"Some Mud Slinging and Indiana Time"

Saturday was my last race of the year, the HUFF 50k in Indiana. I started kinda of late heading out to the race. So when I arrived at the gate to pay my DNR park pass I figured I had at least 15 minutes to spare.

Hmm, kinda of quite driving up to the race site. I think I have had this same strange feeling once before at one of my triathlons. OHH crap, I park my car and see no racers around. The race clock has already started. Instead of having 15 minutes to spare, I was actually 45 minutes late for the race. "ROYAL CRAP," what's up with the daylight saving time theory again.

So I was able to pick up my timing chip and was on my way starting the race 50 minutes behind everybody else.

It had rained and sleeted in the area the night before, so I knew the trail would be pretty icy and muddy. Okay, maybe it was not so bad running by myself through the mud right now, at least I can try to find the best path through this stuff.

But all I could think about was I really did not want to be last in the race and try to at least catch up to a couple of people.

It was a three loop race, so the first loop I was feeling pretty good and doing a descent pace, for me anyways.

So around mile 6, I spotted some back of packers moseying along. Okay, I was feeling a little better, than I get a tap on the back of me saying "good job". Crap, I just got lapped by the leader. Then around two more lapped me before finishing my 1st lap. Dang I hope get fast out here one day?

1 st loop ~ 1:50:48

So on the second loop I tried to relax and stick to a nutritional plan. There was alot of mud on the trail and little streams big enough we could only run through. So another round of cold wet feet we go. I managed to stay upright in loop 1, but when I started to descend on one of the hills, I hit some "black ice" and went down and banged my knee. Okay that hurted a little bit, I needed to walk for a couple of minutes to shake it off. So a descent loop 2, I did have some side stitch issues and some knee pain, but I was able to catch up to one or more people on the course.

2nd loop ~ 2:04:14

So on the third and final loop, I was still running but getting tired. I was not following my nutrition plan all that well and I felt it. But kept running for most of it and stayed upright. I felt good about catching up to all the people I saw ahead of me on the trail.

3rd loop ~ 2:19:30

So with all the mud, ice, wet feet, 31 degree weather, and 31+ miles later, I finished in 6:14:30.

overall place: 84 out of 149
division place: 11 out of 19
gender place: 67 out of 116

Dang that was a long day. But everything leading up to my 100 miler is all training for me. On that end it was a good learning day as well. Talked briefly with a fellow "Marathon Manic" on the race course.

Oh yes, I finally got my Maniac singlet, so I guess I'm official now. #750 Marathon Maniac to be exact.

So with the end of the race, my 2007 racing season is finally at an end.

Everybody have a SAFE and Happy New Years.

"High Tech Santa"

I hope everybody had a great Christmas.

I actually had a pretty good one, for a "gear junkie" like me, I got some cool gifts and spent some Christmas money to get more cool stuff.

An upgrade on my Garmin, via the Garmin 305, cool tech toy indeed.

Spent some of the Christmas cash and also picked up some snowshoes. Now after some heavy snow about two weeks ago, the snow is all gone, C'mon snow, where you at? I want to try these out!

Also so I won't get scared in the dark anymore these should come in handy.





Then after years of being with my wife, I think she understands me now, my favorite gift of all, a gift card from Dunkin Donuts, now that's alot of donuts and danishes for me to try out.

So I should be set for the rest of the '07 and into '08, now the work really begins. My official 16 week training program for my 1st 100 miler starts this week. Kinda of excited right now about the prospect of it, but my legs are kinda of revolting a little bit from my running thus far.

But time to kick it into some kind of running gear right now and see what I'm made of.

I have my last race of the year this weekend, The Huff 50k (31 miles) trail race. Looks like some decent weather for the race on Saturday, mid 30's, with no snow or rain. Hopefully not to much "Black ICE" on the trails. So I'm just hoping to get thru it without falling down to much and have fun running around the trails with some crazy people like me.

Let the countdown begin, But as Racheal Ray says, "Everybody runs on Dunkin", so I might to have to head there first before my race this weekend.

"Let it snow, Let it snow"

It definitely was an interesting training week for me. I had to take a couple of days off because of my inflamed ankle, it was down right painful for a day of two.

But I got tired of being on the boring stationary bicycle and did a little bit of miles starting Thursday. So since my ankle was feeling better, the weekend was for trying to put a little bit of trail time in my legs. I figure I'd start out safe and do some road running on Saturday. Okay not to bad, ankle does feel better and did 13 miles in a balmy 30 degrees,

So our usual Sunday group run rolls around. Crap there is 4 to 8 inches of snow on the ground.

Ring, Ring, Hmm, okay your not going okay.

Maybe I will go to the gym instead, sounds like a better plan.

Ring, Ring, your own your way to the trails. Crap, I guess I'm going as well.

Three of us showed up for our Sunday Snow follies.

Dang, that was some tough 9.5 miles in the deep snow. But worth being out there. A beautiful site at times seeing the newly dropped snow on the trails. So as one of my TRI-crazies said, "NO matter how BAD it is out here, it is better than being inside."

Tough running, but SO true. I also realized I'm not the only crazy one in our group of ours.

So now it's official, I'm signed up for my 1st 100 miler.

"Thank you for using the website to submit your event registration."

+--- Event Information ---+

Name of Event: 100 McNaughton Park Trail Runs

Distance: 100 Measurement: Miles

Date: Saturday April 12th, 2008

Start Time: 6:00 AM

I actually had this crazy notion on doing the Rocky Raccoon 100 miler in Texas on February 2nd as a training run for McNaughton. But that was even a little bit crazy even in my book. But that should leave me some wiggle room to maybe try a mountain trail run instead. Now that would be an adventure.

Well hopefully everybody has gotten their Christmas shopping out of the way. As for me, it's a crazy jungle out there in the malls, Thank God for Internet shopping.

"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome." ~ Anne Bradstreet

So with my second full week of "trying to get my ASS in gear" now completed, it actually did start out pretty well.

Saturday, with snow on the sidewalks I thought it would be easier to run around the streets and sidewalks than the trails. Boy was I wrong, snow ruts everywhere that did a little dance on my ankles. But after 2 hours running in 18 degree weather, I did actually feel pretty good, but it brought on my ankle inflammation "itis" ~ pissing me off stuff again.

Then on Sunday at sunrise, I figure I would see how it goes and headed out to the snowy trails. A dang deer crossed my path again and would not move. It was actually wagging it's tail. Hmm, could I actually pet this "Bambi', I thought to myself for a couple of minutes. Then I had "When Animals Attack" TV show flash across my thoughts and came to my senses and scared it away.

I was hoping to do at least a 3 hour/20+ mile trail run that morning. But my ankle was pretty jacked up for the day before, so not a great run day, but I got to at least run with some of my TRI-club buddies.

So while still hobbling around today. I decided upon a preliminary race schedule for 2008. I think splitting my year into two seasons worked really great for me this year:

Season One: UltraRunning

Season Two: Triathlons

So season 1 is going to hopefully go like this:

Land between the Lakes 50 mile trail run
Ice Age 50 mile trail run

Also try to complete this new race series:

2008 Illinois Trail Ultra Grand Slam:

Clinton Lake 30 mile trail run
Farmdale 33 mil Trail run
McNaughton Park Trail run
Rock Cut Hobo 50k Trail run

Not sure if you actually get anything besides a "Grand Slam" breakfast at Denny's for your effort, but why not?

Then within that race series will be my 1st 100 mile race (maybe second) for 2008.

Yes, McNaughton Park 100 mile trail run. Okay at least I did not sign up for the 150 mile race.

So there it is for now, Is there more, Hell YEAH,

Hmmm, my TRI-season this year will be along the lines of racing when I can, but I do see a non-corporate Iron Man type distance event with my name on a bib number on it somewhere in the United States.

But for now, season 1 is fast approaching.

"Relentless Forward Motion"

My "keep moving forward" motivational self-talk has now been replaced with telling myself just to think about "Relentless Forward Motion". I think that has a better ring to it, don't you think?

I figure with this motto, nether snow, rain, ice, or even hail will deter me from getting some trail mileage under my feet.

I think I encountered all that this weekend.

With a winter storm warning over the weekend, my wife questioned if I should be running outside. All I could say was "YES I'AM".

I do most of my training indoors during the week, so my weekend training are meant to be outside, if not the treadmill will really become a "dread-mill" for me.

So in my 1st attempt to run the trails on Saturday. I was driving out of the neighborhood, Hm-mm, stopping the car was not working well. Actually had a near miss. The stop sign told me to stop, but I slid on "Black Ice", luckily the car heading my way on the cross street turned right. Man, that would have really sucked alot.

With that I turned back, parked the car and with my trails shoes on I ran along the streets on the newly formed snow on the sidewalks. I'm sure most of drivers taught I was totally nuts, "Tell me something I don't know"? So with 9 miles in the bank, snow on my face, it was an adventure just trying to run this day.

Then Sunday, the goal was to run the single track trails. I geared up, finally got to wear my cool looking Gaiters (keeps debris out of your shoes) from Dirty Girl Gaiters.

Hmm, nobody showed up to join me today, actually no other car around in the parking lot, I wonder why? must have been that winter storm the day before? you think?

But off I went, I felt like I was totally alone out there running around out on the trails. Kind of spooky running all by myself. Not even a deer or coyote in site. But I told myself I needed to work on my mental toughness and just "LET GO" of my fears.

Even thou it rained or was it hail pelting me briefly at times, getting a little lost once or twice. I was glad I was out there getting some running time in yonder woods, 2 hours and 41 minutes to be exact. Not substantial mileage but good enough for today. I really felt good about it afterwards.

The best part is that I was even able to meet my 50 miles per week goal.

WooHooo..

Because sometimes it is just about "Relentless Forward Motion".