Another solid week. Even though looking at the number of total miles, 47, it would seem to be low for this point in ultra training. However, a closer look will reveal some high quality and tough miles on snowshoes.
Onto the numbers:
Sunday, 1/30: 5 - 44:56, Highland Green. A very easy recovery run following Sidehiller. I'm not going to lie: I was tired. But, not sore at all.
Monday, 1/31: 9.25 - 1:34:58, Granite State Snowshoe Championship Course + add on at Great Glen Trails. This was a very awesome, but very cold snowshoe run. The sun was dipping behind the Presidential Range when I started, and by the time I reached the high point on the Aqueduct Loop, I was treated to a fine sunset. However, once the sun went down, it got cold. It was 3° when I started...so, yeah, really cold by the end. My gloves and outer shirt were frozen solid. The good news with such cold temperatures is that the groomed Nordic trails were also frozen solid, making for some fast running. On the add-on portion, I opted to check out some singletrack. Unfortunately, I was the first person to do so, and the deep snow flung on my back from the snowshoes only added to my frozen state. But, like I said, this was a very solid run.
Tuesday, 2/1: 5.5 total, 3k snowshoe race. Another week of Nordic Meisters in the books. All the snow has made the sidehills pretty sketchy, and I was admitted a bit sluggish from the previous couple days. Decent effort, though, and more importantly, I didn't slide off the trail. 18:37 for the 3k, with the Aqueduct Loop for a warm up (again), but a very short cool down...I was already cool enough.
Wednesday, 2/2: Off
Thursday, 2/3: 5.25 - 1:15:10, Mt. Ararat snowshoe. Holy crap. With the new snow that fell on Tuesday and Wednesday, the trail hadn't been tracked out...and it was deep. I basically thrashed myself for 5 miles. Beautiful day, though.
Friday, 2/4: 17 - 2:08:41, Foreside Loop + Highland Green. Three miles easy: 24:10, followed by 14 at marathon pace, averaged 7:25 per mile. Once I realized that this run wasn't going to be easy, it felt a lot easier. Once I accepted that it was going to hurt a bit, it hurt a lot less. It was a solid run. I never felt great, but very happy with the result. I also got to flip off a jerk in pickup who was ticked off that I was taking up too much room in the road. He was very angry. I'm pretty sure he hates his life, if he was that angry at having to stop for 3 seconds.
Saturday, 2/5: 5 - 41:52, Highland Green (Out & Back). Couldn't run the usual loop since it hadn't been plowed, and I wasn't up for postholing. The out and back version worked out just fine. Felt a bit sluggish and my hamstrings were tight from the previous day.
Totals:
Miles: 47
Trail: 20
Road: 27
Really happy with the week. Also a good week because I am definitely tired. I'm averaging 49 miles per week for 2011, when for all of 2010 my average was about 28. This is a big jump, and I think it's paying off. The real test comes on 3/26 in the Gator Trail 50k, which I think about every single day. I am confident with the direction my training is headed. That being said, I'm also smart as this up coming week will be a step back for some much needed rest. No long run or high intensity this week. I'm hoping to freshen up the legs a bit for four more big weeks of training before a good taper.
2 comments:
Quality week indeed. Have you been able to get many 20+ milers in so far? Tougher to do in winter I know, but important.
Two so far (20, 26, plus an 18) with 2 more planned. Pretty comfortable with that. Could've gone with a straight long run this week, but I wanted to get the MP run in.
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