Dave's the Dog

Sounds like the new Road Dog philosophy is winner...and highly appropriate.  Count on support from this side.  Badaxe.

Moving Forward

Having completed my first off road ultramarathon, I now see things with much greater clarity. I paid very close attention to the other competitors on October 27th. The out and back nature of the Ghost Train is very conducive to that. I saw how they ran, how they ate and how they paced themselves. This is a sport for dogs. In the wild... wolves, coyotes, dingos, African Spotted dogs, etc. don't run the fastest... much of their prey can out sprint them, but the dogs can run longer. Wild dogs run their prey into the ground. They can run at a moderate pace for hours. That's what ultramarathoning is all about. You trot... mile after mile after mile. Sometimes you pause... to pee, to eat or to drink. And then... you trot again. It's pretty simple... not easy, but simple. So... you train to trot. Hour after hour, day after day. It's beauty is in it's simplicity. This may strike some of you as fairly obvious... but it wasn't to me, this is a near epiphany. For the next eleven months, I need to hone a slow energy efficient jog. This is the opposite of everything I have worked on for years. Fast turnovers, long strides, high heel flicks and uphill accelerations, the building blocks of road racing, are to be avoided. A steady shuffling keep your feet close to the ground gait and walk up the steeps are the order of the day. It's all about energy conservation. It is both incredibly simple and at the same time an enormous commitment. Perfect!.. I get it... off I go.

The Ghost Train

Well... despite the fact that I called this thing off in mid-September, I couldn't bear to stay away. Right around the beginning of October I spoke with Chris and said I still wanted to do it, training or no training... he said he was in as well. In the three weeks leading up the race, I did three long outings between 16 and 20 miles each, they didn't go very well... but I'm glad I did them. Basically I was desperately cramming for the race. We agreed to do the minimum... 30 miles (you can do up to 100) . And so we did... very slowly and carefully, there were only four people behind us when we finished. But, we did it. I take some pride in having done this at all. I have averaged a pitiful 13.76 miles per week this year... hardly the stuff of marathons, never mind ultramarathons. I felt far better than I would have ever imagined, I was tired and sore but finished strong... I still had fuel in the tank. I also have huge water and blood blisters on both feet... ugly and painful, but rarely fatal. Nasty... but this too will pass. The training for next year starts now. There will be a long run every week. The mileage will increase. I will lift weights even though I hate lifting weights . I will get back to a better running weight. Next time I will be prepared, I will go longer... I will go faster... I will kick ass. Enough said.

End of the Line... for now.

Thanks to everybody who has been looking in on this blog... obviously things are not going as planned. I don't think Chris has run in two months, but then again he never blogs so who knows... his upcoming wedding next month has taken care of that. For me the big bad kitchen renovation that took twice as long as planned has kicked my butt. Yes, I have run some but no where near consistently enough to take on this race. So sorry for the false alarm. However, hope springs eternal! I turn sixty about a week before next year's race... hmmmm. Sixty at sixty? Kinda catchy isn't it. I have started running regularly again this week, plan to ramp it up ever so slowly over the winter into the spring and then, with no major house renovation looming... kick it into high gear next summer. That's the fantasy anyway. I'm not going to blog until New Years... if things are going well I will be running five days a week and will have lost some weight. We'll see... you never know. See you then and thanks for your support and well wishes.

The Road to Monadstock

Back on the treadmill after a long hiatus.  Feels good to start again.  Super proud of the dog for hitting the road hard the last couple weeks ( and for hitting the strings as well).  By Monadstock, hopefully we will both have made some real progress in these things that, though they do not come easy, bring us immeasurable joy!

Week 10

Well, what a difference a week makes... set a plan, execute it and life is good. Rested the two days after last weekend's terrible run... ran a regular 5 on Tuesday and ran the brutal Crotchet Mountain 10K loop on Wednesday... which includes the auto-road with over a mile of 9-12% grade. It's an incredible experience, breathtaking actually... when I was fit I used to run it a couple times a week. And no, I was not able to run the whole thing today, I died on the steep ramps and had to walk... but I still did it (and will do it again next week). Rested two more days and ran long, slow distance (LSD) today. Felt 100% better than last weekend, it was 10 degrees cooler... and turned in a solid 18 miler, slow and steady. Wore a pair of "0 drop" minimist NB trail shoes... no serious blisters, more good news there. This also puts me back on track to before the renovation break, my last long run was Week 3, a 16 miler. Now we can continue to ramp up to race day.

Week 9

Well, what a fine mess I'm in. Twelve weeks to go yesterday and I am wildly off plan. Seems to be the theme for all of us. I skipped last week's blog... didn't want to report another week with only 5 miles run. It's the start of a new month and absolutely time to shit or get off the pot. So, here's the emergency "get it back on track" plan... a long run every weekend, preferably Saturday the same day as the race. Two short runs, back to back in the middle of the week (Tuesday/Wednesday) leaving a couple of rest days to and from the long run. The Saturday runs must get progressively longer topping out to 24/26 miles by early October... then a two week taper to the race. This is an emergency salvage plan, not pretty... but I see no other choice. Yesterday I began with grand plans to go out and bag a very slow long slog in the heat... perhaps 20 miles or better. Ha! On the strength of a half  dozen 5 mile runs over the last five weeks my body would have none of it. It was hot, low 90s here with high humidity when I went out at noon. I overloaded (mistake) my 2 liter Camelback with 3+ liters of water (too heavy) and one of the straps broke at 4 miles in... had to carry the bag after that... that didn't help. By 8 miles I was losing control... shakey and nauseous. I bagged it at 12 miles... a disappointment, but my goal was a bit ambitious. Oh well. We will try again next weekend, perhaps for 16. I wish the others well, don't give up... we need to make this happen!