This Friday I will be running in the March of Dimes Shamrock run and will be going for an under 21 minute 5K. Last month in February I made 2 new PRs one being at the Tybee Run Fest North Beach Grill 5K with a time of 21:36 and the second PR at the Seacrest Race for The Preservation 10K with a time of 48:35. Since the Tybee run fest I wanted to up my training and add more mileage to get prepared for the personal 50 mile challenge I will be doing on May 4th at the Relay for Life and the Gore-Tex 50mile in October. This week I am dropping my mileage to 25 so I can be well recovered for the 5K race on Friday. After the Shamrock run I will pick up my mileage again from I left off and continue to increase for 3 weeks then drop down for 1 week to recover. I've read about this type of training in Runners World magazine and always wanted to give it a try, So why not now as I prepare for Ultra Running where the miles go on and on. I also am starting to incorporate a track day where I will go to Savannah State University's track to work on Speed, I will be doing 100m sprints and 400m-1600m splits @ race pace. Along with the track days my dad and I once a week to every other week will be doing trail running of 10miles or more to get off the road and get away from the distractions of the city. I will need to be getting used to running trails more since most to all ultra marathons are done on trails. The more trail running I do the better I feel about competing on the trails, It works your body differently by strengthening the ankles and finding your balance. Living in Savannah there aren't many places to run trails, They have very few hiking trails, but they are only 3-5 miles long and I don't like looping a trail. There is also the rails to trails on Tybee island which is 12 miles long, But the course is a long straight shot of soft uneven gravel for 6 miles and it tears up my ITB and I can't afford to have that problem again. Most of the trail runs will be at Tom Triplett park where they have a 6 mile MTB course with technical trails and there are different paths to choose from, So you can go and get lost for hours and then jump back on the main course and eventually find your way back.
On May 4th 2012 I will be running my first 50 mile challenge at the Relay for Life. The event starts Friday at 7pm and ends at 7am Saturday morning.This run is something I've planned to do for myself, there are no prizes no awards no timing just a 400m track. It will be marking my 2 years and 1 month of running. I have already talked to a couple of friends from my running group, the Savannah Striders and they will gladly support me in this challenge by running some miles with me if not all. I joined the Savannah Striders a month ago and have found a new family, The people have been so welcoming and as like all runners very positive and supporting. I have been running Saturday mornings with the group on long runs and on Sundays we run the Savannah Bridge twice. The Savannah bridge run is known as the toughest bridge run in the South and we run it every Sunday for pleasure. If you run and are not part of a running team I would highly recommend finding one, Savannah Striders if you are in the Savannah area. I was always skeptical running with a group because I was still new at running and didn't want to feel intimidated. There are some fast people in the group, faster than me and there are slower people in the group. I've always said it doesn't matter if you run 45min 5K or 15min 5K you are a Runner and It's what YOU do. I couldn't be more pleased with my training now that I run with a group twice a week, It gives you something more to look foreword to than just going out alone sometimes. We all meet after the run for coffee and breakfast and chat with one another, We really are a family. I will be racing along with some fellow Striders this weekend and will have others cheering us on from the side. I will post back after my race another blog about my journey to becoming an Ultra runner and the people I am meeting along the way.
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