Howl at the moon!

In about 10 days, I will be in Ojai, CA running a 100 mile race called the Coyote Two Moons. This will be the second of my 12 this year. This race has a staggered start format, so that everyone can finish within a four hour window. The slowest runners start first. I got put into the third wave, which starts 11:00 pm Friday night. Yes, it will be a full moon. Howl away...

Following my last race, the Rocky Raccoon 100, just about two weeks ago; I came away with tendonitis on my left shin and top of left foot. I had no idea how I got it, I've never had anything like that. I'm thinking it was due to the timing strap being too tight on my ankle, so that the tendons had restricted motion to flex and move. I should of just tied the chip to my shoes, or put on the strap kinda loose.

I took a week off after Rocky Raccoon, and then resumed training. I would have started training much sooner, but I wanted to let the tendonitis subside first. Now, I'm back to full-strength and training hard.

Coyote Two Moons has a lot of climbing and descending, there are about 28,000 feet of elevation gain and loss on the course. Looking at the elevation profile, it seems you are going up or down and never have any flats. Given the course, I have been running 6-8 percent grades, daily, for 5 miles and then 5 miles back down. This really builds the gluts and the quads for more specific adaptation.

My only worry is that I will out-run my start group. Meaning that I will run ahead and catch the previous two start waves, and then begin to arrive at Aid Stations before they open. Especially, the AS on the second half of the race. I will have to arrange my own aid as an alternative plan.

I've also dropped a few pounds. Overall, things look good for the race.

Until the next Ultraholic adventure, happy trails.