50 miles... seriously?

OK. I signed up for the Gore-Tex 50 Mile race of the North Face Endurance Challenge on June 2 in Washington DC. The race website says 39 days until race day. Seriously?

The race starts at the Algonkian Regional Park, then runs on the Potomac Heritage Trail through the Riverbend and Riverview parks and onto the Great Falls park for 3 tough loops and returns back though the trails to the Algonkian Park. I really did not intend to have a training plan for this race, but my friend Heather who is thinking about signing up was looking up for plans for 50 milers, before she signed up (which is obviously the right thing to do!)  It hit home when I saw her post. I have to have a plan if I am going to finish this thing… I am going to have to work on it, but some people have posted some useful links when Heather raised the question on dailymile I liked this one particularly; since I am geek... but I know I won’t follow it… in fact I should have been in week 13 of 18 if I was to follow it. It does call for a 50K this Sunday… it won’t happen…

Race Reports

A lot of my runner friends already know that I listen to Phedippidations quite often. I was listening to episode 140 today with race reports from Boston when Steve Runner gave a special emphasis at the end about the importance of race reports and that it is always great to read other runners race reports as each one of us has her/his own perspective on any given race; and he continued “… When you write a race report, you are not just doing it for yourself to memorialize the event. You are doing it for others, passing on your observations so that they can incorporate into their own and form an opinion as a way to better understand the event so that they can improve their performance on race day.

It is not enough to just run the race, or even run it well. You have to tell others about your race. Race reports are a big part of the process of running, racing and competing with each other. Runners help each other by offering advice and telling our stories so that when the rest of us line up on race day, we will have an impression as told by others of what to expect. It is called “Giving back to your fellow runners"

Well, I never saw this point of view, but I agree... and I do owe my fellow runners my report from the Knoxville Marathon ;)

Don't fight the trail. Take what it gives you

Rest in peace Caballo Blanco...

Michael Randall Hickman, later known as Micah True and better known as White Horse or Caballo Blanco was a simple man who became a living legend for ultra-runners after Christopher McDougall published his book Born to Run. Caballo passed away last week while out on a routine 12-mile run in New Mexico. He was on the way to Arizona from Mexico. Along the way, he stopped off at the Gila Wilderness Lodge in New Mexico, a place he visited many times. On Monday, he went for a 6-hour run with Guadajuko, a Mexican mixed breed he had adopted and called "the ghost dog". On Tuesday, he decided to do a 12-miler before hitting the road. Guadajuko's paws were sore, so Caballo left him on the porch with a bowl of water and told the innkeeper he would be back in two hours. It took search parties 4 days to find him as he did not give any indication which direction he would go. He was finally discovered by the side of a cool mountain stream not far from the lodge. His death is still a mystery. Everyone came to look for him in those days, including Chris McDougall, Scott Jurek, Kyle Skaggs and other friends. His friends, tweeted remembrances of his passing…

His race, the Copper Canyon 50 miler in Mexico, has grown beyond even Caballo’s wildest expectations – on March 4, 2012, more than 400 Tarahumaras and 100 outside runners participated. Here are a couple of links for the 2010 race:  Race Report   Pictures

I learned a lot from the book but the biggest advice I took from Caballo is how to learn the art of running… this is what he said to the author in the book: "Don't fight the trail. Take what it gives you. Lesson two - think easy, light, smooth and fast. You start with easy, because if that's all you get, that's not so bad. Then work on light. Make it effortless, like you don't [care] how high the hill is or how far you've got to go. When you've practiced that so long that you forget you're practicing, you work on making it smooooooth. You won't have to worry about the last one - you get those three, and you'll be fast."
... I am still working on easy and light,  I don't worry about how high the hill is or how far I have to go

The North Face Endurance Challenge

Run Farther than you ever have! : As I am getting ready to turn in for the night, I can't get this race out of my head... in fact, I have been thinking about it for several weeks now... and in case you are wondering, I am looking at the 50 mile race on June 2nd in Washington DC. So I went to the website and saw this headline: Run Farther than you ever have!. How appropriate!

Can I do it? Can I actually run 50 miles and finish within the allotted time? I will be turning 50 in June, so this could be the perfect celebration... or would it? What do you think?

Anyhow, going to bed now... they are calling for snow for tomorrow.

100 days and #dailymission

I started posting today's daily mission in  Dailymile, when I realized that I was writing my fitness story. So I thought this would be the perfect first post on this blog as today is my 100th day of my running streak... read on: 

 #Dailymission  If you didn't grow up fit, what was the tipping point that brought you into a life a running/biking/swimming/moving?

I did not grow unfit, but gradually lost fitness and gained weight. I tried so many sports growing up. I played basketball in elementary school and was a member of the school team until I was sidelined for a year in 6th grade with a torn ACL from the vault at gymnastics. I got into javelin in secondary school. I addition, I played soccer all those years. I joined a local amateur soccer league in college and I also became a gym rat and I lifted weights, a lot of weights, 6-days-a-week. Lou Ferrigno and Arnold were my idols. I got back into basketball pick-up games and mini-football (soccer 7-a-side) after college and eventually joined a bowling league.  The problem with bowling was that our league was a Pub-league so there was a lot of drinking.

I was finally inspired by my brother and I got involved into running. I loved big races but hated training. After volunteering for 2 years for the Virginia Beach Rock N Roll Half Marathon and Shamrock, I decided to sign up for races. For the next three years I ran the VB RnR Half, Shamrock 8k and Monument Avenue 10K ...did I say that I liked big races? I didn’t see the point of training or running small races. I just liked the party atmosphere.

... and then it happened. I was in Richmond in the spring 2010 for the Monument Avenue 10K and my brother  Chris coerced me into signing up for the full Richmond Marathon. He then said that a full marathon is a big deal and I needed to train, thus I needed a Dailymile account. I set-up my DM account that day and started training the following Monday. At first it was the gym and 30 minute TM sessions until I had my first training run outside. It was a 9.32-miler  and it wasn't particularly hard. I was committed to the cause. I trained hard for a couple of months until I sprained my left MCL and was sidelined. I kept my endurance up with long rides on the bike. I took PT and came back and was ready for a 4:30-4:45 marathon. It did not happen. I went out too fast with a PR at the half with 2:23, but then had to crawl to finish the second half in 3:02 for a 5:25 finish. Not a big deal, I was already signed up for 2 more marathons in 2011, Shamrock and Richmond.

2011 started on a sour note as I broke my toe on January 1st when I slipped down the stairs at home and was sidelined for several weeks. I managed to come back by March and was able to run the Shamrock marathon with a little modification in my running shoe. The toe never healed completely but the pain was gone and I was able to run. The summer of 2011 was great and I did a few races with my daughter who was here for summer vacation from her university studies in Dundee Scotland. I finished 2011 with 30  races, but I only ran 850 miles for the year... didn’t I say that I prefer racing from running? Those 30 races included 3 marathons (Shamrock, Medoc Mountain Trail and Richmond), 2 half marathons, several other shorter races and my first ultra marathon, a 50K in December,

Which brings us to my running streak. It started right before Thanksgiving when I saw an article in Runners World about attempting a running streak between Thanksgiving and New Year’s day.  My job has an annual challenge during the holidays called “Maintain Don’t Gain” with the goal to maintain your weight and not gain anything between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. So I saw it as an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. Running every day and not gain any weight. And it started… and it carried on… I was planning to quit it on January 1st but I didn’t. I then thought that I could take it to January 7th to include the Armenian and Russian Christmas and probably stop at 50 days… but I continued..  not sure why… and today I hit 100 days… and I don’t know when will I stop.  It may be tomorrow, or next week or after Shamrock or after Knoxville since I am running a second full marathon 2 weeks after Shamrock… I just don’t know… But there is one think I know for sure: I will not run every day for the rest of my life! Ha! Ha!

Here are some statistics from the streak:

• 100 days of running
• 428 miles, 30 miles per week, 4.28 miles per day
• 689 KM, 48K per week, 6.88K per day
• 8 races: 5K, 5K, 10K, 10M, 20K, 25K, 30K, 50K
• 100 racing miles or 161 racing kilometers

Under Construction...

I am still trying to figure this thing out...

in the meantime, you can read about my running adventures here:
http://www.dailymile.com/people/nicolaides