Friday June 17, 2011

     I took the day off from work to head down to LAKE CITY, CO for the SAN JUAN SOLSTICE 50 MILE RUN. Joining me would be a friend, Fahren, who serendipitously had connections to a house in Lake City, and two other relative newbies to ultrarunning like myself- Brendan Trimboli and Aaron Marks (both doing the Leadville 100 in August). The four of us, Fahren's cocker spaniel/maltese name Izzi, and my lab Charlie Brown loaded (just barely) into my…

     As I mentioned in a previous post, my objective for the 1st event of the TRIPLE CROWN SERIES at the GARDEN OF THE GODS was to put forth a solid effort , NOT RACE. Preparation for the run was nearly flawless. Pre-race massage two days before, check. Easy bike and swim the day before, check. In bed the night before at 10 pm, check. The morning of the event, I even got a great warm up on the two miles or so from my house to the start. Talk about convenience! Arriving…

     My taper, part planned, part circumstantial, began last week. With the upcoming GARDEN OF THE GODS 10 MILER on June 12th, I wanted to cut my quantity of training while still maintaining quality in speed/tempo workouts. And, just in case I got a wild hare to squeeze in a big run, a weekend Neuro-Developmental Treatment continuing ed course necessitated my greatly reduced training volume.

     Ostensibly, reducing training during tapering seems like a pretty basic principle. Just…

    There's a popular saying offered among athletes in the period immediately preceding a race: "They hay is in the barn." In essence, take confidence in your training because panic or last minute heroics will not help and can often hinder performance.

     Well last week was I was a hay-loading machine (perhaps not as good as these guys though).…