Training in Montana

Woke up at 6:30 to get in a few miles on the hotel TM before driving 9 hours home. Glad I did as it felt good, and I ended the year right.

I wanted to start off the new year right, so I started on the treadmill with a goal of at least 6 miles, and then thought 7 would be good, but 8 was far so I then focused on 8. After 6 I felt great so my new goal became 10. The treadmill I'm using goes up to 99:59, so that was my final goal. I wanted to see what happened. Would the TM stop, turn over, or what? I felt tired after 9, so the last 15 minutes were a slight struggle but not too bad. Achilles felt good nearly the entire time. It was sore afterward so I'm not out of the woods yet but close to it. I iced it just now and it's feeling pretty good. Hopefully double digits will be normal for me once more. By the way, the timer turned over to 0:00. Good time for a cool down.

Question that I need some advice: registration for the Bighorn 30K/50K/50M/100M is this Saturday and the shortest races fill up quick. I'm turning 40 in April & want to do something cool to prove that I can do it. Do I run the 50K again or up my game and do the 50 miler? Or just do the 30K and focus this year on marathons?

3 TM miles at the Y this morning. I sort of wanted to run 13 yesterday for 2013, but that was a bit ambitious given my lack of long runs for the past few months. I ran yesterday in the late afternoon, and today in the morning, so that's 13+ in 24 hours. Good enough for me.

BTW, I can comfortably run up to 7.5 on the TM, although last night while running my 10 and watching the Rose Bowl and trying to talk to my wife I learned that 6.5 mph is a bit more than a conversational run for me. I must be a bit out of shape. 

Noon: Went to Boot Camp. I didn't push it incredibly hard and skipped the abs workout at the end as I was done. A bit too much in a 22 hour period, but a great way to start off the new year. 

4 TM miles at they Y this morning. Broken record. Watched a cool show on Modern Marvels about new types of aircraft. The US Military uses remote control toy planes to check on our enemies. These planes have foldable wings to fit into a regular backpack, and their cameras are HD with thermal imaging. Very cool. I want one for elk hunting.

Started at 5.0, then 6.0, 6.5, and 1 mile at 7.0. Achilles feels good.

A couple of friends just decided to do the Bighorn 50K so I'm going to join them. The training last year really gave me a good base for a fall marathon so I'm looking forward to it. Plus, after reading Crockett's blog it sounds like if you don't say "I'll never do this again" after an ultra you probably didn't push yourself enough. :)