REVISIONS

OK, I knew trying to reach 50k, or 31 miles, by the last Sunday of the year was really pushing it. Two weeks ago I got greedy and I ran 18 miles for my long run on Sunday. It should have been a 16-mile run that day but I wanted to push it to 18 so I could have a shot at 31 miles 6 weeks later. Big mistake. Combined with running in the much-more hilly Salem area verses the pancake-flat Woodburn area,  everything went wrong. I bonked plus I strained something in my lower right leg below my calf muscle and beside my achilles tendon.

My last two miles were close to 15 minutes each -- that's slower than walking speed. So I ended up taking the following week off just to recover from my stupidity. It took me until the following Wednesday to even start getting any energy back. Bonking really takes it out of you. Eight days later I tried an easy 2 mile run to test the calf muscle, which still hurt but I wrapped it up tight and it was manageable, I thought.

The next couple of days (Tuesday and Wednesday)  I ran an easy hour each day. By Saturday I felt back to normal so the plan was to do 10 miles that included the one little hill we have in Woodburn, which is three miles from my house. It was pretty cold out but I felt good. My leg felt strong so I didn't wrap it.

I was doing hill repeats in the cold sunshine and felt good. Then on the third trip up, just before reaching the top of the hill, SNAP! a sharp pain just beside my right calf muscle, right where it had hurt two weeks before. I could barely walk on it and I was 3 miles from home.

After a mile or so of limping I tried running and as long as I stayed on my heel I could jog, sort of and finally made it home. Now I'm trying to recover from a more severe injury and hoping I'll be over 10-mile long runs by the end of the year. So forget the 31 miles. But that's running or rather my stupidty or greediness or whatever you want to call it. We have to adapt as life, and age, gets in the way.

So while I am recovering I'm riding the bike trainer every day and after several years of playing around with trying the Pose method of running I finally bought the book  — The Running Revolution: How to Run Faster, Farther and Injury-Free for Life, by former Olympic coach Nicholas Romanov and sports writer Kurt Brungardt. I'm hoping it'll live up to its promise about injury free running. I actually bought the e-book deluxe addition ($11.95) that included a lot of videos. I figure if I can't run I might as well read about it.

I'll let you know if I can learn to run natural or not.

Oh, I'm also planning on entering the lottery for the Tahoe Rim Trail 50 miler that runs in mid-July. The lottery entry begins Dec. 7 and ends Dec. 21, 2014, and they draw the names Jan. 1, 2015. If I'm picked, this will be my first 50 miler. You can find out about the lottery for the TRT 50 miler, the 50k and the 100 miler at Ultra Signup.

I'm hoping to do a marathon or a 50k in the spring if I can find one close enough, whether it's an official race or me just going out on my own. It sounds funny talking about running 50 miles when right now I can't run a step and even healthy I bonked on 18 miles, but I learned from Ironman that good, solid training and a positive attitude can make the impossible possible.

Keep your fingers crossed.

CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN ZOMBIES AHEAD ...

It's slow going but I'm up to 12 miles on my long runs and 10k (6.2 miles) on my other running days. I still need to add one more day of running to get it up to 4 days but I just don't know where I'll get the time, especially with winter coming on.

This Sunday I should be up to half marathon distance (13.1 miles). I can't wait to get up to three hour runs but by then it'll be cold and dark and rainy here. I know, I'm a wimp, but after training for years in Hawaii it's hard to get motivated in poor weather.

Karen and I, NJ and the twins are planning on racing zombies on the 25th in Albany. My guess is we'll not make it too far before we are "bitten." But it should be fun anyhow. I've always wanted "The Walking Dead" to do a show on zombie babies, especially zombie twin babies.

Oh, since Ironman World Championship is this Saturday, here's a video of my first world championship finish shot by my friend Giovanni.

This is from 2009. Back then 13 miles seemed like nothing. In fact I remember racing a half marathon a few weeks before where I went out and ran 3 miles as a warm up then ran my fastest half to date just so I could get in my 16 mile run for the day. Dang I miss in that kind of shape.

31 MILES TO SUNDAY

Let me just put this out there so I have a little bit of accountability: I’m working toward running 50k by December 28 - Fourteen weeks from now. My goal is to reach 50k (31 miles) by the end of the year in prep for a 50-mile run next spring.

Sundays are my long run days and this Sunday I’ll be at 11 miles. I know, that’s not that far but I took the past spring and summer off dealing with a stress fracture, which is still hurting, and trying to get rid of skin cancer, which I’m still fighting. Note: chemo, even in cream form, sucks.

Adding a mile a week and NOT having any recovery weeks or injuries, I should be at 25 miles by Dec. 28. Oops! Gonna be short. Now I could just push the last week and run that extra 6 miles just to hit my goal, but we’re talking an extra hour’s worth of running on day that’ll probably be cold, rainy and short on daylight.



(I was a runner once, and young! This is a spoof I did back in the day of a Zoot commercial I saw on TV that featured the great Jason Lester and I thought, "Ya know, I wear those exact same Zoots. I could do that commercial." So Karen and I headed to the Energy Lab with an old handheld 8mm camcorder just shot it in about 30 minutes. I remember I had a pulled calf muscle so it was pretty painful to try not to limp. Don't know why I never got a commercial contract with Zoot.)

Here's The Real Zoot commercial starring the awesome Jason Lester "Got Ultra?"

BUT, if I increase my mileage by one and a half miles per week that’d land me just a half-mile short of my goal a week early. But lets be realistic here. There are two major factors. Make that three major factors: 1) This is Oregon and it’s going to rain and snow and get pretty cold so I’ll be carrying a lot of extra weight in clothing. Plus I’ll be doing most of my running in the dark. 2) I’ll never make it injury free or without throwing in a recover week here and there. And 3) I’m lazy, which means I’ll miss some runs during the week because of (insert any lame excuse here) making my long runs even harder and putting me more at risk for injury.

Besides running marathons, the longest training runs I’ve done were 20 milers. And unlike a race, this will be done solo (I think I’m the only runner in our town during the winter) and with whatever support crew I can muster from the family.

Can I do it? I’d like to say HECK YA! But honestly, I’m doubtful. I haven’t had a real goal since I left Hawaii and I’m thinking that this might be fun to try - at least until it turns cold, wet and windy. Then I reckon the Ironman in me better kick in with that “anything is possible, I am an Ironman” attitude.

I'll be doing shorter runs throughout the week: a couple of hour runs and maybe an hour and a half run followed by the long run on Sundays. Probably a lot of it done on the tready once the weather turns. Btw, if anyone has any advice for training for ultra marathons, feel free to pass it along.

They say the first step is the hardest. Yeah right! Let's see how the 500,000th step feels and see which is harder… Oh, by the way, if anyone has any connections with a running shoe manufacturer, I’m looking for shoe sponsors … ha!

See ya out there!