I posted last about my Trailbreaker run, but haven’t posted anything regarding training numbers so I’ll attempt to catch up a bit. There has been 4 full weeks since my last post.
I ended March with a total of 248 miles giving me 738 miles heading into the marathon April 2nd. This was my third month in a row over 200 miles and gives me a pretty good start to the year. I also noticed on my run log that after completing the first mile of the Trailbreaker my lifetime odometer number flipped over 28,000. As I mentioned in my marathon race post I ran quite a few of the miles this past winter on the treadmill. This allowed me to be consistent, but it’s just not the same as running outside. The lack of outdoor miles and particularly training on the hills hurt me a little for the marathon I’m sure. After the marathon my legs felt a little beat up. I basically did a full reverse taper, taking two full days off and then coming back slow with some recovery runs. I logged only 40 miles the week after with nothing fast or long. Last week I got back on track logging 59.5 miles over 6 days of running, including a 20 mile run on Saturday. The run Saturday was interesting. Initially I had thought of going out to run on the trails for my long run. The soaking weather Friday night and into Saturday morning changed my mind. I didn’t get out early because of the rain and did some other stuff until late morning when it looked like the weather was OK. I dressed in running tights and long sleeve shirt with my running vest. When I left this felt about right. About 9 miles into my run I came across a dog I had never seen running this same path hundreds of times. This was a large, thick pit bull looking thing that seemed to mean business. He started chasing after me and then when he got about 10 feet off to the side of me bared his teeth and went on the attack. I placed a well timed kick right to his jaw and he ran away whimpering. I hated to do it, but it was obvious to me I had to or I would be bit or worse. About 2 more miles into the run I had a deer almost run me over. It came busting over a hill across the road right in front of me. I could have reached out my hand and grabbed some hair it was that close to me. Now the temperature was beginning to drop dramatically along with the wind picking up. With the light drizzle that had fallen most of the run and the added sweat I was soaked. Dressed lighter than I otherwise would have been had the temp been that cold at the start, I could really feel the cold. Even to the point I was worried about hypothermia. I decided to pull the run short at 15 miles. I changed clothes quickly and jumped on the treadmill to finish 20 miles for the day in a total time of 2:41:21. Looking outside after my treadmill run the ground was white. It had gotten cold enough to snow again.
I think I’m on track for the 50K race three weekends from now. One more week around 50/60 mile range and then taper time again. Through 4/17.
WTD 59.5
MTD 126
YTD 853
ODO 28,124
Hunting:
I noticed an article regarding the deer season framework. for the 2011 season. It appears that earn a buck rules may finally be eliminated in all but CWD zones. It’s about time. The other big thing is that the early October gun season also looks like it may go by the wayside except in CWD zones. I still haven’t heard anything regarding the use of crossbows. This is one of the topics being brought up at the Sportsman spring meetings. I actually would like to see the use of crossbows expanded. I think it would get a few more people into the sport and would make hunting easier for older hunters who may have had to give up.
Gardening:
There has been a few nice days over the last few weeks to make it feel at time like Spring is finally here. Then we get a day like today where it’s barely above freezing all day and the ground was again covered with snow this morning. Work around the yard has started though. I finally finished all my pruning chores before any new growth started. I was able to get all the flower beds cut back from last year’s dead foliage, and grass pulled and raked up. I thinned and caned all my raspberries which is another job I should have done late summer or fall. I put fertilizer with crabgrass preventer in the few trouble spots I had last year and put Milorganite over the rest of the yard areas. Last Saturday I hauled about 10 yards of wood chips home from the recyle center. I will use these on a few of the less visible portions of my flower beds and will get some good mulch in a few weeks for the rest. A few things I still need to get to are cleaning the pond, and the first tilling of the garden so I can get early crops in like potato’s.
My big project garden wise was putting in a waterline from the house down to the garden. No more hoses across the walkway and lawn most of the summer. My friend Keith came over Sunday and we spend the whole day installing the line. He’s had experience doing this install at his and his mother’s house and offered to help me do it. We were working with a material called PEX . We put in 250 feet ¾ inch diameter of the stuff from the house down to the middle of the garden. We first dug a trench the whole way by hand. We then busted a hole through the concrete block into the house. Then we laid the PEX in place and connected it to the water supply. Then we buried the PEX into the bottom of the trench about a foot deep the whole way and covered it back up. In portions of the lawn where the grass was thick enough you can’t even tell where we were. Having ¾ inch uninterrupted water supply to the garden will allow me to run multiple sprinklers at once saving me a bit of time. I’m sure I’ll wonder why I didn’t do it earlier.
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