Let the Marathon training begin!

16 full weeks away - and alot can happen in that time, is the Charlotte Thunder Road Marathon. I did 30 miles this week, which is high for me in pre-training, but now I get to do specific runs each week, including speedwork. Not looking forward to that. With the constant worry about nagging "injuries" - that may not help. Had a new ache this week - Thursday night and during my extra Friday morning run, my right arch was sore. My right calf fluctuates with soreness, but then today - I ran for 1 hour 59 minutes - 13.8 miles and there was no pain anywhere! I felt good and even did one decent hill at the end. Looking forward to the cooler temps this week - lows in the low 60's!
Started reading Ultramarathon Man last week. Stayed up and read an hour and a half last Wednesday night - all about his 1st Western States 100. He's got raw talent - it's not like anyone can go out and do what he did. Crazy...
Have a group meeting this Wednesday to go over our Blue Ridge Relay stuff. So it's probably more of a reason to drink and eat pizza. Ok - just drink, but we'll eat too. Less than 2 weeks away. Aside from the hills, and being restful , I'm ready.

WS100 and ultras

The Western States 100 started this morning and our local Mike Pastore (2 time finisher) is running it again. Oh to dream of running it, but I really don't ever see that in my list of accomplishments. Reading the details and what it takes to get thru it boggles the mind. They do say if you are doing 50 miles/week, that it is possible. I'm reading the live blog now for the race (and recently re-read the article on him (and others) from a past issue of Go Magazine), so that sparked me into looking back into 50k training plans. I've created a test scenario where I'll do 10 weeks of that training starting in about 5 weeks which will lead up to my trail marathon. We'll see how I feel in 5 weeks if I am able to transition to it. It would entail running 5 days a week (back to running 3 days/wk now but will increase to 4 next week). Monday would be a short run in am and yoga @ lunch. Tuesday medium length run (6-8 miles). Wed short run. Thursday off. Friday and Saturday would be long runs and Sunday off. Besides getting just a little less sleep, the added miles will be an adjustment. Back to back long runs will be interesting but certainly helpful when it comes to the trail marathon. Now I just need to start getting out to Paris Mountain State Park to run trails. Tomorrow I am hoping to do 10 miles and then I'll feel up to running trails. If I complete 10 that is. Since the Windermere Marathon 6 weeks ago: I've run 6.8 miles 4 weeks ago and only one run longer (my 13 miles lost in Ohio) a week before that. I'll postr another tomorrow and let everyone (ha!) know how it went.