"There's only one hard and fast rule in running: sometimes you have to run one hard and fast."








Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Tribute to "Groundhog Day"

Unanswered questions have been piling up.

Bill P. asked if I had any more ideas for TV shows. "Dealer Ordeal," "Lore and Ordure" and a few others keep floating around, but the only one I like is from the people who brought you The Mentalist... This week on The Incrementalist: "You're going down for first degree murder! Maybe second. Possibly third."

As I've been looking at comparing races, I got asked about the Bandera 100K. It doesn't work well in my analyses, appears to be "hollow," that is, draws a handful of very fast runners, but not many good local runners, perhaps due to Rocky Raccoon coming next week, or just to being a 100K in January. The records set there this year appear soft, the men's by about 10 minutes.

How's my training going? Not well. I'm 130 miles behind my total in January last year, and that was well behind what I did a few years earlier. Longest run: 25K. Looks like "Mr. January" is dead and gone - no 50 mile hill run this year!

What races do I have scheduled? Superior 50K definitely, Afton 50K probably, then either the Marquette 50K and Wild Duluth 50K or do Marquette as a training run and go for the Superior 50 Mile win. Perhaps a bunch of short races in between. Not going to pace at Western States, after all, which frees up the summer. Wish I could squeeze in the Voyageur 50 Mile.

10 comments:

Julie said...

How did I not know that there were so many Minnesota bloggers? Woo hoo, I found another one!!Thanks for your thoughts...good to know:)

ShutUpandRun said...

I think you should do one 200K instead of 4-50Ks.

Diane said...

Groundhog's day... Nice.

nwgdc said...

Hilarious.

nwgdc said...

I would LOVE to go to Marquette also...but I'm not sure about the time of the year. It looks like a great course!

Anonymous said...

How about " Excramentalist", starring Simon Pooper. Investigators solve clues toward discovering various types of animal shit.

-wynn

Anonymous said...

birkebeiner has added a solo marathon in the fall. maybe a primer for your superior 50mile attack, albeit completely different terrain.

Adam said...

The win at Superior 50? I'd consider coming out of retirement on zero training to give you a race but unfortunately we'd only be racing each other about an hour behind the guys contending for the win.

SteveQ said...

Adam, how many pseudonyms do you use?! I think I have one good race left in me and though taking on Gardner on his home course is a little (okay a lot) stupid, it's just remotely possible.

If I ever get in shape.

Anonymous said...

well if you want to run great at Superior 50 without having to do a lot of miles than the best suggestion is to do what guys like Meltzer and Roes do and jog/hike really steep hills. Not the sissy ones at the state park, but go and do the actual ski slopes. I did it before Superior 100mile and should have done a lot more of it in hindsight, but I hate walking or running slow.

-wynn