Jingle Bell Hell 2014

I think this is my third (maybe fourth) time doing XLMIC's Jingle Bell Hell race (virtual version). I love the idea and love the fact that Marjorie even got to run it this year.

Anyway, I ran it this year and it was hellish :-). Not sure which run I'm actually claiming as my JBH run. I've been running local single track every Saturday and Sunday now that it's winter, hellish I know. Last weekend was so warm I ran in shorts, hellish. This weekend I couldn't find my Santa hat, hellish. It's Christmas and there isn't any snow on the ground, hellish.

Anyway, here are a few recent trail pics.

Lots of drab single track this time of year. Bring on the snow.

My favorite hat...

Back seat of my car. More trail junk is in my trunk :-)

 

Thanks for the virtual hosting of JBH XL, maybe some day I'll mange to be out your way to run it in person.

 

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Amazing Run

I haven't had much to blog about this year seeing as I don't have any races on the schedule and life has been crazy hectic. I have been pretty good about keeping up with my running. More about that in another post.
So today when I was getting ready for my run, it was 50 degrees with a light rain. I wasn't sure exactly how to dress, so I walked outside to get a feel for the temp. 50 degrees in the spring feels a lot warmer than 50 in the fall. I decided on shorts, a light long sleeve compression top and a running t-shirt plus some light gloves.
I arrived at the trail head to find I was the only one there. Perfect. It wasn't long before I noticed how peaceful it was out in the woods. The trees were green with newly budding leaves, birds were singing and the light rain made that nice soft sound. It was like I was running with one of those soothing sound clocks playing.

Things are getting green

Decided to wash my hat by wearing it in the rain :-)

Not many flowers out in the woods

Fun getting muddy :-)

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Running Mental Scale

On a few of my long runs, I've been thinking about my running limiters. When I first started running, it would clearly flip between cardio and leg strength as I built up my mileage. Somewhere during the course of training for two half Ironmans, my limiter clearly became leg strength since all the swimming, biking, and running I was doing built my cardio to the point that my legs always limited me. During all this training I also came to realize mental toughness is just as much of a limiter as cardio and leg strength. Lately my mental running state has been at an all time high and thinking about how all over the place it's been, I decided to create a running mental scale. I can usually tell where my mental state is at based on how often I look at my watch and what I think when I see how long I've been running.

State 0. This is the run funk state that keeps you from even getting out the door. Not a good place to be at all.

1. This the the worst state that involves actual running where you look at your watch within two minutes of starting and already start negotiating with yourself on how short you can cut the run and still get some exercise.

2. Slightly better than state 1, but you know it's going to take some effort not to quit early. In this state, I usually figure out how long I'm going to run, figure out about how many songs that is on my iPod and start counting down how many more songs I have to go.

3. Feeling good about running. Glancing at the watch every 10-15 minutes thinking about how much longer you will be running.

4. Feeling really good about running. You don't look at the watch until well into the run but still have the end in site.

5. The ultimate running state. You don't look at your watch for at least an hour into your run and when you do, you think "how long do I get to run before I have to be somewhere". It's a great feeling.

 

Last weekend I joined Patrick for part of his 12 hour run. Patrick ended up running 46 miles and his friend Cheri did 50 miles! I knew I couldn't run for twelve hours so I slept in and showed up about 9:30 and joined them. I felt great and immediately settled in to run state 5. My cardio was perfect as well. We did two mile loops in the woods and stopped by our cars for water and fuel every loop. We didn't stop long because it was chilly in the wind. After about three hours of running my left hamstring was getting tight and very tender to the touch so I knew my day wasn't going to last as long as I wanted. I ended up running 18 miles (my longest run by three miles) in four hours. It's too bad because I had all day open and wanted to keep going.

What are your limiters? Do you have a mental running scale?

Random pics from this weekend.

You can't tell the depth from the picture above but when I stopped to take this picture, the far hillside seemed to shrink as I stared at it, Matrix like. It was a really weird depth perception moment that I'm guessing my eyes/brain were reconciling as I was looking at it.

Looking back at the trail you can see in the previous pic.

Random pic.

If I don't post again before Thanksgiving, have a great one! It's my favorite holiday.

 

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September Training

September was a running month, and I'm good with that. I'm still enjoying the simplicity of running and getting out 4-5 times per week. I don't have many 100 mile months so I was excited to see a total of 116. A quick check showed I've only been over 100 miles in a month once before and it was two years ago!

I follow people that run 2-3x that every month, but 100+ is good for me. If I could just add a few hundred bike miles and 20k yards of swimming, I would be all set :-).

As I mentioned in my last post, I bought a running belt that can hold my phone so now I can take pictures. I made it out for an 8.6 mile run Saturday. The leaves on a few trees are changing, but not many yet. Here are a couple pics.

 

 

So I'm starting to make plans for Patrick's 12 hour run next month so I decided to hit the trail this Sunday to see what I'll be up against. The trail is fairly technical with lots of roots. I tripped several times and fell hard twice. I need to learn to pick my feet up or I have no business being out there :-). Luckily I didn't fall on a root or break anything, but I am a little sore today. Whenever I fall, I try to remember to take a picture once I'm done cussing and checking for injuries. Here are a couple I took yesterday. Sorry if you follow me on instagram and have already seen these. Oh, I also bought a headlamp since the beginning of the run will be in the dark. Can't wait to try it out!

The first fall wasn't too bad, but it happened fast. One second I was running and the next I was looking straight up at the canopy.

The second happened just as fast and I went down hard! Jammed my shuffle into the ground and jammed a bunch of dirt into the on/off switch turning off my tunes. After turning it off and on a couple times, it started working again, phew!

When I came out of the woods, a couple mountain bikers were staring at me with my right side, shirt, shorts, knee, calf, etc covered with dirt. I responded with, "just completed some full contact running :-)".

On to October!

 

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A couple pics from my run

My run today was amazing just like last week. I drove out to the university for a run in the woods.  I was out there for two hours again and didn't see another soul.  Perfect. Anyway here are a couple pictures.  I notice new things just about every time.

Replica log cabin by one entrance

Had the woods all to myself

Fallen giant

my view after tripping on a root

Tripped on a root and ended up looking up at the sky.  Of course as a good blogger, I had to pull out my camera :-).  If I wouldn't have fallen, I wouldn't have noticed that beautiful blue sky.

Have a great weekend everyone!