Thursday, May 31, 2012

Pre-Race details

So Saturday is the Black Mountain Monster 12hour (Race for Awesomeness). I have high hopes for running 52.6 miles, or 17 laps of the 3.1 mile course. Anything over 40 will be a distance record for me though. I am very excited...Lists have been made and began packing and prepping yesterday.

Psyche and Charles will be there - looking forward to some good times catching up with them - and hopefully getting some awesome advice!
Good luck to all those running Chattooga this weekend...site of my 1st ultra only two years ago. Wow, only 2 years?? It seems like I've been doing ultras for much longer...wishful thinking!

Weather for the weekend looks encouraging: High Temp at Black Mountain of 71°. Mostly sunny, but a little wind too. Of course - I consider anything over 60° "hot", but I'll manage the best I can. Will seem downright comfy over 90's at some other races...
It must be obvious I have not raced since January when you see that I have just signed up for a race in Feb of 2013! The 7th El Paso Marathon is Feb 24th. I often travel to El Paso/Juarez for work, so I figured I'd take in some sights! More on this later, but it is a net downhill and has a 1000' drop in the first 5 miles.
Have I said I am also doing the full marathon at Camp Croft in July??
So right now - my future schedule is:
June 2 - Black Mountain Monster 12hr
July 28 - Camp Croft Trail Marathon
Sept 16 - Buncombe 55k
Oct 13 - New River 50k
Nov - Camp Croft Half Marathon (tentative)
Jan 5, 2013 - Harbison 50k
Feb 24 - El Paso Marathon

Pretty ambitious for me...guess these last few months of 40+ mile weeks may be giving me a false sense of security!
Wish me luck Saturday!!

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Run to Work Day

Monday - I ran to work. My car battery died Sunday afternoon before I was to go for a run. After taking my wife's car out to go run at Lake Conestee, it was too late to take the battery to get checked - priorities you know!
 I only live 4-5 miles from work, depending on the route, so it was very manageable. What made it a little more interesting was the fact that I had to carry my laptop and my clothes/shoes for work. My camelbak was full!
I set off at 6am and headed up the road (and a blind hill with very little shoulder) with my headlamp, flashlight and blinking light on my bag. Throw in a bright yellow shirt - and I felt everyone could see me. The pack didn't feel too bad, a bit heavy, but not uncomfortable. I sure felt like I was plodding, but then again, my legs have felt like that since I was sick, 2+ weeks ago now. I'm expecting them to rebound just in time for the 12 hour Race for Awesomeness!
So, headed past Mauldin High School, still not alot of traffic out and eventually turn from Miller Rd into Forrester Woods to bypass part of Hamby that is on the narrow side and has lots of turns. I used to ride my bike thru here on the way home from work a few years ago. I should have consulted a map, because I got turned around and went .75mi thru the subdivision before coming back out on Miller 300 yards from where I had entered.
Oh well, let's see how bad Hamby really is....turned out - it wasn't so bad. It was much lighter out now (6:30ish), so that helped.
Not too eventful from there on...at least one co-worker passed me along Forrester (hello!).
 51 minutes for what turned out to be ~5.15 miles. Not too shabby; I'll even consider doing this when I don't 'have' to!