Training Update!

Well, ideally I would have had some race reports over the summer...  But I unfortunately had another sciatica flare-up that knocked me back for a few months.  I had to cancel a 50k trail race (Wicked Grit) as well as a Toughest Mudder race that I had signed up for.  But I'm feeling better now, and gearing up for my fall events.  I'm slowing ramping up my trail miles (did 15 last week - next long run will be 18 miles).  I'm also ramping up my skating miles in preparation for Athens to Atlanta in a couple weeks.  (48 miles today!)

I started going to physical therapy to address the muscle imbalance that's contributing to the sciatica.  I'm going to do a running gait analysis this week (on my birthday) to see what I can do to correct any imbalance there.  The goal now is to reduce the chance for injury going forward.
Every time I've gotten injured in the past 10 years, my weight has gotten out of control.  Last year, I lost 40 pounds to finally get back into racing shape, only to get injured again.  You can see on the charts below, that my weight and body fat percentage started going up as soon as I had my flare-up back in May...


Unlike previous setbacks, I didn't let my weight get too far gone before I started exercising some discipline in my diet.  And it wasn't too long before I was maybe 90% better, so I could start running a little bit again.  So the weight is coming off again, and (more importantly) body fat % is going down.  And I'm doing it without obsessively tracking every calorie I eat - although I'm certain I'd get the weight off faster that way.  But I think I'll see if I can manage it this way a bit more first.

Upcoming events:  Dragon OCR (5k obstacle race) on Sept 30.  Athens to Atlanta (87 mile skate) October 8.  Tough Mudder Carolinas (10 mile obstacle race) on Oct 21.  Eno River Run (11 mile trail run) Oct 28.  Green Beret Challenge (5k obstacle race) Nov 11.  I'm also super-tempted to sign up for Frozen Rock 720 (12-hour trail run), but I'm not sure I'll be ready in time for that.  It might be a last-minute decision...  :-)

Further out, I have South Mountain Marathon (26-mile trail race) in January.  Umstead Marathon (26-mile trail race) at the beginning of March.  And of course Georgia Death Race (70ish mile trail race) at the end of March.  I want to get a 100-mile trail race in sometime in 2018, and eventually do the PR150 run in Puerto Rico.  (You have to have previously completed a 100-mile event to qualify.)