planned mid-week long run last night (I define as > 15 miles).  I trucked the younger one to Volleyball and then up to pick up the older one from Track and got her home.  6:30pm finally time to run ... by 4 miles by body did not want to do it ... silly body you have no choice.  17.2 miles of running slow that took a lot of focus.  Good mental training for the 24 hour race.

Stupid is what stupid does.

I had a really nice 25 minute Tempo at lunch ... so I decided to do a nice 20 miler after work.  Both went well, but I am expecting unhappy legs in my recovery run today.

I do miss the days when I would do 20 mile warmup and then my speed work.

I have been sick most of the winter so yesterday was a great day. Spent the morning doing squats, lunges and stuff like that. Then I headed to the pool where I managed a full workout. That was 2600m give or take 25m.

22 miles yesterday in Frozen Head State Park, just a few weeks after the Barkley marathons. I am good and sore, but what a great run! Sun and humidity, thunderstorms and torrential downpours, 6000 feet of overall climbing. Nice day.

Nice.  Can't remember my last 22 miler.

I got 16 last weekend, in the midst of dieting, raining, so the last 4 got pretty ugly.  Paid for it all week.  Need more of that.

I finally got serious this week, semi-serious got me down 3lbs over several weeks from my weight high and I'm down another 3lbs this week.  Slacking today and needed some leg recovery but on a good trend.

There are two Barkleys.

There is the Spring race profiled in the killer great Netflix movie, where 40 people start each year and in most years there are no finishers. This one is incredibly hard to get into under the logic that if you cannot even figure out how to apply and get selected, you have no business problem solving on the course. Knowing the course as I do, this is entirely reasonable just as the race is entirely unreasonable. The course is not marked and there is really no on-course support other than water jugs dropped in two locations. No, I have not even tried to run this Barkley.

Then there is the newish Fall race, called the Barkley Fall Classic. The BFC covers a lot of the same features as the Spring race and is said to be 50k but is probably closer to 35-40 miles. The BFC is well marked and well supported throughout, and about 2/3 of it is on proper trails. Even so, only about 30% of starters finish the full race, and another 30% finish the "fun run", which is a consolation distance akin to dropping down from the full marathon you are running to the half marathon. Anyhow, the past two years I started the BFC and failed, though last year I was sick and had no business starting. Hell, I was super undertrained the past few years and had no business starting.

This year I am working hard to get my miles and trails in with the goal of doing better at BFC. So far so good, but there remains a lot of work (and time) left to go.

Did you attempt Barkley this last time?

Trent - 22 on the Barkley trails is a huge effort.

My 31.7 on the Ice Age Trail - Northern Kettle is less than the 22.  I was going for 50 miles pace (IA50 mile coming up in 3 weeks) and nailed it.  Felt awesome the whole way, although quads are sore (Good sore) today.  I did not bomb the downhills like past lives, just stayed in control.  It was a nice 6 hours to be in the woods ... High 50s to low 60s ... sunny, low humidity with a light breeze.

I thought about adding on another 9 miles the other way ... but decided (Correctly) to just be satisfied with what I had.

Trent - 22 on the Barkley trails is a huge effort.

 

My 31.7 on the Ice Age Trail - Northern Kettle is less than the 22.  I was going for 50 miles pace (IA50 mile coming up in 3 weeks) and nailed it.  Felt awesome the whole way, although quads are sore (Good sore) today.  I did not bomb the downhills like past lives, just stayed in control.  It was a nice 6 hours to be in the woods ... High 50s to low 60s ... sunny, low humidity with a light breeze.

 

I thought about adding on another 9 miles the other way ... but decided (Correctly) to just be satisfied with what I had.

Both of those are huge efforts!

I've been trying to keep things in focus here and keep building on where I'm at.  My glute/hamstring was not feeling best after the last 8k race a few weeks ago.  It was frustrating not knowing what the heck caused it.  I quickly learned about the piriformis muscle and after some rolling, stretching, and glute medius work, things are finally feeling good again.  I've still been getting some good miles in but did have a couple of good workouts this weekend.  Had a solid 40-mile bike ride on Saturday and then a good 12+ mile run yesterday.  This morning's run was slow as I needed the recovery miles.  Finished the week with almost 50 miles running and 90 on the bike.  Less than 55 days until the big race for me.  I'm competing in the Duathlon National Championships in June hoping for a Team USA spot for World's in Denmark next year.  If I keep I can keep things in check, stay healthy, and finish off the next 45 days with solid training, I'll be in a good spot.

Also, CR, you need to come out and run in that park with us.

When ya thinking?