Training Log: June 3 - 9

Monday, June 3: 10 Miles
AM - Reservoir Trail – 5 miles – Ran out and back on the Rez trails before our flight back to Atlanta. The trails were a little wet from the big thunderstorm we had overnight but it was nice to not be running in 90+ degree weather. Side note: Amanda and I found two of three geocaches around the Rez on Saturday. One of them was in a paintball pod, which I thought was cool. It was funny how close to the trail they were and I’ve never noticed before despite running on the trail like 15 million times.

PM – Greenway Out & Back – 5 miles – Out and back on the greenway after we got back from the airport. Nice and easy stroll with Amanda riding next to me on the bike. We stopped at Fresh Market before we got home and grabbed some prime rib kebabs for dinner, so good. I love that place. It’s like a Trader Joes or a small Whole Foods.

Tuesday, June 4: 12 miles
AM - Gravel Spring – 7 miles – A little bit of a slog this morning. I think my legs were tired from the travel day yesterday.

PM – Greenway Out & Back – 5 miles – Ran with Amanda riding next to me on the bike. Standard post work run. After the run/ride we made dinner then I headed over to George Pierce Park for our first slow pitch softball game. We got worked. 23-1. I went 1 for 2 and narrowly missed a couple of outfield assists but it was a tough loss. One the other team took far too many pitches for softball and two, we were trying to smash the ball and hit too many pop ups. Better luck next week.

Wednesday, June 5: 15 miles
AM – Gravel Springs – 7 miles – Big time struggle bus day for me. I think it was because I was tired from getting home late last night (the game started at 10pm aka my bed time) and running around for an hour that night.

PM – Robin Hood (south) Workout – 8 miles – Two mile warm up on the greenway then 4x1200ish (.83 miles) on the homesite loop behind my apartment, followed up by two more miles for the cool down.

I had originally planned on doing 4x800, because that’s what the trail sign says the distance for one lap is. However on the first repeat, I noticed it was only about .4, so I ended up doing 1.5 laps for the first repeat. After that little fiasco, I decided to go with two laps per repeat so each one would be about 1200 on the trail.

Splits: 
4:12 (1.5 laps)
5:09
5:18
5:18

I went with roughly 2:30 rest per rep (a little shorter on the first).

Not a great workout, but I’m glad I got out there and tried to run a little quicker than my normal slog. Cooled down two miles after for eight total.

Thursday, June 6: 12 miles (recovery day)
AM – Gravel Springs – 7 miles – Nice and easy seven mile recovery run.
PM – Greenway Out & Back – 5 miles – Another easy recovery run with Amanda riding next to me on the bike.

Friday, June 7: 10 miles
AM – Gravel Springs – 7 miles
PM – Greenway – 5 miles

Saturday, June 8: Buford & Hamilton Mill Roads - 11 miles – Ran out to gravel springs then up to Hamilton mill road then back to south Bogan and back up to the GEHC and down to the house.

Sunday, June 9: Rocking the Suburbs - 15 miles – I’ve found a good solid long run on the roads from my apartment. I headed up to the GEHC and then out on Woodward Mill road to old Suwanee road. From there I ran up to Roberts Road the out onto Buford highway. I dipped into George Pierce Park and ran on the greenway for about a mile and half then up Martin Farm road to Town Center park, back on the greenway, through the Morning View neighborhoods and then back on old Suwanee and back up to the GEHC and down to the house. Good solid 15.

Weekly Total: 85 miles on 12 runs – Great week of mileage and one decent workout. I do want to get back to trail running though. I haven’t been doing much of that lately. I’d also like to jump in a 5k in the next couple of weeks before the Peachtree.

Training May 27 - June 2

Monday, May 27: Currahee Mountain – 10 miles (3xmile workout) – Being Memorial Day and all, I decided to take a ride up to Toccoa and run up the mountain made famous by the men of Easy Company (check out the first episode of Band of Brothers). I ran out to the base of the climb then did three mile repeats on the final climb, then headed back to the car.

 

Splits:
Mile 1 – 9:23
Mile 2 – 9:38
Mile 3 – 10:05

 

I felt like I probably could have run a little faster on the first and second one, but I was completely toast by the third. Either way, it was good to get out and challenge myself on some terrain that I struggle with. (more to come)

 

Tuesday, May 28:
AM - Gravel Springs Loop – 7 miles – Nice, easy recovery day. My legs were a little beat up from Currahee, but I cruised in under 50 minutes, which has been a struggle in recent weeks.

 

PM – Greenway (w/Amanda) – 3 miles – Amanda had a really long day at work so we decided to cut things short and turn around at the first bridge for three instead of the normal five. I was completely okay with that, but happy I still got in 10 for the day.

 

Wednesday, May 29: Gravel Springs + Waterworks Rd. – 9 miles – Ran the normal morning loop then ran up waterworks to get an extra two miles in. We are traveling back home to visit my mom today, so I had a little bit of extra time. I originally planned on shaking out when we got back home but ended up bagging it.

 

Thursday, May 30: Topsfield-Wenham-Danvers Rail Trail (w/ Amanda) – 10 miles – We headed over to Topsfield to check out the new (to me) linear common rail trail that connects to the Danvers rail trail. Amanda rode my dad’s old Gary Fisher mountain bike and we ran out five miles to Danvers high then turned back. It was super hot. 90+ with some humidity. I’m definitely not ready for that yet. The trail was great though, even though it was an out and back we both enjoyed being able to get off of the pavement for a bit. The trail is nice and wide and has some cool town line markers, man I would have loved racing for those town lines when I was in high school.

 

Friday, May 31: Peabody Street to Masco XC (aka the old stomping grounds) – 11 miles – Another scorcher…I dropped my shirt a mile in due to the heat and made a couple of stops along the Ipswich river to dunk my head and cool off, yup that’s a townie move, so what? I ran from the house up to Essex street, then over School St, down liberty to Peaboby St then out on the old Masco XC course (90 percent road) then back to the house. Glad to get it in early as it just got hotter as the day went on.

 

Saturday, June 1: Rail Trail (w/ Amanda) – 10 miles – Woof…super hot. I was absolutely dying, so it was good to be able to run something easy and flat. Unfortunately, I had to miss the XTERRA final race, but my 500 points held up so I am the 2012-13 XTERRA Georgia Trail Run Series Champ (25-29). Check out my sweet certificate. 

 

 

 

Sunday, June 2: Peabody Street to Masco & Back – 11 – Ran the same run as Friday and it was another scorcher. Nothing too special about this run, I kept it nice and easy and made a couple stops at sprinklers and once at the Ipswich River, again complete townie move. Hung by the pool for the rest of the day.

Weekly Totals: 73 miles on 8 runs – I was happy to still get in 70+ miles despite having a travel day in the middle of the week. I was pumped to get a chance to do the Currahee workout. It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for a while and haven’t had a chance to get up there. It was also nice to get 70+ miles on only 8 runs, normally I’m doing 12 runs a week. It was good to get in a bunch of hour-plus long runs. I thought about going to the Bretton Woods Fell Race on Sunday, but decided to pass and stay near home. Next up is more workouts and I need to find a road race to jump into to see where I’m at before Peachtree. I’ve also got to do something on the trail to get ready for the final two Dirty Spokes 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 Log: March 11-17

Monday, March 11: Barbed Wire Road – 8 miles – Hit the barbed wire road loop for eight after work. I forgot my shoes, so I had to run in my destroyed pair of rides, which was not good because my hamstring was killing me by the time I started climbing back up cash road. Woof.

Tuesday, March 12: In Town Five – 5 miles – I headed into work early to run, but got stuck with clips that took longer than I had planned. I had to rush and only was able to manage five. I’m a little disappointed with that, but at least it gives me bit of a break after yesterday’s hamstring destroying run.

Wednesday, March 13: In Town Five – 5 miles – Same story as yesterday. I got out for my run about 10 minutes earlier than Tuesday, but still only managed five. The week is not shaping up like I planned.

Thursday, March 14: Barbed Wire Road – 8 miles – I finally got a chance to run a little bit longer this morning, but the route was not a good choice for the a.m. There were a ton of high school aged kids on JM Turk and Cash road which meant I was taking my life in my hands for about 7.5 miles of the run. Not doing that one in the morning again…at least not while school is still in session.

Friday, March 15: Greenway Out and Back – 5 miles – I had to go downtown today for a press conference so I waited until the afternoon to run. Amanda hopped on the bike and joined me for five miles on the greenway behind our apartment. Really nice day, I could have run all afternoon, but just wanted to get a shakeout in before tomorrow’s race.

Saturday, March 16: Dirty Spokes Gainesville State Trail Race – 9 miles – Up early for a short ride up to Gainesville State College for the second Dirty Spokes series race of the year. I met Mitch Novy (formerly a fellow Saucony Hurricane, now running for Reckless Running) down by the registration tent and we hit the trails for 20 minutes to warm up. I’ve got a longer post coming about the race, but in short I took the lead just before the mile and ended up running away from the field to take the win in 30:19…ten seconds faster than last year. It was a little bit of a shock as I didn’t think I had the legs to run that quick, but a huge confidence booster. Spent the afternoon at Suwanee Beerfest with some friends, good times.

Sunday, March 17: GEHC Trails – 8 miles – Struggle Bus…big time. My hamstring was super tight so I took it very, very easy.

Weekly Totals: 48 miles on seven runs w/ one race – It wasn’t the week that I was hoping for but the solid race on Saturday made up for that. I’ve gotta get my mileage up though, otherwise when the races start getting longer I am going to struggle. I am kicking around the idea of doing a race next weekend but we’ll see how my hamstring responds.

Training Log: March 4 - March 10

Monday, March 4: Vermont Roads w/ Josh Ferenc – 7 miles – I spent Sunday up in Vermont with Josh and we decided to wake up early on Monday morning to run before he had to go to school and I had to drive back to Mass. We stuck to mostly roads for this run after yesterday’s post-holing session. We ran out on VT 121 then down 35 before finishing out the run by coming back to Josh’s house on some snowmobile trails. It was a nice relaxed run, but I snuck up and took a town line in the early going. It was a little cold, but that’s because I’m soft now when it comes to weather. Overall though it was awesome to be able to run with Josh for an hour. Afterwards we headed down to Josh’s school where he showed me his classroom and I did a little bit of work. I was a little sketched out going into the school but got a visitor’s pass so that helped me relax a little.

After leaving Bellows Falls I stopped by Keene State and hung out with Pete (my old coach) for about an hour. He was getting ready to head to DIII National’s so he told me about the team and asked about work and life. It was good to get a chance to talk to him for a bit. Before I drove back home I stopped at the bookstore and scored a sweet dri-fit Keene State t-shirt which I be wearing with pride around Georgia.

Tuesday, March 5: Loon Mtn. - Zero – I didn’t run today but Amanda, my brother and I headed up to Loon Mountain for a day of skiing. I actually used my Garmin and my Strava app to track our progress though. In total we covered over 25 miles with our average speed hovering around 10 mph (including lift rides up). I think my max speed was almost 44 miles an hour. Bluebird day too, one of the best weather day’s for skiing that I can remember. Sunny, low 40’s, no one on the mountain.

Wednesday, March 6: Masco Out & Back – 11 miles – From my parent’s house, I ran up Essex street, over school street, down liberty to Peabody street then out to Middleton Road in Boxford. I ran the old cross country course back around to Masco then over the highway and back home the way I came. This was a really good run, considering the fact that we skied all day on Tuesday. I ran 1:13 for the entire thing and averaged 6:40 pace, not blistering by any means but after skiing for the first time in a year yesterday I will take it as a solid effort.  

Thursday, March 7: Loon Mtn – Zero – Technically another day off from running, but Amanda and I decided to hit up Loon again since they have a Tuesday-Thursday deal where you can get lift tickets for 20 bucks off if you by the day before. It was another great day on the mountain, a little cloudy and slightly cooler than Tuesday, but again no one on the mountain and the snow was a little bit better.

Friday, March 8: Middleton Roads – Snow Run – 8 miles – This was a day that I probably should have gone to the gym and hit the treadmill, but I was feeling a little stressed out and despite the foot and counting of snow that we got I wanted to go outside. I do feel like I redeemed myself in terms of being soft to the weather with this run though. I started out with the idea of running around the reservoir trail but that was quickly squashed as the snow was knee deep. I decided to stay on some of the back roads around town, which turned out pretty well. It was a ton of fun running in two and three inches of soft powder and I had a stupid grin on my face for the entire run because I had a blast just being the only person outside not shoveling or snowblowing. There were a few spots were the wind made it a little tough but all in all it was an awesome run.  

Saturday, March 9: Middleton Roads – 7 miles – Ran a similar route as Friday but I cut out a couple of the cul-de-sac neighborhoods, which made it a shade over seven instead of eight. I took it easy and stayed right around seven minute pace. It wasn’t as fun of a run as yesterday but it’s always nice to get out on the roads around my parents’ house. I definitely miss the quiet roads around 

Sunday, March 10: Day off – With today being a travel day I decided to close out “vacation” with another day off. I probably could have gotten out for a few miles when we got back to Georgia, but I decided to be lazy and relax on the couch.

Weekly Totals: 33 miles on four runs + two full days of skiing – This was a little bit of a weird week with traveling back home to Massachusetts, spending a day in Vermont then spending two days skiing in New Hampshire, oh and running in a massive snow storm on Friday. It was nice to take it a little bit easier, but I was glad that I was still able to get something active in with the two days of skiing. I’ve got to step it up next week though. It will be nice to have some more daylight in the afternoons, but the sun is going to come up later which is going to make it a little bit tougher to try and run in the morning. The next Dirty Spokes race is coming up next weekend. They moved the Gainesville State race up a month, so I won’t be in as good of shape as I normally am for it but it will be nice to run a flatter course vs. the hilly Olympic mountain bike trail course that has been this weekend in the past.

Training Log - February 25 - March 3

Monday, February 25: Barbed Wire Road – 8 miles – Easy run from the office, down past the fire station to JM Turk (Barbed Wire) road then back up cash road to the middle school and back to the office. I thought about taking the day off but the weather is supposed to be miz tomorrow so I decided to get out and get something in. I hopped in the ice bath afterwards then headed home. We are supposed to get rain tomorrow hopefully it’ll dry out by Wednesday as I’d love to get on the mountain bike to cross train a little.

Tuesday, February 26: Stationary Trainer – 12 miles – Again, I thought about taking today off but I wanted to get something in. It was cold and raining so I decided to hop on the trainer for 25 minutes just to spin the legs for a bit. I stretched, foam rolled and got in the ice bath afterwards, so far so good as my hamstring hasn’t been nearly as bad this week.

Wednesday, February 27: GEHC Trails + Stream Eco Loop – 5 miles – We had some stuff going on a work today and I ended up getting out late. I figured this would be the day that I wouldn’t get a run or ride in, but the weather was amazing (high 50s/low 60s) and I had to hit the trails behind the apartment for something. I ran up to the backside of the creekside trail, along the creek then back up to the Cherokee trail to the GEHC building. From there I added a loop of the stream ecology trail then looped back around to the sweetgum trail, back onto the homesite trail and then did a loop around a couple other buildings to make it a full five. It was slow going, but that’s because of how hilly this run was. Nothing crazy in terms of length but there was a ton of short steep climbs.

Thursday, February 28: In Town Five – 5 miles – Another later day at the office, but I was able to sneak out for a quick five through Flowery Branch. Amanda and I had a massage scheduled for 6 so I didn’t have a ton of time but I was glad to get something in. Taking it a little easier this week is definitely helping my hamstring. It’s been much better this week. I think backing off and getting a new pair of shoes has been the key. The massage helped too. Great way to kick off our upcoming mini-vacation.

February wrap up: February was a solid month for me, 235 miles (261 according to Strava, which includes two mountain bike rides and Tuesday’s ride on the trainer – 31 hours in 28 days) – I got my mileage up a little bit but I will need to increase it more next month. Additionally, I ran two races, both solid efforts on the trails. The big things I learned from the two races were 1 – I need to run more miles and 2 – I need to do more workouts. 

Friday, March 1: Little Mulberry Park – 8 miles – I got out a little early, so I hit Little Mulberry Park for a run after work. It was chilly (mid 30’s) especially with the wind but once I got off of the lake loop and onto the equestrian trail it wasn’t too bad. I ran from the Hamilton Mill side parking lot, counter clockwise around the lake for a little over a mile and onto the trail. From there I ran the Dirty Spokes race course (6 miles) then back onto the lake loop back to the car. I finished up with an up tempo last mile of 6:05 on the paved path. Nothing crazy but it was good to open up my stride and run a little quicker.

Saturday, February 2: Zero – Amanda and I traveled back home to Massachusetts on Saturday. Our flight left around 11 so we had to be out the door at 8 am. After getting up to do clips I just didn’t have time to run. I thought about running when we got home but I decided to take it as a day off and give my body a little bit of a rest after a long day of travel.

Sunday, March 3: Vermont Snow Trail Run w/ Ferenc, Greg, Najem and Goup – 5 miles – I woke up early to get some work done then dropped Amanda off at her mom’s before heading up to Vermont to meet Ferenc, Greg, Najem and Goupil for a trail run in the wilds behind Josh’s house. For a lot of the run we were breaking through some frozen snow and Najem and I ended up having our ankles shredded, lesson learned, long socks next time I run with Josh and Greg. It was a great run thought. I had a blast running with the guys and catching up. We even got to run the infamous switchbacks behind Josh’s house. They lived up to the hype. We had a crazy decent since there was a little trail that had been carved out by Josh from running and snowshoeing that had iced over. It was a little treacherous but a lot of fun. Josh and Greg told me they call this run nine miles but according to my Garmin it was 5.2 miles. I doubt the Garmin got every twist and turn and considering the fact that it took us an hour I’d say it’s probably closer to seven. Granted according to Strava it had two category four climbs…KOM baby!

Weekly Totals: 31 miles on five runs – I set out with the goal of taking it a little bit easy this week after running the half marathon and being a little bit beat up last week. I’m glad I still got 30 miles in and five runs, plus I had the one day on the stationary bike at work, so I still had a good week of activity just not a ton of running. Next week will be more of the same. I’ll be at home but don’t know how much running I will do because of all the things we have planned. Hopefully I’ll at least get in 30 or so miles again then I can start ramping up when we get back to Georgia.

 

Training Log: February 18-24

Monday, February 18: Ft. Yargo State Park – 13 miles – I had President’s Day off so I rolled out to Ft. Yargo to get a run in on the course for Saturday’s race. I know the course really well because I run out there often, but I wanted to get one more run on it before the race to get ready. I started from the mountain bike parking lot but I ran the entire course. Hopefully, I will be ready for the two pipeline climbs this year, which I didn’t know about last year and pretty much blew my race up. Because I don’t have the mileage or strength work that I’d like to have going into this race my plan is going to be similar to Heritage Park, stay relaxed for as long as possible and race the sections of the course that are race-able and just survive the rest.

Tuesday, February 19: Cash Road Loop – 10 miles – This run starts out downhill but has a couple of tough climbs on the way back to the office, specifically a nearly three mile climb up cash road back to the middle school. Things started off pretty well, I was clipping along at a good pace, but then once I hit the up hills things went south. I still managed a solid run, but my legs were screaming at the end. I hit the weight room after to foam roll and that seemed to help. I would have liked to have jumped in the ice bath but it was getting late and I had to grab dinner on my way home so I passed. 

Wednesday, February 20: Barbed Wire Road – 8 miles – This is a similar run to the Cash Road loop but instead of running all the way out to Winder Hwy I turn on JM Turk road and run past the Mulberry Creek rec center. JM Turk runs into Cash Road and follows the same last three-plus miles as that run. It meets up with Cash Rd about half way up the Elizabeth Road climb then finishes with a long gradual uphill to the middle school then back down to the office. I added a loop around the complex to make it a full 8.

Thursday, February 21: GEHC Trails – 8 miles – I had the day off but my hamstring was really, really tight. I ended up just running an easy eight on the trails behind my apartment. I ran up and around the GEHC then out and back on the greenway. It was a little slow, mostly because of the slower GEHC loop, but I wanted to take it easy with this tightness/pain. Stretched and foam rolled once I got back to the house then spent the rest of the day playing Halo. I also got a chance to talk to Josh, who was coming back from running in -11 degree weather on top of a mountain…nice. I’m looking forward to getting a chance to get up to VT and run in a couple week, not so much to the cold but just for something different and to run with friends.

Friday, February 22: In Town – 5 miles – Substantial pain in my hamstring today. I just ran five as a shakeout for tomorrow’s race and despite not feeling great at the start I felt much better as I ran. My legs loosed up a bit and I actually felt like I had some spring in my step after the first two miles. I ran out to McEver road then back through Flowery Branch and back to the office. I definitely think it’s time I get myself a new pair of shoes. I’m thinking of trying out a pair of Saucony Guides. The added stability might help me lock down this hamstring issue. Once I got back to the office, I hopped in the cold tub for about 15 minutes to ice down my legs. It was a little brutal because it was so miserable outside, but it was hugely helpful and I need to start doing that more often.

Saturday, February 23: XTERRA Georgia Thrill in the Hills Half Marathon – 13.1 miles – Two straight days of rain made this one a total mud fest. I got a little bit of a late start and ended up only warming up for about 10 or 12 minutes but I jogged from my car to registration then warmed up then had to run back out to the starting line once I realized it had been moved to a different part of the park. All the running around helped me forget about some of the nerves and served as extra warm up which was nice. Thankfully the rain stopped just before the race. The temperature was around 45 so it helped that we weren’t going to be cold and wet.

Prior to the race I saw David Bell, who’s won this race three years in a row (spoiler alert he made it four). I talked to him for a few minutes before the start and I planned on trying to hang with him for as long as possible without running over my head. I beat him at both the KP 5k and the Fall Fitness 5k, but those were 5ks. At the start I moved towards the front to get a feel for who the other main contenders were going to be. I noticed Matt Rivers taking the early lead and decided to settle in behind him and Dave for the start.

Knowing I’m not in great shape, I wanted to try and stay in contact but I didn’t want to get out too fast. I had some issues in the 8 miler I ran a few weeks ago and I didn’t want to blow up at the end of the race. I decided I’d rather run smart and finish in second than blow up and end up jogging it in. Matt and Dave actually put a decent gap on me pretty early, because of how torn up the early part of the course was, due to the marathon starting before us. We hit a paved road for about 600 meters and I used that to catch back up to them. I caught them on the first short climb then took over the lead on the second. At this point I figured if I took the lead into the woods I would be able to control the pace a little bit. This worked for a minute, but I took a wide turn because of all the mud and Dave cut inside and took the lead. He opened up a gap and I tried to settle in behind him, but he was cruising. Once the trail leveled out I was able to settle down and find a good rhythm. My hope was that I could keep my rhythm and eventually pull him back. I did, but it was more because he took his foot off the gas late in the race.

I felt like I was running pretty well early on. I wasn’t over my head but I wasn’t taking it easy. I found a pace that wasn’t exactly comfortable but it wasn’t too taxing either. I was trying to stay between 6:15 and 6:30 per mile, which was doable on some miles, but some sections of the course made it tough because of how slick it was. I also tried to use the marathoners as a target to go get.

Overall this race unfolded almost exactly the same way as last year’s. I settled into second but was unable to maintain contact with Dave, but after three miles I’d opened a good size gap on Matt Rivers (who dropped out at some point, but I didn’t know that until the race ended. Hopefully he’s alright as I didn’t see him after). I was running in no man’s land but passing marathoners pretty often. I made it through miles 5, 6, and 7 still running smooth, considering that’s the section of the course with the most twists and turns. Tim actually took one of the tougher climbs out of the race, so after we passed the dam we went directly onto the inner lake trail instead of up the pipeline trail.

This gave me a shot of adrenaline because this is where I wanted to open it up and try to get back to racing, unfortunately, my legs would not have it. My legs were dead at eight miles, uh oh. It was incredibility frustrating because I was in a great place mentally. Without that first pipeline climb I felt like I could made a big gain on Dave along the lake and then on the downhill mile we had coming up. My legs just didn’t want to cooperate. After surviving the pipe line climb, I tried to rally on the downhill mile that runs back down to the lake, but again no dice. My legs felt like they were full of cement. Once I got to 10 it was just about survival, which is exactly what happened last year. That’s what happens when you are not prepared, training wise, to race 13 miles. I suffered through the final 5k and then ran all the way to the line for second place.

I crossed the line in 1:26:30, I was hoping for 1:24ish but the combination of the mud and the fact that I went into the hurt locker (which fittingly was on TV later in the day) big time made 1:26 fine. It was much slower than last year, but the course was such a mess time really got thrown out the window. Maybe if I hadn’t gotten sick I would have been able to put together some better training, but I’m happy with the finish. It was easier to swallow second when I spent most of the race there than it would have been to lose contact when my legs gave out eight or nine miles in. Now it’s time to figure out this hamstring situation, get healthy, get ready for Dirty Spokes and hopefully have some fun on the roads.

Race Results:

Male Open Winners
Place	Name	City	Bib No	Age	Overall	Chip Time	Gun Time	Pace
1	David Bell	Decatur GA	24	30	1	1:24:46.8	1:24:46.8	6:28/M
2	Matt Haley	Buford MA	176	29	2	1:26:30.2	1:26:30.2	6:36/M
3	Bradley Thomas	Watkinsville GA	483	23	3	1:33:30.9	1:33:30.9	7:08/M

 

Race Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0W6uP5Agcg&feature=youtu.be

After the race I cooled down then hung out around the awards ceremony for a bit. The take home was pretty solid, power bars, power bar gels and a pair of Tifosi sunglasses. I also took over the lead in the XTERRA Georgia Trail series. After the awards, I tried to clean off all of the mud that I was caked in then headed home for a nice hot shower. I also watched Travis Pastrana finish 10^th at Daytona.

Sunday, February 24: Mall Roads Loop – 5 miles – I considered taking the day off, but I decided to get out and get something in. My legs were tired, not too tight or anything just fatigued. I think I’m going to take it easy this week, maybe get a couple mountain bike rides in if the weather holds out.  

Weekly Totals: 62 miles on seven runs – This was a pretty solid week. The race went okay, not great, not terrible. If it wasn’t for a series and it wasn’t something I’d already paid for an planned for, I probably wouldn’t have run it due to the pre-race pain I was dealing with. I am going to keep an eye my hamstring, foam roll, stretch and get in the ice bath. I’m hoping for a laid back but solid week, then I am heading home for a week, which will probably be a little bit lower mileage wise due to the weather and other activities we have planned.