I’m not sure how I did it, but my legs are definitely pretty thrashed. I had just about zero oomph left at the end of my long run Saturday. Now I’ve done enough of these (# 201!) to know they’re supposed to be tired by the time I get to the end. They were a…
Locking Into A Training Groove
I’ve been writing a decent amount recently about training motivation. If you’re understandably tired of the topic, feel free to skip this post. If not, read on! My current belief structure is that motivation (or lack thereof) is our subconscious’ way of telling us when it’s time to ramp up/down our training volume. Wanna hit…
200 Long Runs
I reached a significant personal milestone last weekend when I finished my 200th long run. When I started out running, I built up quickly to the half and full marathon distances. During my first marathon training plan, I decided to define 20 miles as a long run. I had heard that you typically bonk at…
Tuesday: Hill Repeats
It’s been a little over 3 weeks since my last race. Time to get back into training. When I first started running ultras, it would take about this long for my legs to heal up enough for me to return to my base training mileage (40mpw +/-). The first week would see me hobbling around…
The Dreaded Long Run
I love running really long distances. Ultra races are the focus of my annual running calendar. I enjoy counting down the days till my next race (i.e. see widget to the right). The build up. The anticipation. It’s like Christmas season all year long for me. But my maintenance 20 mile long runs? Yeah, not…
The Failed Run
Well, that didn’t turn out like I had planned. There’s lots of different ways to define a failed training run. Maybe you didn’t run as fast as you wanted. Or your effort wasn’t high enough. You could have missed your vert target for the activity. Or possibly you went too hard on an easy day.…
So Long Season of Slow
Well, that lasted longer than I thought it would. What started out as a month or so drop in training intensity, turned into a season, turned into . . . (checks calendar) . . . over three years?!?! Back in 2018, I was getting a little burned out physically so decided to start up my…
Stop the Madness
I’ve got a problem. I keep falling down when I go out for runs. Now this isn’t a new problem. If you read enough of my race reports, you’ll see that this has been going on for quite a while. Typically though this has been limited to races. The only times I can remember hitting…
Running as a Lifestyle
My fifth Phunt 50K is this weekend. I was thinking about my training leading up to the race and realized that I probably need to throw some quotation marks around that word. I got a little burned out last year with all of the miles I logged (2500 – new annual best!) and so dialed…
Meh, not feeling it
I’ve been in a bit of a funk for the last 3 or 4 weeks. Practically wearing a groove in my snooze alarm. I’ve had a very active year so far with five ultra races plus my two failed attempts at the Mason-Dixon Trail (99 and 72 miles). And traditionally this has been my down…