As I was training for the race I was thinking I would take a full week off to mentally and physically recover. That didn't happen. By Wednesday my blistered toes were well enough for me to get in a 5 mile run with Gina and Super Dru. Everything felt pretty good except my knee were very tender on the downhills.
12/12/12 - 5.5 Mile run on the trails of Fishburn Park
12/14/12 - 26.4 mile road bike ride up Mill Mountain, BRP to vinton and home.
12/15/12 - Random running for a 11 mile road run.
Week - 16.5 miles running and 26.4 biking
12/18/12 - 7.5 miles - 6 mile loop and cooldown
12/18/12 - Ran a 4 mile loop in Five Fingers
12/19/12 - 4.9 mile run around Raleigh Court
12/21/12 - 8 Mile road run
12/22/12 - 8.25 miles running the Elkmont Loop in the Smokeys
12/23/12 - 21.75 miles running the Cove Mtn Loop in the Smokeys - 5200ft of climbing.
Week - 54.4 miles running
12/24/12 - 9 mile run at Steele Creek Park in Bristol
My post Hellgate activity and the rainy run on the 24th brought my immune system down with a scratch throat. I knew my immune system was going to take a hit after Hellgate I just didn't know when and how bad it would be.
12/28/12 - 11.2 miles on a snowy ice covered Rock Castle Gorge Loop. A MUST DO
12/30/12 - 5 mile fishburn loop
Week - 25.2 miles of running
This is the last training week before the Willis River 50k
12/31/12 - 6.6 mile mtn bike ride on the Fishburn trails
01/01/13 - 6 mile loop in (41:39) and a 1.5 mile cool down
01/01/13 - 4 mile loop in Five Fingers
01/02/13 - 7.7 mile running up Hi Dee Ho, down Buck, and Hotel. Got in some extra going out and back to the girls.
01/04/13 - 6.2 miles marking the Frozen Toe 10k course
01/05/13 - Post race 5.6 mile mtn bike ride in Fishburn park
01/06/13 - 14 mile trail run. Hollins AT loop. Unnamed trail to the AT, AT to Sawmill Branch, Sawmill Branch to Arrowhead, down to Happy Valley and back to the boat docks.
Week - 39.4 miles running and 12.2 mile mtn biking
01/08/13 - 6 mile loop in (40:57) and a 1.5 mile cool down
01/09/13 - 6 mile loop
01/12/13 - Willis River 50k. This race is a primitive trail that runs through leaf covered trails that sometimes look like deer trails. There are lots of trees, logs, and stumps to run and jump over. I've done the 35k option twice and thte 50k option twice. I typically come in at the 35k finish in 2:55. Last year I won this race in the last .3 miles and I expected a top 3 and close to 4:30 finish.
Things started off very fast this year and I was 10th or so at the 10 mile turnaround feeling like I was in a pretty good groove. At some point I started to fall back in place on the return trip and decided to pick it up. I repeatedly thought to myself that I was running much harder than I should but I didn't want to fall too far back leading into the last 10 miles. I hit the 35k finish at around 2:53.30 with Ryan Nebel and we went into the last section in 2nd and 3rd. The last 10 miles are in better shape and easier to follow but the disadvantage is that the miles are hillier. About .75 miles from the turnaround I got in front of Ryan and held him off to the finish. I ended up 10 minutes behind the winner in 2nd in 4:35:24. I was happy with that. I felt fine I just thought I was in better shape than the previous year and thought sub 4:30 was achieveable. I ended up with 7 splits of over 10 minute per mile pace. I should have been able to avoid that and that is where my 5 minutes went.
I took a 20oz handheld bottle and drank 6 of them. Had a handful of peanut butter pretzels at mile 10, 2 Honey Stinger Waffles at mile 20, and a cliff bar around mile 26.
01/13/13 - Felt pretty good today and decided to do both a 4 mile easy run and a 13 mile road bike ride to the greenway and back via normal roads.
Week - 48.7 miles running and 13.15 miles road biking
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