Western States week is always special. The coverage is amazing through sites like irunfar.com and I cannot seem to pull myself away from the hype. I don’t many ultrarunners who do not want to run the Western States 100 someday. And without a doubt this includes me. So this year when the gun went off for Western States, I was on trail getting in a nice long run. While in the near term I am training for the Grindstone 100, yesterday I was training for an eventual start at the Western States.

I will never run Boston. And honestly, I don’t really have any desire to run a road marathon again unless its with family. But I plan to qualify and enter the lottery for Western States every year until I get in. This year I will be entering if I can complete Grindstone. I have a few other friends that are also planning to enter the lottery if they finish Grindstone. So hopefully I get a taste of States next year as either an entrant or as crew. Either way, I will eventually cross that damned river and make it to that track.

Now on to this week’s training…

The Grindstone 100 has 23,000 feet of gain and unfortunately I live where it is very flat. So in preparation for Grindstone, I built a tire pull. I went out on Wednesday with the tire for the first time. It was 93 degrees and humid and pulling the tire was much more difficult than I thought it would be. I know that a gravel or dirt road would be easier, but I went out on pavement. I made it about two miles in total with an average pace of around 10:30 seconds per mile. The looks I got from people passing me in cars were interesting, the looks that I got from a couple of other runners were priceless. My plan is to build up from 2 miles with the tire to about 2 hours with the tire. If anything that should give me some mental confidence.

Yesterday I woke up and took my dog, Penny, for a four mile run. Then I headed out to the trail and got in 4 hours of trail time. All in all it was about 24 miles. I was reminded how important fueling is. I was lazy and only brought a couple packets of almond butter and some water. I was starting to bonk towards the end of the run. In the future I need to be better about having some cream cheese, bacon, and extra Ucan in the car or in my pack.

Today was going to be another 4 plus hour run, but I am listening to my legs and taking an extra off day. I tweaked my knee late in trail run and wanted to give it a day to rest. Next week I am traveling to see my son, so there will not be another long run for a couple weeks. This should give me time to heal up and have an awesome July. I am really looking forward to the Rosaryville 50k in a couple of weeks.

Next week I am going to post about a race that has my attention lately. Something about 135 miles, on the snow, in negative 20 degree temperatures, pulling a sled….drooling.

Training this week:

Tuesday: 7 miles in the morning
Wednesday: 5 miles in the morning and 5 miles at night (2 with the tire)
Thursday: 7 in the morning
Saturday: 24 miles total (20 on trail)

Totals:
This week: 48 miles
28 day Starva total: 208 miles
This year: 1,116 miles