Fool's 50k

Woke up around 5am and checked the coffee, use the bathroom put a load of laundry in and got dress. while eating my breakfast, a banana, Tram bar and a cup of coffee with 1/4 cup of dark chocolate almond milk, check email and facebook. Left the house about 6:15am, boy was it cold, 20 degrees. I had on my CWX sleeveless long bra top on top of that my Under Armour cold wear top and then black vest, for the bottom wore my Sugoi cold weather tight and on top of that Adidas long pants, dang tough sock, hat and gloves. I was okay once we started running but very cold at the start.

Picture Courtesy of Kevin Farley


Sang the national anthem and then we were off around 7:34am, we locked out with the weather in the sense that it didn't rain yesterday as predicted and because it was so cold the trail was frozen and runnable, so the first loop went great

but the second loop was a different story, with the sun out, all the frozen ice was now a muddy mess, so the flats were hard to run and the downhill well was hard since my shoe kept on getting stuck and since this was a mud gravel trail, my shoe also get heavy after a while since the mud picked up the gravel, I was so ready to be done since I had given up all the time I had bank for the second go around on Sand Run. By the time I got to SR, my legs were tired from fighting with the mud and my left toes were so sore, since this was my lead leg, I was for some reason using my toes to grip and stay upright.


I ran the first loop without music, but broke out the mp3 player on the second loop since I was by myself, played a continuous loop of itread outdoors since it was run 6 mins walk 1 min. I was so glad to be done.

 My shoes are actually bright blue.

Official result is not up yet  but according to Garmin I didn't meet my goal of breaking 7hours but I did get a nice PR despite the muddy trails, pain full toes and nasty Salt Run Hills.




The race was very well organized, course well marked and the volunteer's were great in getting us in and out of the aid station fast. It was good to see old friends and meet new ones.

Race Day Plan

Well, tomorrow I'll be running my 3rd 50k race and probably the first I have truly trained for, I combined a marathon training program and a 50k program to build speed and endurance, double long run over the weekend and a medium run during the week. So far for the year I have ran over 400miles considering the fact that I had to push to get to 1000 miles last year. I have walked on fueling, speed walking, uphill walking and downhill running, I have trained as hard as I can to the best of my abilities but as always there is always room for improvement.

Since I am not running the same trail, am going in to see what I can do on this trail, I know I have to be careful at the start not to go out too fast since we are on the flat cross country trail, but speed through Boston run and pine grove to make up some time since Salt Run with all the hills is going to be hard and going to require some walking, limit time at aid station but remember to say thanks. Only stop at my car if absolutely necessary, didn't have a drop bag at the last 2 so keep moving. This is a double loop course, so if my nutrition is right on I plan on running the 2nd loop faster than the first, well as fast as my body will allow but it really is going to be hard not to stop when all the 25k racers stop.

The goal for this race is to break 8 hours both previous 50ks have been about 8:08, the trail should be dry and runnable, so I can't wait to see what I can do both training runs have been in snow covered trails. had to break out the tights though, since the temp is going to be mid 20 with a high of 30, last weekend was in the 50s but rain so I'll take cold and dry.


So race goal:
A: 6:30
B: Break 7 hours
C: Break 8 hours
D: Just finish before the 9 hrs cutoff if anything hurts.

Let the taper begin

Waking up to a bluish gray sky and no snow falling with temps in the 30s, I decided to join the group for the last schedule long run for the Fool's 50k. Oh the trail was a mess, snow, ice and mud was everywhere, also since the temperature was warming to the 40s, on the way back we had water but every one in a while the sun rays will shine through the snow covered branches and it was spectacular. I really hope I can improve on the pace come race day but right now I am quite disappointed, oh well. Did the cross country loop this time and it was the worst of them all.

Oh Come on...

We've been having good weather, ignoring all the rain and flooding the temp was in the 40s, the last couple of days and I finally found people that were willing to run my 24 miler with me today but I woke up to this

I really don't mind the snow, I mean I live in Ohio for goodness, but this is enough, last week for the first time since January that I saw grass in my yard and anything resembling blue sky. Since I was tired of running and driving in the snow, I worked from home today and then decided to do my 24 miler on the treadmill, just couldn't handle another snowy run and I may probably do tomorrow's run on the treadmill too.



But in light of what is happening in Japan, I guess the snow is not too bad, my thoughts and prayers are we them.

Didn't make it out of bed this morning, was tired since I woke up around 1:30am from a bad dream and couldn't get back to sleep, so made a point to leave work early so as to get my workout in, not really the best plan since I spend all day going up and down 4 floor on the steps no people elevator in most chemical manufacturing plants.

After work, ate a cherry pie larabar,  change and got on the treadmill to do my speed workout.
Plan 1 mile WU, 10x200 in 47secs with 400 recovery, 1+ miles cool down to make it to 6 miles

didn't make the 47 secs that is a stretch goal for me anyway but I'll keep working at it, best pace was 52:33 with the worst at 53:73.

After the run, did my strength workout 40 mins of Cathe STS Meso 1 Week 3 Legs, I know I am going to be sore tomorrow this workout hit my legs in some less use places.

The Fool's 50K is fast approaching, I one 24 min long run left before I start tapering, got to see if I can get someone out on the trail with me this week, I'll hate to have to do my 1 mile hill loop.

Precision Beats

A great new workout program by Motion Traxx for Polar designed by Julie Bobek, please go on over there and download the program so as to continue to make Motion Traxx free. This is really a very great program did it 3x today for my 20 miles run, love the 3:1 Galloway routine, I was able to run hard for 3 mins recover for 1 min, using this program I was able to pull off a sub 10mins 20 miler, this is after running 8 yesterday. The program is really so well put together and the music just pushes you on.

So go on over and download Precision Beats by Motion Traxx for Polar, it is free after all