Journey to an Ultra: Week 9: Full speed ahead

2/13/12: 10 miles
       Decided to run on the treadmill, wanted to be close to a bathroom as my stomach was a little upset. Ended up having a pretty good run finished the 10 miles in 1:24 nothing blazing but a good tempo and I felt great afterwards.

2/14/12: 8 miles
        I originally had planed to be out the door and running by 4:30 am but my 2 year old son Ty decided to wake up just as I was about to leave. He is such a daddy's boy and was not a happy camper when he saw me heading for the door. In consideration of my pregnant wife since Ty would have really thrown a fit if I left, and the only way for Katie to calm him down is to act like a little puppy to which Ty pats her on the head and curl up next to his "doggy". But that doesn't always work so I decided to take Ty back to bead and sleep with him till the other kids woke up. I did end up running in the afternoon while Ty was down for his nap. I ran from my house to Syringa, did a 5 mile loop on Syringa and ran back home. It was a gorgeous sunny day and was kind of glad I didn't run in the morning darkness because I would have missed the sunshine.

2/15/12: 7 miles
        Great learning experience today. First off I got off work at 2:30am and didn't get to bed till after 3am. Katie tried to let me sleep in but the kids had other plans. What sleep I did get was very unrestful since the kids thought daddy made a great trampling. All I had to eat was a piece of toast ( and very little the night before) when Vern and I met up to run Mickinnick at 11am. I was tired before we even started and about a mile up the trail I felt horrible. I wasn't in any pain just no energy at all, I felt like a snail and kept telling Vern that if he wanted to pass me and go up ahead, that was fine by me. He insisted that my pace was fine and that my horrible day would beat most peoples good day. Up to the 2 mile mark I still had no energy in my legs and I just felt depleted. I tried to get some energy going by eating a gel 25 minutes into the run but it didn't seem to work. From mile 2 to the top I was so tired that I could of curled up on the side of the trail and taken a nap, and if it wasn't for the snow I may have done just that. I did manage to sprint the last 50 yards to the top which felt like a great victory in its own right given how I was feeling. I was very surprised to see our time to the top, right at the one hour mark which was our fastest time to the top all winter, beating our previous best time by 5 minutes. So the lesson learned is that even at your lowest point it is amazing what you can accomplish when you just keep putting one foot in front of the other. I learned how to manage a "low" time which will be help for when I experience those low points during my 50 miler. During the decent I still didn't have the usual bounce in my step but found that I was able to let my legs do their thing as I "fell" down the hill. Vern was much faster on his decent than normal and we hit the bottom in 32 min and 40 sec which was a PR for Vern for any time of the year. He thought the snow helped him run downhill faster because he didn't have to worry so much about his foot placements or falling. Over all despite having a hard time keeping my energy levels up it was a great run and the fastest ascent and decent for either Vern or I on Mickinick this winter.

12/17/12: 20 miles
Left the house at 5:40 am it had snowed an inch or so in town the previous night, so I ran the first 3 miles to the Mickinnick trail on snow covered roads. When I hit the trail head I attached the Microspikes and headed up the trail. I really tried to pace myself on the accent because I planned on running to the top and back twice as part of my run for the day. I felt pretty good all the way up and the slower pace allowed my to take in gorgeous views of the lake as I climbed higher and higher. The pictures below don't come close to capturing all the vibrant colors of orange, pink and silver of the lake and clouds that morning (hey its a 6 year old point and shot digital camera so it didn't do a horrible job either), it was truly an amazing site for the eyes to behold. The combination of stunning views and listening to the "Last of the Mohicans" sound track really made me forget about the effort it took to run up the trail as I was lost in the splendor of the mountain, lake and inspiring music. I felt the fresh snow slowed me down a little but I reached the top in a respectable 1:09. On the decent I put it in cruise control and made it down in 42 min. Towards the bottom of the trail I passed a man hiking up the trail with his dog as I passed him he asked if I made it to the top which I answered yes, then commented that it "looks like your got a good work out" where I replied yep and told him to have a great day. At the trail head I changed my socks before I attempted my second ascent. One the way back up I passed the man with the dog again where I simple said "round two", He looked shocked to hear and see that I was running to the top and back twice in a row. All he could manage to say was "Holy Sh@!, your tough" through his look of disbelief. His reaction and comment really built my confidence and probably padded my ego a little too. The seconed ascent went better than the first. I did less power hiking and more running on the steep sections than my first ascent and I felt pretty comfortable the whole time but I didn't really push the pace either. I made it to the top in 1:07, two minutes fast than my first ascent which made me pretty happy. Coming down I did start to feel some burning in the quads but nothing to bad just noticeable. Made it back down the mountain is 40 minutes again beating my first attempt. From there I took off the spikes and ran the 3 mile back to the house. The legs felt better after this run than last weeks long run despite doing twice the amount of vertical, which is great sign on how my conditioning and recovery is improving.

2/18/12: 10 miles
Split today into two running sessions one 5 mile effort on the treadmill before work (5:30am) and one after work (11:00pm). The am session I had some stomach issues and ended up running most of the five miles at a 4% incline at 5 mile and hour for some reason that particular incline and speed gave me the least amount a stomach pain. During the pm session I didn't have and stomach problems and finished in about 40 minutes.

Total Miles: 55

Great week, first full week of training since my ankle injury and I am right on track of where I need to be, according to the training program that I am using. This was also the most running I have ever done in a week, so I am stoked on how well I feel. My legs seem to be in great shape and my endurance is coming right along. Hope this is a good sign of things to come.