Blog

Two Week Countdown

Today was the 47th running of the JFK 50 in Hagerstown, Maryland. The JFK 50 was my first (and so far, only) ultramarathon. I had a great time training for and racing the JFK 50. It was a beautiful day, I had great support from Elizabeth, Assaf and my in-laws and ran a great race. Since that afternoon, I’ve been trying to get back to the ultra distance and, after pulling out of last year’s JFK 50 with IT Band and knee issues, I’m feeling pretty confident that I’ll get my chance two weeks from today at the North Face Endurance Challenge in the Marin Headlands.

My achilles is definitely not 100%. And my fitness isn’t where I hoped it would be. But I’ve said variations on those things before in the final weeks before a race and, at this point, it’s just time to suck it up, get to the starting line as healthy as possible and see what happens from there. On that note, I’ve been careful this past week – I wanted to test myself a little just to see how the achilles would hold up, but I knew that I had to be conservative. I ran the 7.1 mile loop in Griffith Park on Tuesday night (but ran pretty easy – I was doing this loop in ~56 minutes before; on Tuesday I ran it in 1:06), took it really easy on Thursday morning and then hit the Mulholland Fire Road today for some off-pavement, somewhat hilly running. A total of 20.25 miles this week. Not bad, but not what I’d originally planned. I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t feel a little extra tightness in my achilles or if I said I wasn’t thinking about it nearly all the time, but – and this is a big “but” given my deal with Elizabeth – I haven’t had any pain and it never got so tight that I thought I should stop. For the next two weeks, I’m going to take it easy, try not to lose too much more fitness and focus on the goal at hand.

On another note, check out the pies we baked today for an early Thanksgiving dinner with friends tonight. Not that I’m proud of us or anything!

Congrats to those of you who ran the JFK 50 today and good running to those of you like Rom, who are hitting the Santa Monica Mountains tomorrow with PCTR! Also, good luck to anyone racing at Ironman Arizona tomorrow – after seeing Jordan Rapp kill it at Canada and be such a great sport at the finish line supporting the last finishers, I’ll definitely be rooting for him to win!

Run – November 15
Distance: 8.8 miles
Time: 1:16
Course: West Hollywood, Beverly Hills
Conditions: Sunny, mid/high-60s
Notes: Stopped every 10-12 mins. to stretch calves

Indoor bike – November 16
Time: 50 minutes

Strength – November 16

Swim – November 17
Distance: 3,280 yards (3,000 meters)
Time: 1:01

Run – November 17
Distance: 7.1 miles
Time: 1:06
Course: Griffith Park loop
Conditions: Night run, high 50’s

Run – November 19
Distance: 4.75 miles
Time: 41 minutes
Course: West Hollywood, Beverly Hills
Conditions: Sunny, mid-60s
Notes: Stopped every 10-12 mins. to stretch calves

Strength – November 19

Swim – November 20
Distance: 3,171 yards (2,900 meters)
Time: 1:01

Run – November 21
Distance: 8.4 miles
Time: 1:06
Course: Mulholland Fire Road
Conditions: Sunny, mid-60s