Well lets see. Where to start. Not much really has been going on since Sunmart back in December. From the looks of every ones blogs most of you have already started your seasons or are ramping up mileage for the RR 100 next month. As for me though I haven't raced one mile yet this season and don't plan to until March at the 3 Days of Syllamo. I have been tempted somewhat to give Psycho Wyco another go but then I wake up and my smarter half says what the hell am I thinking. My wife has decided to do the 10 miler though and use it as a training run for the third day of 3 Days of Syllamo. I think I'll be content with just sitting this one out and watch from the sidelines.
The Holidays were good. They usually are. With the exception of all the extra and unwanted weight gain. I'm human. I love food. What can I say. It doesn't help either that I decided to take some time away from running too. I stuck to my guns though and took a week or so off after Sunmart. Then ran easy for about 4 weeks. Keeping my mileage under 40 miles per week. This past week was the start of my ramp up in mileage for 3 Days. So for the next seven weeks I'll be increasing the mileage every week with three peak weeks 0f 90 to 100 miles the month before the race. Not super high mileage but its enough to get the job done I guess. I've also spent the last few weeks messing around with different training techniques and nutritional firsts. This is the time to do it. Also planning out my weekly mileage goals as far as peaking for the important races. While trying to build in more quality time for the family has been a major focus. It hasn't been an easy thing for me to do but I think I finally have it figured out. To think it only took me five rough drafts to get to that point too.
With the shake up at Montrail I've seen a lot of my friends scrambling to get some type of sponsorship deal or another. Some have and some haven't. I've also seen the emergence of some smaller teams. Which I feel ultimately will be a good thing for the sport. I fully expect to see a lot of the trail running shoe companies go to this type of strategy. For myself I chose to put all my eggs in one basket. Though I'd rather not say which company we submitted a proposal to. Its still early in the game and anything can happen. For now though they're are currently entertaining the idea and the initial reaction has been positive. Myself and a few other regional runners have been asked to submit our running bios. Included with a list of the races we plan to do for 08' and a list of key national events that we would be willing to attend. Like I said its still early in the game and if this falls through then I'll be running for myself yet another season.
This past weekend I had a chance to run out at Wyco Park on Saturday with Paul Schoenlaub and Stewart Johnson. Always a great time when I have the chance to run with them. We didn't exactly burn the course up as we had decided earlier in the week to make it a back to back long run weekend. I think we ended up with 24 miles for the day. I did two loops. First one in 1:56 then the second in 1:54. Finished up with a short two mile out and back over the summer night 10km course section. Needless to say I cussed the course colorfully and often. Some people are just born to run certain courses. This course ain't it for me.
On Sunday Paul, Stewart, Cindy and Deb all came over to Topeka to run the trails out at the Governors mansion along with myself and Willie Lambert. We got a late start to the day. Which kind of bummed me out a bit. I wanted to get another 25 or so in but with the pace and lack of daylight we only ended up with 18 miles. Below are some of the pictures taken out at the trails Sunday. Afterwards we all headed back to my house to get cleaned up. Then we went out to eat Mexican food. Thats the best way I can think to end a good weekend of running. I never did get to thank Paul for picking up the tab on that as they hit the road before I came out of the restaurant. He told Jess my wife that that should buy him a few extra vanilla malts from us after the tough races. The rest of this week has just been a good mix of treadmill running and a couple of trail runs. Which after today will bring my total mileage for the week to around 71.50 miles in 11 hours and 22 minutes and change.
I hope everyone is doing well so far this year and I wish you all good luck in you upcoming races and seasons. I'm looking forward to running and hanging out with many of you soon.
