2012: Week 2

After two weeks, I have realized that my body gets very unhappy with me very quickly if I do not take at least one day a week off from running. That's not to say that I have to take one day a week completely off, but I do need to lay off running once a week. So I moved to plan B: running 6 out of 7 days for 2012. Sometimes I might run every day for a week, sometimes I might take two days off running in a row. This will both give me more flexibility in my schedule, and allow my body to recover from the impact. I think on the whole this will let me run more than I would were I to try to run every day.

This week, my "day off" was my first day skate skiing in approximately 10 years. My friend Matt and I went up to Eldora on Saturday and skied there for about an hour and a half. I have been away from skiing so long that I had forgotten some basic facts. First: I love skate skiing. When you get into a good rhythm there's nothing else quite like it. Second: it's exhausting! There were a few muscles yesterday that haven't been used in a while, and are definitely complaining some today.

Sadly I cannot say I hopped on a pair of skis and it all came back to me. Rather, say that I hopped on a pair of skis, pushed off once, and promptly fell flat on my back. Not the most graceful return to skiing ever, but certainly amusing for me and those watching me.

Luckily, my body still remembers how to ski. As soon as I stopped thinking about it and just let myself ski, my muscle memory took over and I was soon back into the old V1 rhythm again. The V2 and Open Field rhythm will take a little bit longer to come back to me, but by the end of the outing on Saturday I could consistently V2 again without losing my balance and flailing around like a startled chicken for a few strides.

Running-wise,  this was another good week. Despite a busy work week, and not feeling as good as I hoped, I still ran 35 miles, 5 more than last week. With my run today, I've gone 70 miles in 2012, and have yet to take a run over 9 miles or so. Once I start putting in a long run every weekend again,  I fully expect that total to increase again. I feel for one as though I am right on track (knock on wood) and getting progressively more fit.

This week also saw the introduction of a little more focused running. One aspect of training that was notably lacking in the lead-up to the Leadville Marathon last year was focused speed and strength workouts. Instead, I did a lot of miles, with the occasional tempo section thrown in for good measure.

Noting this lack and deciding to fix it, I did a Fartlek on Tuesday, and a tempo run up Flagstaff on Friday this past week, and I foresee these becoming a regular part of my week. My normal speedy workout, the Wednesday night run from the Boulder Running Company, was rendered less speedy this week by a nice layer of ice on the bike paths. I can already feel the difference that getting a few sharper workouts makes in my general feeling of fitness. I think if I can hit a regular Saturday ski day as well, that will only help.

On the topic of skiing, and since this post has been much more wordy than i generally prefer, here's a picture I know I've posted before. One of my favorite places to ski in the winter and run in the summer is Hartley Nature Center in Duluth. In 2010, I skied there over Christmas a few times, and managed to capture this pic: