How I coped with a 36 week Training Plan!

I have said many times that I get bored with training plans after 10-12 weeks. I tend to lose focus and get bored, the taper ends up being me simply stopping until race day. It’s self-sabotaging on the whole and obviously doesn’t lend itself to getting the best results. Not all training cycles have ended that way but is a noticeable theme

Therefore I was very surprised that I managed to go the entire 36 weeks that I outlined last August without having a mental breakdown. Admittedly the last 4 weeks were a bit fudged with the addition of an extra race and some challenges at work but overall the fundamentals were there.

So with that said here are some thoughts on how I broke it down mentally and physically.

The entire Training Cycle weeks was peppered with races. I broke it up into a very specific training cycles for the three key races

Santa Clarita Marathon, 13 weeks. (8/3 – 11/2)

Most of the time was on the road or treadmill as it was a road-race. This time was primarily building my running base transitioning from the bike and triathlon mode that I had been in for the first 7 months of the year. Race day was a solid race and while not a PR I had a goal of 3:43 and finished in 3:42.

• Road 40 runs 335.75 miles
• Treadmill 19 runs 113.94 miles
• Trail 9 runs 95.88 miles
• Elevation Gain 43,194’
• Total 545.57 miles

Sean O’Brien 50K, (which become the Bandit 50k) 15 weeks. (11/3 – 2/15)

After Santa Clarita I raced the Paramount Ranch 30k Trail Race for fun, I actually came 5th. I missed the registration for SOB which turned out a wet and windy day, which would have been perfect really. Instead I registered for the Bandit 50k a week later which was at the other end of the spectrum with unseasonably high temperatures. This was my second 50k this year, the Calico 50K was cool and by comparison flat with Bandit throwing down the challenge of 6200’ of gain. High temps and big hills beat me down. Training was still primarily on the road and treadmill but I was transitioning to the trails and adding elevation.

• Road 20 runs 187.03 miles
• Treadmill 28 runs 172.57 miles
• Trail 17 runs 258.64 miles
• Elevation Gain 58,645’
• Total 618.24 miles

Leona Divide 50m 9 weeks (2/16 – 4/18)

Full on trail mode, at least as much as possible with the inclusion of the Ahmanson 12k, lots of recon on the Santa Barbara Nine Trails course and then the race itself. Miles were down but it was a shorter span of time. Elevation and distance were the focus. 3 less trail runs and only 5 miles less overall distance. I accumulated nearly as much vertical gain as I had for the SOB cycle with 6 weeks less time! At the end of the day it didn’t come together as planned but no doubt had I done anything less it would have hurt a lot more!

• Road 8 runs 69.73 miles
• Treadmill 13 runs 75.49 miles
• Trail 14 runs 253.76 miles
• Elevation Gain 54,245’
• Total 398.79 miles

Grand Totals;

• 1562.79 miles
• 156,084’ of elevation gain

I’m not a coach nor do I play one on TV, hell I don’t even have one! But I have been around the block a few times so hopefully breaking things down like this is helpful to someone. Here are five key takeaways;

• Have an end goal, but pepper it along the way with milestones, this way you get a sense of achievement and an understanding of your development.
• Focus on the day and the week. The month is too big!
• Train the terrain, get out on the course if you can. This worked really well for me at Nine Trails. I had run the other races or routes before, the only time I hadn’t was Leona Divide and that came back to haunt me.
• Training for a hilly race…run hills! Kinda obvious but often overlooked!
• Find a plan and stick with it. Don’t get 2 weeks in and decide it’s too hard. Understand the ability you have to commit (factor in school, work, kids, your partner) and then commit!

There are a few others lesser ones but I am sure you see the picture here.

Wordless Wednesday…

A Runner's High by Ben Redmond from Mishmash on Vimeo.

Best laid plans…

Ah how wrong I was check out this post from exactly a year ago.  Nine races planned and of that list I ran in...drumroll.....one!
That being said I did run three others that were not on the list! And all things being equal I will run another three that were not there either. So I guess that's a good example of planning #fail101! But the reality is that things change, priorities shift, life moves on and sometimes gets in the way, but without a plan you really will get nowhere fast rather than nowhere slowly.

And so like most people this time of the year my thoughts are turning to what next year holds in terms of a race schedule and right now with the exception of returning to the 13.1 LA race in January I have a big fat blank sheet of paper...and you know what that's just fine.

One thing for sure is that there will be more family events and while you may never see a photo of the fam' here (house rules) you may well see them at the finish and the start line in real life...I am forecasting a lot of kids fun runs, especially as my eldest who just turned 6 picked up his first pair of trail running shoes an is itching to get a pair of Newtons...although I think it's the color that appeals. Talking of Newtons, you remember I got a pair oh err in February! Well I am digging them out, once the November madness has passed!

I can say that I expect the bike to get a good showing especially as I still need to pop that century cherry and with the wet suit I won last month winging its way to me...well who knows?!!?

Oh and this post matches the same number I wrote all of last year and takes me through to number 601 in total! Jeez I have a lot to say!

What’s your mental age?

We’ve all said or heard it before; age is a number, you’re as young as you feel or even age is something that doesn't matter, unless you are a cheese or a bottle of wine, in summary it’s mostly in the mind! Being of, shall we say middling-ish years, I find my body rebelling against my brain, in my brain I am 26. Thinking back to when that was I was single, employed, reasonably well paid and enjoying myself. DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince were at #1 in the charts in the UK, if you paid any attention to that sort thing! I was heading to the Mediterranean on vacation for a week of Saturday nights and either riding my mountain bike like a banshee or charging round the countryside dressed as a bush at the weekends! Reasonably fit and healthy I was able to be active all day and most of the night with little or no side effects (the occasional handover not withstanding). I was in no way running or racing or focused on such things as I am now; it wasn’t a good thing or a bad thing it was just a different thing!

In my mind today I occupy this slim(mer than I am now and about where I want to be), less wrinkled, with less visible pate, generally less beaten up and with an ability to bounce back pretty much the next day body. So now I have to stretch more, foam roll more, stick more, I get through tubes of embrocation and have a drawer full of compression clothing and crepe bandages and a freezer with a 24hour Ice Pack on standby; the accoutrements of age, science and progress. I rarely drink; through habit and choice, seldom party and peruse holiday destinations with kids clubs and quiet beaches over ones the offer 24 hour nightlife and party buses!

The inevitability of life moves on all around but in my mind I occupy the space of a 26 year old and that’s how I am gonna try and run ‘cos life’s too short to do otherwise, right!

I am no marketer…but I know what I like!

It’s that time of year, January’s editions of Runners World or Trail Runner have hit your door mat or maybe Triathlete or UltraRunner or any combination of them, you’ve read the shoes reviews, the interview with the celebrity runner, the 101 training tips that you’ve never tried before (but you vaguely remember seeing around this time last year) and made a mental note to try the healthy post run meal. Now you’re at the end of the magazine, you find yourself flicking through the last half a dozen pages and looking at the ads for races; some catch your eye and some don’t.

Now as the post title alludes to I am no marketer but I am a complete sucker for marketing, make it appear difficult, unique, a bit hair-brained or just plain hazardous and I am often found merrily figuring out how I could get there and even punching my credit card number into my keyboard. Here are a few that appeal, excuse my cropping:

Artful, eye catching and simple, a bit dangerous and strangely both Canadian!

At the opposite end of the spectrum you have some that are over worded, poorly photographed home crafted versions, I have actually run the Calico race, (report, photos etc here ) it’s a beautiful high desert race that  really could have such a better advertisement!

It actually gets worse with Marathons:

Now I am not saying I could do any better but if a picture is worth 1000 words, please use the picture in fact use two or three!  Although I suppose if all else fails we all know sexy sells right!

Ultralist Gold!

Borrowed from a buddy on Facebook who took it from the Ultralist. The Ultralist describes itself as follows:

"ULTRA is a list dedicated to the sport of ultrarunning. By “ultrarunning” we mean running of a distance longer than a marathon in distance or time as well as shorter specialty races such as Escarpment, Pikes Peak ascent and Mt. Washington. The list will concentrate on matters related to ultrarunning. However, we recognize that the members of the ultrarunning community cover a wide spectrum. Some are interested solely in training and racing information, techniques and experiences. Others enjoy the more ‘peripheral’ areas of the sport, from ultra prose or poetry to descriptions of interesting people or scenery seen during a run or race. All those people, and all those ultra topics and many others, are welcome here. The list will NOT be moderated, however flaming, SPAM and advertising (other than race announcements) are not allowed".

For an audio interview with the creator of the Ultralist go here, to subscribe to it go here. Be warned your inbox will fill up fast so make sure you select the right settings! And so onto the post...it kinda ties into my last one!

Joe Judd of Colorado, writes,

You are more than ready. I think that 50 miles in 12 hours is very attainable, especially if it is a flat course.

1) Focus on keeping moving for the whole 12 hours.
2) A run/walk startegy works well for most people. Something like run for 5 minutes, then walk for one minute. I just run at a comfortable pace for as long as I can, then walk when I feel I need to have a break. Getting exhausted is hard to come back from.
3) Don't stop for too long. Keep aid stops to a maximum of around 5 minutes, maybe 10minutes around dinner time. Remember, if you stop for 5 minutes every hour, you've lost a total of an hour of the race.
4) Most of what you need to overcome is in your head. It's not terribly hard to run a pace of 14:30 per mile. Doing it for 12 hours is another issue.
5) Stay in the moment. It is not a good idea to think of how much longer you have to run. Focus on how you're doing at THAT moment. The hours and miles will take care of themselves. Relentless forward motion!
6) It will get bad. But, then it will get better. It's never a consistent downhill spiral. No matter how bad you feel, you WILL bounce back.

Gold indeed!

The thin end of the wedge...

The last couple of Saturday’s and the next few I am attending a weekend class, it’s a personal/professional development thing and has no bearing on running etc. Every weekend we have a different instructor and so every weekend we have to go through the what’s you name and where’re you from routine, this weekend we were asked to tell something about ourselves that nobody in the room would know and so this weekend I mentioned that I liked to run…a bit, when pressed I mentioned ultra running. I’ve leaned that most people can’t actually comprehend it; see this post for a typical conversation. During a break a few people came up to talk about it a bit more and that was the catalyst for this post. While I am no expert here are my top things to consider if you want to go long…

Base; like any house you need a foundation; the deeper it is the stronger it is, and the higher you can build. Like my profile says I have always been a runner; track and field at school, a stint in the military; running and tabbing, general fitness and more recently actually racing, this is on top a pretty good base of mountain biking which I did a bit of as well. In the last three years I’ve covered about 4500 miles, not excessive by any standards but a lot of those miles are on trails which brings me onto my next point.

Train Terrain; in other words train where you’ll be racing. It’s no good training on the beach path if you’re running through the hills. Be as specific as you can, and at least try and train on trails, this will help (a) build up all those little stabilizer muscles that get neglected on the streets and (b) will give you a better understanding of what is achievable on the trails in terms of how quickly you can cover distances.

Walk the Walk; chances are that for part of race day you’ll be walking some of the course. The purpose of walking is to simply not burn you out, that being said there is more to walking than simply shuffling up the side of a hill. Practice power walking uphill and make walking part of your training.

Gravity Bites; on the flipside of walking is running downhill, strange as this may seem you need to practice this as well. While running is a propellant activity; that is you use your hamstrings to push you forward, running downhill places a lot of emphasis on your quads so spending some time running, in fact the best way to describe it is to actually call it a controlled falling, down a hill will really help out on those long descents.

GIGO/NINO; good input good output, no input…well you can figure out the rest. Much like any endurance activity you need to dial in your nutrition and hydration. The only difference here is the duration. You may have read in my race reports about me eating PN&J, chips, boiled potatos and the like, there comes a point when gels just lose their appeal so be prepared to try real food, obviously don’t try it on race day for the first time, practice on your long runs.

The Ultra Brick; much like a triathlete will have their swim/bike or bike/run bricks, ultra runners have their back-to-back runs. Usually a Saturday/Sunday affair the idea is to run again on tired legs to simulate the longer distances. These are made all the better if you can do both days on the trail.

Time Not Miles; time on your feet is crucial, getting your body used to being upright and moving for 6, 12, 24 hours is something you have to teach it and practice.

MPH not MPM; you can pretty much forget about keeping a steady pace, there will be an average but it’s a figure that represents nothing. Thinking miles per hour allows you to be concerned in covering the distance and in bigger chunks and means you don’t have to focus on every step. Got a Garmin, change one field to MPH and you’re set.

Remember to smile; you choose to get up and drive to the trailhead so enjoy the experience, yeah it’s probably goin to hurt and yeah halfway up (or down) that friggin’ big hill you probably wondering or even vocalizing WTF am I doing here, but I have never seen bigger grins than those from runners who just finished their first or longest ultra.

There are probably a few more but they mostly focus on kit; shoes, backpack, handhelds etc but these are all personal choices. And remember I am no expert. Above all running trails is a different animal from the roads, you become more at one with not only the world but with yourself and you’ll see sights and experience things that only a few ever will.

Remember they say it’s one tenth of one percent of the world’s population that have run a marathon, going longer than that only decreases that ratio…so allow me to welcome you to the thin end of the wedge; it’s a good place to be!

Accountable!

So the last four words of my last post hit me like a ton of bricks; ‘three weeks to go’, three weeks till I stand upon the start line of my first 100 mile race. Of course now the self doubt starts to creep in, have I done enough? Can you ever do enough? I have no self delusions about my running capabilities, at best I am a mid packer, by body definition I am naturally built for speed, I am fast twitch, I should be running 5ks 10ks and half marathons not 50ks, 50 mile and 100 mile races! This is not posturing this was proven to me during a Vo2max test I did two years ago. Never one to conform running fast seemed like too much work so running further was the next choice, hmm a hard 40 minute 10k (unofficially I have run a 10k in 39 minutes) and I pulled a 1:37 half marathon without trying vs. 6, 12 or 24 hours on the trail…well you pays your money you takes your choice! But I digress.

I need to get my game face on or more pertinently my game legs on, I need to taper effectively and efficiently, this means not just stopping which is kinda what’s happened over the last two weeks, dodgy-ish knee, new job, big commute all are excuses and so from today I am starting an 18 day taper plan that will get me to start line as ready as I can be, I’ll detail it in the next post. The beauty of a blog is that it is like photocopying your diary and posting it on the local bus stop, you put things out there and then you have to deliver on them. And so with that in mind now is the time to be accountable to myself, my goals, my family and to you, so if you see me diverting call me out will you!

Angeles Crest 100 canceled!

I am getting a distinct sense of deja vu! Twice this year my 'A' race for the year has been cancelled! First Twin Peaks 100k in January and now AC100. I am, to be perfectly honest full of mixed emotions; disappointment; obviously, frustration at potentially three months training and basically a summer away from my family; even my eldest has asked will I stop running after my race? Thankful; for the firefighters, literally risking their lives; two died yesterday, and to be honest a little relieved; how hot and punishing a race was it going to be really, a point only reinforced after blowing up on yesterday’s run in where the temperature was 110f and while I still had water I found myself dry heaving for the last 5 miles…isn’t this supposed to be fun?

Right now what’s next is unsure, some internet research some talking at home, some figuring stuff out, at the outset this was not meant to be my 100 mile debut year maybe that’s how it will finish?

The Station Fire stated Thursday, in four days it has consumed over 105,000 acres of Angeles National Forest, an acre is roughly the size of a soccer pitch or 168 square miles. It has a fire-line that is estimated to be somewhere around 20 miles long, much of it in inaccessible canyons which have not burnt for over four decades and are full of dry fuel. 3600 firefighters are on the line, over 20 aircraft are water dropping during daylight hours, 84 homes have been burnt and as I write this 5 people are trapped; they refused to heed the mandatory evacuation order Friday. Mt Wilson is under siege from three sides, it contains multiple TV and radio antenna for nearly all the stations that cover Los Angeles as well as for the CIA, FBI and Secret Service, additionally it is the site of the Mt Wilson Observatory. The smoke and water vapor is creating a mushroom cloud that is over 30,000’ high, it is so large it is generating its own weather pattern. The fire is currently 5% contained, best estimates are that it will take another week, it could reach 500,000 acres by then.

Fire is part of nature’s regeneration but like the smallest of flame it can cause a lot of pain.

Profundity!

I read this this morning and it struck a real cord, so much so that I wanted to share it with you...enjoy.

Racing is a process, the outcome of which simply measures how successful you have been moment by moment throughout the event as well as your training and preparation. Success in the now is a factor of the joy you experience in the execution of the plan, the quality demonstrated in your technique and skill level. When you acknowledge that winning is beyond your control, you can begin to fully experience the emotional rush of competition; well trained athletes seeking greatness together. Seeing the race as a journey, you feel the freedom to run in the flow, a state of relaxed intensity. Focus on the things you can control.

Form Focus:
To stay in the moment, focus on cadence, form, pace and stride. Remember there is no victory other than the joy you experience when “dancing” in the terrain. The real treasure is now. You have trained for many hours, so your body knows what to do. You just need to let your mind be in harmony with your knowledgeable body and not stand in its way by being hypercritical and obsessed with winning. A fixed rigid mind creates a fixed rigid body. When you trust your body and resist the obsession with outcomes, you create a free flowing mind and free flowing body in a mutually satisfying partnership f body mind and spirit. When a well-trained racehorse enters the starting gate it does not look around and analyze the competition. It simply waits just for the gate to open, and at the bell it lets its body do its thing – run the race. The stallion loves the process and never once thinks about the finish. Like the racehorse, show up and turn your mind over to your body and you'll enjoy the process.

Clear Confidence:
Hold on to the notion of real confidence. Many runners say that they have lost confidence in winning; how can you have confidence in doing something that you can’t control such as winning? Once you realize the futility of striving for the impossible, you can discover the confidence you can experience, not in an outcome, but in the decisions you make during the race or run. Know that you may or may not win, but you can have the confidence in running like a winner – which paradoxically, gives you more control over the outcome. Have confidence in your ability to run and race as you do in training in the absence of performance anxiety, where there is nothing at stake.

Get the Job Done:
Just do it; race without care. As a competitive group, runners are too concerned about doing it right. We need to enter one race and not give a damn; when we do, we will be better able to relax and run. Sometimes it’s more fun to show up and say “to hell with it”, “it” being the outcome. Having acknowledged that, proceed to to race with effortless effort, an attitude of asserting your level of fitness (showing what you’ve got) without the conscious attempt to do well.

Visualize Your Race:
It’s important to know in your mental race preparation it’s healthy to visualize wining (against the clock, the competition or for a certain place in the finish), but not to the exclusion of seeing the process unfold as it should. However, when you actually show up at the event, do so to simply run your best for that day. Remember that wanting to win and needing to win are very different attitudes to wards racing. The former is healthy; the latter destructive.

Small pleasures...

Onwards from AKQA on Vimeo.

Borrowed from DC Rainmaker who got it from Al!

The often asked question...

The Ups The Downs…

Yeah it’s that time again, so I’ll keep it short.

I looked back at the goals set this time last year, they and their results were:
• A sub 6:00 50km; eh nope, (but a new PR and a reduction of around 30 minutes down to 6:22)
• A sub 10 hour 50 mile; not even close (OMG what was I thinking!? 11:24 was my best effort)

On face value it doesn’t look so good but in reality it was actually a pretty good year. What you don’t see is the amount, even if you look really close, I have learned about this sport of running; like nearly everything it’s an ongoing process:

• I learned to respect the distance; I had my first DNF
• I found I could hear my body when it was talking (instead of screaming through an ibuprofen haze) to me; I managed to stay nearly injury free, (it was touch and go in the Spring for a while though)
• I trained smarter; covering less mileage than in 2007 and had better results; I picked up new PRs at the 5k, trail HM and 50k distances
• I made new friends both real and virtual and
• I ran new trails, climbed new peaks, saw new vistas and managed to get just a little closer to the horizon

So yes the main goals were not met and so they remain but so do I hopefully smarter, faster and stronger.

Happy New Year everyone, may your goals stretch you to new heights!

Recycling Dean!

I just finished reading the new Dean Karnazes book 50/50. It’s taken me a while for several reasons; it’s not exactly a page turner, I’ve seen the movie, which in my mind is better and conveys more of the atmosphere of the event, I seem to be a state ongoing exhaustion so I am gabbing zzzs within 2 minutes of my head on the pillow and, to be frank, it’s not very well written. Let me qualify that last statement, the sub title of the book is: Secrets I Learned Running 50 Marathons in 50 days- and how you too can achieve Super Endurance!, gosh that’s a big statement, even with a large spoonful of salt it’s a pretty medium sized claim, which, unfortunately, it doesn’t live up to or even close. The level of writing is too superficial. It does a good job of touching on a lot of topics; nutrition, training, racing, running clubs and many more but doesn't go into them in any depth or real detail. What the book does do is provide you with a series of doors that anyone interested in or has just started running will need to open and paths that need to be followed to find you own answers. Do I recommend it, well even after my criticism the answer is yes. It is entertaining and you do get an small insight into the Endurance 50 event, the logistics and the highs and the lows, most importantly you get a feel for the average runner who was able to get out an experience it for themselves; something that is much more reinforced in the movie see the trailer below which always puts a lump in my throat.

So should you go out and spend $20 on it the answer is no and with that in mind I will send my copy gratis to the first person who answers the riddle of my arm warmers post your answer in the Comments section. Acceptance is conditional that you write your review, as long or as short as you like and then you give it up for grabs on your blog.



..."my biggest fear was worrying whether or not I could finish it, but it was when I stopped to think about it the only way I would fail was if I didn't come out and try"...Anonymous 50/50 runner

Powerful words!

There are certain quotes sayings and mantras that populate the running world, in fact Runners’ World emails a daily quote every day if so wish and often as not you’ll see a well worn phase or quote taken from a famous runner; Steve Prefontaine, Haile Gebrselassie, Alberto Salazar and the like. Now these runners are far more eloquent than I, have a deeper rooted understanding of the sport and can, with the a semi casual comment stir a deep, motivational and primeval lust to simply lace up your shoes and go run, far and fast.

But there are other less widely known and used quotes that have an equal effect. This weeks TIaRT from Runner Lounge asks what is your favorite quote. Until I recently changed my masthead my favorite quote was listed under the name of this blog:

“There is no such thing as an omen. Destiny does not send us heralds. She is too wise or too cruel for that” Oscar Wilde

For me this quote goes way beyond the norm. In these twenty three words is the simple notion that there is no predisposition, no salute, no assumption. Not knowing what lies ahead can be a scary thing but embrace that feeling, turn it to your advantage, use it to power you along on your journey. What these words tell me is that I can do what I set out to achieve; in the context of running, for me this is ultimately a 100 mile race, but for you that could be a 5k, a half marathon, or an Ultra.

I know I will need to push myself, yes it will be hard, yes it will hurt but if I really truly want it I can make it mine. And so can you.

Seven Lessons...

This week’s Runner’s Lounge TIART is Life Lessons I have learned from running. Here’s seven; one for each day of the week:

1. Races are like vacations; always have short, medium and long term ones booked, paid for and looked forward to.

2. You have to know the lows to enjoy the highs; injuries, bad runs and crap weather are all somewhere in you future, let the downs highlight the ups: great, injury free runs on perfect days.

3. Enjoy the journey as well as the destination; you’ll cover a lot of miles as a runner so sometimes just stop and smell the roses.

4. Be flexible: metaphorically and physically; learn to be adaptable – life happens and don’t forget to stretch.

5. A change is as good as a rest; do you always go out the door and turn left, mix it up and turn right for something different.

6. You get good at what you do; be it running, playing the violin or hoping on one foot, practice makes perfect, be tenacious and stick with it.

7. Be like the horizon; you’ll be faster than some and slower than others, just keep moving.

Raindrops on roses!

These are a few of my favorite things…

My technology; Forerunner, MotionBased and Google Earth, where I came from, where I am, how fast I got there and where I am going…oh yes and what it all looks like from space!

My retail therapy; Chainlove, SteepandCheap, Woot, Zombie Runner, is it telling that I have a blog categories of "Gizmos & Gadgets" and even worse “Not More Stuff”?

My weather: cool crisp mornings, low cloud burning off, clean mountain breezes and desert vistas There’s a reason I live in Southern California. I am grateful every day.

My view: high peaks, deep valleys, rocky outcrops, dizzying switchbacks and the infamous “nearly there”.

My run: the first mile always sucks, so the second is always better, the penultimate mile means I’ve nearly finished; it’s time to dig deep and the last means it’s over…only till the next time.

My RBFs: inspiring, humorous, passionate, honest and supporting…’nuff said!

**************
Quick update on Saturday, my official time was 3:55:13 104th of 292.

Week 3 Worth the Weight results coming soon…

Running in Circles!

Ahhh, ok there I got it off my chest! What you may ask, feigning interest, well, pull up a chair, sit down and let me tell you. Races that sell out months in advance. So far this year I have been dinged by; Xterra's Topanga Turkey Trot & Crystal Cove races Santa Barbara 9 Trails, Twin Peaks 50K (although I found out today that this has been canceled due to the wildfires, which have, sadly, ravaged Orange County) and the Surf City Marathon, the latter two are not until next February!

Yes I know the argument is to sign up months in advance along with anyone else, but as I found to my financial expense earlier this year family and injury come way up the list and the thought of churning through more cash on planes unflown, hotels unstayed in and start and finish lines uncrossed is somewhat galling. Added to which I was going through the application for next years Angeles Crest and I will miss the cutoff for the qualifying 50M, so that’s scratched from next years agenda as well! Grrr..ok I am over it!

So here is a penciled in look at what I am planning in the first five months of 2008, trust me this pencil comes fitted with an eraser!

January: XTerra Boney Mountain 21k, Calico Trail 50k

February: Buffalo Run 21k

March: LA Marathon (hard) or Napa Trail Marathon (harder) or Catalina Marathon (hardest)

April: Leona Divide 50m or American River 50m

May: XTerra Malibu Creek 14m

April is my “A” race month for the first half of the year for obvious reasons, the others are only training runs, but it’s good to put some of the mileage in under “race conditions” both physically and mentally.

Turning outside things in...

It’s funny how external things always affect you internally.

WARNING, the following contains a whole diatribe that pertains to Nike+ and the 1999 movie Fight Club staring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter, if you do not know or have no desire to know what either is you can skip the next two paragraphs.

I am in, well was – I just won it, a Nike+ challenge with kangator, the premise, a product of the warped mind of PMag; the challenge host, is along the lines of Fight Club, that is, you challenge another member and you fight or in our case you run, or well, you don’t but then you will typically loose, anyway I digress. Kangator had previously challenged me but I was allowed to tap out; stomach flu was raging; Fight Club Rule #4, of course I have actually broken rules #1 and 2 by just writing this, confused, just rent the movie and all will be revealed. Anyway I digress, so I re-challenged kangator, to "The Heinz-man Trophy"; the first to run 57 miles, this was a crude and, I thought, obvious play on Heisman Trophy and Heinz’, as in beans and soup, 57 varieties. Kangator proved to be a worthy competitor, he laid down over 26 miles in the first two days, I responded with 25 followed by an additional 13 by day four, at this point my eldest son, who is three years old decided that my iPod USB cable seemed of particular interest to him and made off with it and then conveniently forget where he had hidden it, this meant that I was unable to sync my iPod with the Nike+ site, a tad frustrating as by day six kangator had notched up 46 miles and was within sight of the 57 miles finish line. Day seven was a rest day for us both and it was looking like it was going to be a sprint finish on long run Sunday.

The arrival of our second son two weeks ago has had an accumulative affect on the amount of sleep I am getting; read "not a lot" and I find my energy levels are generally pretty low. The lack of sleep was taking its toll; I was tired; by the end of the challenge I would have run 150% (59 miles) the number of hours sleep (40 or so) I had got in the same amount of time. The tiredness was evident in my forth run, on Thursday; my hamstrings were tight and I felt lethargic in the closing miles, however Thursday’s upside was while looking for my son’s bedtime story book de’ jour I found my iPod cable, good news. Now to get around to the first sentence of this post, to recap I was tired, did I say that already? And I needed to run 8 miles before Sunday east coast time, we, as a family got home from a day out at the Santa Barbara Zoo around 8pm and we, my wife and I, went through the all signing all dancing performance of getting our eldest in bed, fortunately he was tired so resistance was minimal. I was not really looking forward to running late, Santa Barbara had been shrouded in fog and was cold, remember cold is relative in Southern California, the thermometer in my car said 56F, however by the time we had got home the good news was that the temperature had increased to 71F, much better and more good news. A quick check on my email; Hi, my name is SLB and I am an email addict, revealed that a project lead that I thought had gone stone cold was actually blazing away! More good news, not wanting to waste this run of good luck and the uplift in my emotional barometer and of course not to be outrun by kangator and bettered by the three hour timezone difference, kangator is in NJ, I laced up my shoes and headed out the door to run off the remaining 8 miles needed for victory. I set of on my usual route which allows me to run on autopilot and has me at mile 2.5 before you can say “crap, I forgot to start my Forerunner” I pushed on feeling, well actually pretty good, my glutes had been feeling tight over the last week but tonight everything was aligned, (well not the stars, according to my lottery ticket; maybe next week), and I was happily cranking out 8:45 or so miles and everything felt great, I reached the turnaround point at mile 5 and headed back home, I walked back up the hill, as is my modus operandi to the house and synced my iPod, the rest, as they say, is history. So the moral of the story is to make hay while the sun shines…that is don’t ignore the signs, if they’re telling you to go, then go!

On another Nike+ note the much awaited Q2K7 Quadrathlon hats and visors arrived from HeadSweats, they look great and they will, as anyone who has worn a HeadSweat product, I expect perform flawlessly. October’s Quadrathlon drew to a close, the winners will be announced soon once all the miles and points have been tallied.

OK that’s enough Nike+ tale telling. Time for a quick summary of last month.

My total mileage was 106 miles, some 37 or so miles less than the month before, however when you take into account that I had the stomach flu for 9 days and then we were dissuaded from running due poor air quality; a result of the many wildfires that really only left me 22 days for running, if you work out the month on that number of days and pro rate it for the month that would actually have been 149 miles which is more in the ball park that I need to be, although this will be increasing as my training plan will obviously increase my mileage over the coming months it still maintains my base.

Looking forward, I am still undecided about the 30k or 50k on the 18^th, the consensus so far is to go for it, thanks to everyone who answered, there is, unfortunately no prize. I will make a decision by the end of the weekend/early next week. My participation in Iron Wil’s Through the3 Wall Challenge has been all over the place, we’re about to start week 5 and I have made some progress, the stomach flu forced my to unwillingly drop 6lbs, but despite my best efforts my actual weight has changed very little and my body fat has only moved around 1%. I did manage to find the bargain of the year in the multi-gym market, a bench complete with options for a lat fly and quad curl and 80lbs worth of weights for less than $100, this will help me maintain the work put in at Blake PT on my quads and hamstrings; essential if I am really going to stick to the trail side of things.

So I start another month, a third of the way through the final quarter of 2007, with lots of targets; most of them moving, as is often the case, hopefully I can hit some of them before the year closes out?

Warning. Enter at your own Risk!

Well a week has passed since being signed off by my PT and I have spent much of it in the smallest room in our house. The opening salvo of biological warfare brought home by our son from his germ mongering friends at pre-school has turned into an ongoing terroristic war of attrition, just when you think it is safe to poke your head up over the trench wall another salvo is let loose in you general direction! I am hoping that the currently enjoyed lull in hostilities is the precursor to a cease fire and that I am on the mend, mind you I have already been the victim of two broken truces. Hopefully I can don my running shoes and head out again, maybe over the weekend, dear God I hope so, I am starting to suffer from Cabin (for want of a better name for the room) Fever!