Trails again

Today I met Mark over at Monte Sano to do run part of the Mt. Mist course. I love running trails! We ran the first half of the course and then took a steep climb up Sinks Trail (I think) up to our cars to refill water and hit the South Plateau loop for another 3+ miles. It was around 19 miles total.

We were planning to start at about 6:15 or 6:30, but I got just out of Athens and realized that I forgot my shoes. Yep, I was driving to run and forgot my shoes. Boneheaded, I know. We were so late and behind that we decided to just meet with the Mt. Mist training group. They were doing the second half today. We did that last week so we decided to stick with our original plan and do to the first half.

What a week!

This was a very busy week! I didn't get in bed before 11:45 any night this week, and I was up at 5:15 Tuesday through Thursday so that I could run.That's just not enough sleep for me. My runs were generally lazy as a result, too. But I did get in the miles. 5.5 on Tuesday, 6.5 on Wednesday, and 6.2 on Thursday.

But even on a week like this, I was able to get in all my scheduled runs and two resistance workouts. If I can do it this week, I can do it any week!

Yuck!

I had scheduled a 6 miler today. The weather was supposed to be cool but dry. It was cool, but it was NOT dry! And it was windy. Yuck.

I left my house and headed for the Athens High track. Then, I did a couple of laps around the track and headed back to my house via the greenway. The portion of the greenway that passes under Forrest St. / Nick Davis Road was completely flooded! We had lots of rain yesterday. Then, it started sprinkling, and I was running into the wind getting soaked. Yuck. Today was just a gross run. I wanted to quit, but I had to get back home!

This is one of those days that has to make me a better runner or something. Something good has to come from today's misery!

Hill time

The 50k training schedule called for 4 miles today. I decided to mix in some hill work with it. Matt and I drove over to Hughes Road on our way to work. We ran about a mile to Thomas Drive and ran up Thomas drive and Stoneway to the top of Rainbow Mountain, then ran back down. The downhill run has its own set of challenges! Call me weird, but running hills is fun.

Stoneway has a seriously steep 0.3 mile section.

Oh yeah, I left there and went to the gym and did a "pull" workout, chin-ups and rows along with some oblique twists, back extensions, and side bends.

10 miler

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to run Mt. Cheaha. I'm training as if I'm going to run it. I'll know soon if it's really a go or not. I'm following the training schedule at http://www.scrunners.org/ultrasch.php. This schedule has you do a long run followed by a 10 miler on the following day. Supposedly the time on your feet gets you ready for the 50k.

So I did an easy 10 miler today to follow yesterday's 15+miler. The cool thing is that a 10 miler can be easy, thanks to marathon training. :)

Updates

A while back I toyed with the idea of ending this blog because the training, marathon, and recovery were complete. Well, several have said they still want to read the blog, so the blog stays. I'll keep the name the same so that folks won't have to update links, etc. Also, the Rocket City Marathon is what started the blog and will hopefully be a key part of my training each year.

This weeks training
Remember that Tuesday I did speed work.

Wednesday
I followed that up with a long run. Not wise! Wednesday, New Year's Eve, Mark and I ran about 17 on Monte Sano. We ran the second half of Mt. Mist, with a wrong turn thrown in to add 1.5 miles. That's a tough finish! I totally bonked at about 14.5 miles. I just had no more gas. I kept stopping to walk. Thanks for your patience, Mark! I'll never do speed work and a long run on back to back days again.

Check out pictures from Wednesday's run in my Facebook photos.

Friday
Friday, I played 6 games of racquetball and then took Leigh and the kids for a hike on the trails at Monte Sano. We went about 3 miles total, which was just a little too far (my mistake), but the complaining was minimal. They loved it!


Saturday
And today I did a 15 miler around Athens, 13+ of them with Matt. We ran mostly at an 8:30 pace and finished the run with the last 3 under 8:00, and miles 14 and 15 were around 7:40. Road miles sure do get easier after running on the trails! I don't have to think about every step!

2008

Others have done a 2008 year in review, so why not?

• Hated running in January, but needed cardio in addition to resistance training.
• Barely able to run 3 miles in February, but decided I'd try to like running. I didn't hate running by the time March rolled around.
• Mark Freeman, Tim Richter, and Angie Reed talked me into running the Cotton Row 10k. I trained for it and got hooked!
  
• Ran my first race at the Law Day 5k in Hampton Cove. 22:30 and 3rd place award.
• Ran Cotton Row in 45:53, slower than I wanted.
• Waddled through June and July and lost too much conditioning.
• Mark and I talked each other into running the Rocket City Marathon.
  
• Trained lots with Mark and Matt Davis for the marathon.
  
• Ran the Monte Sano 5k and 10k road races and the Huntsville Half Marathon as part of my marathon training.
• Took first in my age group with a 20:39 at the Duck and Run 5k in my hometown of Athens. (Thanks Tanjie!!)
• Took second in my age group at the Elkmont Rails to Trails 10k with a 44:23. (Thanks Whitney!!)
• Ran Rocket City in 3:33:25.
• Started trail running.

Overall, a great year in running. I can definitely do better in 2009. I can eliminate the summer laziness and do more tempo runs. Here are my goals for 2009.

• Break 19:30 in a 5k.
• Break 41:00 in a 10k.
• Finish a 50k trail race.
• Run Rocket City in 3:25. Maybe in 2010 I'll aim to BQ.