Moving closer to the goal and a little backstory.

Another solid week of training is in the books, and I'm feeling a little stronger with each run. Last week was another good week that ended with a solid Saturday effort. I was planning on doing 15-20 over in Damascus and figured it would be another solo day. I got a pleasant surprise Friday night when Kramer (a few beers in) said he would be up for joining me for part of the run. K has been a great training partner for the last couple of years, but he has been dealing with injuries lately. He will be pacing me at Leadville. That dude is without a doubt one of the finest off the couch athletes ever. He can takes weeks at a time off, and still go knock out 20 miles like it's his job.

We hashed out a plan, and he met me at Camp Z Saturday morning. Originally, he was going just run the first 6 with me, drop me at the AT trialhead and run back to the trailhead and then head home. He figured 12 with the freedom to walk on his own for some of the last six would be good enough for the day. Smart guy. I ended up deciding to take advantage of having someone to run with, so I just turned around with him and we cruised to the 10 mile point. Then, I made it a speed workout for the last six back to my truck, which I had left in town. The speed workout was solid! Mile 16 was a 7:30 pace. I'll take that. I doubt I'll see a single mile that fast in Leadville. I'll be in trouble if I go that fast even once. But, it was nice to stretch the legs. After the run, K and I threw down on some pizza at the Blue Blaze Cafe. I was HUNGRY! It was sooo good! I love pizza.

I figure this is a good chance to share a little backstory in case you've missed it at some point. I've been running distance since I went to grad school in 2007. My buddy Reeve got me into it. We'd just go out for stupid long trail runs for fun. I didn't really get into ultras until my Marine buddies and I decided to run 100 miles to honor our friend, Tyler Swisher, who was killed in Iraq. You can check out a documentary made about our first run at https://vimeo.com/42500028. We decided in the fall of 2010 to start a non-profit called Always Brothers. You can check out our website www.alwaysbrothers.org. Since then, we have done two 100 mile runs and raised over $100,000 for the families of Marines and Sailors killed in Combat. This year, we are doing our third 100 in Seattle, WA to benefit PTSD research. I will only be doing support and pacing this year because Leadville is the following week. Leadville has been a personal goal of mine, and I think it can help us raise awareness to be out doing more mainstream races once in a while. So, in Leadville I'll be running for myself, but I'll also be running for Always Brothers and all of my brothers (and sisters) who have paid the ultimate price defending our freedom. No politics here. Just honoring my family.

It helps me when I'm tired while training and racing to know that my efforts are serving a larger goal than just my personal desire to see where I can push my body.

This week will be my first 50+ mile week of this training cycle. I knocked out a good 10 on the house loop here. The hills felt good, and I'm looking forward to the New River Marathon on Saturday. Thanks again to my Ginger and all of awesome friends for supporting me, training with me, and indulging my love of running.

Yellow Dog says hi to everyone. He's chilling under the table, chewing a rawhide, and enjoying the life of a happy dog. 

Progress

Slowly but surely my legs are feeling stronger and stronger. I recovered well after the 18 miler a couple of weeks ago, and stacked up some good miles last week. I hit up the hills around the house on the regular all week in preparation for another Saturday sufferfest over in Damascus. After a leisurely morning kicking it around Camp Z (complete with breakfast at Sharpie's), Ginger and rolled over to Damascus. She was on her way to a little overnighter backbacking trip with Yellow Dog, so she dropped me off at White Top in the VA Creeper Trail. From there, I breezed down the trail to Straight Branch where I refilled my water. I headed back up the Creeper to the AT trailhead at and began the climb back up onto the ridge. That section of the AT, which heads back south to Damascus, is mostly runnable with a few climbs that'll get the ol' heart rate up. There are not too many good views, but here's one of them:

I arrived back Damascus around mile 21 and then headed back up the truck at the Straight Branch parking lot. Total mileage for the day was a solid 25. I didn't eat nearly enough, so I was feeling a might bonkish (as Mac Brown might say). But, that's OK. I needed a little suffering to get used to what it's gonna feel like on longer runs. This ain't about strolling in the park, right.

I took Sunday off. Spending the day cutting grass and doing a little bouldering was a nice change of pace. So far, this week has been spent on the hills around Camp Z. I'll knock out another 20ish jaunt on the Creeper/AT on Saturday and then take it a little easy next week. I'm going to run the New River Marathon next saturday to try to make myself push the pace a little bit. Then, it'll be off to Leadville the following week to train on the course there.

All in all, I'm feeling great about the training so far. My legs are holding up to getting the mileage back up to normal. I still have almost 4 months before the big day arrives in Leadville, so I'm feeling confident that I can get ready in time. Time will tell.

Rebuilding the Machine

I have been slowly building the milage back up over the last few weeks, and I've been pretty happy with the results. My legs were pretty beat up after Rocky in February, and I know Leadville is gonna require some serious mileage weeks later this spring/ summer. With that in mind, I didn't want to get too crazy too fast. So far, the approach has been working. I've increased the normal daily run to 7 with some solid hills in the mix. There are two painful climbs on the loop by my house that have been getting easier each day. Last weekend I knocked out a solid 14 miler with some climbing on the AT. Yesterday I bumped it up to an 18 miler that had about 2500 feet of elevation gain, most of which was on the AT. I was tired at the end but felt great. Still plenty of life left in my legs at the end. Today, was a nice 5 mile hike at Gentry Creek over by Mountain City, TN. Still feeling good after that, but I'll bet the climbs on the house loop will hurt in the am.

I have been running in La Sportiva Wildcats for the last couple of years, and they have served me pretty well. Lately, I'd been noticing that my toes didn't have enough room on long runs, so knew it was time to either go up a size or try a new shoe. My buddy, Bobby Cordell is a huge Hoka One One fan, so he talked me into trying a pair of the Stinson Evo Tarmacs. They look goofy as hell, but they have been great so far. I've also been wearing the New Balance Leadville shoe for a couple of weeks now. I use the NB's on trails and the Hokas on the road and flat trails. Seems to be a good combo so far. I wore the Hokas for the last 4 miles of yesterday's run, and LOVED them. When I came off the AT and got to my truck on the VA Creeper Trail, I busted out the Hokas for the return trip to Damascus. It was crazy. I felt like I was running on air. It still feels odd to run in something other than the La Sportivas, but I'm willing to try this out to save the feet (legs and ankles) as I prep for Leadville. We'll see what this week brings. 

It's been a while since Yellow Dog has had the blogging bug, so he told me to go ahead an take over for a while. We've been living the good life here in Boone for the last year or so doing lots of adventuring and a lot of training for long runs. Yellow Dog has retired from distance running since his knee surgery a couple of years ago. He still joins me for the occasional short run (5 miles or less), but he has been my faithful hiking companion and he can still hike with the best of them. He's been doing a lot of hiking/hill training with me in the backyard as I've been starting to get ready for my next big race: The Leadville 100. I've spent the last 6 weeks or so recovering from the Rocky Raccoon 100. Training for Leadville is going to be a new beast. Up to now, most of my ultra running goals have just been meeting the goal of making the distance. With Leadville, I really want to excel and see where I push myself. I feel like this race is really the "soul surfing" of ultra running. It's a race for grinders. It is a race that rewards enduring suffering, and I really like that. With all that in mind, I've been slowly kicking off my training over the last two weeks and will kick it into high gear over the next few weeks.

I've decided to try my hand at a little training blog, and YD told me to go ahead and use his blog for a while to help me document my training and help me keep track of my thoughts as I prepare. So, for the next few months, my friends, I'll be blogging about my training here.

If you've found this blog or you're a friend who's followed YD's blog for a while, I hope you'll enjoy reading about this journey to see what's possible in the mountains. Because, for me, that's what distance running is all about. It's a time for me to just be. To think about nothing and everything. To turn ideas around in my head, and to get a break from thinking about work and day to day stuff. Mostly, it's a way to explore the woods, explore my limits, and be with my amazing friends who support me by pacing me, crewing me, and running with me as a I train. I also want to start this blog by saying how much I appreciate my friends and family who indulge my running habit. I know it takes a lot of time and I devote a lot of travel time to running when I could be visiting family or friends in far off places. Thank you for understanding- even if you don't understand the drive to run distances like these- I appreciate your indulgence.

So, that's it for now. Short and sweet. I'll be back soon with the first training update. As always, I'm running for my fallen Marine brothers. I hope that my running serves the higher purpose of raising awareness of the sacrifices being made for us by our Military. Every run I do is in their honor and I hope you'll check out the website for Always Brothers . Take a minute and check out the site. If you can spare a few bucks make a donation. If not, please help us spread the word.

Thanks. Hope you have a great day. Semper Fi and Semper Fratres.
Trev

We Do Summer Right

Summertime is finally here. The Food Guy is all finished with classes for the year, and now it's time for the adventuring to really get rolling. We've made the most of the first week of summer- that's for sure. I'm still on light duty and have to stay on the leash, but I have been getting to do a little bit of traveling with the Food Guy. Earlier this week, we hopped in the mobile dog house to head over to Bryson City so the Food Guy and Reeve could do a little trail run. We rolled over to the Smokies and met Reeve in Cherokee on the way to Newfound Gap.

I still can't hit the trail, so I took a nap while the Food Guy and Reeve made the round trip trek from Newfound Gap to Mt. Leconte.

The scenery looks like it was pretty sweet on the trail.

I hate that I missed this one, but those mean ol' park rangers don't let dogs in the park anyway. What's up with that? Weak sauce, I say.

Anyway, it was a good trip. I got to hang out with Java the Dog and generally had a good time visiting. Next up was a few days in Boone for the Food Guy to get a few more training runs in and a couple of days of climbing. Then, it was down to the Lake where I'm chilling out while the Food Guy is hanging out in Boston. He sent me a couple of pics of his trip. It looks like he's having a good time.

Word on the street is that dinner tonight was at Legal Seafood where the Food Guy laid a beatdown on some crabcakes, scallops, shrimp, and clam chowder. He told me that he also got a pretty sweet run in along the Charles River and he even got to see Fenway Park. There's some crazy stuff up Boston. Check out this pic from the Chapel of Our Lady of the Safe Voyage:

Cool, eh? I think he's got some other good adventures planned for his northern swing. Sox vs Blue Jays on the 4th of July will probably be the highlight of his trip. I told him he'd better not slack off on his running while he's up there. The 100 miler is getting closer and closer, so I got keep reminding him to get out there and do some urban running. I'll be psyched when he gets back because that means my least favorite holiday of the year (4th of July) will be over. I hate the 4th because of all the scary fireworks. We'll be chilling in Boone for a week or so, then I'll be headed back to the lake when the Food Guy heads out to Seattle. Well, I'm gonna get going. The couch is looking like it wants to float up the ceiling, and you know I can't let that happen.

A Lazy Saturday

It's shaping up to be a pretty good Saturday so far. The Food Guy took off yesterday afternoon for a 50 mile training run to get ready for his 100 miler this summer. He rolled back into the house looking pretty tired at about 2 am this morning. From the way he was moving, I figured we'd get to sleep in today. I was right. He thought about getting up around 8, but I convinced him that he should keep resting. He didn't argue:

It'll be a few more weeks before I can go adventuring, so I'm perfecting my sleeping technique. I'm actually getting quite good at it. He has one more week of summer school, and then it'll be time for summer adventures. I'll be sure to keep you updated.

Running at Grandfather

Hi, everybody. My knee is getting a little better every day, and the Food Guy is letting me go for longer and longer walks each week. I'm up to 15 minutes now. I keep telling him that I'm ready to go for a good hike, but he says the Vet told him that I have to take it easy for another month or so. I'm getting pretty good at holding my dog bed down, but I'd really rather get outside to have some fun. The Food Guy is still training for the 100 miler in August, and he decided to go for a run/hike to the top of Grandfather Mountain on Sunday. It's a hike I can't go on anyway, so I guess it was a good time for him to knock this one out. See, there are all these exposed rock faces,

slots,

and ladders on the trail. Check out Kramer on the ladder:

And, well, I'm not really a ladder climbing kind of dog. So, I would have had to sit this one out even if my bionic leg was all healed up. I can see why he wanted to do this run though. It has some pretty sweet views.

The real prize is the swinging bridge at the top of Grandfather Mountain.

Normal people drive their cars to the top and pay the entrance fee. Not the Food Guy. He and his buddy Kramer started at the Profile Trailhead over near Blowing Rock. From there it's about 2,500 feet or so to the top of McRae Peak. The climb takes place over about 4 miles, so it's steep! I've gone to almost to the top before once last fall. But we had to turn back because I couldn't make it through one of the boulder gardens. This is the spot that got me:

I told the Food Guy he'd have to finish this one without me another time. Anyway, Kramer set off Sunday morning and made the 9 mile round trip in about 4 hours, which ain't too shabby for a trip with 3,600 feet of elevation gain if you ask me.

The Food Guy has been walking a little slow the last couple of days. I think his quads took a little beating on the way down. Pretty good training for the 100, I suppose. I told him to take it easy. It's supposed to be his "off week" but I don't think that guy gets the meaning of taking time off to recover from his long runs. I mean, geez, he did 40 miles last Saturday.

I'll keep y'all posted on my recovery. Have a great week.