Top 10 Music for 2011

It's time for the 2011 edition of my top 10 albums. Music has always been a big part of my life and every year I put together my top 10 list and share it with my friends. Last year I decided to do a top 10 songs of the year as I truly did not feel like there was 10 solid albums I got that year. I am happy to report that 2011 did not fall short. I feel like I have a solid list to share with you all. Here we go....

10.) Blitzen Trapper-American Goldwing

9.) The Decemberists-The King is Dead

8.) Blink 182- Neighborhoods

7.) Radiohead- The King of Limbs

6.) R.E.M.- Collapse Into Now

5.) Dawes- Nothing is Wrong

4.)The Black Keys- El Camino

3.) Coldplay- Mylo Xyloto

2.) Wilco- The Whole Love

1.) Ryan Adams- Ashes & Fire

I saw the comeback of Blink 182. More solid records from bands like The Decemberists, Coldplay, Blitzen Trapper, The Black Keys and Dawes. Radiohead? what can you say they always bring it for me. Wilco seems to get better every time I see them live. Sadly the end of a all time favorite in R.E.M. They went out on a super note. Then we have maybe the greatest songwriter of his generation Ryan Adams made a masterpiece. His show at the State Theater was a thing a beauty. Happy New Years people and talk to you soon in 2012!

2 weeks out

Hey there. Well it has been two weeks since the 50 miler and I am happy to say I am feeling super good! I have been taking it easy with a few off days here and there followed by a 8 miler or so. Today I did my longest run with a solid 15 miles with a bunch of the guys. I was super happy that I felt crisp. Just trying to not be stupid and over do it. I am planning on one more easy week then I will start the training for the next race Sylamore 50k in Arkansas on Feb 18th. It has been 7 years since the last time I ran there. I look forward to challenge of what is ahead of me.

On a non running note I was Super lucky to be suprized by my wife and got to go see Ryan Adams play at the State Theater last Tuesday night. I have been a fan for a long long time and had never seen him. He did not disappoint that is for sure as I loved it!!

In the mean time enjoy this video from the Salomon people from North Face San Fransisco.

North Face 50 mile report

( Like 5 min's drive from hostel )

Where to start I ask? I guess I will just give you the full meal deal and break it all down for you. So go get that drink and settle in as here we go....

It was 9:30am on Friday December 2nd and I find myself sitting on the plane heading to San Fransisco for the weekend and the North Face 50 mile. It was to be my first and last ultra race for the year. I will admit I was a bit nervous as it was a big deal to me to give it my best effort. I knew that I had a pretty solid training block behind me. Not the best training block ever but still pretty good and I was happy. I thought to pass the plane time and to pump myself up I would listen to some Ultra Running podcast to draw some inspiration from. Boom 3+ hours went by and we where there and I felt even more excited about what was about to happen.

( Look at the size of these trees! )

After checking out Muir woods then going to the hostel where we stayed, we headed into San Fransisco for the movie premiere of Unbreakable. It was fun to watch this great 2 hour movie with 350 other ultra runners while eating some pasta. After the movie Anton, Goeff and Hal three of the four movie's main players talked a little. It was pretty sweet. It was time to head back and get ready to go to bed and run.

( Sunset from our front yard )

Believe it or not I slept pretty darn good, something that does not always happens for me. After a little food and pre race prep it was off to the start and what was sure to be a super run.

( 100 yard walk to the race start/end )

As the start horn sounded I felt to huge amount of excitement rush through me. I was here doing this. My road to get back to racing was a long one but I was back. The first 3 miles of this race set the stage for what was ahead of me. Section after section of 1-2 miles uphill followed by 1-2 miles of downhill. It was a up/down race. Once the sun came up which was like 2 hours into the race I think the views where beyond belief. If you where not next to the ocean you where running in the huge redwoods of the area.

I felt good and in control for the all the way to the turn around of the short out and back section(mile 26ish?) not to fast but not to slow I thought. It was not until heading on the long downhill into Stinson Beach did my stomach start to be a problem. I started taking some salt and drinking coke at each station and that seemed to help some. On the climb up the Dipsea trail and mile 30 is when I could tell that my legs on the downhills where not so good. I guess it was time to hammer the power hiking up hills and try to keep a good pace on all the other sections.

My buddy Nick caught up to me at like 33 or 34 miles. He was having a great race I thought and this was a chance to challenge myself and try to stay with him. Over the next 8 miles Nick kept putting the hammer on me and I was proud that I kept fighting back. When we got to the beach aid station at like mile 42 we started this crazy big climb. It was at this point I pulled away from Nick as it seemed like I was climbing a bit better at this point of the day. Over the next 8+ miles I just kept pushing the uphills as hard as I could and try to do my best to not fall apart on the downhills to much. To think running downhill was harder at this point, kind of funny huh.

As I made my way up the final climb to the finish I was very proud of myself. Not because I had my best race time wise, not even close. But because I was back at it and that even though I was not at my best I kept on fighting. I know that with a year of solid training and racing I can come back and take off at least one and a half to two hours on my time. I guess we will have to see what happens. In the end for me it was not about time or place but about being apart of the sport I love with all my heart and soul.

( I am done!! )

Run= 51 miles in 9:48 with 11,604 feet of up and 11,591 of down!!

( Some of MN Race crew )

One week, It's Go Time

I can't believe I am just one week away from the North Face 50 mile EC in San Fransisco. When I set out those 16 weeks ago to train for this race as a good way to go out 2011 it seemed so far away. Even with a few weeks of training under me it was so scary as that self doubt that sets in after not racing for so long. Can I make it work? Can I run the way I used to run? I stand here now knowing that I did all I can and in the process made myself a better runner and found that love deep in my heart for the trails. I look forward to the race and what it will toss at me. I will do my best and use this as a springboard to my 2012 season. I am ready, Bring it!!

Building the Perfect Beast

Man what a great few weeks of training it has been since I last did a blog post. Have you ever had those times in your running life where with each run you can feel yourself getting stronger and stronger and you frankly just do not want to stop. Well after a long time passing with none of those feelings, I have finally come into a nice patch of those runs. Man what a feeling!

It has been so nice to go out on the run and just feel smooth with each step, strong on the uphills, fast on the downhills. It is a time where everything seems like it is in slow motion. I know that times like this do not always last forever so I will keep my fingers crossed and keep plugging forward as I know Dec 3rd and the North Face 50 mile is not to far away. No matter what happens the journey so far has been fun and it has been a great fall running lot's of new and old favorite trails with my buddies.

By the way who knew that Battle Creek Park in St Paul had so many trails and so so many hills! Thanks Aaron that was one hell of a last 20 miler in the training cycle. Happy Trails people.

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!