Yesterday's Mtn Run

Discovered an awesome trail in Breckenridge yesterday. Gorgeous day with no clouds and 70 degree weather. Legs felt heavy but warmed up just as I needed to head back home. I will be back on this climb again!

Lunch Time Runs

Just finished up my second run of the week with some guys from work.  It's good to get out and get some miles in between long days at work. The guys have a fun 10k course mapped out which is prefect for a sub 1 hour run. Now all I have is a LOOOONG run this weekend. Good times!

4 Weeks To Go!

The month of May was not how I wanted it to go but it its what it is and now I've got to focus on June. 4 Weeks gives me roughly 3 weeks to ramp up my training BIG TIME and chill out the final week. I'm kind of winging it right now with training and trying to play catch up so we'll see if my plan works. My long runs have been taking 1.5-2 weeks to fully recover so I'll have to plan my last long run of 25-30 miles in the next week or so. From there it will be short 5-10 mile runs with a ton of cycling to boost my cardio without stressing my legs too much with the pounding. I'm definitely stressing out a bit because although I think just finishing would be pretty good there is that part of me that wants to be competitive and try to place in the top half. With that mentality comes the push to get as fit as possible given the time I have left. It's like cramming for that final exam. I know I'm going to suffer dearly in this race so my thinking is that if I can improve my fitness even a tiny bit these last few weeks I can maybe delay when the really bad suffering begins in the race. My two most important goals leading up to the race. 1. One more long trail run of 25-30 miles 2. Drop 8-10 lbs tipping the scale at 166lbs. If I can complete these two goals and show up at the start line injury free I'll feel pretty good.

Only Dork's Wear Their Heart Rate Monitors To Sleep

Because I don't wear my heart monitor enough everyday when I workout I decided to wear it to sleep last night.  I have officially confirmed I'm a deep sleeper with my heart rate getting down to as low as 36 beats per minute (bpm)!!! My average throughout the night was 42 bpm so it looks like I'm getting fitter?  I think the idea is that when you become fitter your resting heart rate drops because your heart is more efficient and requires less effort to support your body.  I plan to do this again a few times between now and the North Fork 50 ultramarathon June 29th.  It will be interesting to see the impact if any with me being 15lbs. lighter and a lot more training if my resting heart rate changes.  I can't imagine it getting any lower but I guess we'll see.

Recovery Tools

I'm a big fan of self massage tools and compression socks.  This new self massage tool will help melt away knots and work trigger points. It's a good self inflicting pain!  Although you can pay an arm and a leg for compression socks these days I stick to the medically proven compression socks from Walgreens or CVS.  Way cheaper and just as good...I think.  

Official Trail Shoe For North Fork 50

Brooks Cascadia 7 Trail Running Shoe

Excited to train and eventually race in these shoes! My girlfriend and some friends swear by Brooks so I had to try them. They fit great so hopefully they'll be great mile after mile. 

Fuel for North Fork 50 fo sur!

Mini Finish Lines

It's a bit overwhelming to think of this race in its entirety. So I've decided to breakdown the race into mini races with each aid station as a finish line.  It's going to be a long day of racing!