Past trainIng sessions

Session 10 

30 minutes of stretching

Session 11

@ the East y

Sprints on track

Burpees

Squats with plates

Wall sits

Medicine ball overhead explosive lifts

Core/6 inch hold with med ball on stomach

Core/6 inch leg circles

Crawling on hands and feet, on toes

Crawling with hands, jump feet forward

Pushups

Session 12

Football field

Sprints

Ladder work/ladder work into sprints

Long distance sprints

Continuous sprints to 30 or 40 or 50 and then he moves back and says last one, ended at 100 yard line

Suicide sprints (5 stop points) with resistance bands, end with sprint to 50 yard line, no band

Session 13

WSU hill

Hill sprints

High knees

Skips

Lunges

Jumping jacks (look like frogs)

crawling

sprints

Update

I realize it has been some time since I posted last. I have been training up till last Thursday. I developed a pain in my back that ran down my left leg. I seeked treatment from a sports chiropractor three weeks ago and did not get any relief. Nothing against him, it was something he just could not treat I found out.

I went to my family doctor Monday to get a referral to a doctor that the chiropractor suggested. My family doctor ordered a MRI this last Tuesday. My doctor called me personally and told me that I had a herniated disc and he got me in to a neurologist the next morning. That is just unheard of to get into a specialist that quickly.

I went to the neurologist appointment Wednesday morning and he told me exactly what my family doctor told me. Surgery is the best way to go to eliminate the pain and get back to form the quickist. I agreed and it will be August 21st.

I will be unable to run for three months so it can heal properly. That is not the news I wanted to hear, but it is not the end of the world. I will be unable to compete at Flatrock or Heartland later this year which saddens me deeply, but I know I will be back next year.

I will post the training sessions I completed prior to the injury and all the training runs I did. Our traininer received a great opportunity and that was to try out for the Kansas City Chiefs coming up September 1st I believe. He put a hold on our training to go to Iowa where he went to college to train for three weeks leading up to his tryout. We wish him the best, but would hate to lose him as our trainer.

I will post periodically to let you know how surgery goes and my progress. I appreciate all your support and interest in my training.

Session 8, 9 and 10 and training runs

Session 8 was Monday and we were out on the football field. We warmed up and then did standing still vertical jumps trying to touch the goal post. Then he had us get a short running start and jump for the goal post and the third set was quick repeats. We did a number of 100 yard dashes and then he had us race each other sprinting various distances and touching a tire to finish.  He raced with us.  He is fast.

Also he pulled out the resistance bands and had us do some short sprints.

Session 9 was at WSU stadium on Tuesday. We did our normal warm up and went right into some 40 yard sprints and moved on to what he called active stretching. He set up a line of hurdles and we had to step over them staying on our toes. Then he had us turn a round and do it walking backwards. Then we were on the side of the hurdles and stepped over with just one leg and then we switched to the other one.

We then went to doing some high knees for 15 yards or so, then he taught us the A skip which is a high knee and kind of a stomp. Then we went to the B skip which is the same as the A step, but you kick y our leg out.  This all helps you with your form.

Session 10 was today and it was only a 30 minute session that consisted of just stretching and get us focused on the race tomorrow night.  I'm running the Lunar Trek 100K.  He did not want to over work us and have dead legs when running. He talked to us a bit, there are some exciting things going on in Marquis's career. He is going to be training at multiple branches and growing his client base. I am very excited for him and the opportunities he has been given.  And then some motivational words as well.

I cut Wednesday's run short due to stomach issues, I ran 7.75 in 1:51:25

Tonight before training I ran 10 in 1:38:44

Overnight Run

This is the 3rd out of 4 weeks that I have ran either early in the morning or all night like I did last night. I left the house 11:30 last night and set out on my long Saturday run. I took off really fast and sustained under a 11:00 mile pace the first half which was 2:47 and some change.

About 5 miles into my run I got to see a fox. What a sight to watch it run. I have never seen one in person before other than the zoo. Then at 15 miles in I saw three raccoons together. I have heard they are very mean, so I went to the other side of the road and contiued on.

On the way back I ran acrossed a guy passed out on the sidewalk on Douglas. He was in his mid twenties. I woke him up and made sure he was okay. He was drunk as a skunk. I just didn't want him to get picked up by the police or mugged. This was around 3:00 in the morning.

That was all the excitment I had on the run other than a couple of rabbits hopping around closer to home. My legs felt a little tired from the training sessions this week. This is the first week that we did three sessions in a week. This first two weeks, we only did two per week. We will do three a week for the next five weeks and then hit a new schedule, as this is basically an 8 week boot camp.  Having already seen marked results in three short weeks, we will continue to work with him.

Stopped at my usual QT's. I like them because they are clean and they have a good selection of items to choose from. I had a piece of cake the first stop, dounts the second stop, a turky sandwich and a Snickers bar the third stop and grapes on the last stop. This is the types of food I like to use to fuel me on my training runs.  Plus, we have no sweets at home.

The temps were great. I believe it was around 82 to 85 when I started and I believe it got down to around 75. It made it so much easier to run. Next weekend I will be doing the Lunar Trek 100k which starts at 9:00pm. I wanted to do these early morning and overnight runs to prepare me for that.

I ran 32 miles in 6:05:24.  

Session 7

Before Sophia came over to meet me for a run, we had our 7th session with the personal trainer. We stayed inside this time thank God, but that did not mean it was going to be easy.  This was our 4th hour long session in 6 days as we are now going 3x a week and that is a body shock.

We did our usual warm up laps and some quick push ups to warm up our chest/upper body because we were going to use those muscles. 

We did sets of push ups with bear crawl sprints with straight legs, stopping at the half way point to do more push ups.  Then we did squats with weights and chest work at the same time, followed by bicep curls with resistance bands and a burn out set.  Sets are 45 seconds to 2 minutes long.   Couple of sprint laps and into burpees and planks. 

More laps and then into core.  His ten minute core workout is way harder than any 30 minute core class I have ever taken.  8 different sets of exercises with your legs 6 inches off the ground. 

We ended running stairs at the back of the Y, doing lunges and squats up the stairs.   He had me do the duck crawl on the stairs also.  He is pushing me to do things I would never think of on my own, and in ways I wouldn't sustain by myself.

Thursday's special treat

I had a special friend come into town Wednesday and asked if she could come hang out and have dinner. We were very excited to hear she was in town. Sophia is a ultra running friend that I have come to be very good friends with. She happens to love Patsy and her cooking too.

She came over around 8:30 and I believe she left around 12:00. We have so much fun just chit chatting about anything and everything. Even things that have nothing to do with running surprisingly. She brought her dog this time and he is very well mannered.

I asked her how long she was going to be in town and she said till Friday morning. I asked her if she was up for a run tomorrow evening and she jumped at the opportunity.I was very excited myself. Someone I look up to in the ultra running world wanted to run with me.

I was also excited to show her my training grounds. I have to leave it at that for reasons that if I said I would be incriminating myself.  We met at my house a little after 6:30 and left shortly after. We had great conversation mostly related to running since we were on a run. We talked about a KC friend Danny Miller, If I do not get into Cascade Crest in 5 weeks, I will be pacing him. (I am moving up slowly on the wait list, have jumped over 3 spots.  Keeping my fingers crossed). So I was asking a little about him to be better prepared on how to be the most beneficial to him beings I don't know him. The first 5 miles clicked off pretty quick and we got to our water stop/turn a round. Patsy dropped a water cooler off for us.

We made our way back and I took her on a slightly different route back so she could see the other trails that I am get to run on. She was very impressed with what I get to train on. We got back to the house and asked if she wanted dinner and she gratefully said yes.

I am so thankful to have genuine friends like that who do not judge you in anyway and doesn't care whether I am the fastest runner or slowest. She just loves us for who we are (and I thank you for that Sophia).

We ran 10 miles in 1:55:07.

Wednesday's Run

Wednesday is the longest weekday run I have each week. Carving time out for this is a big commitment. I took off on a route that would lead me toward the West side of town. I always enjoy the time I am at SCP, because there is so many others out running, roller blading, walking and biking.

It was a very hot afternoon. I believe it was 106. I left home at 3:00, so I was right in the hot of the day. The first 4.5 miles was a breeze. Then the heat hit me and I struggled the rest of the way. I ended up stopping at QT's to cool down. I do use these for my water stops, but I purchased something to eat each time and took a few extra minutes to make sure I was okay to go back out.

I am not a big fan of pouring cold water on my head during a run, but it felt really good that day. Pouring it right on the back of your neck is the best way to cool your core temperature the fastest. I went shirtless on the way out, but I decided to wear it on the way back, so the sweat would help cool me down a bit.

I ran 16.36 miles in 3:26:20.