The Zen of Ultra Running

A month ago, R. asked me if I could ride with him and a wounded veteran for 100K (62 miles). They had a "tri-cycle" specially made for this purpose and it would be nice to have someone accompanying them on the road. I said if they were not going too fast, I would be able to ride with them. The farthest I'd done was 31 miles so 62 would double the distance. He then signed me up to ride with them. The day before the ride (Friday) I went to a yoga class in the evening and hurt my back during the "ab workout" during the class. I was worried if it would go away in the morning. Took some pills and went to bed. My back was a bit in pain when I woke up but I thought a bit of exercise might help. I got dressed and drove to Fredericksburg, OH (1 hour away from my house). The ride started at 8am. R. already checked me in. It turned out that another friend could not join us. So, there were only 3 of us riding. The weather at the start was about 45-50 degrees (a bit chilly...

Last year I ran the half marathon at Akron marathon. At that time, I just moved to OH for about 2 months and did not know many runners. I also never ran any marathon and was still training for my first marathon at Run with Scissors. I had a good time running the half marathon as the course took us through different parts of Akron and it was a good way to get to know the city. About a couple of weeks after I finished the half marathon, I registered to run the full marathon at Akron this year. I heard from many people who ran the full that the fun part was the back half as the runners run through neighborhood block parties. A couple of days before the race, the race organizer sent out emails warning about the heat as it would get really hot on the race day (approx. 80-90F). I was not quite worried about it because Pro Football HOF marathon was also very hot! This year I ran both the marathon and the relay. I signed up for the marathon last year but I talked to the dean and told him I...

With the Akron marathon being 6 days away, I originally wanted to sign up for the mini tri at Portage Lake Triathlon, which for me would be the last race of the season. When I looked at the registration website, the price of the mini was not much cheaper from the sprint distance. Below is the information on each distance. Mini:  250y Swim (2mi Run) — 7mi Bike — 2mi Run Sprint:  750m Swim (5k Run) — 22k Bike — 5k Run So I signed up for the sprint instead of the mini (wanted to spend longer time on the course) and completely forgot about it. After the Vermillion tri, I switched gears to focus on training for the 50-miler (double marathon at Run with Scissors) by putting more time in running. I only swim and bike once a week. The weather got a bit cooler and the sun does not come up until 7am. So, I went back to indoor cycling classes, which work better with my morning routine. Indoor cycling always kicks my butt. The intervals that we do makes me work harder and my heart...