Run log 10/22-10/28

After a very easy comeback week after Oil Creek, I was on the verge of deciding how to deal with the next couple of months of training given that there was nothing huge on the horizon and Leadville still is 10 months away. Plenty of time to do something different. I checked out a nearby gym which had a boxing room with 4 different kinds of bags. It had been a while but I grabbed my 16oz gloves and started doing intervals. Replaced my long weekly mileage with this and lots of weights. It felt much different, and gave my legs some extra recovery time (still had a lot of fatigue and feet were still sore from all the mimimus the previous week). Had the day off Friday and got my longish run in. All week long I was weighing the options, is it time to do something new? If I drop my weekly mileage now, will it negatively affect going for areally really good time if I sign up for Leadville another year? Even writing this now on a Sunday night, before a massive hurricane swoops over, I still am on the fence. Keep up lots of volume, my training could grow stale. Drop it, and replace with shorter, high-intensity crossfit type stuff and stairclimbing or heavy bag, and I may lose my long-run legs but gain a lot of functional strength. But something bit me. Every time I do this I can’t help but miss the long stuff. Maybe after 2 years of consistently pushing towards higher volume, running long mileage has become almost a physical need or something. I know it would probably be beneficial to mix it up for a while and let smaller tendons heal and what not, but it’s become almost a competitive desire to see how far I can push my running while keeping up the weights and what not.

Oct. 22nd
5 miles easy lunch run

5 miles treadmill

Upper body weights, core and abs

Oct. 23rd
Lift AM lower body

Heavy bag 15 min

5 miles treadmill: half mile intervals 8-8:30. All 4%

Oct. 24th
Heavy bag 15 min.

Weights upper body

30 min stepclimber

Oct.25th
5 miles with three 800 meter intervals up a 200 ft gain hill (same as previous weeks but with the extra 400 meters).

5 miles with hash group, EZ

3x 50 BW squats

Oct. 26th
17 miles of eight 1.75 mile hill repeats at South Mountain Reservation with some flats at the end. A great consistent hill repeat section, a tad rocky on the steep downhill, but a go to Leadville training spot where I don’t need to carry a bladder for very long runs. 2:53 or so- good pace for this.

Oct. 27th
6.2 around my place.

Oct. 28th
12 miles (2 loops opposing directions) Jockey hollow. Some good climbs but not insane.
2x 55 BW squats


MILEAGE/WEEK: 60 miles

Run log 10/15-10/21

Kind of an uneventful week. Highlights a time-guess hash meetup run, attempting a lifting session 3 days after a 100 miler, and accidentally discovering a sweet section of the Appalachian Trail. Wanted a light week, as light as possible, to fully recover for another high volume high-intensity cycle to swish me into the New Year and start strong in '13 (Dang! I remember New Year's 1999 so clearly, even that it was a clear night and the moon was half-waned (check on this)).

Oct. 15th

My legs were fatigued but not much soreness. Main problem was walking due to very,very tight and almost torn achilles and bruised right heel. This made running stupid for today. Just did some stairclimber and bike EZ, and even that hurt a little on the back heel. But it really flushed something out because I felt superb the next day.
 
Upper body work/core/abs

Oct. 16th

Was debating running but it's been a tradition after 100 milers for a EZ 8 on the tuesday following, so I went for it with my Trail Minimus. New Balance really hit the nail with these, I've had 'em for 18 months now and they are falling apart except for the parts that matter- attached to my foot. I love using them for pacing and natural runs, and they seem to be therapeutic for the legs, aligning the tendons up just right. Barefoot, there has to be something to it. EZ 8 done.
 
Oct. 17th

Lifing session PM. Did my circuit as usual (squats, dead,s lunges, calf raises with weights, back extensions) but with less weight and less sets. Man, I was still sore I guess. I felt a little cramping here and there but nothing popped or left me on the floor, just hard. Did some core to swing back into that, and

TM 5 mi just to loosen up.

Upper body work, core

Oct.18th

3 miles on Pica hills after work. Feet a little weary but excited to be feeling okay,

5 miles prediction run with Highland Hashers. Went for :43 flat and got :42:10. Was working hard on the small hill sections and speeded up a little too much at the end, 50 seconds is close for a course I've only done twice before, but not good enough for even top 3 guesses, and needed to at least sniff a beer in the pub afterwards to nurse my downtrodden ego.

Oct. 19th

Upper body work at gym, 45 minutes stationary bike. Looking ahead to Novemeber when I'm no longer a memeber of any gym, just need to buy a little squat rack and a dumbell and some plates and everything I need is in my apartment.

Oct. 20th

In search of organic farms up in near Vernon, NJ I found a new spot to park at the AT, AND a sweet hill climb! Had hikers in awes of my amatuer east coast climbing skills. One hiker commented on how my ankles must be trained well to run downhill on a rocky slope 20-25% grade. Thanks lad, never thought about it lately but I used to really hurt my ankles from this shit. Now I gotta do it at least every week to maintain it. Would hate to lose it. Did 5 out and back in 2:15, 2:25 if counting the stops to take some great fall foliahhge pics. Still fatigued from last weekend and some hip wierdness, but I am happy to be still standing word.
 
Oct. 21st

Last week 100 miles, this week 6.2 on mostly flat up at Allamuchy - Cranberry Lake area.

2 x 53 Bodyweight squats, pullups, abs

TOTAL WEEKLY RUNNING MILEAGE: 37 MILES

Oil Creek 100 mile, Oct. 13-14, 2012

When a buddy of mine offered a ride to Western PA for 100 mile run through a place I drove through once to visit McD’s so I wouldn’t fall asleep at the wheel driving from Chicago to Allentown to be enjoy 6 months of being a bum before moving to New Jersey which I had only read about in movies, it sounded like a good excuse to take an easy week the week after and eat a lot of food, which would precede not eating a lot for 3 days, then eating a lot for one night, then eating a lot for 22 hours but really like I had not eaten anything because it was metabolizing.

The mystic borough of Titusville saw the beginning of the oil industry when petroleum was discovered back in the 1800’s, when people were tough and men still wore elaborate triangular hats which offered no ear warmth, the women I believe wore suitable ear coverings. That was probably 1760 not 1860, but still everyone was basically camping 24/7/365 without North Face jackets hats and gloves, and below is more like the style of the time:

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:George_Armstrong_Custer_and_Elizabeth_Bacon_Custer_-_Brady-Handy.jpg

It probably took an ungodly amount of time to get that picture correctly lighted and what they were paid I’m not sure. If that guy saw any of us trying to run to the oil well 14 miles away and back 3 times (50k loop) and then act like we are going to work but not going to work and coming home (7.7 mile “going home” loop) to delicious food and rest in a heated gym, he would say “2 cents an hour the wage” and tell us to use our handheld water bottles, to quench welded steel and question as above his own wardrobe choices when we are looking so “conform-clothed” and are wet yet warm, then dry 15 minutes later. Only two or three folks had a mustache as damn cool as that guy’s and deserve the same respect.

Near the end of each 50k you pass oil derricks that sound like a wheel cutting and chopping planks. Not sure what it is really doing, but it runs day and night as we found out. Running in the woods is great but takes a bit of concentration with a spotlight on your head. I love having to stop for any reason because it involves shutting off my light and being in complete darkness. It’s the opposite of NYC at night, instead of whamming every sense with overloads of information and stimulation, it forces your senses into overload to try to accumulate any sound, glowing light, and everything smells like a scented candle. I wish I could do that every night, which I do, it’s called shutting my eyelids.

I really like being out there alone but not too long, passing friends on the trail reminds you that you can now tell your fellow officers in the office that you hung out with friends in the woods so they think you really got hammered at the beach instead of exercised for 22 hours straight because your are too cheap to get a gym membership and want an excuse to get hammered on hammer nutrition the night before exercising 22 hours. Plus probably the only reason I keep going sometimes is the hopes of seeing those friends somewhere on the trail, eating the same thing I ate so while we both are sick we know exactly how to describe the desire to expel without words.

Everyone I know personally had a great day athletically that day; it was a tough run to do with a lot of hills and many chances to throw in the towel. I met others out of nowhere from other races in faraway places, a unique characteristic of this hobby. Met a few new faces that had stories to warm your heart or make you think, how the hell is that possible to do? Hardrock is Leadville plus 12 more Hope Passes?!? And the service by the volunteers running the stations, making food, keeping us informed, you all were more than fantastic out there. The pre and post dinner/breakfast was the best I’ve had at one of these so far.

I recommend anyone who is interested in the industrial revolution to check this spot out, they have gone lengths to preserve the history of this small yet significant town down to keeping well intact a bouncy large suspension bridge that was used by the people working the oil that is hidden deep in the woods, and is part of the last 5 miles of the 100 mile course only right before a final gigantic hill and the end of the run.

So now I feel like eating 21: bushels of apples and :27 plates of banana nut pancakes with a .07 acre swimming pool of blueberry syrup.

Run log 10/8-10/14

Oct. 8th

Taper week. Just a few runs to attempt to completely recover the legs yet increase my fitness by resting more.

Upper body work/core/abs
5 mi treadmill, 1%, easy pace

Oct. 9th

No lifting. Not even bodyweight work this week.
8 mi around work/mostly flat

Oct. 10th

6 mi around my place with some mild hills, moderate pace.
Upper body work, core

Oct.11th

5 miles with Highland hashers. Pace was a little pushing it but I felt fresh and it was only 5, nothing that could hurt me for Sat.

Oct. 12th

Walk the first 1.2 miles of the course and back with Julian who drove me the 6 hours up (and back) to Titusville. We discovered the old bridge above the bike path was leaking some battery-fluid looking fluid from its rafters. Looks like someone removed it the next day though.

Oct. 13th

Oil Creek 100M in 21:27:07. 17.7k gain. Ran 90% at 12/mi pace for the first 100k, some groin cramping during the first 20mi so I held back on the pace slightly in the first half. No issues with heartburn until the very end which in the past was constant and intense. GI stress minimal. Surreal course. Race report to follow.
 
Oct. 14th

Complete rest

TOTAL RUNNING MILEAGE FOR THE WEEK: 124 MI

Mountain Madness (MoMa) 50k report

This has always been my favorite 50k, running through NJ’s wilderness during the short autumn daylight hours. I felt great from recently jumping to 90-100 mile weeks with speedwork, b2b long efforts, a ton of calisthenics and my usual 2/week hard tempo runs. After training on the actual main loop counterclockwise as it would be this time, the altered course shifted my time goal: to at least meet the 5:43 from last year's time when the main loop was done clockwise, and most thought, the faster way to go. A year ago my diet was more processed-based and I stacked two tough 100-milers only 5 weeks apart shortly before MoMa: I felt way fresher this time and I my legs felt more developed for long hill efforts. So that hopefully would compensate.

I did no taper, just wasn’t tired enough. The Saturday before I PR’d a 50M by two hours from 2010 at Virgil Crest- and still felt fresh. Recently I had switched to almost a no-meat diet and massive amounts of fruit all day long and it helped me drop 15 pounds in 6 weeks and my recovery was near instant, I felt light and strong on the hills, and ran all but the steepest sections of the course. This time I’d have to run everything to make time. I think being short-legged makes me slow hiking up hills so I trained to run everything possible.

At the start the front crowd thinned to 6-7 of us, Julian (last year's winner and course record) pulled ahead to the front and hauled up the first 3-400 ft climb. Everyone else followed suit, ran right up it and began to disperse. I fell back a little wanting to at least preserve something, knowing the course beforehand was a big advantage. I jumped over a log uphill, probably unnecessary. The course flattened to single track, I was leapfrogging with a few guys as we traded names and moved on. Back up another long hill, still felt strong. I realized unlike other years we didn’t have to go up and down Bear Swamp road, instead we’d only go down it once- no big change, only more trail elsewhere, but mentally it seemed we were given a big break. 9 miles in I reach the far-point and high-point, Skyline Drive. All my training runs began here as it was a full 7-8 miles closer to the highway- and Doungking Donuts. Without me even realizing it, Harry Hamilton who was helping at the aid filled my water and Dan O’Keefe filled me in that the leaders were only 5 minutes ahead, sweet. Laurie Timko, who unfortunately got injured right before the race, snapped some great photos right here when everyone is anticipating a long downhill.

The next section was long downhill and rocky, and I felt loosened up really good by now and tried anticipating foot placement as fast as possible- nearly missing some potential falls on some not so friendly rock garden sections. After this, the halfway point was a few miles away. There I realized I had only drunk two handhelds by this point, which didn’t seem healthy and also might cause bad cramps and bonking. Still, I felt focused, and grabbed two gels, barely stopping for more than a water fill. The toughest section was ahead, a long climb, 10% grade for the first mile, and would take most of my energy leaving nothing for the last 9 miles if I wasn’t careful. I stuck with running the whole thing anyway, feeling great. I knew there were about 6-7 runners ahead and I started passing many on this hill. A few shorter climbs later and the main loop was done. I was getting thirsty at this point but the mini-aid station a few miles from the end of the main loop was tapped of water- another good reason to move quickly to the start where I had an extra filled bottle stashed.

Nearing the start, I hadn’t passed anyone in a few miles. Figuring the 2 ahead of me were miles ahead, they will easily break the course record! Coming down into the same straightaway we started on I saw Julian blasting below on the beginning of the second loop. Coming back to the start I threw my hip-gear down, forgetting again to drink, and grabbing my spare bottle. I downed it in the first mile- only thing left to do is haul and not get dangerously dehydrated. I figured 9-10 minute miles I’d be safe. Never before did I sacrifice time in drinking a little extra for time on the clock. Now it was necessary to put in a good finish.

Since the 7.77 mile bike loop was hilly but no long hills, it would have to be done at 10k effort. I downed a gel and I felt energized but tapping into my final reserves. The first main hill I powered up, but the nastiest groin cramp ever came over me and I tried stretching in a V hoping it would go away. Luckily, it was the top of the hill and a little downhill would let it rest. I got complacent about being in 3^rd but I knew the 4^th guy was right behind; we passed at the turnaround stairs. But then after 3 miles into this final loop on the backturn portion, I looked behind about 3 miles in at the end of a long straight stretch, nothing but trees! Relaxing, I probably lthen et off the gas too much- because coming in the last 2 miles of hilly single track, 4^th place David came sprinting out of nowhere! He later said he knew I was only 6 minutes behind and ran HARD to catch up. And he did, leaving me in the dust. 10 yards from the finish I see Dave at the same time finishing his first loop, looking ready to eat the trail up. David goes on to finish 5:01, I came in at 5:04. The top two broke the 5 hour mark, Julian at 4:59, and Michael at an Astounding 4:39. It was a jaw dropping finish- could have even been neck and neck, rare for these kinds of events!

Next thing I hung around watching some friends finish and kill their goal times on a harder course than before. Unfortunately a few buddies got injured right before and had to sit out, as running this terrain on injuries cannot ever be a fun experience, I've been there too many times. I felt more than pleased with the race, and even more excited with seeing how much further I could take it. Nothing is more satisfying than feeling strong running up steep hills. My personal training schedule can be draining, but I feel like my timing is more nailed down than usual for consistent increases in endurance and speed. What's great is how everyone is already taking bets on the results for 2013. Thanks NJ Trail Series!

Run log 10/1-10/8

Oct. 1st

5 mi EZ lunch break at work. Getting less and less of these oppurtunities lately, at least for a full 5 so always take the chance to get out in the middle of the day. Actually makes me way more alert in the afternoon.

Upper body medley- decided to quit the gym membership this week, I don't use 95% of the stuff at the gym, go to no classes, and have the weights I need in my aprtment. Only thing left I would lack is heavy deadlifts and back extensions- no big loss. Even if I went and spent a fortune on more equipment for my "home gym" it would save me already 9 months from now.

6.2 around Mine Hill

Oct. 2nd

AM- lunges, deads, squats, some pullups, calves. Upped the weight on everything- more than usual. Prob did it too hard this week as I was running late and pushing to get all the exercises in. Taking off lifting lower body next week to be overly fresh for the Oil Creek 100.

PM- off. No running today to kick off the taper, lifting was enough.

Oct. 3rd

Upper body stuff at gym, mainly shoulder presses dips and pushup variations. Abs and core using this stability ball pull towards your stomach with hands on the ground exercise I saw online. Felt it good in the lower abs.

10 miles easy around the area. Got some decent hills in but no intensely.

Oct 4th

11 miles Tourne trails doing my usual route plus some added hill repeats I haven't done before. My pace was overall slower than the last couple weeks, partly b/c of the hills but I think I am in need of a good recovery. The next week luckily is the 100 so just a few jogs will do to freshen back up and have some speed again.

5 miles with Highland hashers. Firs trun with this group, a few speedsters mostly guys training for marathons and ran with Andrew who is very good- it was a push and got me a good 16 for the day.

2X52 BW squats. Core, Abs.

Oct 5th

Abs-core, 5 miles TM EZ

Oct 6th

14 mi Highlands Trail mostly. Last longish run before 100. Went to the highland trail from yellow and pumped out some serious hill work, felt like I was working hard but only got 14:30 pace for the whole 14 ~3650ft g/l. I definitely need some rest. Many sections were almost unrunnable rocky on the first .75 miles from the start on the yellow trail.

Oct 7th

4 miles in Allentown.

Total (running) mileage: 60 miles. Glad I decided on this semi-taper week to allow rest to give me fitness instead of chasing another 100 mile week. I look forward to having a very well rested race next Saturday- I've tended to over do the few weeks before so this will be inviting. Probably will gain a few pounds because I'm not that good at calorie restriction but will keep it to mainly fruit and V8.

TOTAL RUNNING MILEAGE: 60 MI

Run log 9/24-9/30

Sep 24th

7  mi EZ around gym. Felt fast after a hard weekend's runs. Ate like crap on Sunday night, just was jonesen' for some ice cream all day long and had to scratch the itch. It certainly manifested itself after work as it dissapated into the atmosphere as entropy and other forms.

Upper body medley

Sep 25th

AM- lunges, deads, squats, some pullups, calves. Upped the weight on everything. Have to do this every week a little bit as my lifting has platued for a while now.

PM- Picatinny 12 miler hill interval course.. nailed this one I've been doing for years and possibly my PR for it, even with now running almost all grass the entire time and combining short hill sections on the way down. Basically always start flat for a mile, a steep hard grade, slight grade section, flat for a mile, a longer hill mile, back down and part of it back up, a 1.75 less steep but longer hill, a wraparound section, followed by down the large hill but springing back up at .25 mile intervals 8x. All this is done at my tempo effort striving for 8/10 the whole time. 7:34 pace for 1,129 ft gain total.

Sep 26^th 

Speedwork sandwich. 4 hill sprints as last week, performed generally the same but on tireder legs from a hard hard effort yesterday, added a flat sprint for the 5th interval. 

3 mi WU

Four 1/4 mile sprints up a @8-10% grade, recovery down.

Splits up: 7:48, 7:25, 7:30, 7:35 min/mi

Flat interval. Forgot the time probably around 80-85 sec.

2 mile CD

Hindu's & dips and shoulder presses. Need to add weight to dips to build up strength. Not for running but I really am going to look at improving upper body functional strength without making it too time consuming, running volume and intensity always takes front stage.

Sep 27^th

10 miles around Tourne near Denville, modearet pace to save legs for Saturday's 50k. Pushed on the hill sections, did mostly trail but added 4-5 miles of Mountain Lakes nieghborhood hills which ends up being my winter route when it gets too dark to do tempos on the technical trails.

2X50 BW squats. Core, Abs.

Sep 28th

OFF! Nadas working out. Felt antsy all day it was the first sedentary day in over a month. Had sushi with friends in West Orange. Damn that was good stuff, gotta find the name- Kim's Sushi. Tiny joint. Awesome.

Sep 29^nd

Mountain Madness 50k in 5:04. They did it in reverse this year supposedly it was harder. Blew way past my goal pace of 10/mile. Ran the whole thing, and the mistake was getting complacent in the end thinking I had 3rd place and $75 bucks in the bag. All of a sudden 1.5 miles from the end 4th place sprinted past me! Turns out he knew he was 6 min behind and ran his ass off to catch and overcome me. What an effort to blast out that far from the finish, kudos!

Sep 30th 15.4 mi at my folks place near Allentown, PA to help them move stuff. Love doing this mostly flat with some long climbs route that starts from my parents, goes into and through the Little Lehigh Parkway, some neighborhoods, and back. Makes a relatively moderate 20 miler no prob. Got some cold hail passing over which felt fantastico,

2x50 BW squats. Pullups, leg raises abs and such.

Total (running) mileage: 84 miles. Light for the week but this was my planned lighter week in liue of 90-100/week lately which back to back is a sudden ramp-up from the Leadville DNF. Haven't missed a long run since then and I am not crashing so keeping it going. Hope to pull off another 100+ this coming week even though I signed up last minute for Oill Creek 100 on the 13th. It will only confirm for me that I might not benefit from long tapers after all, I am suspecting since my past 2 week's races went great with high volume the past month.

September mileage: 420 miles