Training Miles - A Thin Line Between Perfect Conditioning & Injury

Friends -

This week marked my first week of serious running mileage in preparation for the McNaughton Park 150 Mile Race April 10. This will be my third time running this race and my goal is to win it. I thought adding some more training miles earlier in the year would help create a more solid base in an effort to keep a decent pace during the race. So, this week starting on Sunday I began a quest to run a total distance of a marathon (26.2 miles) each and every day for 30 days. When I got home from work last night I was at 100.33 miles in 4 days - that meant I needed to cover an additional 4.47 miles after the kids went to bed. My legs were tired and my body ached a little. I thought "what am I trying to prove"?

The truth is by pushing my body beyond "normal", I am getting closer and closer to injury. Running a marathon a day just to say I have run a marathon a day is egotistical. In the big scheme of things, it does not matter. And if I am meant to win this race it won't be because I ran such and such miles, it will be because I prepared well - both mentally and physically - and through the grace of Jesus Christ.

My training this week will still be better than any non race week's mileage total for me (previous best was 129.60 miles - March 16 - 22, 2008). I am going to continue to maintain 100 + mile weeks for the next month but if I don't run 26.2 miles a day I'm not going to loose any sleep over it.

There is going to be a lot of great competition in Pekin, IL for the upcoming 150 mile race. My friend Paul Stofko is coming back for a third time as well. He forwarded me a great article on his attempt to regain the title which he won in 2007.

McNaughton Park Video (David Goggins)

We are about 2 months from the start of yet another McNaughton Park 150 Mile Race. This will be my third year competing and God-willing after finishing third and second this will be my first win. Some of you have asked about the course. Last year a camera crew from Lexus was out on the course filming my friend David Goggins (who eventually won the race over 2 hours ahead of me). The short film can be viewed online and shows some of the course.

The Long Run: http://lstudio.lexus.com/#vid346

There is also a video out there of the entire course at Peak Races' website: www.peakraces.com/index.php?inc=videos-mcnaughton

The course website is: http://www.mcnaughtonparktrailruns.com/