Finding the Right Training Run

I have been doing more resting than training but I am really beginning to feel like I am finally recovering from Rocky and it looks like I have done so without injury though I still have a couple of purple toenails. My next big challenge is the Jemez Mountain Trail 50-mile run and it is supposed to be one of the hardest 50-mile runs around. While I am certainly nervous about the race my big goal for this year is the Tahoe Rim Trail 100 and I have been trying to find routes behind the new house that will provide a lot of climbing without having to go all the way up onto the mountain, which still has a lot of snow on the high trails.

The Jemez 50-mile run has over 12,000 feet of climbing and the Tahoe Rim 100 has almost 20,000 feet of climbing. The run I came up with this weekend features 3400 feet of climbing in 10 miles and while I am not certain I can repeat it exactly because it included some false starts down some dead end trails I can closely replicate it in a manner that will provide me with a kind of loop that will probably provide me at least 3000 feet in 10 miles. This kind or running ends up being pretty slow and very difficult so I don’t get in a lot of miles but I do feel like I am gaining a lot of leg strength so I think after about a month and a half of scouting I have my Jemez/Tahoe training run.

The hardest part of the Tahoe Rim Trail is called the Red House Loop. According to the race video that loop accounts for the largest amount of drops in the entire course. The Red House Loop is 6.3 miles long with 2000 feet of elevation gain. It is the reason for my climbing loop.


Now all I have to do is repeat, repeat, repeat. While I don't have photos of the rockiest parts of my run that big wall of boulders above is actually part of my run, I go right up and that peak to the right is a part of the run that I go up one side and come down the other. It really is a joy to run.

Pulled the Trigger

Here I was minding my own business, planning out my next post about how I was being a good idiot and training for the Tahoe Rim Trail 100 (Yes, I'm training) and along comes my old nemesis Ironman.

Just a few short months ago I was crowing about how Ironman sucked, sold their soul to become a corporate money grubbing machine and how I was going to get back to the roots of what amateur endurance athletics is REALLY all about with the grass-roots iron-distance races and the off-beat mom and pop ultra-marathons where sometimes the only "award" you get is a chalk line to run across and permission to finally stop running.

And now, today, tonight a sweet siren song tickled my ear...Ironman St. George it sang, Ironman St. George.

I am a weak, weak man, a sucker for the latest whiz-bang thing that captures my attention.

On May 1st 2010 I will be toeing the line along with my lovely Iron Wife the GeekGrl and together we will join the Iron lemming herd to race the inaugural race.

Come friends and join us...resistance is futile.

A Man After His Time?

101 As a 1930s husband, I am Very Superior Take the test!

Hmmm, not sure what to think about the fact that I'm apparently a Very Superior 1930's husband but I have to admit that at least these days that picture above is exactly how I look after work sans pipe.