Time for a Change

March was a month of struggle and transition which included a good long run, speedwork, and hill repeats without injury. I started to incorporate a weight vest in some of my daily runs and hill repeats to stress my body a little more. I’ve slowly been increasing the weight to allow my body to adjust while protecting myself from injury. Following Rocky, it took about 4 weeks before my running strength started returning to normal. My speedwork was lagging compared to my last session, but has now returned to performing 6X800meters at 3 min per repeat. My first two long runs in March did not go well and I felt an overall fatigued feeling lined with frustration (Still dealing with my Rocky performance). I took a light training week and did a 27 mile long run and felt strong all day. It was a perfect running day and the trail in great shape. The funny thing is I did my first face-plant when my foot got caught on a root and ended up eating some dirt. My hand held water bottles took the brunt of the fall and saved my hands. I was moving pretty fast on a downhill section and found myself airborne with no place to go but down (Gravity still works). I got up, brushed the dirt off, inspected for damage, and started to laugh out loud for a few minutes. Unfortunately, nobody was around to experience my graceful landing.
This past week, I took the family down to Disney World for spring break (And to get out of town with the Masters Golf tournament here in Augusta GA) and had an awesome time. Did not get any running in, but did walk about a thousand miles. The parks were at full capacity, but we still hit all our favorite rides. Also got some sun time in at Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon and got a head start on my tan (or should I say burn).

Went out yesterday for a 30 mile trail run in the rain, wind, and mud - Had a great time and had to check out my new trail shoes which performed nicely straight out of the box (No blisters, drained well, and light at 11oz). Not sure how these will hold up for 100 miles, but the Montrail Mountain Masochist (MM) worked great for shorter runs (Time will tell). Compared to the Montrail Continental Divide (CD), these shoes are so much lighter, flexible, and breathable. I normally wear a 9.5 in the CD and the MM 9.5 feels like a size 10. These very well could be the improvement in trail shoes I was hoping for. I will use them in my upcoming races to see how they perform. I also tried the Superfeet green inserts and was pleased with the performance.
TAB