STRAVA Summary

Friday, April 20, 2012

One Week to PYP.

This is the time of year that the long runs start getting really long, and time on feet becomes the main goal. That takes a lot to get through mentally and one of the tools I’ve been using to manage it is listening to podcasts. There are two that particularly like. 100mileultrarunning.com and Dirt Dawg’s Running Diatribe. I favour the first as it is geared more towards ultrarunning, especially 100 milers. The creater of 100mile… is very experienced at 100 milers doing the grand slam a few years ago. Last year while listening to one of his podcasts I found that he was creating a new grand slam series, the Mid West Grand Slam. This series consists of the Kettle Moraine 100, The Mohican 100, Burning River 100 and the Hallucination 100 all done within one calendar year. I am thinking that this might be a legitimate goal for next year. I really enjoyed Burning River last year and would love to go back, I may even go down again this year and volunteer.

In the mean time I have been getting out a lot on the trails lately and enjoying it immensely. Mostly on the Pick Your Poison course at Horseshoe. I forgot how tough it can be, especially when you’re not used to running on the trails. But after a couple of weeks I’m feeling better about it. Last weekend I went out to the Ontario Ultra Series Warm Up event in the small village of Dunedin, Ontario that is, not Florida. I went there with Bill Lovett with a goal to complete three loops for 39k. It is a tough loop with not much but hills and where it is flat it’s trails which are never “flat”. At least this year the trails were snow free and provided for some good running. But if you think the up hills are bad the final 2.5k are all down hill and it is a rather steep gravel road which has been newly grated. Three times down that sucker and you know it.
The next day I met Bill and a few others at Horseshoe for another couple of loops around the PYP course. It was a little difficult at first. The stiff legs taking a while to get going, but soon enough we were running good, by the second loop we were pushing it hard. At least a lot harder than I was expecting to run..
Monday morning came and I was feeling like I’d run a hard marathon. I haven’t felt that way in a long while. It felt somewhat good!!!

This week I have decided to take it easy and use it as a rest week. I ran Tuesday and Thursday on trails at Simcoe County forest and wore my vibrams on Thursday that went good and I think I will use them on all the Tuesday and Thursday runs. Wednesday was the usual Running Room run with the guys and we ran up Ferndale hill by the dump. It is an intimidating hill, but I always run it good.
This weekend I will do maybe only a light run. Time for some rest and relaxation instead. I think my body could use it. The next few months see lots of racing coming up. From next Saturday to the middle of June sees me running an event, organized or not, every two weeks. Included in this is the 3rd annual Night Run to Orillia and back. An "event" that we started for my training for Burning River. It has taken a life of its own now and we have probably a dozen or more interested parties in doing at least part of the run or supporting the run. For those who don't know, we start at the lakeshore in Barrie at about 8pm and run the rail trail to the Home Hardware in Orillia. We usuall y arrive around midnight, refuel and turn around for the run back getting back to Barrie at about 4:30 am or so. Up to now I am the only one who has completed the full distance, but I have had a few who have said they may attempt it this year. I usually have a good group for the first half and one or two for the return trip. Looking forward to it and hope the weather is as good as it has been in the past two years.

So no rest for the wicked.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Its time for another instalment in my not so frequent posts about my running, my training and generally how things are going. So how are things going? Very well, I say tentatively. I say it tentatively because I always think that maybe something will go wrong just around the corner. I shouldn't think that way, but when you've been through all the aches and pains I've been through over the past couple of years...
Things have been going well though. The mileage has been up and down, but I'm still ahead of last year at this point with nothing negative to complain about. The weather has been cooperating for the most part. Early spring has given way to a late cold spell, but there is no snow on the ground so the trails are open and all is good.
Yes trails! the trails have been wide open for a few weeks or more and I was finally able to get out on them and it felt so good to be running on dirt instead of pavement or cement. Two weeks ago I drove to Ancaster to do a loop of the Sulphur Springs course. I had been thinking of doing more, but I had been out there for a while showing a slower group the trail, and just as well as most of them had no idea where they were going. At the end of the loop I ran the hill hard and felt good doing it. The rain had started to come down hard and I decided enough was enough and that was good for the day. The trails there were in great shape, mostly dry with only a few muddy sections in the second half. Easy compared with last years quagmire. Not that I'm complaining.
Also got out on the Pick Your Poison course last Sunday for a good run. Did 2 loops there for about 24k. again the trails are in amazing shape. FIrst time I've used my Garmin to follow a trail. Yes, I downloaded the course off the internet and loaded it on the Garmin and set it up. It wasn't easy to see the map on the screen with my old guy eyesight, but it worked and would tell me when I got off course, which we did a few times on the first loop. A good turnout for the run on a gorgeous day.
On Good Friday I ran with Rick and Oliver as we did the rail trail out and back for 36k. Another good run with JVH offering support along the way.
I picked up a pair of Sketchers Gorun shoes last weekend too. They felt so good and light and I finally got to run in them last night. A different feel for sure, they promote a mid foot strike and I could feel the difference. When I was done I could feel the muscle fatigue in places where I usually don't. Overall I was impressed. It will be interesting to see how many miles I can get on them and how far I can run on them for my long runs.
I was checking up on the races I have signed up for and the ones I am thinking of signing up for and it is quite the schedule. 9 Races of at least marathon distance and 5 more I am thinking about. THere maybe more too. THis morning I signed up for the Monster Mash Marathon in Dover, Delaware and the Atlantic City Marathon. Back to back marathons in October. I haven't done a marathon since October of 2010, but got talked into it by Rickymac. It didn't take a lot of arm twisting.

Next up is Pick Your Poison on the 28th of this month. A good course except for the fact that it is 4 loops to make 50k. I hate multiple loop courses, but it is close and there will be lots of others there that I know doing it.

Before PYP though is the Ontario Ultra Series warm up event. I did this last year and had a lot of fun on a very hilly course.


Hope to refresh this blog again sooner than later, so until then...