, but not bad for not doing any pt etc. 15 or so last week mostly early morns.
Leslie neck things are usually stress induced for me, as it happens for no reason. Sounds like you are on the mend now. Fun Pics and I have never found a paint brush that fit my hand.......
Arla ya I think was dryland, just hit a little bit of decent irrig corn yesterday. Seems like I want to run tempos to fast also. Glad you are finally getting some cooler run temps.
Joe hoping you have the cold kicked to the curb by now. Ya you have had a big year, I think using an average is appropriate for 2k this yr. ;-)
As for Garmins I went with the 310xt when my 2ond 305 died. After I downloaded all the latest ant agents it is awesome! Great battery life, simple, waterproof, and can make the displays large for us of the reading glasses sect. Sounds like training is going well.
Cindy wish we could join yall, we might even be done with harvest by then but September training has been very lacking to tackle a half. Hope you get to feeling better.
Hiyas to Ev, Carol, OM and anyone else lurking out there. And ya OM I'd fire the coach also.
Same "Stuff" Different Day, in fact for the last 24 straight work days on the farm so will leave it at that.
The whole world said I shoulda used red but it looked good to Charlene in John Deere Green!!
Support Ethanol, drink the best, burn the rest.
Run for fun? What the hell kind of recreation is that? quote from Back to the Fut III