One Month to Leadville

Well, I haven't found writing a training blog all that interesting. I can't imagine that it's all that interesting for someone to read either. So, I haven't been doing it. Without trips to cool places to write about and cool pictures, it just seems like all it would be is:  I ran today. It was fun, and it was hard. I ate lots of food, and now I want some ice cream. That would be the daily entry around here. Ha ha ha. But, it's been a while and this week is a training milestone, so here's the latest.

Since I got back from Pbville, I've been running plenty. Lots of miles in Damascus, Boone, and up on the trails at Moses Cone. I've been slowly building from 50 mile weeks to the big 100 mile week. I haven't done a 100 mile week in either of my previous 100 training cycles, but Leadville is a different beast, so I decided to do it this time. Good confidence builder, I think.  Last week was my big mileage week in the build up. Check out the stats:

7 days: 109 miles. Not too shabby. My goal was a 100 mile week, and I'm happy to have gone a little over. I think I'll take the day off tomorrow. I want some ice cream.

I did my 50 miler at Moses Cone on Monday (that's been a standard 100 prep thing for me). It took me a little over 11.5 hours total time (best time in training). My average pace was pretty good, and there was plenty of climbing. I ran mostly solo, but Ginger and Kramer both joined me for a few miles, and it was very nice to have the company. 50 miles is a long way to run alone. Heck, my solo 50K (At Moses Cone and sub 6 hours a couple of weeks ago) felt like a long way to run alone. Even at a race- without a pacer- there are other racers to talk with. The trails at Moses Cone can be a bit lonely. But, that's kind of what I was going for: time to test myself in the dark place. Anyway, I took Tuesday off, and then got right back at it on Wednesday. This was a little departure from my normal 100 miler build up. For the first two 100s I did, I took a week off after my 50 miler. I needed it too. But, I figured I should not do that this time. Leadville will be harder than either of those previous hundies, so I wanted to push it. The crazy thing is that my legs felt fine. I really wasn't even all that sore this time around. Sure, I was tired. I've been tired all week. Running 100 miles in a week takes a lot of time. Running 100 miles in the mountains (on trails) in a week is tiring. But, it was a fun week, and I have to say I'm feeling good about my chances of hitting my goal in Pbville. I want some ice cream.

Next week, I'll still be logging lots of miles. I won't start the taper (bleh- I feel like a triathlete using that word) until the very end of the month. (And really, I'm gonna refuse to call it "tapering"because I'm going surfing) Mostly, though, next week will be about climbing and descending. I think I have plenty of miles on my legs, and now I want to spend a week really beating up my quads to get them ready for the descents in Pbville. I'll hit the Profile Trail at Grandfather Mtn, maybe some miles at Black Mountain, and lots of time at Rocky Knob part (awesome Mtn Bike trails in Boone).

Soooo, that's it for now. Big ups to my buddy Darris Blackford who rocked out Badwater on his 50th birthday this week. Check out his blog. If you read it, and you should (it's good- he's a bad ass), you'll see his advice saying your goals out loud so it'll be harder to quit. When I read that today, I decided I'd dust off the keyboard and write at least one more blog entry. Ok, I'm going to eat some ice cream now.

One more thing, contact me if you want to run the Marine Corps Marathon in October. Always Brothers is a charity partner and we have a couple of slots left. Deadline is August 2nd. 

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

Spring?

Well, the weather might have finally changed for the better here in Boone. The Food Guy and I woke up to sunny skies and temps in the 60s. That'll happen when you sleep till 10 o'clock like we do whenever we can. The Food Guy started our day by taking me for a walk, then he snuck off for a training run. He thinks he's all slick by getting dressed to run and then taking me for a walk before he goes. He thinks he's fooling me, but he's not. I know it's for my own good that he's not letting me run with him right now. I don't like it though. I can't wait to get back out on the trail.

The good news is that he decided I could go climbing with him today since the hike in was only about 5 minutes. It was so nice to be outside hanging out. I like going climbing. There are always people hanging around who want to pet me. Well, I think the only reason people go anywhere is so they can pet me. I don't think that's too crazy. I mean, who wouldn't want to pet a yellow dog?

Greg and the Food Guy had lots of fun climbing. Greg's son, Lem, came with us and he knocked out a couple of routes too. I think the spring weather might be coming on with a little more regularity now. It was so beautiful at The Dump today. Check out this view:

And, I'm so glad. I like playing in the snow, but bumming around at the crag is a lot of fun too.

I hope you all had a great weekend. My leg has been feeling a lot better, and I'm hoping the Food Guy will let me go on a real adventure soon.

Another High Country Monday

You gotta stay on your toes up here in Boone because the days of the week really don't matter all that much when you've got a Food Guy with a flexible schedule. I spent last weekend kicking it at my lake house while the Food Guy was at a conference in Florida. From what I hear, I didn't miss anything at all by not going on this trip. Food Guy said it was flat, filled with people who never actually do anything, and boring. He did say he had a lot of fun catching up with his UGA peeps. I think he misses them a lot, but he sure seemed happy to see me when he got home, which is good. We rolled back into Boone late Sunday night, and some of his friends from Athens were staying at the house. Steven and Allison had been up here watching our house while we were gone, and they had planned to stay over on Monday. Being the gracious hosts that we are, we figured we'd better take them climbing.

Food Guy gave Greg a call and told him to forget about working during the day since it was going to be so nice outside. We met up at the hallowed halls of Edwin Duncan Monday morning, and took off for one of our favorite climbing spots: the Dump.

We rolled up there later than our usual 9 am arrival and the people tied in around 11, which is a respectable southern alpine start. It was a great day. I hung out with my doggie friend Alabama and rolled around in the leaves for a couple of hours.

Greg, Steven, and the Food Guy got some good climbing in before we had to leave. Son of White Trash and Homegrown were first on tap. Everyone got a chance to tie into the sharp end of the rope and get some lead climbing done.

Then, Greg decided to give Vodoo Child, a 5.11 with a desperate start, a try. He styled it while Alabama and I nervously watch Steven and the Food Guy spot him to the first bolt. He made it look smooth and then Steven and the Food Guy got in some extreme top-rope action in got to the top without any major problems. We got all of this done in time for Food Guy and Greg to stop back by the office, say hello to their work people, and make it appear that it was just business as usual in the Reich College of Education. I had to wonder if any of the other profs wondered why their hands were covered in chalk residue. Wait a minute, I guess that wouldn't seem weird since some of the classrooms still have actual chalk boards. Man, those guys have it figured out don't they?

Well, it's time for the Food Guy and me to go for a run before we head to the lake for Turkey Day.