Week 5 of my official training plan. All systems go...
Onto the numbers...
12/19, Sunday - 10.5 - 1:30:00, Till We Meet in Hell. Trail Monster Valerie had the tremendous idea to host a run/race on some of the trails she runs regularly at USM in Gorham. She mapped out a 1.15-mile course and invited/challenged us to run it as many times as possible. The course was much tougher than I had expected with some steep drops and climbs in and out of some gullies, plenty of twists and turns and some solid climbing. Oh, and really, really fun. My plan was pretty simple: run hard. At the start, I headed out behind Blaine and Andy but could only keep them in sight for about 1.5 laps. I ran mostly alone, except when I was lapping people, which seemed to be mostly on the even numbered laps and barely saw anyone on the odd numbered laps. Strange. After the first lap, I set a goal to keep all the laps under 10 minutes. Mission accomplished, and I was very pleased with my effort. I got in 10.5 miles and finished third overall. Valerie and Jeff also devised a handicap system, which I could not even begin to understand. I liked the system, though, because I also finished third with the handicap and took home some beer. Post-run, we all gathered at Sebago Brewing in Gorham for food and more good times.
Here are my splits:
Lap 1: 9:38
Lap 2: 9:45
Lap 3: 9:30
Lap 4: 9:51
Lap 5: 9:58
Lap 6: 9:51
Lap 7: 9:42
Lap 8: 9:48
Lap 9: 9:29
Final .2: 2:25
12/20, Monday: 5 - 43:45, Brunswick Town Commons. My quads were sore, but despite that my legs will felt springy even with the previous day's effort. Nice, easy recovery run.
12/21, Tuesday: 9 - 1:12:19, Highland Green Gold Course. Crazy, warm weather made me cranky, but the run was solid. Kept a solid pace for two laps of the cart paths of the golf course. This loop would become a staple of my training, if there wasn't so much golf being played out there.
12/22, Wednesday: 4 - 37:09, Powerlines. Some snow finally came to Topshizzum, so I found an excuse to finally use the screw shoes. I wasn't really into this run. Just felt off and disinterested.
12/23, Thursday - Off
12/24, Friday: 18 - 2:25:32, Georgtown, Rowley & Newbury. I had originally planned to go long on Thursday, but weather and scheduling knocked me off that. Thankfully, I was able to get it in while visiting my parents for Christmas. Admittedly, I was not really sure how this run was going to go, but I turned out great. I was a bit creaky for the first two or three miles, but I really found my rhythm after that. Legitimately, felt better at mile 15 than mile 3. Really happy with how this run went.
12/25, Saturday: Off, Christmas
Totals
Miles: 46.5
Trail: 28.5
Road: 18
Another good week, but I'm looking forward to a step back week this week. I've been handling the bump in mileage and intensity pretty well, but I know that some rest will be good. I'm also really looking forward to getting out on my snowshoes.
2 comments:
Nice job at the hell race...I wasn't able to keep that sub-10 split per lap (I think I had one that was 10:01)
Most of that depended entirely upon when I was passing people...trying to pass people going down into the gully slowed us down quite a bit.
My slowest lap was due to trying to take a gel going up and down those gullies. (I should have waited for the smoother sections, but I'm experimenting with gel intake based on time and intensity.) My only real traffic jam moment was actually also on that lap at the downed tree. The rest of the laps I was able to steeplechase it really well.
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