A Great Rise to 50 (Redux)

8mi this morning to make up for the shortened run yesterday.  Started off very, very sleepy, but by about 3mi in, things felt great.  Smooth miles in the low 8's while watching a DC sunrise over the Potomac.  Can't complain.

Yeah, those early morning runs have their benefits, don't they?

Checking up on the past week. Looking good - smart that you did a step-back week. And I'm guessing that you did a lot of your interpreting work as an independent contractor? That'd make doing your taxes even more fun! Not.

Which 50K are you doing this month?

Better than coffee, Mark.  And both have the effect of waking up the digestive system...  Just a matter of timing.  Ahem.

Anyway, yes, the cutback week was planned, as are a few more in the next couple months.  And it was nice to have it, as I needed the weekend to get back to non-24/7-tired mode.  

My shower thought yesterday was realizing that I received non-wage compensation (1099) from MD, DC, and VA, and I don't believe their tax reciprocity agreement applies to non-wage income.  Just wage (W2) income.  So I have to file FOUR states this year, and 3 for the remaining time I'm here.  On the plus side, I think my state taxes will be much cheaper this way, as I'll barely hit the deduction amount in MD and DC.  Ugh, taxes.  

I'm running a few fun things this month.  This Saturday is a 29.x mile trail run on the Massanutten Mountain Trail 100 Miler course.  It's the huge local 100 here, run by the Virginia Happy Trails Running Club, of which I'm a semi-member (haven't paid my dues yet, but have run with them a few times).  So it's a free event (price of admission is something for the aid stations) with a shuttle for the runners.  We just have to be at the finish line at 5am...  110mi drive from here.  But hey, that's ultra life.  Goal is under 6hr, but there's 5000' gain/loss up and over 3 passes, so we'll see.  

Next Saturday (Valentine's Day) is that race with Kevin/Chris/Aileen.  Cutback/intensity week leading up to it.

Then on the 21st will be the Frozen Heart 50k, a small race in southern MD that's only $35 and will be another long training run.  Goal is between 4.5-5hr for that one.  

March is still a question mark in terms of organized events, but I have two weekends of 20/30 back to back runs, one of which will all be on the course.

Mike MacLellan wrote:Better than coffee, Mark.  And both have the effect of waking up the digestive system...  Just a matter of timing.  Ahem.

Ahem, indeed. I've always tried to get at least a half a cup of coffee into me before an early morning run... but maybe one of these times, I'll have to go unaltered and see what happens. My stomach might appreciate it, though there's the whole risk of ending up on the side of the trail.

Mark B wrote:

Mike MacLellan wrote:Better than coffee, Mark.  And both have the effect of waking up the digestive system...  Just a matter of timing.  Ahem.

Ahem, indeed. I've always tried to get at least a half a cup of coffee into me before an early morning run... but maybe one of these times, I'll have to go unaltered and see what happens. My stomach might appreciate it, though there's the whole risk of ending up on the side of the trail.

Oh you adventurous man, Mark!  Let us know how that goes.  On second thought, maybe not.  Oh, just reread your post and you meant you might fall asleep on the side of the trail.

Tom H wrote:

Mark B wrote:

Mike MacLellan wrote:Better than coffee, Mark.  And both have the effect of waking up the digestive system...  Just a matter of timing.  Ahem.

Ahem, indeed. I've always tried to get at least a half a cup of coffee into me before an early morning run... but maybe one of these times, I'll have to go unaltered and see what happens. My stomach might appreciate it, though there's the whole risk of ending up on the side of the trail.

Oh you adventurous man, Mark!  Let us know how that goes.  On second thought, maybe not.  Oh, just reread your post and you meant you might fall asleep on the side of the trail.

My mind is spinning trying to imagine what you'd thought it was originally...

Lest this blog delve too far into the world of poop...

53min this morning.  Shortened because I start work late tomorrow so I'll be able to squeeze a run in before heading out, thus adding to weekly volume, so those extra 7min weren't important today.  

First of a few downhill-focused workouts.  Basically forced speed training, as I'm realizing how poor my ability to run fast is.  4x ~1k @ 5.5% downhill, run as fast as I comfortably could (respective paces = 6:42, 6:20, 5:57, 5:45... yes, I was sleepy on the first one).  Running back up the hill was done at a moderate effort (8:26--->8:01 pace). 

Still got a bit of work to do in terms of bringing back that pep, but it's a start.  I notice that my shoes feel tremendously heavy and large doing these, and it's hard to really stabilize my foot in them.

Is there no snow in the DC area?  Lucky you!

Mom - None right now. Supposed to get a few inches Sunday night-Tuesday afternoon but that forecast comes and goes almost daily. Just chilly and breezy lately.

Mike MacLellan wrote:Mom - None right now. Supposed to get a few inches Sunday night-Tuesday afternoon but that forecast comes and goes almost daily. Just chilly and breezy lately.

Lucky you!  We have about 8" and will get 2" more today.  It will be warming up though after tomorrow (where the predicted high is 10) to the 40s on Saturday.  Headed out the door to run on the indoor track shortly.

Hijack alert....

Mike, I know you've done your share of hiking out west here.   You ever hike Mt. Whitney?

My wife has been bugging me to do it (we spend about a week every year hiking at Lake Tahoe) so we went to an REI deal on it tonight.  Pretty pumped to do it but I have an EXTREME fear of heights.  Physically I'm not concerned but I just know there will be sections of the trail that will suck.......

Mom - Yeah, so far so good here.  There may still be some in Massanutten this weekend, which would make it fun.

Tim - I personally have not.  My dad has.  He loved it.  He's given me a lot of advice in the form of old-man stories, so I can pass that on to you all you want.  Shoot me any questions you have and I'll do my best.

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1hr this morning.  Got some kind of annoying news from work, so I was glad to be able to blow off the steam before my day started.  7.2mi for the day.

10.15mi on this bright and chilly morning.  Temps in the high teens and low 20s but sunny and only a very slight wind, so that was nice.  My cheeks still got bright red by the end of the run, and at times I wished I had a balaclava or something similar.  Most of the cyclist commuters had them, anyway.  

Running is still going tremendously well, which is always nice to have as a grounding factor in life.  My legs are feeling this week's efforts a bit whenever I hit an incline, but with the mileage I've been putting in lately, I think that's to be expected.  Tomorrow's mountain adventure should be fun - that's only half sarcasm - with the 5000' gain/loss and 3am wake-up call.

Mike MacLellan wrote: Tomorrow's mountain adventure should be fun - that's only half sarcasm - with the 5000' gain/loss and 3am wake-up call.

Oooh, that does sound like fun.  For you to do .  Glad to hear the running is going so well.  Seems like you need to have that "go to" release activity with the job stressors you've been dealing with.  I'll be interested to see how that run tomorrow goes.

Have fun and run smart!

Oh, wow.  

I guess when you sign up for a short-50k with 5000' gain/4400' loss in Virginia, you probably know what you're getting into, even if you're denying it to yourself.  The rocks, the roots, the leaves, the excessively steep gradients, the ever-changing terrain that never allows you to get into a groove...  Oh, and it was 1.4mi longer than advertised with 1000' more gain.  

30.4mi w/ 6000' gain/5400' loss in 5:46 (5:37 moving time).  I now understand why ultrarunners say that pace is pretty much irrelevant during these kinds of things.  Approximately half the course was what I'd call barely runnable due to the rocks/otherwise un-conducive terrain.  Highlights included gradients of 25-30% covered in a foot of leaves that slid as you tried to walk up the hill, never more than 100m of flat/clear trail*, and little newbie me who still doesn't have the discipline to make the last 5mi as enjoyable as the first 25...  (A group of 6 went off the front from the beginning and 3 of them I never saw again.  At the top of the first ridge, I thought I was in the lead, which should have been an indication that I needed to slow down, but y'know, I don't listen to nagging truths.)

Also, *there were 2 sections of dirt road that were extremely pleasant to run on.

Without getting into the nitty-gritty (had enough of that today), the first 4 hours were pleasant, the 5th hour was uncomfortable but in an okay way, and the last 45min was a slog/leg-splotion.  A marked improvement from the run over the holidays, during which only the first 4 hours were bearable before it became a slog.  

I'm tired and hungry.

According to my memory, I ate 4700 calories yesterday and was still ~1000 in the hole for the day.  Well, my stomach didn't quite think so, which made this morning a fun adventure of nausea and GI grumblings that I've decided to call Massanutten's Revenge.  That's a bit of an exaggeration, since it wasn't at all a worshiping-the-porcelain-throne thing, but still, a general feeling of bleh and unease this morning.  

After watching Kevin stroll on by (if one can call sub-7' pace strolling), I decided it was time to face the music and see what damage yesterday had caused.  

10mi with the first 5 at a no-effort pace (mid 9's) while the legs stretched out and self-cleansed, the last 5 at a more focused pace (mid 8's) that took quite a bit of focus today.  So ends my second 50-miles-in-3-days weekend.  The next will be 2 weeks from now.

78.5mi for the week.

Great job!

I secretly, or maybe not so secretly, get a kick out of those days when it is a struggle to keep up with a daily calorie target.  Last week I had a day where I was 1600 in the hole come dinner time, and found myself without an appetite.  That's when eating for me truly becomes fueling, and the focus becomes choosing food that completes the macronutrient equation for that day.

Those are some big 3-day mileage totals, and weekly totals, you are putting up.  I can understand why today's run required a fair amount of focus on the back half.  Whew!

Mom - Thanks!

Tom - Oh man, you have no idea.  I didn't even keep track yesterday (I normally do - trying to very slowly creep back down to the low 140s) and just backlogged it today.  But yeah, the freedom to chow down was great.  Unfortunately, my appetite wasn't nearly as strong as it could've been for some of what I ate, which probably contributed to today's morning duress.

Rough morning today... Nothing in particular, just the weekend's fatigue catching up with 5am. 

5.8mi, which was easy enough, but got hit by a pretty hard wave of nausea and exhaustion when I got home. Looks like my planned afternoon outing to Costco is going to be replaced by a nap. Hopefully thatll help settle my stomach a bit, too. I think its still recovering from the huge quantities of rich food this weekend. 

Fortunately, the legs feel pretty good. Quads only a little thrashed, and really it's the outside-front of my calves that took the brunt of the run (and rocks) Saturday. 

May or may not be up for a tempo tomorrow. If not, Wednesday will do.

Had an interesting job last night.  Interesting meaning very formal/high register event that followed parliamentary procedure.  I didn't feel fantastic about it, but my client seemed pleased and genuinely satisfied after.  Whew.

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9.6mi this morning with 4x 6min tempo/90sec recovery thrown in during the latter half.  The first interval was net downhill and more of an "open up the legs" thing (6:38 pace).  Second was flat/gently rolling (6:35 pace).  Third included the 1k hill that I've been doing repeats on (6:55 pace).  Last was a more gradual uphill with a kicker at the end (6:46 pace).

All of it was "comfortable" except going up the hill, which became a race against vehicular traffic, as there's a light at the top and traffic was backed up down the whole thing.  I won by a long shot.  

I'm not 100% certain that this weekend's 42min 10k will happen, but there's a lot of time for recovery between now and then, so it's still on the table as a goal.  

75min total.

Easy hour this morning.  Same old same old, just ticking through the day's miles.  Legs a bit sore/tired, which I guess is to be expected.  Rest day either today or tomorrow.

Brrrrr.  15 degrees with 15-25mph winds.  Almost got blown off the 14th St Bridge.  

7.9mi slightly more focused than normal.  It was cold, so I think I was in a hurry.  Most splits in the mid/low 7s.  Felt pretty comfortable, pace-wise.

Look at the bright side: Probably not much of a problem with performance-dampening heat accumulation...