The Running Bran

This morning I finally sent in my entry form for Bimbler’s Bluff 50K in October, but it’s not without a little uneasiness. After a run on Monday, my knee was feeling pretty sore, right above the left knee-cap. I figure it’s a patella tendon strain or something and hopefully it heals soon! I have the Bear Brook trail marathon in July and need to be at peak fitness when the time comes.

In the meantime, I had bought Diablo 3 and thought I could buy the time while I was injured playing it, but sadly my laptop’s video card was not up to par and could not even play the game! I “had” to buy a new desktop computer for the game…uhhh…I mean for my business. Anyways, the computer comes on Saturday, so hopefully I can get it set up and get Diablo 3 installed so I can start killing some demons to work out some frustrations with being injured and not running

You can now sign up for Bimbler’s Bluff 50K in Guilford, CT in October, so who’s with me?! I’m planning to run this as my first ultra-marathon and it should be a good time!

The official results for the North Face Endurance Challenge trail half-marathon are out and I finished pretty strong, I must say! I have to credit my somewhat skilled/reckless downhill running I think.

Time: 2:14:42 (winner was 1:37:59)
Overall: 57 of 509
Gender: 52 of 377
Category: 21 of 142

This was definitely the hardest half-marathon of my life and probably the toughest trail I’ll run in the near future (no offense to the Bear Brook trail marathon or Bimbler’s Bluff 50K!) There were loads of steep inclines and rocky scree and this was the first race where my back hurt at the end. It seems that this year is shaping up into a doozy, with lots of REALLY serious trail races to test my skills. Next up is the Bear Brook trail marathon in New Hampshire in July, so time to kick up the training again already!

I met the Ultra Marathon Man, Dean Karnazes!!! (Click the photo below for more.)

Maybe reading about the Bear Mountain half-marathon at this point wasn’t the best idea (scary stuff!) Should be exciting and fun stuff though, just VERY, VERY tough! It’ll be my longest trail run by a few miles and by far the most elevation change I’ve ever run on the trails, that’s for sure.

Just ran my last long training run before the North Face trail half-marathon at Bear Mountain, NY in two weekends. Ended up running a sort of “duathlon”, as I ran nearly three miles to my parent’s house in my Brooks Green Silence, then switched to some trail shoes I carried over in a backpack and ran another five miles, before putting the road shoes back on and running home. It was actually pretty refreshing to switch back and forth from the road to the trail and back. Maybe it was the brief rest I got when switching shoes, but I have to imagine the different styles of running complemented each other nicely and left me slightly energized for each leg of the run.

I have to admit that although the trail Bear Mountain trails are supposed to be pretty tough, I think I’m ready.

In other news, I was called an old man by some girl bouncing on a trampoline on my last run. As a 28 year old, it was pretty amusing, but in a few years I’ll probably have to use that as motivation to pick up the pace!

Through my contacts in the Brooks Fanatics program, I heard about a cool trail marathon in New Hampshire this July (the Bear Brook trail marathon) that I’ve just added to my race schedule for the year. It actually works better than what I had previously planned (a half-marathon in September), so now I’ll have the early May trail half, the July trail marathon, then the October 50K! There are also a few other races mixed in, but nothing more than 8 miles or so. Let’s hope everything goes to plan and I can run all these awesome races!!!

A couple days ago Amazon was having a “lightning” deal on a Schwinn exercise bike and since Sonya and I already have a treadmill and elliptical machine, buying it seemed to be the logical next step! It’ll help her as she rehabs from a bad sprained ankle as well as give me a way to keep the legs loose on my off days from running. The plan is to keep it in the living room so we can ride while we watch TV so hopefully we put it to good use!

I’ve been debating whether I should get some real compression socks for running, but the $40-60 price tag had scared me away. I found some cool Sugoi socks on Amazon for (only!) $25 though, so I figured I’d give them a shot. Just a note, if you’re looking for them, the black socks are $40, but the gray or white ones are cheaper. Anyone else love compression socks for running/recovering? Are they worth the high price tag?

Ran my longest trail run of all time, with 9 miles on Saturday as I train for the North Face trail half-marathon in Bear Mountain, NY in early May. I know North Stonington, CT won’t be quite as tough as the mountains of NY, but if I can get the distance and time on my feet, I have faith I can survive the race at least!