Week of 6/09

This week was a mini-taper before my 50k this Sunday, the Eastern Divide Ultra.  I ended up running 3 days for a total of 25 miles.  I officially registered for my race, which is the first race I will be doing that is registered through Ultra Signup.  After creating an account, the website pulled my results for TNFEC50 and JFK50, to give me a total ranking (52.66%) and age group ranking (53.94%).  It also predicts that I will run this race in 7:32:05.  It will be interesting to see how accurate that is, as my goal is to go sub-6.  Of course, the data set that the website has to calculate from is small and the two results are substantially different.  A sub-6 race could throw things even further off!

I plan to head out for a run with the group today (6 miles) and maybe stretch the legs out on Thursday with a short 3 miler or so.  Check back next week for results and a race report.

Week of 6/02

Last week was the final week before my taper to make sure I am healed up in time for the kick in the stomach that is otherwise referred to as the Eastern Divide 50k.  It was a solid 32 mile week (I only had time to run 3 days) and my long run left me feeling about as ready as I can given my current time constraints and my rather last minute decision to run the race.  This will be my first ultra without my trusty crew chief there at every aid station, since she has to stay home with the kids.  It will definitely take more planning and better packing on my part but since the race is "only" a 50k (i.e., I shouldn't have to worry about a shoe change, head lamp, etc...), it shouldn't be that bad.

My week went like this:

The last 2 weeks...

My last two weeks have been a little off.  I tweaked my back, which sidelined me for a few days and I also had friend come visit both weekends.  All in all I put in 41 miles over the past two weeks, 18 of which yesterday.  The Eastern Divide 50k is going to be tough given my current lack of fitness and there is no way I will be racing it, just running it but it will be good exposure to some vertical to give me an idea how my training is going.

Week of 5/12

This week was awesome.  Like usual, Tuesday was a speed day with the added benefit of the mercury climbing over 90.  Thursday was a single track/bridle combo that involved torrential downpours with flash flood warnings and two water crossing (one barely a trickle and the other a little tricky).  Overall it was a 32 mile week.  The mileage is slowly starting to inch upwards in advance of the Eastern Divide 50k next month.  I certainly won't have the conditioning level to race it hard but it will be a great way to spend a day in the mountains power hiking the uphills.  The week went like this:

Week of 5/05

This was a scheduled rest week that turned out a little lighter than originally planned.  That is what happens when you have awesome newborn twins though.  I generally plan a down week every 2-3 weeks, depending on how I am feeling.  Although I take a lot of rest weeks, in comparison to others, it keeps me relatively injury free.  The week went a little something like this:

Week of 4/28

This was a good 30 mile week.  My new plan involves 2 heart rate based workouts along with 2 other runs based on feel.  Tuesday will be an anaerobic day and Sunday will be a fat burner to hopefully help me run more efficiently during races.  It was a little odd running with the HR monitor this week, as I haven't worn it since my last race (in November).  Overall the week went like this:

Week of 4/21

It was an easy 28 mile week that went as planned.  I needed to start ramping up a little volume again since I decided (last minute) to race the Eastern Divide 50k the end of June.  If I had my normal base, gearing up for a 50k wouldn't be tough but since I haven't ran over 20 miles at one time in over 2 months I need to get back in fighting shape!  Plus, the race has about 6,500 feet of vertical climb!

The week went like this:

Week of 4/14

It was a scheduled rest week of sorts so I only did 14 miles (2 runs).  My plan for the rest of this year is to maintain a steady 35-45 mile a week base and to work on my speed at distance in anticipation of running a 100 miler next year.

Seeing as how Sunday was Easter, the group decided to not be heathens and ran the 9 mile loop at Umstead on Saturday.  This was my first run over 6 miles in a long time during which my Garmin was not tracking my every step, as I was trying out my new Soleus Ultra watch (NFI).  It was liberating to not be able to look down and see my pace at every single moment.  The extra added benefit was that one of my buddies and I did the last 2 miles fairly quickly (sub-7's).  If I would have been using my Garmin, I know I would have slowed myself because mentally I would not have thought that such a pace was sustainable with the last mile long climb that we did.  The learning point being, +1 for the mental aspect of what we do.

Training schedule for my first 50 miler (TNFEC 50)

Here is the training log that led up to my first 50. Stay tuned for a future post about lessons learned and how I'm adjusting my training for a stronger finish (hopefully) next time. I started with one of the examples from Bryon Powell's book, "Relentless Forward Progress," which you can buy from the folks at irunfar.com (NFI). Work and life led to me doing less volume than recommended but I finished injury free with a whole 20 minutes to spare before the cut-off!