Training week of 1/6/14

Man is my back still giving me problems.
1/7/14 - Did 3 miles on the elliptical at an easy pace without pain.  Sore afterward.
1/8/14 - Did 3 miles on the elliptical and ran one easy on the treadmill.  Running did not feel good. but I feel better today overall.
1/10/14 - Decided to take a test run today and did 6.95 miles around the neighborhood and greenway.  Felt better today and almost felt normal running.
1/11/14 - This is the Willis River 35/50k day.  My plan was to go and run the as much of the last 10 miles of the 50k course while everyone else was running the race.  This was a cold rainy morning with a forecast of lots of rain and mid 50's. 
- I did run the entire 10 mile section and it was wet and sloppy.  A couple of creek crossings were thigh high and deeper on the return trip.  Footing was OK except for the downhills. 
- After I finished I decided to head out and bring in our friends.  First up was Matt Prescott.  He came in 6thish in the 35k and was motivated to go out for the remaining 10 miles since he would be the first on the 50k section.  Johnny Robinson was 2nd to come in about 2 minutes back.  He headed out for the 50k too. 
- On my second trip out I caught James Decker.  He was another couple of runners back and decided to hang it up after the 35k finish. 
- 3rd time out I met up with Ed McKeown and after a brief time he decided to head out for the 50k.
- 4th time out I met up with Carla Cross and Lorraine Moore.  Both talked about getting swept out and down in the river crossings.  They seemed a little shaken from it and said the water was over their waist in a couple of places. 
- Next up was Gina and David.  They ended up getting off course and doing a few extra miles.  Both wanted to do the 50k but they came in after the time cutoff and weren't allowed to continue. 
These were the wettest muddiest conditions I've ever seen in a race.  On each of my trips out to catch my friends the course got worse.  First it was muddy, next you could see deep footprints, then the footprints were full of water, and lastly the trail became a creek with water flowing down it.  It was a crazy day but it made for quite a few stories and laughs.
- Matt Prescott ended up 1st and Johnny was 2nd in the 50k. 
- I ended up with 19.2 miles for the day, so I was happy.
1/12/14 - Ran 10.2 keeping my HR below 142 and cycled 14.3. 
Total for the Week - 43.35 miles running and 14.3 mile cycling