Workouts.

This past Saturday I did specific two-a-day workout that I read about on a blog, and I think I'll start incorporating them more regularly.  In the morning, do a "long" run of 15-20 miles and a comfortable pace, then that night do a hard foot turnover workout (I did an 8 mile tempo). It gives you pretty good mileage on the day and trains your body to run fast when tired.  I'm not going to replace long run days with these, but I think I'll do them during the week every couple weeks.  The evening workout can be hellish, so they won't become frequent.

I feel really good about wear my fitness is right now. My legs are absorbing whatever I throw at them, and while I'm only running ~70-76 mpw right now compared to the 85 I was running this fall, I feel strong and faster.  I'm not slacking off so much as just focusing more since I'm not running anything longer than a 50k until August. 

This weekend I'm going out with Rudy from the VT Tri team and whoever else might decide to tag along to do back-to-back long runs.  The Saturday run will be an AT route I've wanted to do for a while but haven't since it requires stashing a car.  20 miles of singletrack with ~5500 feet of elevation gain, which is the most you can really get here without just doing hill repeats or heading north of Roanoke.  

2011/2012

2011 was the best year of running I had, even though my two big races went abysmally.  This fall especially, I had the best training cycle ever, with routine quality workouts instead of ust running every day.

Looking forward to 2012, I'm doing the LUS (Lynchburg Ultra Series), as well as a the Gahuti Ring Of Power down in Georgia and the Cheat Mountain 50 miler in August.  If I bounce back quickly from the CM50 then I'm going to run the Grindstone 100 in October and try to finish the Beast Series.

It'll be a fun year though, that's for sure.

Revised 2012

After disappointment and frustration at both Leadville and Hellgate the second half of this year, I've decided to revise my thoughts for 2012 and focus my races a bit more.  Hellgate was frustrating, but I fought it out as long as I could, and of my 3 DNF's in ultras, it's the one where I know I made the right decision.  I had only managed to eat a couple handfuls of pretzel sticks from mile ~15 through 44 (where I dropped) and the course is too demanding to get that depleted.  There are some lengthy rock fields and technical descents in the 8.6-mile stretch into Bearwallow Gap, and they just destroyed me.  Regardless, I loved every bit of Hellgate I ran, even the parts I hated, and I will be back.

So anyway,  I had planned to give 100 miles another crack in 2012, but I've re-evaluated, and I want to get better at shorter distances before I give that arduous task another go.  I also want to give myself more quality, focused workouts this year and try to get faster.  For now at least, this is what I'm thinking for 2012:

Spring:
Holiday Lake 50k++
Terrapin Mountain 50k
Promised Land 50k
Mt. Washington Road Race (Something pretty different, but I do enjoy climbing)
The Eastern Divide Ultra 50k (new race, 30 minutes from my apartment, looks to be a fast course)


After this, I'm (almost) definitely signing up for Mountain Masochist to round out the LUS, and if I can do the right workouts (if I even want to) this summer, I might go to Grindstone and try at just finishing, but probably not.
If I don't then my fall will be some combination of this:
IMTR 50 Miler
Cheat Mtn 50 Miler
Mountain Masochist 50 Miler
Hellgate 100k+

I'm not going to double MMTR and Hellgate, so which I decide to race will really depend on my training through the summer and autumn.  Whichever I choose, I want to be fully prepared.


My thought for not doing anything longer until the Fall is that I can do a natural progression of mileage, focusing on some speed this spring and then making it longer as I move forward into the Fall.  I've got plenty of base from this Fall, so hopefully I can bounce back quickly.  I'm also only taking 15 (fairly easy) credit hours this Spring thanks to abysmal course placement by the Chemistry Department limiting my schedule, so I'll have time to do more focus workouts and actually do stretching and core work and all that good stuff.

Fall running and 2012 racing

After Leadville I had a few weeks of great running.  Coming from the mountains of Colorado, everything in Blacksburg just felt easier, so after my week off, I ran 3 straight weeks of probably 90 (fast for me) miles per week.  Then I just didn't really feel much like running, at least daily, so I ran maybe 50-65 mpw, but over the course of 3-4 days.  After I ran 3 Ridges + Priest (24ish miles with 8k ft vert/8k ft descent) with the CAT people and Jenny though, I got the spark back and started running again regularly.  Now, I'm starting to peak for the Hellgate 100k next month, and I feel in great shape.  I'm on my 3rd straight week of at least 1 long run for the week.  I like to get out for 16-18 miles on Tuesdays if I can, but those are touch-and-go.  Anyway,  I finished a 24 mile 3:30 run up on Ft. Lewis Mountain This is my new favorite area to run near school. It's like 30 minutes away, but there's a lot of winding single track and service road you can string together for any length of run.

Anyway,  I feel pretty good, and the miles are coming easily, so I'm excited for Hellgate.  It will be my first 100k; I love running in the cold and running at night, so it'll be a treat--a horribly masochistic treat.

Onward.

I need to get the 100 mile monkey off my back, so Old Dominion is going to be my first peak race of the year...all the way in June.  I would also like a 50 mile PR, since my current (10 hours) is pretty bad, and I know I can knock a couple hours off that, so Bull Run Run 50 or the Mississippi 50 is on the list for Spring.  It'll be an interesting year.

January: one of 3 50k's.
March 3: Mississippi 50 Mile Run  OR
April 12: Bull Run Run 50 Mile

April 12-14: 24 Hour run for cancer OR
June 2: Old Dominion 100

August 24-25: Cheat Mountain 50 Mile
September 1: Iron Mountain Trail Run 50 Mile
~October 4: Grindstone 100

That's a lot of racing; especially if I get the urge to do a marathon or retry Terrapin Mountain, but I'm looking forward to it.

Leadville: DNF

The week before any race I normally feel nervous.   I feel my throat down in my gut and my extremities tingle. Leadville didn’t fall into this rule.  I moved into my apartment in Boulder, CO in late May with the sole objective to run.  I went out for 3-hour jaunts in the mountains a few times a week and had the best training block I’ve ever had.  Three weeks before Leadville I went out for my final long run planning to do the Boulder Skyline that traverses Bear Peak, Green Mountain, Mt. Sanitas, and Flagstaff if I recall.  During this run I ran out of water very early and it took me several days to feel recovered, but I still felt tired on most of my runs for another week.  I finally came around about 10 days before Leadville since I’d been tapering and I started feeling all my strength come back.

So when I toed the line at 4am last Saturday, I wasn’t nervous.  I felt ready.  I started near the front because I don’t like doing the shuffle across the start line of large races that is standard for the middle of the pack onward. Once everything opened up a few hundred yards later I settled into what felt to be a nice slow cruise along the first road miles.  I know well that I have a problem with starting races too fast, so I made sure I stayed within myself.  I kept pulling back to keep myself bored (I kept myself in my head to know I wouldn’t pull away).   I hit the tabor boat ramp at mile 6 in what felt pretty slow and I maintained that pace through May Queen.   I felt heavy this entire section and I figured it was just nature calling.

At May Queen my dad informed me that I came through at 2:05—10 minutes faster than what I’d planned.  Two Gu chomps packs and a refill on my Nathan bladder and I was off to Fish Hatchery.  I hiked a good portion of the climb up Sugarloaf just to slow down some and then held myself back down powerline.  Through this point in the day I’d felt pretty bad and had a growing ball in my bowels that I was hoping could be taken care of soon and I would feel better.  That never happened.  I felt decent on the road to fish hatchery except for that and some growing blisters form my Hoka OneOnes.  I came through Fish Hatchery at 4:10, 20 minutes faster than I’d planned but I still felt like I was holding back just fine.  I switched into my Saucony Peregrines, put on some sunscreen and swapped my Nathan pack for a handheld for the upcoming 3-4 mile stretch to Timberline.  On this road my right quad started hurting. Not cramping, not a sore feeling, but just hurting.  I felt it on every step until I had to resort to walking until we got onto a dirt road and even then my stride was more of a lope dragging my right leg behind.  I took a few minutes at Timberline to try to massage it out and then I headed on to Twin lakes.  The stretch to Halfmoon II or whatever they call it now was uneventful.  I felt bad but I ran it.  At that aid station I sat and massaged my quad while eating some watermelon and ramen.  I was feeling great again except for my quad and when I headed out.  I walked almost all of the next 10 miles to Twin Lakes.  I ended up getting into Twin Lakes pretty close to cut-off and made the decision to quit.  It might have been possible that I’d have turned things around, but most likely not and at my current rate I wouldn’t have even made it to Winfield by cut-off.  Even if I did manage to pick things back up, I didn’t go to Leadville to stagger in at 29:50 and so I made the decision drop.

The next day I couldn’t bend my right knee and that reassured me that I’d made the appropriate decision.  I went for a 30-minute jog today and felt okay, except my right quad still felt raw.  In another week I should be back to some decent semblance of training.

Training update

I'm sitting on my bed with my feet propped up for a recovery day after a nice week of training.  This weekend is 6 weeks out from Leadville, and during the past week I weighed whether to do my back-to-back long runs this weekend or the next.  I opted for this one so I still have two weeks to put in long(er) runs before I drop down my long run mileage a bit in the final month.  I really want to run the Four Pass Loop in Aspen while I'm out here this summer, so all is working out.   This is also one of those weeks that makes me feel really good about what I'm doing and look forward a great deal to racing.  I ran up Mt. Elbert last Saturday, so I shied from vertical some this week to help keep my mileage up more.

The nitty gritty:

Monday:
AM: 10 miles (Dowdy Draw/Goshawk Ridge with some add-on at the end) Pretty flat
PM: 4 miles and 40-min elliptical after weight room workout.

Tuesday:
AM:  10 miles (same as monday)
PM:  5 miles (3 and 4 were barefoot)--Just a shake-out run around town with two miles on Kittredge Field.

Wednesday:
AM: 8 Miles Walker Ranch loop
PM:  2 miles and weights/cross-training

Thursday:
PM: 2 miles barefoot

Friday:
PM:  5-hour long run (mostly) on the LT100 course.  ~25 miles in length. Ran from the Turquoise Lake dam to the Fish Hatchery then looped back around.

Saturday:
AM: 4-hour long run. ~20 miles (very sluggish, plenty of hiking up).  Parked 2 miles west of Twin Lakes at a bridge that crosses the currently impassable river there, and ran up and over Hope Pass.  Didn't go down to Winfield, just went down the other side far enough to get a feel for the trail on that side.  My muscles felt fine on this run, but I was just tired overall and couldn't push it how I'd have liked to have done.

Total: 86 miles.

I'm pretty happy with this week since after the long runs my legs feel fine, but I just feel kind of wiped out.  After today off, I'm going to get back into some climbs this week.  I'm going to do this week hard, then take a few easy days when my mom visits at the beginning of next week.  After that break, I'm going to try to push all the way until I start to taper in early August.

Ruminations on Summer Training

I thought I'd write something up since I've been asked about my running as of late, and I'm bored recovering from yesterday's long run.  I've been in Boulder for three weeks now, and I've finally adjusted to the altitude and gotten my training back to a normal level.  I've not been following any strict mileage or training program since I got here, I've just been running up a mountain at least 5 times a week, which normally is 8-10 miles per outing, and I've done two long runs so far (the first being 25 miles and the second be 22).

Now with just under 10 weeks left until Leadville, I'm going to be upping my mileage and I've actually planned (sort of) my training up through 5 weeks out from Leadville). I really don't like following strict plans because I get to involved in the numbers and push myself to the point of injury, but I do like having a general idea of training, so here it is:

The next two weeks:
Monday-Thursday:
AM: One of three routes (either Bear Peak, Green Mountain, or Walker Ranch Lollipop)
PM: (Mon, Tues, Thurs)Running to and from the gym (2.5 miles each way) plus weights and ab work
Friday: A flat 8-10 mile run (most likely Boulder Creek Path)
Saturday: Long Run (5-5.5 hours)
Sunday: barefoot on Kittredge for recovery

I hope to hit about 100 miles per week each of these weeks.  My mileage has been somewhat low for 100 mile training, but it's been very focused.  I don't worry about hitting high mileage when I climb 3000' in a 7 mile run.

Anyway, the week after that will be fairly light for recovery purposes.  I'll probably just climb once or twice that week and focus more at the gym and on cross-training. Then I'll have three weeks before I peak for Leadville.

Those three weeks will be similar to the upcoming two, with the exception being that the middle week will not have a long run (or it won't be out of the teens at least), and the third week will end with 100 miles in 2-3 days (fastpacking the Leadville Course).  Then I'll have a recovery week when my mom comes to visit, and two more weeks of training before I start a long taper.

Ten weeks out, and I'm pretty excited. It's going to be a fun summer.