That's what I would like to see this week :) Not looking forward to another 90+ track workout tonight. I need to come up with a workout that is fun and won't kill us like the mile repeats did a few weeks ago. Any suggestions?
Another build up week is in the bag and I feel good. No nagging pains other than a sore shoulder from double digging my way to an 80*2 ft flowerbed (And I'm only half way done!) What was I thinking?
Stats:
Tues- Track: 6.25
Wed- Buckeye Trail (Pine Lane) with Solar Squirrel: 8
Thur- yoga
Fri- Early morning rolling roads with SERC Gals: 8
Saturday- Buckeye Trail with MT and Wild Bill's Crew. Fastest we've run Boston to Snowville yet: 18-19
Sunday- Solon Morning Run: 10
Total 50
I was aiming for 48 but the girls were doing ten Sunday and ten with company sounded better than 8 without.
Sometime in the past few weeks I found my trail feet. A few of the runners the first time we went out on the Buckeye Trail to get ready for the 50 K made a comment about how I was too fast to be running that pace. It got me thinking about it and I knew I really slowed down on the trails. I just blamed it on the terrain. Buckeye Trail is no walk in the park for sure. But that statement got into my subconscious and two weekends ago on the 23 miler I decided to push the pace a bit. And it felt wonderful! All of a sudden I was hammering down hills I used to tip toe down. I don't know if it was just that I finally spent enough time on the trail or what but I feel more aggressive, faster, and stronger on the trails than I ever have and I am really looking forward to the Buckeye 50K this weekend.
I am not really doing a taper as I am still focused on getting my mileage up (which shouldn't be too hard with 31 miles on Saturday). This will be MT's first 50k and I promised her we would stick together. I have a feeling I won't have to slow down much though, she's been rocking the trails and only seems to get better with distance. In a few years if the two of us decide to stay on the 50k scene I wouldn't doubt we could be duking it out for top honors at smaller races like this one. But for this weekend our goal is 6:15. I've added up all the times we have run all the legs of the race and that seems like a reasonable goal even if we do some heavy walking on the last 6. That will be a slight PR for me and a respectable debut for MT so we would be very happy with that. And if the weather gets us down or we have dead legs our back up goal is sub 7 and our it's freaking horrible out here goal is to finish sub 8.
11 comments:
Good luck this weekend and stay cool! It's supposed to cool off a little by the weekend. I'll be thinking of you.
So you finally started letting gravity take hold down the hills. Feels great doesn't it. Especially when you realize you've reached terminal velocity and there's no slowing down till the bottom.
I'll see you Sat bombing the hills (or at least when you pass Bill and I on the way back). Good luck.
Despite the heat, you're really flying it sounds like! Woohoo! Must be the track workouts in the heat.
Good luck this weekend! I'm sure I'll see you flying past me at some point ☺
Good luck to MT as well...there's going to be a lot of 50k virgins out there LOL!
maybe you backed off in training a little and it has done you good .... the weather could also be helping you ... as you do well when it is warmer
maybe, I'm imagining stuff, but i have read you blog so so long now it seems to make sense to me ... have fun running the trail, i think you will
I have a suggestion! I like these new fangled track workouts my coach is giving me. They seem too slow on paper (e.g. 5 x 1000 at a hair slower than current 10k pace), but with 1:00 rest and then followed by very hard 200's (4 x 200 @ 1 mi race pace), it's actually pretty tough at the end of a solid week of training. He advises to increase the rest between reps when it's extra hot out, which probably makes sense no matter what kind of reps you're doing.
I was going to agree with you that we were on the same wave length, but then I read you're running a 50k this weekend!! I can't believe you're going to run that much at one time! That is insane to me! I'll never run more than a marathon. I just couldn't imagine! Although, I read some of your ultra race reports way back when and they sounded much more fun than any race I've ever run--none of them had snack breaks! Good luck and I hope you run far fast and have a ton of fun doing it!!!
Wow! Good luck!
As for a track workout...
1x 1600 warm up
1x 1600
2x 1200
2x 800
2x 400
1x 1600 cool down
It's still a very tough workout but since the distances drop it "seems" to get easier.
How awesome that you found your trail feet!! Sounds like you are ready for the 50k for sure. Goodluck! Hammer down those hills!!!
When it's hot here, we switch to cross country and hill repeats. And try not to open our mouths too much to minimize the number of bugs we accidentally swallow.
"trail feet"? you know they have creams for that.
Good luck!!!!!
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