My Ascetic August

Having turned 30 this past February, I have started to come to the realization that if I am ever going to get a fast as I had originally hoped I would, it would have to be over the next few years. Given how far I am from where I would eventually like to be in terms of race times, I decided that if I was ever going to get there (my goal is to eventually qualify for the Olympic Trials Marathon), I needed to clamp down my focus now. This August gave me a great opportunity to initiate the process of getting into a more focused training and nutritional regimen. It was a rare month in which Jeannine and I didn't have to venture far away or attend any gatherings, and it thus allowed me to really get into a routine. My month ended up looking like this:

My August, by the numbers
days: 31
runs: 62
total miles run: 452
weekend trips out of town: 0
alcoholic beverages: 0
chips (crisps, for my british friends): 0
meals eaten at a restaurant: 1 (I won a $50 gift card to Applebee's. We came in at a cool $43. Nailed it.)
weekdays sleeping later than 5am: 0
weekend days sleeping later than 7am: 0
times running up and down the hill on Wise Mill Rd (3/4mi in length): 62
runs in which there was a visible bug in my eye for over half of it: 1
weeks in which I initiated core work: 4
weeks in which I actually committed to core work: 0 (hey, it's a process)

Here are the shoes that I bought two days before the beginning of August. For the last five days of the month, I had to duct tape them.

This was easily my most solid month of training ever. While it has never really been uncommon for me to run twice a day or to put in over 100 miles in a week, I have never done so with the consistency that I did this past month. I had never run twice every single day for a month straight or run 100+ miles a week for that many weeks in a row while still including speed work, hill repeats, tempo work, and long runs in every single week. Frank Shorter, 1972 Olympic Marathon Gold Medalist (I got to speak awkwardly to him at the Blue Ridge Marathon this past April) said the the most important aspect of training is consistency. I definitely feel like my body has adapted to the workload, so hopefully by maintaining this consistency, I can really see some progress this Fall.

Coming up next weekend is the Blue Ridge Relay. It is hands-down my favorite race, and this will be my sixth running of it. For those who have never run it or heard of it, it's a 208 mile relay divided into 36 legs ranging from two to ten miles in length. Each team has up to 12 people who run three times each (it's the same format as Ragnar and Hood-to-Coast). It starts in Grayson Highlands State Park in Southwestern Virginia and ends in Asheville, North Carolina. My team, Team Ludicrous Speed (we have a Spaceballs theme), will start running at 10:45am on Friday, September 6th, and we will finish some time Saturday afternoon. At that point, we will be getting knee-deep in some Asheville beer scene. I am pretty excited about this since it will be my first time having beer since July. It will be like I went into hibernation when it was still Summer and woke up to find that there were Fall beers everywhere. Hopefully this will inspire me to start brewing again in September, as it has been far too long (although in my defense, we have had three different kitchens since the last time I brewed). Given the season, I think a nice stout will be in order.

Anyway, after Blue Ridge Relay, I will be racing in a trail series on Thursday evenings in the park behind my apartment, largely because, well, it's in the park behind my apartment. Then, on September 29th, I will be returning to the Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, DE, to hopefully defend my title at the Dogfish Dash 10K. I will be joined by other distinguished runners, such as Meghan Herwig, Michael Piccorossi, and The Beer Runner himself, Tim Cigelske (@mlh1315, @mpiccorossi, and @TheBeerRunner on twitter, respectively. Also, Tim writes for Draft Magazine online here, where he chronicles his exploration of the intersection between beer and a healthy, active lifestyle).

In other news, our dog, Dr. Peter Venkman, is still a train wreck.

Not pictured: Dignity.

Alright, well I believe that just about does it for now. For anyone who might be interested in gaining free entry into the 2014 Blue Ridge Marathon, there will be a free entry giveaway on this blog some time in the next couple of months, so stay tuned... because free shit is cool. My next entry will most likely be my retelling of Team Ludicrous Speed's Blue Ridge Relay exploits. You kids have fun.

Cheers!

Jeff