Running towards my goal

Well, training has officially started. I’ve spend the last couple of months just trying to maintain some base fitness. I’ve been doing one day on the spin bike, 2-3 days of cardio strength classes at CAC and mixing in a couple of runs on the weekends to keep the legs moving.

I met with a lady by the name of Junko Kazukawa. at Colorado Athletic Club to do some personal training and to look over my planned race and training calendar leading up to Leadville. A little tiny Asian lady, Junko is a legend in the local amateur ultrarunning community. Junko has completed the LT100 a handful of times, a grand slam (four 100-mile races) last year, and is training for UTMB this year (one of the toughest 100 mile races in the world). Here is a great article published on Junko in December: http://www.denverpost.com/lifestyles/ci_29311090/denver-woman-completes-grand-slam-ultrarunning-and-leadwoman

I feel like Daniel San training with Mr. Miyagi, and I am soaking up any ounce of wisdom Junko can throw my way. We have made a few tweaks to my calendar and she is giving me some advice on race pace and preparation. Through some personal training sessions, she is also giving me some good exercises to work on my core and leg strength and flexibility.

My confirmed race calendar for the year leading up to Leadville looks like this:
•    APRIL- Cheyenne Mountain Trail Run 50K
•    MAY- Quad Rock 25 Mile Trail Race in Fort Collins
•    JUNE- Dirty 30 50K in Golden Gate Canyon
•    JUNE- Leadville Marathon
•    JUNE- Leadville 3-day Run Training Camp
•    AUGUST- LT100

Time to start training…

I went on my first mid-week training run this morning. Only about 6 miles long, I ran slow in an effort to keep my heart rate in zone 2 or below. If I rose into zone 3, I walked until my heart rate came down. I feel like I’m starting at square one. 6 miles and my legs are sore, I had a hard time keeping my heart rate down, and I am tired. Let’s pray that turns around quickly! The good news is that my left hamstring and foot that has been giving me problems felt pretty good most of the run.

Comments

An Excited Heart

It’s no big secret that I was not feeling super great heading into my last race. It was the perfect storm in many ways. I had a stressful week at work two weeks prior working on a massive deadline followed by a heavy training volume week where I nearly doubled my weekly mileage and then fell behind in sleep the week leading into Quad Rock. I was super stressed out heading into Quad Rock due to the distance and vertical gain. I felt comfortably trained up to the 35 mile distance, but I had failed to put in the back-to-back days in training that would have given me confidence to make the jump to 50. The night leading into my race I had some significant arrhythmia while I was lying in bed. The feeling was not new to me. 10-years ago I was diagnosed with benign PVC’s. The condition takes place when nodes in the ventricles fire off signals that interfere with the main SA pace-making node in the heart. The result is a feeling of a skipped heartbeat followed by a hard thud in your chest ...

Tall Trees and Tough Trails. The 2024 Cascade Crest 100

Welcome to Easton! The welcome sign that we stopped to take a picture of just about summed up our experience here. On the hour or so drive up from Seattle, Julie and I couldn't stop taking about the amazing trees and dense forest that lined the highway. The trees were so tall that you couldn't even catch a view of the entire towns that laid just behind them. Definitely a contrast to Colorado where the main attraction are the 14ers that line our skylines. I'm so happy that Cascade Crest 100 found me. The idea to travel to Washington for a 100 mile race started when I looked into doing a race close to a good college friend of mine that moved to Washington several years ago. I hadn't seen him or his family in years, and it would be an excuse to both see them and have an epic adventure at the same time. I had heard about the Cascade Crest 100 from a couple of friends that had raced it previously. As a Hard Rock 100 Qualifier, the race had a reputation of both difficul...

Quad Rock 25

For some reason every time I know I have to wake up early the next day, I can’t sleep. I set my alarm the night before for 4:45 AM and went to bed around 10. I woke up just about every hour on the nose and looked at the clock. By the time 4:15AM rolled around, I just laid in bed and waited for my iPhone to tell me it was time to get up. Buzz….It was time to get up. My pre-race plan I rolled out of bed virtually exhausted and put on my battle armor for the day -- shorts, socks, compression, t-shirt, jacket, and my signature trucker hat. I had loaded up my car the night before with all my gear and nutrition so I was good to go. I kissed Julie on the forehead, she wished me luck as I left to go grab some coffee, pick up Chris and carpool to the race. We made it up to Horsetooth about an hour before the race start. Since we carpooled, we were able to park about 100 feet from the start line. This was clutch because outside it was 37 degrees, raining and windy. View close...

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