I will start with the biggest news first. While enjoying a Sunday hangover, I signed up for the Leatherwood Mountain Ultra Marathon which is set for April 20, 2013. According to the website:

“Race course will take place over varied terrain in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Much of the race will be on single track trail, but will have a mix of asphalt, gravel, and jeep trail roads. Tree foliage should be close to peak at this time, so much of the race will be shaded when on trail. If you have experience running in the Blue Ridge Mountains you’ll know that the trail could change from one day to the next. One day could be dry, the next could be muddy.”

This should be 50 miles of challenging fun. I am excited about hitting up trails in a different part of the country. Another huge benefit to this race will be that my fiancé, Sara, won’t have to just stand around waiting for me. A 10 mile trail race is also being offered. Instead of staying in a hotel, there are awesome cabins for us to stay in and a decent looking restaurant to party in after the race. I have to give a shout out to Co-Race Director Tim Worden for answering a few of my questions and pointing me towards the Leatherwood Mountain Facebook page. Additional information can be found there or at the races official site http://lwmtnultrarun.com/ and @LWMtnUltraRun on Twitter. Tim is also a great follow on twitter @trailruntim. If you end up signing up, let me know and we will have pre/post race beer.

On to my training. The last few weeks I have attempted to refocus. This has included rebuilding my miles and starting P90X.

I know that I work significantly better when I do something everyday. It’s about establishing a rhythm and continuing it once I have hit my full stride. I started P90X three weeks ago. At first I was only planning on doing the weight lifting tapes. My assumption was that I do enough cardio while running that I did not need those other tapes.

I was wrong. I do not have the self discipline to only work out three days. A planned work out for Tuesday quickly becomes a “well it’s Saturday, I will start next week”. I had to change my way of thinking. I had to establish a rhythm.

I am now on day 7 of P90X. The only tape I have skipped is the Yoga X tape. I have attempted it before, I do not have the patience.

My running has also hit full swing. I finished the recovery program and I started a Hal Higdon marathon program to rebuild my base. I will modify the program slightly and increase my Friday and Saturday runs. I am a big fan of the back to back long runs when training for an ultra. Once I hit 18 mile long runs, I will diverge from the program all together and begin building toward the 50 miler in April.

The highlight of the last few weeks has really been being on the trails again. There is nothing in the world like being out on a trail on a crisp fall morning and I missed the hell out of it. So far I have stayed close to home running the St. Mary’s Lake trail. It’s an easy 7.5 mile loop but it’s a lot of fun to run.

To date I have had no issues with getting in miles and my foot seems to be fully healed. I ran 26 miles last week and have been pushing my pace on my shorter miles. Between the P90X and daily runs (yes the running streak is back) I have reclaimed my rhythm. My run streak is currently on day 23.

In order to remind myself to keep up my daily habits, I have used my iPhone. The operating systems has a program called Reminders. I have set daily reminders for running, P90X, and planking. It’s just a measure to guilt myself out of being lazy and placing a check in the box is a little satisfying.

With everyone running fall races I am also insanely jealous of what I have seen people accomplish. I have been following a fellow runner, Michael (@RIPTAR_Running) for a few months. In June he completed the North Face Endurance Challenge 50k on the same day that I completed the 50 miler. Unlike me he avoided a late summer injury and set high fall goals. He recently placed an amazing 18th at the UROC 100k. I followed his progress online and I am ridiculously impressed by his performance and envious of the belt buckle he received at the finish.

Anyone who is looking to start a running program, I mentioned Hal Higdon earlier. I highly recommend any of his programs no matter what level you are currently at. His plans can be found at http://www.halhigdon.com. To everyone who is challenging themselves, you are awesome keep it up.