Category: Cold

Summary Dec 5-11

On By siegmunaIn barely coherent rambling, Cold, Depletion, Dum Assery, fitness, Foam Rolling, hashers, Hours, Life, road running, Running, Running Partners, trail running, Ultrarunning, ViewsLeave a comment

Monday Dec 5, 6 Miles, 449′ 47m56s

Overslept the 4:30 wakeup call which meant leaving the house at 6:17 on a compressed schedule. Generally the legs felt okay but lacked any sort of snappiness as has been the norm since the Fallback 50K right before Thanksgiving. Fortunately my hip seems to have recovered better, and is substantially less sore.

Tues Dec 6, Warmup 1.5 Miles 59′ 12m, Workout –6.7 Mile, 174′ Tempo, 45m13s 

Pre-dawn solo Tempo Tuesday. Avg HR was 167 throughout the workout, and the first 3 miles felt exceptionally grueling, add to that a very dejecting 6:52 split for mile 3 made me rethink the idea of tempo runs in the cold-pre-dawn hours without a training partner around to push me. Final 3.7 miles felt better, but didn’t provide much more in the way of snappy splits despite the elevated HR effort. Afterwards my hip flared up a bit an felt tight for the remainder of the day — back to fire-hydrants and foam rolling. .49 Mile cool down 

Wed Dec 7, 8 Miles 745′ 59m59s

Forecast called for snow, so rather than doing pre-dawn battle with the snow-plow man I chose to sleep in and hit my run after work. Naturally no snow was on the ground when I got up, but conditions after work were ideal, so I can’t really complain. First two (downhill) miles out my front door were recklessly quick — especially relative to the “8 miles EZ” written in my plan for the day. Legs felt confidently snappy making for a very enjoyable outing

Thurs Dec 8, 7 Miles 338′ 51m

Negatives workout with JP. JP has been espousing his regular negative split workouts running from 8-830 pace down to a final all-out mile, so I finally got myself together and joined him for a 7 mile version. Mentally the need to consistently best your previous mile makes for an interesting workout from a pacing/effort calculation point of view, and the constant acceleration facilitates a sort of fatigue that for now feels more than a little unique. Splits were 8:29, 7:55, 7:27, 7:06, 6:54, 6:40, and 6:19.

1 Mile cool down (9m9s 39′) followed by 5 Mile Social run (44m43s 337′)

Fri Dec 9, 2.3 Miles, 259′ 19m56s 

Easy neighborhood shakeout. Generally fatigued throughout the day and wanted to take the chance to recover a bit before Saturday’s inevitable sufferfest.

Sat Dec 10, Warmup — 2.3 Miles, 180′ 18m3s, Workout — 13.1 Miles 1h27m33s

Typical Chatham loop Saturday course with Jay and Jeff. With Jay and I just starting our training blocks, and Jeff in between a PR and planning his next races no one was checking their watches until we hit mile five or six. Surprisingly we were only a few seconds faster than our agreed upon pace of “45-ish” although I still can’t seem to wrap my head around how much easier tempo runs seem to get after the first few miles. We finished the workout alternating 400m pace line pulls dropping the group down to a 5:59 final mile, and according to my watch, the last 10th got to 5:47 pace.

Sun Dec 11, 11 Miles 1578′ 1h52m1s Allamuchy TH>Overlook>White>Waving Willy>SBX>Cement Mixer>TH with Pack and Eric

Woke up feeling pretty stiff/fatigued from Saturday’s effort as well as ravenously hungry, with some disconcerted swelling in my necks lymph nodes. Overall effort was pretty relaxed on the mountain, and considering the vert over the course I’m actually quite pleased that low 10’s are possible with an avg HR of 135. Great day to get out with some friends and hit up some always stellar trails.

dscn0615
Eric at the Overlook
dscn0616
Pack’s first Allamuchy Ramble
dsc_0001
Mmm, Mate

 

Summary February 24 – March 2

On By siegmunaIn barely coherent rambling, Cold, fitness, Hours, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Life, road running, Running Partners, WinterLeave a comment
Monday February 24, 6 Miles 299′ 45m14s
Supposedly a recovery run, but in reality a pseudo-justified day to lay off of the residual fatigue that’s been accruing in my legs for a few weeks. Overall kind of a lackluster effort considering the light 7 miles I put in the previous day.

Tuesday Feb 25, 11 Miles, 521′ 1h22m
First run of the day, this time with a little more pop in my legs (relatively speaking) I figured I’d reroute a local 10 mile course to grab the extra mile since I was planning to help my brother move into his new condo in the afternoon, and time was a bit of a factor here.
PM 3 Miles, 194′ 21m22s
Post-moving shakeout thing. Still feeling kind of dead in the legs, but noticing that on secondary runs I seem to be able to push a little bit more even when things feel bad (most likely a result of simply trying to get things over with/generate body heat over a short distance).

Wed Feb 26, 4 Miles, 246′ 31m
Unusually tired in between jobs today, generally a combination of fatigue and under-motivation led to an uncharacteristically light day.

Thurs Feb 27, 21 Miles, 1086′ 2h38m
Long run with Dave. Left from Dave’s house to loop out Snake-Hill Road, skirt around Picatinny, and drop back in through White Meadow Lake. Usually Dave and I try to get together for ambitious slightly insane mountain outings, but with the current snow-pack it just seemed ridiculous to slog it out in the woods for several hours, especially considering that both of our upcoming race goals include entirely runnable courses. Overall I felt pretty good, even with a pretty good dip in energy at the courses high point.

Fri Feb 28, 7 Miles, 459′ 52m26s
Primarily a leg-test/shakeout before the usual Saturday grind. My legs felt pretty raw, but energy levels were consistent, and considering the previous days effort, things felt pretty smooth. Residual fatigue is certainly becoming a factor in daily training, but that’s been the plan all along, so now it’s primarily a matter of staying healthy, and increasing daily/weekly/monthly volume.

Sat March 1, 18 Miles, 1500′ 2h10m
Chester>Long Valley>Chester. Another one of the patented “Yea, I’m aware of an elevation chart when I map out a course, but I usually ignore the Y axis…” course designed by Jay. Super-scenic as far as road running is concerned, causing me to remember how nice and agrarian greater Long Valley/Califon/Pottersville really is. Group-wise, a surprisingly low-energy day, most likely a combination of people having “off-days” while trying to keep up with Jay feeling extraordinarily good. I could definitely notice Thursday’s outing in my legs, especially in the teens, but surprisingly grinding through it didn’t take an unusual amount of grit/gumption, but rather just seemed like the obvious necessity, and well within bounds.

Sun March 2, 1 Mile 7m37s
Unusually jam-packed work day combined with general fatigue, cold weather, and a sensation that I should probably let myself rest.

Totals: 71 Miles, 8h47m 4374′
Overall not a bad week, this marks two consecutive 70+ mile weeks, and a general upward trend in my mileage throughout the year (week to week). The weather is of course frustratingly keeping me resigned to regular daily pavement sessions, which are generally not the kinds of runs that I find inspiring, or particularly motivating.In spite of this, I’ve been able to manage some serious consistency (a fringe benefit of pavement sessions seems to be the general equivalence in effort required mile to mile) in the past 6 or so weeks, which is having a rather noticeable effect on my aerobic capacity, in spite of my general lack of vert/techy shit. Ideally things will clear out soon, otherwise I’m going to need to begin to follow in Dave’s footsteps and start doing some sisyphean hill repeats on the pavement (I’d sore prefer to do them on a mountain).

No Pictures in a while, so instead, enjoy some tasty notes from Grace Potter

https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/jt5rKGsMKyM&source=uds

Summary Jan 27 – Feb 2

On By siegmunaIn barely coherent rambling, Cold, Dum Assery, fitness, Hours, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Life, Mountain Porn, Racing, WinterLeave a comment
Monday Jan 27, 6 Miles, 289′ 40m37s
Usual around-town loop straight from the house, legs feeling especially poppy today, but also very much pressed on time.

Tuesday Jan 28, 12 Miles, 449′ 1h30m
Improvised around-town route, ~15°F which while very much bearable, did require me to run several miles before feeling loose/warmed up. Legs were surprisingly achy overall, but still yielded rather consistent splits, within 30 seconds total once averaged for gradient, even better was the consistency from miles 4-12, which eliminates the warm-up and largest climb of the day.

Wed Jan 29, 8 Miles, 663′ 1h1m
Easy repeats on the local-most road incline. Trying to increase my weekly vert on run-able terrain without really pushing anything else. Legs were feeling rather dead, just generally unresponsive, albeit surprisingly consistent (one of the things I’m learning about with my new-found garmin stats)
PM 3 Miles H20 Treadmill 20m
Alternating 30 second and 1 min pickups with added resistance (water jet)

Thurs Jan 30, 3 Miles, 801′ 32m33s
Double summit of Allamuchy from Waterloo Rd TH (not Sussex TH) maximal effort on climb/descent with R&R on the summit/base of the mountain. Could have done several more, but had to boogie back home for a meeting via Skype.
PM 8.1 Miles 427′ 1h5m 
Shakeout loop, modified broken shin. Legs felt fine, mild heartburn, but nothing serious/out of the ordinary.

Fri Jan 31, 4 Miles, 239′ 30m03s
Easy shakeout day, trying to keep the blood flowing, and not let myself fall into over-training too early in the season.

Sat Feb 1, 15 Miles, 389′ 1h44m
Horseshoe lake start with Saturday marathon training group. First 5 miles were planned to be 7:45ish pace (reality: 8:06, 7:33, 7:28, 7:12, 7:03) with the following 10 being a progression from 6:55-6:30 or so, hoping to average 6:45. Reality was as follows:
6:44
6:44
6:35
6:34
6:39
6:50
6:44
6:32
6:32
7:14
On paper, I thought this would be a rather ambitious workout, especially considering that it’s January, and frankly I’m not in my best shape during winter, but excepting some GI distress, I felt remarkably good throughout, and was surprisingly loose/un-sore afterwards.
PM 2 Miles 15m H20 ‘Mill
Shakeout time, starting to really dig this water thing…

Sun Feb 2, 9 Miles, 324′ 1h18m
Patriots Path with Brian, trying to shakeout the legs, and anticipating some soreness/sluggishness from Saturday’s run, but it never really happened. PP has been well traveled, which unfortunately means that I should have worn spikes, as much of the path has the snow compacted into an ice-covered tunnel, which while fun, is less than ideal for forward motion.

Totals: 70.1 Miles, 3573′ 8h56m
It’s ineffable how good it feels to finally be back to “training” mileage, even if the overwhelming majority of it is taking place on local roads instead of trails. Overall, my legs seem to be responding favorably to increased volume/intensity, and I’m becoming increasingly confident in the training plan I’ve (loosely) laid out for myself going into some spring 50 milers, and eventually the big 100 in July. There are no shortcuts to regaining fitness, and I absolutely need to keep that in mind, and remember to not push things too hard too early, as well as making sure that I respect the distance/terrain of my upcoming races, and the specificity of training required to race well under those circumstances.

Back on the local hill

Summary March 18-24

On By siegmunaIn barely coherent rambling, Cold, Depletion, Dum Assery, Hours, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Life, Snow, Summary, trail running, Whining, WinterLeave a comment
Monday March 18 AM 9.2 Miles, 1400′ 1:10 Columbia Trail>Schooleys Mountain>Columbia Trail. Lollipop loop with the mountain as the candy, I haven’t really run this route in the past 6 months or so, so I figured I should get back at it, primarily for the juxtaposition of self-imposed speed on the flats followed by nose-on-ground steepness up and down the mountain (assuming you’re moving at speed)
PM 1 Mile, 8:00 Treadmill shakeout before weights.

Tuesday March 19 AM 9.2 Miles, 1400′ 1:14 Same lollipop route as the day before, this time in ~3 inches of snow with a combination of rain followed by snow for the entire duration. Effort-wise, this should have been a faster loop, but the loss of traction as well as hesitation on the most technical sections cost me some serious time.

Wed March 20 AM 9.2 Miles, 1400′ 1:10 Wonderful day to be on trail. I thought I was on pace for a quicker loop, but it seems that I’ve got it dialed in pretty well in the 70-minute zone.
PM 1 Mile, 8:15 Shakeout after dinner in an attempt to knock some soreness out of my legs

Thursday March 21 AM 9.2 Miles, 1400′ 1:10 Hitting the splits pretty consistently, and really feeling like this route is getting dialed in well, which means it’s time to start pushing the envelope in the upcoming weeks.
PM 8 Miles, 1020′  1:02 Broken shin loop preceded by an easy 3 mile loop on the same roads. Feeling unusually spry at the tail end of a seventeen mile day.

Friday March 22 AM 7 Miles, 940′ :47 Local road loop, surprisingly on pace. I was planning to run a lot more on Friday (mentally) but my body isn’t recovering at quite the rate I was optimistically planning for. I seem to be ignorant of the fact that the last time I was running this much, it was on-the-whole a lot slower.

Saturday March 23, 20 Miles, 6780′ 3:39 High Point>Sunrise Mountain>High Point Via AT. Dave and Gene have been ranting and raving about this run for longer than I can remember (although, they usually do it in the summer, in the reverse order). I decided to run it backwards primarily because the Sunrise Mountain parking lot was closed due to snow, little did I know that the whole trail would be ~4 inches deep in slush. I probably could have paced myself much better, as the first half was ~13 mins faster than the second half.

73.8 Miles, 13,080′ 10h28m

Overall A lot less mileage than I expected to crank out during a week “off” (from class) but most of the mileage was hard-won, especially yesterdays 20 miler. I’d go out again today, but a little niggle in my right hip/the lateral side of my thigh combined with some rough blistering on my feet is enough to encourage me to take a recovery day, and pick myself up by my bootstraps tomorrow. Yesterdays run was by far the hardest I’ve worked on a solo outing, period, so if I can maintain this sort of gumption in the next few weeks, I think it’ll pay off.

Overlook on the Kittatinny Ridge

Wed Morning on Schooleys

Sometimes standing on a rock is hard

Another view from the ridge

No fires in NJ….

Summary Jan 14-20

On By siegmunaIn barely coherent rambling, Cold, fitness, hashers, Hours, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, road running, Running, Summary, trail running, Views, Whining, WinterLeave a comment
Monday Jan 14 AM 4.7 Miles, 860′ :37 Local neighborhood loop with a couple of decent hills thrown in. This is usually a lame cop-out for a seven mile loop when I’m not feeling so spry.
PM 2 Miles, :16 Treadmill
Loosening up before hitting the weights for the legs. I’m beginning to recognize that the rhythm of the treadmill has some small advantages in pace-location.
PM 2, 1 Mile :9 Treadmill
“Official” shakeout mile after weights.

Tuesday Jan 15, 7 Miles 940′ :50 Slow-ish jaunt through the local roads, adding weight training is definitely having an effect on my recovery-time, as well as the general weightiness that my legs are feeling

Wed Jan 16, AM 5 Miles 1480′ 42:30 Power line trails. Trails were covered in a mix of ice, sleet, and snow, I probably should have worn spikes, but the roads accessing the trail were completely clear.
PM 2 Miles, :16 Treadmill
Typical pre-weights loosening
PM 2, 1 Mile :9
Shakeout

Thurs Jan 17, AM 3.5 Miles 1150′ :33 Power line trails, abbreviated version. Trying to get a good “recovery” pace in my legs (it turns out that I’m really awful at forcing myself to run at a sub-maximal effort)
PM 5 Miles 720′ 44:15 Broken Shin Loop at a true recovery pace. First time in quite a while that absolutely no one was looking to push the pace the slightest bit. Good recovery run.

Fri Jan 18, 6.6 Miles 4880′ 1:22 Mount Tammany repeats with Bob and Dave. I’m hoping to get out for a lot more in the way of hill-specific training (in spite of the fact that most of the courses I run are rather hilly) in an attempt to feel more comfortable on uphills, and not lose strength as quickly. Trails were icy and snowy, which in spite of using micro-spikes made a 3rd loop (when already fatigued) seem like a bad idea.

Sat Jan 19, 9.2 Miles 1400′ 1:14 Colombia Trail>Schooleys Mountain. I thought this would be a rough/slow run, and at times it certainly felt like it, but overall the pace was pretty spot-on. I still need to work out my pacing however, since I definitely was feeling a little ragged on the final 5k back to the car

Sun Jan 20, 4.7 Miles, 860′ :38 Planned to do 7, but as soon as I got out of the neighborhood, that started looking like a bad idea. My legs just weren’t having it, and in actuality, felt like they had already run 30 or 40 miles today, which certainly isn’t a good thing.

Totals: 51.7 Miles, 12,290′ 7h31m

Overall I was definitely feeling pretty well beat-up this week, which is to be expected anytime I change my mileage/workout plans as much as I have in the past several weeks. Weather permitting, I’m hoping to increase my trail-mileage, and subsequently my vertical change, but it may take some time to balance things out with the semesters beginning coinciding with these plans.

Photo: Dave Franz

Photo: Bob Skorupski

Photo: Bob Skorupski

Photo: Bob Skorupski

Photo: Bob Skorupski

Summary Dec 31 – Jan 6

On By siegmunaIn barely coherent rambling, Cold, Depletion, fitness, hashers, Hours, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Life, Running, Running Partners, Slogging, Snow, trail running, WinterLeave a comment
Monday Dec 31, 4.5 Miles, 2400′ :53
  Fresh Powder run with Jason up and around Allamuchy TH>Summit>Far parking lot and back. Saturday brought about 3 or 4 inches of fresh snow, which gave me ample excuse to try out a new pair of MICROspikes on the hill, which probably weren’t necessary in the fresh snow, but over the course of the week because invaluable on the trough like ice-luge that the trail eventually became.

Tuesday Jan 1, AM, 3 Miles 320′ :28
New Years day run with the Highlands Hashers. Really relaxed recovery pace on local roads.
PM 2 Miles :15 Treadmill
This year I’m trying to be a lot smarter about cross-training and strength-training, especially when my mileage is low. Ideally, lifting some weights, and doing some treadmill-specific workouts (such as prolonged uphills, which are impossible to do on the east-coast…) should pay off later. This 2 mile dreadmill session was really just a warmup for a heavy leg-workout which ended up deadening my legs for the remainder of the week.

Wed Jan 2, 7 Miles, 940′ :48
Dead-leg tempo run on roads local to my house. Pretty uneventful overall, in spite of the mild lethargy and general weighty feeling that my legs had throughout.

Thurs Jan 3, AM 4.5 Miles 2400′  :48
First 2 Allamuchy summits of the year. The snow at this point has been packed down into tunnel of ice and hard packed snow, which with the aid of some MICROspikes can be a really fun run.  The snow basically fills in all of the gaps the the rocks create on the trail, making for a rather tame (technically speaking) pathway on which to run, of course, the mid-20’s temperatures that we’ve had since the snowfall seems to have turned a lot of this into patches of ice, and snow packed hard enough that without a traction assistant, you can expect to spend half of the run flat on your ass. I’m still not used to carrying an extra 1/2 pound on each foot, but it seems like I’ll get used to it.
PM 5 Miles 720′ 40:23
Broken shin loop with the Highlands Hashers.

Fri Jan 4, 8.5 Miles, 2400′ 1:26
Double summit of Allamuchy after a few miles of rail trail with Bob. Semi-scouting, but mostly checking out the area, and getting a good run in. By the last 2 miles, I felt unusually bonk-y which is kind of pathetic considering the relatively short run-time, and comparatively slow pace. I can only assume that the previous couple of days weren’t recovered well, which makes sense, considering the overall weightiness of my legs throughout the whole run. Better start the suffering now than have it show up closer to race-season.

Sat Jan 5, 6 Miles Freezing Cold Hash (no recorded time, no altimeter)
Freezing cold hash is an annual hash in Edison NJ. The link should explain it all

Sun 1 Mile 8:30
Feeling some pretty serious soreness in my left adductor, and being a little gun-shy, I decided not to push it. After the mile, everything feels fine, but it’s so early in the year/my training plans that listening to my body on these sorts of things seems like a no-brainer.
 

Totals: 41.5 Miles, 9180′ 5h55m

Definitely fewer miles than I had originally expected to do, but I’m pretty happy with the overall vertical change, as well as Wed’s dead-leg tempo. Things are very early, and I’m certainly not willing to go crazy with my mileage yet, but overall my legs feel really solid, I just need to get used to running a lot again, and figure out how to best integrate strength training into my running regimen.

NYE Allamuchy, Photo: Jason Friedman
Thursday Morning
Bob posing on Friday
Freezing Cold Hash, Photo:Dave Franz

Jason on Allamuchy, NYE


Awe, Mama, Ain’t it good to be alive!?

On By siegmunaIn Awesome, barely coherent rambling, Cold, Dum Assery, Hours, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Ouch, Random, Running, ViewsLeave a comment
Yesterday morning I woke up obviously on the wrong side of the bed. I went out the door for my usual ~5 miler, still feeling low from this cold I’ve been battling, and within the first hundred yards I knew something wasn’t right with my left ankle/calf. So I bailed out at the half mile mark, making it a round trip mile, and overall a shitty start to the day. So I spent the day knotting my fists, cursing the misstep on Saturday that resulted in the twist exacerbating this long standing Achilles-oriented weakness. The ensuing funk lasted for the duration of the day, making me realize just how cathartic these runs are, and how much they keep me level-headed throughout the day.

Fast forward 24 hours. My ankle is still sore, but not un-runnable (in fact, the soreness is much higher in my leg than it was last time this happened, and no where near as tender). So, I went out this morning for my usual Allamuchy loop, deciding to power-hike more of the inclines to save the abuse on my left ankle, but still take advantage of the 50+ degrees outside. After a week of not really being “on” the mountain, the sheer act of summitting this small peak, and looking over the area from that vantage point is still exhilirating. I’ve hit this peak 7 times since the turn of the year, it refuses to get old (I actually thought the number was higher than this…). So, even with some mild discomfort, it feels good to be alive, forget the trivialities of every-day life, and simply run.

Summary Jan 22-28

On By siegmunaIn Barefoot, barely coherent rambling, Cold, Depletion, Dum Assery, Falling, fitness, hashers, Hours, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Music, Snow, trail running, Views, WinterLeave a comment
Sun Jan 22, AM 10 Miles, 1:40:10 Snow covered Allamuchy. Spent the majority of the run breaking trail, and wishing I had a pair of microspikes since the traction was questionable at best. 3 separate falls, but I had the unique opportunity of knowing I was the only person who’d been out that far on those particular trails over the weekend, as well as being the first person to summit since the snowfall.

Mon Jan 23, PM 5.1 Miles, :45 Powerline Loop with a few added tenths, Rainy, Slushy, Muddy, Slippery, overall kind of a miserable day to be outside. 1 Fall

Tues Jan 24, AM 10.2 Miles 1:30:43 Typical Allamuchy 10 miler, missed a turn though, which added a few tenths. Snow was all but melted, but now things are getting muddier, making it hard to estimate when my shoe will find purchase.
PM 2 Miles 16:53 Short shakeout through the neighborhood, trying to flush some of the mucky muck out of my legs, and keep things loose.

Wed Jan 25, AM 6.0 44:29 Quick little road run, every-so-often I need the repetitive action of predictable terrain.
PM 1.0 8:06 Trying to reintegrate the evening shakedown mile(s)

Thurs Jan 26, AM 9.9 Miles, 2:17 Triple Ascent of Mount Tammany with Dave. ~3500 feet of gnarly terrain, throw in some freezing rain, a major bonk, and increasingly frowzy shoes, and you’ve got a pretty good time on your hands.
PM 5.0 41:19 Broken Shin Loop with the usual suspects Most of the run felt like a death march after the morning-time bonk, but a relatively reasonable time.

Fri Jan 27, AM 5.1 Miles, Powerline Loop, surprisingly quick, especially considering the abuse that my legs took the day before, had I not added the extra wee bit, it would have been a CR for the 4.85 mile course.
PM 1.0 8:21 Continuing the trend.

Sat Jan 28, AM 21 Miles, 3:17:43 Double Ascent of Allamuchy with a few additions. First time in months that I’ve run with a handheld for an extended time, and more importantly, first time since Oct that I’ve breached the 20 mile mark. Also worth noting, is that the last time I was out for >3hrs was December, where I ran for 3:08 and covered 6 fewer miles. Granted, that was a deliberately slow strength building run, but it’s nice to feel a sense of progress. Also, fell pretty hard on my hip during the second ascent, hopefully this won’t affect my running over the next couple of days

Totals: 76.3 Miles  12h 11m, 5 Falls, Vert ~10,000 gain and loss (approximation)

Overall, a pretty productive week. I’m rather happy with where I’m at physically, especially with how much time I have before any upcoming races. From here it looks like I’ll be trying to add more Vert (and find a better way to track it) and slowly add miles over the next few months leading up to the NF 50 at Bear Mountain. I’m also starting to integrate power-hiking as part of my trail running strategy, especially when it concerns steep inclines over fundamentally un-runnable terrain.

View of Mt. Minsi (from Tammany)

Dave’s downhill technique is getting awesome

Split shorts in January!?

Summit number 3

Also, some music I’ve been digging way too much lately… seems appropriate.

and secondly,

Summary Jan 15-21

On By siegmunaIn Cold, Depletion, Expletive, Falling, fitness, getting hurt, gore-tex, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Life, Merrell, Ouch, Random, road running, Running, shoe modification, Snow, Summary, trail running, Views, WinterLeave a comment
Sunday Jan 15, AM 5 Miles, 42:19 Broken Shin Loop with Limpy, Roadie, and Jeff Boy-ar-Dee. Met the guys for a frigid AM run, wish I had worn socks, and managed to freeze my beard pretty well… although, the companionship made the wind and unreasonably cold temperature a lot easier to deal with.

Monday Jan 16, AM 11.6 Miles, 2:04 Ran through Allamuchy with Dave, again, wicked cold (~8 degrees) but we covered roughly 1550 feet of ascent/descent over the course of 2 hours, without running particularly hard at any point (but managed to test some speed on a few technical downhills). We also took the time to take some rather contrived trail-running photos, and upon returning to the car, and changing, my jacket (a lightweight softshell) froze completely solid… I suppose winter has come….
PM 3.85 Miles, :40, Turkey Brook loop with Roadie, Jeff, and Hairy, a nice second run of the day, trying to stay loose, also wore uber-minimalist shoes to concentrate more on biomechanics.

Tuesday Jan 17, AM 4.85 Miles, 40:39 Power Line Trails, completely frozen over, making for a rather nice variety of rocks, and frozen mud, good traction, fast trail, I think this is either THE, or close to the fastest time for me on this route… eventually I’ll check the log-book and find out. Also, took a pretty great digger tripping over an embarrassingly small rock.

Wednesday Jan 18, AM 10.15 Miles, 1:16:04 Tempo-ish hill run through the local roads, running this route at mid 7 pace is becoming increasingly easy, I’m going to need to find a harder tempo run in the next few weeks… or pick up the pace substantially (still haven’t decided which yet)

Thursday Jan 19, AM 4.85 Miles, 41:02 Power Line trails… Ground has softened up a lot creating a strange combination of really soft mud, ice, rock, and frozen soil, footing is a complete guessing game. This variety of trail conditions is part of how, and why I run the same routes a lot, I may cover the same ground, but each run is fantastically different from those that precede and follow it.
PM, 5 Miles, 37:52 Broken Shin Loop, ran ahead of the pack, and then was chased down by Bob, power of ego overtook my better sense, causing this intended recovery run to be much faster than I would have liked.

Friday Jan 20, PM 4.85 miles, 44:16 I originally tried to run 10+ at Allamuchy, in fact I drove all the way there, stood outside my car for a few minutes, used the bathroom, and instead of running, returned home…. a  few hours later I pushed myself out the door for the Power Line loop, and ran the whole thing convinced that I was falling asleep

Saturday Jan 21, AM 10 Miles, 1:26:41 Ran through Schooley’s Mountain and surrounding Rail Trails during a snowstorm. This was by far the most challenging run of the year, mentally, physically, and especially with regard to the elements. The snow made for questionable traction(causing me to fall on level trail), as well as providing additional drag/forcing me to keep my knees higher than I would otherwise like, not to mention the constant head-wind, and snowfall pounding my face. There’s a beauty to the solitude of being the only runner out there in this sort of weather, and the challenges that face you while attempting to run trails under  these conditions.

Total Miles:  60.15 8h52m, Falls: 2 Frozen Beards: 4

Gino also has his beard frost over

Jeff around Turkey Brook

Dave and I on top of Allamuchy (Photo courtesy of Dave Franz)

Ice Beard at Allamuchy (Photo Courtesy of Dave Franz)

Descent is steeper than this shows (Photo courtesy of Dave Franz)

Finally, it snows

Downhill in the snow

Summit!

Summit Profile

Not quite postholing, but close…