Monday, February 22, 2010

Deep Thoughts by GSisler

Have I mentioned how much I like rest weeks? Finally, the rest week is here and man did I need it. After three more solid weeks of training the body was starting to break down. Now, granted, it could have a lot to do with the lack of sleep, the cold, the drinking all added into the running, but I needed a break and I'm happy it's here.
Three months into things and 4 months away from the beginning of the Grand Slam and I'm very satisfied with where I am. Starting the first weekend of March I'll be up to running a 50km each Saturday with a 25km on Sunday. I decided to top out at this distance and not keep increasing it by 10% each weekend. The goal is to be able to run/recover well and I think a 50km/25km is a good enough distance to get the body ready without putting too much stress on it. Plus, I have a 50 miler at the end of March, another one in April and a final one in May before the big 4. I SHOULD have plenty of mileage under the legs, now it's just a question of staying healthy.
We'll see how it goes!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Deep Thoughts by GSisler

Well, the first cycle of the new year is over and I'm tired, but excited. Three weeks of hard work, followed by a week off and now, back to the hard work. Some things that I have learned, aka, some deep thoughts.
Speed comes back a lot faster then endurance. So much easier for me to get running fast then to get out and to the long slow runs.
Running a race at a HR of 150 is very, very humbling. There are just so many times you can hear the words "on your left" before you begin to debate throwing your watch at the next person who says it to you.
Week 3 sucks. You've been going hard for two weeks and now the hardest week is looking right at you.
Week 4 is awesome. Rest is awesome. Rest might be my favorite word.
Thursdays are dirty, dirty days. Lifting the legs and then doing hills sprints is a dirty, dirty day. I used to think that Monday's were the worst day of the week, but not anymore. Monday is a rest day (see my thoughts above on rest) so it can't be a bad day, but Thursday is not.
It's hard to find people who want to come and run with you for four hours at a slow pace. Surprisingly, "Hey, want to come on a 4 hour run" is not normally met w/ a sure, that's a sweet idea.
People look at you funny when you are running on a treadmill wearing vibram 5 fingers. They also look at you funny if you are doing sprints at a 12 % incline on a treadmill (stupid rainy weather). They won't say anything to you, they'll just look at you funny.
When you think that you are going to puke, but you do the exact same thing again (with the same puking feeling) why is it confusing when no one wants to come and run with you.
I love the new Inov8 hat that they made for the rain. I didn't think that you could ever love a hat, but I do. I don't love it enough to want it to rain, but I do love it enough to actually run in the rain.
EVERYONE seems to be talking about pose running, barefoot running, etc. Does this mean that people won't look at me funny when I'm running in my Inov8s? or make comments like how are you going to run an ultra in those? Man, I hope so.
OK, out of deep thoughts, and need to get some rest as the training has begun again.