15 Mile Long Run, Check!

Weekend #1 of my 50K training plan is completed! 

15 miles this morning! 10 of which were at a HR under 150, the last 5 were well over that... oops! My aerobic system apparently wasnt ready for a full 15 mile run yet. Around mile 9 it was very hard to keep the HR down.

I explored a few new roads in the neighborhood and saw some really fine houses! I saw a bunch of deer as usual too.

I usually see a few people either out walking dogs or jogging on my weekend morning runs, and this morning was no exception. Most people are nice. 99% of the time Im the first one to speak up and say good morning or hello, and generally people just politely reply. Occassionally I will get a barefoot comment, and very seldomly I will get negativity fired in my direction.

At mile 13 this morning, some old fat bitch blasted me with here negativity cannon.

There were 2 old ladies actually. As always, I smiled and waved and said "Good morning!" The nicer of the 2 women replied with "Good morning! Where are your shoes??!!" (That's the typical response I get) and so I laughed and told her they were at home some where...

Thats when the old bitch decided she would put in her 2 cents...

"Dont worry, you'll get old and regret it!"

........

I just laughed and yelled back "Well I hope not!" And kept on running.

WTF? Really. Hasnt this lady seen the movie Bambi before? IF YOU AINT GOT NOTHING NICE TO SAY, DONT SAY NOTHING AT ALL!!

No body cares about your old uneducated opinionated smokers coughing advise.

Totally crushed my runners high!

Oh well, reallu it's just whatever.

Next weekend is a 15 and 10 back to back run. Looking forward to it!

Training Schedule?

I've never really followed a training schedule or a plan or anything like that. I always just kind of run whenever the opportunity arises for however long I have time for.

I find plans and schedules too... Controlling? I prefer to follow a method / theory / philosophy, and let the distances and times fall into their own places.

But I have decided that I want to go into Whispering Pines 50K READY!

So I came up with a "Schedule" (I use the term loosely because nothing is set in stone) to follow for my long runs. I will still do the occassional sub 10 mile run during the week, and maybe even throw in some other shorter runs on the weekends, but when training for an Ultra I believe that the slow long runs are the most important tools in your arsenal.

So heres my tentative "schedule"..

Weekend long runs and back to back runs are my main focus, so thats all I am going to list out.

Saturday, March 28th - 15+ miles
Sunday, March 29th - Rest

Saturday, April 4th - 15+ miles
Sunday, April 5th - 10+ miles

Saturday, April 11th - 25+ miles
Sunday, April 12th - Rest

Saturday, April 18th - 20+ miles
Sunday, April 19th - 20+ miles

Saturday, April 25th - 20+ miles
Sunday, April 26th - 10+ miles

Saturday, May 2nd - 25+ miles
Sunday, May 3rd - 10+ miles

Saturday, May 9th - rest
Sunday, May 10th - rest

Saturday, May 16th - 32 miles at Whispering Pines 50K!!!

I feel like this plan gives me some good back to back runs to get me running on tired legs.

Theres one weekend at 40 miles, one at 35 miles and one at 30 miles. I think that with those weekends I will have a good base of mileage to finish 32.

Some of these will be run on trails, some on hills, maybe even some on hilly trails!

Whispering Pines 50K

OH SNAP!

I just registered for the Whispering Pines 50K in Tyler Tx!!!

Never raced a 50K before (although i dont think that the death march thats bound to happen could really be considered much of a "race"...), but I have ran a 50 mile ultra at Rocky Racoon back in 2012! And then just recently I've ran a 30 mile solo run to celebrate my 30th birthday, so I'm not to taunted by the distance. I've still got something like 60 days to train my mind, body, and soles (get it?, soles instead of soul.... ehhh...) to take a 32 mile beating.

But I am worried about the challenges that the course may bring.

I've been reading a lot on a blog Ive found just recently by a guy named Dat. Dat is a minimalist ultra marathoner (Vibrams) that has ran both the 50K and 20 mile at Whispering Pines before. He took a lot of excelent pictures of the course and the trails, so thanks to Dat I feel confident about going into this race barefoot. After seeing how big of a help his blog was, I will be sure to do the same and take lots of pictures on my journey come race day.
My newly aquired running buddy Jesse signed up for the 20 miler. This is his first trail race, and he signed up with his longest run ever only being 13 miles. So hes got a good challenge ahead of him as well.

Let the training begin!!!

Running with Preston

A few days ago my wife Courtney, my son Preston and myself decided to go on a bike ride /run around the neighborhood together. (My daughter, Izzy, was at her grandmothers)  I was running, they were riding.

I'm not a very fast runner, and most of my runs aren't ran at what I consider a "fast" pace, so keeping up with a 7 year old boy on a bicycle was a pretty good challenge.

I ended up running 2.18 miles in 17:56. That's an average pace of 8:13 per mile! That's fast for this old fat guy!

My wife snapped a few pictures of the 2 of us going along.

Although it's not my typical type of training run, and I only ran 2 miles, I still managed to have a good time running with most of my family present!

Now back to the slow poking around again....

The Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing; revisited

Outside of my birthday run and the month of training that led up to it, I haven't had any good or consistent training in a long long time.

During my run this morning with Jesse (I got a nice 10.5 miles in!) He was asking me questions about training via HR, and the benefits to doing such. I answered him as best as I could, but I have honestly forgotten a whole hell of a lot on the topic.

There was a time where I could talk for hours and hours on the topic if given the time and opportunity (just ask my poor wife...), but now I struggle to explain it properly!

Same goes with my reasoning to run barefoot. I have gotten to the point where I just say "it works for me" and move on. I know the benefits behind it. I understand my reasoning. It makes total sense in my twisted little mind.

But how do I transfer that over to someone else that has a brain larger than the size of a peanut?

To help out with the first part (low HR training) I'm going to re-read Philip Maffetone's book "The Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing" so that I can sort it all back out in my head again.

Luckily Old Phil is a proponent to minimalist and barefoot running, so I can re-educate myself on that subject via this book as well!

How did this happen?

http://dranandvora.com/barefoot-running-blogs/

If you follow that link it will bring you to an orthopedic doctors website where he has compiled a list of 21 barefoot and minimalist running blogs and websites.

Along those listed are...

Ted McDonald, the infamous Barefoot Ted from the book "Born To Run". Basically, Ted could be held partially accountable for the explosion of barefoot and minimalist runners to emerge since BTR was released. His blog can be found HERE.

Barefoot Ken Bob Saxton, the O.G. of barefoot running. Yes, Abebe Bikila might have been the "first" barefoot runner to make headlines, but that was a one time thing. BF Ken Bob is the real deal when it comes to running unshod. The Guru of barefoot running's website can be found HERE.

Jason Robilliard. Jason has been mentioned in my blog on several occasions. Of all the "big guys" that made the list, Jason is the only one I have ever seen in forums. A super helpful guy, a great runner, an esteemed author of multiple books, Co-founder of the Barefoot Running Society,  and the owner of the Barefoot Running University, Jason's website can be found HERE.

Then there's Anton Krupicka... Anton is one of the top ultra runners of all time. Although he is not a barefoot runner, he is most certainly a minimalist runner! With multiple wins in not only races, but championships, series and a nice list of FKT (fastest known times) he's got a pretty good idea of what it takes to run really far REALLY fast. He is one of my favorite Ultra Runners and from what i hear he's actually a very humble and all around cool guy! You can find Anton's website HERE.

So there we have 4 of the biggest names in the minimalist /barefoot running world along with some of the top Ultra Marathoners all in one listing!

There were others that made the list. Minimalist show reviewers, other runners, etc... But those 4 stood out the most to me.

Then there's one that really shocked me.

Mine...

Huh!!?!???!??

Me?

I'm a nobody! Hell, I'm not even on the facebook! How did they find my blog, and why did they decide to use it? My mind is blown!

I'm certainly honored and appreciative, dont get me wrong here. I just never thought that my name would be listed with some of the greatest runners of our time.

Geez... there's going to be some disappointed people visiting my blog!  I guess I need to start posting up some more good stuff!

Running partner...?

I ran with a partner today for the first time in... well in a long time.

I'm not used to holding a running conversation with somebody that doesn't only exist in my head anymore. So it's going to take some getting used to.

His name is Jesse. He lives just about a mile down the road, and our wives are now friends too. His longest run is 13 miles, but he did say that he would like to go farther.... I will bring him to the dark side. Muahahaha!!!!!

I was a bit unsure at first, but I figured what the hell and decided to invite him for a run anyways. I'm very glad I did, because if I hadn't then my fat ass would probably still be asleep in the bed saying "Man... it's 31° outside! Piss on that!"

BUT, since I had invited someone else to go run, I couldn't exactly just back out. There was a sense of accountability involved that forced me to get out of bed and go running. Luckily I did. I grabbed a nice 5 miles that felt wonderfull!

Dusting off the cobwebs

No, I'm not referring to the same type of cobwebs as Drop Dead Fred was referring to.

Or even the oh so popular Gwen Stefani 90's hit song from the band No Doubt.

I'm taking about the cobwebs that have gathered about on my legs and in my lungs from not running over the past 3 months. Being fat and lazy and dormant for that long really allowed them to build up mighty thick!

But that changed tonight!

I just finished running an amazing 3.6 miles. And it felt... Well... Amazing!

I stated off at an easy relaxed pace and sort of gradually increased little by little. At one point I stared out on a long slightly declining well lit section of the road and saw a cat about 5 streetlights down. So i decided to do some primal style animal chasing type shit and just took off sprinting with the goal of not stopping until i was past the street lights glow. I checked my pace as i was slowing down at the end.... 5:56! Fork yeah!

Then the last quarter mile I set in mind to run under a 7 minute per mile pace. It gave me a nice little burn in the legs.

When I got home my wife made a few comments about how I must have enjoyed myself because I was grinning ear to ear. Then she commented about how bad I stunk.

Apparently shes never smelled the scent of burning cobwebs before!