The Mountain Approaches

So after some light debate this week, I've settled on the Sun Mountain 50M for my Cascade Crest qualifying event. The bad news about this is that this will mean running a qualifying a bit earlier than I had intended (the race is May 22nd), but the good news is that I'm currently on track to be more than ready for it when it gets here.

I also got an email from the Cascade Crest organizer, who said among other things that the dropout rate before the race is typically about 30%. I really have to wonder why someone would sign up for such a big commitment, only to drop out before even attempting it. Obviously there are some people who have legitamite reasons such as injury or unforseen conflicts, but I can't imagine that accounts for a full 30%. Given that these races have such high levels of DNF already, giving up just seems strange to me. Then again, the $200 entry is probably a lot more precious to me than it is to other folks.

I don't really have an official route planned for this weekend; rather I'm going to simply run for about four hours or so and see where that gets me (or rather, two hours, then turn around and come home). Hopefully this will work out without me being stranded somewhere far from home. With my wife gone all this weekend, I'd probably have to call my parents to come pick me up if I was to wrecked to make it back on my own. So here's to hoping that doesn't happen.

In the meantime, I've got a dozen or so tax returns to finish.

Chamber Bay Run

So during today's run I attempted to take some pictures while on the move. Suffice to say it turned out to be more trouble than it was worth, but I got a couple good shots, which posted up on FaceBook:

Awesome out of focus pictures!
Chamber Bay Run stats

Other than completely blowing my quads out on the last big downhill, I'm quite pleased with today's run. Sure, my legs will ache all day tomorrow, but I made some impressive progress with my hill training. Eventually they may become merely grueling to do.

I did have a bit of a problem with the gel packs that I took along, in that several of them were old enough they had congealed and gotten quite the disgusting flavor. I ended up not being able to eat them, so I had to run the last 10 miles or so without fuel of any kind. I've got to learn to stop buying these things from discount piles and then leaving them on a shelf for a year before using them.

So work has been ramping up lately, as it is wont to do this time of year, but fortunately I've managed to maintain a solid 45 minute workout so far. Soon I'm gonna have to roll my start time back by an hour though, which will mean getting to the gym at 5:30, something I'm not really looking forward to yet.

Also, Saturday morning I managed to successfully register for the the Cascade Crest Ultramarathon, which was more of an achievement than you might think, as this event only have 146 slots, and they all filled up within about 10 hours of registration opening. I'm lucky I happened to be sitting right at a computer when reg went live. Now just the small matter of meeting the pre-race requirements (completing a 50 mile trail run), and I'm set. That however is a problem to worry about once tax season is over. For now, just trying to get through my running one day at a time.

And with that, time to get some extra sleep and let poor muscles recover.

Quick Post

So not much to report currently. For this weekend's run I'm thinking about taking Kami to run the path around Chamber's Bay Golf Course. Of course, that's only a three mile track, so I'm thinking I'll probably run from the house, and have Kami drive over and meet me at the course later. Hopefully with a roundabout path and about three loops of the course I should log about 20 miles for this Sunday's run.

Even though I've begun ramping up hours at work, my energy levels haven't been lagging; actually, if anything I've felt more energetic lately. Even now as I right this when I should be getting ready for bed, I feel energetic enough to get out and run a couple miles. Not that I will. I may have the energy, but my muscles are still recovering from last weekend. I read recently about using a pair of recovery tights after running to help speed up recovery, so I might look into that at a later point.

Three more days till I can sign up for Cascade Crest.

Sore Legs

So anyone who has been following my sporadic posting here may remember mentioning a book I was looking for way back in December '09 called "Phenomenon of Man" by Teilhard. I have been casually looking for it ever since then, but had never managed to procure a copy. I probably could have jumped on Ebay or Abebook and found an obscure copy somewhere, but I just couldn't bring myself to put that much effort into the search. Just the other night however, I was reading some novel or other on my Kindle, and it occurred to me that I hadn't yet checked the Amazon marketplace. Thirty seconds later (maybe less) I had myself a copy. It was so quick and simple it almost hurt my head. Amazing what we can do in this digital age now...

So Kami followed me out on another run this morning, this one taking us all the way to the other corner of Tacoma, along Schuster Parkway, and then finally home by way of cutting through Wright Park. I've run the route the other direction by myself before, but this was the first time I had attempted it in reverse. The hill coming out Old Town back into Tacoma proper proved to be more of a challenge than I had anticipated, but otherwise the run was enjoyable. Not that my aching calf muscles would believe that now.

Downtown Run Statistics

Well, that about sums up the day. Pretty much more of the same for the coming week- elyptical cross-training tomorrow, hill running Tuesday, recovery run Wednesday, weights Thursday, Tempo run on Friday. Not sure what I'm doing for this weekend's run yet, but probably something involving hills. Both Kami and I need more hill training.

Returning Again

Well hello. I have returned to updating this blog once again following a severe bout of the running blahs brought on by injury, lack of employment, and my having gotten distracted with other interests. Not that I've really stopped running over the last several months, I just couldn't bring myself to take the time to actually write about it. I'll try to correct for that going forward.

A couple things have changed in my routine lately, the first being that I've introduced Udo 3-6-9 oil into my diet as a replacement for the fish oil tablets I've been using for years. I finally decided to cut the fish oil after I determined it was what had been upsetting my stomache recently. So far the only noticable difference with Udo is that I have to take it straight rather than in a pill form. I doubt it's as bad as Cod Liver Oil, but I keep imagining the taste to be about the same. Hopefully with imbibing it on a daily basis, I'll get used to the taste eventually.

Another item of note is that my wife recently purchased a bicycle, so she has been following me on my longer runs. This adds a lovely bit of companionship to my runs that had so far been lacking, but it certainly is a different experience having someone else along, and certain adjustments have had to be made. Not that I'm complaining, mind you.

My running schedule currently is comprised of three 5-mile runs during the week, with a fourth longer run on Sundays (currently up to about 17 miles). Tomorrow I intend to introduce Kami to the experience of running through Downtown Tacoma, not to mention the waterfront, which should make for a nice change of scenery.

Alright, longer report after tomorrow's run, as well as some reflections on the reading I've been doing lately.