Weekend Running Fun!

What's up Ground Hogs?.. the sun was shining and the snow was melting this weekend in DBQ!  The schools had an in-service day Friday which meant that this dad was able to get a sunrise 6.5 mile run in early morning where I blazed a new path to connect some established trails via some farmland with my partner in crime Lucy (below)

Saturday morning after dealing with a marathon of a night with my ulcerative colitis flare ups, I turned my lack of sleep and painful morning hours into a great 14 mile road run out to the neighboring town of Asbury where I passed by my parent's house and my old apartment. I was just able to make it back to the coffee shop to meet the rest of the DRC Crew to finish up a great morning run.

My Sunday started a little rough as I woke up late, forgot to eat and parked at the wrong location at the Mines.  Luckily after struggling on a slippery 1.5 mile loop I saw my buddy Chuck heading back to the correct lot.  Chuck got me to the right spot to restart my morning with some good friends a little further down the road.  We had a great run as I first took them through the above mentioned path I ran on Friday and the run continued on through some of our favorite spots which were finally showing some signs of spring as the dirt was poking out in spots underneath the melting ice!

Back at the finish Shannon snapped some shots of us including the one below of me and Lucy which is probably my favorite ever... look at that face!!.. and the pup is pretty great too haha.  Hope everyone else had a great weekend!

- Happy Running!

Yup, I left my pack open, luckily I was only carrying dog food today!

My sister Elisabeth tackling a new stretch of trail!

A run is always elevated with Chuck around!

One of many moments when I think "Does anyone else love to run as much as I do?"

Sun in our eyes is a welcome sign in February!

Jason showing us how to run down an ice covered hill

Thomas joined in after a couple miles, he has been crushing the runs lately!

Sunrise Run with Lucy, off the trails and loving the adventure!

Beautiful historic chapel built upon a bluff.  Buried acres away from any current roads, it's a trail runner's sanctuary! 

Excited to go off the map!.. Lucy waits for me to get a head start

Enjoying the sunrise with someone who couldn't care less about anything but the run :)  

Lucy and my last pit stop before returning to society

"I Love it When a Plan Comes Together!"

Round One of my 2015-2016 winter training is now complete!!!..  

To recap:  I just finished up an 8 week training plan that started immediately following my last marathon December 5^th.  The plan allowed me to drop my weekly mileage by 40% compared to November to let my legs recover a bit from the higher mileage grind.   I took the saved time to work on my swim and bike training that had been put on the backburner to focus on training for my fall marathons.   The miles I did run were shorter but higher quality speed workouts that were intended to adapt me to the marathon pace of 6:45 which I will be training at this spring.

Below is a comparison of my swim/bike/run training in January 2015 vs 2016.   Essentially I ran the same miles as I did last January but since I cut out most “junk miles” this round it lowered my avg pace and saved 3 total hours of training time.  It’s worth mentioning I took a 30% hit in elevation this January as my speed work was mainly done on a track or flat surface, but I believe this was a good trade-off for the results I achieved.  Overall I only put in three more total training hours this January compared to last year but I was able to increase my swimming distance by 107% and my biking by 64% while keeping my run miles the same... pretty awesome! 

In closing I’ll admit was a little skeptical going into this plan because of the mileage drop.  I had planned to keep up my 200+ monthly average and didn’t want to risk losing fitness over the winter months.  However after finishing strong and healthy and clocking one of my fastest 5K’s this month, I’m completely sold on this plan and I will be doing something similar again next year.  So now that things are wrapped up I'll be taking the next two weeks to just enjoy my workouts with no pressure or plan in place and on February 15^th round two starts up and that is where the real fun begins... stay tuned and Happy Running!

- Cory