JKF 50 here I come!

It's official.  Although the check cleared the bank a few weeks ago, I waited to get my SASE with a tiny slip of paper confirming that my application into the 2013 JFK 50 had been accepted.  It's an old school race that doesn't take online applications and sends everything by snail mail.  The cut-off time is an hour less than my last 50, so I better have learned all the lessons I think I did to get there in time!

Why?

All of us have been asked it numerous times by friends, co-workers, strangers who see your race T-shirt (the list could go on for a while).  They just don't get why, to us, marathons are a training run.  The conversation usually ends with that person shaking his/her head, calling you crazy and making a comment about ruining your knees.  

Nights like tonight remind me why I choose to be an ultra runner.  Since I am training for the JFK 50, it seems appropriate to steal (and alter) a phrase from the late, and great, President John F. Kennedy, Jr.:

I choose to do these things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of my energies and skills, because that challenge is one that I am willing to accept, one I am unwilling to postpone, and one which I intend to win.

Training - week of July 8

Recovery.  A necessary part of staying healthy.  Recovery is not only physical but also mental.  It's mental in the sense that it gives you more time to spend with your wife, husband, kids, etc. and it doesn't seem like every free moment that you have you are out there.  It is physical because we are, after all, only human and our bodies do need time to adjust to training loads and intensities.  This week I went a whopping 20 miles.  2 x 5 and 1 x10.  My 10 miler was the hilly section of Umstead (a state park in Cary, NC) that is hopefully going to help me get in shape for the JFK 50...yes, that's right I GOT IN!  I am fortunate to have the ability to train in an amazing place like Umstead but more importantly, I am fortunate to have the best crew in the world, my wife, who is willing to put up with me for another race.  

Training - week of July 1

This week marked one month since my first ultra.  I'm still a little slower than I used to be but overall my body adjusted fine and I didn't experience some of the horrible side effects others have blogged about (like exhaustion for weeks, mood swings, GI distress, etc...).  Either I got lucky or my training paid off or, probably, a little of both.  I'm still working on my report from my 50 miler on June 1st and hope to have it finished soon.  It's hard to write an report that succinctly recaps how the race went but also provides information to folks who want to run the race in the future that I wish I had going in to the  race - like the mile long rock hopping section that you loop through 3 times that really screws with your time splits.  Anyways, I started training for another 50 miler in November (hopefully).  I'm still waiting for my race entry fee to clear the bank since it is one of the races that only takes paper applications and was close to full when I sent my application in!  I have added a lot more hills to my workouts since my last 50 and the meltdown that ensued around mile 36, that was in substantial part hydration related...race plan...fail.

Gear: Pearl Izumi shoe review

The folks over at iRunFar recently reviewed the Pearl Izumi E:Motion Trail M2.  Check it out here.

Have you tried the Pearl Izumi line of trail shoes?  What did or didn't you like about them?

Training schedule for my first 50 miler (TNFEC 50)

Here is the training log that led up to my first 50. Stay tuned for a future post about lessons learned and how I'm adjusting my training for a stronger finish (hopefully) next time. I started with one of the examples from Bryon Powell's book, "Relentless Forward Progress," which you can buy from the folks at irunfar.com (NFI). Work and life led to me doing less volume than recommended but I finished injury free with a whole 20 minutes to spare before the cut-off!