Some good miles and Pineland 50

First off, congratulations to James Demer for his 7th place finish at the Massanutten Mountain Trails 100 miler in VA this past weekend. James completed this extremely difficult course in 25:23:30, allowing him the honor of seeing two sunrises while running! To read more about James's race, check out Jamie's blog. Jamie was James's pacer, which is the same role I am to perform for Jamie at next month's Western States 100.

Last week I got some pretty good mileage in. Just over 60 miles which included a couple early morning runs to work, the last on Friday at 14.5 miles. I ran a different route than I have been running and I thoroughly enjoyed the new scenery. Not that this is a new route to me but new in the mode of transportation. I usually will bike this route home so when I ran in Friday morning it was in the opposite direction, hence a new route. The run was good but a little slower than I am used to running my morning runs in due to the number of hills that dot this course. Also, I rode the bike for the first this season a couple times this week which left me a little tired. Good training run, with the last couple miles done at a 7:15 pace and the last half mile at 6:45.

Friday morning stats: 14.5 miles / 1:52:20 / 7:46 pace

Saturday was my only non-running day last week and I spent the morning with the family and got an early jump on some yard work. The day wasn't completely training-free; I got to mow the lawn with Riley in a backpack on my back. Sunday AM I was back at it, hitting Pineland at 5 AM in a slight drizzle and I met up with my buddy Jim and his running buddy Chip. Chip is also running the Mount Washington Hill Climb and the two of us will be ferried down the hill by Jamie after the race. The three of us really had a great run out there and surprisingly only came across a few other runners the entire three hours I was out there. This shocks me given the fact that the Pineland Farms Trail Challenge is only next weekend and the deer flies have not arrived en masse yet.

Sunday stats: 19 miles / 2:53:03 / 9:09 pace (I am guessing this is the pace I will be lucky to keep at next weekends 50 miler) / 2300 feet of elevation gain and loss (see the elevation chart)



So Sunday is the Pineland Farms Trail Challenge. I just signed up tonight to run the 50 miler. In my mind, this race is the premier event of the Maine running season. Great race. Great directorship. All around great time. Sign up now. In light of this race, I will take it pretty easy this week with a couple rest days mixed in versus my standard one. This should keep my legs nice and fresh. Here's looking forward to a great race!