Wonder what 2012 has in store?

Thankfully August brings hardly any races, but I need some big miles and quality workouts to give me confidence heading into the last four months of the year.

September will soon be here with the perennial Rock ‘n’ Roll 1/2 Marathon right here in Virginia Beach, followed closely by the 12-HR Adventure Trail Race just six days later.

October features a family visit and a return to the Cardiff Half Marathon, and one of my favorite races – the Marine Corps Marathon.

November *should* be fairly quiet from a race perspective, but I’ll be keen to regroup and prepare for the Cayman Marathon and Seashore Nature Trail 50K in December.

Quite a daunting schedule to be honest, but one which I’m really looking forward to. Hopefully August will see a record amount of training miles and at least one 100+ mile week. With the heat and humidity of a Virginia summer to contend with, I know it won’t be easy to achieve my goals, but I do know I’m willing to train harder then ever, and to give it everything I have. At least I want to be able to look back and know I gave it my best shot.

Here’s to a new month. Happy Miles!!

• Saturday am – nice morning for a run. Sunny and mid-40s at the start. Sunny and 50-something by the finish. Wind was a bit crazy, especially the last 5 or 6 miles, but I hung in there and finished up pretty strong.
• Saturday pm – hoped for a nice calm afternoon with some sun, but it wasn’t to be. Instead, I encountered all kinds of weather (except for snow) and even chased a rainbow for a few miles. Felt good, although my lunchtime Moe’s was long gone. Probably should have wolfed down a few calories before heading out…. Ah well, live and learn.
• Sunday am – pleasant morning run at First Landing State Park. A little chilly to start off, but it soon warmed up and the sun felt great. Ran to the Narrows and back (14 miles), changed into compression shorts to ease some potential thigh chafing, before heading back out to the 2 mile mark on the main trail for another 8 miles. Tempted to run more, but breakfast was calling once again.
• Sunday pm – last run of the weekend in the Saucony Grid Type A4s on a sunny Spring afternoon. Chased by a dog at mile 5.5. Kind of ruined my momentum, and ended up backtracking the long way around to get home. Surprised by the apparent spring in my step after a tough weekend of training.

Logged almost 54 miles at an average 6:50/mile pace. Not too shabby!

Monday: Nice gentle eight mile recovery run that took about one hour. I’m trying to get my feet used to a fairly new pair of Adidas Supernova Glide, but they felt clunky and very stiff. Wondering if brand name shoes purchased at Outlet Malls (in this case the Adidas Outlet Mall in Williamsburg, VA) would be any different to the same model shoe that specialty running stores carry? Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Tuesday: Runervals Up, Up & Up Hill Climber DVD — here we go again. Not getting any easier and I struggled a bit with the 10, 11 and 12% at the end. Still a great workout though, and I’m hoping all this quad burn will pay dividends at the HAT Run 50k on March 20th.

Wednesday: News starting to break about a possible/probably snow storm heading our way for the weekend, so decided to go semi-long in the hope of banking a few extra miles. So, my planned ten miler turned into a thirteen miler but it actually went very well. Legs were initially a bit tired from Tuesday’s hill workout, but thankfully they soon warmed up to the task.

Splits: 8:00 7:20 7:22 7:22 7:18 7:12 7:18 7:07 7:04 7:00 6:54 6:44 6:30

Nice to have temps in high 30s with little to no wind. Perfect for a shorts, long sleeve & gloves run.

Thursday: Just an easy eight miles. Not a very exciting treadmill run, but always good to watch some old Tour de France classics on DVD.

Friday: Started the day with a hurried five miles before work. It was very cold and windy out, so nice to get back inside to warm up. Highlight of the day, however, was probably picking up my new Brooks Green Silence from Running Etc.

This brand new model from Brooks is unique in that each and every part of the shoe has a sustainable element, including soy-based inks and recycled materials. The color may not be green, but you’ll definitely make an eco-statement with the Brooks Green Silence racing flat! At just under 7 ounces for my men’s size 9.5, it should be pretty speedy too.

As you can imagine, I couldn’t wait to finish work to try out the Green Silence, and managed to sneak in a quick four miles before darkness set in.

Splits: 6:42, 6:32, 6:31, 6:06

Initial impressions are great. The shoe is light, springy and responsive and feels a lot like a minimalistic Brooks Launch (another favorite of mine). The off center lacing is a bit funky, but I didn’t have any issues with keeping them snug. Looking forward to seeing how these work out for me.

Saturday: Well, the predicted snow storm arrived and the 25k Distance Series race was cancelled. Good call by the race director — it would have been virtually impossible to get to Fort Story, let alone run 25k on the roads now covered by 6-9 inches of snow. I did, however, venture out for a few miles and slogged through five of them for about 43 minutes. Not used to this type of running though and it was a bit of a struggle and a lot of work for the quads and hamstrings.

It was a good opportunity to try out a test pair of La Sportiva Wildcat GTX Trail Shoes though. To be honest, I’d worn these on a few muddy trail runs in the past and hadn’t been that impressed with the feel — quite bulky, stiff and heavy and not my type of shoe at all. Of course, the shoe is designed for far more rigorous terrain than you’ll find in Virginia Beach, so my opinions are probably not 100% fair to La Sportiva. However, today in the snow, the shoe performed like a champ — the traction was great and thanks to the excellent Gore-Tex membrane, my feet stayed totally dry and warm! Maybe I could get to like these after all?

Sunday: Decided to take a day off. It snowed a bit more overnight and although I *could* have gone out to run, I figured a rest day would probably do me more good in the long term. A rare wise decision by the bulldog, eh?

So, I closed out January with 252 miles and about 51 for the week. Not a bad effort, and the best thing is my legs feel fresh and ready to take on another month.

Happy Miles!

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Happy Miles and Happy Tunes!

[Note: this is not a paid post.]

Monday: First day off since Christmas Day. Tempted to run a couple of easy miles to maintain my mini-streak, but thought better of it in the end.

Tuesday: Runervals Up, Up & Up Hill Climber DVD — lowered my base pace but still covered about 8 miles in an hour on some tortuous hills. Good fun, but still not feeling 100%.

Wednesday: An easy five miles before work, followed by four more in the mud after work. Wanted to try out a trail shoe I’ve been asked to review — the La Sportiva Wildcat GTX. Don’t think I’ll find anywhere in Virginia Beach to fully test the Wildcat, so tonight I just chose the wettest, muddiest, uneven terrain within a couple of miles. The Gore-tex membrane certainly kept my feet dry, but at 13oz the shoe is way too heavy and cumbersome for me. I do like the grippy sole though, so maybe they’ll get another outing some time in the next week or so.
Legs feeling much better than they did earlier in the week. Good news…

Thursday: An easy 4.32 miles to complete the DailyMile Ward Challenge.

Friday: Just ran an easy 5.5 miles before dinner. Looking forward to the 6k cross country race in the morning.

Saturday: Ran the Mud In Your Eye 6k and had a great time. Very muddy conditions made for a fun race at one of my favorite cross country venues. Finished 4th overall in the race and moved up from 6th to 3rd overall in the Series Standings.

Sunday: Another 20 miler to end the week (my third in January so far). Nice to run on the trails at First Landing again and although muddy, it was nothing like the conditions we had for the Seashore Nature Trail 50k last month. Ended up at the same pace as last week’s 20 miler which was pretty good considering the terrain.

Finished off the week at 52 miles. Looking to get back to the 60s this week. The Distance Series 25k on Saturday should help the cause!

Monday: Nice recovery run of almost nine miles in just over an hour and five minutes. Felt great.

Tuesday: Runervals Up, Up & Up Hill Climber DVD — increased my base pace from last week by 0.2mph; a small increase perhaps, but over the course of an hour it certainly made the workout more challenging. Enjoyable!

Wednesday: Six mile in the Newtons. No soreness from the hill work. Promising!

Thursday: An easy DailyMile Jeanne Challenge, followed by 50 minutes on the treadmill. Decided to do some striders on the ‘mill and ended up with 30 x 30secs on/30secs off whilst watching a 2001 Tour de France DVD. Feeling good!

Friday: Continued the Friday trend of a low mileage day. Just ran an easy four before dinner. Definitely ready for the cross country race in the morning.

Saturday: Ran the Mud In Your Eye 5k and ended up just 10 seconds slower than my Hair of the Dog 5k on New Year’s Day. Considering the latter was a totally flat course and the former a rather hilly, challenging course, I’m very pleased with the result. Finished in 18:45 and placed 6th overall (1st in the 40-44 age group). Splits were fairly consistent (6:03, 6:07 and 6:06) so all in all a good day.

Sunday: Started to feel very fatigued on Saturday evening and ended up falling asleep at 8:30pm for 11 hours! I guess I was tired. I wasn’t really “feeling it” for my long run, but thoughts of the HAT Run 50k and Boston Marathon forced me out of the door around noon. I managed to average 7:10 pace for twenty miles, but the last four or five were a real struggle. Worse still, several hours later I was still feeling wiped out from the run. Maybe I should have listened to my body and cut the run short….

Finished off the week in the low-60s (another 10% increase on the previous week) and as mentioned earlier I’m really glad this is a “down week”. Definitely need to focus on rest and recovery.

Monday: Easy five miles. 30F and a moderate wind out of the west. Pleasant.

Tuesday: Runervals Up, Up & Up Hill Climber DVD — a tough 55 minute workout, but one which is going to make me a stronger runner come the HAT Run 50k and Boston Marathon in a few months time. Hope to hop on the treadmill at least twice a month to do this workout…

Wednesday: Just an easy eight base miles. Legs a little sore from the hill workout, but only to be expected I guess.

Thursday: Ran a progressive 6.52 tempo run in about 43 minutes (splits: 6:50 6:45 6:33 6:31 6:26 6:22). 6.52 miles may sound like an odd distance, but there was a DailyMile challenge to be followed….

Friday: Lowest mileage of the week — just an easy four during my lunch hour.

Saturday: Took part in the Tidewater Striders Distance Series 20k and tagged on several warm-up/cool down miles to make it an 18 mile day. Finished in a fraction under 1 hour 19 minutes — happy with my time and ability to stay strong to the finish. Definitely much work to do before Boston, but it’s a great starting point. For the record, cold and windy conditions made for a challenging race.

Sunday: Finished off the week with a steady nine miles which took my weekly mileage to 57 (text book 10% increase on the previous week). Will look to add another five miles this week….

So, all in all, a pretty solid week and a good base to build on. Saturday’s Mud In Your Eye XC 5k at Mount Trashmore should be fun, although it’s usually one of the toughest races of the year. Will be interesting to see how my Inov-8 X-Talon 212′s fare in a race….

Despite a month and a half of zero running, I did, however, manage to salvage something from 2009 and finished off the year with two sub-3:00 marathons (Richmond and the Cayman Islands) and a sub-4:00 at the inaugural Seashore Nature Trail 50K. Of course the highlight of 2009 was winning the Cayman Islands Marathon earlier this month. I don’t think I’ll ever top that as a running experience. Simply tremendous!

I narrowly missed my goal of running 50 races in 2009; coming up three short, but with a personal record of 47 in a calendar year. I guess I could have traveled a bit to make up the 50, but by the end of the year, my goals had shifted somewhat.

Total running miles for 2009 came out at 2147 — about 260 short of my 2008 total — but not a bad effort considering the forced six weeks off. I rode about 800 miles; not surprisingly most of them served as cross training during my running layoff.

I also managed to set three lifetime PRs, which considering I’m on the wrong side of 40 is quite an achievement (even if I do say so myself). For the record, the PRs came in the 20k (1:16:19), half marathon (1:18:39) and 50k (3:56:40). I’m still hungry to get faster and will be looking once again to break 17 minutes in a 5k, 60 minutes in a 10 Miler and 2:51:00 in a marathon. Maybe the days of lifetime bests are behind me, but I’ll still have fun trying to eek out one or two more.

2009 was also a bit of an experimental year. I dipped my toes into the world of Newton Running and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Their “Science of Motion” makes a lot of sense and the guys at Newton really have a lot going for them. Another departure from the norm was a brief foray into the minimalistic world of Vibram Five Fingers which I first read about in the classic Born To Run by Chris McDougall. I definitely plan to further explore both these avenues in the coming year.

2010 should be another exciting year. In addition to the early season Tidewater Striders Distance Series and Mud In Your Eye XC Series, I’m spreading my wings a little and will attempt another ultra towards the end of March — the HAT Run 50K in Susquehanna State Park, Maryland. One month later I’ll be heading to Boston for my 2nd running of the “world’s oldest and most prestigious annual marathon”. If training goes well over the next 3 or 4 months I’ll be looking to get close to my marathon best. Most people will tell you Boston is not the perfect PR venue, but with a quality field and a smart race plan, who knows what can happen on the day.

Before I end this post, I should also mention the excellent social training log I’ve been using this year; DailyMile has served not only as an excellent training log, but a great motivational and inspirational tool due to the numerous friendships that have developed. If you’re looking for an extra dimension to your training, I’d definitely recommend checking it out.

The workout consists of 4 x 5 minutes of running on grass with a 2 minute recovery between each hard effort. During the winter and spring, Jones rarely set foot on a track. Instead, he chose to perform his quality workouts on grass which kept his legs fresher for the summer season of track races:

For many years little of my work was done on the track, even though I was racing on the track and did some workouts on the track. It was just much more beneficial for me not to have the stress of trying to run 60-second quarters, or 2:08s or 2:06s (for 800m), even though I was probably running that pace in this workout. It wasn’t a measured distance; what was measured was the time. I was squeezing 60 seconds into a minute.

I love the last sentence of Jones’ quote – I was squeezing 60 seconds into a minute. – just typical Jones.

Anyway, back to the challenging workouts I was searching for. It turns out the “Royal Air Force Repeats” are featured in the great book Running Tough by Michael Sandrock, first published in 2001. Running Tough features 75 challenging training runs/workouts by running experts Steve Jones, Bill Rodgers, Libbie Hickman, Frank Shorter, Arthur Lydiard, Ron Clarke, Emil Zatopek, Roger Bannister and many more.

You’ll love the names of the workouts too: Agony Hill by Kip Keino, Culpepper’s Ladder by Shayne Culpepper, Wetmore’s Secret Intervals by Adam Goucher, Montana Cone to Cone by Shannon Butler just to name a few.

I ordered the book on the weekend and the good old UPS man delivered it this afternoon. Should make for some interesting bedtime reading and many hours of summer fun….