Feeling Good (Knock on Wood)

Yesterday was a very easy day - just a 2.5 mile run. The significance of that run was that it was the first back-to-back run days for me in about 3 months. I know what you're thinking. How in the hell are you going to be able to do this race in May? I'll be alright. I'm still on schedule for my training.

For today, I'm going to do a crossfit workout followed by 4 miles on the treadmill - I could use a good warm, indoor run today. I almost fell over when I saw the Crossfit WOD (workout of the day) today:

Three rounds for time of:
225 Deadlift, 15 reps
15 Handstand push-ups
15 Pull-ups
95 pound Thruster, 15 reps

This looks brutal. Not going to be a quick WOD. Might have to sub shoulder presses for the handstand push-ups to speed this up. Let you know the results tomorrow.

Happy whatever.

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Hey Guess What? It's Raining

Apparently, over the winter, my family packed up and moved to Seattle. Can we officially say that this year's rain total is close enough to normal to rule out a drought year? Good lord. well at least it made doing today's workout extra rewarding.

Ran 6 miles at decent pace along the delta levee to Paradise Point and back. (What does decent pace mean? Faster than EZ but still not breathing very hard) I'll get the watch on next week to start checking pace. Besides the battery's currently dead.

Knees are feeling a little sore after the run. This verifies the fact that I need to drop some weight soon and also beef up my quad and hamstring muscles to take some load off my knees. I have to go into the bay area tomorrow, so I'll be doing an easy 3 miles in the company's gym.

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First Ultra Entry: It's Now Official

There's no turning back now. The Ohlone 50k web site has finally updated their registered runners page. There it is in black and white - Mike Bohi (M36). My first thought was...holy crap, I forgot I was 36 years old. Then I realized that I need to get to the gym today for some good cross training. That's right - it's a non-running day today.

I didn't list my training for last week (17 miles of running + 2 good crossfit days and a swim) because 1) Didn't have time and 2) Didn't want to. I figured out on Saturday my specific training plan for the last 16 weeks leading up the race. Basically, it's gonna be a modified version of a marathon training plan I found on the Runner's World web site. Run 5 days per week (Saturday is the long run day), Cross-train on Monday, take a rest day on Friday - perfect for me since Friday is softball league night. Mileage will peak in week 13 and then eventually taper off in the final two weeks.

Today's workout:

Crossfit - "Cindy"
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Squats

Plus Swimming:

WU: 300 yds of different strokes.
MS:
5x300 Z1 (easy) - except laps 4, 8, 12 are fast. RI: 45".
10x 100 on 20" rest. 25 hard, 75 cruise.
CD: 300

The swim workout is from a 1/2-ironman training plan (the first day!). It's the one I was going to follow this year for the Vineman 1/2-ironman in Napa. I decided to put that one off until next year so I can do this Ultra. More to come...

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Ultra Training: The Beginning

I'm catching up on the initial entries today, but wanted to get this out there. First week of training is over. Obvious goal was to get the legs out and running and keeping the miles down low. Also, continue to do Crossfit for muscle/strength development. I need to keep an eye on the strength training because I don't want to pick up any additional weight up top (more to carry!). Here's what I did for the week:

NOTE: First few weeks, I'm not going to bother with time, pace, etc. Only looking for distance right now.
Mon (1/12) - Ran 3.5 miles
Tues (1/13) - XFit - "Fran" ( 21-15-9 reps of 95-lb thrusters & pull-ups)
Wed (1/14) - Ran 5.0 miles
Thurs (1/15) - XFit - "Lynne" (5 rounds for max reps of: body-weight bench and pull-ups)
Fri (1/16) - Ran 4.5 miles

weekly run totals: 13 miles

Good first week. Next week, I'll be shooting for 16-17 miles.

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New Adventure (goal) for 2008

Last year, my goal was to go out and tackle a triathlon. Mission accomplished as I trained for and completed 2 triathlons (1 sprint distance and 1 olympic distance). I had a lot of fun doing those and certainly want to do longer ones in the future (i.e. 1/2 ironman and full ironman). However, training for the longer distance triathlons (even the olympic), take up a tremendous amount of time. Since the boys are still very young, and are quite a handful, I need to give my wife a break from the extra training (at least in the beginning of the year). So for this year, I've set a goal to complete my first ultra - a 50k!

Inner-Mike: Hey Mike. You do realize that training for an ultra takes a lot of time?
Me: This is true. However, the main concern here is the running. With triathlon training, I have do that plus the swimming, biking and weights. I can run anywhere and at almost any time.
Inner-Mike: Isn't it true that you've never even completed a marathon?
Me: Yes. Next question.
Inner-Mike: Isn't it true that you've never run more than 10 miles?
Me: Yes again. I'm working on that.
Inner-Mike: What in the hell are you thinking?
Me: Um. I don't know.

As you can see, there are some big problems to overcome. The target race that I've chosen is the Ohlone 50k, on May 18, 2008. That basically leaves about 16 - 17 weeks to train for this thing. So how do I go about increasing my mileage without subjecting myself to injury? Good question. That's the issue I'm dealing with.

Going forward, I'll post my training logs and other info as I progress towards this race. Also, I'll share with you some of the influences and further reasoning for attempting this. Do I think I can do it? Absolutely. Am I worried about getting enough mileage in without injuring myself? You bet. In the end, I think this will be one of the most rewarding achievements that I've ever done.
Stay tuned.

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