1100 miles

I got in a nice 8.35 miles of running followed by 25.7 miles on the bike this morning.

It put me over the 1100 mile mark for running in 2014.

Enjoy your run.

November Preview

Not too long ago, November was going to be an easy month to close out the race season.  I had scheduled a Veteran's Day 11K and a 12K trail race with about two weeks between the two and planned on targeting them for decent times at shorter distances than I have raced most of the year.  Then I suddenly got free entries to several events.

Here is the complete list for the month:

Nov 1st - PHAST 5K fun run
Nov 8th - Ride 2 Recovery Honor Ride (100K)
Nov 9th - National Veteran's Day 11K
Nov 15th - REVEL Canyon City Marathon
Nov 22nd - Trails of Glory 12K

The 5K is an untimed fun run that is held in conjuction with my wife's final triathlon of the season.  My oldest son and I are going to run it while she races.

The ride should be interesting.  I have never ridden that far on a bike but endurance shouldn't be an issue.  Saddle-soreness, that is another story.  My wife will be riding this one with me and may be pulling me along through any potential rough spots.

I really don't know how the 11K will go.  Besides the probable saddle-soreness, I expect to have some thigh aches from the ride and really don't know how much speed I will be able to coax out of my legs for it.  I will have to wait and see how that one goes.  My wife is also running it and we may both feel good and run it competitively or we may both feel rough and shuffle along together way back in the pack.

The marathon should also be interesting since I haven't specifically trained for it.  With the base of training I had for St George and a handful of long runs that started this week (broke in the new Hokas) and will continue over the next two weeks, it should be fine.  It also has a lot of downhill and I like downhill racing.  I do expect to take it a little easier than normal the week between the ride and the marathon to ensure I have fresh legs.

The 12K should be a fun race.  With my first two marathons, I felt pretty good a week later and this race is on decent trails in Cottonwood Canyon on the SW side of Vegas.

Overall, it is a busy month and unless something crazy happens, I am realistically taking a couple of months off from racing to rest the legs up a bit and rebuild my base once the final November race is done.

New Hokas

I got a new pair of Hoka Stinson Tarmacs tonight. They replace my Rapa Nui 2s as my dedicated distance/race shoes.  My first pair of Hokas were great shoes that got me through two marathons, six halfs, a handful of other races and a decent amount of road/trail long runs.  The only thing I didn't like about them was the uppers because they occasionally rubbed a bit on my Achilles. It looks like they have fixed that issue based on the padding at the back of theses Stinsons. Tomorrow morning will be the first run in them.

Decisions, decisions, decisions...a race selection dilemna

I just won a free entry to the Revel Canyon City Marathon (and half) on Nov 15th through racegrader.com.  The course is primarily downhill and is a travel race due to being about four hours from my house. 

I am injury free and have nothing else big scheduled for the year besides a metric century bike ride which will be the weekend prior to Revel.  Endurance-wise, I am good with the marathon.  Speed-wise, I am good with the half.

Run my 3rd marathon on relatively short notice or knock out my 9th half marathon?  Decisions, decisions, decisions...

...I will go with another marathon.

Brick Day

I did a brick workout with my wife this morning as she did her final big workout going into her Olympic distance Pumpkinman Triathlon next weekend at Lake Mead and Boulder City. We rode slightly over 17 miles and then switched shoes for a 10K run.  The ride primarily focused on the 1,300 ft ascent that she will climb over the final 8+ miles of the 24.8 mile race route which increases in steepness greatly over the last mile.  After that, we ran the 10K race course so she could see exactly what it was:  out and back on paved roads with some light hills.

Here is a post ride shot of my bike.  As mentioned previously, it is a vintage aluminum framed Novara Forza that has been upgraded a bit, primarily from bikes that have been damaged in mishaps by other people.  Specifically, the Shimano 105 drivetrain, wheels, carbon seatpost, Adamo saddle, stem and triathlon bullhorn/aerobars are all upgrades from the bike I originally purchased in the 2001/2002 timeframe.  Basically, the only thing still stock is the frame and fork.

Cross Training

Road cycling has become my cross training of choice.  Today was approximately 21 miles.

I ride a vintage Novara that I bought from REI in 2001/2002.  It has been through a lot of upgrades in recent times but what I really need to upgrade is the motor.  I want to get back to weekly riding and building up my distance to the century mark.

easing back in

The legs were feeling pretty good yesterday so I decided to run this morning.  I ended up getting in four slow miles with the dog before sunrise. I also got in another 11 miles on the bike after work.  Overall, the legs feel OK with just a little bit of tightness that I am stretching out.

Recovery from this marathon has been interesting.  My quads felt pretty rough after the race and the following day.  On Monday, there was still lingering soreness but mainly, I just felt tired.

I'm going for another run tomorrow morning and will push out a little more distance to continue feeling the legs out.

St George Marathon

Yesterday was the St George Marathon which means that my second marathon is done and in the books.

Overall, it went well.  I felt really good through the 30K mark but after grabbing some Gatorade at the Mile 21 aid station, I just could not get the legs working again and the last 5.2 miles turned into a shuffle. I still ended up shaving 24:16 off my Death Valley time.

on the homestretch to the finish

The race itself was great.  With almost 6000 finishers, it was by far the largest race I have ever been in.  Right from the start, it was a world class experience.  Packet pickup was smooth and there was a nice group of exhibitors and items for sale.  The buses from the finish line to the start line were efficiently running.  The start line had a good aid station and a series of campfires to keep the runners warm as we waited for the race to begin.  Aid stations were every two mile, were well stocked and had bathrooms at all of them.  Crowd support was great and ranged from ranchers on their ATVs playing music while cheering us on to crowds as we ran through the more populated sections of the course.

The course itself is a point to point with an overall downhill decent and has been recognized by Runner's World on multiple occasions.  It ran through scenic sections of sandstone as it winded it way from 5240 ft to 2680 ft.  An overall downhill decent does not mean all down hill and the first climb of note was the stretch that started at Velo just before Mile 7 and continued until the Mile 11 mark.  After that, we had two more short uphill bumps at Mile 16 and Mile 18.

My quads are pretty sore today from the downhill pounding and it is time for some downtime to recover.  I plan on taking most of the upcoming week off and easing back into running along with getting in some quality time on the road bike.  The only races left for this year are the Veteran's Day 11K on Nov 9th and the Trails of Glory 12K on Nov 22nd. 

enjoying the sandstone finisher's medal