Race Recap: Dirty Spokes Olde Rope Mill Trail Race

Race number four on the Dirty Spokes Trail series was held at Olde Rope Mill park in Woodstock, Georgia. The course is a mix of nice flowing single track and relentless switchback climbs and descents. This has always been an interesting race for me. I've won it a couple of times and I've also finished off the podium here before. I've had a mix of good races and bad races. It's one of those courses that it just depends on the day. Sometimes you feel great but still don't run great and others you feel like crap but run well. It's really all about the final section of the course.

It's a little hard to see on the picture but the course is laid out on the the Avalanche trail south of the river. Typically the race follows a concrete path then joins with the trail on the blue section above. You run the blue then the red sections before finishing with the green loop. That's where all the switchbacks and punchy climbs are.

Due to some heavy rain the night before the race, Tim had to re-route the course to start on the green section then continue onto the blue then red, then back up the other side (red, blue, green). It resulted in a slight shortening of the course - dropping it from 6.5 miles to 6 miles, but it put us on the trail a little quicker. That also meant we had to run straight up a short steep hill to get on the trail, which had a lot of people freaked out, but it really wasn't that bad.

I got out well and had about a 10 or 15 meter lead when we hit the trail. My plan was to get things rolling on the blue section of the Avalanche trail and try to stay on it until I got to the switchbacks. That worked out pretty well for the most part. I felt good early on so I really tried to work the flats and downhills and then just get up the climbs. There really aren't many of note in the early going, so I felt like I had settled into a pretty good rhythm once I hit two miles.

Once I hit the back side of the red trail (explorer trail) I realized that I had to back off a little bit. There were a bunch of corners that were wet, no puddles, but definitely slick. I ran in Scott Trail Rockets, which were fine on most of the course, but I didn't trust them in those wet corners. I tested the footing a couple times, but whenever I tried to drive out of the corners I'd slip.

Slight slipping aside, I didn't really have too many issues in this race. I struggled a little bit once I got to the switchbacks, but I was able to build up a good size lead in the early going and ended up running most of the rest of the race fairly relaxed. As much as I wanted to go completely into cruise control in the last two miles, Tim has put in an age graded category into five of the seven races this year. That gave me a little shot in the arm late in the race.

The first age graded race was UNG, I finished second there. I'd like to get the overall win and the age graded win for the series, so that little extra bit of motivation was helpful in the last couple of miles. I ended up crossing the line in 37:32 to take the win, Jeremy Shirey finished second (39:40) and Wayne Goff (39:44) took third. I was a little surprised that I won by as much as I did. Jeremy has been coming on really strong lately, especially at UNG. He was pretty much right on my heels during that race, so whenever he shows up, I know I have to be on it.

I ended up finishing second in the age graded results again, but since you have to run all five of the races I still have the overall lead.

Here's what the race looked like on Strava:

I'll keep this one short and sweet, but a quick little post-race recap. Amanda and I hit the Woodstock outlets for a bit. I scored a nice pair of New Balance shorts for 20 bucks, which is nice since most shorts I come across are 50 bucks now. After that we walked around downtown Woodstock for bit then made our way to Reformation Brewery. I won a six pack of their Belgian white ale at the race, so we decided to check it out. It was a cool spot. They had a five or six different beers. We each tried a few different ones, I enjoyed the Belgian white and the Prickly Pear wheat ale.

The brewery does this awesome thing where if you purchase a tour and don't use all of your pours - which I almost never do because I'm usually driving - you can trade those pours in for different stuff. I traded the three pours I didn't use in for a 22 oz. bottle of Cadence, their Belgian ale. I figured since the Tour of Flanders was the following day it was fitting. It's a great steak and potatoes beer. Amanda used hers for a half growler of the Pickly Pear.

Recovery Beer of the Week: Reformation - Union

As the description says, it's a crisp, refreshing beer. It paired wonderfully with a pizza.

Race Recap: Heritage Park 7.5 Mile Trail Race

Heritage Park marks the second race of the Dirty Spokes Trail series and it's typically a bit of a ball buster for me. At, roughly, 7.5 miles it always seems like it's just outside of my comfort zone this time of year. Going into the race, I'd been logging good mileage in the mid-40s to 50s as part of my typical steady build up and I even threw in a hill workout to try and start working on some strength.

I felt like I ran pretty well at Mayhem on the Mountain, but I figured Heritage park would be a better litmus test for where my fitness is right now. The course is a little more rolling and doesn't have the same short steep climbs as the last race. Things start out on a gravel road that loops around the park's large open arena, through the parking lot then past the barn and onto the trails. The majority of the course is run on well worn mountain bike trails with a couple of sections using wider, double-track equestrian trails. Like I said before, it's a rolling course with a good mix of flat, up, down, and turns before hitting decent climb in the final 3/4 of a mile back up to the arena where the race finishes.

My plan was to stay relaxed early and work my way into it letting the short course (2.8 miles) guys go out and just run my own race. I didn't really have much in the way of expectations. This is a weird race where sometimes you'll get a UGA guy that comes down from Athens, hell one year a guy from Australia that was teaching up there showed up and destroyed. Of all the Dirty Spokes races this one is the one that has the highest wildcard factor in terms of competition.

For once I actually got out the door on time. I was in the car and moving at 6:30 to make the hour drive out to Watkinsville and made it out their with plenty of time to get situated. I checked in and grabbed my number then continued my tour of the bathrooms of the lower 48 states - that's what my mom and dad used to say whenever my brother or I would have to go to the bathroom when we were driving cross country as kids.

It was a cold morning with the temperature hovering in the mid 20s. That wouldn't be bad for early February under normal circumstances, but earlier in the week it was in the mid 50s and low 60s, so the 30 or 40 degree temperature swing made the cold a little more biting. With the cold and the long drive, I wanted to make sure I got nice and warmed up, so I headed out for a 15-20 minute warm up on the opening section of the course. As I was heading back to the car I ran into Mitch Novy as he was getting ready to head to the start. In true Keene State, ragamuffin fashion I was grabbing gloves, arm warmers, and my jersey all while tying my shoes with about 10 minutes to spare before the gun.

When we made it to the start we both exchanged pleasantries with the usual suspects. It's really cool to see how competitive the series is through all the age groups for men and women. There are some serious battles that really heat up as it goes along. I love talking with those guys before and after the races. There are some guys and gals that are killing it in their 40s, 50s, and 60s and I hope that I am still out there getting after it like they are.

I told Mitch that I wasn't planning on going out hard and I was focusing on just settling in and trying to ease into things. Since his race was 2.8 miles, he was prepped and ready to go out hard, XC spikes and all. And go out hard he did. At the guy, my man was gone. He instantly had a 10 meter lead, with a young kid - maybe 12 or 14 - trailing behind him. I was a little behind the young gun while everyone else settled in behind me. As we worked our way around arena on the gravel road, I gradually started pulling the two leaders back in. I was a little conflicted because I glanced down at my watch and we ran about a 75 second first quarter, which was much, much quicker than I wanted to go out. However, I was sitting in no mans land and I've always enjoyed running on gravel roads, especially, flat, fast gravel roads.

Roughly a half mile into the race I realized that Mitch had settled in and I decided to try and pull him in and run with him until the split. I pulled up along side of him and we ran side-by-side before dropping onto the singletrack. I pushed ahead to take a slight lead figuring I would be better off keeping the the pace higher and trying to separate myself from the pack early. I was little surprised that Mitch let me open up a little bit of a gap but he kept it pretty close for the first two miles. I think we both realized that we had a nice early cushion and settled in shortly after the mile mark. Just before 2.5 miles we had to cross a small creek (or crick as they say down here). There was a photographer there and after the race I was all jacked to see the picture because a bunch of people put theirs on facebook. Mine did not come out so hot. I felt like I looked so smooth going over it, but that was not the case.

Seriously, what is that? I look like I'm afraid of a spider or something. Embarrassing. Ferenc is going to be pissed that I'm making the jersey look bad, but stay tuned it gets better. Anyway, after the crick we went through the split where I raced deeper into the woods while Mitch made the turn to head back to the finish. From there on out I was pretty much on my own. It's always hard to tell how far up or down you are on some of these trails that double back on themselves, so each time I caught a glance of someone else I tried to put my nose to the grindstone and get rolling.

Once I made it through four miles, I had a pretty good feeling that I was well in control. I have been trying to take some of the things that Coach Quinn talks about to the team into my running, with the main theme being that 'it's about us'. It doesn't matter what the other team does or what anyone else does as long as we/I do what I'm supposed to do. My goal in that is to stop worrying about what's going on behind me and just focus on the road/trail ahead of me. It's probably not a coincidence that I run my best when I'm focused on what I need to do versus what the people behind me or in front of me are doing.

I tried to stay focused on racing, but I ended up just kind of settling in and going into cruise control for the second half of the race. I felt like I was doing a good job of pushing the pace on some of the flat sections, but I was feathering the brakes a little on the downhills. We've had a good amount of rain down here over the last month or so and a lot of the downhills were pretty washed out which had me a little worried about rolling an ankle.

Heritage Park has a ravine/gully type feature to it with creek, sorry crick running along the bottom. The course runs down to the crick in the first half of the race, crosses it, then works its way along side before crossing again and then climbing back out of the gully. By the time I reached the base of the climb back out I knew I had the win sown up. To try and get myself going again I wanted to finish under 50 minutes, which meant I needed to make the final climb and finishing stretch in under five minutes. This stretch is a little more than a half mile, so I felt like it was doable, but I ended up cresting the climb and coming out of the woods right around 50 minutes and finished the 7.5 mile race in 50:21.

That Untapped hat looks good on the top step

I was happy to get the win. I don't think I've ever won at Heritage Park before. Like I said, it's a tough race for me fitness-wise and a lot of times you get one or two guys that are just straight up faster than me. I thought I'd be able to run a little bit quicker, as I've run in  the 48s on this course before, but I'll chalk that up to trying to shake people and/or chase people down the last couple of years. I entered the race hoping it would give me a better idea of my fitness early in the year, but came out of it just as unsure as I was before. I feel like I'm set up better than I was last year though.

I spent a ton of time during December and January trying to get my hamstring right. It's still tight every now and again, but I'm in a better spot than I was at this time last year. I'm still working on it, but my mileage is much better this year. I'm probably not quite were I was going into 2013 but I feel like I'm closer to that than where I was last year, which is a good thing. My first goal race is still more than a month away, so for now I just need to stay course and keep working.

Overall Heritage Park was a success. It was a solid run at a good tempo and most importantly it was on singletrack. I need all the practice I can get on singletrack and technical trails going into River Gorge. Next up is the Thrill in the Hills half marathon on February 20th. I'm not viewing that as a race, more of a long workout. Obviously, I want to perform well, but I know I'm not quite ready to race that distance. That being said, it will be a really good tune up a month out from River Gorge.

Here's what the race looked like on Strava

After the race I drove over to Watkinsville proper and stopped at Jittery Joe's for a nice hot cup of coffee to refuel for the ride home. I went with their Tour de Force dahhk roast and dropped a spoonful of Untapped maple in it and munched on a maple waffle. Jittery Joe's is a really cool coffee shop based in Athens, in fact I think there is only one outside of Athens (I could be wrong). I started drinking coffee during training camp this past year and we have a few of their varieties at the office so I've really come to enjoy it (always with a shot of maple syrup of course). They have also been long time supporters of the cycling community, which I think is pretty cool.

After my post-race snack I headed back home and met up with Amanda for some lunch before we headed downtown to check out Ponce City Market and walk around on the Beltline. There were a ton of people out walking around, which I was little surprised by since it was cold for Georgians. After we we worked up an appetite walking around we headed to Mellow Mushroom for pizza and beer which was long, long overdue.

Sunday morning I decided to go for a recovery ride on my sweet new Cannondale CAAD10 instead of running. I rode nearly 40 miles due to a slight miscalculation of distance from home. It was a really fun ride, probably a little hillier and further than I should have gone, but I really enjoyed rolling along on my new ride. Apparently buying a bike the day after a "snow storm" is the way to go since I got a good deal on her.

My sweet new wheels!

I rode over to the Buford Dam, which is a really cool spot to ride. There's an awesome stretch of rode that goes over the top of the dam, overlooking Lake Lanier to one side and the Chattahoochee River on the other. The dam is one of those earthen Army Corps of Engineer dams like Otter Brook or Surry in New Hampshire, so I enjoy the few minutes of nostalgia.

Race Recap + Another Microadventure

Race Recap:
Dirty Spokes Mayhem on the Mountain 5 Mile Trail Race

My first race of 2016 was also the first race of the Dirty Spokes Series. Mayhem on the Mountain was a brand new race on brand new trails at Sawnee Mountain, and now the series will start and end there. I got out on the new trails a week before the race to pre-run the course and I was really glad that I did. It's a straight forward course that follows the ridgeline trail around the mountain. It doesn't have a ton of overall vertical but there is plenty of up and down. I'd say it's the toughest Dirty Spokes or XTERRA course that they have had so far. Everything is steep. There's nothing overly long, but all the climbs are steep and they come at you one after the other.

The course was laid out on the entirely new trail system that's just been finished at Sawnee Mountain. The mountain has two peaks and is bisected by Bettis Tribble Gap road. The old trails at Sawnee, where the final race of the Dirty Spokes series is held, feature a four mile loop that goes up to the summit and has a cool lookout called the 'Indian Seats' where you can see the North Georgia Mountains and surrounding towns.

The new trails are on the other side of Bettis Tribble Gap and run around the mountain, climbing up to near the summit on the backside. Laid out in a counter clockwise direction, the course saw the majority of the climbing spread out over the first three-ish miles. Normally, that would be a good thing, but since it was all short steep climbs and then short drops, it really beat you up by the time you got to the top. Still, that's better than grinding out a two mile climb and then dealing with the short steep up and downs. I guess that's the only way the course would have been harder. Remind me NOT to suggest that.

I fell back into my normal ritual pretty easily pre-race. Pasta party Friday night then, of course, we were late getting out the door on race day. I had every intention of getting to the park at 7:30 to give myself an hour before the race started, but we didn't get there until 7:45 which meant we had to park at the main lot and take a shuttle. I take full responsibility for being late and I'm super thankful that Forsyth county runs shuttle vans so we still made it there in time to get my number and do a short warm up.

When we arrived, I made my way to check-in where Linda from Dirty Spokes decided to ratchet up the pressure nice and early by giving me bib number 1.

I caught up with Mitch Novy, one of my running buddies down here. We both ran for Saucony Hurricanes for a little while before he left to join Reckless Running and now he's running for Honeyy Stinger, which is pretty sweet. I mean they are no Untapped Waffles but Stinger Waffles are pretty good. Mitch and I caught up for a bit and did a short warm up jog on the last bit of the course. Neither of us were big fans of that, since the final mile or so of the course was downhill, which meant we were warming up by running up hill...no fun.

They ended up separating the two races (long course - 5.1 miles & short 3.1) by about 10 minutes to allow for spacing going into the trails. This was a really good idea because the parking lot/driveway area is pretty limited, so there wasn't a lot of space to spread things out before getting into the woods. Fortunately the trail was pretty wide, three to five feet probably. That's wider than a lot of the mountain bike trails in the area. You probably couldn't run side by side he whole way but at least there was enough room to pass.

At the start I got out to the front pretty quickly then settled down to see if anyone was going to hammer early on. I was looking forward to running with Mitch, but since he was in the short race I was on my own. The other couple of guys settled in behind me and we went into the woods single file in a lead group of three with everyone else strung out behind us. I tried to stay relaxed early on, knowing what was in store for me later, and settled into a nice rhythm for the first mile or so. I gave it a little bit of gas at the top of the first couple of short climbs and ended up opening up a little bit of a gap. I kept telling myself to stay relaxed and just get through the climbs. I tried to keep a similar effort and tempo so that while the climbs would slow me down, they wouldn't throw me totally off rhythm.

Side note: For the life of me I cannot spell the word rhythm.

Just before we got to the 1.5 mile split where the 5k took a cut through trail we dropped onto a double track section that looked like an old jeep road. After about 200 yards on the jeep road we hit the first of a couple of nasty switchbacks that felt like they were nearly vertical. Once I crested that and came down the other side I had a gradual climb up to the split. At that point I glanced back to see where the other guys were, and to my surprise they were out of sight. That was a pretty good feeling, knowing that I still had to run the toughest part of the course. I took a deep breath/sigh of relief as I felt like as long as I stayed on two feet and made it too the top in first that no one would be able to stay with me on the descent.

The next mile and a half was a real grind. A lot of short steep climbs then short steep descents, which absolutely hammer your legs. There was one particularly nasty set of switchbacks that I forgot about, which took me a minute or two to recover from before I settled back in. When I reached the top, I felt like I was crawling but I knew once I got over it I'd be able to get rolling. I tried to recover a little bit after we crossed over the lookout tower road then really got on the gas once I started going down. I was hammering at this point. The fresh trail was pretty well cut so the footing was really good despite all the rain we've been having lately. I had a couple of moments where I did't fully trust putting all my weight into the corners, but my LaSportia Mutants were super stable and did a nice job of gripping but staying responsive and quick.

When I came up on the short course again I went to work on catching as many of the short course runners as I could before the finish. I ran into a little trouble on a short false flat where I was expecting things to stay gradually downhill. I was a little worried that I over cooked it but the trail dropped back down shortly after and I was able to let gravity do most of the work. With about 300 meters to go I set my mind on catching one last 3 miler but he must have heard my foot steps thundering down the mountain behind him because he took off. We were both all out sprinting down this rocking trail toward the finish. He held me off and I congratulated him on a great finish after I crossed the line.

I ended up running 35:11 for 5.1 so I was a shade under seven-minute pace. On that course, I will certainly take it. Since it was the first race on those trails and technically the first time they were open to the public that's the course record. Next year I'll have to shoot for sub 35. I was really happy to get the win and run pretty well on a tough course. I wasn't quite sure what to except with it being the first race of the year, but it was a good solid way to start the year off.

After the race Amanda and I continued our search for good donuts with a trip to Dutch Monkey Donuts. I went with the maple vanilla swirl and it was excellent. We decided to take a day trip up to Chattanooga since we were already out that direction. We really just walked around downtown and did a little window shopping then headed over to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the Patriots game and eat wings. Two nice back to back weekends to start the offseason.

mmmmmm...donuts

I'm not 100 percent sure what I've got next on the docket. I'll definitely be running all the Dirty Spokes and XTERRA races this year, so Heritage Park will probably be the next race. Right now my first big goal race will be River Gorge and then probably Peach Jam after that. I am also kicking around the idea of doing a 55 mile 'gravel grinder' on the bike in February. We shall see.

Almost forgot...here's what the race looked like on Strava (go easy on me New Englanders. I didn't decide it was a mountain!)

Video Race Recap: Dirty Spokes Sawnee Mountain

I have a few write ups to finish but here's a quick video recap of my last race. I was a little flat, but I chalk that up to vacation legs and/or running with Josh and Greg in the White Mountains on Monday.

Video Race Recap: Dirty Spokes Haw Creek 10k

Video recap of the Dirty Spokes Haw Creek 10k. I'll have a longer write up shortly, but I wanted to get something up after the race. As you can tell from the video, I got the win over Jesse Rappole, which was a nice confidence booster. I ran 35:15 on the trails, which is about 5:40 pace, so that was also exciting. I wanted to go out and push it in this race and try to get a gauge of where I am at right now. It was nice to be able to go for it and get the win. I was hanging on a little at the end, but it was nice to get into a rhythm and roll and feel somewhat comfortable running faster than I have been lately. I think the track workouts are paying off.

Rad Run: Sawnee Mountain

I ran up Sawnee Mountain on Saturday and decided to bring my GoPro. Sawnee is the highest mountain in metro Atlanta at just over 1,900 feet. It's higher than Stone Mountain (confederate mount Rushmore...seriously) and Kennesaw Mountain, but shorter than the mountains up in North Georgia. All in all it was a good run, I got some decent climbing in over 10 miles and got a chance to get a little more familiar with the course for the upcoming Dirty Spokes race.

Race Recap: Dirty Spokes Univ. of North Georgia 5.5 Mile Trail Race

Editor's note: This is a little overdue, but necessary.

Winner, winner

I got my first win for Wild Endurance at the Dirty Spokes University of North Georgia 5.5 mile trail race on March 14 in Gainesville, Georgia. It's always nice to get a win but it was especially nice nabbing the top step on the podium for WE and to do it on what has become my de facto home course down here in Georgia. I've won this race the last four years with Josh Ferenc taking the win in 2011 back when he was all Unicorned (BAA) out. This year's race wasn't a particularly fast version due to muddy conditions and my so-so fitness, but hey, a win is a win.

The Gainesville UNG campus is only 18 or so miles from my apartment, which might sound far but everything is so spread out down here that's actually super close. It's also 17.5 highway miles, so that helps. I got to the campus around 7:30 with about an hour to kill before the start of the race. Because it was so wet, Tim Schroer moved registration and the finish into the parking garage, so I was able to stay relatively dry before the gun. He also moved the start from the big lower field to the road next to the field, which was great for me. Those big open field cross country starts have never been my strong suit.

After jogging around for a bit and trying to find a bathroom (no campus buildings were open...portos...woof) I found Mitch Novy doing the same and trying to stay loose in the rain. We chatted a little bit about our race plan and stretched out while we waited for everyone to make their way to the start. Mitch is contesting all of the short courses in the series, so for him this was a 2.5 mile race. His plan was to run together until we hit the split just after the mile then try to finish off anyone that stayed with him in the final long flat before the finish. Having someone to run with for a mile or so sounded good to me, so we made our way to the start to get things fired up.

The new start presented a small challenge, a narrow concrete bridge about 20 yards from the starting line, it was a little unfortunate for some of the people further back, but there was really no way to avoid it. Even if they pushed the start back, it would have been a downhill sprint and that would have been mass chaos. Mitch was a little nervous about the bridge, but I assured him that we'd be fine. I've run enough of these races and so have most of the rest of the field that everyone has a pretty good gauge on the early pace, with the exception of the occasional froggish high schooler.

At the gun, Mitch took off like Chip in that Chappelle skit. I was a few yards behind and the aforementioned froggish youngster when by me like I was standing still and instantly opened a small gap on Mitch. I my head, I said 'I'm either going to catch him before the mile or he's going to run away from everyone, so don't panic...but I kind of hope he's running the short race'.

I quickly settled into a good rhythm and started eating into their advantage on the flat double track that traces the outline of the campus along a set of rail road tracks. The double track makes a left past the track and less than a half mile into race you pass a set of tennis courts then a makeshift outdoor amphitheater. I caught Mitch at the tennis courts and the young buck shortly after the amphitheater. Despite a couple of slips on a few of the off camber turns, I pulled into the lead as we made the turn to head back towards the start where we would dip into the woods.

Mitch came around me to keep the pace high in a effort to distance the kid behind us. We rolled stride for stride through the mile and all the way to the split. I don't get to run with people and a lot of these races are single track so that was pretty cool, to be side by side rolling. I felt like I was back in college hammering back from a workout at Keene High. Mitch went on to win the short race by a solid margin over 17-year old Alex Peacock (the young kid behind us).

I broke left over a small bridge and into the woods. I was cautious over the wooden planks and in and out of the corners due to the mud but it became clear fairly early that I was out to a good lead. Once you get into the woods on the UNG course there are a lot of tight turns. It's pretty flat but the twists and turns make keeping up a rhythm difficult. I focused on trying to open up my stride were I could and trying to be quick through the tight sections. This added up to a lot of speeding up and slowing down but it worked out pretty well, since by the time I came through three miles there was no one in sight behind me.

It's always difficult to keep pushing the pace when you are in no man's land. It's a little easier when you are out front because there's always that voice in the back of your head that's worried about getting caught, so I tried to tap into that and keep pushing. I was moving well on the long down hill that takes you from the back section of trails back to double track access trail and figured that I'd start to catch the back end of the 2.5 milers before finishing the climb back up to the mountain bike parking lot. I grinded my way up the hill then started working on the few people I could see up ahead of me.

Once I was back down on the double track about a half mile from the finish I tried to open it up again. To my delight, my hamstring actually felt okay and wasn't too tight, that would change at the finish. I knew I had the win sewed up, but I still tried to catch all of the 2.5 milers ahead of me. The change in finish location left us with a nasty little paved up hill back to the parking garage, which was a little tougher than I thought it would be, so making the right hand turn into the parking garage was a relief. I strided it out and crossed the line in 34:23. That time is a little slow, but given the change in course and sloppy, muddy conditions it was right about where I thought I'd be.

After a lot of travel the week before, I was happy that my hamstring felt okay during the race. It still tightened up afterwards, but I think I am getting to the point where I can start upping my mileage as along as I stick to my work in the weight room. Right now, that's my big struggle is my lack of mileage. It's difficult for me to race well on low mileage. If I'm doing good workouts, I can run alright in the 50s, but right lately I've been in the 30s, so I need to work on that.

After the race I caught up with Mitch for a two mile cool down. We finished up and made our way to the awards where I took home a specially made Dirty Spokes Merlot from Chateau Elan winery. I'm not a big wine guy (or a wine guy at all really) but I thought that was one of the cooler prizes I've ever gotten at a race. I also got a coupon for a free VO2 Max test which I'm interested in checking out. I will keep you posted if and when I make it to the lab for that.

Mitch and I hit the trails for another three miles, which gave me 10 for the day. All in all it was a good day and a good start to the spring for me. I'm a little behind where I wanted to be, but if I can keep my hamstring in check I still think I can run well later in the spring and summer.

As always, here's what it looked like on Strava:

Race Recap: Thrill in the Hills Trail 1/2 Marathon

Better, but still not great...

The Thrill in the Hills 1/2 Marathon marked the sixth race in the 2014/15 XTERRA Georgia Trail series and the first of three races in the series to be held in 2015. This race is held at one of my favorite spots to run and ride, Ft. Yargo State Park in Winder, GA. The course has changed a couple times over the last few years but the 2015 version was the exact same as the 2014 course. Unfortunately for me, my 2015 fitness and my 2014 fitness at this time of the year are markedly different. 

The race begins at the main mountain bike parking lot and starts with about 3/4 of a mile on the road to stretch out the field before dipping into the woods for 12+ miles of single and double track. For the most part the course follows the park's outer loop mountain bike trail (seen below in blue). The only deviation from the out loop comes when you reach the western end of the dam. At that point the course hugs the lake shore on the inner, yellow loop until you reach the six mile mark. Then you climb up a powerline trail and re-join the outer loop for the remainder of the race. This is done to avoid the "Monster Mile", which is no fun to run as it's got a bunch of steep U shaped drops designed for mountain bikers.

The race starts and finishes at the mountain bike trail head marked with the star.

The course is challenging because of it's constant elevation changes. It gains 1,200 feet, which doesn't sound bad but it's a lot of short punchy climbs with a couple of longer sustained climbs mixed in. Saw tooth is how I would describe it. After re-joining the outer loop there is a nice long descent then you are back in the hills for the final five miles.

The elevation profile from RD Tim Schroer

Going into this race, I figured I'd be able to run somewhere under 1:28, which is around what I ran for second on a super muddy course two years ago, but not much faster than 1:25, which is what I ran last year after starting slow and dropping a great last 5K. My expectations were definitely tempered since I've been working to correct my hamstring issues and the longest run I'd done in the two weeks leading up to the race was seven miles. I gave some thought to skipping the race after spending three days in Indianapolis for work earlier in the week, but I figured it would be a good long run at a faster tempo and whatever I finished I would pad my lead in the overall point standings.

My gear for the race:
Singlet: Wild Endurance
Shorts: Saucony 7in (fat kid shorts till I'm in better shape)
Socks: Darn Tough no show merino wool
Shoes: Scott Trail Rocket 2.0
Fuel: Untapped Maple

At the start of the race, I settled into a comfortable rhythm letting Jesse Rappole and one other guy go hoping that I'd be able to snag the third and final spot on the podium. I hadn't seen Jesse in a while, but the way the race started I knew he was in good shape and would chase down the kid that blasted the road section. Last years race started exactly the same way and I was eventually able to move into second in the final 5K. That wouldn't be the case for me this year, but it's what I kept telling myself early on.

I focused on staying in a rhythm and running the course, rolling the downhills and flats while surviving the climbs and not losing that rhythm on the climbs. Things were going pretty good early in the race. The two leaders were gone, but I was running comfortably in third. I got through Three Step Hill (the first named climb, even though it's rolling and has no net elevation gain) and was feeling okay, not fast but I felt like I could hold the pace. By four miles it was clear the runner behind me, Evan Dare, was going to catch me. When he did I tried to stick with him, but given my hamstring issues I didn't have the ability to change gears and stay with him as we climbed up to the dam just after five miles.

At that point, I knew I was going to be in no man's land the rest of the race, except for when I was passing marathoners (the marathon starts 30 minutes before the 1/2), but I still held onto a sliver of hope that I'd catch someone that blew up later in the race. Things took a turn for the worse on the inner loop potion of the course. This section is double track, relatively flat, exceedingly, and runnable. It's one of my favorite sections of this course and really of the trail system in general and when I felt like I couldn't change gears there I knew it was going to be a long second half.

Coming off of the inner loop, I grinded my way up to the top of the race's biggest climb. I used the marathoners to help pull me along and when I reached the top I popped open an Untapped maple syrup packet, but even that sweet delicious nectar of the gods couldn't save me from the sufferfest that was about to ensue.

side note: Untapped is amazing. If you haven't tried it I strongly urge you to. I've tried nearly every GU, PowerGel, ShotBlock, and most of the other energy gels and Untapped maple is the best. It goes down easier since it's just all natural maple syrup and it's easier on my stomach. I couldn't recommend it more. Check it out: Untapped Maple

After the long descent, I was fully on board the struggle bus. I felt like I was having a tough time catching the marathoners and every step seemed a little harder than the one before. In retrospect, I probably should have had the maple shot a little sooner. I was able to take a few minutes to recover and when we crossed the road at the B entrance with 5K to go I put my head down and tried to grind my way to the finish. The marathoners definitely helped, but I was also lucky that I was out in front of fifth place as much as I was. I don't know that I could have fought anyone off at that point.

I rolled into the finish in fourth at 1:26:49, so about where I figured that I would be. I won the 30-34 age group, but missed the podium for just the third time in a Dirty Spokes/XTERRA race since I moved to Georgia in 2010. That was a little tough to swallow, but I've had to re-adjust my goals and expectations while working on this hamstring issue. Below is my Strava data from the race. My GPS lost a full mile in the woods.


Overall the race was what I expected. I struggled with the distance but still got a good long workout in. Originally, I wanted this to be a good build up race and barometer for River Gorge coming up at the end of March, but the injury has changed things a little bit. I'm still going to run River Gorge, but my revenge plot may not work out as planned. Post race, I got a chance to catch up with Jesse, who had the whole crew out to the race. It's always good to see them. We've built up a good friendly rivalry over the last few years, always pushing and testing each other. I was happy to see him get the win (1:19:12) even if he stomped me harder that he ever has before. He is rolling right now in preparation for the Rock and Roll marathon in Nashville next month. Based on that time, he should be all set for a PR. Jesse also beat the kid that sat on me for seven miles at the last race. He told me the kid tried to do the same thing to him but he was able to drop him after a few miles, so that felt like a moral victory. Despite the fourth place finish, I held onto my overall lead in the points standings and baring disaster, I should be on my way to a third straight XTERRA Georgia title.

After the race I stopped at Barberitos for a much needed burrito then headed home to grab Amanda. With the cold temps in the area we thought it would be fun to go up to Helen and try and see if we could find some frozen waterfalls. Closed roads due to ice and downed trees kept us from the waterfalls but we still got a cool snowy hike in around Unicoi lake and saw some Loon's chilling.

Next up for me is a recovery week with some easy running and work in the weight room. I'm hoping to get a good trail run in up in Chattanooga next weekend, then I'll be heading home to Hoth/New England to spend some time with my family and hopefully get in a little Wild Endurance time with Ferenc and Greg.

Here's the race day video from Dirty Spokes:


As always a huge thanks to Dirty Spokes for all the work they do. Tim and his dad along with Johnny Garner (Outdoor Mafia) did an amazing job clearing the trail of all of the downed trees and limbs from the ice storms that we had earlier in the week. It must have taken them hours to clear the trails. Thank you to YABA, they do a great job maintaining the trails year round. Last but not least, thank you to the Wild Endurance sponsors for helping make this team a reality; La Sportiva, Untapped, Darn Tough, and Julbo USA.

Race Recap: Dirty Spokes Heritage Park Trail Race

That did not go according to plan...frustration and aggravation.

Saturday was the second race of the 2015 Dirty Spokes Trail series at Heritage Park in Watkinsville, Georgia or Oconee county as they say down here. They love counties down here. This is a really nice course with a good amount of up and down and a mix of single track mountain bike trails and double track equestrian trail. The course starts with a loop around the gravel road that circles the equestrian show arena thing, which is about a half mile before hitting the entrance to the equestrian trail and getting into the trails. After a short stretch of double track the course turns right onto the mountain bike trails and descends until the 2.3 mile mark, which was the split for the short course (2.8 miler) and the long course (7.85).

At the start a group of four shot out to the lead with Mitch Novy at the front again. I was a little off the back but by the time we got into the woods I had worked my way up to the lead group of four. This is were the frustration started to settle in. As I said in my last race recap, I'm not in good shape right now, and I knew that I wasn't going to run particularly fast, but I figured 'what the hell'. Around 1.5 I felt like the lead group was just sitting on the kid in front and I don't like to race that way in a race like this. My goals in these races are to run hard and get in a good workout, so when I saw a little bit of room to the side of the trail I made a hard move to the front.

My move split the lead group of four into two duos with Mitch and the other guy in the short race falling off and myself and the other guy in the longer race taking a 10 or 20 yard lead. Okay this is actually were I started to get frustrated. Once we hit the three mile mark it started to become apparent that the dude running behind me was just hanging out there. I threw in as many surges as I could but I just couldn't manage to shake him. After we hit the five mile mark, I started to get pissed. It was clear he had no intention of doing any work and was planning to just sit on my shoulder and out kick me. Which is exactly what he did.

I don't have an issue with losing the race. I was fully prepared for that going in. There's usually one or two guys from UGA that come down from Athens and tune me up in this race every year, but I did take issue with the way this guy ran. I appreciate tactics as much as anybody, but in a race like this to sit and kick, I think that's bush league and a shitty was to compete. To be honest, the guy probably could have run a minute faster if he would have just gone. The fact that I knew he was going to sit and kick took me out of my race too, I started yo-yoing, running fast then slowing down trying to get him to go around.

When he finally did go around with about 200 to go, I tried to kick with him, but I just didn't have the gears. I said 'you waited long enough' when he passed and he told me 'I didn't know who you were', it doesn't matter dude just race. I was pretty salty after the race but I just walked to my car and tried to cool down. This has actually happened to me at this race before and I'm not going to make a scene and look like a sore loser, I just think it's bush league. Maybe I need to wise up and I should have just stopped and let him go, I don't know maybe it's foolish but part of me said maybe I can out sprint him.

I was pretty hot about it for a about 15 minutes, but once I talked to Amanda and Mitch and got my frustration out I settled down and got over it. I still think it was a shitty way to race. If this was a championship race or there was money on the line I wouldn't have cared as much, but I think the guy could have run faster but decided to go the easy route. I'm not wired like that. I know we all have a tendency to put it in cruise control when we can get away with it, but I also think you owe it to yourself to give it your all. Maybe that's dumb, but that's just how I feel about it.

After the race we headed back to the house and met up with our friends Eric, Joanna, and Tyler and headed down to Atlanta to check out Monday Night Brewing and Sweetwater for Eric's birthday. Monday Night was the winner. I was a big fan of their Fu Man Brew. After that it was off to Cheekys for some tacos. I went with a couple different varieties but their Pork Carnitas tacos are amazing. Amanda and I passed out shortly after that. Not a great race, but a good, full day.

Race Recap: Dirty Spokes Frozen Foot 7 Mile Trail Race

Saturday was not only my first race of 2015, it was also my debut race for my new club, Wild Endurance. The club was started by heterolifemate Josh Ferenc and while I’ve been having some issues getting officially signed up for the club with USATF, I still plan on repping this crew in 2015. Frozen Foot was a new addition to the Dirty Spokes series last year, taking the place of a race that was held on the same trails but was held later in the year. I missed the race in 2014 because I was back home for the weekend, but I’d run in the course when it was the Central Park 5 miler the pervious couple years. I got to the race a little later than I would have liked, but I was at least able to job around a little and catch up with my buddy Mitch Novy (Reckless Running) before the gun.

Heading into this race, I knew that I wasn’t in great shape. After taking two weeks off in December and then slowly starting to build back up I figured I’d have one gear and it would probably be a task to get myself on the podium. I decided to start things off steady and then just try to run with Mitch for the first lap. He ran the short (one lap) course, while I ran the longer (two lap) course. At the gun a whole mess of high school kids sprinted off the line with Mitch out front leading the charge. I quickly realized that my initial plan was out the window and I just focused on settling into a rhythm and working my way through the pack.

The race started out with a loop around one of the park’s baseball fields then dipped into the mountain biking trails for two loops. I passed most of the high schoolers and tried to settle in behind Jason Parks, who would go on to win, and work on catching the other guys ahead of us. Jason started to open things up on me around a half mile in when we hit the switchbacks and started to make our way up the climb. I ended up in fourth over the top of the climb, which was about the mile mark. At that point, I tried to focus on trying to catch back up to Mitch. I figured if I could connect with him through the first lap I would set myself up for a podium spot. 

I did not feel great and struggled a little more than I thought I would in the tight trail sections, but I was able to get things going a little bit on some of the more open sections of the course. I closed down on Mitch around 2 or 2.5 miles and set out on catching the next guy in front of us. At that point I figured that a win was out of the question and I had a feeling the high school dude in second was only going to be running the short course, so I felt like I could relax a little and just try to focus on trying to run strong in the second half of the race. 

I caught the second place runner around with about a half mile left in the first lap. When we came out of the short wooded loop he made a little surge to pull ahead of me as we hit the final single track section. It’s cut into the side of a hill and when I say single track, I mean single track. The trail isn’t wide enough to stand with your feet side by side. I knew I wanted to get by him and try to string things out a little, just in case he was running the long course. I didn’t want to get stuck going into the hill for a second time. 

When we came to the split for the 4 mile finish, he turned right to head to the finish line and I broke left to start my second lap. I tried to throw in a surge going back into the woods to try and keep some racing momentum, but most of the second lap ended up being cruise control. Jason Parks was too far out front and there was no one behind me for a while. I just settled in and ran the second lap. Once we got over the big climb for the second time, I started catching up to some lappers so that helped me get going a little bit, but like I said to Mitch post-race, after I was able to catch him and the kid that won the four miler I just settled in and cruised the second lap. 

I ended up being around where I thought I would be and I’ll take it as a good workout. I ran faster than normal and that’s really what I needed, a good first workout. I know where I’m at right now and while that’s a little frustrating, my goals aren’t races early in the year. I’ve just got to keep building and keep working and I know the times and hopefully wins will come in these Dirty Spokes races. 

Even though it wasn’t the greatest performance, it was good to get back out there and see all the familiar faces. I got a chance to catch up with a bunch of good buddies and my cousin Greg came down from the Tennessee wilderness for the race. He’s pretty gnarly, just started running in 2013 and rocked a 50k, 11 miler at Cloudland Canyon and Saturday’s race three consecutive weeks, pretty badass. One of my favorite things about Dirty Spokes is the way they treat everyone that comes out. Tim and the crew offered a free pair of Mizunos for the 10th person to reach the top of the climb in each race, which was a really cool way to give some different people a chance to win something. 

Here's the data from Strava:

Back to the Basics

The New Year has started for fairly well for me training wise. I took two weeks off in December after the final XTERRA race of 2014 and after about a week of running three miles a day and working on gluteus medius exercises I graduated to running five or six for the second half of last week. I put in 32 miles for the December 29 to January 4 week, which wasn’t half bad considering I started the week out with three days of three mile runs.

This week, I feel like I am finally getting back into the swing of things. I logged 39.5 miles on seven runs and got back to a rhythm of getting up running and then heading to work. It’s still a little tricky with timing out my runs because the sun doesn’t come up until about 7:20 or 7:30 and it’s been even later some days when we have a lot of cloud cover. All that means is that I had a few days where I got to work later than I would have liked, but I ran the Flowery Branch 5/7 mile route more than 200 times last year and I’m just not feeling like running that route right now. Unfortunately, there’s not much in terms of route options from the office and even though I’ve been running the same out and back run on the greenway, running from home at least gives me a few more options. Running from home also allows me to run on trails, which has been a welcome change.

I ran on the greenway six days this week, but I did get in a good eight miler at Little Mulberry on Sunday. It’s always tough starting over after taking extended time off, so eight miles might not sound like much, but right now running eight on trails and feeling pretty good felt like forward progress. It’s always hard mentally when you see what other people are doing for their training or racing when you aren’t in shape. I just have to keep reminding myself that it’s all part of the process and my goals are for races and runs down the line, not tomorrow. I just have to stay the course, work on building things back up and I will be ready to roll when my goal races come around in the coming weeks and months. Still, there’s nothing worse than starting from scratch.

The polar vortex didn’t help the starting from scratch thing either. Last year, when it got cold I was going from running five miles five days a week to between 5-10 seven days a week, so it wasn’t as big of a deal, but when the temps dropped to single digits and below zero, that wasn’t fun. I have to admit though, I saw a lot of tweets and facebook statuses from people back home running in -20 wind chill, so I had to suck it up. I refuse to let myself get soft of cold temperatures.

Weekly breakdown
Monday – Greenway five + weight room
Tuesday – Greenway five + weight room
Wednesday – Greenway five + weight room
Thursday – Greenway five
Friday – Greenway five
Saturday – Little Mulberry eight
Sunday – Greenway five

I almost took Sunday off, but Amanda made homemade doughnuts so I felt like I needed to get something in. The two biggest things for me this week were getting in the weight room and staying off the roads. The greenway is only paved for ¾ of a mile and rest is gravel or trails which was awesome. I need to keep getting in the weight room to work on leg strength and start working in some core next week.

One final note on this week, I ran most of my runs in my La Sportiva Helios. I really like that shoe and I’m probably going to invest in a new pair, but I must admit I was pretty stoked to get a fresh pair of Saucony Rides. I put about 500 miles on my last pair and hadn’t replaced the since before training camp, so it felt nice to get my feet into a new pair of shoes. I’ve been running in Rides since I worked at GBRC and served me extremely well over that time. It was more fun when I was running for Saucony Hurricanes and got them for free/50 percent off, but still that’s my go to everyday trainer. I am looking forward to checking out the breakthru when those come out though.

On to next week…
Next week will be more of the same for me. Work is in a bit of a holding pattern right now, so I’ll be sticking close to home or the office for my runs this week. Once we hire a coach, then I can start to mix in some different things after work. Training wise, I’ll be looking for more of the same consistency in terms of pace and distance. I also plan on working in one workout, either hills or a light tempo run. The first race of 2015 the Dirty Spokes Frosted Foot race at Central Park on Saturday. I’m going to get tuned up, but I’m not really looking at any race as a race until February, so I just need to go out there and get used to running hard again. It’s a 7.5 miler though, so a blow up is probably in my future.

New Year, New Go Pro & Back to the Blog

I wanted to start the new year off by adding some running videos, now that I have a GoPro. Here's my first attempt at making one. I shot it on New Year's day at Little Mulberry Park, one of my favorite local trail spots. I'm going to continue using my tumblr but if I want to get a youtube channel going, I figured I should dust of this old blog.

Race Report: XTERRA Georgia Ft. Yargo Trail Race

Last weekend Amanda and I drove out to Winder for the second race of the 2013-14 XTERRA Georgia Trail Series at Ft. Yargo State Park. I was looking forward to this race ever since seeing it announced by Dirty Spokes during the summer. Ft. Yargo is one of my favorite places to run and the course that Tim set up did not disappoint.

 

We got there a little later than I would have liked but our plan to park at the A entrance and walk over to the start at the B entrance worked like a charm. I grabbed my number and exchanged a few pleasantries with all of the usual suspects. Amanda pinned my number on, which has been good luck, but for like the third race in a row she put one of the pins all the way through the jersey, pinning the front to the back. Thanks. I did a short warm up over the first mile or so of the course then talked to Matt McNamara (who I’ve now roped into two of these races) about what the course would be like.

 

The 8.5 mile trail course had a little bit of everything, fast sections of hiking trail and fire roads, twists and turns, up and down, everything. It started out on the inner loop hiking trail with a gradual climb before hugging the lakeshore until we reached the man-made dam. From there we were treated to a wide open flat section that led back into the woods and onto the main mountain bike trail. The first two or 2.5 miles were straight forward and relatively flat, which allowed for some fast racing early on. Once we hit the mountain biking trail things got more technical with more twists, turns and roots. Around the halfway point the course straightened out a bit that again allowed for a faster pace before we started dealing with some late race climbs. Like I said a little bit of everything.

 

Tim did a great job of making the course different from the half/full marathon course while still utilizing the same trails. Big shout out to the YABA (Yargo Area Biking Association) for maintaining a great trail system. Okay, now onto the race.

 

I didn’t see any of the normal front runners milling around the start area, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect out of the field. Going into this race, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to hold up the pace that I ran a few weeks before at Harbins for 8+ miles, so I planned to run more conservative and try to use my knowledge of the course to my advantage.

At the start I went right to the front to make sure was clear of any traffic and tried to settle into a fast but relaxed pace. I felt pretty strong early on and ended up building up a good size lead, probably 50 meters or so, but I was running comfortable. Once we hit the first mile marker, I felt like I was running well, but within myself. I tried to use the early part of the course to run in a good rhythm and stretch things out without getting in over my head. When we hit the mountain bike trail I tried to focus on maintaining a good tempo and working the course, running fast in the sections that allowed for it and using some of the other sections to recover.

 

By this point, I was all alone by a good amount, but I never really had a good idea of the kind of gap I had built up. For most of the race I figured it was probably around a minute or two. I’m not sure where that time came from, but I think it was mostly just me telling myself not to relax and to keep racing. I didn’t want to get caught, so I just kept telling myself to keep racing. I had a few spots where I slowed down more than I would have liked, especially late in the race, but it was probably for the best that I didn’t know how big the gap was. That way I just tried to keep pushing. Hopefully that mentality will pay off the next time I am close race.

 

Three races this fall and three wins. From here, I’m going to run the USATF Georgia 15k Championship on Saturday at the Peachtree City Classic then I’m planning to run the remaining XTERRA Georgia trail races before taking a little bit of time off to recharge before ramping back up for the winter and spring. I’m hoping to start working some more biking into my repertoire this year, we’ll see how that goes.

Here is the Strava data for the race:

Catching Up

It’s been a little while since I’ve taken the time to update my log so here comes a short and sweet overview of my training the last two months or so (wow it really has been a long time). When I last left off I’d only been running 40-50 miles a week, so I have successfully upped my mileage. I went from 50s to the mid/high 70 with a down week in between due to the NFL Draft. I probably jumped a little quicker than I would normally like to, but I did it by adding a second run of three to five miles in the afternoon on most days, so that really helped me up my mileage without putting a ton of extra stress on my body all at once by increasing the length of my morning runs. Ideally, I’d prefer to just run 10 on one run then seven and three, but with my work schedule that’s where I am at.
In addition to increasing my mileage I ran four races, all on the trails (three wins, one nightmare), rocked an idiot 20 miler at Ft. Yargo, and had the race that I’ve been super excited for canceled.

You’re an Idiot
I will gloss over my idiot 20 miler real quick…I was trying to be a tough guy and I was really frustrated with some stuff at work, so to get my anger and aggression out I decided to run 20 on the trails at Ft. Yargo. Terrible idea. I should have gone with my old standard of running a really hard workout, like the time I caught Wilson on the Base Hill 10 mile tempo, blacked out with a mile to go, and apparently sprinted through traffic on Rt. 9. Anyway, I ran the half marathon course then added on the seven-ish mile hiking trail. It was fun for about 15 miles and the last five were awful. My legs were completely dead, I was dehydrated, my feet hurt, and I had to take a couple Raymond breaks along the way. I got home and booted. Woof. Whatever, I still got 20 in.

The four races…

Dirty Spokes Olde Rope Mill 6.5 miler
I had my best run at Rope Mill park, taking first on a tough 10k course against some stiff competition, including a high school kid that made me really nervous for the first three or four miles. It was my first win in three tries at this race too so that made it extra sweet. I went out a little conservative and hung behind Jesse Rapole for about a mile and a half before I decided to surge and take the lead at the top of one of the numerous short climbs. From there I was able to open a good gap that I maintained until the final two miles were I really opened things up. I ended up running sub-6 minute pace on a tough course.

Mountain Goat Alatoona Creek 9 miler
The next week I returned to Allatoona to defend my crown from last spring. The course was different this year and didn’t have as much of the cross country style open fields as last year, but I was able to open up a big gap early and despite the water logged conditions I cruised to the win. I also won $100, can’t beat that.

Dirty Spokes Running the Rocks 10k
My next race was Running the Rocks at the 1996 Olympic Mountain Bike trails, which is one of my favorite races and Tim from Dirty Spokes really put together a fun course, the best of the three that I’ve run during my time here in Georgia, but some stomach issues ruined this day. I woke up really excited to run, I was feeling really charged up after the events of the Boston Marathon and I just wanted to get out and run hard after all of that, you know try and return some positive energy to the world. Unfortunately, something I ate the day before changed that. I had major stomach issues before and during the race. I was able to hang with Jesse until about 1.5 miles before I had to let of the gas. Once I took care of my stomach issues, I was able to bring the race home and I managed to finish second. I definitely had to forget this one quickly.



Dirty Spokes Mt. Tabor 8 miler
I rebounded well from my nightmare day at Running the Rocks to pick up my first win at Mt. Tabor. Now the only Dirty Spokes races that I haven’t won at least once are Heritage Park and Running the Rocks (and Haw Creek, but that hasn’t been run yet). This was a weird race in that it wasn’t all that hot out but I felt like I was melting, and I also felt like I was running a lot faster than I was. For the first time since Gainesville State, Mitch and I ran the same course as the 8 mile race was a double loop while the 4 miler was a single loop. I decided to go out with him and just try to work together to see if we could get things rolling. I know if Woody Dover, my main competition, would want to go out that hard and I felt like I had the benefit of having someone to work with. That worked well for about two miles, then I took the lead to try and spell Mitch so he wouldn’t be leading the whole way. We ran together for a bit then I started pulling away as I surged in and out all of the tight turns. My legs were not feeling good so I was trying to force myself to run harder than my legs thought they could handle. That plan worked pretty well for six miles, then it was a death march to the line. I was able to hold off Woody for the win though. The course is called Mount Tabor, but there isn’t a lot of climbing, however it’s one of the tougher courses for me because it’s so tight. There are a lot of tight turns and not a lot of spots to open up your stride. Also this one should be called running the rocks…cuz…mad rocks yo.



Since I got into the swing of racing I my running was feeling much better. I’ve also successfully recruited Amanda to join me on most of my afternoon runs. I run while she bikes, we even got 10 in one afternoon a week or two ago. I did find myself in a bit of a rut in early May though. I was running a good amount of miles but not great quality miles. I was just kind of running. Then I got some family news that hit hard and the USATF Trail 10k Championships, my big goal race for 2013 got canceled. That was a shitty couple of weeks, but I soldiered on thanks to some motivation from Strava’s May Massive. I’m rocking that Challenge. As of this writing, I’ve run 481 km in May and I rank 28th in the world and I’m the 15th highest ranking American, pretty good for running 7 in the morning and 3-5 at night.

Once I found out I’d be missing the XTERRA Georgia Championship due to an impromptu trip home and with the USA Champs race being cancelled, I’ve had to focus on Peachtree as my big race. That’s helped me get out of my little rut. That and a beautiful new pair of Kinvara 4’s that make me want to run fast every time I put them on. I’ve started working in an up tempo morning run and got in a killer 3xmile workout up Currahee in on Memorial Day (more on that soon…for real).

Training April 2 - April 8

Monday, April 2: GEHC Trails + Ivy Creek Greenway – 8 miles – Started the week off with an eight miler around the GEHC trails and then out and back on the greenway. I actually worked from home today, so I probably could have run further, but my legs were still feeling the 14 miler and the day of paintball from the last couple of days. I decided to get in a quality eight vs. a slower 10.

Tuesday, April 3: AM – GEHC Trails – 5 miles – Amanda and I had originally planned to go to trivia tonight and I wanted to get in 10 miles but didn’t think I’d have enough time to get it in after work. I woke up at 6:15, did my 45 or so minutes of news clips for work then headed out on the GEHC trails for five. It’s really nice running in the mornings right now. The temperature has been in the mid to high sixties everyday making it a little more comfortable than the afternoons.

PM – GEHC Trails – 5 miles – Got out of work and both Amanda and I seemed to be really tired. I headed back out for a quick five on the same out and back that I’ve been doing lately and then came home for dinner and an early bed time. Ten for the day.

Wednesday, April 4: Chicopee Woods – 11 miles – 8 sets 30-60-90s – I wanted to get another workout in on the tough terrain at Chicopee before Olde Rope Mill this weekend. I ran the same workout as last week, Coyote loop to Tortoise and White tail trails for 11 miles with 8 sets of 30-60-90 repeats. This week was much better than last week’s workout. I ran my repeats and my rest much better and finished my final set when I reached the creek crossing at the bottom of Granny’s climb, which means I fit in a whole set more before the creek than last week. I was hoping this would be a good confidence booster going into the weekend’s race, but after finishing, I just kind of felt okay. I was tired and I ran hard but I am still uneasy about how Saturday is going to go. I think I need to find something to mix my training up, whether it’s more miles or a couple of days of longer singles instead of doubles or finding a new place to run once or twice a week. I feel like I’m in a little bit of a rut after I ran the Running the Rocks race slower than I did last year. Made a road 5k is in order to see where I’m at in terms of fitness.

Thursday, April 5: AM GEHC Trails – 5 miles – Woke up early to get in another morning run. This is an old Keene State standby, double up on recovery days. I used to love doubling up on the day after workouts to get good mileage in but give my legs some extra time to recover.

PM GEHC Trails – 5 miles – Second run was the same as the first, but a little bit faster. I got 10 in for the day and let my legs recover a little bit, but still stayed on the hillier trails to try and keep my legs used to the up and down to be ready for Saturday.

Friday, April 6: GEHC Trails – 6 miles – I really wanted to get up and get my run done in the morning but ended up sleeping an extra 45 minutes and running after work. I changed it up a little bit today and went with two loops of the GEHC trails starting with the homesite trail to the creekside trail, up onto the paved section of the Cherokee trail, past the tree top adventure course and on to the sweet gum trail. My legs felt heavy, but that’s to be expected the day before a race.

Saturday, April 7: Dirty Spokes Olde Rope Mill Trail Race – 9.5 miles – Amanda and I left a little bit later than I had originally planned, so we missed out on parking down at the trailhead/starting area…this did not turnout well. After walking down to the registration area I realized I needed to hit the portos, the line was wicked long and by the time I got back to our picnic table staging area to put on my singlet and shoes I had about 10 minutes before the start of the race. I warmed up for about 90 seconds and then headed over to the start. I settled down after about two miles and ran in third where I ended up finishing. The course actually wasn’t as bad as I remembered, in terms of the number of switchbacks but it was still pretty rough. I wasn’t pumped about my race but then I realized I ran about a minute faster than I did on the same course last year, so that was positive. I cooled down three miles and ended up running another three when we got home. After the race I saw a flier for the Mountain Goat race series, which has a 9 mile race in Acworth, GA next weekend. I’m not sure yet but I think I might drive out and jump in it just for spits and whistles.

PM – GEHC Trails – 3 miles – Due to the fact that I didn’t get a chance to warm up and with the ruggedness of the course I decided to do a three mile shakeout after we got home. 12+ miles on the day.

Sunday, April 8: Ft. Yargo State Park – 14 miles – After yesterday’s race I wanted to get something nice and easy in on Sunday, so I went to Ft. Yargo and double looped the hiking trail for 14 again. I actually felt pretty good despite the tough race, but I think the fact that I did a short shakeout when we got home helped. Stopped at Krispy Kreme for some Easter donuts before getting home then cleaned up the kitchen and bathroom. Hit Mellow Mushroom for lunch (they have the best BBQ chicken pizza I have ever had) then just laid low for the rest of the day.

Weekly Totals: 71 miles on nine runs – I feel really good about this week. I hit 70 miles, which is right where I want to be. Looking back on Saturday’s race, I feel good about that too. Granted I got steam rolled by the eventual winner and ran some of the early part of the race a little soft and ended up leaving myself with too much work to do I still made the podium and ran faster than I did on that course last year. I have accepted the fact that there are going to be days that I only have time to run 5 in the morning and 5 in the evening so I am hoping to make sure that I am running at least 10 a day even if its split up with some longer runs on the weekends. I think that is definitely doable for the next couple of months until it starts to get really hot and I have to move to just AM runs. Next week, I’m looking to hit 70-75 miles and maybe throw in a race on Saturday (maybe not), I’m kind of on the fence but I figure I’ll make a decision on Thursday. I’ll also plan on throwing in another 30-60-90 workout. This time I’m going to run at Gainesville State to prep for the next race in the Dirty Spokes series in two weeks.

Race Recap: XTerra Georgia Thrill in the Hill Trail Half Marathon

This was my first ever half marathon and the first time I’ve run an Xterra race. Tim from Dirty Spokes puts on all the Xterra Georgia, North Carolina and Alabama races as well as the Dirty Spokes series and a bunch of other mountain bike and duathlons…as always it was a great event, the course was really well marked and laid out, he smartly has the race start on a short paved loop to thin out the crowd and the post-race atmosphere was great, whether you won or ran three hours. I am a huge fan of all the events he puts on and will definitely continue to run these races in the future. On to the race…

We started out on the road and ran close to a half mile on the road before we headed onto the trails. I wasn’t expecting that but it was good because where I was thinking we would head into the trails would have had us running a really tough first two miles of up and down. At the gun I got out good to make sure I was clear of any traffic and then settled in behind Matt Rivers and the eventual winner David Bell. Matt set the pace for the first quarter or so until we started climbing up the road to the trail entrance. My race plan was to stay upfront but stay conservative for the first couple miles because of all the up and down. I wanted to focus on running the flat and downhill sections, while I just tried to manage the climbs.

Heading into the woods David Bell took the lead with a strong surge, I didn’t respond because I was worried that I would throw my race off by letting him dictate my pace. I decided to hang back and run with Matt Rivers for a while and see if we could work together and catch up to the lead. That didn’t really happen as Matt hung back a little bit and eventually let me go, which turned into me just trying to survive and hang on at the end.

We hit the two-mile mark just before the mountain bike parking lot and knowing that I had a relatively flat and relatively straight mile ahead of me I put in my first surge. This is where I started to pull away from Matt and I ended up closing a good bit on David. We hit three miles and then started to climb up the three step hill, which is a three section, terraced hill that you wind up and down. It was a tough spot but we started catching marathoners (they started 30 minutes before us) so that helped me a little bit as I was able to use the lappers as targets to go catch.

After finishing the three step hill we passed through four miles and came up on the first water stop. The water stop was set up on the far side of the road at one of the only road crossings in the race. As I was turning to come out of the woods I saw a white hatchback car going 35 or 40 miles an hour (a.k.a. flying) down the road and about to blast through the crossing area. Mind you, the area where we crossed the road was marked with a crosswalk, six cones, oh and four people at a table with water coolers who were standing in the road. Apparently this guy missed all of those signs and decided to hammer through. I had to slow up to make sure I didn’t get hit by the car, and I ended up smashing the rear quarter panel to let him know that he almost hit me. I may have thrown a profanity or two his way, I can’t quite remember.

Before we headed home after the race I drove around the park to the spot where this happened to show Amanda. When we turned the corner onto the road there was a speed limit sign that said SPEED LIMIT 7 MPH…yeah seven miles an hour.

After my brush with death, I missed the water because everyone was so confused by what happened. I think everyone thought that I got hit. It actually fired me up and carried me through the next mile from four to five. From four to six miles was actually a lot faster and smoother than I thought it would be. I really felt like I was putting some distance on the guys behind me and running in a really good rhythm. I was also passing a bunch of marathoners at this point so that was a big help as well.

I knew that the second water stop was coming up at the 10k mark, so when I hit six miles I took out the strawberry-banana GU that I had in my back pocket and ate some. This was the first time I’ve taken fuel in a race and blech…that stuff is nasty but it went down pretty easy and after getting some water (I only nearly choked on the water the first time I tried to sip) I continued rolling through the winding section of trail.

Six and seven went by pretty quickly and rather uneventfully. We started to come down hill towards the backside of the dam, which was really, really windy. After heading back into the woods we climbed up to the first section of power line trail, where a completely miserable hill climb waited. The hill wasn’t overly steep but it was a long slog to the top. About three quarters of the way up I caught a glimpse of Bell taking the hard right onto the fire road that led back around the lake. I dug in and grinded my way to the top, knowing that the loop along the lake that was coming up was going to be my best chance to make up ground on him and put more distance on Rivers.

When I got to the top of the hill and made the hard turn on the fire road I took a few strides heading down the hill to try and regroup before I started to pick up the pace. Going into the race I knew this section would be key for me. It was 8 miles into the race and it was a flat, hard packed and straight section of trail. I really focused on working this mile of the race and it went pretty well. My legs were starting to get really beat up from all of the up and down but they responded to my desire to run faster.

After the lake loop, I started the climb back up towards the power lines, which started with a short steep hill that was right at the nine-mile mark. For some reason I thought that nine miles was only going to be the eight-mile mark, so when I saw nine miles on the sign I almost jumped out of my shoes. My excitement was quickly diminished though because after that I came out of the woods and had another long climb up the power lines. This one was brutal. I felt like all of the distance I’d put on the guys behind me was going to evaporate.

Somehow I managed to survive the climb and once back on the trail I tried to recover quickly. After another short climb I passed the 10 mile mark and started a downhill section ran from 10 almost all the way to 11. This was another one of the sections of race that I knew I needed to run well. I really tried to hammer this section to make up for how heinous the previous hill went.

My plan worked well until I got to the bottom of the downhill section right before the climb up deadwood hill. That’s when the wheels really started to come off. I managed the uphill alright but the switch backed downhill was another story. The 11-mile mark came and went and I tried to bear down and just focus on catching the marathon lappers than were in front of me. With about a mile and a half to go my hamstring and hip flexor really started to get tight. There were a couple of spots where I was reduced to hobbling. I put my head down and tried to keep moving my legs, figuring I’d get caught at any moment. At this point I was just hoping I’d put enough distance to hang onto one of the top three spots.

Once I got to 12 miles I took a couple glances back at a few of the corners and I couldn’t see anyone but lappers. I didn’t want to focus too much energy on worrying about what was behind me and see if I could get a solid final mile in and grab second place.

Once I got to the point where I had turned around for my warm up I knew I only had about three minutes or so before the finish and it was downhill, so I sucked it up and brought it home to cross the line in 1:23:45.

It was by no means, blazingly fast but I wanted to get under 1:25 and finish in the top three…mission accomplished. Overall it was a great experience. As my first attempt at a longer distance race (more than the typical 10k anyway) I thought I had a pretty sound plan going into the race and it ended up working out pretty well. I initially figured there would be more of a pack towards the front of the race, but it quickly thinned out and was basically a race for second after the third mile. I may have had a shot to catch up to the winner late in the race after a good 10^th mile but I just didn’t have the legs and I struggled over the last two miles. Regardless it was fun. I won some sweet Darn Tough Vermont socks (the second pair I’ve won…I love these socks) and a free pair of INOV8’s. Not a bad haul.

Tim records all of the races he puts on with a Go Pro camera mounted to either his quad or mountain bike. After the races he is kind enough to post them on youtube. The Thrill in the Hills video is embedded below. I’m in a three mile orange singlet with black shorts.

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