Home again, home again...

I spent the last week in Florida attending our annual user conference. What a great time/distraction...

I was coming off a great weekend of running but also had optimistic expectations going into the week.

Yes, I knew it would be a 3-hour time difference.
Yes, I knew it would be hot and humid.
Yes, I knew that I would be staying up later than usual.

I ignored that for the first couple days and at least got in a few decent runs on Tuesday and Wednesday. By Thursday however, the lack of sleep, fatigue and humidity had gotten the best of me and I threw in the towel.

I knew that coming home would be even more challenging. I barely had the motivation or the balls to ask my wife to get up early again on Saturday morning so I could get in my long run for the weekend. So I didn't. C'mon...it's Mother's Day weekend.

Besides, my son had his final t-ball game and we had to go buy supplies to finish up my daughter's science project presentation. Not to mention that my wife and I were going out for dinner before I kicked her out of the house for her Mother's Day getaway at the JW Marriott at Desert Ridge.

It was nice to relax a bit and recover from the conference - my feet were toast!

It does worry me a little bit however that there are only 6 more weekends until the Black Hills 100(k). I feel good in comparison to where I was last year but, still 62 miles as a tad bit harder than 50 miles. I just want to make sure I don't die out there :)

When motivation fails you

For some reason, I've had a motivation FAIL this week. Last Saturday, I had an awesome long run (pretty sure I PR'ed that 16 miles) and then followed that up with a great trail run with my buddy Andy (who was on his mountain bike).

Thank goodness Monday was a rest day - I needed it. (Although, I did ride my bike)

I'm feeling very healthy and strong but Tuesday seemed to hit me like a lead pipe. Tired and groggy...which is just like I felt when I was neck deep in my allergy treatments. I think that tiny exposure I've had resulted in being much more sensitive to the seasonal Arizona allergens. It's left me slightly unmotivated and a little more likely to sleeping in .

Something is blooming this week and my body doesn't like it.

I'll muscle through it. It's a relatively light week in terms of mileage. I'm still debating whether to go nutso on the mileage this weekend or take the chance that I'll get it done next weekend (I'll be travelling *all* next week and get back Friday evening). It's somewhat unlikely that after a week of being on the east coast, working with customers 14-hours a day, that I'm going to want to come home, get up at the crack of dawn to go run 21 miles on Saturday.

I already feel the odds stacking against me :)

It's hard to believe that the Black Hills 100(K) is just about a month away. Starting this weekend, my long runs are transitioning over to trail rather than road. It will take more time but I'm looking forward to being on the trails as well as this race - I feel much more prepared than I was last year. The only difference is the distance (it's just 12 more miles right!?)

What my dreams are made of

Do you ever get so engrossed in something that it starts to take over your sub-consciousness? Does it worm its way into your dreams at night?

I can always tell that I'm deep in training and/or planning when I start to have dreams (nightmares) related to things I might forget for a race. Like last night - I dreamed that somehow I had gotten to the Leanhorse 100 race start and completely forgotten all of my gear (no, I wasn't standing there naked).

Being naked would have been less embarrassing.

I find it interesting that my greatest fear is not the race or distance itself, but being unprepared or forgetting something crucial that will help me meet my goal.

So let the planning begin...

Hotels.
Flights.
Crew vehicles.
Clothing.
Pacing information.
Directions.
Food.
...
...

Hopefully my subconscious will thank me.

Envelope = pushed

Most endurance athletes will tell you that there is something self-sustaining and gratifying about reaching a goal that you've never achieved before. Often times the fruits of your labor are not really evident the next day...or even the next week for that matter. Over time the small successes allow you to sit back and revel in the moment when something really exciting happens.

(Dude, what are you talking about?)

Last week I broke 50 miles. Yes, running.

I ran 52.4 miles from Monday to Sunday (3 days of business travel mixed in there too).

Even during my peak weeks prior to last years Black Hills 100 (50 mile) race, only once did I exceed 50 miles in a week. And then I proceeded to get sick.

I feel like I'm in the best shape of my life...and we're still nearly 4 months away from the Leanhorse 100!

I'm not only running faster (generally) but I'm also doing more miles and recovering well enough to have the stamina for back-to-back runs throughout the week.

I hope your run(s) this weekend were great. Thanks for checking in.

Momentum

It's been a very productive and exciting 2 weeks for me in regards to training and personal health issues.

Let's start at the root of all things -

The allergies, sinus and general fatigue have virtually disappeared and allowed me to get back on schedule with training (and life for that matter). I love getting back to the feeling of actually wanting to go run and not being held back by the fear of getting sick or succumbing to nature.

I've developed a health regiment in the last 2 weeks that seems to be working well. The true test was a recent business trip...I *always* get sick during travel. Whether it's the petri-dish environment of the airplane or my attempts at staying active while on the road. In either case, I'm back from travelling, got in my required mileage and am feeling great (e.g., not sick).

I've already mentioned this in previous posts but there are 3 products that I would highly recommend for anyone training for a marathon (or longer):

• First Endurance OptygenHP
• First Endurance MultiV
• Genr8 Vitargo

While certainly not quantitative by any means, these 3 products have not only boosted my overall health (MultiV) but aided with longer runs (OptygenHP) and recovery (Vitargo). I have easily made the jump in mileage (~30 miles per week to 50 miles per week) without any fatigue or sickness. I'm very happy with these and am recommending them to everyone I know. The only downside...they're expensive. Fortunately, I have resources that assist with that part of it :)

Thanks for checking in!

Warming back up

In more ways than one, things are starting to warm back up. Aside from the normal temperature gains this time of the year, I feel pretty good about some recent decisions and changes (improvements) in my health.

First and foremost, I've decided to stop taking my sublingual allergen treatments. It has been pretty clear that they are at the root of my ailments - from the watery eyes to that lethargic feeling of death-warmed-over in the morning - I can't go on feeling that way and still be a productive human being, let alone train for any races.

I mean honestly, what do you expect when you're actually introducing the specific allergens to your body that you know you're allergic to? I've been off these allergens for 2 days and am feeling 1000% times better. So much so that I actually made it up at 5 am on Saturday for my 'long' run of 8 miles.

I'm also heeding advice from others as well.

Sinus rinses twice a day. Probiotics. Active recovery. MultiV supplements.

The other big change I've noticed is from taking OptygenHP by First Endurance. There used to be a time I'd head out for 8-10 mile runs and need a day of rest before covering the same distance 2 days later. Not the case any longer. Not only can I do these distances back-to-back, I feel like I can take on longer runs without needing a lengthy recovery time. I'm pretty much sold on this product but damn, it's expensive.

So while I'm looking forward to getting my runs on this week, I'm also cautiously awaiting my travel next week. I really don't want to be sick again. I'm already several weeks behind in training and another blow could be devastating. We'll see...

Thanks for checking in.

Staying healthy is the hardest part

Being sick is a clearly the bodies way of telling you that something is wrong and that you need a break. It's just annoying to have life (and training) interrupted. It is not uncommon for me to get sick at least every 8-10 weeks (typically, sinus and/or ear-related).

In my engineering mind, figuring it out is similar to figuring out an equation - there are variables you have in your life that create the conditions and circumstances that cause ("trigger") illness. Over the last year, I've been struggling to identify these - without much success unfortunately. Here are the top triggers:

1. Air travel - a combination of the test-tube and pressure changes
2. Alcohol - my faces swells, constricting my sinuses
3. Allergies - the desert is always blooming
4. Over-training - too much too fast degrades my immune system
5. Weather - changes in barometric pressure?

As you can probably guess, I've been sidelined this last week due to allergies/illness. While I managed to get a few runs in while in Seattle last week, I finally had enough of feeling like crap and went in to get some antibiotics.

I'm clearly behind in my training - which sucks. Even though I've gotten used to it, I really just wish I could figure out how to limit my exposure to "the funk", as my wife calls it.