Ultra Runners

12

Silly me. (Read 320 times)

Trent


Good Bad & The Monkey

    Mistakes I have made lately - - Doubling our local 21 mile training run. For the heck of it. For the second time. - Publicly stated that Strolling Jim sounds, er, interesting. - Wondering what it would be like to go 8 laps in a row around the 11.8 mile hilly as stink loop near my house, the loop that makes up the backbone of the Monkey Marathon. - Joining this group. So. Punish me. Tell me how to be successful... Big grin
    jdmcgregor


    All business

      Nice job on the 42-miler, holy crap! I couldn't help noticing JakeKnight was out there with you this week. That seems like a lot of mileage, is there some story here? (I imagine you two going out on Sunday and running until someone gave up, but i don't think this i the case as there appears to be a taper week in there.)

      "If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason." J. Handy


      You'll ruin your knees!

        heh, heh, heh ...I mean, er, welcome Big grin I have two words for you... tray...uls

        ""...the truth that someday, you will go for your last run. But not today—today you got to run." - Matt Crownover (after Western States)

          Welcome to the madness. Big grin Now that you're here, it's like the Hotel California, you can check out but you can never leave...
          Trent


          Good Bad & The Monkey

            Thanks folks. I once wrote this to explain the rationale behind this particular 42 miler, see particularly the last paragraph -
            Our local running club, the Nashville Striders, caters to runners planning their marathon by offering a series of long runs in the Spring and late Summer. The runs are timed to occur every other weekend leading up to the Country Music Marathon in April and the Chicago Marathon in October, but allow participants to springboard off into other Spring and Fall marathons as well. The long run series begins each cycle with a rolling out and back fourteen miler that connects a pair of locally run coffee shops, Bongo Java and Bongo Java East through downtown Nashville, along the famed Music Row and onto part of the Country Music Marathon Course. For the next month and a half, the long runs snake their way through different parts of town, taking runners through a lot of what Middle Tennessee has to offer, including neighborhoods, greenways, densely wooded and hilly parks, urban settings and a few long stretches of major roadways. Along the courses, the Nashville Striders and several of the sponsoring local running stores provide fluids and energy gels ever few miles. The runs are open to the entire community, whether runners are Striders members or not. And so with each cycle a camaraderie builds as people work towards their marathon goals. My favorite of the long runs is the last one, the final training run that repeats with each cycle. The run, creatively named "Kroger to Kroger" takes runners from a Kroger grocery store in the bedroom and antique town south of Nashville to a Kroger in Nashville's Heart. Over its twenty one mile course, Kroger to Kroger, or K2K as it is often called, rolls through open farmland on the verge of redevelopment, then along an old Civil War road with stone walls, lines of ancient daffodils in the Spring and a lazy river in the woods, then through neighborhoods before plunging into Nashville's Percy Warner Park and its dramatic hills and dense woods. From here, the K2K course comes out onto three of the richest neighborhoods in Nashville, before edging a greenway, passing a Starbucks filled with googly-eyed early morning coffee drinkers before spilling out to the final Kroger. And like magic, the weather always breaks to a beautiful misty chilly or cool morning, no matter what the season leading up to it has delivered. Twenty one rolling beautiful and memorable miles. And with this run, all that remains is a taper and then a marathon. The training is the hard part and K2K is its crown. Perhaps one of the reasons why K2K is my favorite from among the training runs in these series is because the first time I ran it, I was grossly under trained and I failed. I completely fell apart by mile nine and I essentially walked in the last twelve miles. When I finished, I could barely walk, and the pain endured for much of the following week. Three weeks later, doomed, I attempted the Country Music Marathon and lasted a full twelve miles before crashing. And with that I stopped running. For nearly three years my shoes remained lost in the back of my closet. Until the bug bit again and running consumed me. K2K is dear to me because the first time I ran it, it beat me. Indeed, K2K is dear to me because forever on I feel a personal debt to it for showing me my limits and for giving me a target to overcome. And so, in the years since I dug my shoes back out of my closet, I have attacked K2K with ever-increasing vigor, sometimes racing it and sometimes making sure to enjoy the scenery. But mostly, I run it so that I beat it. Rather than the other way around. K2K will never best me again. Having run K2K now numerous times, one aspect has come to annoy me as much as it annoys others. It comes to this: K2K is a point to point course that connects one town to the next. That means we runners have to get creative when it comes to transportation to the start. Usually runners come together and create ad hoc carpools, meeting at the destination Kroger hours before dawn and catching a ride to the starting Kroger. Then, following the long training run, runners have to get rides twenty miles back to the starting Kroger to pick up their cars, which is often the last thing they want to do as they dream of ice baths, recovery drinks and possibly a beer. So about a year ago, some friends and I started joking that it would be easier just to park at the destination Kroger and running the course as an out and back. Kroger to Kroger to Kroger. Forty two miles. Very funny. Very funny indeed…
            Last September I DID double it. I ran the out leg alone in the middle of the night and showed up at the start with loads of fresh looking folks, then I ran back with them. Upon completing this, several others asked me if I would do it again in April with them. I laughed it off, but JK persisted. And so last week we shot to do this as the culmination of a 100 mile week. Sadly, one of our 11 milers was blown away by weather, but we still got this in at the end of a respectable 89 mile week. And here two days later I feel great. Stupid.
            Trent


            Good Bad & The Monkey

              Oh, and the taper week was just because I was busy busy with work and family last week.
              JakeKnight


                is there some story here?
                Yeah. A stupid stunt. Trent did the 42 mile run last fall. I made the mistake of acting interested one day when he brought up for the 300th time. Somewhere along the line it turned into shooting for 100 mile week, with back to back runs in killer hills in the days before the 42. Despite the fact that one of us was running a marathon the next week. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Sort of.

                E-mail: eric.fuller.mail@gmail.com
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                JakeKnight


                  I laughed it off, but JK persisted.
                  This is not the version of events I recall.

                  E-mail: eric.fuller.mail@gmail.com
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                  Trent


                  Good Bad & The Monkey


                  You'll ruin your knees!

                    Nice, I love showing up to the starting line all sweaty, having run the course before the race starts...always makes for good conversation. I'm glad you guys were able to do it together and I'm guessing the time passed more quickly for you this time than it did the first time. It also has to be a great feeling to double the course that almost broke you from running! You'll do fine with ultra running. Go ahead and do SJ, then move to trayuls...if it's not too close to the Monkey, you really ought to look at the Stump Jump 50K in the eastern part of the state. I've heard really good things about it. OR...if you really want to plan a destination race, I can help you with that, too! Looking forward to the Monkey Marathon and 50 Mile run...Oh, Oh,...or the "Dirty Monkey 50K"...trails of PWP???

                    ""...the truth that someday, you will go for your last run. But not today—today you got to run." - Matt Crownover (after Western States)

                    Trent


                    Good Bad & The Monkey

                      Dirty Monkey? The man has been doing his homework. Big grin
                      JakeKnight


                        Dirty Monkey?
                        Did the powers that be forbid a race on the trails? I mean an 'official' race.

                        E-mail: eric.fuller.mail@gmail.com
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                        You'll ruin your knees!

                          Dirty Monkey? The man has been doing his homework. Big grin
                          Oh, I spend a little time thinking about this stuff.

                          ""...the truth that someday, you will go for your last run. But not today—today you got to run." - Matt Crownover (after Western States)

                          Trent


                          Good Bad & The Monkey

                            Define : forbid Define : official Define : race
                            JakeKnight


                              Define : forbid Define : official Define : race
                              Forbid: threaten to shut down the race if you do it. Imprisoning and/or fining you isn't much of a concern from my perspective, as long as they don't stop me 30 miles into a 31 mile race. Official: it has a website. Maybe an entry fee. Race: I get a medal. Or woodie. Maybe a t-shirt. A bib number if you're feeling classy.

                              E-mail: eric.fuller.mail@gmail.com
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