Laurel Highlands 50K

The Laurel Highlands ultra entered my list of "must-do" events after I saw this pic from Trail Porn. Despite the edgy name of the site, the pics are all beautiful scenery shots - they are NOT NSFW... which I supposed makes them "SFW". ;)

This was the year! I sent in my entry application and even convinced some friends to come along. I opted for the 50K since 70.5M is significantly farther than I've run. Also, I heard the course is very difficult in general.

Race report coming plus and a few pics.

For now, here are some videos I took in the various "labyrinth" sections I encountered on the 50K. I really enjoy the natural mossy rock formations, especially when the trail winds narrowly winds in between. So I was really happy to run through these sections, back up and go through again taking a video with my phone.

Laurel Highlands 1

Laurel Highlands 2

Laurel Highlands 3

Week 18

The plan for week 18 was:

	week #	week	M	T	W	Th	F	S	Su	Total
	18	5/2/2016		4	4	6		10	6	30

What I ended up running was:

	week #	week	M	T	W	Th	F	S	Su	Total
	18	5/2/2016		5.4						5.4

• Mon May 2
• Tue May 3
PTJ run from CCBC. Good to get back out again since it had been a while.
• Wed May 4
• Thu May 5
• Fri May 6
• Sat May 7
• Sun May 8

This week was bad for running. It drizzled most days and I wasn't motivated enough to get out and run in the rain. I also had some other activities lined up for Sat so no running then either.

OK, I'm nearing the midpoint of the Yeti training plan and it doesn't look so good. I find running 3 times a week is reasonably easy, meaning I can schedule that without too much trouble as long as I run both days on the weekend. 4 times a week become much tougher, requiring advanced planning from getting to work early enough to leave at certain times, etc. 5 times a week is really hard - basically locks all days into running which I've only done on the week I took vacation.

So I might need to scale back my goal. If Yeti had other distances, say a 100K, that would be realistic especially due to the nature of the course. But it doesn't.

Thus, I'm thinking of getting 50 miles at Montour and if that goes well, signing up for Stone Mill, a 50M too. I'll fill in Aug/Sep/Oct with a few tougher trail events which are the ones I find the most fun.

Week 17

The plan for week 17 was:

	week #	week	M	T	W	Th	F	S	Su	Total
	17	4/25/2016		4	8	6		22	10	50

What I ended up running was:

	week #	week	M	T	W	Th	F	S	Su	Total
	17	4/25/2016			3.0			4.3		7.3

• Mon Apr 25
• Tue Apr 26
• Wed Apr 27
Quick run along the BWI trail.
• Thu Apr 28
• Fri Apr 29
• Sat Apr 30
Lake Elkhorn Trail.
• Sun May 1

Well this week didn't turn out as expected. I planned on 20 mi pacing some friends at C&O, but both of them dropped out so it didn't happen. Granted, conditions were lousy - cold and rainy. I slept in Sun and Mon to get back on a normal schedule.

Week 16

The plan for week 16 was:

	week #	week	M	T	W	Th	F	S	Su	Total
	16	4/18/2016		4	6	6		22	10	50

What I ended up running was:

	week #	week	M	T	W	Th	F	S	Su	Total
	16	4/18/2016			5.1				30.6	35.7

• Mon Apr 18
• Tue Apr 19
• Wed Apr 20
Run on the BWI trail.
• Thu Apr 21
• Fri Apr 22
• Sat Apr 23
• Sun Apr 24
Trap Pond, a local-ish 13.1M/26M/50K involving loops around a pond. Ran the marathon with Annette, then did another loop for the 50K. Great event!

Week 15

The plan for week 15 was:

	week #	week	M	T	W	Th	F	S	Su	Total
	15	4/11/2016		4	4	4		10	6	28

What I ended up running was:

	week #	week	M	T	W	Th	F	S	Su	Total
	15	4/11/2016		2.1	4.5	4.6	7.3		11.5	30

• Mon
• Tue
Walk around Lake Elkhorn with my parents.
• Wed
Wincopin green and red trails.
• Thu
Lake Elkhorn trail.
• Fri
Wincopin white and green trails. In the afternoon, walk around Lake Elkhorn with my parents.
• Sat
• Sun
Lake Elkhorn Trail to the Lake and back. And later, walk around Centennial Lake with my parents.

This is the first week in a while I've been mostly on track! It helped that I was off (family visiting) and could do a short run every day. Going forward I'm going to focus on 4 good runs a week - T, Th, S, Su. I've learned 5 times a week is very difficult to schedule.

Week 14

The plan for week 14 was:

	week #	week	M	T	W	Th	F	S	Su	Total
	14	4/4/2016		4	6	6		20	10	46

What I ended up running was:

	week #	week	M	T	W	Th	F	S	Su	Total
	14	4/4/2016		4.1				5.7	12.3	22.1

• Mon
• Tue
PTJ group run from CCBC.
• Wed
• Thu
• Fri
• Sat
Lake Elkhorn Trail.
• Sun
C&O Canal with Kate.

Week 13

The plan for week 13 was:

	week #	week	M	T	W	Th	F	S	Su	Total
	13	3/28/2016		4	6	4		20	8	42

What I ended up running was:

	week #	week	M	T	W	Th	F	S	Su	Total
	13	3/28/2016		3.8				13.2	3.2	20.2

• Mon Mar 28
• Tue Mar 29
Run with Kyle from Patapsco CCBC.
• Wed Mar 30
• Thu Mar 31
• Fri Apr 1
• Sat Apr 2
Mile Run trail half marathon. Drove up with Michael and Amy, meet Addie and Matt there, and had a fun time at a great trail race.
• Sun Apr 3
Short run on the green and red trails at Wincopin.

Had lingering sickness from last week, but it finally started clearing up. However, I still didn't get out there as much as I need to. This is about the 33% mark through training and I'm thinking that I'm not going to be ready for a 100M. There are other things I want to do besides place training for a 100M as my top priority. But that's OK, there is plenty of challenge and fun to be had at the 50K and lower distances, and I'd be happy with a 50M as a "challenge" race.
It isn't too late to gear up for Yeti but it would also be more realistic aim for the Stone Mill 50M in Nov.