The Ultra that wasn't and Podcasting bests of the past week.

One: So I was supposed to do the ultra at the Land between the Lakes this past weekend.... to make it very short, I didn't make it. The decision came down to either driving in bad weather and doing the race in the bad weather or stay home and safe. I made the best decision, I think, but knowing that others were there pushing through the trails was hard to take, emotionally.

Two: Podcasting is something that I have been spending some serious time learning about. My first podcast was supposed to be phases of the ultra run. I had tested and researched various mobile podcasting set-ups and got the stuff ready to do the editing, but I don't have those edits (obviously).

Don't worry, I have some outtakes from my week leading up to the ultra. So I'm going to put together the first podcast soon and include some discussion on various material on nutrition I've been reading. Stay tuned.

Three: There are quite a few podcasts that I listen to (and motivation for me to try) and recently I have heard a couple very good podcasts. I wanted to share the links and a brief idea of what you'll find:

a. Steverunner.com with his podcast, Phedippidations. One of the podcasts that I've listened to the longest. But one episode that I downloaded this week and listened to was the show that talked about the running legend, Billy Mills.

Here's the link: Billy Mills at Phedippidations - go to episode 125, Dec 2007

Billy Mills is a huge childhood hero of mine. There are many reasons that I admire Billy Mills, part of it I believe is that growing up in Nebraska the American Indian culture was always close by, but probably more due to the fact that I could identify with the scenes from the movie "Running Brave." I remember running along the country roads or next to my uncles bean fields, especially as a way to escape.

I have actually blogged about this a little before : March 16, 2006.

b. Tri-Talk.com - go to the most recent episode (60). David talks about the importance of the glut medius in the runner. I urge you to go listen to the podcast and talk the advice he has. Nikki and I have been working on a project that will hopefully help runners address these issues. (I know another promise of "stuff to come"... but it will be soon!)

c. Endurance Corner Radio - go to the Feb. 20, 2008 podcast. This is Gordo, et. al's podcast. The podcasts are interviews with athletes and coaches, so sometimes they are not as entertaining as some of the other podcasts (such as the touch of comedy in Phedippidations) but you can pick up a lot of information as you workout if you want.

If you want to skip to what I thought was great information to listen to go to: minutes 17:45 to 32:00. Here's a list of the topics that Gordo and Dr. John Hellemans discuss:

- Health - Injury - Overload and Intensity - Basic Week - Consistent Training - Job and Commitments - Family - Depression -

The discussion back and forth between them can provide some gyms that Ironman triathletes can use in their approach to their athletic careers. Advice that will help them stay Health and Fit, and likely help them achieve good performances too. (The three steps I love.)

Sometimes fear can be a good thing!

So here I am, it is at the beginning of March in 2008. I have held true to this idea that I'm going to just workout and train throughout the year, no periodization, no "A" races, etc. My idea was to just drop in a race when I felt like it.

That brings me to next weekend. Next weekend I am going to run my first ultra run! It is a 60k run in the Land between the Lakes area of Western Kentucky. I am pretty excited about this race, but I am getting an enormous dose of fear.

The longest run that I've had since the Ironman last September has been the Rock-N-Roll Marathon in Arizona. It was a good day to experience what it would be like on my feet for a very long time, as I coached all the athletes from Kentucky to the finish line. But to be honest, I didn't feel like I was in great shape at that race and I am not in better shape now.

The truth is that I have less long runs than a person normally puts in getting ready for a marathon. I ran 15.5 miles last weekend and then this weekend I ran 13.5 yesterday and 19.4 today. Last night a friend of Nikki's asked her "Is that his taper"?

The thing with this style of training and racing is that it doesn't have a taper period. And I'm getting nervous enough about knowing if I can finish this distance that I wanted to put in a double long weekend to see what would happen. It didn't go super well. I am hurting pretty bad right now. I can move (and actually jogged a half mile with a client after) but by the end of today's run, I was hurting enough that I started having some second thoughts.

Fear. Sometimes we have fear about what is about to happen. I am thinking that at times it might be wise to have a little dose of fear before we get ourselves into a situation like this.

I'll let you know how it goes. I went and bought a digital voice recorder and a lapel mic, I plan on doing some updates during the run. I'll share them with you if there is anything interesting, funny or ridiculous.