Tuesday, February 01, 2011

ALL SET

I came across this interesting tidbit the other day;

“Only ten miles from rim to rim as the crow flies, the North Rim is 215 miles (about 4 1/2 hours) from the South Rim by car.”
I guess there won’t be any quitting halfway.

After only running 35 miles in December, I started 2011 off with a solid 213 miles, plus another 118K of skiing. I also managed 9 core workouts during the month. I’d like to do 3 per week, but I’ve only been doing 2. Honestly though, I’d rather do 2 per week up until R-cubed, rather than 3 per week for a month or two.

I had some solid back-to-back workouts during the month too. The most impressive was last Friday when I ran 5 miles, took an hour ski lesson and then after grabbing a cup of coffee I skied 20 miles. The next day I ran 20 miles. That was like 7 hours of training in 2 day.

Now if I can just double that in half the amount of time, I’ll be all set.

Quote of the Day;

“Running is about defeating death, not inflicting it.” – John Jerome

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

As you, I have been intrigued by endurance events since a kid. Any type of sporting event from motor sports, hunting, skiing, mountaineering, etc. If Wide World of Sports covered it we watched it. I loved Mount Everest coverage as a kid. No matter the sport, deep down you wanted to be there.

As a kid, I watched my family leave my Grandparent's farm and head out for the first day of Buck season. Some left in the dark and returned at dark. We would hear them knocking the snow off on their boots and just consumed them with questions when they walked in as our legends.

It was always the anticipation of being out there. What goes on all day? Some off my best hunting days ever never included bringing anything home...but damn good stories and stuff I saw.

At the Canyon you will see so much and at times you have to remind yourself why you are there. At times it seems like this isn't a bid deal endurance wise, but at other times you are reminded how serious you have to be there. There is a great responsibility to the group and yourself. It is an unforgiving place, otherwise they wouldn't have 300 rescues a year.

You will run across people and just marvel at the lack of preparedness. Everyone is not a prepared endurance athlete. We passed several groups of hikers doing a single crossing who just did not think it through. Everything changes, from the heat, terrain, weather, and altitude. I believe it is around 8,000 feet at the North Rim. You have to be prepared to move forward and adapt. It gets pretty damn dark out there. Got to be ready for anything.

That's why it is a great trip. The anticipation, the planning, the what if? When your out there, you are the people they want to talk to. It was my best adventure of all time.

Double

Anonymous said...

I will try and see if my buddy still has his cheat sheet of what we needed and pass it along.

Double

Anonymous said...

Keep at it Chad......BAGoals are the only way to have fun and see what the body/mind is capable of achieving!!!!

TOB

Beth said...

It's amazing that you can ramp up your mileage that quickly without getting injured. I guess that is due to years of conditioning plus other training while you are not running. Very impressive. Congrats on a great month.