JFK 50 Week 5 of 18

For the week ending Sunday, August 24, 2008

Monday- off
Tuesday- 10 miles trails
Wednesday- 7 miles paved park, rolling hills
Thursday- 12 miles trails
Friday- off travel to Indy
Saturday- stairwells in hotel for 4 x 15 floors
Sunday- 5 miles paved park

Total 34 miles

JFK 50 Week 4 of 18

For the week ending Sunday, August 17, 2008.

A cut back week for me. I needed it more for "life happens" kind of stuff.

M- 3 track
T- off
W- 7 park
R- 5 trails
F- off
S- 15 trails
S- 5 park

Total 35 miles.

The trail run on Saturday was the best run all week. I did 3 loops which took longer by 1 minute on loop 2 and 3 minutes on loop 3 for a total of 3:14 with some walking. This trail is definitely not as technical or hilly as the AT. An adjacent football field had the youth football league championship games on Saturday so I could hear the announcers most of the time I was out there. Only 4 mountain bikers, 2 who I see most weekends. I got out there earlier, right at 9 am and it was cool with low humidity.

JFK 50 Week 3 of 18

For the week ending Sunday, August 10, 2008

My week felt like a cut back week, but after looking at my log it wasn't so bad after all. I ran Monday, unusual for me, but the weather was too nice to pass up. My b2b on Sat/ Sun never panned out as I had the babies a little longer than planned on Sunday and a boatload of teenagers in the house. I traded out a harder effort mid-week run for an easy 10 miler on Friday due to a scheduling conflict but came out with 38 miles, most of them on trails. Since I was so pressed for time of Sunday I went to the track because it's close to home and an easy running surface. Every other lap I ran the straights hard and jogged the turns to mix up the pace a little.

Monday: 4 trails
Tuesday: 7 trails
Wednesday: off
Thursday: off (USRD)
Friday: 10 park (paved)
Saturday: 12 trails
Sunday: 5 track

Total- 38 miles

No weight lifting- see how quickly I can fall off on that? I wish I liked it more as I know there are so many benefits.

After 3 weeks I'm tweaking the plan a little. I'm going to add some recovery miles on Mondays after the weekend b2b runs. Maybe this will offset some of the stiffness for my Tuesday trail runs. Next week I'll post some pictures of the trails and park.

School starts here next Wednesday and that may bring on some creative scheduling for the afternoon runs. (Somehow I don't think she'll appreciate me running to the car pool lane and making her run home with me.)

JFK 50 Week 2 of 18

This week went a little better than last week. I sure miss my early morning runs in this heat. So far my mileage remains low enough that I'm only training with water and salt pills. My back to backs are going well right now, but the mileage is still pretty low.

For the week ending August 3:

Monday - off running but I did do some weight lifting
Tuesday - 6 miles trails
Wednesday - 9 miles
Thursday - 6 miles trails
Friday - off
Saturday - 12 miles
Sunday - 8 miles trails

Total - 41 miles


Yesterday I took a good look at cut off times and aid stations on the course. I feel confident if I can make the 34 mile checkpoint I'll be fine even if I'm using all of the allotted time. There is one stretch that has me a little concerned, but it's still early in my training. By the end of August I'm hoping to put together some times runs and start to think about race day strategy.

JFK 50 Training Starts!

This is the year I turned 50, so I entered the JFK 50 Miler to celebrate. I'm bib # 141.

I've settled on a program with increasing back to back weekend long runs and a mid-week run between 9 and 13 miles. My runs are divided between trails (pictured above)and the paved county park with occasional long track runs to prepare for the monotony of the C & O Canal Towpath portion of the course. I have 2 races leading up to JFK, the Bald Eagle Mountain Megatransect and the Stone Steps 50K.


Week 1 of 18 is finished. No split times yet: I'm getting in the miles and will track splits beginning in September.

For the week ending July 27:

Monday- rest
Tuesday- 5 miles on the trails
Wednesday- 9 miles on the trails
Thursday- 6 miles in the park
Friday- rest
Saturday- 12 miles on the HS track
Sunday- 8 miles in the park

Total- 40 miles
Add 2 weight workouts on Tuesday and Thursday.

Pikes Peak Ascent August 2007

The start at Pike Peak Ascent. It was a beautiful, sunny and cool morning. We double checked our gear and waited for the GO!


The view from the top of the W's. This series of switchbacks was a lot harder than we thought it would be. Our legs felt strong but every breath was getting harder as we climbed.


Great trail surface, even as we approached higher altitude.

We would catch glimpses of the summit in the distance.

Bald Eagle Mountain Megatransect September 2005

I met up with Chris, Ralph and Jim for a 24.3 mile trail run/hike in Lock Haven PA. Race morning was cool and overcast with 345 starters. The first 3.5 miles or so is on a paved road before we hit the trail. Greeting us at the entrance into the woods was the snake warning sign. The first "hill" is an old logging sluice- straight up- no switchbacks. I had a hard time with breathing, nerves, low blood sugar and stopped several times to let faster runners pass me. I couldn't believe how many passed me on that hill! At Chris' urging I took a gel and a lot of water with a salt tab and was feeling much better in 15 minutes. We had lost a lot of ground and remained in the back of the pack for the rest of the race. Much of the trail was loose rock and footing was precarious. In addition it was my first time using trekking poles and I'm used to packed dirt trails. Other places were soft dirt and sand and still others were just plain imbedded rock. After the initial climb we encountered a lot of runnable areas with gentle inclines and declines as we headed further into the forest and steady elevation gain.

The next climb was brutal- my first time in a boulder field. Chris went on up and I took my time as footing was extremely tricky. I made better time on the way down which put us at around the 8 mile point with the speedy runners nearby at their 16-mile checkpoint. There was a runner taken off the course at this point with a lower leg injury. We had more good terrain with several hills as we headed upward to the summit.

The view from the summit was gorgeous- we started the downhill approach around the mountain before reachng the last major climb. As difficult as the course had been so far we knew the most difficult 3 miles were still ahead of us.

Our final climb was in 3 parts- the first uphill had a rope- I'd guess it was between 45 and 60 degree grade. A local Boy Scout troop offered to carry backpacks and gear so we could use both hands to negotiate the cable. I respectfully declined their kind offer since my Camelbak has been very comfortable so far. It was a dry surface and rocks fell constantly during the one-at-a-time ascent and we made it to the top. The next part was just as steep, only without a cable. As we crested the top of this hill we had our first look at the massive boulder field ahead. We could not see the top from where we stood at the bottom.

I never looked up- just concentrated on placing one foot in front of the other and got to the top. There was another snake warning here, too. Next we had a very long and steep downhill out of the woods and onto the paved road to the finish area. My downhill technique has improved with practice and a small knee strap.

This was one tough trail challenge and I look forward to running this again in 2006.

Sunrise on the Rachel Carson Trail June 2005

This is why we run trails...

The short version: 6 friends, 34 miles, 15 hours, elevation gain- 7139 feet, elevation loss- 7116 feet (of which I probably did 4ooo feet backwards), 12 water crossings, 3 blisters, 8 Motrin, 10 salt tablets,168 ounces of water/gatorade mix, 2 PB&J sandwiches, trail mix, 1 good-sized bruise and scratches too numerous to count, and only a couple of minor falls. (And so far no poison ivy.) It was the hardest thing I have ever done, and I could not have done it alone. There were 504 starters and 336 finishers.

The rest of the story:

Friday afternoon I drove to Lorrie and Luis's home and rode up to Pittsburgh with them. If you have never driven into the city- the view as you come out of the tunnel is AMAZING! I will never forget that.
We met Chris, Michelle, Bill, Ralph and Barb at Olive Garden and talked a little strategy and adopted Michelle's phrase/mantra 'Relentless Forward Motion'. Later the next day 'Motion' would come to include walking, climbing, leaning, crawling, sliding and jumping. As long as we made forward progress we would be okay.

Saturday AM we were up early and at the start in time to meet Ralph Michelle and Bill. We got our chips, applied IvyBlock, took a couple of pics and we were off around 5:50 AM. The first part of the trail took us in and out of the woods and a few service roads. We had a pretty good hill early on but it was a lot different than the trail hills in KY- these were not winding, swithchback elevation gains- they were straight up quad killers, but they were mostly in the woods and not too bad. We had out first major descent in this section and I was grateful for the tread on my Adidas. There were a lot of water crossing in this section, which I LOVED! occasionally we would end up on the road- climbing over guardrails to cross the street ever so mindful of the yellow blaze marks to keep us on the right track. At the first checkpoint were were treated to plenty of trail mix- PB & J, water, gatorade, and fruit. We packed some food to take and headed out for the second leg.

The second leg was more of the same- highway-woods- and a surreal equipment graveyard. We had some more hills, but nothing we couldn't handle on the climbing end. Here I started to have some discomfort with my right knee on the downhills, so I began to do them backwards. Relentles Forward Motion. Whatever works. We stopped briefly in Emmerling Park- with real restroom facilities. Shortly after leaving the park we hit a pretty good hill followed quickly by a descent. A little more time in the woods to recover and then we hit the first beast of a hill about mile 13. Now- I looked at the elevation chart on the website but there is no way to wrap your mind aound a bunch of numbers until you stand at the bottom and look up and think "There's NO WAY I can do that." But we did- with a lot of encouragement and waiting. That first hill was a good indication of waht was ahead for me. We had a couple more smaller up and downs and then a beastly downhill and we were at the second checkpoint. Here Luis and Chris did some blister/foot repair. The back drop of checkpoint 2 was our next big hill and my first crisis of faith.

This hill is a beast. It goes on seemingly forever. The challengers ahead of us literally look liked specks. Luis was behind me and never left, stopped when I needed to and I needed to stop a lot. Mentally I dug deep and came up with NOTHING! I couldn't slow my breathing- my heart was racing and people were passing us like crazy. Luis stuck with me and somehow we got to the top. I looked behind us to see what we had just climbed and said it was the hardest thing I had ever done. Later inthe day when I dug deep, afraid that I would have no resources I would remember this moment. Chris, bless your heart for not telling me it was only the first hill in the section called "the roller coaster". There were several more significant hills, and I soon perfected my backwards descent technique- because what goes up eventually goes down and we had our share of both. After a few more monster inclines I had decided to re-evaluate my goal to finish at the next checkpoint. I felt that if I only had 5 or so monster hills I could handle it- but much more than that I would slow everyone else down. After careful study of the elevation chart we figured there were 4 or 5 significant hills and one of them was on a highway, so I fueled up and made the decision to go on. It turned out to be the right decision for me. We made sure Luis was going to meet with Lorrie and the 5 of took off for what was to be the most difficult leg so far. (We later heard over 100 challengers stopped at this point.)

This was probably the most varied surface section. LOTS of hills, but I found some inner strenght and I actually started feeling stronger. By this time we are beginning to see a lot of the same people on the trails and we are all encouraged and making progress. I kept hydrated and taking my salt tablets, so I had no cramping or dehydration issues. I would name this section the section of quiet determination. Mentally I had come far. I had come to a point where I knew I was going to finish. This was the hardest leg by far and took us the longest. We had a downhill where there was supposed to be a cable and there was none. At first people looked and kinda shook their heads. Michelle turned around and started down on hands and toes- what she nicknamed the "Spiderman" move- except in reverse. It got the job done. Chris was starting to feel the effects of a long day- travel and little sleep. As we approached the 4th and final checkpoint he made the wise decision to stop after 12 hours, our original goal time. Lorrie and Luis were at checkpoint 4, so we spent just enough time to re-fuel and get back on the road.

The last leg had the first major incline on the road, so it was long, but not as steep. We were in and out of the woods and had a lot of big- not monster hills for a while. At this point we are not seeing as many challengers anymore, but we have a time goal and a second wind and we keep going. We do hit another huge hill, but this time I get to the top legs shaking. We spend a lot of time on service roads and climbing over fallen trees froma recnt storm, but soon we're back in the woods and on the home stretch. We can hear the finishers and smell the hamburgers and around 8:30 we are done.

You could not ask for better people to spend sunrise to sunset on this odessy. I am grateful and humbled and in awe of everyone's contribution.

---

Rachel Carson Trail Challenge June 2005

One of several water crossings at the beginning of the challenge. Each year they flip-flop the start/finish so in 2006 these will be at the end of the course. Although everything was green and lush the water levels were quite low which made for easy navigation and relatively dry feet!

Rachel Carson Trail Challenge June 2005

This is typical of the many hills we had to climb during the 34-mile challenge. Standing at the bottom it was impossible to see all the way to the top. The footing was good but we had to be on the lookout for poison ivy. As difficult as the climbing was, the downhills were brutal. I ended up doing many of my descents backwards, a stratgey that probably saved my knees and allowed me to finish.

Land Between the Lakes 23K March 2005

This was my first trail race.

My first trail race, and longest continuous trail run to date. It was a blast- long for me- but a blast, still.

Molly and I met up with Mike and his family at the pasta dinner and packet pick up. The race directors are brothers who do a fantastic job. This is the second running of the race which includes a 60K ultra. The dinner was homemade and very good. The entry fee included the dinner ticket and additional tickets were $5. A bargain. I won a door prize- I can't believe he didn't win one, too, since there seemed to be as many prizes as people. A neat premium was that our LS Cool Max shirts had the names of the racers on the back. I watched the Louisville game and went to bed. we had a slight advantage since we changed from EST to CST, so It was like an extra hour of sleep. The race started at 6 AM sharp. We ran on an asphalt road about a mile and half before we hit the woods.

The trail was pretty much like the ones I run here- single track-barely big enough for one person- as I never passed anyone it was good enough for me. I ran with a couple of women for a few miles, but they were more experienced and we parted ways at 4 miles. They warned me to take it easy as the last half was more difficult than the first half. The only looking I did was ahead of my feet. I did discover that as I get moving it's my right leg/foot that trips me up on the follow through. I had a few near falls- but remained upright the whole time. The aid stations were great and the volunteers were fabulous. Another perk of a small race is apparently trail runners are the friendliest and most encouraging runners out there. There were some areas with more mature trees- very 'root bound' so I tended to be more cautious than probably was necessary, but my goal was to experience a good distance on trails and finish (and not get lapped by any ultra runners). No splits- although there were mile markers I used my watch rarely.

Miles 8-10 were the hardest 2 miles I have ever run in my life. Those women were right- the total elevation change took place in those 2 miles, I swear. Periodically I had to stop and catch my breath. To look back at where I started the climb and see what I had accomplished was very satisfying. I think that's where trails "hook" us.

By the time I finished my first trail race I was already looking forward to the next one.