I have a theory. After years of trial and mostly error, I’ve come to the belief that bad runs are good for you. It’s not that good runs are bad, it’s just that you don’t get much training stimulus from them. A workout is supposed to stress your body and if you feel great after…
The Mid-Week 11 Miler
Math sucks. As you increase your weekly mileage, you eventually reach a point where your mid-week run crosses the double digit barrier. There are lots of ways to add miles (extra long long runs, doubles, no off days), however these tricks will only get you so far. Once you’ve hidden miles in all the nooks…
Long Live The Long Run Streak
It took me till the absolute last day of December, but I was able to keep my long run streak alive. I now have done a run of at least 20 miles in 38 straight months. Here’s my favorite chart updated through 2022. My simplistic theory on ultrarunning is that in order to be good…
A Down Year
My annual mileage is going to end up down about 10% from the past couple years. Here’s my annual totals since I started running: There’s no particular reason why my mileage is down this year. I don’t plan out or target a certain number of miles. My annual totals end up being just a function…
DNSing
I’ve decided not to run the Mason Dixon Shortest Day next weekend. This event has been on my calendar since this summer when I ran the MDLD. I thoroughly enjoyed that run and thought I would give it’s shorter brother a go since I had an open spot in my race schedule. Well, the summer…
Snooze Button Season
I’m firmly in snooze button season now. Almost all of my races and adventures are done for the year so it’s time to take some well deserved R&R. This doesn’t mean I stop running entirely. I’m still getting out the door each day to at least keep my run streak going (day #3753), however my…
Back-to-back Hundreds
I’m now less than two weeks out from my next hundred and Eastern States seemed like it was just the other weekend. The five weeks between the two races is my shortest turnaround time to date. I had six weeks between races back in 2019 and seven weeks in 2016. In both of those cases,…
Paying The Price
There’s a cost to running ultramarathons. I’m not referring to registration fees. Or the trials of actually completing a race. I’m talking about the miles that need to be racked up. The workouts stacked on top of workouts. All of the training that needs to be done just to get you to the starting line.…
Eastern States Training Volumes
For a number of years, I’ve tracked the amount of miles and long runs that I’ve done heading into my hundred milers. These aren’t training plans or even training blocks per se. More a general description of my running volume leading up to races. First, let’s take a look at the 100 days before each…
20,000 Lifetime Miles
Well, I hit another major running milestone this past week. After logging my 200th long run a couple weeks back, I crossed over the 20,000 lifetime miles threshold on a run last weekend. I’ve ramped up my weekly mileage over the past couple years so what took almost 6 years for the first 10k only…