3 Weeks Out

WEEK 3: JAN 11- JAN 17

M- AM 75 min, 11 miles

      PM 65 min, 10 miles

T- AM  95 min, 13 miles

     PM  46 min, 7 miles

W- AM 70 min, 10 miles

     PM 59 min, 6 miles + 2+ barefoot miles

T- AM 48 min, 7 miles

     PM 46 min, 7 miles

F- AM 43 min, 6 miles

     PM 46 min, ~ 6 miles

S- 154 min, 21-22 miles

S-  40 minutes, 4+ miles

TOTAL: 110+ MILES, 13 hrs 7 min, 7:09 min/mile

WEEK 4: JAN 18- JAN 24

M- AM 66 min, 10 miles

     PM  41 min, 6 miles

T-  AM 67 min, 10 miles

      PM 40 min,6 miles

W- AM 62 min, 8 miles

      PM 40 min, 6 miles

T- AM  44 min, 6 miles

     PM  40 min, 6 miles

F- 160 min 1.5 mile warmup, 10 miles @ 6:10 pace, 1 mile cool down, INCLINE MILE (41 minutes of super intense stair climbing), 4 mile run down barr trail, total 17.5 miles

S- long run with team CRUD, 182 min, 20-ish miles

S- 2 miles (barefoot)

TOTAL: 97.5 MILES, 12 hrs 22 min, 7:36 min/mile

These last two weeks of training have been great!  I have hit my goals for weekly milage for 2 weeks straight, and now only have 3 more cycles to go before race day.

Week 3 was crucial to see if I would be able to make the jump into 100+ mile weeks without any strain on my body.  It turns out, everything went according to plan... mostly.  I started out the week bagging some big miles with my roommate.  This left me with some room to take recovery days to get ready for my workout on Saturday.  I ended up running with team CRUD, based out of Colorado Springs.  They were doing a half marathon time trial, and needing some speed training, I decided to follow suit.  I turned out to be a very fun day.  I got to meet a lot of nice people, and ended up hitting around 6:30 miles very easily.

The second week was meant to test how my body responded to a slight drop in milage.  Basically, if I was in decent shape, my body would be able to recover.  If not, I would continue to feel fatigued and I would then modify my 120 mile week to something a bit more manageable.  It turns out I didn't really get to test that, since I fell ill on Monday with some sort of respiratory affliction that is still haunting me.  However, I did get a good week of milage in, along with 2 solid back to back workouts.  On Friday, I did a ten mile workout at 6:10 pace along the Sante Fe trail.  Then afterwards, I attempted the incline for the first time.  With ten hard miles on my legs already, 2000 vertical feet in one mile destroyed my legs.  But I got myself good and tired for the long run the next day.  Below is a picture of Gold Camp road, which we ran uphill for about 10 miles, then turned around and headed back to the cars.  Overall, we ran just over 3 hours.  I decided to celebrate my two week triumph with a Gatorade, 2 chocolate milks, and two Jimmy John's sandwiches, all finished within a half hour.

Upping the milage

Getting back into intense training this year has been much easier than expected.  I've found that my body has been responding very well to upping the milage every week, and this week I've finally started my seven week plan to train for the Run Toto Run 50k in Wyandotte County, Kansas.

Although most people from around the country think a race in Kansas won't be challenging or beautiful, this race is both.  Set in the Wyandotte County State Park, it boasts over 5000 feet of elevation gain and some pretty serious technical trails.  There's also plenty of wildlife to be seen throughout the course.  I've heard rumors of a mountain lion somewhere inside the park as well.

So, the seven week plan is....

Week 1: 85 miles

Week 2: 100

Week 3: 110

Week 4: 100

Week 5: 120

Week 6: 85

Week 7: 50 easy

Since, I live on the east side of Colorado Springs, I haven't really been able to explore many of the mountain trails located on the west side.  Moreso, I've been running either around my neighborhood or along a flat dirt trail that leads south to Fountain.  Running through the neighborhood has offered its share of scares, as dogs around here always seem to be very aggressive.  One dog in particular, a purebred husky, attempts to leap over its wall (about 7 feet) and nearly succeeds every time.  The only upside to this is a serious "fight or flight" adrenaline boost that sends me into sub-6 minute miles.  I'll make sure not to run by on my recovery days.