Peak Training Miles For McNaughton Park 150 Miler

Saturday ended my 5-week hard core training mileage for the upcoming 150 mile race. I had the kids to watch all day, so I ended up running 9 different times on Saturday for a total of 31.01 miles (129.3 total for the week). A few of those 9 runs were completed by running up and down my street - others were done in circles around the backyard while the kids played. The rest was done on the treadmill. All of which is good mental training. Mental toughness is what is necessary to complete this race. God willing we have done enough this year to improve our performance to under 30 hours. That is still the goal. In less than 3 weeks we will know if we prepared enough to make it a reality.

The Distance of Truth - Ferg Hawke Movie

These are my two youngest sons (Cruz and Dash) watching The Distance of Truth with me this morning. The movie can be ordered online at: http://www.thedistanceoftruth.com/

Let me be honest - this movie is hands down the best running movie I have seen. This movie gets my blood boiling and makes the hairs on my arms stick up. Over the last week, I have watched "The Distance of Truth" three times while training on my treadmill. It is motivational to say the least and made my training miles fly bye.

The movie follows ultrarunner Ferg Hawke during his 2nd run at the Badwater 135-mile foot race from Death Valley to the portal of Mt. Whitney (http://www.badwater.com/). Although this movie covers the 2005 Badwater race, it could have been any foot race and it truly captures the feeling of competing in a race.

I have rewound the movie over and over again starting at the fourth leg of the race (Battle for Darwin - Mile 90). This is the point in the race when Mike Sweeny is in 1st place after running like an absolute rocket for the first 12 hours. Ferg Hawke is in 2nd place and Scott Jurek (arguably the best ultrarunning since Yiannis Kouros) is in 3rd. Ferg's family came and were part of his crew during the race. There is footage of his son Carter running with him right around this time. As a father of three who one day hopes to have his sons be a part of a race together, I was truly moved by the father and son experience.

The narrator of the movie states something like "strange how the smallest bit of hope can linger even while the odds stack up." Scott Jurek went on to set a new course record in around 24.5 hours. Ferg never stopped believing that he could win. This is an awesome movie - one in which we become part of Ferg's crew hoping that he can pull off the impossible.

Leg 6 of the race is from Lone Pine to Mt. Whitney. At this point, the movie cues to an interview with Ferg stating that "no matter how well you train, things at some point are going to fall apart." The scenes after Jurek finishes the race are what really got my heart beating and are now my go to part of the movie when I need inspiration and motivation while running on the treadmill. This is where the director (who does as well of a job as any Hollywood production) cuts to scenes of Ferg Hawke suffering up Mt. Whitney and then fades to his earlier running in the race to show the contrast. This is where you can look into Ferg's eyes and see his true spirit. Long after the body said stop - the spirit said no.

With Ferg fighting up Mt. Whitney, his daughter Connie comes running down from the finish to greet her father. Holding hands Ferg and his children along with his wife and crew cross the line together for a 2nd place finish at the 2005 Badwater Ultramarathon. Simply amazing and there is no limit to the number of times I could watch this finish. Even the music gets me going.

There are a lot of extras in this dvd. I loved the finish line footage of some of the other 80 competitors at the 2005 race. The most memorable to me was the scenes of this french runner with what I assumed to be his wife. He is sitting in the interview chair after finishing just holding his wife's hand and comforting her as she cries. To me it is symbolic of the extreme scarifies of runner's families to make these pursuits possible. Ferg has a wonderfully supportive family and like I said you almost become one of the family as you watch the race unfold in "The Distance of Truth".

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/

San Diego Running

I had a business trip out to California this week and was able to run a couple times in San Diego with my friend Keith Kirby. We had a nice 15 mile run near a lagoon Sunday night and then again this morning we ran about 12 miles on some trails . Was able to meet Keith's bride-to-be Jakie at dinner Sunday night.

There is nothing like some nice warm weather running to help break up the long Wisconsin winter training. As January is coming to an end, it looks like 300 miles will be the total running miles for January 2009. A good start and we will continue to rack up the miles for a target peak month of March for April's McNaughton Park 150 mile race.

I was also able to stop in and visit with Injini this morning in San Diego. I am honored to be a sponsored athlete with Injinji socks and it was great to meet everyone there.

2008 Running Miles

I have been keeping a very detailed daily log to keep track of the miles I have run since the beginning of 2006. With the end of 2008, I decided to graph my monthly averages and see how each of the last three years compare (I guess my engineering side is coming through).

I have been gradually increasing my mileage over the last few years. I do not run everyday. In 2008, I "rested" 83 days. Basically, every time I laced my shoes up for a run I averaged over 10.5 miles but taken over the entire year, my daily average is only 8.2 miles/day. The goal for 2009 is to raise my daily average to over 10 miles/day. It's off to a good start. Looking forward to seeing what all these miles on my legs will equate to at the McNaughton Park 150 Mile race in a few months.

Getting Ready For Another 150 Mile Race

It now feels like winter here in Verona, WI. It is getting harder to walk out that door in the mornings for my run to work. It is the thought of the McNaughton Park 150 mile race that keeps me motivated. At the start of December, I have covered 2830 miles by foot in 2008. I am targeting 3100 miles for the year (basically the distance from LA to NY). Mentally, I am ready for the challenge that the race will provide in April 2009. The first goal is to win the race. The second goal and for whatever reason seems more important to me - is to finish in under 30 hours. One would think that if the race in run in under 30 hours one would win. But you never know. I know that for me 30 hours would represent a perfect race. And that is really all I can concentrate on - my perfect race.