Braking Stagnation

Yesterday I was in Boardman visiting my parents for Thanksgiving. I got up early in the morning to do my run from their home and to Mill Creek Park just down the road. I have a 10 km loop I like to run. The morning was crisp and clear with the temperature at 32 degrees.
As I was running traversing Newport Lake I was amazed how invigorating the run was to me.
I just wanted to run on for miles, but unfortunately family had some expectation of my visit.
There were many walkers and runners out and about doing their exercise before the gluttony of the day was to take place.
My run was very refreshing and hopefully will help with the stagnation that has taken place in my own running.
Here's hoping all had a Happy Thanksgiving.

Yoga 2 A Better Day!

I did Yoga at the YMCA last night and it went a little better. I am still as inflexible as a brick, but it's nice to know some younger folks are less flexible than me. I hope yoga will give me the ability down the road to run like a gazelle.

Ran 3 miles yesterday to the lodge road.
Ran 5 miles on Monday at Mohican, partly trail and partly road. Also, did my ab workout.
This is officially my Week #1 workout towards the Ghost Town 38.5 mile run, New Mexico.

15 Miles on the Trails of Mohican

Today I ran 15 miles on the trails of Mohican. Meeting with the early birds at 8 AM, we ran the infamous purple loop (Rob, Michelle, and Mike from Columbus). At the 3 mile point of the run we ran into the Medina Connection (Roy Heger, Patrick, and others---oops at 58 you tend to forget names and other things.). After returning to the covered bridge we headed out the red loop to the bridle staging area and continued to a point where me and Rob planned to abort to do a section of trail to be used on 'Forget the PR 50KM' race to be held on April 19th. The others went on to Rock Point then back to the covered bridge via south park and fire tower.
I was pleased with my 15 miles and seeing a section of trail I have not run before.
The weather was much cooler and some runners not to be named made fun of my attire. I was however very comfortable and did not get overheated.
Thanks Rob for making me do the additional 0.3 miles to make 15 miles even.

Here's a challenge for 'One-More-Mile'

Many people are very generous and give to charities all the time and some people don't.
There is a race or challenge going on as we speak to raise money for two charities. The winner's charity and the race director's charity. The contestants each pledge an entry and how these monies will be distributed is based on running one mile starting November 1st, then adding one mile each continuing day. So on November 30 they will run 30 miles and December 1st it will be 31 miles.
Lot's of miles. Now my challenge isn't just to see the monies for the charities. I think the suffering by the runners is much more desirable. If the monies are high they won't cave as easy, so let's make them suffer for the win (Last Athlete STanding). If you would like to follow the venture go to http://1milechallenge.blogspot.com/ I know they will keep this up if the donations pour in and I would to see just who is willing to endure the most pain for their charity.

Oh by the way I ran 10 miles today in the pouring rain at 53 degrees. Now that's running weather.

Yoga and running.

I told some of my cross country runners who are very tight and inflexible, that they should try yoga. They pointed out that I was also very inflexible. My inflexibility has to do with age and stubbornness. Now let's get back to running and yoga.
So I found a class or yoga session at a nearby YMCA and we tried it out on Tuesday night.
Welllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll, I must say that was some workout for something I thought was more in the meditation and reflection mode. You actually have to do stuff. I was exhausted after the first session. Hold on, so were the kids. One even asked if I thought they might be sore the next day.
I think over time we may become more flexible so we are going to continue the weekly routine.
The instructor did tell us that we did fairly well considering she did not start us out in basic mode, but we did more advanced yoga.

Now to running. I ran 3 on Tuesday, 5 on Wednesday and shortly will be doing 10 on Mohican trails. On-on!

I Know Why I Don't Like To Put It In Writing!

I thought Blogging was a great tool and would keep one on task once a plan was laid out.
Well I laid out a plan and laid an egg. Since I got side tracked my plan went out the window.
So now Plan Redo.
I will begin my 10 week plan next Sunday heading to the Ghost Town 38.5 mile race in New Mexico in February. This week I have challenged myself with 10's. Ten miles every day through Friday.

I ran 11.7 miles on Saturday with Rob 'My Aching Back' Powell, formerly Rob '?' Powell. It was a nice run and we ran a section of the Mohican 50km. I will be #13 and I am entered.
Today I ran the 1st 10 miler. What a nice day. I hope winter is like this every day.

Tomorrow I will start core strengthening and Yoga. Yes I said Yoga. I can't believe I am really going to do this. I talked several cross country runners into doing it and they would if I did.
So I will do it until they quit, then it will probably be history. Who knows.

Race plan for the next several months: 12/13 Urineo 50 miles, OH
1/18 Ghost Town 38.5 Miles, NM
2/7 Rocky Raccoon 100, TX
3/21 National Marathon, DC
4/18 Forget the PR, Mohican 50 km, OH
5/30 No Frills Just Hills 6 Hour, OH
There you have it. See you later..........................................

Houston, we got a problem.

It has come to my attention via Nick, that I have not Blogged since October 3.
Well to my surprise, my trusted house elf did not keep my posts up to date. Shame, shame, shame!

Thanks Nick for making that known to me. I would not want people to think I was pulling a Josh and taking an extended brake from my blog.

Now for the update: My training schedule is shot. So I will start anew with week #1 next week.
For some reason cross country got very active for me and I got side tracked on my own training.
I did volunteer at an Ultra last weekend. I worked an aid station with Rob 'puke your guts out' Powell. We worked the Kendall Lake aid station at 'Running with Scissors Double Marathon'.

Speaking of Rob, he has been working diligently on the 'Forget the PR 50 km or Mohican 50 km Ultra' here at Mohican. It looks to be an exciting 50 km.

Review Week #2

I must confess that I faltered a little this week. I was to do 40 miles however only completed 32 as I took two days off instead of the one. I guess I will pay the price next week without a day off.

Sunday (9/28) - 5 miles
Monday (9/29) - 3 miles
Tuesday (9/30) - 16 miles
Wednesday (10/1) - 3 miles
Thursday and Saturday - off
Friday (10/3) - 5 miles

Week #3: 58 miles with an 18 mile long run and 2- Tempo runs of 8 miles.
Since Sunday is the 1st day of the new week I did run an 8 mile tempo run on the B+O Trail from Butler, Ohio. It was an excellent run pushing the heart rate to 80-85%. So the week started off well. Will do the weight measurement tomorrow morning.
Chow!!!!!!!!!

B+O Trail - 16 miles

I finally got out and did my long run for the week. I know it's only Tuesday, but I was supposed to do this run on Sunday. I put it off as I was to lazy to do it on Sunday and settled for a 5 miler at Mohican. Monday was no better and I did my scheduled 3 miler at Mohican. This morning I was so inspired to get out and run, I put the whole 16 miles in. It was nice being 58, cloudy and breezy. It was rather humid though. The trail was isolated with hardly a sole to be past.
Oh well it's in the books so to speak. Tomorrow a tempo run of 8 miles. On on!

Review Week #1

I thought I would be doing a fantastic job of updating my progress daily, NOT!
So here is my week number #1 training update towards Rocky Raccoon 100:

Weight has dropped from 155# to 150#. Goal: 128.
Miles for the week: 41.25 Goal: 30 miles
Sunday: 15 miles
Monday: 5 miles
Tuesday: Off- Home CC meet. (Planned)
Wednesday: Tempo run of 8.2 miles - 4 miles tempo pace.
Thursday: 5 miles
Friday: 3.25 miles
Saturday: Off- away invitational (Unplanned)
So, I exceeded the mileage, took an extra day off, lost 5#'s and got all major runs done.

Week #2: (9/28-10/4) 40 miles: includes 16 mile long and a tempo run.

We continue......................................

Catch Up Time

Since Sunday I have been so busy time has just flew by.
Monday I did a run of 5 miles at Mohican. They included road and trail.
Tuesday I was to run 3 miles, but did not. I will do two runs on Thursday. Tuesday was a 4-way cross country meet at our school, so with set up, races and tear down, the day was a blurrrrr!
Today I ran an 8 mile tempo run. It was a worker and I'm 4 weeks out of shape. Did the run down at Mohican where I know the distances. At CC practice today I told the athletes the whinnying had to go or the whiners were going. I also told them they would be at practice during the Loudonville street fair or they would be gone baby gone.
So there you have it quick and dirty......
Thursday two - three mile runs. Now give me a break, this is a 30 mile week and doing 15 miles on Sunday left little mileage to distribute for the week. Don't worry I will pay in the weeks of 60 and 70 miles.

Mansfield Running Club

This morning Rob Powell and I planned on doing a 15 mile run.
Rob called last night, Saturday and asked if I would be interested in running with the Mansfield Running Club in Lexington at the B+O Trail. Running with people is usually better than running alone, so I said sure.
So we met in Lexington at 7 AM. Quite a large group to start, but that dwindled down pretty quickly. Michelle the speed demon was running with me and Rob as things broke up. Michelle was doing a 17 mile run and wanted to do it at marathon pace, so after a mile to 2 miles she was off on a 7:15 pace. That left me and Rob. My plan was to run 15 and try and keep it at under 10 minute miles. Rob had some thoughts of his own. He would run with me to the 7.5 mile turn around and do his marathon pace for the return 7.5 miles. That would be 8:30 pace. So we parted ways.
I returned to the parking lot at the end of the run with a group still waiting to greet the lingerers.
To find out Rob ran 7:15-7:30 pace on the return. This is good as he has a marathon next weekend. Good Luck Rob at Akron Marathon.........
The Mansfield Running Club were a nice group and I enjoyed meeting them and look forward to running with them in the future.

Mohican Forest 4 and the plan.

5:30 PM I went to the Mohican forest headquarters and ran 4 miles of road. There was not a person to be found and very pleasant to run.

So, for those of you who want to know how I plan on getting ready for my 100 miler, take a look:

Wk #1 (9/21-27) 30 miles: includes 15 mile long one and a tempo run. Weight 155#.
Wk#2 (9/28-10/4) 40 miles: includes 16 mile long and a tempo run.
Wk#3 (10/5-10/11) 50 miles: includes 18 mile long and a tempo run.
wk#4 (10/12-10/18) 60 miles: includes 20 mile long, a tempo run, and moderate 10 mile.
Weight down to 145.
Wk#5 (10/19-10/25) 70 miles: includes 25 mile long, 2-10 mile, 1-12 mile, and a tempo run.
Wk#6 (10/26-11/1) 60 miles: 20 mile long, 1-10 mile, and a tempo run.
Wk#7 (11/2-11/8) 50 miles: 25 mile long and a tempo run.
Wk#8 (11/9-11/15) 50 miles: 30 mile long and a tempo run. Weight 135#.
Wk#9 (11/16-11/22) 50 miles: 18 miles long and a tempo run.
Wk#10 (11/23-11/29) 50+miles: Nifty 50, RI if they have it and a tempo run.
Let's just go to week 10 for now and see how I do. There will be an additional 10 weeks to Rocky Raccoon 100.

Simple Run for an Uncomplicated Person

Well to keep it simple I ran 3.5 miles with my cross country team. Actually parts there of. Ran very little with the fast runners, more with Haley, and surpassed a few of the extremely slow ones.
Haley just happens to run my pace.
The run was from LHS to the pool and back. So not much to talk about, but there will be more tomorrow.

Pushing Up Daisies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm Back!!
Yesterday I wanted to give my runners a long run after their Tuesday meet. However I wanted to do a hill workout, so I came up with a run that would accommodate both.
From the Loudonville High School there is a road that heads west called Maple Heights and has a horrendous hill with over a 300 foot climb. From there the runners continue on a roller coaster to the State Forest Entrance. Basically 4 miles out and return 4 miles. Some of the slower runners I had run 3.3 miles out and 3.3 miles back.
Well they were thrilled!
I was not planning on running the run since it would be to painful and I was going to do an easy flat run with are lesser runners. But no, several of my runners conned me into doing the hill run.
I went out with my top girl runner. We headed up Maple Heights hill. One third of the way up I bonked. I told her to go on as I could not do it on the day. She continued on and I thought if she could get up over that g-dam hill so could I. So on I went. I whole purpose of the run was to work the hills. On on!
I finally caught up we Haley at 2.1 miles and we headed on together. My number 5 boy (Jon) was to turn around at the 2.1 mile mark and head back. The number 4 boy (Andrew) asked him to run to the 3.3 mile turn around before they started. I told Jon he should turn around at the 2.1 mile turn around as he was not capable of making it to the 3.3 mile turnaround and back.
Well my strategy worked as he continued on with Andrew.
Haley and I ran on also. This is an up and down run the whole way. We made it out and back again. I can tell you I slept well last night and I'm sure all those kids did too.

I think this run and last Sunday's trail run with Rob and Michelle were a true wake up call for me to get my ass in gear. Lose 20 pounds and get 50 - 70 mile running weeks back in place.
How else am I going to run a sub-20 hour Rocky Raccoon 100.

This Sunday I will run 15 miles at Mohican, anyone interested?

Now I have a goal.

Today I entered the Ghost Town 38.5 Mile Ultra in New Mexico. The race will be run on January 18. Some asphalt road, some dirt road and some primitive trail in the beautiful high desert of New Mexico.
This will give me the needed focus to do the training in preparation for the race. I am more likely to do a training plan when it has a race connected to it. So now the training begins.
I am also planning on doing Rocky Raccoon 100 in February. Let the pain begin.
So far my scheduled races are as follows: 11/23 Nifty Fifty, RI (if they have it.), 12/13 URINEO 50, 1/18 Ghost Town 38.5, NM, 2/7 Rocky Raccoon 100.
That's a start to 2009.
You probably noted the Nifty Fifty race as if they have it. I have been wanting to do this race over the years, but always something gets in the way. Then the race was dropped. This year I noticed it was part of the New England Ultra Series. Which did not happen. I have been in contact with the race director and he said he may have it if there was enough interest. He said he wanted to do it on November 23 instead if the December 13 date that was listed in the N.E. Ultra Series. I have not heard from him if it is a go or not. If it is I will be there.

Now cross country, which has taken a lot of my spare time. My number 1 boy runner won his 3rd invitational in 4 meets. As a sophomore he is doing great and this coming Saturday will be his true test, as there will be 3 to 4 runners at his level. We will see what kind of metal he has.
I think he will break the school record of 16:24. Of course he does not know how fast he can really go. He does have a 16:30 under his belt.
My number 1 girl has been doing well, but was having problems getting a PR. I finally figured out her problem. She was running her races, but not competing in the races. Her first mile she races for position, then her 2nd and 3rd she maintains position even if the girls in front of her slow down. I told her she needs to be more aggressive and after the first mile go after the next girl and then the next and so on. Her last invitational she did that and got her PR. She said she felt great and had a focus throughout her race. Even though many of those girls on the line may be nice, after the guns goes off each and everyone of them are the enemy and should be trampled. I think she gets the picture now.

21 miles on a Beautiful Morning

Sunday morning Rob Powell arrived at my house at 7:00 am for a nice trail run in Mohican.
Rob wanted to do a longer run in preparation for the marathons he has coming up in September, and I wanted to kick start my training. What better way than a nice 21 mile run on trails.
It was 50 degrees with a lot of moisture in the air at the start of our journey. We decided to do the red and green loops of the Mohican Trail 100. It was such an enjoyable run. We did take it slow as Rob was so out of shape and drinking beer like a drunk sailor while watching the Ohio State game on Saturday. I was just out of shape!!!!!! My downfall is all the ice cream I eat during the summer.
We got to Rock point in around 2 hours with a little more than half way to go. On our way there we ran into a friend we both knew. Paul Bower was out walking his two dogs. Paul knew Rob as a young boy and was good friends with his dad. Rob hasn't seen Paul for years and I don't think Paul recognized him at first, so it was a nice reunion.
After Rock Point we stopped to pickup our stashed water about a half mile down the trail. The rest of the run was uneventful except more people were out and about. Temperatures were rising and our vim and vigor was waining. After the fire tower, a new section of trail was had going around a gas well. While I don't think it added too much extra distance, the trail was excellent removing a 1/10th mile of gravel access road. All and all a nice run, now it's time to get back into the full swing of training for a race in November.

Running Zone

Wow, 72 degrees very low humidity, now that's running in the zone. Ran to the lodge at noon. Bright sun on a hilly course, but all was fine as it felt great.
Time to head down to the school to get ready for the first cross country meet of the season.
Hopefully the kids are ready, since it really doesn't matter at this time....It's show time!

Schools Out For Summer, NOT!!!!!!!!!

I was reflecting on my summer after viewing many blogs I frequent. The one thing that seem to stick out was the many wonderful vacations many had this year. I unfortunately did not get to venture out this summer for many reason. So those of you who put fantastic glossies of your trips, thank you. I for one did enjoy them.
Cross country season is upon us. We start racing next week. I traditionally fight with our athletic director not to schedule any meets during the first week. I like to torture the kids an extra week before we have a meet. This year we will go to Mapleton Invitational on Tues., August 26 as our first meet. The boys have won this invite 5 of 6 years since it's inception, all the last 5 years. We will not this year.
I have a strong top 4 runners, however one is out for three meets for disciplinary reasons. The rest of the team is weak, so we are very unlikely to prevail.
The girls are slow, slow, slow. My one hope this year is Haley who is running strong and should do well individually. We shall see, we shall see!
One of the new boys out for CC has improved drastically. He wasn't going to come out this year after having mono at the end of the school year. I told him I would bring him along slowly...he believed me.
On last Thursday we had a long run of 8 miles. I told Andrew to just do 6 miles. I caught up with him around 1.5 miles into the run and decided to run the rest of his 6 miles with him. We got to the turn around and he wanted to do the full eight miles. I was impressed and we pushed on.
The last mile of the 8 he did slow a little, but he has improved a lot. And I got in an 8 mile run.
Now that's progress.

Canalways 5 km

Saturday I took three of my cross country runners for a road race near Navarre.
I have ran this one before and thought it would be a nice tune up race for this coming CC season.
Of course the boys felt I should run it also.
As not to embarrass the boys I did not get on the line with them. Instead held back about twenty feet. The field was pretty large with 386 runners, 209 men.
The blast horn went off and that was the last I saw of the boys. So I concentrated on my race. I was having trouble breathing for some reason, but still had a nice 7:01 mile. The first 3/4 mile is on road , then goes onto the bike path for the next 2 miles. The bike path is flat. The end of the race has a hill, but not to bad. I past at least 10 runners on the hill and a couple more on the straight away into the finish. All in all not bad as I am sooooo out of shape. My time was 23:42, 9th of 18 age group, 111th of 209 men, and 148th of 386 overall.
Now the boys faired a little better than me. Brian came in 3rd overall in 16:34, Jace 1st AG in 18:02, and Brandon 4th AG in 19:18.
The first cross country race for Loudonville will be August 26 at the Mapleton Invitational.