Recovery week / 4-20-4-26

This is my favorite time of year to run. Most of the year, my early morning runs are in the dark, forcing me to wear a headlamp. In the spring, the headlamp is less of a requirement as the sun begins to rise by about 5:45 a.m. There’s an 8-mile loop on country roads that I love to run this time of year because I can look out over a field and see the sun rising through the far-off trees. The view is spectacular. For some reason, I think of Noah when I see the sun rising.

One of the many benefits of living in Chagrin Falls is that you are afforded access to so much natural beauty—wooded areas, grassy fields, trails, wetlands, the river and plenty of hills. Almost every morning I encounter deer, turtles and frogs. During the day, you can see birds of all kinds, from red-tailed hawks to Baltimore orioles. It pains me to see wooded areas and wetlands around our community destroyed to make way for new homes and residential communities, especially as there are plenty of nice existing homes for sale in our area.

I fear that many of the remaining natural areas will be bulldozed by greedy developers as more and more people choose to make Chagrin Falls their home. There’s a retirement community being built atop wetlands along Franklin Street, outside of the Chagrin Falls village, that really angers me every time I pass it. Wetlands! Why couldn't it be built at a previously developed site?

Anyway, this is part of a much larger problem. Flight from urban areas starting a few decades ago (which was really a disgusting function of racism) coincided with out-of-control sprawl while hemorrhaging urban areas continue to bleed and serve as hotspots for crime (have you seen the many pot-hole-infested streets, condition of housing and scores of abandoned buildings in Cleveland, where you'll also find a beautiful, state-of-the-art baseball park, football stadium and basketball arena?). Meanwhile, after years of "good times," the sprawling areas are now being hit hard by foreclosures because borrowers took on too much debt and overextended themselves buying "stuff."

All the while, big-box retailers, given the green light by local "planning" boards, demolished natural area after natural area building stores for the sprawlers. In a given square mile, you now have a Target, Wal-Mart, Lowe's, Barnes & Noble, Home Depot, Best Buy, Bed Bath & Beyond, etc.--all once thriving but now desperate for business in the wake of urban areas and exurbs in financial crisis. And if you're hungry, you can always venture to your "local" Applebee's, TGI Friday's, Outback Steakhouse or any other chain restaurant where you'll surely be served sh*t on a plate (pardon the language!). We've sacrified quality (mature neighborhoods and mom & pop operations) for quantity (McMansions and WalMart). But rather than fix the problem (community moratoriums on new developments), let's just take down more trees and damn the wetlands because there's money yet to be made!

***

My plan is to go for a sub-3-hour time at the Cleveland Marathon on May 17, potentially running with Steve H. and Frank D. Although my endurance is really strong right now, I have too much respect for breaking 3 hours in a marathon to say for sure whether or not I have a shot. I will certainly give it a shot. Breaking 3 hours requires both endurance (which I have) and good leg turnover (which is an issue for me right now). These next few weeks I’m going to be on the track and will have a better idea of how things look for Cleveland based on my interval times. The plan for Cleveland is just a sub-3-hour time. I do not want to overdo it going into the Mohican Trail 100-Mile Run. The time for an all-time marathon, where I go for a new PR, is yet to come.

***

A quick diet note: A few weeks ago I gave up my daily ritual of a diet pop with lunch. Now I just drink a diet cranberry juice. I feel much better--no bloating, stomach gassiness, etc. after lunch. I still drink a pop now and then, but I drink them much less than I used to. Now I just need to cut down on the amount of coffee I drink!

Another diet note: Several months have passed since I gave up pork in all forms. I don't miss it. Not one bit. Red meat, which we eat 1-2 times a month, may be next.

***

I saw that Brendan Brustad broke the world record for miles run on a treadmill in one week, completing 455.2 miles (previous record: 455.19) on a treadmill in Oklahoma City. Breaking the record of Friday, Apr. 24, he ran in honor of the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing. That’s a heck of a feat.

***

The primary goal this week was to recover from a week of high mileage culminating in a hard training run at the Forget the PR Mohican 50K (5th overall, 4:49). Mission accomplished. I took Monday off and went pretty easy until my tempo run on Friday. By Saturday I was feeling pretty fresh.

Here’s how the week went:

Monday
Rest/recovery

Tuesday
AM: 7 miles easy on the treadmill

Wednesday
AM: 8 miles easy in and around the Chagrin River valley

Thursday
AM: 8.3 miles easy in and around the Chagrin River valley

Friday
AM: 9.4-mile tempo run on the treadmill. I headed out the door at my usual 5:25 a.m. and started running down Bell Street when I noticed dark clouds, lots of thunder and lightning and a few raindrops. Not wishing to risk my life, I turned around and headed home, where I’d get in my tempo run on the treadmill. As for my run, it was at progressive pace, peaking at about 6:15 pace.

Saturday
AM: 16.04 miles in South Chagrin Reservation with the Southeast Running Club. Tim C. and I did our usual trek through South Chagrin, including the loop with four nasty hills. The weather was spectacular and the sunshine abundant.

Sunday
AM: 18 miles in Solon with the Southeast Running Club. Once again, the weather was beautiful—60 degrees at the start and about 75 at the finish with nothing but sunshine. As soon as I got up to SOM Center Road (a.k.a. 91) from Hawthorn Parkway I dropped the hammer and went hard down 91, averaging about 6:20 pace for the next 4 ½ miles before going into a 2-mile cool-down. My leg turnover felt pretty good.

Total miles for week: 66.7
Total miles for month: 326.9
Total miles for year: 1,238.29

***

The goals this week are:

• 100-110 miles
• 3x1600 at balls-to-the-wall pace
• 5-7 miles at tempo pace

Onward and upward!

Strong finish at the Mohican 50K / Training week 4/13-4/19

Congratulations to my friends and fellow runners who finished the 113th Boston Marathon in fine fashion:

• Mark Godale: 2:51 (American record holder for 24 hours with 162 miles)
• Steve Godale: 2:55
• Jeff Ubersax: 2:58 (and he’s 53 years-old!)
• Frank Duchossois: 3:01 (52 years-old!)
• David Schrader: 3:02
• Steve Hawthorne: 3:03 (first timer at Boston and co-owner of Vertical Runner)
• Marc Abramiuk: 3:04 (first timer at Boston)
• Larissa Abramiuk: 3:09
• Joe Vishey: 3:15
• Jeff Ziol: 3:15
  
• Don Luscher: 3:16
• Elizabeth Hansen: 3:16
• Greg Dykes: 3:20
• Barbara Broad: 3:28 (age group winner!)
• Tim McGinty: 4:05
• Amie Scarpitti: 4:11

A special congrats to SERC member and friend Barb Broad, who not only PR'd, but also won her age group at the biggest, most prestigious race in the world. That is amazing.

Top American man Ryan Hall (3rd overall/2:09:40) and top American women Kara Goucher (3rd women/2:30:25) turned in great performances. Goucher trailed women's winner Salina Kosgei of Kenya by 9 seconds, while Hall came in about a minute behind outright winner Deriba Merga of Ethiopia. These are incredible athletes and even better runners.

If I don’t get into the Western States 100 next year (via the lottery), I plan to return to Boston, where I will attempt to break three hours on a course that in 2006 and 2007 kicked my ass all over the place. My mileage and commitment to quality workouts back then was no where near what it is now, so I think I would have a good shot at a sub-3 effort at Boston provided I can get in some focused training.

***

I capped off the week of 4/13-4/19 with an “aggressive” training run at the first annual Forget the PR Mohican 50K, held in beautiful Mohican State Park in Ohio on Sunday. This very well-organized, well-marked and well-executed race with good talent on the course and outstanding volunteers was directed by Rob “Buckeye” Powell, an accomplished marathoner and ultra runner, and raised money for the local Girls Galion Softball Program, making it a truly good cause. Many of the girls from the teams were at the race, cheering at the start and at the finish. This really brought extra meaning to the whole event and made the $75 entry fee well worth it. And I think it was their inspiration that resulted in not one DNF. I have never run a race that had no DNFs. When you consider how punishing the course was, no DNFs is amazing.

As far as my training week, as I’ve written on here many times, my focus all winter and spring has been on training for the Mohican Trail 100-Mile Run on June 20. Of secondary concern is a potential sub-3 effort at the Cleveland Marathon. So I decided that I’d use the Mohican 50K as a long training run to complete a 100-mile week. Mission accomplished. When I crossed the finish line of the Mohican 50K with a 4:49 and fifth-place finish, I’d just logged 103 miles for the week.

Before I go any further, I want to congratulate Forget the PR Mohican 50K outright winner Jay Smithberger (4:24), who is also the reigning Mohican 100 champ, and Jenny Anderson (5:10), winner of the women’s division. Jay, who hails from the Columbus, Ohio area, has emerged as an elite ultrarunner in the Midwest and East Coast and has rattled off quite a few impressive outright victories over the past year. He is one talented, tough ultrarunner and an awfully nice, humble guy.

Now for my race report. I woke up on Sunday morning at 4 a.m., got dressed, made some eggs and a bagel, packed the car and hit the road with a cup of coffee in hand (having unwittingly woken up my wife and Noah when the garage went up as I left. Noah would not go back to sleep....). The drive to Loudonville took an hour and 45 minutes and I arrived at about 7:00 a.m., having stopped at the (famous) Loudonville McDonald's for a bathroom break. I checked in and went back to my car, where I talked with Dave Peterman (5:17) and a few others as I debated a short- or long-sleeve shirt. At the start, the temperature was in the low 50s and the sky was overcast. Rain was coming, but I saw no drops until my drive home in the afternoon. For the race, I wore my usual Race Ready and compression shorts, a short-sleeve UnderArmour shirt for warmth, an Adidas tank top, a running hat, my Oakleys, and of course trail shoes. I carried no water.

The Mohican 50K is run mostly on the 100-mile course, especially the hilly and technical sections, making it a great training run for the Mohican 100 or just about any other 100, including Western States, I would imagine. And the quality of the field made it an excellent race by itself. Rob was true to his word when he said he designed a course that “will hurt you.” The race starts at the main campground in Route 3 and is run on the (in this order) orange, purple (the creek and cliff section), blue, purple (again), green, red and yellow loops. The aid stations are, in this order, at Hickory Ridge (#1), the Covered Bridge (#2), Mohican Lodge (#3), the Five Tower (#4) and the Covered Bridge (#5). The Mohican Lodge section was off the 100-mile course and had some very muddy spots.

When the race started, for a second there I debated trying to keep up with Jay and Vince as they took off, but then I decided that with 71 miles already on the legs for the week and with a quad that was bothering me late in the week, it was best to stick to the training-run plan. Besides, those guys have more speed than I do (Jay passed me at mile 60 of Mohican last year en route to his win). So I maintained a semi-aggressive pace and stuck to the plan.

I had some patches where I was really thirsty, especially in the latter half of the race. I think I was flirting with the early signs of dehydration on at least two occasions. I should have carried a bottle. Lesson learned. Fortunately, the aid stations were 4-6 miles apart. I drank a lot of water and Coke and a little Heed. They had these Voortman "fruit" coookies that were the bomb. I had a few PB&J quarters, but most of my calories came from the gels I carried.

For the first time ever in my running life, I lost a shoe in the mud as I was nearing the Mohican Lodge. This little section of trail was in awful shape due to the runoff from the road above. It made a mosh pit look tame. Fortunately, I was able to quickly recover my shoe and was back on my way after losing only about 30 seconds.

The last mile was challenging, but the strength was there to negotiate the hills and finish strong. I came into the finish line having run the last 1/2 mile under 7:00 pace. I had some gas left in the tank. After finishing, I hung out for a little while in the shelter with winner Jay Smithberger, Vince Rucci (#2 with a 4:36), John Cox (#3 with a 4:36) and Andy Nesheim (#4 with a 4:44) and I think we were all tired.

What I Learned From the Mohican 50K
I am finding that experience, more than endurance, is beginning to dictate how I run ultras. At the Lt. JC Stone 50K, which was my first race of the 2009 season, I had enough in the tank to pass three runners on the last 5-mile loop to finish 5th. At the Mohican 50K, a younger guy passed me (he was training for his first 100 miler) before the Mohican Lodge section and I was pissed because I hate being passed. But then I noticed when I came upon him at the Mohican Lodge aid station that he hadn’t eaten a thing—not even a few chips. I wasn’t eating a ton but I was consuming enough to stay functional and strong. I realized that if he wasn't eating, or not eating enough (maybe he was but not that I saw), he’d eventually bonk on this difficult course. Sure enough, he faded (who among us hasn't at one time or another?) and I passed him, never to see him again. I’ve found that ultrarunning is as much a thinking man’s sport as it is a test of physical endurance and mental toughness. All of that said, I love the tough-man side of the sport and maybe this is why I'm fascinated by the really nasty events, such as the Hardrock 100, Badwater, Marathon de Sables et al.

I am happy with my Mohican 50K result! My quad didn't bother me one bit and my body stayed strong for me as I climbed the hills. If I had to rate where I am right now, I’d say my endurance is very strong (stronger than ever before), my running economy is pretty good, my aerobic capacity is pretty good, and my leg turnover is improving. I need some more time on the track. Now I need to decide what I’m doing at the Cleveland Marathon on May 17!

***

Here’s how the training week wen:

Monday
AM: 9 miles at 7:40 pace on country roads in and around Chagrin Falls
PM: 4.25 miles at 7:43 pace on the treadmill
Total miles for day: 13.25

Tuesday
AM: 9 miles at 7:25 pace in and around the Chagrin River valley
PM: 4.25 miles at 7:43 pace on the treadmill
Total miles for day: 13.25

Wednesday
AM: 9.5-mile interval workout, consisting of 2x3200 meters with 800-meter recovery in between, at the high school track. My goal was to break 12 minutes (or sub-6-minute miles) for each and I did it, running my first 3200 in 11:57 and my second in 11:58. Running 2x3200 is a tough workout as you’re going fairly hard for two consecutive miles (twice); yet it’s not as physically demanding as 3x1600. I entered the last lap of my second 3200 running a few seconds behind 12-minute pace, so I picked up my speed just a bit and managed to meet my goal. This was a great workout. My legs were very, very tired afterward.
PM: 4.5 miles at 7:43 pace on the treadmill
Total miles for day: 14

Thursday
AM: 9 miles at 7:38 pace in and around the Chagrin River valley. A few miles into my run, my right quad started to ache. The ache wasn’t a sharp pain; just a dull ache that I figured was a muscle strain. I decided on this run that I would redouble my stretching and flexibility efforts.
PM: 4 miles at 7:43 pace on the treadmill as I carried my 2-lbs. hand weights. My right quad really hurt. When I got off the treadmill thoughts of a potential femoral stress fracture flooded my mind.
Total miles for day: 13

Friday
AM: 8.05 miles at 7:48 pace in and around the Chagrin River Valley. With my right quad really aching toward the end, I realized that this injury could pose serious problems at the upcoming Mohican 50K, and I still worried about a developing femoral stress fracture. To top it off, I also had a pulled shoulder muscle probably from carrying the weights the night before.
PM: Rest/recovery

Saturday
AM: 10.05 miles in the South Chagrin Reservation with the Southeast Running Club. I ran with Tim C., John K., Tom A., and Ted F., completing the last 3 miles with Tim. With the 50K the next day and on the heels of my quad injury, I ran at a relaxed pace and was pleasantly surprised to find that my legs felt excellent. It’s as if the muscle problem healed spontaneously.
PM: Rest/recovery

Sunday
AM: Forget the PR Mohican 50K (31.1 miles) at Mohican State Park. I finished 5th overall out of 128 starters with a time of 4:49 on a very challenging course.

Total miles for week: 102.7
Total miles for month: 260.2
Total miles for year: 1,171.59

**

The plan this week is to rest and recover with a goal of no more than 60 miles and maybe some intervals at the track if I’m up to it. Then next week hopefully my legs will be fresher and I’ll be able to shoot for 90+ miles and the usual track and tempo workouts. If I decide to go for a sub-3 at Cleveland, I have about two weeks (after this week) to position myself for it with a one-week taper. And I also need to register!

I recently saw that the first annual NorthCoast 24-Hour here in Cleveland in October will host the 24-hour USA National Championship. I'm definitely interested, but I don't think I can do the Burning River 100 in August and NorthCoast two months later. One or the other, but probably not both.

Onward and upward!

When does it get easier? / Training week 4/6-4/12

Having completed my first 100-mile week of 2009 last week and still feeling some post-50K deadness in my legs, this week I wanted to scale back just a tad to fully recover. By scaling back "just a tad," I mean my goal was to run 80 quality miles, which I did.

Unfortunately, the week got off to a rocky start. On Monday night at 10:30, we were awoken by a screaming Noah, who proceeded to scream for another half-hour before we decided that this was yet another ear infection rearing its ugly head. So we took him to the ER--our second middle-of-the-night run to the ER--and, sure enough, he was treated for an ear infection and we got home a little past 1 a.m. Starting the week sleep-deprived when you're already not getting enough sleep certainly makes running all the harder. But the good news is that Noah's doing well. And I'm getting enough sleep to function well enough to be productive and run relatively well. I'm just not getting enough sleep to be at my best. I find that insufficient sleep makes intense running really hard.

Anyway, things in the Hornsby house stabilized and the rest of the week was much easier for all of us as we went about our daily lives--work, family time, running for me, horse riding for Anne, preparing for an Easter weekend trip, etc. Through it all, I managed to get in a decent tempo run and pretty solid intervals in reaching 80 miles for the week.

***

Diet continues to be a critical factor in my training and lifestyle. I continue focusing on a healthy diet with lots of vegetables and whole grains, chicken and fish. I eat tons of spinach, broccoli, brown rice, carrots, red and green peppers, whole-wheat pasta, whole-grain breads, made-from-scratch oatmeal, etc. I do eat too much peanut butter, but it's natural peanut butter and it could be worse. I also continue taking the recommended daily dosage of glucosamine & MSM (joints), l-carnitine (fat metabolism) and l-glutamine (muscle repair). My weight is anywhere from 168-170 lbs.--which is where I need to be.

I'm also doing push-ups and core exercises a few times a week. The core exercises are difficult to get in from a time standpoint, but I try. I just jam in the push-ups prior to my runs.

***

Here's how the week went:

Monday
AM: 5 miles easy on the treadmill at 7:45 pace.

Tuesday
AM: 9.25-mile tempo run on the treadmill. I did this run while Noah was still sleeping it off from our hospital visit. From mile 2 on, I ran anywhere from 6:18-6:40 pace, accelerating my pace with each mile. My legs felt very fresh.

Wednesday
AM: 9 miles in and around the Chagrin River valley at 7:45 pace.

Thursday
AM: 10.25-mile interval workout at the high school track. At the last minute I decided to shake things up a little and run 5x1600 in lieu of 3x1600 with a goal of going sub-6:00 for each. Five quality one-mile repeats would require dialing back my pace just a little. My splits were solid: 1) 5:57, 2) 5:55, 3) 5:55, 4) 5:59 and 5) 6:02. I tried to go sub-6:00 on the last interval but my legs were pretty tired.
PM: 4 miles at 7:50 pace on the treadmill
Total miles for day: 14.25

Friday
AM: 10.25 miles in and around the Chagrin River valley.
PM: 5.25 miles on the treadmill.
Total miles for day: 15.5 miles

Saturday
AM: 15 miles in and around the Chagrin River valley. Because we had to leave town early that morning, I was unable to join the South Chagrin Reservation crew and instead went out for this 15-miler at 5:30 a.m. I had some strong surges throughout.
PM: 4.25 miles in very hilly Wheeling, West Virginia. I felt like garbage because my legs got tight on me during the drive to Wheeling. I guess I didn't stretch enough after my run.
Total miles for day: 19.25

Sunday
AM: 8.5 miles in Wheeling, West Virginia. With church and lots of family activities, there wasn't much time for running. So I squeaked in these 8 miles and called it a day.

Total miles for week: 80.0
Total miles for month: 157.5
Total miles for year: 1,068.89

***

As I've previously written, the Forget the PR Mohican 50K this Sunday, Apr. 19 will be a training run for me. I'm still thinking about racing the Cleveland Marathon and it would be stupid to do four races in four months (Lt. JC Stone 50K in March, Mohican 50K in April, Cleveland Marathon in May and Mohican 100 in June). So the plan is to run the Mohican 50K as a trainer and then race the Cleveland Marathon if I think a sub-3 is doable. I have a ways to go to get my leg turnover where it needs to be for a sub-3 effort at Cleveland. All along the focus has been on preparing for the Mohican 100 and that's where my focus will remain.

With that said, this week my goals are:

• 100+ miles including a solid training run at the Mohican 50K
• 2x3200-meter (3200=2 miles) intervals at the track, with each hopefully below 12 minutes.
• 4-5 miles at tempo pace (a little less than normal as I don't want to be trashed going into the Mohican 50K).

I will report on my Mohican 50K experience next week.

Good luck to all friends and fellow runners who will be running the Boston Marathon on Apr. 20! There is no greater road race in the world.

In the meantime, onward and upward!

100 miles / Training week 3/30-4/5

When I first decided to attempt a 100-mile race in the early spring of 2007, I asked as many 100-mile vets as I could what I should do to be ready for the upcoming Burning River 100. One guy told me to run as many 100-mile weeks as I could. If I could run 100 miles in a week, I could run 100 miles in a day, he said. And so I ran a bunch of 100-mile weeks and ultimately finished the Burning River 100 in pretty good shape.

That rather simple approach has continued to guide me as I now prepare for my third 100-mile race--the Mohican Trail 100 Mile Run on June 20. With that said, this week (3/30-4/5) I logged my first 100-mile week since my Mohican ramp-up last year. I got really close to 100 miles a few times in the fall when I was training for the Columbus Marathon, but I never quite got to triple digits.

Despite the high mileage, this was not one of my better weeks. My legs clearly aren't 100% from the Lt. JC Stone 50K a few weeks ago. My intervals at the track were a bit off and on my tempo run my feet were hitting the road way too hard. I guess my legs are still a little tired. Otherwise I feel good and there's no cause for alarm. It just takes time to come back from a hard effort.

A lot of people just don't believe in high mileage. But I'm a firm believer that so long as your body can handle it, the more you run the stronger you will become. One hundred miles is a long way to run and, from what I've learned, you have to possess the strength--mentally and physically--to stay in the game the whole time. At the Burning River 100, for example, one of the last stretches is a rocky trail along a gorge, which you're running in the pitch-black dark. One bad step and you're in deep trouble. And that's just Ohio. Imagine what it would be like at the Hardrock 100 in Colorado or the Western States 100! You have to be focused late in a 100 and I believe this comes from the physical and mental strength you develop from intense training--specifically high mileage.

Besides, and I'm not afraid to admit this, I have a healthy fear of 100s. I respect the distance to the extent that I'm going to train my ass off to be ready. I approach the marathon and 50Ks with the highest level of respect, too, but it's a different kind of respect. I can not be at my best, as was the case at the Lt. JC Stone 50K, and still run a decent race and finish because I know the distance is doable. If I'm not at my best in a 100, I'm in big trouble. You have 100 miles separating the start and finish and a lot of bad things can happen in between, such as a nuked knee and severe GI distress (me at the 2008 Mohican). So I let my respect for the 100, and my knowledge of what it can do to you, motivate me in my training. And then on race day I can feel confident and run strong.

Here's how the week went:

Monday
AM: 6 miles easy on the treadmill. I felt 100% better than the previous day, when both of my hamstrings were tight and painful.
PM: 4.5 miles easy on the treadmill.
Total miles for day: 10.5

Tuesday
AM: 9.5-mile interval workout at the local high school track. My times showed that I'm still not 100% from the Lt. JC Stone 50K. I did 3x1600 at 5:46, 5:42 and 5:47 with 800-meter recoveries and was gassed by the end. At this point in the spring, I should be within the 5:35-5:42 range.
PM: 4.5 miles easy on the treadmill.
Total miles for day: 14

Wednesday
AM: 9 miles at 7:33 pace in and around the Chagrin River Valley
PM: 4.5 miles easy on the treadmill.
Total miles for day: 13.5 miles

Thursday
AM: 9.5 miles with 5.5 miles at tempo pace. This was not one of my better tempo runs. My pace is usually around 6:10-6:20 but on this morning I was going slowly. After a one-mile warm-up, my tempo splits were: 2) 6:35, 3) 6:29, 4) 6:32, 5) 6:30, 6) 6:25 and 6.5) 3:10. By the fourth mile of my tempo my feet were hitting the road really hard and so I hung on a little longer and then slowed for my cool-down. When your feet are hitting the ground that hard, your risk of injury goes up dramatically.
PM: 6 miles during lunchtime down MLK and back with Don L. It was great running with Don and enjoying some good company.
Total miles for day: 15.5 miles

Friday
AM: 9 miles in and around the Chagrin River Valley at 7:44 pace. The temperature was a pleasant 53 degrees. Not so pleasant: the very hard rain. I was soaked when I got home.
PM: 4 miles easy on the treadmill.
Total miles for day: 13

Saturday
AM: 18.25 miles in South Chagrin Reservation. No one showed up at 7 a.m. so I was about to head off on the trails by myself, doing the usual Polo Field out-and-back as the first leg. But then Tom A. and Leah showed up, only they were running the road that morning. So I got on the trail, armed with my iPod for company, and eventually ran into Tim C., who got there late, and we ran the rest together. I think both of us were pretty tired. I just didn't have the horsepower on the hills that I usually do.

Sunday
AM: 17.25 miles in Solon with the Southeast Running Club. Once again my feet felt heavy. I was also breathing kind of hard. I guess this is what happens after a week of stress at work, insufficient sleep and 100 miles. A rest day is well in order.

Total miles for week: 102.0
Total miles for month: 362.95 (March), 77.5 (April)
Total miles for year: 988.89

***

This week I'm going to back off just a little and try to get fully recovered and feeling light and strong again. My goals are:

• 80 total miles
• 3x1600 at 5:35-5:42 pace
• 5 miles at tempo pace

Then the next week I plan to hit 100-110 miles, finishing the week with a strong training run at the Forget the PR Mohican 50K.

Finally, I incorporated a daily dose of l-glutamine to help with muscle recovery during this time of high mileage training. L-glutamine also helps promote a strong immune system. We'll see how it goes.

Onward and upward!