Sunday, May 6, 2012

Week of 4-30-12: 109 from Mon-Sun, 133 from Sun-Sat

Monday: 14 miles, 2000' gain, 2:11, with Adrian, Mueller Park to Rudy's Flat, the slightly down the ridgeline, then back up into North Canyon, down North Canyon, and then back on roads.

Tuesday: 18 miles, 500' gain, roads, 2:02.  North Salt all the way west, down to Rose Park/West Valley (kind of that in between area, not sure which region of town it technically is), and back on Jordan River Parkway.  Ran the first 4 pretty easy in 32 minutes, but took the last 14 at roughly marathon pace in 1:30.  Last couple miles felt like a little bit of a challenge, but then again, I was running a bit faster than my sea-level marathon PR pace at 4500' on non-tapered legs.

Wednesday: 13 miles, 2000' gain, 1:47.  Mueller Park to Rudy's Flat in 63, back in 44.  Legs were a bit sore, but it seemed like a moderately fast time.  The run was definitely not strenuous though, which is good.

Thursday: 17 miles, 2500' gain, 2:23 total time.  AM: 12 miles, 2000' gain, 1:44, with Adrian.  Ran from Mueller Park to half mile before Rudy's Flat in 61, came back in 42.  Easier than the day before, felt casual.  PM: 5 miles easy, 500' gain, back in MN, neighborhood, kathryn abbott, OHA Nature Trail, Willernie, and back. :39:.

Friday: 17 miles, 3000' gain, 2:03.  Ran what I believe to be all of the interlinked sections of mountain bike trail in Afton Alps Ski Resort with only a slight bit of overlap, which took just over an hour, then ran back up to the top of the resort, into Afton State Park via the main entrance, ran a convoluted lap around the outside of the park spitting out onto St Croix Trail Road, and back in the main entrance to Afton, down the hill, and back to my car.  Wasn't planning to run hard, but I had a lot of fun being back on these trails and took it pretty quick.  The effort wasn't draining, though, and I could've held it for at least another hour.

Saturday: 24 miles, 1000' gain, 2:49.  This run was going to be run in about 3:20, but the first 10 miles had minimal hills and although I tried to slow my pace to 8:00/mile or so numerous times, I kept getting faster, eventually knocking off miles 6 through 8 all in sub 6:20.  Eventually, after 8 miles, I forced myself to start slowing down when my average pace dipped below 7:00/mile, but it started to drizzle around mile 10.  By mile 12, the rain was coming down really hard and thunder and lightning started, so I started to pick it up again to diminish my time in the rain, picking a pace that ended up a little over 7:00 flat on undulating hills.  I kept this going while getting absolutely soaked to the bone until I had 2.5 miles to go, which I ran (despite a nearly half mile long uphill with a mile to go) in 15:2x.  Great pickup to finish the run, ended up at 7:02 pace for the 24 miles.  Like I said, the plan was to run about a minute per mile slower than this, but I didn't want to spend extra time in a thunderstorm.  I'd bet that I could now run faster than my marathon PR (2:52) if I tapered, which is encouraging considering that I've only done base work lately with absolutely no speed or threshold work (which would help me knock off a substantial amount of time).  It looks like I'll have to finally run another marathon this fall.

Sunday: 6 miles, 1000' gain, :45.  Neighborhood, Kathryn Abbott, OHA Nature Trail, Willernie, Up the road by the lakeside club, around just south of wedgewood, back into wildridge, and back home, a few decent climbs for such a short run, especially since I made sure to hit every 'climb' in Kathryn Abott.

Totals: Standard Mon to Sun: 109 miles, 12000' gain.  Counting Sun to Sat: 133 miles with 16000' gain. (starting from the 30 mile day last sunday and not counting this Sunday).  I'm happy with this week.  I knew I probably wouldn't have time for all that long of an outing this weekend, but I got the miles in and 109 is solid, so I'll take it.

Next week: I'll be pacing Adrian for somewhere around 50 miles of his 100 mile debut this coming weekend, so I'll probably take it pretty easy over the week leading up to it.  I did more fast/hard running than I planned for this past week, so I'll be doing nothing harder than "moderate" this coming week, whatever that means.

12 week running total: 1076 miles, 170500' gain.
10 of last 11 weeks: 979 miles, 147000' gain.

Music for the week is Altitude's from Jason Becker's debut album Perpetual Burn.  He recorded this at age 18 before his career as a guitarist was cut short by ALS.  The dude has been writing incredible music that his friends have recorded for him while he's been immobilized in a wheelchair for roughly 2 decades now, but he'll always have a hard time topping this passionate and virtuostic debut.

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