February went quickly.  It's March first so Spring can't be far away.  While it seems like the West, Midwest, New York, and New /England have been getting slammed by storms, it's been a relatively mild winter here with more days above normal and no major snow storms. (I'm waiting for the classic Easter blast now that I've said that).

154.9 miles for February.

Feb was good to me. All the long cold winter miles payed off. I ran 256 miles last month a bit down but didn't run much the last week of the month. Had some great PRs last month during my race.

50 m 7:20

100k 9:08

12 hours 79.7 miles

100 mile PR by a hour and a half. 14:59

Finished February with 175 miles, which included a 50k on the first weekend.  Happy with how that went as my first race of the new year.  Also happy that I've been pretty consistent with mid-week speed/hills plus doing leg and core routine 3 x week.  Long-ish runs on the weekend will be getting a little longer, starting this weekend, which is a road marathon in Ireland.  Leaving tomorrow!

Finished February with 175 miles, which included a 50k on the first weekend.  Happy with how that went as my first race of the new year.  Also happy that I've been pretty consistent with mid-week speed/hills plus doing leg and core routine 3 x week.  Long-ish runs on the weekend will be getting a little longer, starting this weekend, which is a road marathon in Ireland.  Leaving tomorrow!

I look forward to your thoughts on the race.  I watched the video on their website.  Have fun!

^{I am still out with injuries.   Probably being too cautious,  but I have a history of trying to come back too soon.  Nothing on the schedule helps.  Any last minute thoughts of doing Zion 100 are out.}

 

^{Alan, nice job on the race.  Good luck on the shoe search.  I have come to like inov8 for shorter runs and Brooks Caldera for long ones.  I may never buy Altra again.}

thanks. considering i really didnt need trail shoes at all at lord hill idk why i keep trying them. maybe i'll just stick to my much loved mach 4's. even if i slip i'll still be faster and i think i am actually more likely to fall catching a toe and i am more likely to catch a toe in heavy shoes! calderas weigh a ton. in a size 13 the weight makes a huge difference

Here's a mini race report from the Rock and Road Marathon in Kinvara, Ireland: https://www.runningahead.com/groups/Trailer_Trash/forum/Post/c9c22694a6e1405e9034486e2a70331e#focus

 

TLDR: Enjoyed the race, took loads of photos, and had fun.  For anyone familiar with Ireland, the weather was ridiculously good.  Not a drop of rain.

 

Congratulations this looks wonderful.  Enjoy London

Way Too Cool 50k.

Things started out well. I treated it like a road race and held back at the start to what I thought would be a best day (4.5 hours) because I've done enough races to know what it feels like to blow up, and my last two ultras I'd not actually trained for. This one I'd gone for vertical gain on my runs because I've never been a good uphill runner. I'd loaded a course onto my Fenix 6 I found on Garmin (wanted to test features) and I think it was overkill. The course is single tracked, marked well, and popular enough for me I doubt I'd get lost. There WAS a runner who went off course a little after mile 8, but that's a fluke. He must have been looking down with heaphones on, and he didn't get far before turning around.

The first 8 miles are a loop with LOTS of runnable terrain. There is a water crossing around mile 1.5 or 2, and the traffic jam created from it was clearly due to weather (35-38F outside with a light breeze and clouds isn't what I want to blaze through water crossings in) making everyone want to take the driest route possible. Plus there is a climb after this. One or two tight S curves (thank you Garmin notifications) and some overgrown bush (benefits of being short) before making it back to the fire station/start finish line/aid station/spectator viewing area. Take off towards highway 49 (downhill), cross the highway (well patrolled), and hit the aid station at mile 12 to resupply with some Roctane Summit Tea (I tried this at WSER pacing so why not here too?) before heading towards the climbing portion of the race. At this point I was holding an 8:25/mi average, but I knew it was going to change with some big hills coming up. I don't even think I'd done 1,000 ft of climbing at this point and the course measured 4,000 when I was done. Tracking down some runners ahead of me, hoping my elevation training and hilly runs will be enough. Get through what I think is the first big climb around mile 17-19 and then my stomach just starts being not happy. I tried drinking water which seemed to be okay, and thought I'd overloaded with GU every 45 minutes, but I'd bonked before in races and both times I'd not really been tracking nutrition. Eventually the stomach just didn't feel nice, and my right hip (piriformis? psoas major?) started hurting when I would climb. Painfully hurt. On top of my stomach not feeling happy it started to make me concerned I'd not trained hard enough, and was so worried about nutrition I'd OVER eaten and too much sugar was my nemesis. I struggled up every climb, but I ran the flats and rolling hills as whatever pace felt like running. Sometimes it was a 9:30, and other times it was slower. I didn't want to start walking the flats until I absolutely HAD to.

At some random point along the trail, while obviously climbing uphill, I hear someone yell "HEY JEFF!" and I think "who is out here trying to scare runners? Is this like one of those 'GU Yeti' photo ops? Maybe it's actually someone's friend" which it was. jeff was doing his first ultra, and Jeff's group of 5-7 people had shown up along the course to cheer him on and refill drinks or whatever he needed. As Jeff walked away one person wanted a photo and Jeff wasn't having it. I said "OH come one Jeff! smile for the man. Give him a photo. He came all this way to take a photo of you." in a light hearted way. Like...."you're not going to feel any worse, and you're not going to lose much time." Not in the "POSE FOR THE GD PHOTO OR SO HELP ME..." way. Jeff looked back at me, exhausted, and so unhappy with life. I moved on. mostly becuase it was flat and I coudl run.

Goat hill sucks. Its a 1/4 mile long uphill climb where tree roots are steps, the trail is about 1 step wide, and it's absolutely the worst part for me. If I didn't have a goal, or was having a worse day, it would destroy me. I'm not a hiker. I'm a runner. My friend who finished in 5:20 went up this 1 minute faster than me. Every step hurt. At the top (mile 26 aid station) I SHOULD have, and thought about, taken Ginger ale. I didn't even turn back as I exited the aid station thinking "i should get some ginger ale." I just started running. Some of this trail gets really hard to run. It's really rocky, overgrown, steep, washed out, and just NOT anything I'd trained for on tired legs. I'm sure plenty of people walked down this, but I felt confident with my legs when running, and my stomach wasn't going ape shit. I'd just decided to give it nothing to the finish. Besides, I'm on SOME familiar trails at this point from pacing States. I even told myself "this stuff looks a little different in the day." and knew the Highway 49 crossing was coming up. This also means I knew the finish was all a climb, and not an easy one, and it brough back memories of pacing SeattleMax in 2017, or 2018 I forget, when he went 29:24. He pulled away from me here and I was trying my best to keep up. I grabbed some Ginger Ale, checked the watch, and told myself if I wanted sub 5 it wasn't going to be easy. A runner I'd followed/passed/follwed/passed earlier had 2 friends with him so I tried to use that. They climbed, and I climbed, and when I finally got to the top (turn right for Painted Rocks) I knew I could run. I passed the group ahead of me and just didn't stop. I knew there was more climbing, but I also knew I could run better than I could hike. Since the course was dry, well...it  wasn't mud, I knew I wouldn't have to worry about slipping. When I saw the official timer display 4:45 the road marathoner in me took control and hammered it to the finish.

Official Finish Time 4:45:45

I thought 5:30 would be my good day and 5:00 would be a dream. My friend who finished in 5:20 is the one who said I could go 4:30-5:00. Glad he pushed me.

I grabbed a burrito, some chips, bought some old swag, and wanted to go home (2 hour drive). The walk from the finish area to my truck was THE most painful walk ever. Seriosly. I was cold, wet, tired, and literally every single step I took was painful in my hip. By the time I got home it was better which was perfect since "dad life" took over and being laid up on the couch wasn't going to happen. I theragunned my legs Sunday morning using the soft ball attachment and to my surprise they didn't feel destroyed. I decided I'd go big for my "keep the run streak alive" run just like the Mountain Outhouse videos of guys sprinting a mile after a 100 mile race. There was a 5k in town I WANTED to do so I kept this in mind. I did 2 miles in 14:27. My chest hurt running this fast. Almost like you'd put a corset on me and told me to go run.

https://www.strava.com/activities/6779234540/overview

Awesome job RP. That 50 looks like a fun course and fast.

Berylrunner- I had lots of friends running the 55k. I wish I ran it. But leg would hate me. Almost fully recovered.

44 miles for me last week. 4200 ft of vert. Most of it was during a trail run. Climbed 2600 ft in 3.3 miles.