2010 No Frills Just Hills 6 Hour F.A.

Better late than never. Right? Here are some photos from the No Frills Just Hills 6 Hour Fat Ass run on May 30. I didn't run for the full 6 hours. It was just too hot and humid for me. Had we begun running two hours earlier, I may have had a chance. My final Garmin distance was 20.96 miles in 4:04:47 with 10 laps of the course completed.

The view looking out towards the Sound of Music Hills. We would be running down and up these hills on every lap.

Mike K. (my roommate from Freedom Park) and I chatting before the start.

A look down from the start/finish area and up the next hill. That would be Bob P. out front running by himself.

The view from the top of that second hill looking back towards the start/finish area.

The view looking up that second hill from the low spot in between the two.

Out on the course in a wooded section alongside Kendall Lake.

Mike getting ready to go around again as I decided to call it quits.

The heat was just punishing for anyone not acclimated to it. That would be me! There was also a 12 hour event scheduled for the day, but not a single person was up to it!

Laurie C. looking super strong grinding out a long training run for her 50 miler at Mohican. (Which she totally rocked this past weekend!)

Bob (the eventual winner) coming by one more time as I was loading myself into the car for the drive home. And some SERIOUS air conditioning!

Back in the Saddle?

Let's hope so! After two weeks, TWO WEEKS, of no running, I hit the road yesterday afternoon for a hastily planned jaunt out the Lester Trail. The last couple days I've been pondering where to run Saturday and Sunday mornings, so yesterday, when Jr. P said he didn't want to be picked up early from the day care, I decided to go out for an easy middle distance run.

The Lester Rail Trail is a converted railroad line approximately 1.5 miles from my house. At three miles in length, plus getting there and coming back, I have a nice 9 mile out and back route. With the January thaw happening, I thought it would be in decent enough shape to run on. So, lacing up my trail shoes, out the door I went.

And I was right. The trail was indeed runnable, albeit at a very slow pace. The snow was soft, wet, and slushy, and thanks to someone who drove a snowmobile through there at some point, not very deep. The going was slow, I averaged only 10:30 per mile for the six miles of the trail, but enjoyable. With the exception of a cardinal, some other birds, and some small flying insect that must have just woken back up, there wasn't a living thing to be seen out there. Just the motoring public in their Friday afternoon hurry at the three road crossings.

I've been reading Born to Run recently and tried to concentrate on my form while out there. It was kind of hard considering the lack of solid footing, but I think I managed OK. My problem is that right where you land on the foot while barefoot running is exactly where my foot pain is. Not new foot pain, but the same stuff I had while training for the 24 Hour. Maybe my feet are so week I'm going to need to work through the pain to get stronger. Or this ball-of-the-foot form just isn't for me and I should concentrate on landing the way I always have.

Time For Some Cross Country Training (again)

It would seem that I should have stayed on my Wednesday speed work schedule, as my return to Tuesday night was met with full tracks. Soccer on one and pee wee football on the other. So Chuck, Charles, and I headed over to the park to run a half mile cross country loop. I was surprised to see Dan H. there after his long 100K on Sunday, but he even did a couple laps.

Our course consisted of beginning on the further end zone of the football field, up the sledding hill, around the baseball diamond, around the parking lot, past the playground, down the hill, past a second baseball diamond, and back to the end zone. It's actually a little over half a mile at .53 mile or so. After two warm-up laps we began 8 repeats. The splits were: @ 4:00 / 3:43 / 3:43 / 3:25 / 3:28 / 3:26 / 3:27 / and 3:21. We walked/jogged a 200 yard recovery down and back on the football field between each repeat.

Although the long uphill run left me feeling weak and out of breath at the top, I found I was able to recover quite rapidly after leveling out. That is a great cardio workout that left me tired but not beat up. We should really do that more often.

The weather is still great so I'm thinking of hitting the local trails tonight so that Mrs. P can join the group trail run tomorrow night. Looks like the weather is supposed to hold through the holiday weekend as well. Let's hope so. I have a long run planned for Saturday and am thinking about taking the bike out for one more long ride too. We'll see how I feel after attending Oktoberfest!

Cross Country

The weather Tuesday night was nearly perfect for running. And doing other things as well, as both tracks/fields were in use during our speed work session. There was a track meet at Claggett and some lacrosse at the high school. So it was off to Reagan park for a little hill work. (Or so I thought.)

Connie had another idea, creating a .55 mile cross country loop. I'll do my best to describe the course:

-Start in the north end zone of the football field.
-Run the length of the football field and proceed UP the sledding hill.
-Pick up the paved path and run around the baseball diamond (game in progress).
-Pass the port-o-potty and non-working water fountain and hang a right toward the basketball court.
-Down a big dip and back UP to the basketball court.
-Go around the court where there is a pick-up game being played, but don't run over the girls having soccer practice.
-Down (finally) a dirt access road to come out behind another baseball diamond (empty).
-Across the baseball field back to the football field and hang a right down the sideline to the end zone and left behind the goal post to where we began.
-Recovery jog down the field and back.
-Repeat...

I was pretty tired after one lap, but we pounded out three more. Each lap was supposed to be faster than the first. I managed that, but it was tough. I felt like I was on the verge of becoming sick on the last one. One (who shall remain nameless) DID become ill on the last loop!

After that we did a slow jog of the course before heading back to the sledding hill. This time 5 sets of hill sprints. The hill isn't too steep, too long, and it's grassy, so this wasn't as bad as it could have been. I pushed hard each time, causing my right elbow to start bothering me. It did that the last time I sprinted hills with Patrick and Dan back in the winter.

It's better today. Every thing's better today. I'm planning on hitting the trails tonight for an easy off road run. Nothing too hard or technical. Up until now the day has been sunny and nice. We're supposed to have chances for rain and thunder today, and the clouds are beginning to push in. If it's storming I'll cancel. If it's just raining, I'll run. I'm going to get wet anyway! I'm just planning to stay on the bridle and larger trails anyway.

10 days till Rite Aid and I'm ready. I feel more ready for this marathon than any other I've done. I've got so much hay in the barn for this one I wonder how I could possibly fit any more in! As of today the game plan is to go out at a 3:15 pace for the first half and see how we feel. That would give us a buffer to still come in under 3:20 for Ladd to qualify for Boston. I get a little nervous when I think about trying to hit 3:15, but Connie thinks I should be racing them at 3 hours or less. Having someone of her caliber think that gives me a little extra confidence. I get MORE nervous when I think that Steelhead is less than 3 months away. Where did all my time go?