Here's a quick ramble about what has been going on lately. Since 3 Days I've kind of gone closed camp with my training. Isolating myself from the groups. So that I can focus on my recovery. In years past I have found that it takes me around 6-8 weeks to recover from a hard effort. So I wanted to take advantage of every minute of everyday leading into Freestate this year. I passed on Freestate in 07' because I just felt wiped out from 3 Days and last year I wasn't in the best of shape. I was hesitant about running it hard because I wasn't sure that my leg would hold up. Plus I had a bunch of shit going on between the ears that had no buisness at a race. So I settled for 3RD place in the 40 miler.
A different story will play out this time around. For some strange reason I've managed to stay off the disabled list and have been getting faster every race as well as recovering faster between races? I've just been kind of going with the flow and letting nature run it's course. Kept the training volume as high as possible, without going too far over the invisible line of no return. Since 3 Days I've managed to log just under 295 miles of running in the last 21 days and 326 miles in the last 28 days. Well ahead of my goal of 360 miles logged before one week out from Freestate. I'm in full tapper mode now for the race with just a couple of more mid-mileage tempo runs to come.
Had a great run out at Lake Clinton on Saturday in an effort to better gauge what I can expect on the 25TH. There was more mud than I have ever seen before out there. Still I managed to hold just under my goal pace for the 20 plus mile loop despite the sloppy conditions. I wouldn't mind if it would dry up some but fear that getting wet and muddy isn't going to be avoidable. So I'm just going to embrace it and get dirty as quick as possible. My prediction is that the 40 miler is going to run more like a 45-50 miler for most people and that the 100km will be a nightmare. Slower than average times are going to be put up and maybe even a slightly higher drop out percentage. The best thing for everyone would be that it would just rain buckets the day of the race. That way the mud won't stick. Hope everyones stayed healthy and are ready to take on the 3RD running of the Freestate Ultras. See you all out there.
