This was my last week of any substantial running before the race. This week, the week of the race I will only be running 16 miles before I toe the line on Saturday the 18th. I spent most of this week obsessing about which shoes to wear and how to not gain weight... Here is what I did for training last week.
Monday - Scheduled day off.
Tuesday
- 10 miles
on trails (1:17:58 - 7:48 pace). 3.5 miles warmup, 3 x 1/2m hill repeats (up and down) then 3.5 home at a
spirited pace (under 7mm for last mile, easy effort to maintain). Felt
really good this morning. Shoes - La Sportiva Helios
Wednesday - 5.4 miles of trails (47:57 - 8:53 pace). Ran at the quarries to simulate MMT. Lots of rocks. Actually bruised the bottom of my foot. I thought I was settled on using the Helios at MMT, now I'm not so sure. Shoes - La Sportiva Helios
Thursday
- 10 miles of trails (1:21:32
- 8:10 pace). Did HR x 3 at mile 4. Felt a bit sluggish today. Wore my Hokas because of bruise from yesterday. Slipped at end of run on log and slammed my arm and hip. Luckily unhurt. Shoes - Hoka Bondi B 2
Friday - Scheduled rest day, but I couldn't do it. Went 6 miles on trails (48:19 - 8:04 pace). Was super excited to try my new Altra Lone Peak 1.5's because they felt so good out of the box. Loved the shoe and decided that it might possibly be my MMT shoe. Got an email from Coach Satan about 2 hours after the run telling me "not to be an overachiever" because I had a very long run in the woods of VA in a week. When he says day off, he means it!!
Saturday - Rest day. No sir, don't like it at all.
Sunday - 20 miles of trails (3:05:15 - 9:15 pace). Ran the Powerlines trail. Was so happy to be able to run. Coach said "No Hammering!!" so I concentrated on practicing my 100 mile pace/effort. Even walked a few hills. Felt really good. Only ate 1 Lara Bar and about 1/2 bottle of water. Put the Lone Peak 1.5's through everything I could throw at them. Only complaint is that they take a long time to dry out. But all the good (great traction, super good fit. no toe jamming on downhills, great toe cap rock protection) out weigh that concern. They were soaked the entire 3 hour run as it was a very wet trail. Love how they feel.
Summary - 51.4 miles in 7 hours 21 minutes
I was pretty cranky this week and really wanted to run. As usual, I have put back on a few pounds and it messes with my head. But, I am as ready as I have ever been and looking forward to rocks, blisters, ticks, 85 degree humid heat and incredible views!!
You can go with this (Helio)
Or you can go with that (Fluid Flex)
You can go with this (Pure Grit)
Or you can go with that (Bondi Speed)
Don't be shocked by the tone of my voice. Check out my new weapon, weapon of choice (Lone Peak 1.5)
Yes, we have rocks in NH too! My favorite power lines trail.
With only 2 weeks to go, I am finally in taper mode. Usually I get pretty cranky as my body tries to figure out why I'm not running as much. But this time I seem to be adapting pretty well. Perhaps because even though I've backed off on the overall volume, I still managed to run 73 miles last week. Here is how it all broke down.
Monday - Scheduled day off.
Tuesday
- 12 miles
on trails (1:43:01 - 8:36 pace). Very hilly roads and incorporated two 1 mile intervals on the steep power lines trail. Shoes - Montrail Fluid Flex.
Wednesday - 6 miles of trails (50:50 - 8:29 pace). Ran the hospital trails on a warm day Happy
with pace. Shoes - New experiement. New Balance MT110 with Vibram rubber sole that I built.
Thursday
- 12 miles of trails (1:35:39
- 7;59 pace). Pushed it on the hills. Not really an "easy" run, but not quite a "tempo" either. Sort of in between.. Shoes - Exciting new Skechers Prototype
Friday - AM: 3 miles of roads
(31:00 -10:00 pace). Was supposed to be a rest day, did short run with Ron and Meredith. Shoes - Exciting new Skechers Prototype. PM: 5 mile walk with Amy on a beautiful day.
Saturday - 30 miles of hilly trails (4:44:02 - 9:29 pace) Ran the power lines. Temp was 38 when left in the morning. Kept all my cold gear on as it warmed up into the 60's to do a little heat training. Ran at a very easy effort on Coaches instructions. Felt really good. Shoes - Montrail Fluid Flex
Sunday - 10 miles of trails (1:41:00 - 10:00 pace). Ran the West End Farm Trail with Ron at a leisurely pace on a beautiful morning. Had no soreness or stiffness from previous day. Quite enjoyable! Shoes - New Balance MT110 with Vibram sole.
Summary - 73 miles in 11 hours 05 minutes
It was such an enjoyable week pulling the miles back. I feel like I might be in the best shape of my life right now, so I'm headed into the race feeling confident. Lets hope that confidence is still there when I'm 18 hours into the race and my feet are beat to a pulp!
Pretty stream that I came across in a new section of the powerlines.
Map says 16,200 ft, website says over 18k of climbing.
You may have noticed that I went from "5 weeks to go" last week to "three weeks to go" this week. This is because the previous posts were from the point of view of the beginning of the training week. Since the race is on May 18th I figured that it was less confusing to post the actual time left until the race (Massanutten Mountain 100).
Monday - Scheduled day off. And after 113 miles last week, it was nice to rest.
Tuesday - 15 miles
on trails (2:00:01 - 8:01 pace). Ran the trails at a moderate pace. Surprised to see such a brisk pace. I guess the day of did me some good. Shoes - Montrail Fluid Flex.
Wednesday -
10 miles of trails (1:14:52 - 7:30 pace). Watch was acting weird. Was on a new route so not 100% sure that the miles were accurate. Happy with pace. Shoes - my beloved New Balance MT110's.
Thursday - 15 miles of roads and trails (2:07:20
- 8:30 pace). Ran the hilliest roads I can find in my area. Incorporated the steep powerlines trail section. Low energy. Shoes - La Sportiva Helios
Friday - 6 miles of roads (49:34 - 8:16 pace). Had 5 on schedule, but I like even numbers so I did a bonus mile. Felt strange to run so little. Got an email Thursday night from Skechers about a prototype shoe coming my way that I had a lot of input on (no, I can't talk about it yet). Got motivated to reacquaint myself with the Go Bionic Trail (not out yet) Shoes - Custom Skechers Go Bionic trail prototypes.
Saturday - AM: 12 miles of roads (1:39:03 - 8:16 pace) Ran to work. Shoes - Altra Torin
PM: 12 Miles of Trails (1:42:58 - 8:35 pace). Beautiful afternoon so I added a run after work. Saw new Altra Lone Peak 1.5 on line so I decided to bust out my old pair and give them a new try. Looking forward to trying the new ones. Shoes - Original Altra Lone Peaks
Sunday - AM: 14 miles (2:56:23 - 12:36 pace). Ran the tough trails at Pawtuckaway State Park with Adam. Closest simulation to MMT's trails in the area. After the run I drove home and immediately jumped onto my local trails and ran another 16 miles (2:24:44 - 9:03 pace). Total miles for today, 30. Shoes - La Sportiva Helios
Summary - 100 miles in 14 hours 55 minutes
Another big week. In the last 30 days I have run 436.4 miles, which might be the most I've ever run in that time frame. Luckily I've made it through the toughest part of my training and now I head into three weeks of tapering back. Although my coach, Satan. still has a 30 mile run scheduled for me this coming Sunday (what the hell kind of taper is that??).
As far as the diet goes, I'm still on track. No sugar or wheat. But...I did have a few drinks this week. I'm losing weight at sort of an alarming pace and didn't think that easing up on the alcohol a bit would hurt. Now with three weeks to go, I'll be totally back on the wagon until after the race. Honestly, it felt good to allow myself this little indulgence. I've been a very strict Vegan for the last several months and I'm positive that it is helping with my recovery. I'm not ever sore and I really believe that the diet is contributing to that.
I feel like "the hay is in the barn" and I'm going to be very ready to tackle this huge challenge. I'm at the point where I feel like I could whip off a 20-30 mile run at any time without any trouble. After crappy results last year I am more confident that this year will be much more successful.
Another pic of Wapack Trail - MMT isn't the only place with rocks!!
After a month of putting in 90+ mile weeks, I still had enough energy to run my biggest single training week of my life.
Monday - 6 miles on trails (50:04 - 8:22 pace). Beautiful day marred by tragedy at Boston. Shoes - La Sportiva Helios
Tuesday - AM: 15 miles
on trails (2:04:42 - 8:19 pace). Ran the trails hard. Attacked the
hills but legs felt smoked at the top of each one. Shoes - La Sportiva Helios PM: 5.6 miles (49:38 - 8:52 pace) from house to Memorial Field. Ran very easy pace and met 25 or so local runners to do a mile for Boston. Shoes - Skechers Go Run 2
Wednesday -
10 miles of trails (1:25:04 - 8:31 pace). First run of the year at the powerlines. Super muddy, rocky and wet. Shoes - Montrail Fluid Flex
Thursday - 15.5 miles of roads and trails (2:04:49
- 8:04 pace). Ran the hilliest roads I can find in my area. Incorporated the steep powerlines trail section then did 2 one mile hill intervals (up and down). 2400 ft elevation gain. Legs were dead first couple miles then loosened up. Shoes - Hoka Bondi Speed
Friday - 10 miles of trails (1:25:03 - 8:31 pace). Ran very easy and felt great. Busted out one of my all time favorite shoes and remembered how much I love how they feel. Shoes - New Balance MT110
Saturday - 21.1 miles (4:55:41 -14:01 pace) Did the entire Wapack Trail with Adam, Ryan and Kristina. Excellent training for Massanutten. Nothing but rocks, mud and water. Lots of steep climbs with almost 5000 ft elevation gain/loss. Felt pretty good considering how many miles I have already this week. Shoes - La Sportiva Helios
Sunday - 30 miles (5:04:32 - 10:10 pace). Ran the Bow Snowmobile Trails. Met Ron for the first half and ran a very conservative pace as he is still recovering from Boston. The easy pace must have been just what I needed because the last 15 miles felt excellent at around a 8:30 pace. Shoes - La Sportiva Helios
Summary - 113.2 miles in 18 hours 36 minutes
I was dreading this week but in the end it actually turned out pretty good. Nothing hurts and I'm optimistic about getting one more big week in before I start the three week taper.This week also marks 3 weeks since I have had any flour/wheat, sugar (except fruit) or alcohol. For running fuel I have been using only dates and nuts. Most of the time I just pack some Larabars (peanut butter cookie flavor) I'm surprised at how well it has been working.
I spent a lot of time in the La Sportiva Helios as I'm leaning towards them as my shoe of choice for the big race. They have performed very well and I should have a review up on www.runblogger.com sometime soon.
The beginning of this week marked 6 weeks to go until the Massanutten Mountian 100. Here is a recap of what I did and how it went.
Monday - Rest Day
Tuesday - 15 miles on trails (1:59:21 - 7:58 pace). Ran the trails hard. Attacked the hills and ran the last mile in 6:30. Beautiful weather and ran with just shorts. No shirt, no water, no food. Just me and my feet moving quickly over the earth. This is the type of run that makes me love running. Shoes - Montrail Fluid Flex
Wednesday - 10 miles of trails and roads (1:19:08 - 7:51 pace). Took it easy, really felt Tuesdays run in my legs. Shoes - Montrail Fluid Flex
Thursday - Ran the same 15 mile trail route as Tuesday (2:08:59
- 8:36 pace). Legs felt completely dead. Shoes - La Sportiva Helios
Friday - 10.1 miles of trails (1:26:01 - 8:31 pace). Felt ok. Not great, not terrible. Shoes -
La Sportiva Helios
Saturday - 15 miles (2:19:17 - 9:18 pace) on the West End Farm Trail . The trails were tough. Covered with a few inches of snow and slush, with lots of mud underneath. Every step ended with a slipped toe. Really hard work. Even so, I felt strong. Shoes - La Sportiva Helios
Sunday - 25 miles (3:43:47 - 8:58 pace). Ran the Bow Snowmobile Trails. First two miles felt terrible. Tripped somewhere around mile 16 and slammed my elbow into a rock or root. Wanted to cry because I have bursitis in that elbow and it really hurt! Decided that I needed to toughen up and suck it up. I can tell my endurance is getting better as I only got to a certain level of fatigue and then never got worse. I actually felt better the last 7 or 8 miles. Surprised at the pace I was able to keep. Shoes - Montrail Fluid Flex
Summary - 90.2 miles in 12 hours 56 minutes
This was somewhat of a tiny cutback week in terms of sheer mileage. The next two weeks will be the hardest before I taper back for the race. The weekend was tough because I went to my nephews wedding on Saturday night. My brother and sister in law were kind enough to get me and Amy a vegetarian dinner, but it wasn't vegan and the only thing on the table I could eat was the green beans. Luckily Amy packed me a cooler so I had plenty of food, but I felt like a dipshit sitting at the table with nothing on my plate. That night people were partying until 2pm slamming doors and being super loud. I got almost no sleep. It made it tough to get out the door for today's long run after driving home. As I sit here typing this, I'm wiped out.
So I made it another week being a Vegan who also doesn't have any alcohol, sugar or wheat. As much as it is a pain, I am feeling great and starting to lean out. If I can keep all this up I am confident that I'm going to have a great race at Massanutten!
One of my favorite spots on the Bow Snowmobile Trails
When I talk to runners about racing 100 miles on foot the most common question is "How do you Train for that?" My friend Pete from Runblogger has started to post a weekly review recapping his training for a marathon. He suggested that it might be cool to post what sort of workouts I'm doing as I prepare to run the Massanutten 100 race on May 18th. My goal is to write a weekly recap on either Sunday or Monday leading up to the race.
With only six weeks to go, I am now in my peak training. I have been gradually building up to almost 100 miles per week. In March I ran 383 miles. While many marathoners run 100 miles per week, the training for a mountainous Ultra is considerably different. The biggest difference is probably the consistent back to back long runs on the weekend to build endurance. Below is my recap from last week.
Monday - Ran 5 easy miles (41:45 - 8:21 pace @ 1% grade) after work. Shoes - Hoka Bondi B 2.
Tuesday - Ran 15.2 miles on trails (2:12:22 - 8:43 pace). Trails were very icy and I had to be very careful on the hills, especially the descents. Was supposed to throw in 4 1/2 mile hill repeats, but had a mental breakdown and decided that doing hill repeats was no fun and I needed to have fun in order to train this hard. Wrote coach an angry email. Starting to feel burnt out, even though I'm getting stronger. Shoes - La Sportiva Helios
Wednesday - Ran 8 very easy trail miles with my brother (1:22:51 - 10:22 pace) and fell in love with running again. Later in the day I realized that I was supposed to do 10. Figured I'd add in the extra miles later in the week. Shoes - La Sportiva Helios
Thursday - Ran the same 15.2 mile trail route as Tuesday (2:06:00 - 8:20 pace). Attacked the hills like a fartlek run at coaches recommendation rather than doing structured hill repeats. Had much more fun and enjoyed the run. Shoes - Montrail Fluid Flex
Friday - 8 miles of roads (1:01:32 - 7:42 pace). Was supposed to only run 5, but I got in the extra miles that I forgot on Tuesday. Felt very easy, glad to see a somewhat brisk pace for the effort. I also hiked with Amy for about 5 miles earlier in the day. Shoes - Montrail Fluid Flex
Saturday - Got up at 5am and ran 20 miles (2:45:13 - 8:16 pace) to work. Then worked all day. Did a few big hills on the route. Shoes - Altra Torin
Sunday - 22.5 miles (4:55:00 13:07 pace). Did the Tully Mountain trail with Ryan and Kristina. Trail had a lot more snow and ice than we expected. Trail was pretty messy. Shoes - Montrail Fluid Flex
Summary - 93.9 miles in 15 hours 4 minutes
This week also marked the beginning of my strict diet prep. No more alcohol, sugar or flour. My plan is to eat this way until after the race. I have done this before with very good results, but it is not easy! I will write more about the diet in a later post.
This is part II of "Using Vision to change your life". To read part I please Click Here.
So, how do you go about creating your own unique vision for financial prosperity? As I was writing this presentation I struggled with this question. I really wish that I could say that it is as easy as 1.2.3.. And I really thought that I could break down what I did into a plan that anybody could follow. But the truth is that there is no simple step by step method. At least, not one that I have figured out that can work for everybody.
What I’ve realized is that everybody realizes their own vision through different methods. Some through tragedy. Some through frustration. Some by inspiration. I can only summarize how I created mine and hope it provides some guidance and inspiration. Here is the simple breakdown of how it happened.
1. First I had a thought that created an urge and a desire. After realizing that owning my own business would be the most likely way I could create wealth I started to really get excited about doing it. I just had no idea what type of business it could be and how I would actually do it.
2. I took a small action step and bought the first bike. By this point I had been fantasizing about owning a business for years. On an almost daily basis I came up with a new idea for a business. And some of them were really, really good ones. But as soon as the idea would enter my head, I would become completely overwhelmed with the enormity of it all. This would in turn prevent me from doing anything. Fear had a lot to do with it. I could always immediately find enough reasons for why I wouldn’t be able to make it happen, therefore I never got past the idea stage. The moment I took the first tiny little step at the beginning of NPD the next step showed itself to me. I believe that is how it works.
3. I added intention when I decided what I wanted for my life. The moment I figured out that my primary aim in life was to always have the courage to tell the truth, the direction of the business took on new meaning. Once I had something more important that just making money, something special started to happen. I felt like I had a compass that could guide any decision that I needed to make. And it felt like my work now had worth and value to everybody, not just me.
4. I wrote it down on paper. I don’t know why it is, but things become much more real when it goes from just thought to being written down. Taking the time to write down your plan creates a strong picture of what it is your trying to create. That is what “vision” really is.
There is a part of creating a vision, or plan for the future, that cannot be understated. It is the most important thing to start with. You must start with the belief that you can do it. You can do everything above and fail miserably if you don’t really believe in your heart that you are capable and worthy of achieving whatever it is that you want. One of my favorite quotes comes from Henry Ford. He said, “whether you think you can or think you can’t, your right”.
Our lives today are the result of our thoughts of yesterday. If you want something different in your life, then it all starts with changing your thoughts. Nothing that exists today could be without somebody thinking it first. That is incredibly liberating to realize. You have the power to create anything that you want, but it isn’t going to happen unless you dedicate the time and energy towards creating that vision. It takes work. It is difficult. All you have to do is try to focus on one single thought for 5 minutes before you realize that it is extremely hard to do. Our minds wander and focus on many things in a short amount of time. The more you work on developing your ability to focus on what you want, the quicker it will happen for you.
I believe that there is a force at work in all of our lives that we can’t fully understand. Call it whatever you want. God, Jesus, Buddah,, the Universe, etc. This force is just waiting to provide you with whatever you need in this world. Whatever you focus upon is what it provides to you. This force is always working, whether you are aware of it or not. The more you focus on what you want, the better the results. The clearer your vision, the better the result.
I saw something the other day that illustrated it perfectly for me. Have you seen the new 3D material printers? They can “print” three dimensional things seemingly out of thin air. The printer basically has three main parts. The material that things are built with, the mechanism that creates it and the computer that inputs the design to be created. It can make anything that you want, but it has to have that design input perfectly into the computer. Without a plan it would just produce a pile of goo. So the same machine that can make a perfect yoda head, as seen in the video below, would just make a pile of plastic goo if it was turned on without a plan for what to make. Same machine, same material. The only difference is the clarity in how it is programmed.
So, what if the universe works in exactly the same way (which I think it does)? The universe will provide an unlimited amount of “material” for you to create your vision. It is the mechanism that turns that material into reality. And you are the computer that tells it what to create. Just like you don’t need to understand how the printer turns your design into a yoda head, you don’t need to worry about how the universe will turn your thoughts into reality. Just have faith that it does.
Here is the catch, and it’s a scary one. This printer is always on. It is constantly moving material out of its nozzle. You cannot turn it off. And your thoughts are the computer input. The clearer the input, the better the output. By the way, we all have access and are connected to the same printer. Successful people don't have access to a bigger, better, faster printer. It might seem that way, but what is really going on is that they know how to input better designs (thoughts/visions).
But the key to financial prosperity is to use the printer to create something that has value to others. You can use the printer to create things that only benefit you, but that is not going to create nearly as much wealth. For example, I could have continued just selling motorcycles to make more money than what I was making off my mutual funds. But I turbocharged the company when I changed the mindset from just making money to creating a better value for my customers. The byproduct was that they chose my company to give their money to instead of another shop. That is because I focused my creative power on building value for others, not just selfishly on my own needs.
Everybody has a gift. Use yours in creating your vision. If you create a picture of what you want that is based on what you love to do, you have a great chance of succeeding. And if you build something that also has great value to others you will be wildly successful. Pile of goo, or perfect Yoda head? It all depends on your vision.
