The Endurance Flop?

Flop is the best term to use on how I feel at the moment. My body feels like jelly after the modified CrossFit Workout Of the Day (aka WOD) I did during lunch. For the CrossFit folks that are remotely interested:

Today's WOD: Modified Tabata This! (4 rounds instead of 8)

Final Counts:
Air Squats - 14
Rowing - 6 cal
Push-Ups - 5 (barely made through this after slamming 15 in the first round)
Pull-Ups - Zero (no pull-up bar or anything close that I could use in the company gym. I'll have to see what I could possibly do...like resistance bands)
Sit-Ups - 5 (same goes for this like the push-ups. Did 20 in the first round and everything went flat afterward)


After alot of thought over the week, I removed myself from all the races for the next three months before the Autumn Leaves 50 Mile Ultra in Oregon on Oct 25th. Plus, it's going to be a family affair, so that makes it even better.

After that for 2008, I'll most likely do the iUWR Marathon if I'm not totally beaten up from the Autumn Leaves run the week before, the Seattle Ghost 50k (no marathon double for me this year), the Pigtails Flat Ass 50k (if Van decides to put it on again), and the Last Chance Marathon (since the day after is my birthday). I'm tempted to check out the Tiger Mountain Dumb Ass 50k to get familiar with the course and train well on hill climbs (and descents).

For 2009, I decided that it will be the year I shoot for my first 100 miler. Arthur has given me some sound advice based on his own experience, especially with the time management & family time factor. I've still got to pick the brains of a few other folks though, but I've got some things already put down as a MUST-DO.

MUST-DO:

- Build a stronger base for mileage. No more 25-30 mile weeks. I need to eventually amp up to atleast 50-60 miles a week (and more). The conditioning for Autumn Leaves in the next 12 weeks will help me get to that higher mileage goal. So I'll be expecting lots of LSD miles for awhile with maybe a pinch of speedwork.
- Do more trail running. I know I won't be able to get away every weekend for a long trail run. But if I want to be successful at my first 100, I've got to play in the dirt. So it looks like Mt Si and the Issaquah Alps will be my buddies. Just have to find a trail shoe that will work for me. Hopefully those Brooks Cascadia 3's that Eric Sachs has been holding for me will do the job. Road shoes are definately not meant for trail running, even if the trail itself is compacted dirt.
- Work on my footwork and agility for the trails. This means that on days where I'm not trail running during the work week, I have to find ways to have more nimble feet. I think some plyometric work (rope skipping, parkour, etc) is going to be in the cards.
- Smarter cross-training. For the next few weeks, I'll be trying CrossFit out for size, doing 3 WOD's a week to start. The WOD's are going to be scaled down for obvious reasons (primarily because I suck at them), but I will do my best to stick to them. I'm not giving up the bike commute, but I will take Arthur's advice on spinning faster in a lower gear to increase my cadence and hopefully let that translate to a faster leg turnover. I tend to use the bigger gears that require more power (specifically coming from my quads), so I need to get those hamstrings working more. Although I have to admit, the beefed up quads allow me to run downhill without suffering the typical damage that people refer to as "the quad buster". My downhill abilities were my saving grace at White River.
- Dropping pounds, atleast 20 lbs. Lighter in frame = lighter when running. Lighter when running = faster on the course. Right now, the scale at work shows 199, so I'll go off of that for now.

Now all that's left is to figure out which 100 miler to do (although I think it's going to end up being Cascade Crest...unless it fills up too damn fast.)