Writing

One of the reasons why I decided to start writing blogs about my running is because I often have thoughts, while running, that I would like to write down. For this blog, I decided to try a different approach to writing.

This morning, my goal was to run 20 miles on roads, not stopping for breaks or walks. Just run a steady pace the whole 20 miles. This should take me about 3 hours.

Throughout the run, I decided I would pull out my phone and record short voice memos. The recordings would be me talking about whatever topics were in my head at the time.

Afterwards, I would listen to the voice memos and type out whatever I said. If anything new came to mind, I could add it. Or if any edits were needed, I could do it.

This way of writing is more like transcribing a previous idea. And then adding to the idea. I figured that a 3 hour, 20 mile run was a good opportunity to try out this idea. Lots of time for thinking.

The following paragraphs are my running thoughts from today’s long run:

Running Thoughts

Its Sunday, April 5th – just finished mile 1 of a 20 mile long run. Did 15 on the trails yesterday, about 5,000 feet of up and down. Hoping to get about 60 miles on the week.

This is a kind-of build-back to, what I hope will be, a sustainable base. I want to keep pushing 60-65 miles a week for the next month or so.

Then I’ll have some bigger pushes up toward 80-90 mile weeks, for a couple weeks, then bounce back down to 60 miles. And hopefully feel good doing that.

About 3 weeks ago, we had the Santa Barbara Nine Trails race. I ran it for the first time this year. Felt okay mostly throughout, kind of fell apart in the back half. Was able to keep pushing and stay positive to the end.

I planned to drop the mileage down to like 50 miles the following week to recover a bit. The next week, I would push back up to 60 miles. But….

I had an unexpected collision with a mountain biker at the end of a run. It kind of jacked up my thigh a little bit. But, luckily we were both able to get back up. No major damage or injuries. It hurt to run the next couple days, so I decided to keep the mileage for the week at about 45 miles.

But now, this week, I’m trying to get to 60 miles, as long as I can get in my full 20 miles today. Hopefully, I can move forward with another 60 miles next week.

Just hit mile 4, and in about 1/3 mile, I’ll turn onto Farren Rd. This is probably my favorite road run in Goleta. Its about a 2.5 mile road out to a dead end, so out-n-back is a little under 5 miles. The road is very hilly, the full out-n-back has about 750 feet of up and down. Runnable, but a couple ass kicker quick climbs. The scenery is very pretty, the farm country of west Goleta. Looking forward to it.

Just hit the turnaround on Farren Rd. About 1 hour and 6 3/4 miles into the run. Still feeling just fine, but the Farren Rd rollers are tough.

Once I finish Farren Rd, the rest of the run will be much flatter – some small rollers, but nothing too steep.

As long as I can finish out the day strong with 20 miles, I’ll hit 60 on the week. Aside from yesterday on the trails, that will be mostly 60 road running miles. The 15 miles yesterday consisted of the typical steep and rocky Santa Barbara trails. So there was a fair amount of hiking…

Just hit mile 10, in about 85 minutes or so. Done with Farren Rd, and getting back onto the pretty Cathedral Oaks road. These last 10 miles are gonna be a little tough. The legs are feeling a little sore from the verty trail run yesterday. Plus I haven’t hit sixty miles in a couple weeks. So, the legs are just feelin’ it. But luckily no serious pains or injury type things. Just general soreness.

We’ll get there, so lets just finish today strong.

The reason I’m wanting to consistently run 60 miles is because I’m running with a particular goal in mind.

I put my name on the waitlist for a race called The Last Annual Vol State Road Race. Its a 500 kilometer road race across the state of Tennessee in the month of July. So, its gonna be hot as hell and humid. And its on roads. Mostly flat – I’ve seen that there’s about 10 -11k feet of vert. Spread out over approximately 310 miles, thats gonna feel flat compared to what I usually run. I just ran None Trails, which has about 11 or 12k vert in only about 35 miles.

So training is gonna be different. Around this time last year, I was doing a similar thing, trying to hit 60 mile weeks as a base. Occasionally, hit 80 or 90 miles, but go back to 60 and feel good. But that block was for the purpose of running Tahoe 200, a 200-mile trail race with about 35,000 feet of up and down. It was a proper mountain trail race.

This will block will be for a flat-ish, 300 mile road race. The quality of the miles will be a lot different. Most of the running will be on roads. And actual RUNNING. Not power-hiking up steep, technical trails and hopping down big descents.

This is gonna be actual running for 60 miles, for weeks on weeks on weeks. Occasionally hitting 80, 90, or probably even 100 miles for a couple weeks, then dropping back down to 60. We’ll see if my body can hold onto it.

Last year, for the first 3 months of the year, I was dealing with a nagging glute injury. So, I was mostly biking, only running enough to keep my run streak alive.

But, right now, the body’s feeling great. So Im gonna keep going.

Just hit 14 miles, about 2 hours in. Going about 7 miles per hour. I’m pretty happy with that, considering my legs were pretty sore this morning.

I’m running on another 2 ish mile outnback road. This on is mostly flat. Also on pretty, west Goleta farm country.

Man, Goleta and Santa Barbara is the best place for year-round running. Amazing.

Gonna hit 60 miles this week. Gotta start doing that consistently. Season the legs a little more. Get them used to a higher volume. Gotta get ready for a friggin 500k road race.

I don’t need to focus too much on speed, more so on endurance. I need to be able to keep putting one foot in front in front of the other, keep moving forward, even when its screaming painful. Hopefully be able to keep the mindset in running mode, not fall into a slow walk. Thats when the mental state starts to spiral downward.

I want to focus on endurance, keeping that pitter-patter turnover for as long as possible. Even if its not fast, just a slow jog – thats better for the mental in the long-term.

Of course I know there will be plenty of walking at a 500k road race. I may try to strategize a bit with a run/walk strategy. There is a lot of interesting history around this race. It goes back at least to the mid-2000s. I will have to do a whole blog write-up for a deep dive on the race.

I finished up my 20 miles for the day – 2 hrs 54 min elapsed, about 6.75 miles per hour. That is how I evaluate my running these days. I think more about mph than minutes per mile pace. A pace of about 4.5 mph gets pretty close to a 24 hr 100 mile.

My legs are sore, but the run felt doable. The last 30-40 min got tough because of dehydration. I could have done with one more 500ml flask of water. Now I know for the next long run.

Onto another week of 60 miles.

Music Selection:

Billy Strings 4/3/2026, St. Augustine, FL. Thanks to taper: Z-Man. Sweet jams as always. “Away From the Mire” had a cool jam section. The entire crowd was able to start singing every word of “Dust in a Baggie” from the opening bluegrass guitar lick.