02-12 Feb: The End of a Year-Long Study

02 FEB -- 37:34 -- 4.56 miles -- 355 elevation gain
03 FEB -- upper body weightlifting -- stationary bike 5 miles
04 FEB -- off
05 FEB -- 41:02 -- 5.14 miles -- 443 elevation gain
             -- upper body weightlifting (afternoon)
06 FEB -- 48:39 -- 4.71 miles -- 758 elevation gain
07 FEB -- 40:00 -- 3.15 miles -- 217 elevation gain
08 FEB -- 1:22:13 -- 10.53 miles -- 578 elevation gain

TOTAL -- 4:09:28 -- 28.09 miles -- 2351 elevation gain

The 3.15-mile run on 07 Feb was our first family run together.  We ran through our neighborhood with the stroller and one of those $5 portable speakers hooked up to some tunes.  It was 60 degrees so Little Man enjoyed it just as much as my photographer and I.




09 FEB -- 34:31 -- 3.58 miles -- 420 elevation gain
             -- upper body weightlifting -- stationary bike 4 miles (afternoon)
10 FEB -- stationary bike 5 miles (morning)
             -- stationary bike 5 miles (afternoon)
11 FEB -- 37:25 -- 4.70 miles -- 451 elevation gain
12 FEB -- stationary bike 5 miles (morning)
             -- 20:00 -- 2.00 miles -- 0 elevation gain (treadmill, afternoon)

TOTAL -- 1:31:56 -- 10.28 miles -- 969 elevation gain

This week, I started a push-up/pull-up program for the next 8 weeks.  This was my end of the bargain to get a friend to run the JFK 50 Mile last November, which he did and, so, now I am...I'll be doing 3 max sets of push-ups every morning, Monday through Friday, as well as a scripted pull-up routine each night that cycles on a weekly basis.  Goal: do 30 straight pull-ups come April.

Also, on 12 Feb, I finished my year-long study about Malcolm Gladwell's idea that spending 10,000 hours practicing something makes you an expert in that field.  I'll post more about this later once I compile all the data and ponder over it for a bit.  It should be interesting and I am excited to compare it to Gladwell's theory in Outliers.  At first glance, I'm estimating that I spent less than 400 hours running last year.  Therefore, by the time I'm an "expert" according to Gladwell I will likely be on my third set of knees with one foot in the coffin.  There is much more to it and I intend to get into the weeds later on.  Right now, my focus is on finishing out the final 3-weeks of my Corporate Finance MBA class and writing my 2,000-word paper for Expeditionary Warfare School. 

19 Jan-01 Feb

19 JAN -- off
20 JAN -- upper body weightlifting -- stationary bike 6 miles (morning)
             -- lower body weightlifting -- stationary bikes 4 miles -- row 1,000 meters (afternoon)
21 JAN -- swim 1,000 meters -- 100 pushups -- 200 crunches -- 300 squats (morning)
             -- stationary bike 9 miles (afternoon)
22 JAN -- row 1,000 meters -- upper body weightlifting -- 100 crunches (morning)
23 JAN -- upper and lower body weightlifting (morning)
             -- stationary bike 4 miles -- row 1,500 meters (afternoon)
24 JAN -- off
25 JAN -- 37:46 -- 5.17 miles -- 205 elevation

TOTAL -- 37:46 -- 5.17 miles -- 205 elevation gain

That's right.  I took almost the entire week off.  I did a lot of cross-training so I can continue eating cookies, but I stayed away from my running shoes for 6 straight days.





26 JAN -- 17:00 -- 2.00 miles -- 155 elevation gain
             -- stationary bike 4 miles
             -- 38:18 -- 4.79 miles -- 391 elevation gain
27 JAN -- upper body weightlifting
28 JAN -- 39:04 -- 4.85 miles -- 397 elevation gain
29 JAN -- upper body weightlifting -- row 1,500 meters -- swim 150 meters
             -- 12:30 -- 1.10 miles -- 385 elevation gain
30 JAN -- 45:21 -- 5.97 miles -- 411 elevation gain
             -- 36:03 -- 4.02 miles -- 611 elevation gain
31 JAN -- 2:30:17 -- 9.10 miles -- 2328 elevation gain (Shenandoah in 4-6" of snow!)
01 FEB -- off

TOTAL -- 5:38:13 -- 31.83 miles -- 4678 elevation gain

I want to clarify that I only swam 150 meters on Thursday because we got booted from the pool for annual swim qualifications.  I wasn't even tired.  Well, I was breathing heavy.  Alright, real heavy.

More good news - I got into MMT 100 from the wait list this week!  I threw my name in the lottery for Bull Run 50 in April as well.  It was a good week.

12-18 Jan, and MMT 100 Training Run

12 JAN -- upper body weightlifting -- stationary bike 4 miles
             -- 43:34 -- 4.66 miles -- 751 elevation gain
13 JAN -- off
14 JAN -- 15:00 -- 1.00 miles -- 500 elevation gain
             -- 42:39 -- 5.20 miles -- 462 elevation gain
             -- upper body weightlifting -- stationary bike 4 miles
15 JAN -- 1:38:10 -- 11.09 miles -- 1318 elevation gain
16 JAN -- upper body weightlifting -- stationary bike 5 miles
             -- 17:30 -- 1.15 miles -- 850 elevation gain
17 JAN -- off
18 JAN -- 5:19:24 -- 25.52 miles -- 5105 elevation gain (MMT 100 training run)

TOTAL -- 8:56:17 -- 48.62 miles -- 8986 elevation gain

Well, the lottery system worked in my favor for one race and against me in another.  I got into the Hashawha Hills 50k on 28 Feb, but I'm number 48 on the waitlist for MMT 100 in May.  Ironically, Danny is right next to me at number 47.  We hope to get in, though, since last year the wait list got all the way down to number 77 before race day.  I figured I'd do the training runs anyway.

Here are some pictures from today's run in the Massanuttens:

There were about 100 of us on the trails today

Danny is like a ghost, or he walks too fast.  He is blurry in every picture I took.

It was cold and windy on the ridgeline

This made the climb worth the effort

Took a panorama with my phone

...and a selfie...

Purple Trail, my least favorite

And last, but certainly not least, Little Man:

Confused about the sounds coming from my phone

The Day the Earth Shook

Today, Little Man rolled over for the first time.  I'm very fortunate that I was home when he took his first leap into manhood.  Pretty soon, we will be playing Cops and Robbers and shooting mommy with Super Soakers.

He is so legit.

It Was a Great Thursday

Today, I didn't have to work.  Got the day off.  I spent it wisely - I wrote a 4-page paper about the economic outlook of the company Chipotle Mexican Grill (because it begins with the same letter as my last name), hung out with Little Man and my photographer, read about the Falklands War, and broke in my Pearl Izumi N2 trail shoes on the Fredericksburg quarry trails.  I appreciated today for many reasons, mainly because I didn't have to fight the busy bees on route 95.  But it wasn't until today that I genuinely realized how much I work.  I work way too much.  I think all Americans do.  At least in the D.C. area it is the norm.  I don't like it and it took 6 years in the military and a random Thursday off to really understand all of this.  We all hope it pays off one day.  Hopefully it does.  Here are two pictures to sum up the day:

Little Man just woke up from one of his eleventeen naps

11 miles through mud and ice made for a rather enjoyable afternoon

05-11 Jan

05 JAN -- 33:16 -- 3.65 miles -- 748 elevation gain
             -- upper body weightlifting
06 JAN -- 37:56 -- 4.53 miles -- 427 elevation gain
07 JAN -- stationary bike 6 miles
             -- 17:50 -- 2.26 miles -- 347 elevation gain (road hill sprints)
             -- 22:45 -- 2.51 miles -- 395 elevation gain
08 JAN -- upper/lower body weightlifting -- stationary bike 4 miles
              -- 38:16 -- 4.04 miles -- 674 elevation gain
09 JAN -- upper body weightlifting -- stationary bike 4 miles
             -- 45:01 -- 5.88 miles -- 457 elevation gain
10 JAN -- off -- but I pushed Elijah around the park for an hour
11 JAN -- 16:30 -- 2.00 miles -- 0 elevation gain (treadmill)

TOTAL -- 3:31:34 -- 24.87 -- 3048 elevation gain

Did a bunch of very short runs this week.  Didn't have a day with a few consecutive hours to get in a longer run, but the easy week helped some of my nagging little aches and pains fade away.  My left hip no longer hurts when I get out of bed in the morning, anyway.  I still have another month of running before my year-long experiment is over.  I'm excited to tally up the totals.  I might be close to 2014 miles for the year 2014, which would be nothing more than coincidental. 

To my own surprise, I put my name into the Massanutten Mountain 100 Miler on a whim the other day.  I want to run the 72-hour event at 3 Days at the Fair in May with Tristin, but with an inevitable move coming in May (to who knows where), my photographer and I decided we want to end our time in VA with the VHTRC!  The lottery is tomorrow.  We'll see how it turns out.  I might get to run 3 Days at the Fair after all.  Good luck to those with their names in for MMT 100.

Red Eye 50k Race Report

Gary, the Race Director for the Red Eye 50k last week, posted a short blurb on the VHTRC website about the race.  Here is the link: http://www.vhtrc.org/news/node/1213

Enjoy.