Spangdahlem Winter Marathon

Before I do a recap of the Spang Marathon I will do a quick runthrough of last weeks training.
Tuesday/ 4.5 miles/ unknown time/ unkown elevation.
Felt some tightness in my calves today so I decided to cut the run short. It is always better to cut a run short or even miss it rather than get injured and miss weeks or months of training. This has happened with my calves before and it sucks. I started having ace bandages around them as much as possible and rolling them out with a plastic stick.
Wednesday/ 5 miles/ 50-55min/ 0 elevation (track)
Today was a great speed session. Definitly put myself to the test here. 1 mile warm up then 6 quarter mile sprints with a quarter mile cool down in between each sprint then a mile cool down. The real challenge today was the weather though. 17 degress, high wind, and heavy snow. Each sprint stayed at between 1:30min to 1:50min a quarter mile.
Thursday/ 7 miles/ 1:15/ unknown elevation
First off I am having trouble moving the data from my watch  to my computer wich explains why I have no idea what elevation I am climbing. Anyway though tonight was a good, night run out on snow covered trails.  I used a headlamp but there is still a bit of darkness to deal with, which keeps you completely focused. As does the snow and poor traction. Despite focusing I did manage to catch my foot on a ledge and fall down and bang my hip pretty good no harm done though.
Saturday/ 6-8 miles/ unknown time/ unkown elevation
I took an early run out to to some new farm roads today and learned very quickly snow is sapping my energy. Despite very steep climbs and steps the effort level for this run was far above what I felt it should have been. This made me worry alot about tomorrow.
Sunday/ Spangdahlem Winter Marathon/ 26.2 miles/ 4:27/
One lap around Spangdahlem is 6.5 miles. It has been a goal to do a marathon on base for a long time know and I felt it was time.
Lap One/ miles 0-6.5
This lap was uncomfortable. My legs felt tired and heavy. It was cold, early, and I was tired. The thoughts what am I doing out here and maybe people are righ, maybe I am crazy were running through my head alot. I kept between a 10-11 min mile pace here and there was a lot of effort. Once I reached back to my car from the other direction I was tempted to hop back in and climb back in bed.
Lap Two/ miles 6.5-13
I regrouped myself at the car got some more GU and took off like a rocket to get away before I got in and drove home. I looked at my watch and was running a 9:30 mile. I was going way too fast but it felt good so I decided to see what I could do with it. I watched the miles tick away and I felt completely renewed. All the bad thoughts went away and my legs felt light and fast. This lap was awesome and was over as soon as it felt like it started.
Lap Three/ miles 13-19.5
I managed to keep the pace and also steadily sped up since mile 7. I got my pace down to 9 mins a mile and was holding strong there. I did start feeling soreness in my upper body though just from general fatigue. I also started dodging snow on the ground when I could as it takes a lot more energy to run thorugh (I contibute snow running and sprints to my new fast pace). The wind also picked up on the back part of this loop and by the time it broke I could definitly feel stiffness in my back and drooping shoulders. This was the begining of the end.
Lap Four/ miles 19.5-26.25
I started this lap ok. Tired sore and ready to stop running around inside a fence. I did get a kick though at the four sets of footprints on the snow. After I got to mile 22 I "hit the wall" and it hurt. I got light headed and felt weak. I began walking when I had to and pushing a 10:30 min mile pace when I could. I finally saw my car but ran to .25 instead of .2 because im not sure if theres anything after that. I looked at my watch and saw a final time of 4:27. Over two hours off my previous marathon time of 6:39 in august. I ate 8 Gus four fun sized packs of Haribo gummy bears and about half a coke plus two Nuun tabs and a LOT of water. It hurt and seemed tedious after a while but I felt great mentally through the middle and almost the end. Definitly need to get more used to toying with the wall. Im thinking I might intentionally hit it earlier to get practice. I drove away considering a Spangdahlem Summer Marathon. Thanks for reading guys, and remember visit livestrong.com or livestrong.org for info and help or visit http://grassroots2011.livestrong.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=443028&supid=307621557
to donate.
Sean

Scattered Running

I havn't posted for a while now, because I really havn't had any organized training to talk about. Since my last post I've moved and been so busy I went a long time without a long run. I did a lot of five through ten mile runs that were at a much faster pace than I've been used to. The miles were usually between 8 and 10 minutes wich is down from 10:30 to 11:30. All of these intense runs definitly showed this last weekend with a couple strong runs. Friday was an hour and a half 9 miler on some awesome technical trail I found. It was 25 and snowing pretty well. Then Sunday my Garmin died .86 miles into a 20 mile run on the same trail so I just decided to run three and a half hours in the woods. I cam to alot of dead ends on the trails that brought down my pace quit a bit. It came out to probably around 18-20 miles. I ate a GU when I was hungry wich also means it was probably too late and ended up running low on blood sugar and muscle/liver glycoghen or "bonking" pretty hard near the last 6 or so miles. Since I don't have much to post today I figure I would throw in a quick product review. I recently got a pack of Carb Boom energy gels. For the sake of simplicity though instead of saying energy gels Ill just say GU. Here it is.

Nutrition Facts
Serv. Size 1 Pack (41g)
Servings Per Container 24
Amount Per Serving
Calories 110
Calories from Fat 0
%DV*
Total Fat 0g	0%
Sodium 50mg	2%
Total Carb 27g	9%
Sugars 3g
Protein 0g	0%
Potassium 50mg	1%
*Percent daily values (DV) are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

As you can see it is pretty standard as far as GU goes nutritionally. I am confident that had I been more organized eating these on the 3.5 hour run I would not have bonked as hard or as early. The thing that really stands out about these though is they are as far as I know the only GU that has real fruit juice in it. The tastes of these honestly is unique a bit in that it was not too sweet but not bland, which seems to be the pattern with GUs. It tastes like the inside of those old hostess apple fruit pies. I was also able to see what happens to these in very cold temperatures as well. They do thicken almost to a chewing consistency and they also get a little grainy but they do retain the same taste wich is very satisfying. Well thats all for today except I do want to mention going to this blog http://www.runningandrambling.com/ for a few awesome shoe giveaways going on untill Christmas. He also has a lot of great information on minimalist ultra running and other stuff. I've read probably an insane amount of the gear reviews and just general blog. See ya guys. Ill be updating probably on sunday with this weeks running wich is going great despite 17 degree snowstorms.
-Sean

Running for Livestrong.

Hello Everyone,
My name is Sean Scroggins. I have recently decided to begin running Ultramarathons for Livestrong. I am currently in my fourth week of training for my first race. The races website can be found here. http://www.weigelt-sportpartner.de/proj01/default.aspx Just click on the british flag to read it in english. It is a 12 Hour Ultramarathon on a 1.11 mile loop. They say for every race you should come up with three goals so here are mine.
1. Complete 50 miles.
2. Place in top ten overall.
3. Get some donations for Livestrong.
The second goal depends alot on how many people sign up so we will see. Right now I am just focusing on getting the word out about taking donations and training. Its just a short post this week but in the future I will be posting pictures of some trails and training days, reviews of running gear, and some weekly training stats. When it comes to running I am definitly just a regular joe and not an elite or even really an athlete so hopefully I can offer a regular joes perspective on some running stuff. I look forward to running and talking to you all but untill next week I'm afraid I gotta run. (Just a little running humor for ya). Oh yea to visit my charity page please go to http://grassroots2011.livestrong.org/ulrasforlivestrong any help is GREATLY appreciated.