Mohican Buckle Run Saturday

 Rob Powell, the Race Director of “Forget the PR” 50K had sent out the invite for the “Buckle Run” at Mohican-bring your buckle to show, purchase a brand new Mohican Trails map and run some different trails at Mohican.

There was quite a good turn out for the run.  $240 dollars was raised for the Mohican Trails Club.

The sale of maps provides funds for MTC to purchase materials for trail improvement projects.   New bridges, walkways and the Lyons Falls Stairs Project have been completed by the Mohican Trails Club using funds raised both through map sales, grants and assistance from the Mohican State Park and State Forest agencies. 

The new map is fabulous!

 

My Ignite Fitness Talk is now available!

I was a bit apprehensive to watch it at first. I think it went rather well.  The audience seemed to enjoy it. After viewing it, I saw more humor in my speech that I didn’t realize while writing and practicing the speech.

“Enlighten us, but make it quick”.

The rules of an Ignite Talk is a five minute presentation, with 20 slides.  These slides auto advance every 15 seconds.

The idea of the Ignite Talk excited me tremendously. It was a very new (to me) idea.  I did a bunch of research and practice for my speech.

With only a five minute speech, it’s very easy to practice this several times in a row, even on my lunch hour.

These were some good links to Ignite Speech planning:

• Scott Berkun, “How to give a great ignite talk” http://scottberkun.com/2009/how-to-give-a-great-ignite-talk/
• Cory Forsyth “How to give an ignite talk”, http://coryforsyth.com/2009/02/24/how-to-give-an-ignite-talk/
• Mark Pollard: http://www.markpollard.net/8-tips-for-your-ignite-presentation/
• Jill Foster: http://debbieweil.com/blog/how-to-prepare-ignite-and-ted-talks-jill-foster/

• Jason Grigsby: http://userfirstweb.com/328/successful-ignite-presentations/ 

• Deanna Zandt: An over achiever’s guide to prepping for an Ignite Talk

I enjoy watching Ignite Talks on You Tube. I wish there was an event in my state or surrounding states, I would love to attend another Ignite Talk, or give another Talk myself!

Know of any Ignite Talks in Ohio?  Pittsburgh?  West Virginia?   Have you given an Ignite Talk and how did that go? I’ve very interested!!

The plan was five miles, after work.  I decided to go to Salt Fork, and park in a different location than I normally do.

The problem with Salt Fork roads are: they are all up and down.

Hmm, I thought to myself, isn’t that exactly what you need to run on?

In parking in a different location, I thought I would give myself a break. Do the uphill first (this was an out and back) so then I would have the nice downhill to finish.

I parked on a secluded side camp road, and decided to run a little downhill from the vehicle, down to the lake.  I knew the road would end at a “dead end” but that would give me a little flat to run on down at the lake.

We’ve been in a quasi drought, but I did not realize how much the lake had receded.

 Hey! I could run “on the lake” for a bit!  I was off. It was pretty hard mud for a bit.

 I got my road shoes wet crossing these little inlets, but who cares!

 I was super stoked through this section. I saw such different views, being OUT in the lake.  You don’t get to see this from land.  It was an entire different perspective, and view, just a 1/4 mile out in the lake.

 I ran as far as I could.  Then the mud started to soften up more, and I turned back.

 What a little pick me up, one mile into my “road” run. An unplanned, little “off road” venture.

I continued past my vehicle, UP the hill, so I could then run back down my hill to my vehicle. It was hot, and humid, but luckily I had brought the bug spray.

It’s good to have a goal event in sight again.  The Ring will be nothing but humid, training in the humidity will set me up to be ready for it!

 12 Weeks to Uwharrie!

After my post Camp Hardrock injury, I finally got back to training.

I did not hurt myself climbing 13’ers and 14’ers, following Gombu around in the dark with blustery rain and wind; but took myself out of the game ten feet from the front door of the house.

I took the dog out to wee in the middle of the night. She’s on a leash until further notice still trying to heal her paw.  Being an exuberant two-year-old, she pretty much drags me off the porch.  I went out barefoot-it’s grass! I either came down really hard on the porch step, or a I stepped HARD on a piece of wood in the  yard.  Youch.  Stone bruise on the very bottom of my foot.  It hurt pretty  bad just to put weight on the foot.

That took about seven days to heal. No running. Heck, it hurt to walk for the first three days! Coach had said to take it easy after Camp Hardrock, so it was quite easy to just do nothing!

Speaking of the Coach, I am coach-less for the summer. Karl has gone off the grid and is going for the Fastest Known Time on the Appalachian Trail this summer.  He provided me with a (free) 2 month schedule of training while he is gone. Usually I get a week-or two-schedule at a time, so this is a bit different. I’m sure I will have to tweak things now and again.

It’s very nice having a schedule for August and September instead of me having to make one up. That has been one of the best parts of having a coach! I’ve been filling out my training spreadsheet just as if I would be sending it to Karl at the end of the week.  I’ve also started to record my sleep, as that part of training has been very rocky with the dog’s night time schedule.

Training: 6 Runs completed, 39 miles. Only one trail run. (Sigh.) But I completed all my runs, even the one I did not want to do today!  I have also started up my Plank Challenge again, 3 for 3!

I got out this morning for a TRAIL run.  It was more of a trail hike and slog.

With Alice still on restriction-which will continue for a few months until she is healed-the idea is to stay close to home. At least Salt Fork State Park is close to home.

The schedule said 10 easy trail miles. I decided to run the White Bridle Trail backwards to the route I usually take.  I also wore capris, since I figured the trail would be very overgrown by now. Good call!

 I wasn’t really satisfied with my Hoka Kailua Trail shoes at Hardrock, on the rocks. With The Ring looming, I bought a pair of La Sportiva Ultraraptors, which has a better sticky grip on rocks. I thought I would wear them today just to see how they felt.

 I’m not sure what the Markers 1-12 were.  Garmin said the White Trail was 5 miles.

 The bridle trail does skirt the lake here.

 Lots of exposure from when the derecho storm went through in 2012.

 I was surprised to see the White Bridle Trail was 5 miles.  I had 10 miles to run..

So I started down the dirt road next to the horseman’s camp.  I knew about one mile I could jump back onto the Blue Blazed Bridle Trail and take that back.

About half way through the run, I could feel hot spots on both heels! WTH.  I am now undecided about wearing these for The Ring.  I will try a few more runs in the Ultra Raptors, but I might be back to the Hokas.

It was not a bad run, if I could call it that. Lots of mud led to the fun factor decreasing quite a bit, especially when splashing through the cow patty flavored water in the mud holes!

My 2014 word was “reach”

http://www.appointmentsetter.net.au/telemarketing-tips-tip1-perseverance/