Tag Archives: Running

Practice, Running, Trail run, Training Log

January 12-18 Practice Running

Monday, January 12, 2015, 4:37 pm

3.16 mi, 28 ft gain, 29:17. Around town, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

My left achilles is still achey and tight. When that happens, it always seems to tighten up even more in the first 0.5 mi or so, maybe my body trying to protect it. Then it starts to warm up and loosen up. It took almost 2 miles for it to loosen up all the way.

My legs are still sore, but not as bad as yesterday. I definitely felt better after today’s run than before. Looking forward to getting back to some climbing, probably next week.

Average HR 124 bpm. I don’t think this is at all accurate. At one point glanced down and my HR was supposedly over 190 bpm. Most of the rest of the time it was around 115 to low 120s.

 

Tuesday, January 13, 2015, 4:44 pm

3.19 mi, 38 ft gain, 28:41. Around town, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

I felt much better starting today than yesterday. My left achilles is still a little tight, but not bad. It loosened up much more quickly today as well. I only have a little minor muscle soreness left as well. I almost felt back to normal and was nearly running at my normal pace for this kind of run with the dogs.

I’ll probably go a little longer tomorrow.

Average HR 130 bpm. I think the Mio Link was wrong part of the time. I looked a couple times and it said my HR was in the 140s bpm, but I felt more like the mid 120s.

 

Wednesday, January 14, 2015, 6:08 pm

8.14 mi, 1136 ft gain, 1:16:47. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red.

Very minimal left achilles soreness today. My legs felt great, nearly fully recovered. It was a little chilly, mostly because of the wind.

I warmed up within the first 0.8 mi or so. The logging roads were kind of sloppy from the trucks again, so I decided to go over the hill instead. So it was only muddy the first and last 0.8 mi, where the road forks. The intersection for the hill is another 0.2 mi from there. It’s just under 1 mi from there to the beginning of the hill.

The climb up on both sides felt pretty easy, which is awesome and will definitely help with some of the races I want to do this year. I felt so good that I might hit Wallace Falls for the first time this year. I’m going to have to get after it sometime if I want to make it up 50 times this year.

Average HR 128 bpm.

 

Thursday, January 15, 2015, 4:08 pm

11.14 mi, 2134 ft gain, 1:59:20. Through town to Upper Wallace Falls #1, solo. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

A little tired today. I decided to get up a little “earlier” than yesterday and try to work my way toward sleeping and waking earlier, so I didn’t get a full night’s sleep. I’m also coming down with some sort of bug, runny nose, and a little bit of a sore throat.

My legs felt good the whole time. It was rather windy through town, but I didn’t really notice once I got back into the trees.

I pushed a little bit going up. I ended up getting my 2nd best time up. I used my headlamp starting a little over halfway up. There was still a little light from dusk, so I didn’t need much from the headlamp. For the descent, I switched it to medium (165 lumens). It was plenty of light. I didn’t push very hard on the way down, but still got my 2nd best descent time as well.

The rain held off until about the time I hit the roads on the way back home. I brought my new Outdoor Research Helium II jacket, folded up in its pocket, carried in the front pocket of my reflective safety vest. The wind and rain picked up a bit once I got back to US2 heading home. I stopped in at the grocery store to use the restroom and put on my jacket. I was so much warmer with the jacket.

Average HR 140 bpm.

 

Friday, January 16, 2015, 4:32 pm

10.08 mi, 1411 ft gain, 1:52:07. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

The cold has taken hold a little more today. Nose isn’t quite so runny, but throat is slightly more sore and a little more general head cold type discomfort. I think it had a little bit of an effect on my performance today, but not too bad.

The roads were sloppy again, though not at all once I turned off the main road. I didn’t want to deal with the mud, so I went over the hill. Once to the other side, I decided to go out and up the little hill on that side.

I was shooting for 10 mi. The extra out and back on the little hill didn’t quite do it, so I did a repeat on the steeper part near the top on the east side. It still wasn’t quite enough, so on the way back I went up the hill about 0.25 mi from the gate.

Other than the cold, I felt good. I’m hoping it doesn’t last too long though. While it hasn’t been too hard on my running, it’s taken a toll on my energy and will to get other things done.

Average HR 120 bpm.

 

Saturday, January 17, 2015, 3:05 pm

10.32 mi, 1668 ft gain, 1:40:43. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red.

I waited too long to get out for my run today. It wasn’t raining earlier today. It was just starting a little when I started my run. I broke out the OR Helium II jacket again. I also took a handheld water bottle, which I haven’t been taking.

The plan was to do about 12 mi or so. I almost turned around and bagged it between 2-3 mi out. The head cold was bothering me. I usually feel better throughout the day. The wind and rain weren’t all that pleasant either. I wasn’t cold at the time, but I wasn’t sure how I’d feel later.

I’m glad I stuck it out, because I started feeling better a little past 3 mi. I went over the hill again today. I was going to maybe go over and back twice.

The OR Helium II kept me fairly dry for about an hour. After that, I was pretty wet, especially my arms. Maybe I keep my forearms above vertical. I had the hood on the whole time, but my body still got wet. It did keep me fairly warm though, and drier than without the jacket. The last 25 minutes or so, I started to get a little cold, mostly because my gloves were soaked through and the wind picked up blowing in my face.

I ended up going back up the hill far enough to break 10 mi by the end. I didn’t take a light with me, and I didn’t want to be out after dark, so that’s about all I had time for before the light went as well.
I think I’ll be looking for some waterproof gloves.

Average HR 133 bpm.

 

Sunday, January 18, 2015, 3:48 pm

11.03 mi, 2262 ft gain, 1:57:36. Through town to Upper Wallace Falls #2, Solo. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

This cold has me a little unsure about how much energy I have and how well I feel running. I’m past the sore throat and faucet for a nose phase. Now it’s just general malaise in and around my sinuses, and a little bit of sneezing. It’s not really slowing me down though.

The weather was pretty nasty overnight and earlier today. I got up around 9:30 this morning, hours earlier than I have been getting up for quite a while. I thought about getting out for my run and getting back in time to watch the Seahawks, but the weather was still pretty crappy. There were breaks in the rain and wind, but then it would start absolutely pouring. It even hailed like crazy for about 5 minutes, then slowed down. I’m glad I wasn’t out in it. So, I ended up waiting until after the game to head out. I almost left in the middle of the game, but glad I didn’t. I got some things done during the game as well, so it wasn’t wasted time. I may write a post about that.

Anyway, I always seem to go a little faster when I don’t have the dogs with me. I felt pretty good from the get go. I hit the Wallace Falls parking lot at about 26 min, had a brief pitstop in the restroom, signed the register and moved out. I took it a little easier than a few days ago. I think it was about 34 minutes to the Upper Falls. I spent a couple minutes there. I didn’t push myself that hard up the last climb, so I didn’t need the rest, but I wasn’t in a rush. I took a picture of the falls. They were roaring pretty good from all the rain. I got out my headlamp and headed back down the trail.

I also took it a little easier on the downhill than the other day. With the trail so wet, all the colors on the trail were pretty close, so it was a little harder to make out obstacles. I managed just fine, though. I’m not sure why I had so much trouble rolling my ankles last year. Maybe it’s just taken more practice.

I made it from TH back to the TH in 63 min. I finished off my water bottle and refilled in the restroom, then headed for home. A little over 25 min later, and I was home.

I felt pretty good the whole time. I had a little tightness up the inside of my lower right leg from the top of my foot over my arch. My shoe was a little tight across there, so I think that may have been at least part of the problem. I didn’t notice when it stopped, but it was fine by the time I got home.

If I didn’t know any better, I’d say the 50k was a couple weeks ago rather than just last weekend from how great I feel. Maybe I didn’t race it hard enough, maybe my body’s gotten used to it and recovers quickly, and maybe it’s a little of both.

Average HR 138 bpm.

 

Weekly Totals: 57.1 mi, 8611 ft gain

Practice, Races, Running, Trail run, Training Log

January 5-11 Practice Running

Monday, January 5, 2015, 6:30 pm

5.17 mi,  539 ft gain, 58:14. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

My hamstrings were a little sore starting out today. Everything else was pretty good. They felt a little better later in the run.

I’m glad I waited until the evening. It was still absolutely pouring down this morning and mostly stopped by afternoon. But the logging road I ended up running on had flooded and was probably still underwater into the afternoon. Olney creek was very high, only about 18 inches from the bottom of the small bridge I ran across when I was there. But the road was covered in silt and all the grass was brushed to the downstream side from moving water up to a couple feet above the level of the bridge deck. That’s about 5 or 6 feet higher than when I was there. It would have been cool to see Olney Falls or Wallace Falls with all that water.

After such a strong December, I felt like I barely got started when I made it back to the car. I still have a little soreness in parts of my lower legs from December, and I have the Bridle Trails 50k on Saturday, so I’m going to continue to take it easy this week and probably most of next week as well.

Average HR 123 bpm.

 

Tuesday, January 6, 2015, 4:22 pm

5.12 mi, 46 ft gain, 46:57. Town RR access rd, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

I finally got out with daylight again today. The alpenglow on the mountains to the north and sunset to the southwest made for some great views on this flat run through town.

Jumped the tracks to the river side about a mile out and ran on the access road. There were some workers who appeared to be staging some things by a couple of the piles of concrete railroad ties.

Lower legs are still a little tight, but better later. It’s getting better, but I’m a little unsure about turning the 50k into a back-to-back this weekend. It’s fairly flat, and it seems to be better on flatter terrain.
It still felt like a really short run.

Average HR 124 bpm.

 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015, 4:27 pm

5.32 mi, 46 ft gain, 47:26. Town RR access rd, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

Today was much like yesterday. Pretty much the same route and near the same pace. The sky wasn’t quite as spectacular today, however.

The Mio Link was kind of buggy starting out. It showed my HR way high, in the 170s. Based on my breathing and how I felt, I think it was in the low to mid 120s at the time. It does this occasionally, and I haven’t figured out the problem. It’s probably related to contact between the sensors and my skin, but I wear it in almost the exact same spot at the same tension every time, so I’m not sure. Maybe it’s a low battery issue. Or maybe some ambient radio signal messes with the connection with my Suunto.

I had a weird twinge on the inside of my leg just above my left ankle. I’m not sure what it was. It lasted for a while then disappeared.

I’m both looking forward to the Bridle Trails 50k this Saturday and a little apprehensive. I haven’t had a proper long run since sometime in November. I think my long December streak makes up for it, though.

I’m also unsure if I want to go just to finish and treat it completely as a long training run, or if I want to race and see how fast I can go. From reading about it, it seems flat enough that I could maybe set a 50k PR. But it can also be quite muddy, and it’s supposed to rain, so that might limit my speed. Either way, I plan to take it easier for the first 4 laps, then maybe make a push for the last 2.

Average HR 129 bpm.

 

Thursday, January 8, 2015, 5:23 pm

4.81 mi, 367 ft gain, 51:21. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1 loop, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red.

Went out for 4-6 mi. The logging roads were really sloppy from all the big trucks. They’re logging somewhere up the hill toward Wallace Lake. My run on Monday was detoured because of it.

It was a little cool tonight, but not too bad. I warmed up fairly quickly. The first mile went by more quickly than it has the past few days. Running was pretty easy tonight.

Average HR 121 bpm.

 

Friday, January 9, 2015, 5:21 pm

4.56 mi, 330 ft gain, 50:33. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

The logging roads were much less sloppy today, though I didn’t run around the loop, which was sloppiest yesterday. Running was pretty easy too.

I still keep going back and forth over whether to race or just run tomorrow. With all the other runners, it’s always tough to hold back. I guess I just need more practice.

Average HR 123 bpm.

 

Saturday, January 10, 2015, 3:00 pm

28.18 mi, 1415 ft gain, 3:59:13. Bridle Trails Winter Running Festival 50k, solo. New Balance MT1010v2.

I started a little further back in the crowd than I originally wanted, but I think it helped me take it easy to start. I might try it again in the future for long races.

My HR was way high early. It started coming back down after the first lap. I have HR, pace and cadence to scroll through on the bottom section of the main screen on my Suunto Ambit 2 R. I ended up switching to pace and leaving it there for most of the race. I checked on my HR a couple times, but it was still higher than I expected, so I paced myself by my breathing instead.

It wasn’t too muddy early on. After a couple laps, the mud got turned up pretty good, but it wasn’t bad. It was kind of thick and not too slick.

I ran with one handheld and my UD SJ Essential belt. Originally, I carried my ziploc baggy of dehydrated bananas and dates in the belt, but switched to the handheld pocket after a few laps instead.

I drank one full bottle about every 2 laps. At the end of lap 2 I stopped at the aid station to refill my bottle and ate a piece of banana dipped in salt, stopped to pee, and got in my drop bag to grab my headlamp. I didn’t turn the headlamp on until about halfway through lap 3. I was going to grab more food at the end of lap 3 but I forgot. It wasn’t a problem, as I ate pretty good before the race. At the end of lap 4 I refilled my bottle, had another chunk of banana with salt, grabbed more food from my drop bag and dropped off my hat. I got a little more dehydrated than I prefer to be. I wanted to limit restroom stops, and it worked. But I finished off the bottle by the end of lap 5, grabbed another banana with salt, refilled the bottle about 1/3 and downed that before getting to the start/finish area, where I tossed my empty bottle with my 2nd empty food baggy over by my drop bag. Then I went off for the final lap.

I felt better than I expected later pretty much all race. I think my big December streak and the taper made a difference. I felt great until about the last 1.5-2 mi, when I had to put in more effort to keep up my pace. I still felt better than the end of pretty much all my other 50k races.

My lap splits were pretty even the whole night, right around 40 min give or take a little. I came through the halfway point at about 2:00:15, so I met my first goal of 2015 and ran a negative split for the second half of my first ultra of the year, though not by much. That’s all including time stopping at the aid station, toilets and drop bag. I did pretty well not stopping much. According to Strava, my moving time was only 3 minutes less than total time. And while I did go sup 4 hrs, I’m not counting it as a 50k PR or as meeting my sub 4 hr 50k goal, because the course was a little short, probably more like 46-47k.

I was passing people pretty regularly the 1st lap, still quite a few the 2nd lap, a handful on the 3rd lap, a few less on the 4th lap, just one or two on the 5th lap, and I don’t know if I passed anyone on the final lap. That’s not including lapping people. There were a couple guys that re-passed me when I stopped for aid/restroom/drop bag, but I caught back up and passed them again not too far down the trail.

The only person who passed me and stayed away was the 2nd runner of the winning pairs 50k relay team, Uli Steidl, who flew by me (lapping me) about halfway through my 5th lap.

I managed to not get lapped by the 3 guys who finished ahead of me. Looking at the early results before I left, 2nd and 3rd place were pretty close at the end. The winner finished in something like 3:33 and change. Something to work towards in the future perhaps.

I ate about 700 calories and drank about 70 oz of water. Both were lower than I’m used to, but it worked out great. For this weather, distance and time, I think that probably works better than eating and drinking as much as I have in the past. I could probably have done with a little more water, but it worked out. I had 2 more bottles worth of water and the last baggy of food by the time I made it home.

I really enjoyed the race. The trails were great, with excellent marking. Seattle Running Club and Northwest Trail Runs did an awesome job. If it fits in my schedule, I’ll be there again next year.

Average HR 157 bpm.

 

Sunday, January 11, 2015, 5:49 pm

10.61 mi, 1173 ft gain, 2:02:45. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

This run was really rough starting out. My legs were sore all over. My left achilles tight and achey. I think from the heel counter on the MT1010v2 pushing into it during the race. If I’m going to wear those for more muddy races, I’m going to have to do something about that. The Superior 1.5 just doesn’t have enough traction in mud, and I’ve probably got 1000-1500 mi worth of them left in the two that I’m currently rotating and the two extra pairs I have in waiting.

Back to the run. I started to loosen up a little by about 0.5 mi, and even more by 1.5 mi. I headed straight out toward the road to Wallace Lake. I planned to go up to the lake and add on enough more to make 10-15 mi. But I very quickly decided to keep it closer to the low end. I forgot that they were logging up toward the lake and had to change plans. I went up the other road at the ‘Y’ to the end, then out to the end of the next road lower.

On the way back, I turned toward the connector hill and ended up going out about a mile. It’s 1 mi from the gate to that intersection, so 2 mi from where I turned around, which is the first turn at the very start of the hill.

I felt pretty decent from about 4-8 mi considering how bad I felt at the start. I don’t think I refilled my glycogen stores enough after the race and before this run, and my energy levels were pretty low for the last couple mi. It wasn’t terrible, though.

I saw my friend the northern saw-whet owl again and got some photos. A couple turned out ok.

My original plan weeks ago when I signed up for the Bridle Trails 50k was to use it as the first of back-to-back long runs. I felt really good during the race and decided to go after it, which I paid for today. I have a feeling I’ll end up doing the same at the Lord Hill 50k next month. I also planned to use it as the first back-to-back long run that weekend. I’ll probably be recovered enough for about 20 mi next weekend, but might do 15 and 10 b2b instead, or something like it. Then in 2 weeks hit a couple b2b long runs, which will give me 2 weeks recovery from Bridle, 2 weeks recover until my last short race of the winter, and 2 more weeks until Lord Hill. Then if I go b2b long runs 2 weeks after that, I’ll have 3 weeks to recover if I decide to do another big race.

Average HR 114 bpm.

 

Weekly totals: 63.8 mi, 3915 ft gain

Goals, Practice, Running

My 2015 Running Goals

I’m not big on resolutions. I prefer goals. Resolutions often seem more like rules to me. Goals give us something to strive for, to expand our limits.

Maybe it’s just semantics. Whatever you call them, though, you have to put in the work. No one’s going to run the miles for me.

Here’s my current list of running related goals:

Goals for 2015

◆    3000 miles for the year
◆    400,000 ft gain for the year
◆    Complete my first 100 miler
◆    Run the Pacific Crest Trail Section J solo in one shot, Stevens Pass to Snoqualmie Pass
◆    Negative split an ultra — Jan 10. Bridle Trails Winter Running Festival 50k. 2nd half faster, barely.
◆    First 100 mile training week (not including the 100 miler)
◆    Run everyday
◆    Run to Upper Wallace Falls 50 times in the year
◆    Wallace Falls everyday for a week
◆    Lake Serene quad (~28 mi, 10,400 ft gain)
◆    Traverse Baring Mtn, Barclay Lk, Eagle Lk, Townsend Mtn, Flapjack Pt, Eagle Rock & back to TH (~21.5 mi, 13,000ft gain.)
◆    Run up to peak of Mount Stickney from Wallace Falls side
◆    5:30 1 mile
◆    Sub 18 min 5k
◆    Traverse Mt Persis, Persindex, Mt Index

Longer term goals

◆    2:45 marathon
◆    Sub 4 hour 50k
◆    Sub 8 hour 50 miler
◆    Sub 20 hour 100 miler
◆    Solo run the Wonderland Trail
◆    Organize and direct a trail race
◆    Win an ultra, any distance

Now that I’ve put this out there, I guess I have to go after it.

Practice, Running, Trail run, Training Log

December 29 – January 4 Practice Running

Monday, December 29, 2014, 6:39 pm

11.48 mi, 1439 ft gain, 2:01:34. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1 loop & hill, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

Starting to feel a little worn down from the streak, but not too bad. Took it pretty easy.

I’m writing this several days later, and unfortunately, I don’t remember much about the run.

Average HR 121 bpm.

 

Tuesday, December 30, 2014, 4:16 pm

11.07 mi, 867 ft gain, 1:35:49. Through town to Wallace Falls RR Grade, solo. New Balance MR10v2.

Also writing this several days later.

I gave the dogs a day off. I felt better than the previous day. Had to turn on the headlamp before getting to the turnaround at the Greg Ball trail junction.

I used my new Amphipod reflective safety vest that I got for Christmas. I like the front pocket.

I had a couple small, flat packages that I needed to mail, so I carried them with me and stopped off at the post office on my way out. It’s about a 5 min drive to the P.O., and took about 8 min running.

Average HR 128 bpm.

 

Wednesday, December 31, 2014, 6:59 pm

11.06 mi, 1470 ft gain, 1:54:53. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1 loop & hill, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red.

I didn’t have a lot of energy starting out. My right lower calf has become rather tight and a bit sore the last couple days. It’s like my body knew that today was the end of the year end push, and will get to take it easier for a little while to recover.

It was kind of chilly, but not too bad. I had a bit of frost form on my beard and mustache from my breathe. It was noticeably colder on the flat between the main road and the hill. It’s always colder in that section.

I felt a little better after a few miles, though my calf was about the same the whole time. I’m looking forward to some shorter runs for a while, and to see if this stretch of training has had any effect on my fitness after some recovery.

I have an 8 mi race on Sunday, but I’ll take it easy until then and again for the following week until the Bridle Trails Winter Running Festival 50k on Jan 10. I plan to run the 50k at a fairly easy pace and then another 15-20 mi run the next day as my first big back-to-back training for a 100 miler.

Average HR 125 bpm.

Looking forward to more running adventures and breakthroughs in 2015.

 

Thursday, January 1, 2015, 7:23 pm

4.25 mi, ft gain, 48:08. Olney Falls DNR rd, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

Took it pretty easy. I wanted something a little hilly, and still not too difficult. I kept it short today after the long streak to finish out 2014.
The trouble spots I’ve had the last week or two felt better today. It’s almost like my body knew I’d be taking it easy for a few days.

I’m looking forward to Sunday’s 8 mi race. I might break out the old New Balance MT1010v2 for the race. It’s supposed to rain and will likely be muddy. They have much better mud traction than my Superiors.

Average HR 120 bpm.

 

Friday, January 2, 2015, 6:38 pm

5.51 mi, 96 ft gain, 40:56. Through town, solo. New Balance MR10v2.

That felt so short after my >10 mi streak. It was raining a little but not too bad. I kept the pace a little faster than I’ve been running, keeping my HR in the 140s for the most part, a little slower starting out. I went hard the last 0.2 mi or so.

My lower legs are still a little sore and tight, but getting better. I might do one 10+ mi run next week before the Bridle Trails 50k, but I’m going to keep it shorter and fairly easy until then, other than the 8 mi race on Sunday.

Average HR 142 bpm.

 

Saturday, January 3, 2015, 5:49 pm

4.24 mi, 360 ft gain, 36:50. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1 loop, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red.

Traffic was awful on US2 westbound on the way out to the tree farm. I’m not sure why that is today. It’s usually the end of the weekend when it gets this bad. On my way home, it looked even worse. Glad I was going east home.

I felt like going longer, but kept it short and easy ahead of tomorrows race and after a hard December.

It was really foggy, so I used my flashlight rather than headlamp for the most part. I went without light for a bit as well. Even with the fog, there was enough ambient light for some sections of the non-technical gravel/dirt logging roads. And I’ve run there enough to know the terrain really well.

Average HR 128 bpm.

 

Sunday, January 4, 2015, 9:11 am

1.49 mi, ft gain, 13:37. Warm-up St. Edwards Park, solo. New Balance MT1010v2.

Like the other races, my heart rate was a little elevated before the start. I ended up getting a better warm up today than the past couple.

Average HR 141 bpm.

 

Sunday, January 4, 2015, 9:36 am

8 mi, 1109 ft gain, 1:01:08.1. St. Edwards Park Absolution 8mi Race, solo. New Balance MT1010v2.

I went out too fast again, but dialed it back pretty quickly. Two guys passed me shortly after the start. I let them go ahead, but followed within sight. I’d catch up closer on the downhills and some of the climbs. At the end of the first lap, one of the guys went through the finish line, so I was left with one other guy.

I continued to follow. He went ahead a little more, and I let him go. I was still close enough to see him on some of the more open sections. I was pretty sure I’d catch up a bit on the downhill and probably the last climb as well. I got back to within 10 sec or so after the downhill. Then I let him go a little bit on the flat by the beach and caught back up on the climb. Looking back, I should have made a move on the climb, but I’m still new to racing and wasn’t sure what I’d have left for a kick at the end. Toward the top, he went off again. I reeled him in a bit on the short, steep descent before the last little climb. Once he hit the blacktop for the final flat section, he sped up. I picked up the pace there as well. With about 200-300 yards to go, I kicked hard, but I came up short by a couple steps.

Talking to him later, he didn’t know that I was pouring it on at the end, and he coasted through the finish. Just before that, the short blacktop section goes around a curve with a hedge directly off to the right side, blocking the view up ahead. He used that to speed up when I couldn’t see him. In the end, he beat me by half a second.

This was my first time intentionally staying behind in a race. In the couple races that I led from early on, I spent the rest of the time running scared, expecting that someone would catch me at any time. Running as the pursuer was less stressful, but I don’t know yet which strategy works better for me. Each event is so different, it’s hard to tell.

I’m very happy with my finishing time and 2nd place. And I got more racing experience for next time. I also got a strava segment course record.

Average HR 167 bpm.

 

Weekly Totals: 56.8 mi, 6176 ft gain.

Goals, Running

2014: It was a very good year

2014 was a great year.

I accomplished a lot more than I expected. I’m faster than ever, more aerobically fit and had my best year running.

I wanted to break a 20 minute 5k and did so this year. It wasn’t an official race, but I ran about 19:42. I didn’t warm up either. If I had, I think I would have been closer to 19 min. Sub 20 minutes isn’t my ultimate goal, but it was the first on my way. Next is sub 18 min.

Throughout the year, I broke my weekly mileage PR a number of times, including two weeks in a row in my December push, 77.1 mi and 77.3 mi. I expect to go beyond that sometime in the next couple of months.

I also had several monthly mileage PRs. Breaking 200 mi in a month was a big deal for me. And December’s 312.1 mi is huge. I’ll probably beat that in 2015 as well, but I don’t have any specific plans to do so.

I achieved some racing goals as well. In April I set a 41 minute PR at the Mt. Si Ultra 50k, finishing in 4:35:04. I was only couple minutes off from the finish time that I visualized leading up to the race.

In May I narrowly missed my 5 hour goal at the Soaring Eagle 50k by about 5 minutes. Without knowing the course at all beforehand, I did pretty well. And I had my first top 5 finish, though the field was pretty small.

In June I also narrowly missed my finish time goal, 5:30:00, at the Rattlesnake Ridge Run 50k by only 1:15. Finishing 10th was awesome.

Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to my first 50 miler, rolling my ankle three weeks prior.

But in September I ran the Sri Chinmoy Self Transcendence 7 hour race. I missed my reach goal of 50 mi, but did well to beat my primary goal of 40 mi. Officially, I finished with 42.784 mi, finishing 3rd.

This winter I’ve been running some shorter races primarily to work on improving my speed. Earlier in the year I set a goal to win a race. At the time, I meant an ultra, but I didn’t specify in my actual wording of the goal. I’ll leave it up to you as to whether it makes a difference, but I’ve now added “win an ultra” to the list. Anyway, I won my first two shorter trail races, an 8k and a 5 mi. I finished 3rd in the third race and have two more to go, possibly three if I feel up to a 5k or 10k the weekend after my upcoming 50k.

I set my most recent 2014 goal on Dec 7. I’ve already been running everyday since Aug 13. I wanted to push myself a little more and decided to finish out the year running at least 10 mi each day. I ran over 10 mi for 25 days straight, averaging a little over 11 mi for Dec 7-31. I did doubles once. And triples on my last 10k race day, a short warm up, the race, and a short run with the dogs once I got home. But I got in my mileage everyday.

As for my goals for yearly totals, I didn’t really set any until a few months ago. I’m not sure exactly when, though. I wanted to break 2000 mi for the year and 200,000 ft gain. I broke 200,000 ft gain the end of November, so I increased that to 230,000 ft. With my big December push and my final run of 2014, I ended up with 2003.8 mi and 234,799 ft gain. This was a big build up year for me. I only hit 1000 mi on Aug 21, so I did my second 1000 mi in 4 months and 10 days, and I took November fairly easy. I’m already thrilled with my year running, and that all makes it even better.

I’m currently working on my 2015 goals and will post something in the next month. I’m working on some big plans.

Hope your 2014 was as great as mine and 2015 is even better.