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).
