Feb. 6 to Feb 12

Back to running in the high altitude and hills this week with a brief excursion to Dallas, TX for work. The goals are lots of miles and to finally get my sorry butt back in the gym!

I have been reading The Lure of Long Distances by Robin Harvie. Not quite what was expected in this novel, but interesting nevertheless. The author describes how he developed the goal of running the Spartathlon in Greece;  below is an except from the website, describing the origin of the event.

The Spartathlon revives the footsteps of Pheidippides, an ancient Athenian long distance runner, who in 490 BC, before the battle of Marathon, was sent to Sparta to seek help in the war between the Greeks and the Persians. According to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, Pheidippides arrived in Sparta the day after his departure from Athens. Inspired by the report of the Greek historian, in 1982 five officers of the British Royal Air Force (RAF), who were also long-distance runners, traveled to Greece, led by Colonel John Foden. Their purpose was to ascertain whether it was possible to cover the 250 kilometers separating the two towns in one and a half days. The enthusiastic British team showed that the report by Herodotus was entirely plausible.
A man is indeed able to cover 250 km in less than two days and in fact in less than 40 hours. After the success of the project, the architect of the feat, John Foden, began to envision the establishment of a race that would bring long distance runners to Greece from around the world to run on the trail of the ancient runner Pheidippides. The next year a multinational team of British, Greek and other enthusiastic supporters of the idea, led by Michael Callaghan, a philhellene, organized the First International Spartathlon (Open International Spartathlon Race), wherein the name for the race combines the Greek words for Sparta and Feat.


http://www.spartathlon.gr/en.html

While training for this epic event, Robin gives insight into his childhood and how those years developed  his need and desire to become a long distance runner. He relates several stories of how he and his brother spent hours exploring the country side of his Denmark home and all the while, he was becoming one who was unknowingly lured to long distances covered by the feet. Robin also relates the reasoning's or maybe some insight as to why some of us choose to run vast volumes of miles. One such relation describes runners as "solitary figures" and when asked why they run these miles, many describe various reasons, various crosses to bear, and various tragedies and various positive events that have inspired them to run; however, with all due respect to these mundane "reasons" long distance running comes down to a way of life. To run ultra races (any race over a marathon), takes a commitment; however, it is also a way of life with the efforts needed for training, for rest, for nutrition and those of us who run these races (or just run the long distances)willingly choose this way of life. For us it is not a sacrifice, not a burden but a wonderfully simple way of living our lives in a way that is meaningful to us.

Monday; Feb. 6th:  A very slow start to this day but finally Traysen and I made it out the door for a basic 7 miler.

Tuesday; Feb. 7th:  After getting my sorry butt down to the gym (three weeks off!!!) for a session of abs, back, and triceps, it was out the door....solo, without Traysen....It was about 10 degrees and he opted to hang out with dad in the gym....why do I think he is smarter than Mom? Well, smarter or not, he missed out on a very nice 12 mile run! Wonderfully cold and crisp with plenty of energy today!

Wednesday, Feb 8th;  Work called  for a day off!

Thursday; Feb. 9th:  Sleeping in a bit in Dallas, my slacker butt finally wandered down to the gym in the late morning. After working chest, shoulders, wall squats, and abs, it was to the treadmill and ellip. Even though the weather was perfect, there is no where to run in this part of Addison, TX. Honestly, it is all concrete and roads with way too much traffic. So, with 11 miles on the agenda, it was a combo treadmill and ellip. effort. A nice workout with some hill repeats on the treadmill and lots of AC/DC, Led Zepplin, Billy Squier music!

Friday; Feb. 10th:  A good early start for a 15.0 miler today. Traysen opted to stay home and be a lazy dog!

Saturday; Feb. 11th: A slow start today but Traysen and I made it out for a chilly 7.0 miler. Nothing special, just a nice jaunt around the house.

Sunday; Feb. 12:  An early start at Red Rocks with 11 degrees! Ran the first 6.5 miles solo then met up with Sandra for a beautiful 12.0 miles that took up the Inteman Trail, Section 16 and back into Red Rocks. There was just enough snow to make it amazingly pretty while also providing some traction on the icy sections. Sandra, being the smart one, opted to say that 12 was enough, I took off for another 6.5 miles which took me through the Hogback Trail in Red Rocks. This is a nice steady, long climb...a great way to end the 25.0 miles for the day!

Summary: An awesome week of running with a long effort of 25.0 miles and one medium effort of 15. miles. Everything seems to be working perfectly so the training continues. I was recently reading the course description for the upcoming 100K...it went something like this: up the hill and then down the hill, around the barn, up the hill, down the hill, then through the creek, up the hill, down the hill and then through the woods to grandma's house we....(Opps....that's another story)...this  is shaping up to be a wondefully challenging event.
total miles for the week: 75.0
total miles for 2012: 367.0