This week, as the knee gets a little worse, my running seems to be coming together even with 80 degrees and very humid. Thunderstorm warnings and lightning all over our Mtns. Ran 6 yesterday with a 1000 ft of climbing. Today was flat but 10 miles. Felt smoothe and easy. Held a 8:30 pace, right in my comfort zone for almost every single mile. The middle 8 miles were really only off by 5-10 secs max so appears 830 is the easy effort zone. Think I will take tomorrow off as I am a day ahead of schedule and knee on the verge of making me back out. Rough work and mental day.

16... not so much.

16 miler this weekend overall physically went very well. Right up to the part where my thighs had chaffing and I continued to run thinking it would go away.
16 mile profile
I went ahead and turned toward home as it was getting ridiculous. I cut it short and went only to 14.5 miles with 700 ft of climbing. Really needed to do 16 mentally, but physically think I will be okay with out it. My legs and lungs weren't that tired or angry that day or the next. Ran 4.5 on Sunday at the track with my family with no issues (other than my usual knee problem).

Last week was a recovery week. I have learned over the years to back off occasionally even when I feel good and let the legs recover otherwise its likely to cause an injury. This is hard when you feel good but aren't supposed to push it. 

This is part of the initial climb at mile mile 13. Its only a 400 foot climb with has some gradual and some steeper sections. Overall not too bad. great course to run on but if the sun is out you will have a  warm morning. 

From the top of the ridge as you continue looking north you can actually see the Wild Animal Park in the distance.

As you turn and head back west (you can see the trail on the hillside in the distance)

So today was to be a test of another long run, as this was week 4 in a build up and I knew I was tired. After last weeks tough mudder and 12 mile training run 2 days before that, this was to be 14. Since I also signed up for the Lake Hodges 50k in Oct, I thought I would run on the trails there.
Here is how it went..... or maybe its better to say how it didn't go.

Split	Hours:Minutes:Seconds Time	Miles Distance	Minutes per Mile Avg Pace
Summary	2:11:02.6		10:46
1	9:04.1	1.00	9:04
2	9:19.6	1.00	9:20
3	10:04.2	1.00	10:04
4	9:37.3	1.00	9:37
5	9:22.3	1.00	9:22
6	13:46.6	1.00	13:47
7	9:55.5	1.00	9:55
8	9:57.2	1.00	9:57
9	9:53.3	1.00	9:53
10	12:07.6	1.00	12:08
11	12:32.0	1.00	12:32
12	13:22.8	1.00	13:23
13	2:00.2	0.17	11:50

Unfortunetly there was also tropical clouds and a ton of humidity. My truck showed the temp and it wasnt pretty at 103. I definetly over heated and ran out of fuel and fluid. Mile 6 was terrible and had no breeze in the valley I was in. I did the first 10 or so of the race course and trying to practice my trail running. So with a couple days to go in the week, here is where I am.

Week Of

Week

M

M A

T

T A

W

W A

TH

TH A

F

F A

Sat

Sat A

Sun

Sun A

Dist

Dist Act

25-Jun	1	0	6	2	4.3	2	0	2		0	3	10	6.5	6	0	22	19.8
2-Jul	2	0	5	2	6.08	2	12	4	0	0	0	12	10	6	0	26	33.08
9-Jul	3	0	5.1	2	5	2	0	4	6	0	12.1	14		8		30	28.2

Did a 12 mile run on Wednesday trying to bump up the distance. Decided it was time to start carrying water in a camel pack and getting used to carrying while running like I will on race day. Run went ok but seemed to have a fueling issue late in the run around 11 miles.



To the left is the team I did my first Tough Mudder with. Tough Mudder is a 10-12 mile obstacle course challenge. This one was at Snow Valley and between 6-7,000 ft in altitude. Good fun.

To the right is one of the many climbs that all teams had to do. The view was amazing once you did make it to the top.  Objects ranged from tunnels, to mud crawls, to 20' cliff jump into the lake, monkey bars...etc.

Here is our team running through the final obstacle, electric wires. You get shock really nice by each as you jog through. The camera missed it but my buddy Dan went down pretty good.

Noble Canyon 50k Elevation Chart, last 15 up hill.

Last year, in 2011 I had hoped to do the Oriflamme 50k (http://www.oriflamme50k.com/) with  a friend I met from kids soccer. He had mentioned the race and run it several times and after running roughly 1/2 a dozen marathons, I decided I should take the next gradual step. Unfortunetly life events got in the way, training went the way of the Dodo and so did the race. Noble Canyon in September was next on the radar. Again, life, and work had me "out of the state"  through  the end of the year.

2012 started with a few of the XTERRA trail run series which are great trail racesclose to 10 mile s a piece. My goal was to break into the top 15 of my age group and then move on to RnR San Diego on the way to Noble Canyon again. The first 2 XTERRAs of the year in Jan, Feb crushed me as I learned real quick that I am not good at hills. Hills are actually ok, its the climbing like a Mtn Goat that kills me, In March I did break into the top 10 and that was the time I decided to push for Noble Canyon.

After running my first Ragnar Relay - So Cal in April (www.ragnarrelay.com), another great experience, I had a couple of soccer injuries and setup backs that made me think it wan'st going to happen again. But, July 1st registration opened for NC50k, and I immediately signed up.

This blog will be used to track what I experience and how I feel up to, through and after race day for the 2012 Noble Canyon 50k. This will be my first Ultra-marathon at a distance of 31 miles, with 4,300 feet of climbing between 3500 -7000' elevation! www.noblecanyon50k.com