Gaining strength

It's been a good week so far and I have kept up with my schedule. I am wrapping up this week with a 2.5 hour trail run tomorrow which should put me close to 45 miles for the week. This is up about 30% over last week and I've cut out a day from my schedule. I've decided to only run 4 days a week. Last week was just a good reminder that there is only so much time during the week. Training 5 days a week was just too much if I actually want to keep a cheery disposition and not have my wife and children hate me.

The cool part about this week is that even with less running, I feel stronger than ever. I was dreading my long run yesterday (planned for 16 miles) only because it's been so long since I've run that distance. Turns out, even while lugging 2 liters of water on my back (trying to run more with the Camelbak), I managed to keep a pretty good pace (1 L = 1 kg = 2.2 lbs, by the way). I cut this run down to 14 miles due to my 2-hour time limit (have to be home before the kids get up!) but I felt like I could have done the other two miles if I'd had the time.

This morning, my calves are a bit tight but otherwise I feel great. I'm looking forward to hitting the trails tomorrow at dawn. Mornings are perfect right now in the desert and I can't wait to climb some hills.

Blog ya later...

Summer is coming

After a brief hiatus last week due to an ear infection and business travel to Chi-town, I'm back on the wagon and logging some good mileage this week. I have been mapping out my schedule over the next couple months and am genuinely starting to worry that I won't have the time to ramp up to the mileage I need to run the 50 mile race at the Black Hills 100.

If the course were flat I would design a training plan where my longest run was about 35-40 miles and call it good. The problem with that however is that the 50 mile race in June has over 9,000 feet in elevation gain. This is not trivial. I still have a strong recollection of what 4,300 feet of elevation gain felt like during the San Tan Scramble 50 km run last February...it wasn't that fun. Here is the profile of the 50 mile run in June.

Turn-around point at mile 25

This is going to take some serious miles and hill training. Oh, wait...Arizona is flat. This could be a problem. The key is making sure my long runs incorporate the trail running and hill work all at the same time. While I would love to speculate at my projected time for 50 miles, my goal is only to finish (under the 16-hour time limit of course).

One of the other challenges is going to be beating the heat of Arizona leading up to the race. Morning runs right now are perfect. Shorts and a t-shirt are all that is required to ensure a comfortable and cool run in the 60-degree mornings. You can feel it though...summer is knocking on the door and the cool morning temps are not going to stick around for long.

Have a good one and thanks for reading!

Real Ironmen don't walk, do they?

Not a whole lot going on in the training world these days - other than, well, more training. I've been very pleased with the last couple weeks and I can feel the incremental gains coming back in both the endurance and mental category. More than anything, consistency has been good. This means I'm doing more running more often and doing what I need to recover correctly.

I ran a report from Garmin to see what my miles were for the last couple months. I just wanted to see where I was at and where I was going...

February = 90 miles (running), 11,380 calories
March = 61 miles (running), 7,900 calories

The last couple weeks has been an interesting mental shift for me as I make this transition from Ironman/marathon running-as-fast-as-you-can-for-as-long-as-you-can to running-a-slower-pace-knowing-you'll-be-running-for-8-or-9-hours-straight trying to finish a 50-mile run with 9,100 feet of elevation gain.

Most everything I've read about endurance pacing preaches the 5:1 ratio - 5 minutes of running and 1 minute of walking. Certainly this is not the rule but for beginners and those races that have massive elevation gains, this is by far one of the most suggested shifts in training.

Admittedly, this is hard for me to succumb to walking during a run (WTH!?! The guy with the Ironman tattoo is walking?!). The idea of slowing down and being passed by other age-groupers young and old can be infuriating and frustrating. Not to mention a chink in the 'pride armor'.

I'm not a jerk about these things nor do I care that other people have different race plans than me. I'm going to run my race no matter who passes me. So pride aside I've used a couple of training runs of 8-10 miles to test this idea of a brief brisk 1-minute walk. It really does break things up enough to give your legs and feet a break and lower your heart rate, but also mentally it's a great relief to walk a little bit. Heaven knows that with 9,100 feet of elevation gain during the Black Hills 100, there are bound to be some ascents and descents that are going to require a snail's pace walk (or crawl?!).

Do real Ironmen walk? This one does.