Tuesday, July 26, 2011

0-100 miles: Training for a Trail Ultra Day 1

I am constantly kicking around ideas to stay motivated and run consistently. Recently my friend Tim was up from Utah visiting me on Vancouver Island. We were discussing motivation techniques to aid in consistency, and I thought an idea to help me get back on track with my running goals would be to create a video blog (vlog) of what it takes for a slightly below average trail runner, that is currently out of shape and running inconsistently, to train up for a longer distance 50 or 100 mile Ultra.

I will record a few thoughts during one or several runs each week about what I am going through as I try to whittle my pathetic body into a beginning ultra-runner. The blog and idea are more for me than anybody else but I thought I would share so perhaps someone in a similar boat might see my experiment with long distance and hopefully learn from my mistakes.

The end result should allow me to run more consistently for the next 6 months to a year and hopefully will lead to a Ultra event of some sort.

Today's run was a 6-7ish mile run up and down and around Mount Douglas in Victoria. This is my usual venue for training. Tomorrow I will do a flat 5 miles.

Below is my first Vlog. I have to mention my voice can be quite monotone and boring. I often have to teach labs for my schooling and after each course the students evaluate you and you can read what they said about you later. I have to say I have been lucky to get great reviews but one student gave me a critique that follows "you are extremely passionate about geology, BUT... your monotone voice which lacks any sort of inflection makes it sound like you are quite bored, and as a result makes me think you are not as excited about it as you should be." I laughed and had to agree. I definitely have a weird monotone voice, so if this vlog puts you to sleep I apologize. Additionally I say um, uh, and so WAY too much. I am not a great orator but the idea is just to show others my life as I train for ultra distances through my eyes. It is a little uncomfortable putting myself out there like this but I will roll the dice and see what comes of it.

2 comments:

Tim said...

LOVE your first VLOG post, it is AWESOME!!!!! Can't wait for more. It was REALLY cool to watch the video and I could tell exactly where you were at each section of your video. I REALLY miss those runs up there and would LOVE to go run up there again.

I am ALSO excited to see how your training comes along. I get motivated a lot when I am able to see and read about your progress as it helps me stay motivated.

Lastly, I still laugh every time I see me eat it, they will go down in history!! GOOD TIMES GOOD TIMES

Eliza Ralph-Murphy said...

I really enjoyed your video also. Your voice is not so monotone but the heavy breathing maybe compensating for that a bit. You do come across as someone who genuinely wants to share his experience. Cool that you are using Bryon's plan from his book. Good Luck with your training and thanks for sharing your run with me;-)