Eat at Joes

Unless you haven’t been on social media lately, there is little chance you haven’t heard about the upcoming (tomorrow) Greek Peak Winter Sprint. This race will be the first of its kind for Spartan in the US. However, what that means is that many will be ill prepared for the …

There is one thing I love to do more on the course than running; it is talking to people. When I run with a group, we tackle the open heat; it is just more fun. I get the great privilege of talking with people on the course; and for many of them, it is usually their first or second Spartan Race. If there is one thing I can take away from most of these discussions, it is that people had little to no guidance before race day.

Here we are, 14 weeks from Killington and starting a critical turning point in training. This week would be a standard week, but the plans for next week have started already. For the most part, things would remain normal this week, with the addition of a trail run to get some technical terrain under my feet. After all, road running doesn't do much for stressing the ankles. The end of the week will have me at Tuxedo, NY for the Spartan Sprint, no weight training this weekend.

Getting a late start on this week's countdown. The week was action packed with me getting back on the horse. I ramped up the activities a bit during the week in preparation for my first ever Hurricane Heat in Barre, MA (HH-088). Running has become far easier than it has been over the last few weeks, it seems my body is starting to heal a bit.

After last week's unfortunate tweaking of the Achilles on my left side, I have been a bit cautious about my activities. Next week will be my first Hurrican Heat in Boston and I want to be sure that I don't create a problem by over doing it. Although I am not terribly concerned about the HH with respect to the Achilles, it is the cumulative effect of the activities that may put a hamper on my Ultra Beast training. With only a week of rest, I have not been optimistic about getting back on the horse.

I have given this a lot of thought, a daily update just isn't for me. This is week 17. I suffered a setback this week, injuring my Achilles. I am not exactly sure what I did, but I can tell you that it hurts. STFU! does not mean be stupid. Training for NJ Ultra Beast, I hurt my knee and was unable to run for a couple of weeks. That did a number on my endurance. The elliptical didn't cut it and I should have hit the stair master instead. This time around, I am going to take advantage of my experience and lean on my brain instead of my brawn.

Today isn't one of my best days so far. Having given this journal too much thought, I found myself unable to sleep. I had grand plans of waking early to get some sprints in this morning. Instead, I crawled into bed around midnight and woke 10 minutes before work. Today will be an average day for me.

With only 123 days left until the Killington Ultra Beast, I decided to create a series of post detailing my preparedness plan, thoughts, and feelings. Although it may seem like 123 days is plenty of time to prepare, I feel like there is a lot of work to do in little time.

When I signed up for the NJ Ultra Beast, I didn't have any idea what I was in for. I mean, you hear about the mileage and the number of obstacles, but you really won't get it until you try it. Also, I joined the best Facebook group on the planet and talked with everyone I could, but having attempted the race, none of that matters. With that said, I learned some valuable lessons that I feel I should share with you.

Without spending a lot of time on personal details, I am about to endeavor on my first Ultra Beast in the great state of NJ. There is a large community of UB veterans, such as our very own War Paint Waldo, and a slew of competent folks in the dedicated …