Wet Muddy Sloppy Trails of Mohican

6:00 AM I met Rob for a 10.75 mile trail run on the orange loop of the Mohican 100 course, slightly modified. It was raining and very humid. I have more problems with breathing in high humidity than high altitude running, go figure. The trails were wet, muddy and surreal. Just loved it. Rob finished with me then met Luc at the covered bridge to run with him on his 20 mile run. They should be finishing about now. I went home and watched the Tour De France. A nice day. Tomorrow will start my marathon focus training, week 1 of 12.

Summer Blogger Blues

Yesterday I ran 6 miles of trails in the wilds of Mohican and had an excellent run. It was an eerie one at that, but a good one. The eerie part was the lack of sound. Dead quiet, not even a bird. Strange! There were lots of hikers out on the trails, but quiet. Strange!
Well what's this got to do with the blues. Nothing, I just wanted to document my run yesterday.
Now the 'Summer Blogger Blues'. I noticed I have a hard time during the summer sitting down and writing a blog. I thought it was me, but I noticed other bloggers wrote a lot less at this time then when the season was not as warm. In fact the only one with an excuse for not blogging for a period was Josh 'On The Run' aka pickle who was on vacation in Yellowstone. A poor excuse not to Blog as I took my laptop while on trips and Blogged all the same. But anyhow there is less Blogging going on by all. I think it comes down to sitting at the computer while the weather is to nice to be inside.
So there you have it many of us are most likely doing our runs and enjoying the outdoors at this time, we aren't letting the rest of the world know.
Tomorrow morning Rob 'Buckeye' Powell and myself are going for a trail run in Mohican at 6 am. We will do 10+ miles and return in time for Rob to run with Luc. Rob plans 20 miles with Luc. I will however go back to bed.
On July 19, Rob and anyone else who wants to run and celebrate my 25,000 recorded mile will run from the Covered Bridge in Mohican. The run will be the purple loop of Mohican 100 the 4 miles I will need to make the distance. Then some photos to be taken for documentations and onward for more running. Time to be announced.

Ashland Balloonfest 5KM

Saturday I ran the Ashland Balloonfest 5Km race. Well I did place 2nd of 8 in my age group, my time indicated I was way behind in race preparation. My time was 24:06 finishing 129th out of 327.
You could not ask for a nicer day being in the 70's, sun, clear. Several of the Loudonville CC runners were there as well as Terri Lemke. Here's there results: 20th Jace Wolford 19:18, 22nd and 2nd overall women Terri Lemke 19:22, and 137th Haley Young 24:24. Haley was out to beat me and I had hope she would have. I even told her my strategy. I had planned to go out fast the first mile. She was with me and faded a little on the inclines. Well I faded too as I was not able to hold 7:45 pace per mile. Oh well, I guess I need to work some more. Haley is training well and should be able to take me in a few weeks, but we shall see.

I will change my projection again for the 25,000 mile day back to July 20th. Oh yeah!

Playing Catchup Again!

No I'm not trying to catchup on my miles, just catchup my BLOG.
On Wednesday I went to visit my parents in Boardman so did a run on both Wednesday and Thursday in Millcreek Park. This is a beautiful setting for running. My play area as a child.
On Wednesday I ran a little 3 miler after it had just rained. That was nice.
Thursday I ran a 6.2 mile loop I have from my parents house and it travels around Newport Lake. Always enjoy running in the park. Should do it more often.
Friday I was back home so ran my three mile loop at Mohican. Lots of people, but one would expect it for 4th of July.

I am getting closer to that magic 25,000 miles of running. I have 63.25 miles to go. I thought I would hit it on the 19th of July, but now the 13th looks more likely. Do you see this Rob?

The Core of the Problem.

On Monday I began a core body strengthening program to get me stronger. With some upper body weights and an ab workouts I hope to be on course for support of the central core, which will help on the long haul.

Tuesday I ran 5.6 miles to the lodge and back. This is a nice hilly road run from my house. It was warm, but the breeze did help. I plan on visiting my parent on Wednesday and Thursday. Will update on my return. Of course while I'm there I will run in Millcreek Park, home of TEAM PR and NEO Trail Runners.

Decision Time

Tonight I ran a group run with cross country at Mohican. Had a pleasant 5 miler, partially road and part trail. Temperature was 63, damp and wet.

Decision>>>>>>>>>>>
I have decided not to do Burning River 100 due to lack of preparation. If I'm going to do a 100 I better be in darn good shape because I'm not as young as I once was when I did them in the past.
And they were tough then. I do wish Rob the best in his pursuit of Burning River.

86.32

86.32 Miles

I will tell you about that number in a few.
Today I ran 8 miles on the Mohican Mountain Bike Trail. I had Betty drop me off at the group area and I ran from the 8 mile post to the Class A check in or the 0 mile post. The temperature was 77 with a nice breeze. The humidity was high and the trails were wet and slippery. So some caution was had. Had a great run and did a lot of thinking of how down in the dumps I am, probably about this coming CC season and lack of numbers and my lack of enthusiasm to train. One needs goals to train as that is the end result. So some goals, loose 15, no 20 pounds before New Hampshire Marathon. Train diligently for the marathon. And maybe and just maybe, enter Burning River 100. That would give me a whole month to get ready.

While I'm at it run the Ashland Baloonfest 5km this coming weekend. I will have some CC runners doing the race, so I will embarrass myself a little. I know one Young lady who will be gunning for me, but she will crumble like a flack y crust on a homemade apple pie. No names to be mentioned. Hummmmmmmmm!

Now for the 86.32 miles. I started keeping a running log back in 1987. I tell the athletes I coach to keep a log because one day it might have some interesting things to look back on.
The one thing for me in recorded miles is the number 24,913.68. Wow that is a large number and the number of miles I have ran since 1987. Just think if I had kept a log way back in my high school years that number might exceed 26,000 miles. Anyhow I only need 86.32 miles to record 25,000 miles of running. A mile stone for me. That should come about in a couple of weeks.

It's Now History, Turn the Page for the Next Chapter.

So much has transpired since my last post, so where to start.

Mohican Trail 100.
I have been involved with Mohican 100 since it's inception back in 1990. I have and have known runners who towed the line but failed to make the goal. A 100 miles is a long distance and quite cruel at that. When I designed the 1991 course I was much younger and wanted a challenging trail race where runners from the mountainous regions of the west would say, 'that is one tough race'. I think I succeeded in that desire. Now that I am a little older and plan one day to do Mohican again, I wish people would say that course is a piece of cake and real easy, but that is not to be.
So why am I babbling on about Mohican. This past weekend the 19th edition was run and I knew many runners towing the line. For some their goals were met and others they were dashed.
I was to pace my friend Rob from the 75 mile mark or Grist Mill Aid Station. I had checked on him throughout the day and he was doing well, keeping to his game plan. Unfortunately, as I was starting to prepare for meeting him I received a phone call. Rob had abandoned his run at 63 miles. Now 63 miles ain't nothing to sneeze at unless your goal is 100. I must say I was surprised and shocked by his dnf. Why? Rob had put in one heck of a training program in preparation for this race. I did not think he could be defeated mentally or physically. He was undermined by nausea and throwing up from 55 miles and on. This has happened at everyone of his 100's, even though he was successful on two occasions: Mother Road 100 and Rocky Raccoon 100. I'm not talking just a little barfing, but lot's of barfing to making one sick. He made adjustment in food, salt, water; but to no avail. I certainly could not come up with an answer.
Rob congratulations for a superb training program, hard work during those miserable winter days, and sticking to the plan as best the body would allow.
There were others I know who I pat on the back for taking on the challenge, but falling short: Kim who made it to 75 miles to run out of time (just a mere 75 miles) and Mike who went 45 miles before calling it a day. I hope most people realize that 95% of all running races are less then these runners achieved in their 100 mile race. Mohican Trail 100 2008 is now history, so time to turn to the next chapter of ones life.

Fred Davis III congratulations on your 1,000 mile Mohican Trail 100 Buckle, what an achievement.

Now on my do and did nots. I did not run for three days; Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Shame on me. I did run twice on Monday. Apparently a little guilt trip so did a two a day.
Noon I ran 5 miles to the Lodge from my house in what was ideal temperatures with a slight breeze and low humidity, it felt great. At 7 PM went down to Mohican S.P. for a cross country group run. Ran with Jace Wolford on the trails for a 6 mile run. It was wet, muddy with tempts. still in the 60's but much more humid. Jace did balance the run in my favor as he wore road shoe on trails.
He slipped and fell a couple of times as I was able to run like a gazelle through the fields. Jace is one of my faster cross country runners, so it was nice to run ahead of him.
One must have the correct equipment for the right situations. It was an nice run and fairly quick.

So there we have it, a little history.

I Know Where I Am!

Thursday at 7 am I met Haley and Terri for some mile repeats on the cross country course. We did a 2 mile warm up then started our first mile repeat. Our goal was 7:15 miles. That was the time Haley needed to indicate she was able to acheive 22:30 goal pace for 5 km later in the fall. She consistently did around 7:30 pace, while I on the other hand was at 7:45 pace. Other than the first interval where I just beat her, she smoked me on the other two. I have some work ahead of me. Haley a little and Terri is way ahead of us both. But she can do 19:50 5 km. We finished the workout off with a 2 mile cool down.. Great morning with tempts in the 50's, misty and quite damp.

At 7 pm I went down to Mohican S. P. for the high school group run. No high schoolers were there, but new Jr. High coach Craig Weber had a bunch of 7th and 8th grade runners there. So we ran a 3 mile trail run. Felt good!

3 + 3

Today and yesterday I ran three miles. Tuesday at Mohican S.P. Class A campground at around 4 pm and today at Mohican Forest Headquarters at 5 pm. I felt sluggish today and fine yesterday.
Could it be the difference in the time of day I ran. The weather was almost identical. Oh well there in the books. Tomorrow will be mile interval day. I hope I do well, as I want to run well against one of my athletes.

I Know, I Know!

Yes, I know it's been well over a week since I last Blogged. I took a mental vacation.
Track season is over and I started to run again in earnest. So my focus was to go forward and not waste your time on the boring details.

Cross country begins with me encouraging hopeful runners into get prepared by doing summer miles. This is always a challenge as young high school runners have the belief that to show up on the first day of practice is all that is needed. Then they learn the true meaning of pain. This year is a rebuilding year for the boys team and the girls while all veterans, look more like turtles going against the tide. So this will be an interesting year. Enough said!

I did receive a note from one of my track athletes who graduated. He sent a very kind thank you for being his coach and appreciated all I did for him. His parents also wrote a note with high praises and appreciation. I really treasure a favorable nod from parents and the athletes. When they take the time to put it in writing it is truly heartfelt and very meaningful.

Now for my training. I am now up to 40-50 miles per week and will continue to increase the miles. Mid-July I will begin my marathon training anew. My focus will be for the New Hampshire Marathon on October 4th. This coming Thursday I will do an interval workout with one of my athletes and another friend. The workout is a measure of where one is at at this time. Two mile warm up with 3 X 1 mile at 5 KM pace or for the athlete the goal 5 km pace. Then finish off with another 2 mile cool down. Haley is the athlete and she should be able to do hers in 7:15 pace. She ran the Miss Ohio 5 km race in 24:30 so her goal time should be 22:30 for this fall. We shall seeeeeeee!

So here's my schedule for the next two weeks:
6/17 3 miles
6/18 3 miles
6/19 9 miles 2+(3X1@7:15)+2 also, group run in evening 3-5 miles
6/20 8 miles
6/21 25 miles pacing Rob 'Buckeye' Powell at the Mohican Trail 100
6/22 Rest
6/23 5 miles
6/24 6 miles
6/25 3 miles
6/26 3 miles
6/27 8 miles
6/28 5 miles
6/29 Rest
6/30 5 miles So there you have it, now I will post daily to see if I do the deed.

So Hot and Humid the Deer Flies were Suffering!

5:30 am Rob and I were at the covered bridge to begin our 21 mile run. Already 74 degrees with very high humidity. We opted to do the purple loop first (Lions Falls section). It was slow going as it was hard to get air into the lungs. It is so nice at this time in the morning. No pain in the butt tourons out there making the scenery even better.
Pause at the car after the purple loop and began the orange. The first two miles are up hill making the run even more challenging. I noticed the deer flies preferred Rob's head over mine. They were buzzing him and just driving him crazy. That's ok as long it's not me they are buzzing. I did notice the deer flies were struggling today, also. They normally buzz your head and take bites on the head. Not today, the poor flies were buzzing Rob's head, but instead of biting they had their little mouths open gasping for air. Oh well, even nature has bad days.
We chugged on to Hickory Ridge were I had stashed water the night before. When we went to my hiding place the water bottle were strewn around the area and no water in the bottles. Apparently some raccoons decided we did not need the water. This did create a problem for Rob and I. We did not have enough water to get us to the Class A check in (4 miles), so we took the short bike trail route to the check in and water. After fueling up we headed to the grist mill, then returned to the covered bridge. To make up the lost miles by taking the short bike route we continued to the dam and returned to the covered bridge. Rob said he would not been able to do 100 miles today and told him I would not have completed 22 miles.

A camper along the river asked me if I had been in the river swimming. I said no why do you ask. Your clothes are all wet and you are soaked. That's good old sweat, I just ran 21 miles and it's very humid today. You could imagine what I was thinking in descriptive terms of this person.

Mud, Mud, and more Mud.

I went out today and ran 8 miles of the Mohican trails. It was so nice since not one other sole was out there. It was probably due to the wet muddy conditions. However it was nice to be a solitary runner in the wilds of Mohican. Now let me make clear, that even though there was mud out on the trails it was not even close to the Kansas mud.
We had the track end of year banquet or pizza pig out. It was nice seeing all the cheerful faces. I am referring to the coaches as they know another season has come to a close. Yes another year of school comes to an end and another season of track season. Now I will prepare for cross country season. This will be number 10 as the head coach. This will be a challenging year as the boys will be in a rebuilding year and the girls hopefully will be different from the last two years. Scary!

Decision: I have decided not to do Teton Dam Marathon in Rexburg, Idaho on June 14. It seems I am not trained enough and I don't want to an expensive trip just to have a bummer of a race. I know I would complete it, but I am still competitive enough to want to do well.

Rob Powell's daughter Molly says she wants to do cross country. Now that's one smart girl. She should do well and hopefully she doesn't have her fathers knees.

Crash and Burn

Today I planned a nice trail run of 20 miles. As I was getting ready to go out the door, Rob Powell called and was planning a 21 mile run. So I opted to wait for him and we headed to the covered bridge to do red and green of the Mohican 100 course. I had ran a little over 3 miles when I noticed I was getting dizzy and having some difficulties. Around 6 miles I told Rob I was aborting the planned run and heading home. He said no problem he would head back to the car with me.
I figured we ran near 9 miles, but it wasn't pretty.
Rob graciously said it wasn't a problem as we headed to my home in his car.
That's the first time I had that problem so early in a run. It was not hot, only 73. I was hydrated.
May not have been carbed up enough, but problems in 5 miles?
I'm considering aborting my planned marathon in Idaho in 2 weeks. I am not adequately trained, gas cost are way up, and I can train properly for another day.
Reality Check!

Steak and Shake!!!!!!

Yesterday after the long trail run, Rob Powell and myself met at the Road House Steak place.
Oh yeah we brought our significant others plus one. I plunged into a 16 oz. porterhouse, medium rare with an extremely large bake potato (of course butter and sour cream). With the steak I slushed down a few ice cold beverages. Now that was an excellent meal.
Today I had planned on a 5 mile run, but due to the pain and extended stomach problems I reduced it to 3 miles. So to Mohican I went and ran three miles, shaking the remnants of the meal the previous evening. My run went well once the sloshing ceased and no more STEAK and SHAKE.
Some times you just have to pig out!

So Much to Talk About

Today I met the group of Mohican runners to do around 22 miles on the trails. I was there for 8 am, the rest showed up prior to 9 am. I guess it is important to read the emails with information on the group run. However, traditions says the earlier the better.
We cheerfully ran the purple loop and pretty much stayed together. Once we started the orange loop a few rabbits headed out and scampered away up the trail, not to be seen until the run was done. I ended up running with Rob and Chris. I did get a little dehydrated towards the end of the run and they graciously ran with me. The key to not getting dehydrated is drink the dam water that's in the bottle in your hand.
Yesterday I did run 5 miles down at Mohican with some trails. Nice run with lots of tourons out.

The girls ended the track season on Friday with the only competitors left being the miler and two miler. They did not have a good day, so all in all the season was done for them. Next year.
The boys on the other hand got the 4X800 team, 4x400 team and two 800 runs to region meet.
I coach the 800 and up runners, so there is still more work to do. Our one 800 runner broke the school record again in 1:58.7, hopefully he breaks it two more times. He should. He is right where he should be.

Indoor Track Awards

Last night we had the indoor track team awards. Yes, outdoor track is almost over, but it took some time to get the awards. It was a fun time with the team in a good mood, except maybe Liz who is always sarcastic. This was the first time for an indoor team at Loudonville High School, so there were many established school records. They should fall easily next year, with the exception of the 800m time set by Kyle Lemke at 2:03.0.
Well done team and good luck in 2009.

I ran to the Lodge yesterday for a hilly 5 miler and plan on doing a track workout today. 5X800.
This week is district track meet and a few of my athletes should make it to the regional meet. We shall see. I hope to link up with the runners doing a training run at Mohican Friday night. It was to be a night run, but sounds to be altered to an extended evening run, which I will not be able to run. The track meet should run into late evening. Of course I can go out on my own for a night run.

RAIN, RAIN, RAIN, RAIN, RAIN.............

The theme for the weekend was Rain.
Friday I had a track meet at Hillsdale HS. I was thinking all evening of the night run at Mohican and how I wish I was there and not where I was. Around 8 PM it started to rain and rained and rained. We left the meet around 11 PM. I was soaked and wondered how the runners at Mohican were. Wet of course.
Saturday, once I got my ass out of bed I went to play catch up with the runners at Mohican. I found Rob between Rock Point and South Park. We ran together and I told him who was in front of him and how far. That seemed to cause his nostrils to flare. We ran at a good pace and then we saw a group of three runners in front of us. I told Rob or is it Bullet now, that we would catch them on the big hill a half mile away. Not so..we passed them with in two minutes and there was no stopping the bullet. I was exchanging some pleasantries as Rob was putting lots of distance between me and him. I knew once we got to the down hill I could catch up. And I did. Now what to do. I decided we needed to make them not want to pursue us, so I increased the pace up to the big hill. I also knew Rob would leave his friend in the dust and behind. And he did. I waved good bye, as I knew the next place I would see him was at the covered bridge. Unless, of course, Sir Fallsalot got him. He did not. Ran about 14 miles.
Well to make a long story somewhat shorter, I finished and no one passed me. Saw Rob at the Covered Bridge. Rob smashed the pace as hard as the tree smashed a car at the covered bridge.

Sunday was a miserable morning. Hard boiled runners I have know for years refused to run because it was so wet. They were seen slinking off in a most shameful manner. We had no choice but to let them go home to there nice warm beds and cry to someone who was inclined to hear them.
The 10 hardy soles that decided to go on and run, headed out. Did I mention it was raining and cold. I error ed in my running gear. Only wearing a tee shirt and running short we headed out in 48 degree temperatures, and did I mention it was raining. Well it was.
I decided the best way to do this run was to get it over with quickly. So when I took the lead I pushed the pace. Everyone followed and we had a good wet, cold run. I actually had an excellent run. Why is it that my best runs are at 50 degrees and pouring rain? I don't know and I don't like it. So I will cease the whining and say after a nice hot shower all was fine. Enough said!
17.2 miles - Orange loop.

Repeats at LHS & More..............

What a beautiful day, so after taking Betty to Cleveland Clinic for a MRA, I did my scheduled repeat workout. Nothing fancy or long: 1.25 mile warm up, 8 - 200 meter intervals at 35 seconds, then a mile cool down.
Afterwards I had track practice.
I did talk to a parent of a former cross country runner and found out he is doing a three race series in Utah where he lives. The races are ultra distances and on trail. I surely corrupted him.
I hope and plan on doing some of the Mohican Group Training runs this weekend. Friday nights out do to a track invitational. Saturday if I can get my ass out of bed after getting home after mid night on Friday. However, Sunday is for sure.

Dogwood Morning

fter completing my many chores, I headed from my house to Mohican Resort Lodge. This is a 5 mile run on hilly roads. The most notable thing noticed were the blooming dogwoods. They were in full bloom and line my running route. I also noticed the new section of trail going from the purple loop of Mohican to the lodge and presumably to Malabar Farm State Park. I will have to run this one day soon.
What a gorgeous day; 68, sun and dogwoods. It is good to be alive.