In awe

Tag: summary

  • [Day598] WS Training Week2

    Time goes by fast. I am at the end of the second week of 25 ish weeks of training for the Western States 100. 10% of my training already! I haven’t done anything.

    I felt not much happened. I continued to drag with the morning training, waking up sometimes an hour to two hours early before work to train. Couple times I slept through. On the days I made it to my training, they felt great. This week mileage total is around 12 + likely a 35-36 miles will be added over the weekend. Total days run: 3. Tuesday morning, 1 hr. Thursday Morning 2 hours. Thursday night 1 hr. Weekend, Saturday 5 mi, Sunday 50k.

    Personally, I think it was an average load. I am trying to be careful not to do so much the first few weeks of training and to slowly build up my miles. I believe I have a pretty good core already, but still I need to train harder in the coming months to get where I want to be.

    I do not have any specific training plan yet. I know how to train for a 100 mile race, but I might need some guidance in term of improving on my performance. I have been considering of hiring a general ultra coach, not specifically for Western States but more for Old Dominion 100 or Hurt 100. It is tough to hire a specific coach. Coaches for Western States probably can be very expensive. My budget is probably around $100 a month for the next six months. It will help with my Western States though. I do not want a national wellknown coach.

    The excitement has come down a lot. Reality has set in. There is still a general hapiness. I know why I am crawling out of bed each morning even though my body wants to sleep in some more. I do want that finish.

    Training actually feels like a ultra marathon itself. 25 weeks could be viewed as 25 hours in a race. It might seem so long but actually is not. I know for a marathon, in the past, I trained for 12-14 weeks. Usually by about halfway in I lost focus. 25 week training seems a bit long. But when I view it as an hour in a race, it doesn’t seem too much. Now I am “two hours” in, it is like getting warm up. I know by hour 6, I will then feel the effect. I need to get myself ready for them. I am thinking, of every six weeks, I need something intense to test myself. (I need to keep this in mind).

    A funny thing I had these few weeks. You know, I wrote about not being in shape amd being fat and slow and all that. The moment I got into Western States, my view of my body changed. Suddenly I felt fast, I felt healthier, I felt slimmer when I looked at myself in the mirror. Perception is weird. I still have the same weight. My mom commented that my face looked slimmer! And asked if I have lost weight!

    Indeed, I see things a lot differently. There is hope in everything. The past Sunday, my pastor preached on Steadfastness to patiently endure trials. A way God’s people can endure sufferings is because they have an eternal perspective of the end goal where they will be with God. The end goal is very important. I felt as an ultra runner, we keep too our end goal in sight. We know we will reach a finish, so any mud, cold, rain, is just temporary. Same indeed for my trainings. It is just temporary, 25 weeks. All the previously seemingly unpleasantness of training suddenly became enjoyable. Then the race of course. The race is my end goal.

    I will train for it. Realistically, I don’t have much time. 8% (2 weeks) already passed. Only 92% left. To me, it is like watching my phone battery drained. I wanted immediate changes, but these two weeks, I felt and seemed to be the same. Am I not going to see any result until closer to the race day? I felt I have to hit the ground running. I have not any clue what the next two weeks will be any different. I know, I will need to come up a plan, of ramming up the intensity of my training, and training specifically toward key things needed for Western States, such as heat, downhill, and being fast.

    Grand Slam also has been on my mind. This is running 4 of 5 special 100 mile races over the summer (Western States, Leadville, Vermont, Old Dominion, and Wasatch Front). My friends urged me to attempt it since it is not easy to get into Western States. They are right in this.

    In the end, I don’t think it is realistic for me to pursue it. Vermont maybe. Old Dominion Maybe. But I don’t think I could do Leadville or Wasatch Front this year. Leadville lottery signup is almost over. TOMORROW is the last day as I write this (Dec 15). I could not bring myself to enter it because, I think I have maybe 40-50% chance of getting in. Yet, I don’t have the confident to run the race even if I do get in and to finish it. I put that away. I will enjoy the races I already committed myself to this year (2024). It is my own grand slam without all the press (MMT, Old Dominion, maybe Vermont, Burning River, Western States, and Grindstone), which is still a pretty tough schedule.

    Back to training. Ideally, I need to train on hills, downhills, train for heat, and train for moving a bit faster. I do not have the confident of finishing under 30 hours yet. From the Devil Dog, the first 40 miles I could be on pace of 5/5.5 hrs every 20 miles. But the next 60 miles, I could not maintain that pace for some reason. I would be moving at 6.5 hrs every 20 miles. If I could maintain under 5 hours every 20 miles, I would be able to get under 30 hours for the 100 mile. I hope my training would help.

    Weather is getting colder. But because of training, I am willing to brave the cold. Still it could be a challenge to my training.

    Summary: I need to be faster! I need to commit to changing my life

    Meta: I know training blogs can be boring to read, because I am not making a lot of progress. Many times, I am unsure of my direction. There are a lot of second guesses, trial and errors, haphazard attempts, setbacks, and they are messy. You are right, this guy does not know what he is doing. Free free to skip it. I write this mostly for myself as a journal, and hopefully, I could train myself better (self-hack) from this.

  • Spring Re 23:13 [Day550]

    Last season Re(view) of Day500, I ran a lot of races, such as MMT, Iron Mountain, Devil Dog. For my regular readers, this post is a repeat of what I have been posting, but for those who only tune in once every six months or a year, this post is for you. It also helps me placing mental separation like a season or so is done.

    Looking back, my perspective has shifted since then. Day 500 was written just before I did the Devil Dog 100 race. I had at the time seemed to be in an unsucessful year due to the emotional beatings received from not finishing two races earlier, e.g., the MMT 100 race and the Iron Mountain 50.

    The post ended of what would I do next, which is now and next year. I had at the time the Devil Dog 100 coming up and OBX 100 following.

    Since then I have completed both, the Devil Dog 100 in December and OBX in March. The fall races prepared me well for them. The Devil Dog was not an easy race, but couple friends came and helped crew me. I managed to finish. The full report is here.

    After running the Devil Dog, I took on the Outer Banks Blackbeard’s Revenge 100. It was an exciting race. I PR’d it, meaning beated my best time ever in a 100 mile distance, finished it a little over 26 hours. I was not even aiming for a PR. There is a lot to say. I went in not sure if 32 hours were enough for me to finish. The race for me was easier than expected and easier than any other previous races even though conditions were not as good due to the heat and strong winds and what seemingly the lack of food at aid stations. I love it a lot because I had a good time. Full report is here. This race was those once in a lifetime adventures. I was glad I ran it. It gave me the feeling I still got what it take to run a 100 mile race. This brings us to MMT 100 later of this year.

    Now for 2023, I have been training a lot for the BRR 50 and the MMT 100. I did the BRR just couple weeks ago. MMT is coming up soon in a couple weeks. This report comes in the midst of things. I felt better prepared this year than last year. We will see how I will do. Wait till the Next report to know. Day 600 will be near the end of the year or even early next year (depends 25-30 weeks from now).

    I ran several smaller races, e.g., Redeye 50K on New Year, Holiday Lake 50k, Cowtown 50K, Bull Run Run 50 Miler, Shamrock Marathon, Blue Ridge Double Marathon (report hasn’t written yet), Seneca Greenway 50K, Naked Nick 50k. Then there was the Reston 10 miler. I won’t link any reports here because there are just so many. Bear with me, I am throwing around a lot of names. Our virtual race  around world (CRAW) is done. We finished early January of this year. That was a three-year project. I am taking part in the extended version of adding 6 more regions, which added maybe 25,000 km. Likely will finish it at the end of this year or some time next year. We have a fast team.

    About races, each of them was a wonderful experience. Am I tired? Sometimes. I am used to now of running many races in a short span of time, I can’t remember them and I can’t even keep track of my up coming races. I can’t summarize them all here except each one was so good. I was living my best life to be able to experience them. They definitely helped prepare me for the next big race. I am grateful I got to run in them.

    Physically, I have been dealing with my weak left ankle. I believed I injured it sometimes after the Devil Dog, maybe at the Naked Nick 50k event. It is healing but the process has been slow and long. I started to suspect I teared a tendon or something (but some say that would be painful if I did). Now four months later, I still have a slight discomfort. It doesn’t hurt any more, but from time to time, I felt like I have that hit my funny bone sensation in my left ankle. It would bring me to my knees. All I know is it has not healed 100% and it is affecting my trail races. Road races are fine. I just have a problem standing tip toe, going down the stairs, putting on shoes etc. Not pain but a weak sensation that my ankle can’t be trusted. I have been praying for a stronger ankle.

    Now 2023, I will be going to Toronto, Canada. One of my dreams is to run outside of US and it is being come true. This race is in about a week. I just received my race bib the other day in the mail. News gets old fast. So by the time readers read this, it is likely be done or you might be reading the race report before this post.

    I signed up for MMT 100 again this year. I have high hope I will finish. This soon will take place. I am repeating myself. Yes MMT is very important to me.

    I signed for Grindstone 100 for the fall. It will be a hard race and hard training for next quarter. I might do Burnimg River 100 this summer. I think this pretty much it for 2023.

    I am in the process of planning for 2024. Not much can be said at this time, but will leave this in a future post, I hope my plan will be clearer by then. I am struggling in defining what I want beyond 2024. Things are moving in the right direction. Red Dirt Lousiana and Pinhoti Alabama are in play. It’s a secret right now.

    As for the Nepal trip, some new laws came in effect. One was we backpackers will be required having an approved mountain guide. No longer are we free to hike as we like by ourselves. I might not go there anytime soon because of this new law. It is a tiny setback. Having a guide is definitely what I like but I also like the free-ranch aspect and the sense of danger. I know the law is still evolving, so we will see. Too many people doing dumb things over there is the rumor. This trip was supposed to take place this year. Hence I set a relatively free running schedule. However, it is not on any of my immediate plan yet to do. It is one of my dream trip but I haven’t got off my butt to make it happen.

    What’s next after this (for 2024 or 2025). I have a bunch of marathons to run. My friend Caroline inspired me with her exact plan of running in all 50 states. Next year, I plan to run a lot of marathons, many of the same races she did this year. Imitation is the best form of flattery they say. I am not ashame to copy. Basically trying to get all 50 states done as soon as possible, meaning I will need to do around 10 to a dozen races per year. Maybe looking at a shorter time frame of 3-4 years. I have about 36-ish races left.

    Devil Dog 100 and Blackbeard’s 100 restored my confident in running longer races. 50 milers no longer seem that hard. 100 milers also seem a bit easier. I plan to do a lot more 100s. My goal might be also do a 100 in every state. My friend is tempting me to follow his footstep of doing 100 of 100 mile races. He is 62 year old I think. If he has such aspiration why can’t I? So instead of being a marathon maniac, I am now a hundred miler maniac.

    I have been looking at oversea races for 2025 and beyond. One is in Mexico. One is in the Philippines. That is a bit of a distance future. Mexico might be part of 2024 plan. So planning phase should start soon especially for the mexico trip. Mexico is a scary world. I hope to go in and get out as quick as possible.

    I need to constant push myself to do things outside of my comfort zone and leave things I am familiar with. 2021 and 2022 were like that when I reached beyond what I thought was possible. 2023 seems to have a safe schedule so far. How I know I am a bit over my limit is I when I started failing like in 2022. 2022 got me to admit I reached my limit and then I took remedial actions and redemptions this past winter and spring season.

    I made more running friends. They inspired me. In beginning 2022, I only met one person (Tek) who I thought was crazy running 100 mile races as if they were running a marathon. Then at the end of 2022 and last few months, I met several more (especially Fernando). Likely either this year or by this time next year, I will be like them. I don’t think I am that far away. The gap between what I thought was impossible to possible has narrowed quite a bit. One was my perception of things, I am no longer afraid of 100 mile races. I will start running 100 milers like I run marathons in a higher frequency.

    My Weaknesses: I have slacked off on my training a bit, last year. Miles wise is still pretty high but my effort has been lacking. Training is no longer “hard.” I could do better. I believe only we train against resistance do we improve. I still sleep through my morning training. It was one of my last year goals to wake up early and excercise. I only did it like once. I need to break that bad habit. That is my big weakness is I am easy to settle or compromise for less.

    I gained weight. Not a bad thing but I could lose some body fat. Not fat shaming. I haven’t gone to the gym at all. I could improve on my physical build. I run a lot but other areas needed to be worked on too.

    Fasting: My diet has not been that great last year. I need to eat less processed stuff and more fresh and natural food. I know so many people who eat cleaner than me. Fasting was not part of my training/life last year. I should occasionally fast to keep my body healthier. I plan to start fasting regularly, but staying away from food is hard for me.

    I am struggling with defining my future direction. Yes I am doing the 50 states completion. I am running ultras and 100 mile races. I am attempting harder races. But that is only a small part. I need to ask what do I want more in life. How do I get from here to there? from my small tiny dreams to my bigger dreams. A lot of times, I just need to push myself, get off my butt.

    If you ask what would be doped to do, I think hiking the triple crown would be it. PCT, CDT, and the AT. I consider hiking the Appalachian Trail a life dream. I need to actively reach for them. It is easy to dream, but action is hard.

    Also if I could travel oversea, I think that would be wonderful. I don’t strive to be the best gamer etc. I am just an average person. But if I could do something epic, that would be so good. This would tie into my retirement plan of living oversea.

    Lesson/observation/reminder. Life goes by so fast. I met couple friends who said 2017 was their best year in running and every since it has been downhill. Now I ran with them and they were far from the best forms. I don’t know if I have peaked yet, I hope this year is not my best year yet. I already ran for about 7 years and I felt I am just started. I fear in a blink of an eye I will be where some of my friends are now. I run with a lot of friends who are in their 60s. They are still going strong but no way were they compared to when they were in their 40s. It seems so fast. In a blink of an eye and they are “old.”

    I need to put in the effort to make the most out of life. Every year, I need to optimize my time. Choose the best things to do. Let not waste the opportunity I have.

    Another lesson, I thought I am in control of a lot of things, but these last few years, despite of my planning, there things like the covid interruption was beyong anyone could prepare for. I am just one of many floating in this sea of time. There will likely be major world events that will take place and that will turn everyone’s life up-side-down again. Yes, still got to make the best out of everything.

    Am I on track? Yes and no. I think I am on track of doing what I like. I completed 4 x 100 races. But I haven’t been aggresive enough in going after my goals. I met both Frenando and Caroline who inspire me to be like them. They are both much older than me yet they are doing like 10 times more than I am. I know I shouldn’t compare to them, but they do give a good reference point to me. I started thinking, I could do what they are doing. The question then became why not!

    Apart from running, I am or I hope to withdraw my time, energy, resource from the online twitch community. I supported several self-made artists/content creators last year and even past several years. They had kind of quit halfway. I am Not disappointed but also kind of am. It is hard to explain. I think it lacks closures. I will leave it to a future post to write more on this.

    Anyway, I just put it out there. I have been involved in this streaming thing since the covid started. Things are winding down. Many content creators are back to their regular work (real life/real job). The so called final fantasy has ended. I credit this to be why I was successful running the two 100 mile races the last 6 months, Because I had more time for training.

    I hope this has been a good read. That was about some of my current struggles and life updates. Until next time. Oh, here was a midterm review done not long ago for those who want to read more, Day532 (Feb 2023). It is pretty much similar to the present report. (I haven’t forgotten about Lake Tahoe). The next midterm maybe will be in July or August. Of course the next Re: will be 50 “days” from now and that is about maybe 25-35 weeks from today or 6-9 months.

  • Day267 run summary

    Week14

    Nothing spectacular this week. I ran less frequently than I should. I couldn’t remember what held me back. Maybe, because my running usually occurred during dinner time and this week I lost it to my appetite. I have gained couple pounds.

    I really need to push my running to the morning.

    Monday-Friday: none

    Saturday: 27 to Reston

    Sunday: 13 miles around the neighborhood

    It is official that my race in June won’t be taking place. I won’t have to train for it any more. It was a good thing because I was way behind on my training.

    So my next race will be in July. There is uncertainty if the race will remain. July race is a 50K so, not really something I worry about.

    I plan to run a 50 miler in August. I haven’t signed up for that. Will see how the coronavirus turn out by then.

  • day264 week summary

    It’s Week 13 or something. About 7 more weeks left before my race if there is one.

    Total is around 25-30 miles something. It is much much less than I want, but what do I do? I am sorely distracted by the coronavirus as you can tell from my previous posts.

    Monday – 4. I felt so guilty of not doing my daily run, I got out and ran on my supposingly rest day. Monday usually my rest day. But what to rest when the whole week has been resting.

    Tuesday – 6. I think was 6. I don’t remember how I feel. Usually bad. I haven’t workout at my max heart rate and now each run is like a struggle.

    Wednesday. 7. Might been more. I think I really enjoyed the run by today

    Thursday. I think was 0. I think I goofed off that day.

    Friday–Saturday. 0. I started to have amnesia. Each day blended together. I felt I did go out and did 10 miles but the memory was so vague. I don’t remember what happened. Then for Friday night, I planned to wake up at 3 AM to do my 52 mile run on early Saturday, but it wasn’t meant to be. I chicken out. The weather wasn’t too good, the wind was strong, it was cold. yadda yadda. It was raining. I then went to bed again around 6 am in the morning and woke up at noon time. Nope still not good to run. I went back to bed around 3 pm after eaten lunch and did my laundry. Woke up around 6 pm. The weather was nice then. Sunny. Nope don’t feel like running on an empty stomach. More the same until Sunday morning. I laid in bed at night and watched videos.

    Sunday 12-13. I felt I had another chance to do a run. Woke up at 3 am again but it was too dark outside to be running. I was a big wuss. I didn’t get out the door until it was 4 pm more than 12 hours later. Doing just one loop. Yay. done.

    I don’t know. Actually I do know myself. I hate long runs. The thought about it would make me want to put it off. With run. I have to just do it. It is not bad once I get going. The hard part is to get going. Or I have to lie to myself, like let go for a walk.

    I hate being the only one out there. The cold and dark thing bother me. However, those were exactly the things/feeling I like. I like being alone by myself on the road or in the woods cranking at it. Weird. I can’t explain it. It is a both a love and hate. When I run I feel to be myself – the real me. I am not very good at it but I do feel I am in my element. I am in my world and I could go on and on. The world disappears before me. Pyschologically, probably is disassociation. I am in my own world. There is a peace there.

    Then of course I get exhausted, and nothing matters any more by that time, and I couldn’t keep a single thought straight, yet my body is still able to hammer away. During the run, I had clear insight of how to describe it and then it became incomprehensible now. Readers will have to wait till next time when I remember about this. I hate to get that tired and yet I love it.

    Injury: I don’t really have any yet. I know it takes time to build up the base again. I wish running is easy. I can tell by fourth and fifth run my legs do not like me very much. They are hinting saying they are not ready for this. Running involves luck. I am not always at my peak. I feel it takes luck to have everything together – my mental game and my body to coordinate together. Finger crossed no injury.

  • day261 week summary

    Total: 34

    Monday – Friday o mile. Can’t remember much. There were couple days I dressed up to do a run but then wimped out at the last moment after sticking my hand out the door and pulling it back because the weather was too ‘cold’ or it was raining. There was even one night I fell asleep in my running clothes because I was too lazy to change them back – lucky I didn’t put on my running shoes. Weather has been on the cool side for us. High 50s to low 60s during the day, but fell to 45 ish at night. It was not too cold to run, but I have been wimpy lately and looked for all kinds of excuses to stay indoor.

    Saturday 24. Did my around the neighborhood tour. It was my first ever to expand a bit outside of my comfort zone. My goal one day is to run across the town (the big town, into DC and beyond), which is a big project, yet I almost have everything in place for it now. Maybe next weekend or the week after, I will do it.

    Most of my training runs for the past couple years have been in DC but I am not as familiar of the area around my house on foot than at my workplace. The lockdown has been an opportunity for me to explore more places nearer to home.

    Sunday: 10. Going back out on the second day gave that feeling that all your bones in your body are broken. At every position I turned during my sleep, my bones would crackle. It feels good too but I am a bit worried that I am getting old. My fitness level has dropped significantly with the last four weeks of staying in. It used to be that I woke up and I was all refreshed to run again.

    I had a wonderful time pondering on the meaning of life on one of my runs. I think it boils down to having able to have Choices in life. Sometimes I felt I didn’t have much choices, and felt stuck. Then I saw the choices I made and was thankful I have them. I was thinking what is driving me on? I work to have money so that I can run. Why am I running? Because I want to reach a certain goal, like to run fast enough to get into the Boston Marathon. That makes me happy.

    We are ultimately pursuing something that satisfies. The process of the pursuit gives meaning to our life. At least that for me. Hunkering down inside slaving away at my work so that I could be outside and run, brings smile to my face. Then it also makes me smile when I come back in limping because I am so tired that I can’t hardly stand up. I like the irony. I ask myself all the time, do I really like running that much.

  • day258 – week summary

    Is it week 10 or 11 of my training? I lost track. Usually by the 10th week, everything fall apart. This time is no different.

    I wrote this entry last week but lost it as I was about to publish and now finally found it again. How do you lose an entry? Ask WP. At that time, I didn’t know how, but now I found it was in the webpage folder instead of the blog post folder. So weird, you can’t move a post from one folder to the next. Does that make sense?

    Bear with me if it seems to be the same stuff I wrote last week. I have short term memory.

    total mile: 26

    Monday/Tuesday rest: 0

    Wednesday: 0

    Thursday: forgotten. probably 0

    Friday: 0

    Saturday: 26

    Sunday:0

    It has been another crazy week. This week was worse than the last. I had ton of time, yet very little running done because of the coronavirus.

    Now I don’t have a 3 hour commute (roundtrip) every day. It is almost a vacation I always dream about. Every day is a Saturday. Almost. Yet, the reality of being stuck at home is no fun. I didn’t get to do what I need/want to do. No one to blame but me, for being too obssessed with the news.

    For running, I am doing the same route. There are tons of neighborhoods I can run to, but I have been sticking to running the boring same route of back and forth in front of my house.

    By the way, our county finally closed all the public parks. We haven’t done so at the national level yet. It is getting there. They closed the parks for cars. There are parks I can still run to without driving there. Our quarantine enforcement in our area has no bite. There is no street closure. We do it in some places, but the idea is not to limit movement, but prevent people from congregate at a location. No one is being pull over by the police for violating the ‘essential’ travel only. That bother me when I look out at the street and see so many cars. Basically people still can go where ever and do whatever they want. That should be good for me, right?

    Along with everyone, I just can’t wait to have it over with. On one hand, it seems impossible to get everyone following the quarantine order. The other hand, we have shutdown the city like never before. However, there are too many people deem themselves essential. It is a disease we don’t see affecting us immediately due to the long incubation period and the infected can be without any symptoms but still can spread to others, which many didn’t realize. It might bite them two or three weeks from now. We are not fighting today battle. What we do now affect in 2-3 weeks time.

    So it’s supposed to last 2-3 more weeks according to the New York governor before it gets better. New York is taking the lead and all eyes are on them. Our area is now maybe a month behind them (4000 cases, to theirs 130000). NY seems to slowing their curve today. Our area is slowing a bit too, it is no longer doubling at every 4-5 days as before or even freaking every 3 days sometimes, so that is some good news, but it is too early to tell.

    The cost of the policy to shutdown the state/country is huge. There is also a cost if we do nothing. Some states still do not have a stay-at-home policy due to the low count of infections in their states. There are some who question if it worth it. Mayor of New York, said yes. For each life saved is worth the economic cost.

    There are some good news that a cure or vaccine might be possible. Hopefully, everything will be over when the summer comes around. Hopefully not too long, so we can all get back to work.

  • day255 week summary

    Day 255 – week 10

    Total: 44

    Monday/Tuesday: 0

    wednesday: did I run? Yes, probably 5 miles

    Thursday: 0

    Friday: 13

    Saturday 26

    Sunday: I was a bum. Slept the whole day and watched Youtube video. I felt asleep during our virtual sunday class until the teacher called on me.

    The week passed so quickly. I can’t remember what I did last week. Every day was the same, wake up, worked, doing something usually cooked or cleaned, then went to bed and repeat again the next day. There is almost no delineation between home and work, weekday or weekend. I feel like I am stranded on a deserted island. Life is so monotonous.

    We do have a shelter in place order. Today our state and county issued a stay in your house order. How is that different from before? Now it is official.

    People started texting me because they know I still run crazy mileage around the neighborhood (in their eyes). I looked up on the restriction and found it is pretty flexible still compared to before. We can go out for exercising and to get our food or to go to work. So…I wonder how is this coming week be any different from last week! Only thing is they said it is official now. They closed off a lot of parks and set up roadblocks leading to them, because last weekend, people were just crazy going all over the place.

    I listened in on the Governor of New York – Cuomo’s press briefing every day. He said something today that this is a war. People should start treating it like one. It is serious and shouldn’t treat it like a vacation.

  • Run summary

    Day 239

    As usual of last few weeks, I will here post my recap of last week runs. I am not sure which week I am on now either 7 or 8. I usually lost count once passing 5.

    Unlike the previous week with only 9 miles, this week I put up a big number. It wasn’t a surprise since I knew I would be doing a 50K long time ago.

    Monday: rest

    Tuesday: about 4 mi, with group

    Wednesday: rest. again I failed to wake up early to run and at night I was too tired to go back out.

    Thursday: 4 mi, with group. uneventful. One of night we were rained on, probably was Tuesday.

    Friday: 0. Was very tempted to run, but in the end listened to reason since I would be doing a 50K the next day.

    Saturday: 32 mi. according to garmin. People say the course was long. I haven’t checked the website. I know the marathon course was 28 miles. I felt the ultra course was about right. Hopefully a full report will be prepared if I get to it.

    Sunday: 10 mile race in Reston. Plus a just shy of a 16 mile long run.

    Total: 66 miles.

    On one hand I am proud of the number, but the 50K came with a cost. I kind of overextended myself and came away with two bad foot! I rolled my left ankle. My right foot is more serious. I couldn’t walk without pain. I haven’t exactly found out the reason. I think it is more than skin abrasion on the back of my right heel. I somehow bruished it.

    I am a bit concern now if I can run when I get to PA for Laurel Highlands training #2.

  • weekly run summary

    Day 225

    I ran 56 miles last week

    Monday: usually rest day, I rested

    Tuesday: 4-ish miles with the group. I showed up in three layer shirt and did not realize it was 60 (15 C). Hot night.

    Wednesday: rest night

    Thursday: group run canceled because of rain and no one showed up. I ran 4-5 miles at least I think. I forgot. Cold and wet night.

    Friday: 9 miles. cold and windy night. 37 F (3 C) when I started and tried to finish as fast as possible to avoid being out in the 20s.

    Sat. 14+6. beautiful day, nippy in the morning. I finally went out on the trail. Woke up late and got to the trail by 11 am (I was 3 hrs late). I did 14 miles in about 5 hrs. So ended up mostly hiking. I was supposed to do more; Buzzard Hill + Ashby Hollow. This place was where I planned to do two weekends ago. Better late than never. By the time I got to Ashby Hollow, it was 2 pm. I decided to turn around, otherwise I might not get out of the woods until 9 or 10 pm. I only ‘ran’ 7 miles then and it took me 3 hours. I decided to hold off Ashby Hollow segment for another weekend. That should be only 5 more miles / 10 miles for out-and-back. I saw a couple at that point, who was probably doing the whole thing that day (24-25 miles for them). We passed each other when I started out and we were passing again at Ashby Hollow – well they could have been tailing me the whole time. They went on ahead into Ashby Hollow.

    I got 2000+ ft of climbing in that stetch of about 7 miles (4000 ish at the end of my out and back). They don’t call the section the roller coaster for no reason. It was a lot of ups and downs.

    I got home by 5 pm and decided I need some real running and did 6 miles in the neighborhood. It was so different to run on flat pavement. I could actually run and breath. Trail running really took my heart out of me. I thought I could run, but out on the trail, I was just like everybody else.

    Sunday: 3.1 (5K) in the morning. 16 more miles in the afternoon. I did the airport/Arlington loop again.

    How do I feel? I feel the miles started to get to me. Even with two days of rest in the week, I started out with tired legs on most of the runs. You know the feeling. Legs were heavy. This is my third week of putting up 50+ miles of training.

    But I got 3rd place in my age group on my 5K race “Run Your Heart Out 5K”. My 2nd time being on the podium! I ran mine out. I was not fast (26:30) at all but the people who usually beat me were not there. I had run a 24 min time before and still not get a 3rd place, so I was glad to be on the podium this time!

    Arlington Loop. Glad I have been doing it for third staight week. I won’t be running it next weekend because I will be out of town.
    About two miles north of Ashby Hollow Trail Head, near a campsite (behind me). All of AT in Virginia looks the same: browish color. But can you believe it? This is only 45 mins from my home! Lucky me to have such good training ground. Still, I wouldn’t want to run out there in the dark if I don’t have to!