Matt Tries CX, Suffering Ensues

Over the last year or so I’ve started to become a big fan of cyclocross. I’ve always been a casual cycling fan, I watch the tour every year and now that NBC Sports shows the Tour of California and the USA Pro Challenge I’ve found myself glued to the TV during those weeks too. My recent enjoyment of cyclocross though comes from somehow randomly stumbling upon Behind the Barriers one day. I can’t even remember what I was doing, looking for Olympic mountain biking videos last summer maybe? I don’t know. Anyway, I’ve always thought it would be interesting to look into since it’s hugely popular in New England, a few friends of mine have started racing it, and I’m from the same hometown as multi-time US National Champion Tim Johnson.

 

Powering out of a corner

 

I’ve always been aware of it, but finding that random episode of Behind the Barriers led me to start following it weekly, thanks to the awesome coverage of the sport by BTB and now BTBtv. After I got my mountain bike, I remembered seeing a story about how a lot of beginners will ride mountain bikes in cross races to get started. Since I apparently have this thing where I have to try every sport that has cross in it…cross country, check…cross country skiing, check…skier cross, check…that board game cross fire, check. That really only leaves motocross and cyclocross on my list of cross sports to try. Once the CX (yeah I’m shortening it now cause I’m a CX racer) season started up I figured I would see if Georgia had a series or at least a handful of races.

 

As it turns out, Georgia has one of the bigger CX series in the southeast…score! Unfortunately, the cross season falls during my busiest time of the year during the football season and nearly all the races are on Sundays. That doesn’t work when I spend my whole Sunday at the Georgia Dome or some other NFL stadium. It also doesn’t help that it falls during my XTERRA trail racing season. Those things made it really tough to find a weekend that I could actually race. Originally, I had planned on racing during our bye week, but I ran an 8 mile trail race on Saturday and didn’t want to ride my first CX race on thrashed legs.

 

I scanned the Georgia CX calendar again and low and behold, Dingo Cross, a CX race on a Saturday a short ride up the highway from my apartment. Jackpot! I was even able to get Amanda to tag along, it was at Jeep dealership so she could window shop and I promised a trip to the outlets after.

 

The night before the race I was super nervous. The only bike race I’ve ever done was the bike leg of the one and only triathlon I’ve ever done and it’s been my experience when mountain biking that I’m not that good at it. I’ve got a good aerobic base, but the whole bike handling and power and jumping over barriers deal…I was concerned to say the least. I ended up spending an hour at the softball field across from my office practicing my dismounts, barriers, and remounts on a make shift course complete with trash can barriers. When I got home that night I laid out my kit, a new 2013 Rise Up Falcons jersey, ¾ undershirt, and bib shorts and my new helmet from Rudy Project that I won from XTERRA. At worst I was going to look like I knew what I was doing.

 

Amanda and I drove up to Baldwin, Georgia, a short trip up 985 and pulled into the Hayes Chrysler, Jeep, Chevrolet dealer about an hour and half before the CX5 beginners race started. I made my way to the registration table, got my number then headed back to the car to start getting everything squared away for the race. I got my Specialized Hardrock Disc 29er ready to go and set out for two laps on the course to see what I was in for.

 

The race started on a paved section behind the dealership, I think the story goes one of the employees is a CX racer and convinced the dealership people to hold a race in the big grass field behind their business. I’m glad they did. Anyway…the course started out on the pavement then quickly hit the grass for a twisty, up and down adventure. My original plan was to run for my warm up but after two laps on the course I felt pretty good and decided to just keep riding around a little bit to stay loose.

 

After warming up and changing into my racing kit, I made my way down to the starting area. When they called the Cat 5 racers to the starting line I was a little surprised to see that everyone had a CX bike. I thought being the beginner category there would be at least a couple people like me trying it out for the first time on mountain bikes but that wasn’t the case. A few of the guys said they wished they brought their mountain bikes because of the course, which I was not a fan of. Mentally, I was trying to use the fact that everyone had CX bikes and I was on a heavy ass mountain bike as motivation to carry me through this 30 minute sufferfest I was about to embark on. I still did that.

 

At the gun I got clipped in right away, but got my doors blown in on the pavement. I hit the grass in DFL, but made one pass as we made the first sweeping left hand turn. After a short, bumpy straight section we hit a short steep climb, I jumped out of the saddle and stomped on my pedals to catch the wheel of a pair of riders ahead of me. At the top of the climb we made a hairpin turn, dropped back down a short steep descent into an off-camber left hand turn then back up another short climb. We crested the climb then hit a section of switchback turns that led into the sketchiest part of the course (for me at least) coming out of the third switch back was a barrier. I had not prepared for this rouge barrier. I prepared myself for the seemingly standard set of two barriers, a run up and possibly stairs, but not this 180 degree turn with a barrier thrown in.

 

Fortunately I was able to practice it a couple times and I made sure to try it once at what I figured full speed would be. I powered out of the second turn and came into the barrier turn with a full head of steam. This was one of the many ‘moments of truth, for me in this race. My dismounting practice worked out well, because I successfully unclipped, dug into the turn, hopped over the barrier then ran past one of the guys I was trailing and leapt back onto my bike. It took me a few extra seconds to clip back into my pedals, but I was able to catch the wheel of the rider ahead of me and follow him into the next section of the course. My heart was pounding, partially from the hard early effort and part from surviving my first dismount/remount. Honestly, I’ve been working on the remount part of it for a while. I successfully used a cross style remount in the Tri I did over the summer and even though I’m sure I looked like an idiot, knowing that I’d done it in a race before made me confident I could do it without falling on my face every time.

 

After the trial of the hairpin barrier I latched onto the rider ahead of me and followed him through what turned out to be the toughest part of the course for me. We followed up a nice smooth straight-a-way with another off-camber downhill turn, fortunately everyone warming up on the course had carved out a good line because I would have royally effed this up otherwise. Following the quick decent it was back up a short climb and into a section of super insanely tight corners. The first couple laps I had to use the outrigger to get me around a couple of them, I think the 29 inch wheels made it a little tougher to take some of the tight turns, but I was able to power out of most of the corners pretty well.

 

We made our way out of the twisty section and I was able to stay right on the heels of the two riders ahead of me. We passed the pit area and turned left into a long straight away that led into one of the cooler parts of the course, the corkscrew. The course corkscrewed in on itself then we spiraled back out. It took a couple laps to figure out how to ride it but once I got the hang of leaning into the constant turn I thought I rode it pretty well. Coming out of the corkscrew we zipped through a couple quick turns, which was one of the few parts of the course where I felt like I was riding fast. Another 90 degree turn led into the section I’d been waiting for/dreading…the barriers. I moved toward the outside tape to give myself some space (definitely a move from my steeplechase days) and dismounted a little earlier than the two guys in front of me. I lifted the bike and hopped the two barriers and made another pass before remounting my bike and pedaling hard to catch the next rider’s wheel.

 

I thought I handled the mounting and dismounting fairly well, but I’m sure it didn’t look very impressive. I got a few pro tips from my friend Weston after the race via email that I am looking forward to trying out next time.

 

Once I made my third pass of the race I started to feel more confident. I definitely felt like my fitness was better than some of the guys I was riding with and after nearly a full lap at race speed I felt like my bike handling wasn’t going to cost me a too much. I wasn’t going to win, or even come close to podium but I knew I could at least race the guys around me.

 

Coming out of the barriers I fought to stay in the middle of our three man group despite taking a horrible line through the next section. It took until I watched the third race before I noticed what line I should have taken. The final stretch of the lap was tailor made for mountain bikes (minus the run-up), steep downhill, then a short climb into a rutty downhill. I cut inside along the tape on the second downhill and took a more aggressive line to make the pass into the lead of our three man group. I don’t know if this was a good idea, but I didn’t like being stuck behind people so I went for it.

 

At the base of the hill we had to dismount, 180 degree turn then run up the run up. This took some getting use to, but it ended up being a strong point for me. I ended up opening up a little bit of a gap on the two guys behind me despite the next part of the course being the starting paved straight away.

After coming through the finish and starting my second lap I saw two other guys that I thought I could catch so I started grinding to try and catch them as soon as I could. I caught up going into the hairpin barrier and stayed on their wheel for another half a lap before passing and riding into no man’s land. I was way behind the four leaders, but I kept pushing were ever I could and ended up opening a huge gap on the guys behind me.

 

I felt like I was riding pretty well for most of the race. I definitely lack some important bike handling skills, but I think I did a solid job on my first attempt. I ended up finishing fifth and most importantly I didn’t eat it at any point. I had a couple close calls, I bounced a back tire off one of the barriers, and slipped a couple times on the run up, but nothing too crazy.

 

Here's the Strava info:

 

 

A couple things I learned, which were later confirmed by my good buddy Weston Forsblad…the start matters, like a lot. It was tough being so far behind and having to work to get around slower riders, but at the same time I don’t really know what I’m doing. Also, I need to be gentler when putting my bike down before remounts. On the hairpin barrier turn, twice I nearly dropped my chain from dropping the bike violently. I think this is probably partially due to the weight of my mountain bike, but something I’ll keep in mind. Fortunately, I only dropped the chain from the second rig down to the granny gears and after doing it twice I just shifted before the barriers to prepare myself.

 

All in all it was a fun experience and I’m glad I tried it. I’m no Tim Johnson, but it’s definitely something that I enjoyed and I will probably take a couple more stabs at it. It was nice to do a race for fun and not worry about time or pace. I just went out and raced with no expectations and that was nice.

Peachtree City Classic – USATF Georgia 15k State Championship

This race was a last minute decision. I got an email from USATF Georgia about their Long Distance Running (LDP) Grand Prix a couple days before the Ft. Yargo XTERRA race and saw that the Peachtree City Classic was the 15k state championship and that there was cash on the line for placing in the grand prix overall. I originally thought there was a cash prize for the 15k, but that was wrong. Regardless, I’ve wanted to checkout Peachtree City and its extensive network of golf cart paths for a while, so Amanda and I decided to drive down and check this race out.

 

I ran well at Ft. Yargo, so I figured if I ran smart I would have a chance to place high and maybe get the win. Despite missing the first race of the series I still had a shot at the purse because no USATF members ran as open runners.  The worst I could do was tie for a place in the overall and still possibly win it. Since it was a game-time decision to go to this race, I really didn’t know much about the course, other than the fact that it was almost entirely on golf cart paths. I felt like that would be a good middle ground for me. Paved trails, I might like trails more but I’m probably better on pavement.

 

We got to the race a little later than I would have liked, which made parking a little bit of an issue, then it took forever to find the check-in table since I had to make sure to register my USATF number. Once I got that settled I only had about 15 minutes to get a light warm up in and hit the portos. I jogged around a little and did a few strides then made my way to the start. The weather was a perfect, a little wet and overcast, but the rain stopped pretty early on so it was perfect for racing. Before the gun, I mentally marked a couple of guys that I figured would be at the front, manly an ATC guy and a couple of the other masters’ runners. When I checked in the USATF people told me I was the only open runner, so I knew I had that win wrapped up but I still wanted to win the race if I could.

 

At the gun I got out towards the front of the lead group, but immediately backed off as I could sense it was a little on the fast side and from the looks of the group I thought I could pull it back once we got settled in. I had to fight the urge to run to the front a few times early on after the lead group of six runners started to open a gap of about 30 to 50 meters on me. I didn’t realize it until I saw the GPS data on Strava, but the first mile was a gradual downhill, so I probably could have run with the front group from the get go, but mentally I think it was a good decision to stay relaxed early on.

 

I ended up closing the gap on everyone and catching up to the two leaders just after the two mile mark and my first two splits were 5:26 and 5:40. My plan going in was to try and run 5:40’s so I was a little fast on the first mile, but not really since it was downhill, and right on with the second mile. I ran with the two leaders for about half mile before moving into the lead. I could tell that they didn’t want to set the pace after I caught up to them fairly easily. One guy actually asked me if I had decided to take the first two miles off. The first 2.5 miles were run on the main roads of Peachtree City, but after that we ran to the end of a cul-de-sac then hit the golf cart paths for the rest of the race.

 

Once we got onto the golf cart paths I put in a little bit of a surge and opened up a small gap on the second place runner and dropped the guy that was in third. I slowed down a little bit too much over the fourth mile, due to a long gradual climb. After an up and down first four miles I got back on track and started running in a really good rhythm and opened up a big gap on the guy in second. From mile five to the end of the race I ran pretty much exactly what I wanted to run.

 

My splits from miles 5 to 9 were:
5:42
5:45
5:40
5:42
5:49

 

I know that’s not blazing fast but it was right on pace for what I felt like I could run. It was nice to be able to get into a rhythm and roll like that. I haven’t run a road race that long in a while and it’s a lot different than racing on the trails. The course was really cool. The cart paths were all set back in the trees but they weaved behind houses and every time you had to cross a main road they had tunnels running underneath. It was pretty cool to see the spectators out in the golf carts all along the course.

 

I think I read that Peachtree City has something like 90 miles of golf cart/multi-use paved trails. I’m thinking about trying to convince my parents to retire down there. It’s a little bit of a hike for Amanda and I, but it would be a great place to run and bike every now and then.

 

The red is the 15k course, the green marks all the golf cart paths

The final stretch of the course rounded a lake then dropped us back out onto the main road that we started on. It was a cool feeling to come down the final stretch in front of a pretty good crowd despite the wet weather. I was pretty pumped when I crossed the finish line, as I picked up my first state championship.

 

Check out my sweet USATF Gold Medal

I also ended up winning the USATF Georgia Long Distance Running Grand Prix since no USATF members ran the Dalton Half Marathon the next week. As the great Dominic Torretto once said, it doesn’t matter if you win by an inch or a mile, winning is winning.

 

Strava data from the race.

 

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:

A Look Back: September

September marks the end of training camp and the beginning of the NFL regular season, which means a slightly more normal work schedule. With that, training becomes easier and the possibility of racing returns. Surprisingly, I managed more miles (207) in August than in September (170), but I chalk that up to having road trips to Baltimore and Nashville that allowed me to run 10+ miles and the fact that I took a few more days off in September.

 

September was definitely successful for me. My mileage may be down substantially since the summer, but I still ran nearly every day (I take a day off either on game day or the day after depending on schedule, travel, etc.) and ran two solid races.

 

The first race was a road 5k down in the city, the Back to Football 5k presented by the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta Track Club. I got a free entry for this race through work so I figured why not go down and run it. It was a pretty standard 5k, except for the fact that it finished inside the Georgia Dome at the 50-yard line. Amanda and I headed down the Dome early for the 8 am start, grabbed my number and set out for a short warm up. I warmed up about two miles, a little shorter than I would have liked, but enough to loosen up a little bit. I caught up with a few people from the office who also came down for the race before hand, stretched and then made my way to the start.

 

We started at Falcons Landing between the Dome and Phillips Arena, then ran around the Omni Hotel and CNN Center out towards Castleberry Hill and Morehouse College then back down Northside drive to and into the Dome for the finish. At the start, I surged to the front. I wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of competition, so I just planned to go out and try to run between 5:05 and 5:15 in the hopes of trying to run under 16:30 and maybe make a run at sub 16. I had control of the race pretty early on and as we climbed the slight rise past the CNN Center and Phillips Arena I started to stretch things out. By the mile mark I had gapped the rest of the field, coming through in 5:05.

 

At this point, I felt like I was going to be able to cruise to the win, but I really wanted to try to get under 16. I tried to keep pressing the pace, but slowed down a little on the second mile, running 10:14 (5:09) through two. I relaxed too much during the last mile and slowed down to 5:18, hitting three miles in 15:32 then crossing the line in 16:01 on my watch, 16:03 officially. Damn! So close. I miscalculated the finish a little bit, not realizing how close the 50 yard line is to the service entrance of the Dome. I held just a little bit back, wanting to really rip coming onto the field, but what I thought was a good 400 meters was really only about 200. Once I hit the loading dock ramp I started sprinting. I knew I was close to getting under 16, so I didn’t really take in much of the fanfare except for the fact that I knew I had to make sure the mascot, Freddie the Falcon, didn’t out kick me in the final sprint. On second thought, for the sake of the story, let’s say I got distracted by the cheerleaders and let off the gas too much and that’s why I didn’t get under.

 

After crossing the finishing line, I got a few high fives and cheers from co-workers that were helping to run the event on the field. I cooled down with a couple of laps on the turf then walked up to the stands to meet Amanda. We waited for the majority of Falcons employees to finish before heading out to Falcons Landing for the awards. Amanda was quick to correct someone that said “The Falcons president ran and none of his staff beat him.” Her response was, “that’s not exactly true.” We hung around for the awards, four tickets to the Falcons-Rams game and a Julio Jones signed ball. Amanda took the ball as a birthday present for herself and I was able to give the tickets to a friend, since I work every game, so overall it was a pretty good haul for a Saturday morning trip to the city. We headed home, stopping at Whole Foods for some pumpkin and apple spice treats, because I was ready for Fall to officially start.

 

Here’s the Strava data from the race:
 

 

I was impressed my Garmin worked inside the Dome. Kudos to Garmin on that one.

The next weekend it was back to the trails for the first race of the XTERRA Georgia Trail Series, my de facto cross country season. I roped a few friends from work into doing this one since it was on the relatively easy trails at Harbins Park. I conveniently “forgot about” the half mile climb in the middle of the race and that the second half was steadily uphill when I told them about it, but they still had a blast and are now hooked.

 

Once again Amanda and I set out early, getting to Harbins about an hour before the race. I warmed up on the first mile of the course then met up with our group for a bit before the start. I ran into Jesse Rappole, Brennan Pratt, Matt Shechtman, and Woody Dover at various points before the race, so I knew it was going to be a battle. All of those guys have the ability to win on any given day and that led to everyone being on the gas from the gun.

 

My plan was to stay relaxed and see how the race panned out, so early on I settled in behind Woody and Jesse. Once we started making our way downhill towards the main trail I moved to the front. I hit the trail with a small lead over Matt, but Jesse made a big move early to get up on my shoulder. The two of us ran together trading the lead and working together to stretch the race out. We were able to string things out a little bit because the wide track allowed us to run a little more compact, similar to a road race. That helped with trading off the lead and kept us from running into each other in some of the turns.

 

I tried a couple of short accelerations out of turns to see if I could stretch the lead at all, but Jesse was up for the challenge and stayed right with for most of the first half. Once we had gotten away from the other leaders, I wanted to make sure we stayed on the pace to try and make it a two person race. I wasn’t 100 percent confident in my fitness going in, so I was hoping that the fact that we strung the race out would give us a better chance at surviving until the end. We hit the main climb in the middle of the race together, but as we started to crest the hill Jesse let a small gap open up and I decided to try and use that to jump away. I was able to get clear at the top of the hill and that move ended up propelling me to the win. I probably went a little too early and the fact that I didn’t allow myself much time to recover at the top of the hill came back to bite me later in the race, but I was able to build up a big enough lead to hold on for the win. I kept repeating the Jens Voigt mantra in my head for the last 2.5 miles “Shut Up Legs!”

 

I think that the fast early pace probably helped as much as it hurt because no one really seemed like they had much left in the tank at the end of the race. Brennan ended up catching and passing Jesse, so I was definitely trying to keep an eye out for him over the last two miles. I had this grand plan of really hammering the final paved section, but by the time I got there I was just on a mission to get to the finish first. I was fortunate to hold on for a really exciting win. Going into the race I wasn’t sure how well I could run because my training has been mostly maintenance miles. Once I got into the race I just went for it. Anytime I am fortunate enough to win its special, but to be able to win against such a deep field was really exciting and it was a great confidence booster. Also the 12 pack of Terrapin Recreation Ale and the Rudy Project gift certificate were pretty sweet. 

 

Huge win for me and a big confidence booster for the rest of the series this fall. However, it was a little rugged the last few miles. With the next race being 8.75 miles, I’m definitely going to have to run a little smarter.

 

Here’s the race video, featuring a sweet commercial for Saucony for the first minute or two of race action.
 

 

I also was interviewed by XTERRA for getting the win. Here is a link to XTERRA’s race coverage:
http://www.xterraplanet.com/news/dsp_content.cfm?id=3705

 

September wrapped up nicely with two solid races coming off of training camp will hopefully lead to a successful fall season. On the upcoming calendar, I’ve got XTERRA Georgia races at Ft. Yargo, Big Creek and Little Mulberry parks and I’m toying with the idea of running the Peachtree City 15k, and possibly the Georgia Cyclocross race in Marietta in November.

Training Camp Training Log - Week Three: The Adventure Continues

Monday, August 5 – Flowery Branch Roads – 7 miles – I hustled out the door and hit the road by 7:15 so I had enough time to get in seven. It wasn’t anything special and my legs were actually pretty dead, but it’s another day.

Meals
Pre run: Honey stinger waffle & tea
Post run: English muffin with maple almond butter & oatmeal with walnuts, brown sugar, and maple syrup (we have some from Brattleboro, VT at work)
Lunch: Turkey on multigrain with spinach, cucumbers. Carrots. PBJ Trail mix.
Snack: Bunny Grahams
Dinner: Flank steak with a ton of scalloped potatoes
Another super long day. In the office by 7 and out at 9:30.

Tuesday, August 6 – Flowery Branch Roads – 7 miles – Woof. This morning was a straight up death march. I probably should have cut it short and gone five, but today is going to be another long day, so I wanted to be try and get seven in since I was running by 7:15 again. Who knows what tomorrow will bring with an early practice.

Meals
Pre run: Vanilla Honey Stinger waffle with tea
Post run: English muffin with maple almond butter & a bowl of smart start with vanilla almond milk (I was starving)
Lunch: Tuna on multigrain with spinach and sun chips (I caved and had chips today instead of carrots)
Snack: Annie’s organic ‘cheese-its’ and a chunk of granola bar
Dinner: Chicken & mashed potatoes

Wednesday, August 7 – Flowery Branch Roads – 5 miles – I had to wait until later in the day to run. It was super humid, so the run was a little miz.

Don’t remember the meals, but I had pizza for dinner. Little bit of a fat kid day.

Thursday, August 8 – Mall Roads – 5 miles – I didn’t have long to run because I slept in, so I rolled five before heading out to get a few errands done before the game. I got the car taken care of to the tune of 500+ dollars to get the plate changed WTF…not cool.

My eating was terrible today. I started out good with a myoplex shake, English muffin with maple almond butter, then before the game I had a PB&J smoothie. At the game is where it went south. I was starving so I had Caesar salad, cliff bar, popcorn (twice) a small ham sandwich and a Justin’s almond snickers.

Friday, August 9 – Day off – Zero – My first day off since April 27, every other day I’ve run at least three (probably more like at least 5) or ridden my road or mountain bike. After getting home from the game at 2 am and having to be back in the office by 8:30 was a little rough. I was completely exhausted by the time I got home and took the zero.

I was hoping to sneak in a trail run at Little Mulberry as a birthday present to myself, no dice, long ass day at work after a late night at work. Awesome.

Saturday, August 10 – Flowery Branch Roads – 7 miles – Big time birthday run of seven miles on the Flowery Branch roads. This was a little bit depressing as I didn’t get any time to myself yesterday or today. Amanda made me a kick ass Captain America cake but I was too tired to even eat any of it when I got home. Oh well, at least I got in a solid seven in the morning.

One of the positives of the day was that we announced that we are going a Back to Football/Play 60 5k before our first home game. It might be a month away but now I’ve got something that I can definitively put on my race calendar for the fall.

Sunday, August 11 – Flowery Branch Roads – 7 miles – Training camp is officially starting to wear me the funk out. My legs feel like R. Kelly’s doo doo butter but, again a silver lining, I was able to eat some of my Captain America cake and that was delicious.

Weekly Totals - 38 miles on six runs - Like I said before, training camp is starting to wear on me. I need a day to sleep in bad. I've also kind of gone off the rails with the diet, at least in terms of tracking it. I've got to try and get back on that track.

Training Log: #CampLife Part II

Monday, July 29: Flowery Branch Roads – 5 miles – I had a chance to get in early and run seven this morning but I slacked and took my sweet time getting moving in the morning. Not happy about that, but I still got in a solid five this morning.

Meals
Pre run: Half an English muffin w/ maple almond butter & tea
Post run: Honey nut cheerios with vanilla almond milk and a banana
Lunch: Turkey on multigrain with spinach, cucumbers and honey mustard, a vanilla greek yogurt, and a pack of bunnies.
Snack: Cheddar bunnies
Dinner: Baked pasta (one of Amanda’s specialties)

Tuesday, July 30: Flowery Branch Roads – 7 miles - I snuck out a couple minutes early to get in seven this morning, which was really nice. The weather was amazing. High 60s with low humidity, it was absolutely awesome…except for the fact that I was running the Flowery Branch roads loop and not some sweet trail.

Meals
Pre run: Chocolate honey stinger waffle & tea
Post run: Smart start with vanilla almond milk
Lunch: Turkey on multigrain with spinach, cucumbers, and honey mustard. Carrot sticks and a greek yogurt.
Snack: Cheddar bunnies
Dinner: Leftover baked shells and a piece of Amanda’s Swedish tea ring

Wednesday, July 31 – Flowery Branch Roads – 5 miles – I wanted to go seven but I was dragging ass this morning. I also stopped and talked to Brian for 20 minutes about the softball game that I skipped last night. I was hoping to either ride into work today or get a mountain bike ride in after, but it’s looking like a full day for us. Maybe Amanda will want to go for a spin later. I tweeted at Red Bull this morning and they were awesome and swung by the office to drop of some Red Bull for us. They gave us Red, Blue and Silver editions. I’m super pumped about that. Phase 2 of my master plan to someday get sponsored by Red Bull is underway. It would be way easier if I was just faster though.

Meals:
Pre run: Chocolate honey stinger waffle & tea
Post run: Smart start with vanilla almond milk & an apple
Lunch: Turkey on multigrain with spinach, bacon, and sweet baby rays. Bunny grahams
Dinner: Chicken (w/ cashew crust from Fresh Market) and Rice. Pirate Booty
 
Thursday, August 1 – Flowery Branch Roads – 5 miles – This is starting to get familiar. I was hoping to make it to trivia tonight, but I only made it for the last question. I need a beer.

Meals
Pre run: Chocolate honey stinger waffle (last one NO!) & tea w/ honey
Post run: Smart Start w/ vanilla almond milk
Lunch: Turkey on multigrain with spinach, cucumbers and honey mustard. Carrots & a greek yogurt.
Snack: Cheddar bunnies
Dinner: Small piece of pork w/ a ton of rice and corn. Strawberry greek yogurt

Friday, August 2 – Flowery Branch Roads – 7 miles – Got my a$$ in gear this morning to fit in seven. Felt okay to start but I’m tired from training camp. My whole body is just gassed. Today was the toughest run to get through that I’ve had in a while. It’s probably a cumulative fatigue thing. Hopefully tomorrow I can get in a bike ride before or after work. Maybe that will help. I’m definitely dipping into the Red Bull stash before Friday Night Lights tonight.

Meals
Pre run: Half (err…3/4) of a PowerBar harvest bar and tea with honey
Post run: Honey nut cheerios with vanilla almond milk and a banana
Snack: A few handfuls of PB&J trail mix (I was freaking starving at 11)
Lunch: Three soft tacos (two chicken, rice, spinach & cheese and one just rice & cheese), greek yogurt
Snack: PB&J Trail mix & red bull
Dinner: two 100 calorie greek yogurts w/ granola & a bag of pirate booty at 11 p.m.

Friday Night Lights…woof

Saturday, August 3 – Chicopee Woods – 8 miles – Mountain Bike Ride – After work I headed up to Chicopee Woods to roll on the mountain bike for a bit. I am not a good mountain biker. I fell a couple times and being tired it was a little bit rough, but I just tried to enjoy being outside and doing something different. I did beast Granny’s climb, for me anyway, and I actually caught a guy that started at least 3 second before me, so that was positive.

Here is my Strava data from the ride - see I'm not good at this stuff.

Meals
Breakfast: I caved a little and hit Dunkin Donuts for a corn muffin and tea
Lunch: Almond butter and strawberry jelly sandwich with chips
Snack: Greek yogurt
Dinner: Homemade pizza with homemade organic dough.

Sunday, August 4 – Flowery Branch Roads – 7 miles – Got moving early today, so I could get in seven before work. Good choice, but I was starving all day long, not really good for my camp “diet” My legs are definitely feeling some cumulative fatigue. I am eyeing Thursday as a possible day to sleep in and I’m really excited about that.

Meals
Pre run: Vanilla honey stinger w/ green tea
Post run: Smart start w/ vanilla almond milk & a little bit of scrambled eggs
Lunch: Turkey on multigrain with cucumbers, spinach and honey mustard. Carrots. Snack size (small) peanut M&Ms
Snack: PB&J trail mix
Dinner: Small cup of chili and a greek yogurt. Amanda made burritos but I didn’t get out of work until after 9 so good thing I ate something at 7.

It was a super long day and it’s not going to get any better the next few, but at least it started off well with a seven mile run. If I can do that and get through camp I’ll be in good shape.

Weekly Total: 36 miles on six runs with one hour-plus mountain bike ride. Another training camp week in the books. Woof. I am tired, but I'm managing to keep running. It's going to be difficult to keep this up with how long our days are. I think I need to find a way to take a day off that is a real day off, not just a day that I didn't run.

p.s. - Big congratulations to @WildFerenc for placing 15th at worlds.

Training Log: Training Camp Week 1

Monday, July 22: Mall Roads Loop – 5 miles – I thought long and hard about taking today off.

Tuesday, July 23: Gravel Springs – 7 miles - This will probably be the last time I do this run for a while with training camp starting up on Thursday. It’s been a solid little loop for me during the spring and even though I got bored with it occasionally, I am sure I will miss it once I get back to running the Flowery Branch loops every day during the season.

Wednesday, July 24: Flowery Branch Roads – 7 miles – Today was most likely my last shot to run seven for a little bit. I’m only going to have about 30-35 minutes to run during camp for the next few weeks. On some of the off day’s I might be able to squeeze in an hour run or ride my bike to the office, but that remains to be seen. For now it’s back to the roads in the Branch and it’s back to maintenance miles for the foreseeable future. That’s a little depressing, but it’s also why I doubled up on the races last weekend.

Thursday, July 25: Flowery Branch Roads – 5 miles – Normal five mile route, out to McEver Road then down to Flowery Branch, past the post office and back up by the Wrigley plant to the facility. Took it fairly easy as my legs are starting to feel the last few days of standing up a lot.
Friday, July 26: Flowery Branch Roads – 5 miles – I want to be mindful of what I eat during training camp because it can get out of hand quickly, so I’m going to start trying to log it here to try and keep myself honest.

I woke up at 6 and had a chocolate honey stinger waffle with organic green tea (w/ honey) then hit the roads for five around Flowery Branch. This will probably be my standard run during training camp. Hopefully I can get few seven milers in and a bike ride or two, but the majority of my running will be five in the morning.

Pre run: Chocolate honey stinger waffle & tea
Post run: Bowl of smart start cereal w/ vanilla almond milk & a banana
Lunch: Roast Beef on multigrain bread w/ lettuce and some sweet baby ray’s (a little fat kid to start), carrots and a small bowl of black bean chili w/ quinoa (not chili weather but I wanted to try it).
Snack: Small cup of PB&J trail mix and a handful of gummy bears before practice.
Snack 2: Greek yogurt w/ granola after practice
Dinner: Small bowl of three cheese tortellini and some pirate booty

Wow. I feel like I eat a lot.

Saturday, July 27: Flowery Branch Roads – 5 miles – Back on the grind. Flowery Branch five. The good thing is I am still excited to run each day and I’m making sure I get out the door with enough time to get a run in. I’m trying to make sure I have time to run five as many days as possible during camp and it’s going well so far.
Pre run: Chocolate honey stinger waffle & tea
Post run: English muffin with maple almond butter and a small bowl of smart start w/ almond milk
Lunch: Turkey, spinach & cucumbers on multigrain w/ some carrots and a smoothie
Snack: Cheddar bunnies
Dinner: Chicken, mashed potatoes, carrots, peas & broccoli and a greek yogurt

Sunday, July 28: Flowery Branch Roads – 5 miles – S.S.D.D. I did have to get myself going a little earlier because we had a lot going on this morning. Up at 6 and out the door before 6:30 to have time to run for 35 minutes. Got it in and generally felt better about my day than I would have otherwise.

Pre run: Vanilla honey stinger waffle & tea
Post run: Honey nut cheerios with vanilla almond milk & a small serving of scrabbled eats (I needed some protein)
Lunch: Tuna fish on multigrain with spinach, carrots, and greek yogurt. Mixed bag of bunnies
Snack: Cheddar bunnies
Dinner: Blackened chicken, red beans & rice, and green beans. Greek yogurt for dessert.

I think I’m doing okay with my training camp meals.

Weekly Total: 39 miles on seven runs – That’s a rather drastic drop in mileage, but the key thing is that I ran every day. During camp that’s my biggest goal, run as many days as possible. I may try to work in a bike ride on a couple of the players off days, but for the most part I just want to run as much as I can. It’s probably only going to be about 30 or 35 miles a week, but it is was it is.