Laying the Foundation

Many thanks to folks for dropping some comments. It's nice to see people enjoying the blog. Here's a short post as I need to get up to run to work in the AM.

I took a vacation day on Monday to catch up on some chores and spend some time with Dawn. Of course, I had to take advantage of the time to get in some mileage. What an ultra hound! Actually, I've never been a big mid-week mileage guy, but I'm trying to get in as much as possible now to see if it will make a difference.

I really enjoyed the run back from Farmington on the roads the other day, so thought I'd trot over there and poke around a bit. My goal was to run for 90 minutes and hopefully 11-12 miles. The weather was a bizarre 56 deg F and I was over dressed. I quickly stripped down to a T-shirt and chugged up the hill toward Rattlesnake. My legs felt tired, but Matt says this is temporary. After doing 25.5 miles with him at a good pace Saturday and doing about 4.5 with Dawn on Sunday, my legs were feeling a little stiff.

I pulled through the first 2 miles in a bit over 8 minute pace and felt OK. I cruised through the next couple miles as they were relatively flat, and dropped some elevation to get down to Farmington. For such a big town, there is not much of a downtown. I brought some money to check out the bakery there, but then decided to avoid it. There's an old abandoned car dealership with a sign that says "Body and Pain_ Dept.". The "T" was missing from painT, but it made me smile. I thought it described what ultrarunners experience at times.

I headed back up the hill while considering alternate routes to add on some mileage as it took about 35 minutes to get to town. I decided to head over toward Pinnacle Rock on the way home and poke around some side roads.

As I trotted along I realized how good I was feeling. The hills were getting easier and my pace felt rythmic. The time passed easily, and I was home a few minutes early. I decided that I really didn't want to stop, so did a couple laps near my house to bring the total time to 90 minutes plus.

It's strange how your perspective changes over time. A few years back, I would not have been running at all after doing a marathon. Now, I'm cranking out 12 mile runs 2 days after doing the equivalent of a hard marathon. I'm not typing this to brag...it's more of a stupification/amazement. I remember trying to qualify for Boston at 35 thinking I was at my peak and would soon be going downhill. Wow! I was way off on that one. Thankfully!

I don't know when that day (slowing down) will come, but I'm going to keep it at bay as long as possible. There's too much fun to be had....To that end, I have my VT100 application ready to mail in. It's time to lay the foundation! Rock on fellow runners!