On my way

Since I last wrote I have had quite a few good weeks of running and life. Running wise I had my longest trail run since March when I got in a solid 21 miles with Aaron out on the great trails of Lebanon Hills, man what a great park as it never disappoints me. What I like so much is the mix of rolling single track and some pretty good hills. It was great to have some company for this one and I was super happy with how relaxed and in control I felt. Aaron is in much better shape than me so I was glad to be able to hang with him. I have also had a few real good ski hill repeats sessions out at Hyland as well. I know running on as many hills I can will be key in 6 short weeks at North Face EC.

Last weekend was a down weekend with our trip up to Door County for the Fall 50 mile race (more on this later) with Sonya and the kids. I did have a solid 7 mile run on Sunday on the country roads where I was able to keep a real solid pace. This week has been highlighted with a super fun Monday night run on the river bottoms followed by some beer and burgers. What fun and I hope we can do more of this type of stuff.

Back to Door County and the Fall 50 mile. This was our 3rd time going up for this race. Sonya has run each time. Last year I was able to join her for it as she ran to the win and a real solid time. I think she was like 7:10? for 50 miles. Anyhow this year we knew she was in good shape but was maybe one more rest week away from being ready to really go after it given that she had run the Chicago marathon just 13 days before hand. She still wanted to give it her best shot so I was happy to come along to help her out. We even brought the kids with and with the TC Running RV had one hell of a weekend. We where greeted with great weather for the race and all was looking super at half way. Sonya was still on 7 hour pace and looking good. It was at like 32 or 33 miles things took a turn for the worst as after many potty stops her stomach started to go south and the vomiting started. Man that is one way to cover the last 15-16 mile. Needless to say she stuck with it jogged/ walked the way in. Now it took her more than 2 hours longer this year I was super proud of her for marching forward. Lots of faster runners like her would have stooped since it was not there day but she dug deep and got it done. I am real proud of her.

After many hours of resting we new we where not going home that night so we decided to make Sunday a nice day with the kids. We went to one of the state parks Whitefish Sand Dunes park and had a super time. It was nice to have the whole family together.

This weekend will be a big weekend for me as I get ready. In fact it will be my biggest weekend leading up to the race. I am real excited to going out to Murphy to do my long run and watch some of my friends running the different race that are part of Surf the Murph. I just want to keep having fun and keep remembering why I love to run the trails so much. Happy running everyone and talk to you soon.

Fun night time running

So I am into week number 4 of my training leading into the North Face 50 mile EC. So far so good overall I would say. I had a bit of a bump in the road the week of Twin Cities Marathon as I had a few real long days of work at the expo then marathon day watching Sonya in the 10 mile and hanging at mile 24 TC Running Company cheer zone all day long. Other than that things have been pretty good. I have been hitting the ski hill to get in some good climbing on my legs. I also have been making a good point of running allot of the hills in and around my home. They may be roads but a climb is a climb in my book.

Something else I have been trying to do is also get in some nighttime running to get used to running trails in the dark with my headlamp. The first few hours of North Face will be in the dark so i figure this should be a good idea. Last night was one of those nights. I made my way over to Lebanon Hills to run some sweet trails by headlamp in a light rain. Let me say the run did not disappoint as I had a blast making my way around the park. I will say running the trails can be a bit scary at times by yourself but hell it helped me keep the pace solid I thought. The first 4 to 5 miles went by fast but after that I somehow made a wrong turn. Needless to say I was a bit upset by this as the rain was picking up and the thought of being lost on the trails in the dark was not a good one. Lucky for me they have great trail maps out there and I was able to find my way back to my car with only adding on like 1.5 extra miles. In a weird way I think the whole finding my way stuff made the run a little extra fun. I will say I felt super out there as a night trail run in the rain was allot of fun. I will need to keep with this as I want to do everything possible to be ready to roll in just 8 more weeks.

I wish all my friends good luck who are running the Wild Duluth trail races this weekend. It is looking to be shaping up weather wise for a good weekend of trail running. I myself as thinking MN river bottoms one day and maybe Afton state park the other. At the end of the week I should have my biggest week miles wise in a few months. Yea!! Happy running people. I will have some new gear reviews soon on some stuff I have been using.

* Good video on the 2011 Leadville 100 mile, I will race there aging someday!