Suposed to be a recovery run

What a great run. I did not expect to have my best 8 miler in weeks/months on a recovery week. I have truly recovered faster from this 50K then I expected.  Monday was a pretty easy recovery run. I was a little achy Monday, but still managed a pretty good run. Today I felt great and the run felt great. I managed a great pace without a drop off at the end. Not sure if this makes sense having my best time in weeks only days after a grueling 50K. The Garmin recorded 8.26 miles on what usually is 8.29 miles in 57:56. Even with the stingy Garmin I had the best time in months.

Ready or Not... Dizzy 50K or Bust.

Well it's here... Dizzy 50K week. This year I hope to do better than ever on a 50K. I have run trails and vertically challenging long runs from spring until now. My 3 week training program has consisted of long runs, one week a technical trail run, one week a hilly 19 or 20 miler, and then an average 16 miler. I feel ready for the vertical trail sections this year. The only thing I could have done a better job on would be some long 3 to 4 hour runs.

My trail runs consisted of about 1800 feet of elevation over 8.5 miles and the long runs were around 1400 feet of elevation over 18 to 20 miles.

The weather looks great with a low of 49 degrees to start with. I feel great and my nagging ankle has subsided some in the last few weeks. I did a little tapering this week. 7 miles of hill repeats Monday and an easy 3.3 miler Wednesday. I went swimming Tuesday and Thursday and probably will Friday.

New Inov8's are broken in and my newly refurbished Garmin 305 is working great. Got the race day hair cut Wednesday and plan to eat a whole pizza Friday night. If I do poorly this year, I will be disappointed because I feel really well prepared this year.

Posted below is my 2010 effort at Dizzy 50K. This actual finishing time was around 5:20. The Strava data only counted moving pace.

2012 Cotton Row 5K ... No Taper, No Problem

This was a good race despite it being a late start on a warm day. I even managed the race with little or no taper.  I had run 16 miles on Saturday and biked 31 miles on Sunday. So race Monday I had no expectations. I had decided that after passing out the week before at the Priceville 5K I was not going to push myself. Well let's be honest I promised my family I would not push too hard.

On race day I got to see my cousin Jenny who has been doing a good bit of running and racing.  What made the race special was that my daughter Dru got up early and came to the race to cheer me on. My friend Dave Truitt was also at the race and I started out behind him at the starting line.It was pretty warm and the sun was beginning to bear down on us. I decided to not push too hard and enjoy the race. After about a half mile I eased passed Dan. Who was I trying to kid, this was a race.  My pacing was OK and I was feeling better than I thought I would. I managed a pretty good pace (6:30, 7:04, 7:38).  There was a pretty good breeze and there was some shade around the buildings.

When I came running down toward the finishing line all I could think of was not stopping to quickly and passing out. Seeing Jon Elmore at the finish also reminded me of the Priceville 5K pass out. I slowed, but ran out of the shoot and then ran on around behind the finishing area. Dru lost sight of me and it took us a while to find each other. She had found one of her friends from high school and I had found his parents, so eventually we all got back together.

I managed to finish 30th overall and 1st place in my age group. I wanted to run under 21 minutes but got a 21:10.  I will take 30th out of over 2000 runners any day. It was great to share the day with my cousin and daughter and not passing out was a real plus.

Prepping for McKay Hollow 2013

McKay Hollow was my first trail race and remains one of my favorites. I am back to some long runs and I did finish Black Warrior 25K in February, but McKay is a different level of race. McKay is more technical and more vertical. It is different right down to the rock, these are slicker limestone and the ones at Bankhead are more of a sandstone material. They are like running on sand paper. I love both these races,but I also have to acknowledge they are different.

I hope to do better each year, but coming off an injury I am not quite up to the level I was last year. I did do pretty good at Black Warrior this year. Not a PR but I did place in my age group. My weekly mileage is close to the point before the injury and I have done some trail running. I ran 8 miles at Rainbow Mountain in Madison Saturday to prepare myself for McKay. I managed not to have any major falls Saturday. The trails there are pretty technical, but lack the elevation of the McKay course. It is surrounded by residential housing, so it is a trail I feel like I can run by myself. Bankhead is to remote to run by myself.

2012 Year In Review

2012 was a pretty good year. I had some really good base mileage this fall.  I ran a duathlon, 50K, 5Ks and an 8K.

This year I ran 1409 miles at an average pace of 7:48 min/miles and biked 1490 miles at an average speed of  17.1 mph. It was a breakthrough year for my swimming. I swam 178 miles at an average mile pace of 35:10 which is 3 minutes better than the pace I had in 2011. 

In May I passed-out at the finish of Priceville Parks and Recreation 5K. This was the second time I did this. I passed out at Jesse Owens 10K in 2011. The ironic thing is that the 2 races are on the same day.  I still managed 1st place in my age group and 16th overall out of 124.  I beat the heat this year by running fast all summer and finished a 5K in August with a 20:16. This is faster then I believed possible for me in the heat of summer.

I developed more base this year. I was completing 20 mile long runs just about every Saturday this fall in preparation for the Rocket City  Marathon. In November I developed pain in the big toe and ball of my right foot. I was limping every where even walking. This forced me to stop running in November. I was able to resume running by the last day of the year.

God has blessed me with another year of running.

McKay Hollow Madness 25K

 McKay Hollow Madness 25K - 3/24/2012

I went with my friend Dave Truitt who had got me into this race back in 2009.  The course was wet and slick as usual, but this year I had my Inov8 Roclite 295s and they have not disappointed me. We started together but I eased ahead on the roads. Larry Dickerson and Dave ran together and passed me on the first downhill descent. The descents are my undoing and the weakest part of my game. I thought I would probably not see either of them until the end of the race.

I tried to run the downhills better this year but it is not my strength.  I am better running uphill and that is what I did. I ran the downhills to survive and tried to run the uphill sections stronger then in years past.  I could pass people going uphill and yielded right of way on the downhills. The shoes dealt with the mud and rocks very well and I have no complaints with them. I ran alone a lot of the time but sometimes I would run with a group as they passed me.  After the last aid station I passed a group and got in the lead position about the time the trail left a fire road and went downhill. It was kind of awkward to yield after I had just passed them so I stayed in front and ran downhill as fast as I could. Having runners behind me really pushed my technical skills and it was exhilarating. It was a rather long rambling downhill. I did ask if they wanted to pass and they were not interested. So I was stuck in the front on this long rambling downhill.  I would run with this group for most of the rest of the race until I finished ahead of most of them.

After the trail leveled out I noticed a familiar figure ahead. It was Dave Truitt and he looked finished. He had gotten some cramps and was walking. It was several miles from the finish and as I passed him  I acknowledged him. He mentioned cramps and one of the group offered him some S-caps. So as I ran now I was thinking I had Dave beat, but did I. He looked finish and I was rolling. I kept running and one by one I lost most of the group. As I got closer to Death Trail the 600 foot ascent I heard a familiar voice behind me. I was not sure but it sounded like Dave. By the time I started up the ascent I saw him about a hundred yards back. I was not about to let him pass me. He had been finished and now he was back and had gained a lot of ground on me.

I ran that ascent like I was being chased with a gun. I passed people who had passed me on the trail and I kept pushing it up the hill. Dave was actually driving me up that hill. It was a very good thing because I would of settle for a slower pace and not gotten close to a sub 3 hour finish. The hill was my ally and Dave could not keep up his pace. I really was impressed with Dave and his comeback. It really helped motivate me on the final ascent.


I hoped to break 3 hours and missed it by 26 seconds and in 52nd place. My average pace was 11:39 and it was an improvement over 2009's 11:51 and 2010's 12:00. I will take an improvement in pace any day, but I really need to get better on the downhills.


McKay Hollow Madness 25K Garmin Connect

The Need for Speed

Since Mckay Hollow I have been concentrating on keeping my base, which consists of a tempo, hill interval, and a 16 or 20 mile run each week. My base is a little over 30 miles per week. I want to keep my base so I can do some ultras this fall and winter.  My immediate concern is to increase my short distance speed, so I can be competitive on a 5K or 10K course. I am still wanting to break 20 minutes on a 5K.

The high mileage has not been conducive to short course speed. Running shorter distances puts a little different stress on your mind and body. Over the last months I have been concentrating on lengthening my stride. I had shorten my stride for the long trail race and ultra I ran back in February and March.

With the shorter races in mind I have chosen the 8K Steeple Chase race as a good transition for me. It is shorter than I have been running, but long enough for my high mileage base to help me out some. My PR for this race is 33:48. I would like to better that PR if possible. The race is well done and I have really enjoyed running it in the past. I am big on visualization and so for tonight I will be watching Chariots of Fire for a little inspiration and tomorrow morning about 7:00 am I will be lining up for my shortest and fastest race since August. Hopefully I have been able to get my mind and body around this race.

2012 Black Warrior 50K

Turned out to be a great day for a race. Rain held off and temperatures were in the 40s at race time with highs in the 50s.  I really do like this race and Keith Hallmark does a really good job putting this race on.

The day before races I usually do not drink any coffee and I drink plenty to hydrate. I believe coffee to be a diuretic and tends to dehydrates me. I had my usual large pizza the night before. It serves to load my reserves and it is salty and makes me drink. Early Saturday I went to the bathroom and showered. I knew my feet would get wet at the water crossings, so I applied Vaseline to protect them from blisters. It really seemed to work this time. I wore my Darn Tough wool socks with some thin liner socks. I ate about 10 Ritz crackers plus a couple with peanut butter on them. I am a big believer in breakfast, but when racing I have to be careful.

The temps at race time were good, so I could start in whatever clothes I would finish in. I usually try to avoid changing clothes during the race. The race starts out uphill with about 2.8 miles of road. After the gravel road the race heads into the woods and the real fun starts. My friends the Fagermans were at the turn off and again at the first aid station. I had passed my friend Stephen Brown on the road and he returned the favor several mile into the trail. Stephen runs in Five Fingers and is a true minimalist runner. I have seen him run in thong sandals. You can learn something from anybody. I may have a few years of running on Mr Brown, but he has taught me a few things.  The first thing happened this fall when he reminded me that I should alternate my intensity on long runs. He also taught me a lesson for this race. My longest runs were 20 milers on an easy trail, but Mr. Brown ran his 20 milers on the race course.  This was at least twice as hard as my runs. The rain held off and the course did not seem to muddy.

The Inov8s did great. No ankle turns or falls even though I tried to fall several times around mile 18 or 19.  After Mr. Brown passed me I ran by myself for most of the race. I made my personal cut-offs at the aid stations. I was especially keen on getting past the halfway point. Once I get past the first half it helps me get my head around the mileage of an ultra race. The middle miles were pretty tiring, but I did pass a few people. They were walking wounded with cramps and stuff. I did try to fall a couple of times but managed to stay upright. I ran into my old friend Jeff Fagerman and Wayne Heckler around mile 20 they were returning from  legs in the 50K relay. It is nice when friends are there to cheer you on. Wayne had passed me after the 1st aid station when he started his leg of the relay. I just kept looking for landmarks and plodding on. I was looking for the biggest stream crossing and then the next aid station.

Before I got to aid station 4  I did come up on a guy from Chattanooga. He appeared to be done and I was ready to pass him when a couple of women caught up to us. He picked up his pace and I dropped back. I saw him at the aid station and he was still close to them. I kept on running my pace and finally caught up with him several miles up the trail. He had not been able to keep up with them any longer.  He asked me about why I had not passed him 5 miles back and I commented that it seemed the women had motivated him to pick up his pace. We talked and he said it was his first 50K. He was pretty sore, but he was still moving forward. We exchanged the lead position several times before I finally got out in from for good. He did finish and did better than I did on my first Black Warrior 50K. He finished with a 5:44.

The last 6 miles are pretty tough on the mind.  After the 4th aid station around mile 25 a song came to mind. It was the gospel song "I wouldn't take nothing for my journey now". It seemed to fit my mood, I was tired and sore, but the bulk of the race was behind me. I finally made it to the last aid station and now just 2.8 miles of road were all I had left. I let the blade down on the gravel road and managed an 8:19 pace over the last 2.8 miles.  The odd thing is you do not remember this portion of the course has both uphill and downhill. All you remember is the steep grade at the beginning of the race. So when you return at the end of the race you start out wondering when you will get to the downhill.

The finish was extra special. As I came close to the finish line I was greeted by my family.  It made all the pain and soreness worth it. I was so happy to see my girls at the finish.

By the numbers:
22nd overall, 2nd in my age group and shaved an hour off my 2010 Black Warrior time.

Garmin under counted by .83 miles.

Mile 6 = 49.30, rest area time 1.43, 8:15 pace

Mile 12.52 (6.52) = 1:07, rest area time 1.45, 10:16 pace

Mile 17.18(4.66) = 48:59, rest area time 1.17, 10:30 pace

Mile 22.36(5.18 ) = 59:31, rest area time 1.37, 11:29 pace

Mile 28.54(6.18) = 1:19, :rest area time 36, 12:46 pace

Last (2.8)=23:18, 8:19 pace

31.34=5:35.24. overall 10:42 pace