My First Long Run Of 2014

I'm currently heading to Crissy Field in San Francisco ro participate in a 24 hour race out on by Pacific Coast Trail Runs. 

For 24 hours I'll run around a one mile loop and see how many laps I can do.  Hopefully I'll run just over 100 miles.  The course will be flat and fast so running more than 100 miles at this event is a huge possibility.

I haven't ran a 100 mile race since November of last year.  I feel a little under trained (I'm also feeling a little sick) but I've done this distance before, so hopefully my previous experience will get me through my 24 hour adventure.

This coming September I am doing a benefit 130ish mile benefit run for the Bakersfield and Central Valley Ronald McDonald House.  I have decided to make today's run part of my fundraising effort.  I've asked friends, family, and supporters of the Ronald McDonald House to make a flat donation or make a pledge per mile that I will run today.

If you are interested in donating you can do so at https://www.fundraise.com/micasa/24

I set my fundraising goal for this event at $1000.00 and so far I already have $70.00 and I haven't even started running yet.

If you're able to help out with a donation of any size please do so.  I greatly appreciate any help that anyone can give.

My event will start at 8:00am (2 hours from now) and end at 8:00am tomorrow.

With a little bit of luck I hope to run over 100 miles in the next 24 hours.  I'll post my final mileage and a quick race report after I get home on Sunday afternoon.

Until next time...

KEEP RUNNING!!!!

p.s. I will do my best to update my Twitter feed every few hours with an update on my mileage.

California Classic Century Bike Ride 05-17-2014

On May 17th, 2014 I decided to change things up a little bit.  While I in no way consider myself a cyclist, I decided to ride the California Classic Century ride that starts and finishes in down town Fresno.  I dusted off my old Schwinn mountain bike that I use to ride many, many, many, many, years ago to High School, and I started riding about a month prior to the event.

My typical rides were about 40 miles long and I did about one a week for 4 weeks.  I learned pretty fast that I needed a better quality seat if I was going to last for 100 miles sitting down on my ass.   I picked up some cycling shorts, but I’m honestly not a big fan of spandex so I wore the cycling shorts under a pair board shorts. The cycling shorts helped give me that extra cushion that my ass needed for long bike rides.

The nice thing about riding 100 miles versus running 100 miles is that riding the distance was way faster that running.  Riding also required a lot less food.  All I took on the ride was 6 Gu’s and I filled my water bottle up at the aid stations. 

I mounted my Garmin Virb camera to the handle bars of my bike and took some footage of the ride.  For the most part the ride was nice and scenic.  There was one really tough climb that was about 5 miles long, and it was followed by a pretty nice downhill section. 

I can honestly say I prefer running over cycling, but it was a nice experience riding 100 miles.  I found that most of the people on the course weren't much for conversation, but there were a few really cool people that I had the privilege of talking to.

Now that the ride is over I’m back to training for ultras again and have my first race coming up on June 21^st.  I’m really looking forward to running a really long distance again.  The race I have coming up is a 24 hour event in San Francisco.  Shortly
after the 24 hour event in San Francisco I will run the Cool Moon 100 and the
Headlands 100.

Until next time…

KEEP RUNNING!!!!