AM: 4 miles easy
PM: 10 miles easy
I'm gradually recovering from the race on Saturday, but it's definitely coming along slower than I wanted. The soreness from the fall is gone in my shoulders and back, but my left glut is still sore, as are my ankles from the roughly 367 times I rolled them on Saturday. I have strong ankles, but that was a bit much.
2.08.2012
February 6
AM: 8 miles easy
Slow out-and-back on the ATT in the late morning. My legs felt pretty horrible. It's looking like this is going to be an unplanned recovery week to get back from Saturday's trail race.
Slow out-and-back on the ATT in the late morning. My legs felt pretty horrible. It's looking like this is going to be an unplanned recovery week to get back from Saturday's trail race.
2.05.2012
February 5 (101 miles/week)
PM: 6 miles easy
I crawled out for an easy recovery run around noon. I'm by far the most sore today in my butt (from the hills) and my back (from the fall and twisting and turning). I was surprised when I felt good from the beginning during the run; in fact, running may have been the only activity today where I wasn't sore.
February 4 (Uwharrie Mountain 20-Mile)
AM: Uwharrie Mountain 20-Mile, 2nd place, 2:26:30 - 20+ miles
Today was my first long marathon workout during this Boston training cycle. Bull City Running puts on the Uwharrie Trail Race every year: a day of 40-, 20-, and 8-mile single-track trail races in the southern mountains of North Carolina. This was by far my longest trail race, but the rugged and soft terrain served as an ideal place to run a long effort with a lot of changing speeds. I'm also far out enough from Boston at this point that I'm less concerned about pace-specific work (that will come) and more focused on hard efforts and high volume. Overall, I'm happy with the way it went. Your Uwharrie time is supposed to be about equal to your marathon time when factoring in the trail, and 2:26 at Boston would unquestionably leave me a happy camper if that's the way it shakes out come April 16.
Coming from someone who doesn't race a ton on trails, I'll say that this was definitely a fun experience. Managing the course and it's elements adds a new an interesting twist to racing where splits (but not necessarily finishing times) are thrown out the window. Kim and Jason did an outstanding job of putting an event of this size and scale on so professionally; a lot of work went into this race and it clearly showed.
To recap, I ended up at the starting line with no warmup because I didn't read the race instructions completely and had to scramble to get my race number, which was 10 minutes away through a bus ride. The front revealed some brutal competition who I knew had better trail credentials than me: Duke and BCTC colleague David Roche, last year's winner Ryan Woods, and BCTC's Duncan Hodge. I had my work cut out for me today with both the competition and the undulating, brutal course itself that included all of trail running's romances of tight turns, steep climbs and ascents, fallen trees, and stream crossings.
As he promised before we got started, David shot out of the start like a cannon up the 1200m, 375-foot climb in the first mile, leaving the rest of us in the dust. I motored along into second place, trying in vain to keep David in sight for the first 4 miles before Ryan Woods passed me. For the next 10 miles, I stayed no more than a couple of steps behind him, losing him on the technical downhills, catching back up on the flats, and staying with him on the uphills. By mile 8, we heard that David had built nearly a five-minute lead on us. "That's insane," I muttered. Ryan quipped back, "That's 2:10 pace," which is made all the more remarkable when factoring in the aforementioned marathon-time equivalency. David's pretty quick, so I assumed at this point we were racing for second place unless something went awry. When I saw Valerie at 11 miles, I was feeling good and felt that I had a decent chance in finishing high in the race.
I continued following Ryan's lines, hot-footing on rocks across streams, hurdling fallen trees, and dancing around the 40-mile runners that had started 40 minutes before we did. Around mile 14, I plunged awkwardly into a stream. That allowed Ryan to build up a five-second lead on the hill that immediately followed. Then, literally coming out of nowhere, was David, who explained that he'd gotten lost and subsequently seen his five-minute lead evaporate. Dave jumped in with us and surged for the front, but Ryan clearly smelled blood in the water and dropped the hammer. Dave was clearly and justifiably frustrated with the way the race was unfolding, and I tried to snap him out of his funk by offering some words of encouragement.
"See this butt?" I said slapping my spandex-clad posterior. "Hang onto this for a little while and let's work back up." After about a half-mile, David said he was going to shut it down, and I didn't see him again until the finish (read David Roche's consistently-entertaining race recap here).
Woods had become a white blip through the trees at this point, but over the course of two miles, I slowly reeled him back to to where I was only 10 or 15 seconds behind him. But, then came the hill. I'd been warned about a nasty climb around mile 16. Ryan peeked around a switchback and saw me approaching, and he immediately threw in a race-winning surge up the mile-long, 300-foot climb. Once I got to the peak of the climb, I was frustrated that all of the work I'd put in to get back to him before the climb was undone, but I pressed onward. I really wanted to crack 2:30 today, and I knew that David, Duncan, or any unknown runner could come surging past me if I let me guard down, so I focused on keeping my tempo up and staying upright.
The latter strategy failed. Heading down a descent with a scant two miles to go, fatigue caught up with me, and I tripped and fell across a batch of rocks jutting out from the trail. I have been known to take some dives during cross country races, so unfortunately I've grown accustom to shaking off the sting, but this one truly hurt like hell. When I left my feet, I tried to roll out of it and slid shoulder-first across a big rock. I stared at the grey sky and open canopy above me for a moment before picking myself up and assessing the damage. With only a little blood and nothing broken, I took a deep breath and proceeded cautiously onward down the hill, trying to forget that my entire body, not just my legs, now ached all over. While it seemed like an eternity at the time, I'm guessing the entire ordeal cost me about 15 seconds.
Shortly thereafter, I started seeing 40-mile runners running toward me (their course was an out-and-back over the 20-mile course). That and the swoosh of cars on the road tipped me off that I was getting close. When I crossed the line, as I said, I was happy with the time of 2:26 and change and thrilled to be finished. I tipped my cap to Ryan Woods, who'd beaten his own course record with a 2:23. Additional research revealed that he has All-American, 13:50 5k, and 3:43 1500m credentials to his name in addition to his obvious prowess on the trails. With that, I was humbled to have hung with him for as long as I did, but also encouraged as the prep for Boston continues to unfold.
The theme of the next few days is going to be recovery. My entire body aches as I write this, but damn if yesterday wasn't fun and rewarding.
Today was my first long marathon workout during this Boston training cycle. Bull City Running puts on the Uwharrie Trail Race every year: a day of 40-, 20-, and 8-mile single-track trail races in the southern mountains of North Carolina. This was by far my longest trail race, but the rugged and soft terrain served as an ideal place to run a long effort with a lot of changing speeds. I'm also far out enough from Boston at this point that I'm less concerned about pace-specific work (that will come) and more focused on hard efforts and high volume. Overall, I'm happy with the way it went. Your Uwharrie time is supposed to be about equal to your marathon time when factoring in the trail, and 2:26 at Boston would unquestionably leave me a happy camper if that's the way it shakes out come April 16.
Coming from someone who doesn't race a ton on trails, I'll say that this was definitely a fun experience. Managing the course and it's elements adds a new an interesting twist to racing where splits (but not necessarily finishing times) are thrown out the window. Kim and Jason did an outstanding job of putting an event of this size and scale on so professionally; a lot of work went into this race and it clearly showed.
To recap, I ended up at the starting line with no warmup because I didn't read the race instructions completely and had to scramble to get my race number, which was 10 minutes away through a bus ride. The front revealed some brutal competition who I knew had better trail credentials than me: Duke and BCTC colleague David Roche, last year's winner Ryan Woods, and BCTC's Duncan Hodge. I had my work cut out for me today with both the competition and the undulating, brutal course itself that included all of trail running's romances of tight turns, steep climbs and ascents, fallen trees, and stream crossings.
As he promised before we got started, David shot out of the start like a cannon up the 1200m, 375-foot climb in the first mile, leaving the rest of us in the dust. I motored along into second place, trying in vain to keep David in sight for the first 4 miles before Ryan Woods passed me. For the next 10 miles, I stayed no more than a couple of steps behind him, losing him on the technical downhills, catching back up on the flats, and staying with him on the uphills. By mile 8, we heard that David had built nearly a five-minute lead on us. "That's insane," I muttered. Ryan quipped back, "That's 2:10 pace," which is made all the more remarkable when factoring in the aforementioned marathon-time equivalency. David's pretty quick, so I assumed at this point we were racing for second place unless something went awry. When I saw Valerie at 11 miles, I was feeling good and felt that I had a decent chance in finishing high in the race.
 |
| Chasing Woods through the woods... |
 |
| ...and generally feeling good about life. For now. |
"See this butt?" I said slapping my spandex-clad posterior. "Hang onto this for a little while and let's work back up." After about a half-mile, David said he was going to shut it down, and I didn't see him again until the finish (read David Roche's consistently-entertaining race recap here).
Woods had become a white blip through the trees at this point, but over the course of two miles, I slowly reeled him back to to where I was only 10 or 15 seconds behind him. But, then came the hill. I'd been warned about a nasty climb around mile 16. Ryan peeked around a switchback and saw me approaching, and he immediately threw in a race-winning surge up the mile-long, 300-foot climb. Once I got to the peak of the climb, I was frustrated that all of the work I'd put in to get back to him before the climb was undone, but I pressed onward. I really wanted to crack 2:30 today, and I knew that David, Duncan, or any unknown runner could come surging past me if I let me guard down, so I focused on keeping my tempo up and staying upright.
The latter strategy failed. Heading down a descent with a scant two miles to go, fatigue caught up with me, and I tripped and fell across a batch of rocks jutting out from the trail. I have been known to take some dives during cross country races, so unfortunately I've grown accustom to shaking off the sting, but this one truly hurt like hell. When I left my feet, I tried to roll out of it and slid shoulder-first across a big rock. I stared at the grey sky and open canopy above me for a moment before picking myself up and assessing the damage. With only a little blood and nothing broken, I took a deep breath and proceeded cautiously onward down the hill, trying to forget that my entire body, not just my legs, now ached all over. While it seemed like an eternity at the time, I'm guessing the entire ordeal cost me about 15 seconds.
 |
| Rubbing's racing. |
The theme of the next few days is going to be recovery. My entire body aches as I write this, but damn if yesterday wasn't fun and rewarding.
2.02.2012
February 2
AM: 15 miles easy
I met Dan early in the morning for a run to the end of the ATT and back. My stomach was feeling off, so I had to make a pit stop at Kroger near the turnaround. One of the virtues of being a full-time grad student is the flexible schedule; I came home after this and promptly passed out on the couch for an hour-long nap.
I met Dan early in the morning for a run to the end of the ATT and back. My stomach was feeling off, so I had to make a pit stop at Kroger near the turnaround. One of the virtues of being a full-time grad student is the flexible schedule; I came home after this and promptly passed out on the couch for an hour-long nap.
2.01.2012
February 1
AM: 2400m-2000m-1600m-1200m-800m-400m with 400m/3:00 jog recoveries - 12 miles
PM: 6 miles easy
Lacking much creativity this week, I lifted a GRC workout to offer something of decent volume and mixed paces for me, Adam, and Reed around 7:30 this morning. We traded the lead on each of the reps, dodging the men's soccer team on the second half of the workout. I hit the times I wanted to for the most part, save for the 800m where we had to run out into lane 6 around a cluster of soccer players jogging on the inside of the track. Mild weather in the low 50s almost made cranking out lap after lap pleasant, but it was rewarding nonetheless. When I think back to all of the miles I ran alone last summer, working out in a group can't be beat. There's no way I would have hit these times on my own today, especially the fast quarter at the end.
Splits: 7:43, 6:20, 4:54, 3:36, 2:21, :63
Later on at dusk, I went out for another six miles on the ATT and Forest Hills Park, yet I still felt a world better than my battered legs yesterday. That, with walking 18 holes of golf in the rare 70-degree February weather, meant a lot of time on my feet today, but I'm still feeling strong overall.
PM: 6 miles easy
Lacking much creativity this week, I lifted a GRC workout to offer something of decent volume and mixed paces for me, Adam, and Reed around 7:30 this morning. We traded the lead on each of the reps, dodging the men's soccer team on the second half of the workout. I hit the times I wanted to for the most part, save for the 800m where we had to run out into lane 6 around a cluster of soccer players jogging on the inside of the track. Mild weather in the low 50s almost made cranking out lap after lap pleasant, but it was rewarding nonetheless. When I think back to all of the miles I ran alone last summer, working out in a group can't be beat. There's no way I would have hit these times on my own today, especially the fast quarter at the end.
Splits: 7:43, 6:20, 4:54, 3:36, 2:21, :63
Later on at dusk, I went out for another six miles on the ATT and Forest Hills Park, yet I still felt a world better than my battered legs yesterday. That, with walking 18 holes of golf in the rare 70-degree February weather, meant a lot of time on my feet today, but I'm still feeling strong overall.
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