Habitat for Humanity Mud Run

Today I ran a team mud run in Cookeville, TN. It was 4 mile run with 22 obstacles. Never have done a team event and was tough to stay with the team at first to complete the obstacles. But it took team work to complete several of the obstacles. For example one teammate had difficulty with the staggering monkey bars and it took holding the legs for her to complete. We also had to carry teammate 100 yds on back, then had to pull a teammate up a hill on a sled. So it became evident to stay together to complete this event.
This was great event for my first mud run in while. I realized I have some work to do to get ready for the Spartan Sprint in mid October.
I also want to send shout out to my buddy Ian for the design of our team shirts. They seemed to be a big hit by many of the other teams out there.
Hope everyone had a great day!

Training Day 54

This morning had another good workout. Another day for sprints. I did 4 x 40 sec sprints with 80 sec recovery between sprints. Performed on same road as I did Tuesday. The hills help make the sprints more challenging. The downhill part allows me to work on stride, while working on power and drive for the uphill portion.
After the sprints carried my 2 5 gallon buckets 80 yds x 2. Then performed the same Tabata routine as I did Tuesday 2 x 4 minutes with 1 minute rest between sets. Afterwards did some yoga poses for stretch and cool down.

Training day 52

Just to recap, I have posted the past 2 weeks more with Runkeeper instead of blogger. I have been doing my running. I realized not going to be ready for the marathon in Oct, so going to do the half and push the marathon date to January. This weekend I have a team mud run. First time I have ever done one as a team. Don't know how well I will do having to complete obstacles with teammates. That means I have to slow my pace. This will be my first mud run also since April.
Today I went back to working out and sprint work. I am going to start doing this 2x week. I did 4 x 40 second sprints. I recovered for 80 seconds after each sprint. My sprints were not on a flat track, I sprinted on my road which has a hill in both directions. I would start the sprint downhill and finish the last half with uphill climb. That was every sprint.
After my sprints I carried two 5 gallon buckets of water 80 yards x 2.
Finished my workout today with 2 x 4 min Tabata routines consisting of push ups, squats, spiderman push ups, alternating lunges, shoulder press, db bent rows, alternating db curls, and burpees. Stretch to cool down.
Workout felt great today. Look forward to rest of week.

Training Day 36/56 days til Marathon

Today my plans did not go quite as planned. I set out to do a 10 mile trail run. I have done a couple trail runs in Middle TN, but the trails there are lot different. They are wider and easier to navigate. The trails ran in past had rocks, stumps, roots, etc, but today's run was different. Today I ran Arrowhead Trail through McKay Hollow in the Monte Sano Park area. The trail was very narrow, not many markings to mark the trail. The trail had many rocks, roots and stumps. Some of these rocks were pretty sharp, my feet felt every step at times, since I run in the Vibrams. The trail was also muddy due to all the rain in the past week.
So like I said, trail run did not go as planned. I only ended up doing 5 miles. I started out jogging for the first 2.5 miles, slow pace, especially since never been out on this trail before. After 2.5 miles my jog became a hike. I stomped my big toe and 2nd toe on the left foot 2 times as I was on my return hike. I seem to always hit these 2 toes when running trails.
I learned during this run today that trail running is more technical than road running. You always have to scan your area to plan your step. I think I will stick to the road runs for now, but will not rule out trail runs in the future.
So ended up with 40 miles for the week instead of 45. But still a good week.

Training Days 31-35/57 til Marathon

Update through training day 35. Been a good week. I have logged 35 miles so far for the week with one day left. Workouts have been going good. I definitely have taken advantage of the 2 rest days. Hopefully they will help me as my mileage increases.
My 2 rest days were Tues and Thurs. All I did was stretch and do soft tissue work on my plantar fascia to hopefully get rid of the pain from it being inflamed.
Wednesday: I ran 7 miles. Ran in the early evening. The humidity makes it difficult to increase the pace. Ran on running trail today. As long as can stay around 10 min mile pace, I am good with the training. After my run performed 2 rounds of full body workout as fast as possible with 1 min rest between rounds.
Workout
Ran 7 miles
2 rounds of following:
30 push ups
10 pull ups
30 squats
25 bridges
12 alt db curls 25#
30 sit ups
Friday: I ran 8 miles on this day. I ran at night, still very humid. There was not a dry stitch of clothing on my body when done. Ran on the running trail and through the town. I had few hills on the course. Nothing major but still good climbs. Allowed for good mixture. After running performed 2 rounds of the workout again. Great workout this night. Completely worn out!
Ran 8 miles
2 rounds of following:
30 push ups
10 pull ups
30 squats
25 bridges
12 alt db curls 25#
30 sit ups
Saturday: This morning ran 13 miles. Today's course had some long climbs, one was over half mile. It had couple of steep spots. This was the second run in less than 10 hours apart. The humidity this morning was thick. Sweating before 1/4 mile. I think the humidity got best of me, cause I ended up walking 1 mile of the 13, or might have been the time between runs. I did not keep my pace of 10 min mile, but I managed to finish.
One more run for the week. We will see how it goes tomorrow. I just will continue to push on. Until tomorrow, have great night.

Training Day 30/62 Days til Marathon

Today was good training routine. I have 62 days til marathon. I think I stated 61 yesterday, I have counting issues. But oh well!
Today I ran 7 miles in 1:05:41. Course had some rolling hills, nothing major. I was little sore from past 2 day's runs. But I just have to cont to remind myself...I am only training, so don't have to run fast, just log the miles.
After my run I worked out. I did 2 rounds of body weight routine. Don't want to bulk up, just trying to increase strength and cut body fat.
Today's complete routine
Run 7 miles
2 rounds with 1 min rest b/w rounds
30 push ups
10 pull ups
30 squats
25 bridges
12 db curls 15#
30 sit ups
Stretch when complete to cool down.
Good workout overall...looking forward to a day of rest from the long runs tomorrow.

Training Days 23-29

Well another week has come and gone. Training continues to be good. As I mentioned the other day, I have a tough schedule in October. I am running a marathon, followed by a Spartan Sprint, then a week later the Ragnar Relay in TN from Chattanooga to Nashville. So with the days winding down, 61 days til the marathon, I am refocusing on my training and nutrition to get in better shape than ever been in so I can survive October. Not only that I will be a year older in October as well.
So to recap the week. Mainly consisted of running. No workouts at all this past week. I increased my miles this week. Went from 34 to 39. Also did back to back 10+ mile runs this past week. It told me a lot about my body.
Runs for the past week
Monday: Ran 5 miles in under 45 minutes. The course had some minor hills, but it seemed like it was more downhill for this run.
Tuesday: Ran 5 miles in reverse order from Monday's run. This run was completed in over 46 min. It was more uphill running. Also ran in afternoon, so temp was lot warmer than Monday.
Thursday: Ran 7 miles on this day. This was another evening run. I ran this on running/walking trail. Course was fairly flat. Completed this run in under 10 min mile pace. Don't remember exact time. I have just been staying around that pace with runs.
Saturday: This morning ran 12 miles 1:58:12. Course had some small to medium hills. Run was good except for getting confused on where to turn and ending up 3 miles from home when hit 12 miles. Luckily was able to get someone to come pick me up. Was no way could walk back.
Sunday: This afternoon I ran 10 miles. Temp was 90 degrees. Pace was good for first 6 miles, around 9 min miles. The last 4 was tough. I think the heat was a factor to some degree, but the previous day's run was taking a toll as well. I ended up having to walk for about half mile at one point. But I finished. That is the most I have ever done in 2 days without rest.
So now I know can do some back to back long runs, I will be doing that every Sat and Sun. I have some long mountain runs down on my schedule in the next few weeks. Might get a short run up the mountain this week. Also got to get back to my workouts this week. Good luck to everyone with their training, I know I will need it for mine.

Running

Running just became little more serious today. I have 64 days til I run my first Marathon. Two weeks after that a Spartan Sprint. Then today it was confirmed that I will be running as part of a team on the Ragnar Relay in TN from Chattanooga to Nashville. It is 196 miles and I will be running as the #7 runner. These are the very hard parts of the course. My first run will be 5.3 miles with an elevation climb of 1300'+. In total I will run 20.2 miles for my 3 legs. Training will be fun. Going to start running more distance runs up the mountain. Diet and nutrition will be my biggest obstacle. Things will becoming interesting, looking forward to the challenge.