And That's a Wrap!

This will be the final post of my ultrarunning blog. I don't know why I even need one blog, so two is ridiculous. People like reading them though, and I enjoy writing when I have time so I'll keep it up. Those that wanted to keep up with the ultra blog will be added to the Primal blog and running news worth reporting will be added there.

Private I

Ended the week with a 15 miler this morning for a weekly total just above 50. A good week including 17 and 15 milers. Chippewa is sneaking up on me quickly. Will try to get a 20+ miler in each weekend for the next several weeks but that may not be possible. I've been consistently over 50/week for a few months so I'll be fine, but would like to get the long ones in to give myself the best opportunity to run well.

Both of my blogs will go Private beginning next Sunday. If you would like to have access, and I know you, comment here with your email or email me and let me know if you want to have access to 'Ultra', 'Primal', or both. My apologies, but if I don't recognize you from previous correspondence I won't put your email on.

Have a great week!

Badass-ette

This is a really bad picture of Alison Levine (middle), myself (on Alison's left) and some other people from my company. If you're not familiar with Alison you can Google her name or wait until I have time to post about her again, which will definitely happen. For the time being I'll leave it as...She Rocks.

Hopefully a better photo will surface so I can replace this one.

Edited: Okay, I've got a few minutes to expand on the initial post. Alison spoke as a guest at our sales meeting this morning and was a huge hit. We've had high profile speakers in the past including Emmitt Smith and the guy from Pursuit of Happyness, of which I forget his name at the moment. In my opinion they don't hold a candle to Alison. Of course her story is a bit more interesting to me personally so I'm biased.

Alison has done a lot. She had severe medical issues as a child that she overcame. She worked in the medical device industry (my industry), on Wall Street, is now an adjunct professor at West Point to go along with her own consulting business and speech circuit. She has climbed most of the highest mountains in the world, including Everest, of which she turned around at 28,750 feet due to a storm. That was the expedition where she led 4 American women, the first of its kind. She also managed to completely change the cultural habits of an entire village in Uganda by asking a single question of "Why?". She was in Uganda to climb a mountain but the fighting with Zaire was so intense they wouldn't allow her to get near it. She perservered until they said the only way she could get to the base of the mountain would be if the Ugandan military escorted her there. "So where are they?" was her paraphrased response, and she climbed that mountain too. During her time on the mountain she learned that women in Uganda not only were not allowed on the mountain, they were literally owned by the men of the tribe. They were not allowed to do anything outside of cooking meals for the men. She met with all the male tribal leaders and explained the benefits of allowing their women to go up on the mountain as guides to earn a living. To make a long story short, she changed the entire culture of that tribe and the women now work the mountain on equal terms as the men...for equal pay. She returns each year to train more women to guide.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that she has XC skiied to the North Pole on some insane route that was 520 miles in 40 days. She was funny, witty, down to earth, attractive, and claims to be in an extremely small market due to being a single, over-40, straight woman living in San Francisco. Any guys looking for a girlfriend? She's a keeper.

For the female readers...she also "invented" something during her Everest expedition. Their suits are extremely big and bulky, and it's not really comfortable to take them off to use the restroom when it's -50 and hurricane winds. It gets worse when you need to squat to pee in those suits. So they used what looked like a miniature beer bong with an elongated top that fits the anatomy if you know what I mean. It allowed them to pee just like the men, and even write their names in the snow like the guys did.

A really good presenter with an interesting story that correlates well to lessons learned in the business world. She'll continue to do great things, I highly recommend seeing her if you get the opportunity.

Super Bowl!

Finished the week with just over 40 miles. Legs feel like I did 150 due to some other workouts I did during the week...see Primal blog for details.

Go Steelers! Super Bowl XIV in 1980 was the first one I remember. John Stallworth catching the bomb from Bradshaw, beating the Rams. I became a Steelers fan that day, and have been ever since, unless they're playing the Vikes. 28-17 Steelers.

As if one wasn't too much...

For a variety of reasons, I have a new blog. Check out the "Primal Fitness" link if you have any interest in primal workouts and nutrition.

Very few runners have an interest in throwing sandbags and flipping tires. Very few of the people I trade exercise tips with have an interest in running ultramarathons. I spend a fair amount of time alone with my computer. For these reasons I've decided to separate the blogs.

My ultramarathon training has become pretty basic. Run as much as possible, try to average over 50 mpw, try to do a long run each week. That's about it. Nothing terribly interesting to report most of the time. Running blog posts will probably slow dramatically. Primal blog posts will most likely maintain a regular pattern because I'm trading exercise ideas with others and the workout possibilities are endless. Come on over and say hello, you might see me get sick or fall down! Worst case scenario you get to see a close up of my big ass;)

Weekly Notes

Another good week. Nothing exciting to report, but 50+ miles on the books and 33 in the Vibrams thanks to some cold weather. Getting accustomed to the Vibrams gives me a built-in excuse not to go out in the cold weather. Saturday's Vibram run was 8 miles with 0.15 miles each mile at 7.5 mph and 15% grade. Not a killer effort but it really got the HR up during my otherwise low aerobic run. Friday, Saturday and Sunday's runs totaled 26 miles, all in Vibrams. and my feet are feeling the effects. Tomorrow is an off day for sure (at least no running).

4 good workouts this week. 1 lower body focus, 1 upper body focus and 2 full body. The full-body efforts are the killers that leave me looking for the bucket at the end. Nothing better (worse) than finishing some kind of sprint or tire exercise that leaves you on the ground gasping for air, and immediately having to jump up to that pullup bar and crank out as many as you can for the next minute. Hey, at least when I fall down at Superior this year I'll be really good at picking myself up.

Want a cheap piece of exercise equipment that can work your entire body? Go on Craigslist and pick up a heavy bag. There's a lot of them out there and they're cheap. Here's a video of some great exercises you can do with the bag. Of course, with a little creativity you wouldn't need the heavy bag either.

Good week

Was able to get my 50M in this week including...

• 16M in the Vibrams
• 1 Primal run of 8M including 270 squat jumps
• 1 run of 22M including a Primal sprint race against Joe that left me far more sore today than I should have been (oh, and I also lost the race, but will have my revenge!)
• 1 Primal wipeout at the end of my run this morning which will only add to my 'old man' feeling when I get out of bed tomorrow.
• 4 high intensity strength workouts

Have a good week and good luck to everybody racing next Saturday!