Looking Forward

Past several days off, might take most of the rest of this week off. Two reasons: To recharge mentally, which is working. I'm getting itchy again. The second reason is my ribs are a bit sore. I suspect the 29 miles on Sunday did not aggravate them. However, performing a series of cartwheels as a distraction tactic during a frisbee game on Monday might have. At least it worked.

I've been doing a lot of fly fishing since I haven't been running. What is dangerous is, and not to brag, but I have been doing extremely well with it lately. I've already lost track of how many fish I've caught. Naturally, that success only fuels the fire. Once summer rolls around, I'll have plenty of time to both run and fish and that's just two or so more weeks away (w00t!). But starting next week, running will take precedence again while school is still in session, assuming the ribs calm down a little. I'll still fish, but will plan it around the running.

Check out this 14" rainbow trout I caught (and released) the other day. I used a prince nymph that I tied just the day before. See what I mean? This is addicting:

Pineland Farms: DNF in the Muck and the Mire

What is viewed as a relatively easy course was transformed into an entirely different beast today. The mud came up to our shins and grew exponentially worse as the day went on. It was insane. I dropped at mile 29, and truth be told, I don't regret it. I was not trained/prepared for 50 miles in these kinds of conditions, pure and simple. The course was tougher than I was and it won.

The first 3.5 mile loop followed by the full 15.5 mile loop were both tough but went along well enough time wise. However, 10 miles in my legs felt as if they had run almost double the amount.

Going into the second loop, I knew I was in trouble. My pace slowed significantly and my legs were taxed. And the course. My god, the course. It went from ridiculously bad to what the #$%& is this &#$% bad. Mud you could only walk slowly through as it threatened to suck the shoes right off your feet. On one steep downhill, I literally skied down half of it (and managed not to fall somehow, that was fun). Thoughts of DNF danced in my head. My legs were shot.

I was pretty demoralized but got a big boost when I caught up to my friends Ty and Maddy at around mile 24. I ran the first four miles with them but let them go (they're much faster than I am). They planned to drop, where at that point I was 90% sold on the idea. We mostly walked the last 3-4 miles back to the start/finish area. Maddy dropped with a bad knee. I convinced Ty to not drop yet and at least run the next 5.5 mile loop, but we got a mile in and said screw it and took a shortcut back.

Again, no regrets. I'm only slightly disappointed. I couldn't imagine going on in conditions that were only getting worse. Major hats off to all the finishers, that was just nuts. Happy to have gotten in a tough 29 miles that will serve as a good springboard to what I hope is a summer filled with a lot of fun mountain runs.

3.5 miles in. Ditching the hat and arm warmers before giving
Jeremy a high five. 

18.5 miles in.

Putting Gus in the water bottle pocket.

Maddy, myself and Ty about to call it a day.

Ran 29.4 miles @ 11:02/mile pace.
Insanely muddy trails.
Moderately hilly.
Mid 40s to mid 50s, overcast, periods of light rain, windy.
Saucony Kinvara TR, shorts, sleeveless shirt, short sleeved shirt.

Pre-Pineland Thoughts

Looking forward to heading over to Pineland today for Day One of the two day festival. Kate and my good friend/pacer, Ryan, are running the 5K there today and it will be fun to cheer them on.

And tomorrow at 6am, I'll toe the line for the 50-mile race. Mindset is very relaxed. Maybe too much so. I think with road races I got used to the pressure of consistently being in that top 2-3% percentile. I don't mean that as a bragging point (that top one percent is often ridiculously faster), I only mention it because the fields tend to be much deeper in ultras. There's a much higher percentage of hardcore, very fit folks; pure and simple.

I'm still going to try for sub-8 hours. That translates to maintaining a 9:36/mile pace. The B-goal is to PR (break 8:23:37). With what is most assuredly going to be a very muddy run tomorrow, either of those will be tough. However, the mud will also make it a lot of fun. And plus, I'm essentially riding off of road marathon training, which should get the job done very well but is still not tailored specifically for a 50-miler on muddy trails. That being said, I still feel very good about running quite well tomorrow.

So, not feeling a ton of pressure. Don't get me wrong, I'm still focused and am going to run very hard tomorrow. I plan on hunting down whoever is in front of me later in the race...I just feel very relaxed about it all and plan on having fun.

Oh, the ribs. They still hurt, but they've improved. The pain is there but it's something that I've gotten used to and can largely ignore it, if that makes sense. I honestly don't think it'll be an issue tomorrow, thankfully.

Bruised Ribs

So, the ribs haven't gotten much better since Monday. They're definitely bruised pretty good. Not exactly a comfortable feeling, especially when trying to sleep at night.

However, today's run was encouraging. A very good amount of discomfort at first but it dissipated significantly as the run went on. Hopefully the same will hold true for the 50-miler on Sunday. I'll just hike up my big boy pants and deal with it, but I suspect I'll be fine.

Funny moment at the end of the run. A former cross country runner who graduated two years ago was on a run and approaching from the opposite way, yelling my name at the top of his lungs when he saw me. I was excited to see him also, but was not about to embrace him in the big bear hug that he was about to give. I yelled "Bruised ribs!!" at least four times while pointing to my side before it sunk in and he lowered his arms. Whew.

Pace is guesstimated as Kate has my GPS watch but I know the distance is accurate.

Ran 6.2 miles @ 7:55/mile pace.
Paved roads.
Slightly hilly.
Mid 50s, overcast, humid.
Saucony Virrata, shorts, short sleeved shirt.

Case of the Mondays

Pretty meh run today. I think I definitely bruised a few ribs yesterday stuffing cardboard boxes into a tall container, only to have it slide out sideways and I fell with it. My right ribcage landed on the edge of another container pretty hard.

Not a big deal. It has a dull ache that I didn't feel any more than usual when running and it feels better than yesterday. Still, a bit distracting. Plus it was humid out and I was just plain tired from kind of a long day. None of that added up to much good, apparently.

A bright note though, stopped at a stream and watched trout hitting hatching caddis flies on the surface. Despite running past this stream literally hundreds of times, I haven't fished it yet. Might have to soon after seeing that.

Rest day tomorrow, per the taper. Yep, I think I'll go fly fishing.

Ran 3.8 miles @ 9:48/mile pace.
Trails.
Very hilly.
Mid 70s, partly cloudy, humid.
Saucony Kinvara TR, shorts, short sleeved shirt.

Cathance Trails

Great fun today over in Topsham. Kate and I headed over to meet up with Ryan. Kate graciously offered to watch his daughter so we could run and we hit the trails at the Cathance Preserve.

Ryan is pacing me on the final 15.5 mile loop of my 50-miler next weekend at Pineland, so we talked a lot about goals and strategy. Stoked to have him running with me, I know he'll get me going in that final loop and not let me slack.

The run itself went awesome. A little over nine miles at a solid moderate pace. Legs felt great. Afterwards, we headed over to Oxbow to sample a few barley sodas and purchase growlers. Then we met up with Danielle for sushi. That hit the spot.

Day off tomorrow from running. Gone fishin'...

Ran 9.2 miles @ 8:56/mile pace.
Trails.
Moderately hilly.
Lower 60s, partly cloudy, breezy.
Saucony Kinvara TR, shorts, short sleeved shirt.

Wheel and Run

Yesterday, I wheeled a 5K course for a race that'll take place this morning. We knew the course, but I wanted to make sure we put the start and finish lines in the exact right places. Once that was done, I ran it.

All in all, pretty uneventful and not very exciting. Looking forward to a trail run with Snowman later today. He's pacing me for the last loop at Pineland next weekend, so that will be a prime topic of conversation for sure. 

Walked 3.1 miles @ 18:34/mile pace. 

Ran 3.1 miles @ 7:32/mile pace. 

Paved roads. 

Slightly hilly. 

Upper 60s, partly cloudy. 

Saucony Virrata, shorts, short sleeved shirt, cap.