This was another breakthrough week for me. I did not do much in the way of intensity this week (only one hill fartlek the whole week), but the volume for the week was up quite a bit. Considering I was not sure I would be able to fit in a true long run this week (I was able to, in the end, last minute), I'm very happy with the numbers for the week.
As an added bonus, these numbers come in a week when I am transitioning, once again, to zero-drop shoes. I used Altras in my first 50k, and while I was not entirely happy with the fit of those shoes, I liked the general idea and feel of them. My primary beef with the shoes I was wearing was that they were too long in the toes, which has been corrected in my new pairs.
I had forgotten, however, that even though I've been wearing 3-4mm drop shoes for some time, the transition to zero drop still takes a bit of time. And during that time (there's no way to put this delicately) your butt is sore. The zero drop, foot shaped shoes Altra produces require the firing of different muscles than I am used to. That leads to increased soreness for a while in some areas, even while it reduces soreness in others.
Enough on that, to the summary already!
Monday: 5 miles, 40 minutes easy. I took this run on part of my hill/fartlek route from the week before, as my attempt to a) add more variety into my runs and b) add more hills into same.
Tuesday: 7.5 miles, 52 minutes. Hill/Fartlek run. Took the same route as last week, but added in an extra hill for some more fun. The first hill HURT, as I gunned it up a set of steps along I-35E. I passed a pair of young women running (well, walking up the steps) and heard a muffled "Holy s**t!" from behind me as I took the stairs two at a time. I must have looked strong.
The rest of the run was an effort to keep the tempo up on the flats, and pound out the ascents. I finished this one a little wobbly.
Wednesday: AM: 4 miles, 30 minutes easy down the middle of Summit. I am so, so glad that this stretch of path is open again. I much prefer it to running down the sidewalk or in the street.
PM: An unexpected 3 on the treadmill and 250m swimming. G decided to do yoga class after we got to the gym, so I put in a few miles and added a bit of swimming in there. I just set the treadmill to "random" and went with it. Turns out that this was probably too much after the hard workout yesterday.
And so . . .
Thursday: Off.
Friday: 7 miles. 56ish minutes? I started out thinking an easy 5-miler was in order. I was planning on doing a longish run both Saturday and Sunday, so I wanted to keep things short. My legs felt good, though, and I felt like I was finally getting used to the Altra Superiors. So I popped down to the end of Summit at the Mississippi and got in 7.
Saturday: 4 miles. Slow (probably 32+ minutes) Woke up feeling just awful. I clawed out of bed at 7AM, hoping to get a run in before meeting my parents at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts at 10. They were in town to head to a play at the Guthrie, and we decided to take in the Matisse exhibit with them and grab lunch before the show. But at 7, I got out of bed, head pounding (why? I had two drinks the night before. Has it really come to that?), fed the cats, and crawled back in bed for another two hours of rest.
I finally headed out for a run around 2:30, put in 4 miles, and headed home. At that point, I was unsure if I could even get in my planned 11 miles the next day.
Sunday: 22 miles. 3:08. This was a big one for me: the longest (distance-wise, I've run much longer times in Colorado) training run I've ever done. It was broken into two identical loops, with a return home (to see if we were going to church) in the middle.
I bolted out of bed a little after 7 (I don't set an alarm on weekends, ever), fed the cats (priorities are critical), wolfed down some bread and hummus and was out the door within a half hour of waking up. I left the phone at home for the first lab, thinking it might rain, and took off down Summit towards the river gorge. I figured Summit out and back, plus the section of trail from Lake to Ford, would make about 11 miles all told.
After an initial two miles or so of stiffness, my legs loosened up a bit, proving once again that you should never judge a workout until you're two miles into it.
I found the trail along the edge of the gorge south of Summit to be even more technical and scary than I remember. I think, all told, this route is probably faster on packed snow than on mud and dirt. At points, running on wet dirt just a few inches from the ledge, I found myself walking rather than risk a misstep. I doubt I would actually fall, but I have no desire to risk it.
I hit Summit again at a bit under 1:10 and took off for the house, coming in the door at 1:35 on the dot. It was around 9:15 or so, and after checking with G to find she wasn't up for church this morning, I refilled my Jurek Endure with water and a gel, grabbed my phone, sucked down a VFuel and was out the door and on my way again, hoping to be done with the run before 11.
Halfway down Summit, I was feeling surprisingly fresh and quick, so I took a look at Strava to see I was on a 7:15 or so mile pace. Once on the river gorge trail again, that pace slowed considerably as I again picked my way along the ledges. On the way back to Summit the final time, I ran into the first other runner I've seen on the Gorge. He looked to be straight out of Boulder, with a mustache and handheld, and after chatting a bit and introducing ourselves, we went our respective ways. Hopefully I will run into him again at some point.
Back on Summit again, I was still feeling good, so I decided to push it just a bit and try to negative split the whole run. I averaged 7:15s on the uphills and 7min or so on the flatter portions, coming in to my back yard at 1:33 on the clock. Not a huge negative split, but along with the overall distance and time (good for 8:30 pace over all), this was a huge boost to my confidence in my training going into the last month before my race.
Totals: 52.5 miles, almost exactly 7 hours.
The plan now is to take a shorter long run this week after putting in some intensity (Saturday is, after all, my 31st birthday, Sunday is Easter, and Monday is Boston!), hit another high-volume week with a very long run the next week, then maybe do one more week of intensity before tapering. I don't plan to do an extreme taper until the week of, but I do plan to lower the mileage and not push the length of long runs so much for the last three weeks before race day.
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