I’ve listened to my iPod dozens and dozens of times over the last year, but that song has never come up before. It came on at about 3:00 in the morning as I was pushing through mile 70. Alone, tired, and with a rapidly swelling leg/ankle. Grinding up climb after climb. This song gave me a much needed boost - I hit ‘repeat’ several times…
I finished the Bear, but it didn’t go down without a fight!! It was an awesome experience, and I can’t wait to do it again. Full report coming soon. Meanwhile, here’s some photos that my dad took posted on my Flickr account:
Today was Malcolm’s last race of the season. It was a very large race for all the 8th graders in our school district. We had to leave the house at 7:30 to make the 45 minute drive so Malcolm could have enough time to warm up and preview the course with his team. It was a very hilly and challenging course. He started conservatively and passed a lot of people at the end, it was a great race. This video was taken about 1/4 of the way into it. The runners were a LOT more spread out at the end.
I ran 2 hilly hours in the afternoon on challenging trails for what was my last significant workout before my 100-miler in two weeks. I saw another tiny rattlesnake, this one wasn’t in any hurry to move out of the way. I had to spit some water on it to get it going.
I’m feeling very strong, but have a few tweaks and sore/tight spots I’m trying to get rid of. The next several days of stretching and light running will hopefully take care of them. It’s coming up fast!!
I got up at 5:15 today and was running by shortly after 6:00. It was my last long run before I start my taper down to the 100 mile race at the end of this month. I did 35 miles in 6:45, including a 10 mile stretch through Red Rocks on trails with a lot of climbing.
One rattlesnake sighting, one faceplant. Luckily the two were separate incidents! The rattler was the smallest one I’ve seen yet, only about a foot long. It hustled to get out of my way.
As for the faceplant, I was coming up on the corner that I recognized as the spot where I took my first trail-running fall a couple of months ago. Hehe, not today. I said in my mind as I rounded the corner. WHAM! Did it again. Must be a slow learner. I think I’ll walk that corner next time…
I set out to do a 12 miler last night after work, and did something I don’t do very often. I listened to my body and cut it short at 8 miles. My hamstrings were abnormally tight and twitchy, and I was just working way too hard to maintain even a slowish pace. That decision paid off today. I had an 8 mile run on the schedule at lunch, and with a thunderstorm approaching, left the waterbottle and ipod behind.
I started fast and stayed that way for the whole run. Clocking 1:02 for 8 hilly miles. Nothing earth-shattering, but it was one of my fastest training runs of the year - and coming only 5 days after doing a 40 miler (with a 32 the week before that) made it pretty sweet.
My heart rate averaged 171 beats per minute. That’s holding 93% of my maximum heart rate for over an hour. Ouch! I was workin’…
It’s very nice to cut loose once in a while and RUN.
It’s the weekend. Time for another long run. This time I stretched the 32 mile loop I ran last week to make a 40 miler. I took off around 6:00pm, and got home at 3:00 in the morning. The last 10 miles were some of the toughest miles I’ve covered yet. Mostly flat, but I couldn’t even walk for more than 2-3 minutes without stopping at the very end. I was SO tired!
I was about a mile from home when I saw the first patch of grass I’d seen in hours, and promptly flopped onto my back. Under a streetlight in a subdivision. What a sight. I walked another half a mile and had to sit down and rest for a few more minutes. I just could not move forward anymore. My legs weren’t feeling that bad, my body was just totally depleted. Thankfully, I made it and didn’t become coyote bait - sirens in the distance started a pack howling about 100 yards away from me that I didn’t know was there. Training is hard work.
