Here we go again

Next winter, I am planning to really focus my winter on teaching skiing. I am a member of the Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA). PSIA has three levels of certification for ski instructors and I'm currently certified at the second level. Getting a level III certification is much more difficult than level I or level II, as it should be. It is my goal to get that level III certification at some point, but I really need a winter where my focus is on skiing and teaching and not so much on training for ultras. After I got accepted into Western States for this year, I decided to reduce my focus on skiing this winter and focus on the race instead.

In a typical ski season, I ski about 50 days. This winter, I probably won't ski 40 days, and I haven't taken a single day off work to ski this winter. Next winter, I hope to ski 60 or more days as I focus on my level III skiing exam.

So, what's all of this got to do with the subject line above?

We currently have a winter storm warning posted for overnight. We are going to get another 6"-10" of snow by Sunday morning, with more likely in the mountains. We are expecting another big storm on Tuesday night or Wednesday.

It seems like I picked the wrong winter to run more and ski less. Right now, I have more snow in my yard than at any other time in the 10 winters I've now spent in Vermont. This winter would have been perfect to focus on skiing rather than running. If the month of March is anything like March of 2001, I will have snow halfway up the windows on the ground floor of my house soon.

But, if I could choose between a finish at Western States and getting my level III PSIA certification, I'd take the Western States finish. I love both sports and both goals are difficult, but the running is a bit more important. So, I'll gladly ski when I can this winter and hope that next winter is just as snowy as this one.

I often wonder what I would do if I had to choose between skiing and ultrarunning. I have suffered two knee injuries while skiing that have affected my running, including one in 2002 that caused me to undergo surgery and miss Western States that year. Hopefully, I'll never have to make the choice to pick one sport over the other, and I'll participate in both for many more years.

For now, I'll plan on running a bit this evening and then really enjoying the snow this weekend.

Taking it easy?

I think I'm taking it easy. I feel less than 100% right now, so I'm trying to only do one workout per day instead of two, and I'm trying to make them easier than normal.

Last night, I set the treadmill at 3.8mph and at a grade of 5% and started walking. In the third mile, I gradually increased the grade to 15%, and I then stopped after 3 miles.

This morning, I did my scheduled lifting workout, but I dropped the weights on all lifts by about 20%. I typically add a few bodyweight exercises to my scheduled lifting program, but I decided to skip that today as well.

Tonight, I've got another meeting, so I'll skip running completely today. I usually run twice on Fridays, but I'm going to shoot for just once tomorrow.

My poor son, who has been sick a lot this school year, with pneumonia and the flu, among other things, seems to have a cold right now. He's had a tough winter. I can't seem to convince him that his sleep habits and dietary choices are possible factors in his getting sick. He's 14 and doesn't hear very well, it seems. If he's going to pace me the last 6.7 miles at WS, he's got a lot of training to do. He has been planning on going out for the track team this spring, but I'm guessing he'll try to weasel out of it somehow. Practice starts two weeks from Monday.

Sick?

Maybe I'm not just having allergy issues after all. I was beat this morning and slept in before I went outside to clear the snow from the driveway. I feel like I might be getting sick. If it has to happen, the timing isn't bad right now, when I wanted a short recovery period anyway.

We got about 10" of snow last night with a few more expected today, but overall, the storm seemed to be less significant than I thought it would be. The kids even had school today.

I really want to take a nap right now, but I'm swamped at work, preparing for some classes I'll be teaching in the next few weeks, along with my normal job stuff as well. And, I have two meetings after work tonight. But, I'll still be in bed early tonight.

Time for a recovery week

I've been gradually increasing my workload since the first of the year. Sunday's run was the end of almost 8 weeks of increasing running mileage. This week, we are going to get hit by a major snowstorm that has just started. I've also got 5 town government meetings this week.

It seems like a good time to take a rest week and then resume my mileage build-up next week. It seems like I've been surrounded by sick people for weeks and right after a marathon, even at less than 100% effort, I'm sure I'm at higher risk for getting sick right now.

Last night, I went to the gym, and spent an hour stretching and using my foam roller to massage some tired muscles from Sunday's run.

This morning, I lifted at the gym, but I deliberately dropped the weight on every lift from a week ago. I'll do a walk/run on the treadmill tonight for 45 minutes or so. After that, I'll fit in whatever easy workouts I can manage for the rest of the week.

For some reason, I seem to be fighting some allergy problems right now. I have no idea what could be causing the problems, but it's definitely allergies and not a cold. I've been sneezing a lot and some OTC Claritin has helped.

The snowstorm that has just started looks like it will be our biggest of the season so far. Skiing will be great this weekend, but it's going to be a long time before our trails are runnable here in VT on anything but snowshoes.

23 consecutive years of marathons and ultras

I ran the Hudson Mohawk Road Runners Club Mid-Winter marathon yesterday. This was my 6th time running this marathon in the last 10 years, but my first since 2004, when I ran 4:09:30. Yesterday, I ran 4:06:32. My finish yesterday made 2008 the 23rd consecutive year in which I've finished at least one marathon or ultra. My first marathon was run in August of 1986 in the Sugarloaf Marathon in Maine. I'm very happy with this streak, simply because it shows that I've managed to persist in my running for fully half of my life right now.

In my six times running this race, I've run as fast as 3:52 in 2001 and as slowly as 4:49 in 2002. Yesterday was my second fastest of my six runs at this race. Fifteen years ago, I would have been embarrassed to run over 4 hours in the marathon, but I'm quite happy with yesterday's result. I have been running at 10mpm pace or slower on the treadmill most of the time, and I've only done two longs runs since October - a pair of slow 20 milers in January. I felt really strong for the whole race and ran a very negative split. Here are my 5 mile splits:

5 : 47:59 - nice easy start
10: 49:35 - still easy, but an extended Port-a-Potty stop
15: 46:30 - feeling good, started to push a bit
20: 48:02 - felt like I was running faster than this
25: 44:02 - still felt strong at 20 and started to work more
1.2: 10:24 - strong finish.

My 1/2 marathon splits were approximately 2:06:30 and 2:00:00.

Considering that I lifted twice last week, did speedwork on Tuesday night, and skied on Saturday, I'm very happy with this marathon result.

My 4:09:30 in 2004 was done the year I finished Hardrock. My 3:52 came the year I finished my first 100 miler. I use this race as a long training run and a mid-winter fitness check, and I'm happy with where I am right now.

Not much to say

I did an easy 4 before a committee meeting last night. Then, an easy 5 before work today. Saw my chiropractor this morning.

I'll ski tomorrow and if we have enough coaches for Sunday, I'll run a marathon on Sunday. Otherwise, I'll ski Sunday and call this a recovery week.

After Sunday, my next long run day will be 3/4, when I have the day off work and I only have a 2-hour town meeting to attend.

Diet this month

I've commented a few times that my main focus this month was on my diet and on counting and restricting calories. I haven't mentioned at all how I've been doing this. To be truthful, it's been a difficult 3 weeks so far and I can't wait for my current eating protocol to change.

Basically, I've been living on protein shakes and one solid meal per day for the past 3 weeks. Right after a workout, I use a protein shake that has some carbs in it. During the course of a typical day, I will work out, have a shake with carbs, then have two low-carb shakes during the day, work out again, and then have one more shake with carbs.

Then, I have one meal in the evening - typcially a big salad, a veggie, and a lean protein source. Mid-way through the month, I planned a single cheat meal - a high carb meal of whatever sounded good at the time.

I thought this diet would get easier over time, but the past few days have been tough.

All of this has been based on something called the Velocity Diet, published on the T-Nation.com web-site. Be warned that the site has some pictures that might not be safe for work. It's dedicated primarily to bodybuilders (T-Nation is a shortcut for Testosterone Nation), and there are numerous photos of female bodybuilder and figure competitors.

Anyway, the true Velocity Diet allows you to have only one solid meal per week, not one per day. I will admit that I don't think I could do that, but I felt I could follow the one-meal-per-day variation.

My 4 shakes during the day total 900 calories on a day where I lift and run for my two workouts, and 750 calories on a day where I run twice. Then, my evening meal is typically 800-900 total calories.

Starting this weekend, I'm going to start transitioning off this diet. I will eat 2 solid meals per day this weekend. Next week, during the work week, I'll have two meals some days and one meal some other days.

It looks right now like I will have lost about 10 pounds by the end of this month. The tape measure and the mirror and my clothes and my belt all confirm the weight loss.

As I get into March, the most important thing will be to follow a reasonable diet and not re-gain any weight. I will then have a few months where I hope to drop another 5 pounds or so before Western States, but I will have lost most of the weight I need to lose before my running mileage really peaks.

I don't know if I'd recommend this diet to others or not. I think it has been effective, but it's been mentally tough. I thought it would be expensive, but in reality, the supplements that I've used haven't really cost any more than the food I've skipped. It might have even saved me some money.

It hasn't been fun at times. But, it will all be worth it on June 29th.