No Work and Lots of Running

I have to back up a little here, last Saturday I picked up Chuck and we met Debbie and all went to Penisula and met up with Dan H. and Dan D. to run 14 miles on the Tow Path. Sunday Chris Rolling calls me and wants to run the Reagan trail, probably not the best decision with 12 days til the 24 hour but we ran 7 miles on snow covered trail at about a 9:15 pace, it felt way faster. Monday was my 2nd annual Run to Marshas work half marathon. Jeannine met me here at 1:00 and we headed off to meet Janet at St. Francis, we arrived at 3:04 making it the 13.1 miles in just over 2 hours. Next year I think I will ride out to work with Marsha and run home. Tuesday Dan H. met me here at 5:30 and we ran to Robertas house then on to Debbies and ran 13 miles with them around Medina and back here for a total of 16 miles. This made 64 miles in the last 6 days and after that last one I have had a slight pain just under my hip that may be a IT issue but I'm not sure so I took yesterday off and then ran 6.4 miles with Jeannine this morning and felt pretty good. It's now Christmas Eve and I plan on taking tomorrow off and running the Tow Path again on Saturday and maybe part of Marshas run on Sunday. Then a 3 day taper with maybe a 3-4 run in there somewhere before we leave on Wednesday for North Carolina's Freedom Park 24 hour Ultra.

17 Days off Work, A Little Rest and a Lot of Running

This morning starts one of the longest stretches off work I have ever had, 17 days off with my next day being Jan. 4, 2010 next year. I was up til after midnight last night after working til 7 pm then heading straight to the bar where all the runners were ending up after the beer run. I was awake before the alarm around 4 am and on the road running with Roberta by 5 am, a nice run, almost 8.5 miles at a 8:35 pace. A nap will need to happen sometime today so I can again rise early tomorrow to begin our run at 7 am in Peninsula with Chuck, Dan D., Dan H. and Dave. Sunday will be a low mile day so I can run the now annual half marathon out to Marsha's work on Monday with Jeannine and Janet.

24 Hour Training Week

The Freedom Park New Year's Eve 24 hour ultra is less than 17 days away and this was my big training week to get ready for this run. I ran 75 miles this week, one of my top 5 highest weeks ever. Monday, Tuesday and Friday morning I ran at 5 am. We changed up the normal 5 am 6 mile route Monday and ran right down the center of town on 42 til Harding St. then back, then Tuesday Jeannine came to our house and we ran out the Chippewa trail and then over to Ryan and back which is a very hilly 3 miles back. Friday was the coldest day I ever ran, at 5 am it was maybe 14 degrees with a windchill below zero but we ran the normal 6 mile route and arriving back at Roberta's house I tell Jeannine I never put my key outside my truck on these morning runs, I WILL NOW, as when I went to get in I couldn't. My keys were locked inside the truck and I had to be at work in 45 minutes, Roberta was nice enough to run me to my house and back to hers giving just enough time to get to work. Saturday morning Dan DeRosha and I ran the big Chippewa loop arriving back here at 13 miles then ran a loop around Medina hitting 21 miles just before noon and Marsha, Jeannine, Janet and Charles were running at 12:30 so I then went to Jeannines with Marsha and we all ran back this way to pick up Janet with me hitting 26.2 miles for the day. Overall a pretty good running week in December with a record cold day in there but then today happened, Dan D. and I met Dan H. in Hinckley at 5 am and ran 31 miles, it was warmer than it was Friday and Saturday but it rained on us after mile 5 all the way through mile 31. It was a good training run, if we can run 10 loops around that lake with all those hills and in all that rain any other run is gonna seem easy and we did this in 5:59 with lots of breaks at the truck. Not a bad 50k time considering Dan and I did 6:46 and Bill's Bad Ass 50k just a few weeks ago.

Ashland Half Marathon 12/05/2009

This race is not very big and is not very easy and is always very cold, so why did we do it again. It's a race of course. Nice people, a well run race for this time of year and for a good cause I believe it supports the high school and middle school cross country teams, maybe Medina should try some fundraisers instead of charging $660 to run cross country next year. We arrived a little later than I would have liked and by the time we checked in went back to the car and tried to stay warm it was close to starting time with no warm up, I need a warm up even more when it's this cold, it was maybe 28 degrees when we finished the race. Since my only goal for this race was to break 1:40 I just figured go out slow and and get warmed up then go, nothing ever works out right but at least I didn't hurt myself. I was talking to a few people I knew at the start and the start was late over 10 minutes so we were all shivering and moving around and waiting, finally they said on your mark and go. What was I doing, I was freezing so I went out of there like a rocket and when I hit the first half mile in about 3:10 I slowed way down but still hit mile one at 7:01 and mile three in 21:12, too fast for no warm up so I held back some more. I ended up running from mile 4 through mile 9 with Scott (an insurance guy from Ashland) he was 49 so no competition and we ran and talked quite a bit holding around a 7:30 pace for those miles then at mile 9 I decided to pick it up just a bit and caught the next guy and him and I pushed the pace down for a couple miles til I left him to. There were not to many people out there in my sight except a girl I had my sights on catching, I caught up with her around mile 11 and she says I will only be the second person to pass her since she jumped in at the relay point. She was looking to break 45 minutes for her leg which I'm not sure how long it was but I thought I'll just run her in from here and I stayed with her. She was a Ashland college runner and was holding near a 7:10 pace with me til the last 1/4 mile when my fellow MCRR friend came out to run me in. I intended on staying with her and pushing her to the finish but Steve and I took off and she stayed where she was maybe finishing only 15-20 seconds back and she thanked me afterwards for pushing her and helping her get her goal. I finished at 1:36:45 (seven minutes faster than last year) and came in third in my age group that won me my second winter hat prize in 2 years. We went from the race to Buehlers to change our clothes so we could attend the Subway Challenge Series Banquet where Marsha and I both placed 2nd in our age groups for the year. The price went up from 25 to 40 bucks for next years Subway Series but it's still a bargain. Marsha wasn't sure she wanted to sign up but for that money we get a very nice summer picnic after one race, this banquet and a embroidered shirt plus placing in our age groups every year we have received 30 bucks each in gift certificates.
Today I slept in and got up and had a planned 20 mile run, I left here at 10:25 and ran 4 miles to Jeannine's and Marsha, JN and I ran about 3 miles of trails then Janet joined us for the rest. I was planning on running home from Jeannine's but I was getting sore legs so I took Janet's offer and she brought me home, 15 today and 15 yesterday was good. Next weekend we are planning 20 for Saturday and looking at 30 for Sunday.

My Second 24 Hour Run 12/04/2009

The Freedom Park 24 Hour Endurance Run is New Year's Eve in North Carolina. I only knew about this race because I must have heard Connie or Bob talk about it at Connie's b-day party. Tuesday morning Jeannine, Roberta and I were to do the usual early run and Dan H. set it up as a event run with Dan B. also attending. While we were running I casually mentioned it to Dan H. and told him to think about it, me being barely serious about it but by that afternoon I got a message from Dan, I'm in if you are. Woe, what did that say, I sent him back a message and said I better talk to Marsha first. Dan mentioned peer pressure I think he got it all wrong, he's in and now the pressure was on me. He was doing track work that night and I knew Dan D. was going so I asked Dan H. to talk to him about it but I couldn't wait so I texted him and told him about it and can you believe they were both signed up before me. Mike Keller is also sounding like he is going to go too. 4 weeks to go til my second 24 hour run , Kyle said I need to get my head looked at and my bowling friends will never understand why I would want to do this again and maybe even some running friends being I passed out at the end of the last one and was on crutches for four days. I plan to end this one a little different and get to enjoy breakfast after this one and of course walk away on my own two feet. Marsha and I will be spending our first New Year's apart since we met and probably the last but it should be a very memorable New Year's spent with some great running buddies. Look out North Carolina here comes the Medina County Road Runners. I ran every day in November and ended my streak after running Tuesday morning Dec. 1 where all this started. I took the last 3 days off just for some rest before the Ashland half tomorrow morning and to let my sore lower back heal up some more I hope.

OBX Thanksgiving 2009

We spent the entire Thanksgiving week in the Outer Banks at our resort Ocean Villas. We usually spend the whole week walking on the beach, running, movies and fires at night. On the second day there Marsha and I were getting ready to head out for a 13 mile run when I bent over to tie my second shoe when I pulled something in my back, run was cancelled for the time being. Later that day I did head out for a 3 mile run and surprisingly running didn't hurt if I went slow but sleeping in the extra soft bed was very hard on my back, tried a couple nights on a air mattress then another night on the floor which lasted til about 4 am when I finally went back to the super soft bed. I did go see a chiro in the Outer Banks but his adjustments didn't seem to help much. Thanksgiving morning we were to run the Outer Bans Gobbler 5k and that was supposed to be Kyle and I's big showdown but his knees were bugging him and I was in no shape to run fast so we paced Marsha for the first 2 miles then we took off to pass as many people as we could in the last miles finishing in 23:15 with a 6:45 last mile. Kyle was the 2nd under 18 year old across the line so he won a small apple pie. This was more of a fun run with no results and you got your own time when you passed the clock.I ran every day on this trip but only one 10 miler with Marsha and the 6 plus miles on Turkey day and all the others were quick 3 mile runs. The drive home was the toughest part of the whole trip, no matter how I sat my back was killing me, I drove for 3 hours but it was even worse in the drivers seat so Marsha drove for over 7 hours on the way home. Three hours after we got home we headed to the bowling alley where I had a hard time throwing the ball but I bowled anyways and shot 581. We then headed to Walmart to get some groceries and got home and being totally exhausted from our long day went to sleep. I got up Sunday morning and still was a little sore but just one night back in our sleep number bed and I was feeling better. 11:00 was our group run and this run felt better than any all week, Marsha, Charles Janet, Jeannine and I ran this run but Charles and Janet cut out at 7 miles as Charles is still having problems since Nashville and Janet was struggling a bit. We went on and hit 11 miles just before getting back home. Today was my 29th run of the month and after tomorrows run I will have run every day of November and if I get in my 6.5 miles tomorrow I will have 230 miles for the month and a new record for a single month. Then a couple days off with the Ashland Half marathon next weekend.

The Day Before Our OBX Vacation Marathon + 11/20/2009

We were leaving for the Outer Banks on Saturday morning and I decided to take Friday off work. Chuck was also off on Friday so he asked me if I wanted to do a 20 miler on Friday morning. I was already running 6 miles with Jeannine, Roberta, Debbie and Dan B at 5 am but told Chuck I was in and that I was running a marathon on Friday morning then. I ran the first 6 miles between 5 and 6 then met Chuck at his house and we ran from there. We headed out on the same route I had run at 5 am but this time it seemed a little harder and a little windier. We headed down the Chippewa trails and down 162 where I ran up and surprised My Uncle Gary and talked to him for a minute or two. Then we headed out through Buckeye Woods and around the big open field then down towards Chippewa rd. and back towards my house but then we realized that we were gonna be a little long and ended our run just before we arrived back at Chucks house at 22 miles giving me 28 for the day. Friday night we made a stop at the Candlelight Walk and headed home to prepare for our long drive to the Outer Banks where we are now. It is now Nov. 23 and I have run every day this month with the intention of running every day but since arriving and sleeping on this super soft mattress I have been having back aches since yesterday when I tired to tie my shoes and had sudden pain that has not gone away yet. Thursday Marsha, Kyle and I will be running the OBX Turkey Trot 5k and I hope to give Kyle a hard time beating me but that may not be the case if the back ache doesn't go away by then. Only 3 days til Thanksgiving.