I realize now that it's been two years since I posted! Lots of things have happened in our lives since then, the main one is we moved back to New Hampshire...mainly due to work as work was getting thin in NM. I couldn't seem to land a job at LANL, which was my main goal. They have been going through a round of yearly layoffs since 2010 and had a hiring freeze in place. This happened right after I moved back...oh well, we roll with whatever life deals us...right?
Deb had a knee replacement in November and we're working on getting her back into ultras. It's going to take a while, but we're hiking regularly with some short runs thrown in to build the muscle back up. If it goes well, She may be able to pace me some at Grindstone and if it goes really well, maybe go down and run MMTR50 in Nov.
We have a small 7 acre farm in SWNH in the town of Sharon. Deb is the farmer and I work to support her habit, although I'm looking at retiring in a couple of years if we can swing it.
Anyway....Grindstone is in October and I'm running it and doing things to prepare for it.
So far, other than some training, which gets less as I age (I'm 64 now) I have run DRB50K in April and the Big A 50K 2 weeks later. These went well, although DRB was MUCH slower than I've run it in the past. In 2000 I ran it in 5:39 and this year I ran it in 7:56...and it felt like the same effort!
Coming up I am planning on a Mount Adams Vertical Challenge in a couple of weeks and MMD50K in the Whites in August, other than that we plan on lots of hiking in the mountains.
My training is as follows:
Mon - Stair reps in Mine Falls Park (work lunchtime, 35-55 minutes)
Tue - 4 miles easy on trails followed by 6-8 short sprints
Wed - 5 miles w/3 mile tempo in the middle
Thu - Same as Tue
Fri - Same as Mon
Sat - trail run up to and no longer than 4 hours, sometimes less
Sun - Hike with Deb (so far we've hiked up to 6 hours)
Today's workout was the stairs. It's a short, steep stairway in the middle of a beautiful park in Nashua, NH. that connects the lower trail with the upper trail. One loop (up and down) only takes 30 seconds, so I do a lot of them. Today I did approx 50 reps in 25 minutes at an AHR of 124...so basically it's an easy aerobic workout, but good for the legs. Powerhike up and run back down.
My stairs looks like these...
Weather has been quite nice this week, regularly in the 80's and only slightly humid. I like running in the heat ever since living in NM. Spending a Summer running at noon in Albuquerque at altitude in 95 degree sunny heat day after day does that to you. Man I miss that place!
OK, lets see if I can maintain this blog! ;-)
