Plans for 2014

So I haven't posted in a long time and I feel like posting more in 2014 so I figured I would start with my plans for this year.

2/22 Mount Mitchell Challenge 40 mi
Extremely excited about this race as it is always competitive and fast. Starting at Black Mountain running up and down Mount Mitchell, the highest point in the Appalachians. Hoping its not too icy like last year and I get to run the regular course.

3/15 Coyote Backbone Trail Ultra 68 mi
Super pumped about this race in California, it'll be during my spring break and l'll be looking forward to the warmer weather there. It runs along the Coyote Backbone trail along the Santa Monica Mountains to Ray Miller starting at Will Rodgers.

4/? S.C.A.R. traverse 60-70 mi
Smokey's Challenge Adventure Run, cross through Smokey Mountains National Park on the AT with only one crew point, super tough. Only tentative and the moment but looks like we have a couple of people interested in our club but only preliminary stuff right now. Might do the whole thing or the last 30 depending on how I feel at the time.

8/19 Eastern States 100 mi
My first hundred!!! (hopefully) this with be the major highlight of the year being my first 100 mi race. No time or place goals just finishing. Ran on the course after my Summer semester last year and loved it. Runs through the Pennsylvania Wilds and looks pretty tough so I better train well.

That's as far as I have planned this year, I might also do the Mountain Masochist again, loved that race. This means I will be crewing for VT Ultra at most of the races in the L.U.S. series as the schedules of the races don't line up for me to do them. there are a couple of other races I'm looking at but it's the start of the year and I won't worry about it until after my 100.
On top my races my main goal this year is to just run more, I feel like I took too long off of my training last year in between races and got semi-injured due to the large discrepancy in my weekly volume. Also along with running more is to find new and adventurous runs to do. This year I want to blog more too but only about interesting topics or race reports as I figure it would be pretty dull to write about running in Panadapas 4-5 times a week. If you want to know what I'm up do though you can check out my Strava page as I post all of my runs there.
Strava Page

 With that said I am posting about my first real training week as I think it gives a good idea of what I want to do this year training wise and hopefully this week sets the tone for the rest of the year.

Monday: North Mountain Loop 11.4 mi (3300')
After running on flat ground for around 3 weeks I really wanted to get some vertical back into my legs so I figured North Mountain would be the place to go. I went up the North Mountain trail down Deer and up Grouse and back. Excited to finally run on the Grouse trail and suprised to see that I it was all runnable compared to the other trails there. Good day legs felt good and refreshed to get something other that flat ground to run on.

Tuesday: AM group run in Pandapas 6.6 mi (1000')
Fun group run with the Triathlon club, nice to see everyone back from break
PM Dragons tooth 4.7 mi (1500')
Laughably terrible run, I was supposed to do 15 but was super tired and fell a couple of times coming down the top of the the trail on the slick rock as it had been raining all day. Super tired afterwards did not have a good day to put it gently.

Wednesday: off, got to the trail head and felt the vert in my hamstrings and quads which told me to go home, so I did.

Thursday: Up and down Mountain Lake 13.7 mi (2600')
Great run with Rudy on a cold morning. Got to the summit of bald knob on a pretty slick snowy/icy trail and cruised down. Rudy took off at the last mile of the climb and I took off the last 2 miles of the down hill. New 5k PR with an 18:33 on the way down, but that doesn't really count.

Friday: Easy run with the tri club 6.2 mi
Taking it easy today as we had the Fat-ass tomorrow.

Saturday: 2nd Annual VT Fat-ass 50k Race of Champions 32.7 mi (6000')
Great day out on the trails in Pandapas. Super cold start with temps around 17 degrees, stomach problems in the first section so I took it easy until the aid station and got some coffee to wake me up. My drinking tube on my hydration pack froze so that was useless, luckily I had my simple bottle on my pack so I just used that for the rest of the race. Got to the last aid station with everyone telling me to go chase Tom, but I didn't want to hurt myself chasing him for a Fat-ass event. came in 5:25 two minutes behind Tom, felt great on the back half of the course which is a good sign for this year that I could run well on tired legs from the week.

Sunday: Recovery Run 6 mi
Legs felt good stomach didn't, oh well can't feel great on every run I suppose.

Totals: 81.4 mi 15000' gain
Once again it was a great base training week for the year, hopefully I can keep this up and look forward to a successful 2014