I've been accepted into the 2010 Badwater Ultramarathon. 135 miles, Death Valley, July.
In other news, I've been hitting lots and lots of good running. Starting to get back into the "lots of long runs" style of training, but building up to it slowly thanks to Karl's awesome coaching. I'm doing 6 days a week, 1 day off, with 1 easy day, 2 moderate days, 1 hard day, and 2 moderately hard long runs (both on the weekend). Last week I hit 14 and 18 through very hilly mountain trails on Friday and Sunday with 9 miles in between, this weekend I hit 13 and 20 with 6 miles in between. Next weekend I'll bump up to 16s on both saturday and sunday, followed by 16/18 the next saturday/sunday. I'm doing a 50 mile the last weekend of march as well as one in late april, and probably one in may, and somewhere along the way, I'll be up to back to back 30 milers, which sounds like a pretty aggressive way to train my legs to be ready for long runs. On the "hard day" side of things, I hit that 13.1 trainer in 1:13:28. Last week, i somehow managed to hit 5 miles at a 3% decline (1.5% would account for the elevation, the extra 1.5 made it about 40 seconds fast) in 24:55. I hit the first mile in an easy 5:25 then upped the pace in miles 2-4 to 4:54, 4:56, 4:54. Realizing I could squeeze my way under 25 if I pushed it really hard, I pounded out a 4:43 last mile and finished up in 24:55. Not too bad. I was in the low 27s in 8 months ago for a 5 mile split in a poorly run and somewhat downhill 10k (with a couple legitimate uphills thrown in). I could've probably eked out high 26s at the time for 5 miles, but this was a nice surprise. I'm probably right around the shape I was in right before I got injured at this point and now it's just a matter of building my base over the next 4 months without overtraining.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Training back around normal.
I haven't really posted my weekly reports, but I've been getting in some really good running. I haven't done much of any speed work again yet, but I've gotten in some solid tempo runs. My most recent long day was 16 miles and I've got 16 and 20 in the same weekend coming up shortly, which should be pretty fun, considering that I've been running my longer runs pretty hard.
This past week, I was supposed to do a 12 and was allowed to run it fairly hard, so I decided to just tack on an extra 1.1 and see what I could hit for 13.1 on a treadmill. Given that I'm running at 5000', I put it downhill at a 1% decline, which, in hindsight, now that I've run the calculation via http://www.runworks.com/calculator.html, doesn't even completely make up for the 5000' fully. Somehow I managed to hit it in 1:14:28, which supposedly corresponds to 1:11:31 for an equally downhill course at sea level or 1:13:00 for a flat course at sea level.
Do I believe I can run a half marathon in 1:13? Well, it sounds unreasonable, but the treadmill I ran on was pretty high-end and probably pretty accurate. I definitely felt like I was hitting around 5:40s (I've done a handful of tempo workouts right around 5:40, so I know what it feels like) and I think it was pretty credible. I started to feel how fast I was going pretty early and wasn't sure if I was going to hold on, but I managed to do so. I've been feeling like I'm fully recovered lately speed and endurance wise, so maybe it's possible. I haven't raced a 10 miler or a half marathon in years, so it's hard to really say that I don't think I can run around 1:13 to 1:15 in race conditions. We'll see though.
This past week, I was supposed to do a 12 and was allowed to run it fairly hard, so I decided to just tack on an extra 1.1 and see what I could hit for 13.1 on a treadmill. Given that I'm running at 5000', I put it downhill at a 1% decline, which, in hindsight, now that I've run the calculation via http://www.runworks.com/calculator.html, doesn't even completely make up for the 5000' fully. Somehow I managed to hit it in 1:14:28, which supposedly corresponds to 1:11:31 for an equally downhill course at sea level or 1:13:00 for a flat course at sea level.
Do I believe I can run a half marathon in 1:13? Well, it sounds unreasonable, but the treadmill I ran on was pretty high-end and probably pretty accurate. I definitely felt like I was hitting around 5:40s (I've done a handful of tempo workouts right around 5:40, so I know what it feels like) and I think it was pretty credible. I started to feel how fast I was going pretty early and wasn't sure if I was going to hold on, but I managed to do so. I've been feeling like I'm fully recovered lately speed and endurance wise, so maybe it's possible. I haven't raced a 10 miler or a half marathon in years, so it's hard to really say that I don't think I can run around 1:13 to 1:15 in race conditions. We'll see though.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
I'm back in business!
My foot injury and mono are both 100% kicked. Training is starting to get really good again. I'm still consistently in the sauna as a means of prepping for 2010 Badwater and I'm sending in my application for that literally tonight. I spent a ton of time on it and I think it's about as good as I can get it at this point. Wish me luck!
Oh, and PS, I'm not doing Rocky Raccoon. It's simply too soon. I don't doubt that I could finish the race, but I wouldn't run a good time, so I'm waiting until late March to race again, at which point I'm either running the Antelope Island Buffalo Run 50 Miler or the Moab 100 Miler.
Oh, and PS, I'm not doing Rocky Raccoon. It's simply too soon. I don't doubt that I could finish the race, but I wouldn't run a good time, so I'm waiting until late March to race again, at which point I'm either running the Antelope Island Buffalo Run 50 Miler or the Moab 100 Miler.
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