Imminent Catastrophe
Hey Dutchie, unfortunately my company doesn't go to Juneau, I'd love to.
I made it to Uranus!
The trail was still covered with 2-6 inches of snow (well, duh, it's Alaska) so the run was more challenging than I'd expected, with me in road shoes. It was a lot of fun, though. I got in 10+ miles, then celebrated with Eggs Benedict (with salmon instead of ham) at Snow City Cafe. Good times.
"Able to function despite imminent catastrophe"
"To obtain the air that angels breathe you must come to Tahoe"--Mark Twain
"The most common question from potential entrants is 'I do not know if I can do this' to which I usually answer, 'that's the whole point'.--Paul Charteris, Tarawera Ultramarathon RD.
√ Javelina Jundred Jalloween 2015
Cruel Jewel 50 mile May 2016
Western States 100 June 2016
Nice day yesterday, so did 31km on the flats. Mucked around with my pace and my fuelling....tried to not use gels at all. Don't really think that worked.....Tried to keep my pace at or below 4 hour marathon pace, sort of managed that. Did 10km fartleks on Friday, and an easy 9km on the Thursday. Now for some reason I have decided to run home from work this afternoon. 10km easy is the plan.
Next weekend will be doing about 28km over the Rotorua marathon course, got to re-familiarise myself with the hills....
Looks like everyone is starting to pick up the mileage a bit now the northern hemisphere is hitting spring time. Down south we have just lost daylight saving, so having to do my PM runs in the dark. No streetlights out my way, so had to dust off the trusty headlamp and put fresh batteries in. Looking forward to the next full moon.
“Attitude is the Difference Between an Ordeal and an Adventure”
Goals 2016
Do stuff
yes I am working toward the NJ Marathon on May 1st.
NJPhil - Nice long run! That has to be a big confidence booster going into your taper. Looks like you finished strong.
Definitely felt good, my running has been so sporadic the last two weeks, due to illness, so I was a bit worried. It was a sponsored long run on part of the marathon course, so there were about 400 people total. It was tough getting passed by so many at the beginning, but as I reached the second half of the run and picked up my pace I passed a lot of those runners.
Hopefully the weather is as good in three weeks and I can kick this head congestion. It will be my first marathon so just looking to finish strong, there will be others to set goals for.
Definitely felt good, my running has been so sporadic the last two weeks, due to illness, so I was a bit worried. It was a sponsored long run on part of the marathon course, so there were about 400 people total. It was tough getting passed by so many at the beginning, but as I reached the second half of the run and picked up my pace I passed a lot of those runners. Hopefully the weather is as good in three weeks and I can kick this head congestion. It will be my first marathon so just looking to finish strong, there will be others to set goals for.
Nice run, especially liked your finish. You increased you pace quite a bit with only minimal effect on your HR.
Good experience with a nice slow pace at the start and getting passed by lots of runners. Then picking them all off as they flagged at the end.
I've been both the hare and the tortoise, and it is not much fun being the hare........
I'm having serious motivational problems lately. These are supposed to be hard training weeks for me (cripes, my first 100k is in 3 weeks) and I did OK last week but this week, not so much. I had planned a long run (~18 miles) today but we had a plumber coming over and that was my excuse for blowing it off entirely. So, no run at all today. The last few weeks I really have not wanted to do my training runs, and I really can't afford to slack off now.
The good thing is I'll be in San Fran Saturday and plan to run part of the course so that will be my incentive, they've changed the course, added some really tough climbs (yeah, thanks a lot for that). So I will get to run part of the new course, which will help my confidence (or make me more worried, I don't know). Anyway I hope to get in a good run on Saturday and make up for today.
Sorry to hear you've lost your mojo, PerfesserR - maybe it's just a lack of confidence conspiring to sabotage you?
This is what I would do for now: try to relax, refocus, put your running clothes on and one foot in front of the other - now GO! If you don't feel better after your run, re-analyze how you really feel about your goal. How could you be better prepared? Would it be advisable to postpone your first 100K until you've had more or different training? If your body is prepared, what can you do to better prepare mentally? Ask yourself all the hard questions. I know you can get there; only you can say when.
Plus - I know you do a lot of traveling and it probably doesn't bother you - but it would sap me a bit; so maybe that's a contributing factor for you right now too.
Don't make excuses for why you can't get it done.
Focus on all the reasons why you must make it happen.
Russ - One more week of training is not going to make or break you. Either you have the base or you don't and I think we all know you have what it takes. Go watch some good videos like some Team Hoyt stuff and you'll be back at it in no time.
I had a rough bike ride today. I got pinned in by about 5 dogs and had a real hard time of getting away from them. I dismounted the bike and started walking thinking they would lose interest but they were pretty persistent. I thought I was clear at one point and tried to mount up again and when they converged on me I stopped quickly and........oh crap.....clips.......and down he goes! At least at that point they decided I was to lame to mess with and left me alone.
Perfesser - I agree with Happy and Jeff. Your traveling may have sapped some of our energy, plus you have a mighty strong base with 3 awesome prep races this season. Anyways, I believe you can do it! In fact I pretend I'm an ultra runner like you are when I'm trying to finish up my dinky 12 milers.
Jeff - Wild packs of dogs?! Please take care out there.
I'm off for a 14-15 mile run, my longest was 14+ in 2008 (I think I can, I think I can) It warmed up for a minute this week but now its cold again. I think I'll be running -3 to 2or3*C. Its funny that I've already got out the sunblock at this temp.
Happy saturday, A
Recalculating...
Ayola, we're on the same page this morning - I call "twinsies"!
* I'm going to give 14 miles a go today and will probably have about the same temps as you.
* I routinely think of Russ and his ultras when I'm on my LR
* I thought this same exact thing when I read Jeff's post: "Wild packs of dogs?! Please take care out there."
Happy Running Everyone
I wore the short shorts - what was I thinking! Cold and windy - running into a headwind most of the way back. Felt like at least 20 mph wind, but turns out it was only 10 My quads were beet red from cold at the end. I planned to start out slower than I did, but had to scoot along because my farmer neighbor was blasting his giant manure "fertilizer" spray gun on the adjacent pasture in the first quarter mile and I didn't want any of the drifting spray on me. (He only does that a few times a year, so it's not as bad as it sounds.)
Anyway, since I started out fast-ish, I decided to try and complete the whole run under 11 mpm. I succeeded with an average pace of 10:34, but I felt like my pace was all over the place - sometimes fast, sometimes slow - very uneven; partly because of the wind, partly because it was simply hard to keep running fast.
Jeff, yikes. I'm glad you emerged unscathed. As you may know I have 3 Dobermans but they are never "unsupervised", and always on leash when off our property. Negligent dog owners really piss me off, we have plenty of those around here and they harass us on our runs frequently. Happy, sounds like a cold run. I'm glad winter is over.
Thanks for the encouragement everyone! I did have a good training run today in the Headlands, I wanted to see the new route. Ugh, there are some really tough climbs there, long slogs uphill, 6000 ft of climbing in a 19-mile run? Gasp. Oh well, it was good to see the new course and a magnificent view of the GG Bridge and it helped my confidence some.
"6000 ft of climbing in a 19-mile run? Gasp"
Gasp is right! I can't even imagine how steep that is - sounds quite challenging. I'd be walking all that for sure.