Yesterday a couple of friends and I got 14 or so miles in on the Noxubee Hills Trails in the Tombigbee National Forest. For our region these are really good trails. Obviously it is nothing like other spots in the country in terms of elevation gain and loss but still a great time in the woods.

We entered the trails from the Noxubee Hills Cemetery side and ran the Sheep Ranch Trail - mostly technical single track trail - down to Rock Crusher Road. We followed Rock Crusher Road over to Lost Cemetery Road. We re-entered the trails on the B Trail up to the North Trail. We took it over Pigeon Roost Road and on to the Lost Bridge Trail. Then we took Log Jump Trail up to Sheep Ranch Trail and back to the cemetery. There are several good switch backs that will give you a good workout for sure. I felt great on the downhills and pretty solid on the uphills. Brian was hammering it as usual. As we approached Sheep Ranch from Log Jump I started have some quad cramps. I suspect a sign that I went out too hard early and also that I haven't been training nearly hard enough. I neglected to get enough sodium on the run and that likely didn't help.

You would've thought it was my first day with feet. For whatever reason I simply could not remain upright and hit the dirt 3 or 4 times with nice, hard falls. The ole right knee is showing the signs of the falls!

Clearly I need to step it up before GEER.




Brian and me post run

Had a nice easy 7 mile recovery run yesterday. It's hot (92+ degrees most days) and humid most of the day - especially when you don't get out of the rack early enough to run before work!

Looking forward to tomorrow when a group and I head out to some local trails to get 12-15 miles in the morning. Time for me to step up my efforts and work a little harder with the training. This year I have done 1 trail half-marathon, 1 road marathon, and 1 trail 50 mile. I'm pleased with the results but effectively wasted my training by not hammering it hard after the races. The 50 mile race was on March 1st and I haven't done any racing since then. I admit it's tough to squeeze training into a schedule with a wife, 3 kids and a 50+ hour work week. But it's time to start hitting the morning circuit! I am signed up for the Great Eastern Endurance Run (G.E.E.R.) 50K in the Blue Ridge Mountains outside Charlottesville, Virginia. I am looking forward to the race as it will be difficult - elevation gain wise. Gill, the race director and owner of Charlottesville Running Company and Bad to the Bone Endurance Sports, made fun of me for signing up for the 50K instead of the 100K - the "Big Boys' Race" as he called it. Maybe next year, Gill! If it weren't for work, I'd train all day . . . just haven't figured out a way to pay the bills with that yet.

Wow, guess it's time for an update. I recently ran a local trail half-marathon (Choctaw Challenge) where I finished 4th overall. I was never in contention for the lead and have to confess that I finished ahead of at least 2 runners that would have been ahead of me had they not missed a turn on the inbound portion of the trail. But hey, that's part of trail running I guess. This is a great race. It was only in its second year and the first year with the 1/2 marathon option. Last year there were approximately 50 people that did the 10k and this year there were almost 100 people between the 1/2 and the 10k. Mann and Mandy Conrad are the RDs and do a great job. If any of you are local to the area I strongly encourage you to take a look at it next year.

Since the Choctaw Challenge I've been hitting it fairly hard with the exception of my long runs. I have not been nearly as diligent as I would like. It has been tough to find the time between work and family time (including 3 boys under age 7!) to get those 3-5 hour runs in. I am going to hit it hard and look to do another 50 miler sometime this year.