2 week Update, May 5 - 19

Sunday, May 5: 13.1 miles, 200 feet, 1:27:35:  The Louisville Trail Half. I ended up in 5th over all and first place in my age group. This was a PR by five and a half minutes, and a solid run for me.

Monday, May 6: 6 miles, 800 feet: Went partway up Flagstaff after the race the day before, felt remarkably solid, though definitely tired. After, went to Apex Movement for an hour and a half of Parkour class (this still hurts every time). I do, though, think it's going to help my running overall. I can already feel myself getting stronger in my core and upper body, and learning how to land/fall correctly is never going to hurt my trail running.

Tuesday, May 7: Off. Feeling the last two days.

Wednesday, May 8: 5.5 miles, 700 feet: Still feeling the race a bit, but ran up a bit of Flagstaff any way.

Thursday, May 9: 7 miles, 400 feet: Up Boulder Creek Path to 4 mile and back. Still slow, but feeling better.

Friday, May 10: 6.5 miles, 1500 feet: Sanitas. Felt good to get back into it a bit.

Saturday, May 11: Off. 

Sunday, May 12: 12 miles, 3500 feet. Flagstaff and Green from Chautauqua. Found the trails crawling with people enjoying one of the first truly hot days we've had so far. I ran into Matt and Chris on the first stretch up Flagstaff. And stopped to talk a little bit about our mutual feelings of not being prepared for the Golden Gate on June 1.

I had planned to make this a Flag/Green/Bear combo, but on reaching the Green-Bear/Bear Peak West Ridge junction, I realized that I didn't have it that day, and felt that pushing through the fatigue on this particular day would be unwise. Given the way the next five days felt even dropping Bear, I can only assume it was a good idea.

Monday, May 13: 4.5 miles, 200 feet:  BCP partway up the Canyon. Legs were still tired.

Tuesday, May 14: 8 miles, 1500 feet. Flagstaff via Eben G Fine and Viewpoint. This is one of my go-to runs that I hadn't done in a while. My legs, unfortunately, still felt pretty flat, but it felt good to get some climbing in. I still managed to run an average round-trip time for the out and back. I seem to be fairly fit and fast even when tired.

Wednesday, May 15: 5 miles, 500 feet: Sunshine from work with some work friends. Our company has generously offered to put up the $1300 registration fee to put a team together for the Wild West Relay in August. As training for that, we are putting together a weekly run on Wednesdays. Only a few showed up this time, but hopefully, with time, we can up the numbers.

Thursday, May 16: 6 miles, 1500 feet: Sanitas. Felt slow, but the 85 degree weather may have had something to do with that.

Friday, May 17: 7 miles, 500 feet: BCP up to Four Mile. Legs still felt off. But I slipped into a very efficient shuffle and still managed sub-8 minute pace for the round trip.

Saturday and Sunday: No running at all. I had intended to do a longer run Sunday, as per usual, but found my legs were (and still are) tired despite a day's rest.

At this point, I am concerned that I have not gotten sufficient long runs in prior to my 50k in two weeks. It doesn't particularly matter at this point, since there is nothing I can do about it. I am, however, very worried about crashing and burning in the later stages of the race.

On the other hand, I know I am in fairly decent shape. Even when my legs don't feel like they want to move at all, I can toss out a decent ascent of Sanitas or Flagstaff. And my half marathon two weeks ago speaks to my general fitness level. I am concerned that I have not gotten a run over 3 hours, or over 20 miles, in yet this year.

Because of this, I plan to try something new on race day: I will institute a run/walk schedule for the race. This is not your typical 50k, where you will be able to run the whole way. A typical 50k I would likely be able to run in around 4 hours, maybe a bit less. This one runs well above 8000 feet and has nearly 8000' of climbing and descending in it. I equate it roughly to Pikes, which has the same elevation gain, but 5 fewer miles and peaks at a much higher elevation.

So I will be running 1 minute out of every 10, or maybe more depending on how I feel. A few caveats are in order, though. I will, naturally, always walk if the terrain dictates it. Also, I likely will not walk much downhill. I hope to finish in under 6 hours, so if it starts getting close to that at the end, I will pick up the pace if I can.

The next two weeks, then, I will be focused on sharpening my speed just a bit, and resting and recovering.