Racing Plans

So this is just a quick blog post to let you know about my race plans over the next month or so.

First though, a brief update on my activities since Ice Age (race report).  So after the race, I took a full two weeks really, really easy.  Like some of the lowest mileage I've run in the last 7 years.  I don't usually take days completely off, but I do need a couple of rest periods throughout the year to let the body completely recover, and that's what I was going for there.  I really felt like I recovered from Ice Age quickly...maybe even faster than I recovered from the road marathon I did in April.  But, I took the two weeks easy regardless and made sure I got my batteries recharged.

My first day back to real training, I ran 4 hours on the trails with a group of folks at an informal group training run on the Stone Steps 50k course here in Cincinnati.  I kept it really relaxed and enjoyed the company of others for a change.  I only covered 25 miles, but I spent a lot more time on my feet than I would have had I just run by myself.  The Memorial Day holiday allowed me to get in 3 trail long runs the following week making for a fairly aggressive ramp back into big mileage training.  That brings me to last week where I had a really nice 5x1200m track workout and another long trail run.

Now I'm focusing on getting the legs recovered for the Chattanooga Mountain Stage Race this weekend!  This is will be my first stage race, and I'm really looking forward to the experience.  Rock/Creek puts on top notch events, and Chattanooga is just a cool little city, so I'm really excited to be heading down there for a few days.  That basic setup is 18 miles Friday morning, 22 miles Saturday, and then 20 miles Sunday.  I haven't run the course, but it sounds like the trails vary quite a bit from fast and rolling, to steep and technical.  The heat may be my biggest concern though.  I'm just not very experienced racing long in the summer.

Next, I have just 3 weeks to get recovered for my next race...in Wales!  I'll by flying across the pond on the 4th of July to race with the US team at the IAU World Trail Championships on July 6.  I don't know a bunch about this race or the competition but I do know that it's 75km long.  I don't think it has a ton of climbing or is very technical, but I know better to rule out anything since I haven't seen the course yet.  Running for the US, we have: Jason Bryant, Dave James, Ben Nephew, Justin Ricks, Brian Rusiecki and myself on the men’s side. For the women, it'll be Stefanie Bernosky, Tracy Hoeg, Stephanie Howe, Amy Rusiecki, and Michele Yates.

So those two races are definitely my focus in the near term.  The week following the Wales race, I'll be heading to San Francisco for a corporate track meet, but that is more of a fun event in my mind and I'll probably just be running a 5k and 10k.

We now have confirmation that the IAU 100k World Championship race will be October 26th in South Africa.  That will be my big focus race for the fall.  I'm not quite sure what I'm doing in August and September, but it will be focused on preparing for the 100k.  I will likely be looking for a flat and fast 50k-50 miler in September as a tune-up for the 100k, so if you have any ideas, let me know.

That all I have for now.  I'll check back in after the stage race.