Good Week!

Oct. 23
9 mi - 68:33, 600'

Oct. 24
7 mi - 50:09, 433'

Oct. 25
8 mi - 63:00, 958'

Oct. 26
4 mi - 28:26, 300'

Oct. 27
7.4 mi - 59:00, 600'

Oct. 28
9 mi - 64:00, 671'

Oct. 29
13 mi - 1:33:30, 1270'

Good week of training.  Was planning on just doing 50 miles this week but didn't feel like I needed a day off so I ended up getting 57.4 miles.  The plan is still to build the mileage as quickly and safely as possible.  I will take days off when I feel like I need them.  My pace has been faster than expected for some of my runs but I am still keeping my heart rate in check.  This should be another good week of mileage with a 85 mile adventure race on Saturday.

Back at it!

I'm back to running on a regular basis again. I took 7 days off after my 50 miler. The Friday after the race was my first day for no soreness and I was actually itching to get back at it after that much time off. Last week I ran 4 days as I was just going out for a run whenever I felt like it. This week will be my first full week. I feel mentally and physically refreshed and ready to build for the next race.

The goal is to build to be able to rum 80-100 miles a week as consistently as possible. Hopefully I don't find a breaking point, but if I do I will back off and just do as much as my busy will allow.

My next race is Nov 5, a 20 hr adventure race with Trey and my buddy Chris which starts and ends at Milford Lake. After that I will just do races when time allows me to.  Proposed race plan for this next year would include:

Psycho Wyco 50k in Feb
Free State 100k in April
Flint Hills Marathon in May
Heartland 100 mile in October

I'm sure I will find some other smaller races to fill in on but that what I'm thinking for now.

Heartland 50 Recap

It's done and man am I glad it is.  Saturday at 6pm we started the race and just before 1:15am on Sunday it ended.  I wasn't able to run as fast as I wanted but I was still very happy with the race overall.  It's always good to have goals when you go into a race but sometimes you learn very quickly that you may have to reevaluate on change on the fly.  When the race started, the plan was for Josh, Brandon and I to hang together and try to be right around 8min/mi pace.  2 other guys hopped into our group and were running with us.  One of them even started pushing the pace abut 4 miles in and opened up a 400m lead on us pretty quickly.  I wasn't concerned as it I knew 50 miles was a long way.  We ended up catching him at 12 and he hung with us until 17 and then we never saw him again.  From the very beginning my heart rate was higher than it should have been for going the pace we were going.  It concerned me a little but I knew there was nothing I could do about it so I tried not to worry about it.  I did take a 5 Hour Energy 45 min before the race so I'm wondering if that had something to do with it.  By mile 10 I was beginning to feel a little crampy in my left hamstring. Through all of my training I had never cramped or got even close to it.  I was taking in endurolytes every 45-60 min so cramping wouldn't be a problem.  Brandon started cramping a little bit at 20 miles so he backed off the pace.  Josh and I continued on without any problems until we hit 29.  Right before 29 I felt like my right quad was starting to cramp, as I slowed to a walk to try to stretch it out it completely locked up on me.  It took me 2 or 3 minutes to work it out so we could keep moving.  By the time we got to the mile 33 aide station I hadn't had any more problems so we just refilled water bottles and kept moving.  From 33 to 42 is probably the toughest part of the course as it is constantly up and down.  Josh and I stayed together until 38 when we began to seperate a little.  I was still worried about my quad cramping again and didn't want to stop at all.  Josh thought he was going to have to stop at 42 for a quick bathroom break and so I just went ahead by myself at 38 and didn't look back.  I was able to maintain a pretty quick pace over the last 12 with my last 5 averaging 7:50/mi or so.  When all was said and done Manhattan guys swept the top 4 spots in the 50 miler.  I ran 7:14, Josh ran 7:32, Brandon came in 7:56 and Barry was 8:53.  Great experience and even though I may have told the guys differently after the race, I'm not ruling out the possibility of doing a 100 at some point.  Props goes out to Dave Krishock, Aaron Avery and Frank Dayton of Manhattan for finishing the 100 and earning their belt buckle.  It was Dave's 5th and Aaron and Frank's 1st.  Also, thanks goes out to my Dad and brother Luke for helping us through the aide stations. Made things a lot easier.

50k Race

So its been a while since I've posted on here.  Training has been going okay for the most part.  My mileage has been down a bit since the middle of June when it started getting really hot out.  I raced a 50k road race in Kansas City this last weekend as a part of the North Face Endurance Challenge.  The weekend before the race I did a 34 mile run on the 50 mile race course so the plan was to just get another easy training run in.  The week leading up to the race after the 34 mile run I was definitely tired and didn't know what to expect going into Saturday.  The plan was to go out and run at about 8 min per mile pace for the first half and then see how I felt and hopefully pick it up from there.  As I got into the run I didn't feel like I could slow down from the 7:30/mi pace I was holding and better yet I felt very comfortable at that pace.  After 6 or so miles I decided I would just roll with it and see how it went.  The entire race felt very comfortable until the last 4 or 5 miles.  By the end of the race the temps had reached 85 degrees and I think that hurt me more than anything.  I ended up finishing 4th place overall and running 3:50:59.  I now have 5 weeks to be ready for the big one.  After this last weekend I'm feeling much better about being prepared to go the whole 50 miles at the pace I want to go.  More to come soon....

Rolling Along!

Last week was another 70+ mile week, checking in at 72.  My long run on Sunday was only 19 miles.  I did most of it by myself with the exception of about 6 miles when my brother jumped in with me.  This made three straight weeks with 70+ miles.  I am still feeling great about the mileage at this point and hopefully nothing changes.  One thing that I think has helped is losing some weight since the beginning of the year.  I'm down about 15lbs since around mid Feb.  I'm still wanting to be very cautious with my mileage so I've decided to take a down week this week.  I took Sunday and Monday off this week which was nice since I ran every day last week.  I should have around 50 miles this week and then it will be time to pump the miles back up.  I have exactly 3 months before the big race and I honestly can't wait.  At this point I only have 3 races on the schedule leading up to my ultra.  July 15th I'm doing a 1 mile race with a wedding party in Tennessee, I'm doing the Warrior Dash 5k in KC on July 31st and I'm planning on doing the North Face Endurance Challenge 50k(31 miles) on Aug. 28th in KC.  Looking forward to the cooler temps that September will hopefully bring. 

Feeling good with my miles staying UP!!

Sorry its been a while since my last post.  I'll try to get back to posting on a more regular basis.  The good thing is I'm still running a lot, I've just been lazy on the posts.  Last week I finished up another 70 mile week and felt really good.  I started off this week with a 13 mile run with Kory, we moved right along for the entire run and felt good throughout.  Again I went long on Thursday since Josh was going to be out of town on the weekend.  This week Brandon joined in for most of the run(26 miles).  I ended up going 32 miles in 4:19:00(8:06/mi pace) and felt really good throughout the entire run.  The last 10 miles I dropped the pace down and was running 7:30/mi pace.  During that time I felt really good but my heart rate was a little higher than I would have liked it.  What's great is the next day I felt like I could run outside of what I think is a little tendinitis in my left foot.  I took the day off and because at this point I'd rather be safe than sorry.  Again I hit 70 miles for the week and felt really good.  This morning Kory and I went out again for 15 miles and averaged 7:16/mi pace.  I really feel like I'm getting stronger and stronger with each week that passes.  I'm excited to see what I can do as I start racing some longer races.  More to come...

Early Long Run

30 miles - 4:06:44

Josh and I decided to do our long run today since he would be out of town this weekend. I really felt good throughout the entire run. Three weeks ago when I did 30 the last 5 miles were fairly painful. Today I was sore but felt like I could have kept going. We did a big loop that went north and west of Manhattan. Part of the run took us on to Ft Riley which became interesting when a soldier stopped us and informed is that we were in a live fire area and that we should evacuate immediately. Josh told me there was nothing to worry about since it was lightning. I'm pretty sure I should have been worried about one or the other or maybe both. After todays run I have 85 miles over the last six days. Best part is I'm feeling great. More to come....

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