SOB50k Wk 14

So last week was the week to bridge from unsigned up for Sean O’Brien to the signed up for Bandit and so I added in an extra week. This is how it shook out.

Monday 8 miles. First run since Calico50k, felt hard/easy, happy with result. 16th day in a row, Tuesday is a rest day

Tuesday Off!

Wednesday 4 miles. Felt harder than it should, early start, long day and late dinner catch up with me!

Thursday 8 miles. Nice little trail run in my new Saucony Peregrine 5s, left too late without a head torch and ran home in the dark!

Thursday. 7 miles. Another trail run. Found a little back trail that has an insane climb! 40% grade!

Friday. Off

Saturday 21 miles. Met up with some folks and ran nearly 11 miles with them and then ran another 10 by myself. This was very unplanned, as in I poorly planned it and instead of a pack and food etc. I basically ran 20 miles on a glass of water and a single serving of peanut butter! In all honesty I felt fine at the end albeit a bit hungry, not something that I would recommend but it was a low effort endurance Z2/3 kinda run. If you’re in Westlake Village, check out Joi Café, amazing vegan food run/co-owned by a buddy of mine! You won’t be disappointed!

Sunday. Easy ride and a 20 minute run to roll the running mileage up to 50 for the week.

Totals;

• Run; 6 runs, 50.10 miles in 7:42
• Bike; 1 bike 16:85 miles in 1:00

This week is a Taper and then per my last post I am on a 7 week build to Leona Divide 50m!

SOB50k Wk 12

This week was always going to be a bit odd. A pseudo taper combined with a race weekend and the Tour of Sufferlandria starting on the Friday! All these added up meant that there was going to be a 15 day block with no rest day! Here’s how it shook out;

Monday. 10 miles. It was a holiday so I didn’;t have to go out at the crack of dawn or the early evening so I went slap bang in the middle of the day. It took a good 5 miles to warm up but I actually felt pretty good at the end of it.

Tuesday. I haven’t been on my bike for months, probably 5 times since Vineman 70.3 last summer! So I thought I should do an FTP test. The result 216, down 14 points from last year…I’ll take it!

Wednesday. 7 miles. Progressive speed work, all things considered this went ok. There is life in the old dog yet!

Thursday. 5 miles. Nice and easy…aka sluggish!

Friday. Day 1 Tour of Sufferlandria Elements of Style and The Long Scream. 40 minutes working on your form followed by 40 minutes of time trialing! My ass thinks my brain has gone numb!

Saturday. Day 2 Tour of Sufferlandria. Blender. One hundred minutes of a bit of everything, climbing, time trialing, sustained effort. That was hard! Feet up for the rest of the day before tomorrow's race.

Sunday. Calico 50k. You can read the race report here.

So for the week; 4 runs 9:12 and 52.76 miles and 3 bikes 4:13 and 68.17 miles!

No news on the waitlist for SOB so I may be running the Bandit 50k instead!?!

2015 Plans…redux (probably not for the first time either)!

Had you asked me 18 days ago what my plans were for the first 8 months of the year were and I would have said this;

• Calico Ghost Town 50k
• Tour of Sufferlandria
• Sean O’Brien 50k
• Leona Divide 50m
• Grand Canyon R2R2R
• TransRockiesRun Run 6

Then this happened;

Then this happened;

So now it’s kinda like this...sorta...ish!

• Calico Ghost Town 50k – Registered
• Tour of Sufferlandria – Registered
• Sean O’Brien 50k…well maybe, we’re waitlisted
• Bandit 50k – depends on the above!
• Leona Divide 50m - Registered
• Grand Canyon R2R2R – not enough time for Becca to recover before IM Boulder, no worries, it’s been there a few years and I am sure it will be there for a few more!
• TransRockiesRun Run 6 – looked at the finances on this one and it costed out at $7,000+, and the house needs painting and the closets need remodeling, and I need (don’t want, but need) a new car…being an adult sucks!

Remaining possibilities;

• Cuyamaca 100k Registration opens June 15th…yeah I set a reminder for that!
• Waldo 100k It’s a lottery which announces the run list on March 1st
• Backbone Trail 70 miler (self supported) There’s something to be said for being in control of you own destiny! I have run the entire thing but in sections; here, here and here.

The elevations South to North (approx 15,000’ of gain)

And…we’ll see!

It’s all good!

SOB50K Week 11

Another build week! I was finally feeling like I was getting back into the groove at work which meant things at home are easier. Along with 100+ mile daily commute 3-4 days a week our combined family has four kids that need lunches and school runs etc. Having had nearly 2 weeks off over Christmas meant that I was a little rusty!

Monday. 10 Miles. Becca’s plan has longer back-to-back runs. This was hard, it sucked for the first 5 miles. The next 5 miles I was pissed so I just ran it off to get home and eat!

Tuesday. Off. Doing my happy dance!

Wednesday. 4 Miles. Treadmill, nothing fancy just a recovery run.

Thursday. 10 miles. Went out, warmed up and then picked up the pace and didn’t look back. 7:44 pace for the run which isn’t “blazing” fast compared to say my Half Marathon PR which is a minute a mile faster but hey I will take it!

Friday. 8 miles on the Treadmill. 3% incline at 8:57 with last mile at 1% at 9:15

Saturday. Off. Like. A. Boss!

Sunday. 22 Miles. My race plans have taken a hit…more on that to follow. So we tried something very new as the weather forecast was for it to be somewhat hot. We drove through to Topanga State Park which is closer to the Ocean and should be cooler with the plan to run two loops around the XTerra 15K course and then add on some more

Long story short, we got ourselves onto the Backbone Trail and ended up at the southern end of it at Will Rogers State Park. All that said it was a section of the trail that Becca had never seen and I section I had only run once back in 2009. It also sowed the seed for something for later in the year.

We had the pleasure of bumping it a friend of our Louis who was out with his pals tearing up the trails. I decided to do my best Beaker impression!

As per last week we were using real food although we ran a little short as some was left in the car with a view to picking it up for the second loop. That all said it was a good day out and while there was a fair bit of uphill walking I felt pretty good the entire run!

The new plan seems to mean bigger mileage so this week I ended up just under 55 miles and I am already over 130 miles for the month!

This coming weekend we have the Calico 50k AND the Tour of Sufferlandria starts, it’s going to be a couple of tough weeks!

Third party face-palm!

I’ve been so focused on Leona Divide 50m that this happened!

Back up plan, Bandit 50k the weekend after!

Ugh!

SOB50K Week 10

Another build week, although Monday got the best of me and I had to push my back-to-back long run to Tuesday. With Becca and I training for the same races I have decided to switch to her plan, I will post about that separately. So here’s the details:

Monday. Off. Work, life, <insert excuses>!

Tuesday. 11 miles. Treadmill. Treadmill at 2%. Not feeling this at all and a day late. Going back to work hit hard, not so much hit the ground running...more like just hit the ground! My Garmin and the Footpod always runs longer than the Treadmill so the miles are accurate to the ‘mill.

Wednesday. 4 Miles. Treadmill, nothing fancy just a recovery run

Thursday. 8 miles. Quick temp run around a local loop. Nice to add a bit of pep into my step!

Friday. 7 miles on my local trail out and back. Another hard run, nonstop there and back. Nice and solid Z2/3 at 2% grade

Saturday. Like a Boss!

Sunday. 22 Miles. Plan was to park a car at each end of an out and back and then run it three times. Ended up adding extra miles on one section then hopped a fence got kinda lost. Ran past someone people making a video/movie! It rained, it was sunny it was just one of those crazy ass days! Big departure on this run was the introduction of more real food. We had brioche with PB&J, boiled, salted potatoes and single servings of Peanut Butter Company PB&Chocolate.

They worked really well and we will try that again next weekend. Only downside for this run was coming up just under 2 miles short with just over 20 miles for the day, that said it was another 4 hours moving and nearly 6 on my feet!

This one pretty much killed my Peregrine 4s off, so I will break out a new pair for next weekend.

SOB50K Week 9

A bit of a step back this week, but that really on means that Sunday’s long run is shorter and Monday’s run is longer! No rest for the wicked. Here’s the details:

Monday. 5 Miles. Nice and easy on the treadmill.

Tuesday. Off. Mission Accomplished!

Wednesday. 7 Miles, on the Treadmill and the last run of 2014

Thursday. 10k first run of 2015 and went and fast and just about held on

Friday. Off. Nice and solid Z2/3 at 2% grade

Saturday. Like a Boss!

Sunday. 14 Miles. Ran a loop that I have run only once before, a hilly-ish route that cuts around and about my neighborhood. I finished. within 50 seconds of the last time I ran it! Not 50 seconds a mile but 50 seconds in total! That’s cray…cray!

So for the week. 5 runs, just over 6 hours and 41 miles banked.

SOB50K Week 2 (Step Back)

Race week, not mine by Becca’s Ironman Arizona! I was off from Wednesday onwards with a view to getting us squared away so we could get out of town Thursday night.

I shuffled things around to to fit in ‘cos that’s what you do.

Monday; 5 miles. Nice and easy, a bit slugish. Very bloated from bad coffee.

Tuesday; 8 miles. easy warm up and cool down and a quick 6 in the middle

Wednesday; 7 miles. Got my ass handed to me on the local trail!

Thursday; off. Drove out to Palm Desert, nearly halfway to Tempe

Friday; 5 miles, easy 5 mile on the Treadmill

Saturday; 14 miles, nice and steady. I have been focused on my split’s, on being consistent and maintaining a steady sustainable pace and that’s bearing fruit on these medium runs. I am taking great pleasure in reciting them to Becca on my return from each run!

Sunday; lots and lots of walking and running around! How much you ask…

Remember on Saturday I ran 14 miles!

So 5.46 and 39.24 miles for the week. It was a rest week!

I’ll have a write up on IMAZ next!