I had a great run on Monday the 29th, 14 miles, about 9 of it on the AT with some very good vertical gain. I felt tired after, but not particularly sore. In fact, I felt good enough to jump in a car about 15 minutes after finishing and heading to the Shepaug river for some flood stage kayaking. 2 weeks ago I missed my long run due to logistics and missed trains, but still felt alright the rest of the week. During this most recent week, I felt great, hit all my mileages during the week and only rescheduled my 16 miler from Monday to Tuesday, because I had the chance to go Kayaking most the day Monday and didn’t want to miss it. Tuesday, I worked 8 hours and then still had a lovely long run on the AT again. I felt great for most of it until the last 2 miles on the road back to the farm when I started feeling a little sore. The next morning I had to take Advil all day just to get through work, as my IT band was killing me.

Keeping a training journal means nothing if you don’t take away knowledge from reviewing it. Looking back it seams, that my lower mileage runs are going well. I maintain about 7-8 minute mile pace, I don’t really aggravate anything during these runs, but I also don’t really heal during them. In other words, my mid week mileage is not serving its purpose as recovery miles. The demands of physical labor with about and hour of running added on is not allowing my body the recovery it needs after longer runs. Given that I am training to run 50 miles at 9-10 minute mile pace, a 7 mile run at 8 minute miles doesn’t do a whole lot to push the correct type of fitness.

Longer runs may push the kind of fitness that I need for my race, but if i can’t recover properly after them, they actually turn out to be more harmful than beneficial. Also, I like longer runs better. When I set out for a mid week 6-8 mile run, My mindset is normally one of getting the run over with, getting the “chore” of weekly mileage out of the way. I still generally enjoy running in most all (outdoor) forms, but long runs are really the reason I love running.

This is why I prefer ultras to say a marathon or a 10k. Racing is fun, becoming really fit is fun, but I like to run because its time that I can get out and commune with nature and my own body and mind. I can explore new trails, observe the annual changes in my favorite places, see loads of wildlife and let my mind wonder from the mundane to the fantastical. Long runs are what I love, and ultimately what push my fitness for the kind of racing I do.

To this end I think that I am going to adjust my training to better accommodate my physical work load and my own training preferences. It’s silly, I see now, to sacrifice some of the joy running can bring me all year in order to be only slightly better prepared (in the best case, injured in the worst case) for a race that lasts only a few hours.

I am still going to shoot for weekly mileages that mirrors the training schedule I posted, but I am going to leave my day to day mileage decisions to how I feel mentally and physically. I think that that will most likely look like 3 long runs a week with maybe 1-2 shorter runs and 1 cross training day. Hopefully more rest days, and more possitive energy about runs, will lead to more frequent blog post too.

In the last 3 weeks I have had both highs and lows and unfortunately it started with highs and ended with the low. Three weeks ago, I was just beginning to build from just under 30 miles a week to just under 40 and on the work front, egg plants were just beginning to produce and our field tomatoes (the indicator that summer is in full swing) were just barely starting to ripen. This last week we harvested about 450 lbs. of field tomatoes on Friday alone, along with close to 60 lbs of eggplants (a more back breaking harvest than tomatoes) and I had to take both tuesday off from biking, thursday off from running and I only ran 7 miles on Monday instead of 13.

The week of the 2nd was a solid week and I was feeling really positive until my right it band, and hip flexor started to hurt near the end of my 10 miler on Monday. The week had been really fun running wise with good weather, a few rain runs and a few exploring runs. However, on Tuesday the 9th, those same tendons were too sore to justify pushing it on a mtn. bike ride. They weren’t much better after Wednesday’s run and I decided to recover more completely on Thursday instead of putting in a mere 5 “junk miles.” The same was the case this Monday and I was so sore by the end of 7 that i decided not to finish to 13 for the day.

I have been wearing my compression socks at work and trying to hit the foam roller as much as possible, but it may just be the case, that I can’t build mileage as quickly while working at this pace. Luckily, this work pace wont last too much longer, and diligence with the foam roller does seem to be paying dividends. I am very frustrated, though, that I am finding it hard to run even 38 miles on consecutive weeks. I think that this is most largely due to the fact that I took so much time off after the Chiemgauer race and so had very little base to start up with again. On top of that I have been training well below my race pace at between 7:30 and 8 minute miles; not super quick, but if i slowed it down, I think I can put some of these aches to rest. At any rate, we will see what kind of mileage I can build up to by the race, hopefully its enough to put in a solid performance.

I missed a long run this last week, however because of some issues with my IT-Band. I’ve had similar issues before, and since switching my stride from a heel strike to a fore-foot strike, its been better for the most part. However, it has gotten aggravated by work, running, climbing, wakeboarding, or, most likely, some combination of all of them. Its still tight this week, but I’ve been redoubling efforts of the foam roller and that should do loads of help.

I had a harder than planned run on Wednesday when I did a section of the AT that I hadn’t been on before which was really steep. After that, I took it easier on the hills until Monday when I put in a good amount of vertical on another AT section. I also kayaked on Monday, even though I was pretty wiped out from a social weekend. Not much to say about a recovery week, It served it’s purpose and I am feeling ready to start getting serious about training and bumping up mileage.

The weekend runs were really solid. Probably mostly because I didn’t have to work either of the days, I felt nice and rested. I did both runs in Macedonia Park and i think the change of scenery also added to my increased enthusiasm for running. Sunday I parked at the top of a steep, 20 meter hill and after 60 minutes of hard trail running I still felt good enough to to a hard repeat up it to finish as still keep a smile on my face. Monday’s run was a bit more of an effort to keep up the pace, but again, new trails have a way of making me keep going.

I also worked a half day thursday, since I knew I would have to work a half day Sunday to harvest for the farm stand that we just opened this weekend. I also only ran about 4 miles on Thursday instead of 5 because I was feeling very fatigued and sore. Come the weekend, however, I felt very good. I worked about 6 hours on Saturday picking for the farm stand and doing tractor work. Then I had an excellent, though very steep and tough, run in Macedonia state park. Sunday I worked a short harvest again and then ran an easy 8 with a bit of steep hill in the middle mile to mile and a half. I’m feeling good after my fisrt 5 day training week in a while, not to mention a long work week.

I am going to include more detailed weekly mileage information from now on, to make the blog a better training record for myself.

I perhaps, took too much comfort in my newfound extra training time, and got a bit lax this week. On Wednesday, I worked only a half day and then caught the train from Kent to New York City to see my sister, who was in town for business. Because running on the trains is frowned upon, and I wanted to hang out in the city rather than run, Wednesday’s short run was cancelled. And, in a very similar pattern to last week, I felt great during the week, only to have my calves revolt near the end of Saturday’s run. They balled up tight and I was on the verge of limping for the last mile. I also ended up working a full day on Sunday between making up hours for Wednesday and helping a friend clean out his yard and garage, so there wasn’t much time for running anyways.

Needless to say, I am very happy to have the extra time to get my legs into shape before the mileage really starts to climb. I am going to try keep the mileage at about 25-35 for the next few weeks until the schedule syncs back up to the new race date. This should hopefully give me enough time to really make sure that my legs can handle the mileage that I will be running come Autumn. I want to avoid the chronic calf issues I had last year that led to the injury. For that reason, any time my calves (or any other part of me) feel like they did on Saturday, I am going to take rest and replace running with either manual labor or some sort of cross training. On a mildly related note, I am going to make a much stronger effort to mountain bike on Monday’s. If I am going to be possibly taking days off elsewhere in the week, there is no excuse for not cross training on Mondays.

Weekly mileage: 18 (lame)

Longest Run: 7

Mileage: 23

Longest Run: 8

I have been spending about 20 minutes every day on my foam roller and my legs notice the extra care, though my calves are still pretty sore as always happens with increased mileage.

Work has been pretty demanding lately with hot temperatures, and lots of catching up to do after the heavy rains we had. We have been planting at least 1,000 plants a day as well as spending several hours every day with long handled hoes, combating the spring weed flushes. Still runs have been feeling good and I’ve averaged between 7 and 8 min miles so I’m well below my planned race pace of 9 to 10 min miles. As my weekend runs get longer, I will ease back the pace to more closely mirror a race effort.

Miles for the last 2 weeks: 25 and 30 respectively

Longest run: 7 and 8

I have chosen to restart my ultra career with a 50 miler. I want to do this fast, under 9 hours, in a trail race with around 10,000 ft of gain. This will mean more speed work and more steep runs. This would put me way under the qualifying time for the Western States 100 lottery for 2012. I had planned on the Mountain Masochist in Virginia, but I waited too long and entry has filled. I’ll still try and get on the wait list, but most likely I’ll try and find another event, that is also a qualifier for the Western States 100.

I’m going to change up the format a bit from before. Rather than post for each run, I’m going to reduce postings to a once a week recap of daily mileages and how I feel about the last week’s training. However I will also try to focus more on nutrition musings, and thoughts on farming or gardening as well.