Well, I’ve been sporadic with my running to say the least. Lots more biking. Guess I still haven’t fully recovered mentally from my mystery sickness that whooped me for so long this spring. The legs feel solid though, and the 1-2 barefoot runs I can get in a week are feeling better each time. The soles of my feet just can’t keep up with my legs though; long before I’m tired, my soles are raw from the trails and pavement. 6 miles seems to be my max right now.
Well I’m still not running. Bummer. I’m really contemplating a barefoot run today. Maybe I’ll finally work up the courage to start again, and this time without shoes. Stay tuned for updates on whether or not I attain the mental strength to attempt such a feat! Tralalala!
I’m obviously a rather poor blogger. You can tell by my lack of posts. Blogs are boring without regular updating, so let’s give this another go. Hopefully I can get a hang of it this summer.
Training was going fantastic, and my addiction to running became rather apparent as I couldn’t even find the time to post about it. First race of the season, the Fells Trail Ultra went superb and I knocked out the 40 miler in a solid 7:02 tying for second with Joe Carrara. Our first place finished was a regular monster on the Fells loop, and had the ridiculously techy terrain mastered. Not too mention he was quite a speed demon as well.
A few weeks after the Fells race, I came down with a sickness that lasted for 4 weeks, with lingering side effects that last for at least another 3…
Week 1: unable to get out of bed; I border on state of total zombieness.
Week 2: barely able to walk, extreme fatigue, unable to think clearly, speak clearly, read clearly, or write clearly; very entertaining to others, very discouraging to me.
Week 3: able to move a bit more, still have trouble thinking; unable to run Wapack Trail 50 miler; begin mild state of depression.
Week 4: begin riding bike again, very slow and hard; continue to improve neurologically and physically; continue mild state of depression.
Week 5: able to bike fairly regularly; neurological effects are moving out; forced remove my name from the VT 100 entrants list; continue mild state of depression.
Week 6: biking consistently; still haven’t started running yet, resting my legs extensively since sickness has ruined my 2010 racing season; continue mild state of depression.
Week 7: biking; ran twice in the past 7 weeks; determined to barefoot train and potentially run VT 50 barefoot; state of depression/funk finally wears off and I return to a happier place. Well, sort of…
Of course other things happened during these past 7 weeks, but I’ll follow up with some more blog posts for those. Right now, just getting this going again. I obviously can’t blog to save my life, but we’ll see if this time around things change (this must be the 3rd or 4th attempt).
Well after spending the first week of the spring semester sick, I’m finally back to a full fledged training schedule. The anticipation has been almost unbearable, and so is the cold! I love running in the cold, I really do, but sometimes it’s just impossible to get out that door. Friday was my first true day back and I pulled off back-to-back runs, a 6 miler and a 9 miler. Then a 10 miler yesterday. All three runs were on the TAM, and the trails are surprisingly in pretty decent shape. Took a nice whipping turn too fast over in Wright Park on some seriously slippery ice and slid out pretty hard, but I was able to pull off a slick landing and bounce right out of my fall. My legs are begging to burn through the twisties, but my lungs don’t want to suck air that hard in the cold. And of course the ice cover wouldn’t let me do that anyway. Who wants to do the whole TAM next weekend?
Friday:
Run #1: 6-7 miles trail, mellow pace, sunny, no wind
Run #2: 9-10 miles trail, mellow pace, sunny, no wind
Saturday:
Run: 9-10 miles trail, mellow pace, partly sunny, slightly windy