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…
ES100 Training Blocks
I really wanted to add an adjective in the subject line like “effective” or “successful”, but I’m afraid of jinxing myself for next month’s race. Here’s a quick chart of some very high level stats summarizing the 100 days heading into each of my races. If you’re wondering why I picked 100 days and not…
Is It Working?
I seem to ask myself this fairly regularly as I progress through a training block. Is my training working? And my yardstick for measuring this 99 times out of a 100 is my pace. Unfortunately, my paces vary so much from day to day that it’s almost impossible for me to tell if I’m getting…
A Winter of 20 Milers: Complete
This morning I completed my Winter of 20 Milers project. Thirteen straight weekends of twenty mile training runs. It didn’t start to become a thing until I was part way into it. But once it was a thing? Oh, then it was on! The funny thing is that when I wrote my initial post on…
A Winter of 20 Milers
So I have this theory. I’ve shared it before so if you’re one of my two loyal readers, you’ve undoubtedly heard this a couple times before. My theory is that in order to get good at something, you need to do it. A lot. I’ve got this obsession with running really long distances so I’ve…
Building the Base
I have some big plans for the year. Between four hundreds and a 200 mile adventure, I have more on my plate than prior years. I don’t feel like any of these individually are beyond my abilities, but collectively they’ll take quite a bit of effort to accomplish. So I figure it was time to…
A Secret to My Success
I’m defining success here as my ability to finish 30+ ultras over the past 6 years. Well, that and to do it without injuring myself along the way. And it’s A secret, not necessarily The secret as I’m sure there are plenty of other things I’m doing that have contributed to my relative longevity in…