Just today, I knocked off the 7th day of what became the highest mileage week of my life (including weeks that contained a 100 mile race). My previous highest mileage was 136 miles in one week, but today, I pounded out yet another run that would be considered a "long run" by most peoples' standards and got myself up to 141 in a Saturday-to-Friday stretch. Today's run was 21 miles, but the beauty of it was that a 21 mile day no longer feels long.
Allow me to provide a bit of background. One year ago, I was 20-25 pounds heavier than my racing weight and not sure that I'd ever be able to train at a competitive level again. I was a little over a year past a mononucleosis diagnosis and was in a disease state that had significantly worsened as a result of mid-late 2010 when I attempted, and failed, to complete both the Western States 100 and the Badwater 135 several weeks apart, despite an ailing body. I made 85 miles in Western States after an incredibly awful day of running, sat down in a chair, vomited, passed out, woke up a few hours later to cry my eyes out, passed out again for a few more hours, and then generally felt wrecked up and lifeless until Badwater. When Badwater came around, I started vomiting 6 miles into the race and while I'm officially credited with making it 42 miles, I dnf'd somewhere around 35 or 36 after what felt like countless hours of suffering. After that failure, all that I wanted to do was forget about running and, based on the physical condition of my body, this was my only option.
These feelings came and left within a few months, but my body was still crippled. Several months after Badwater, I remember shooting some baskets for about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes or so, I felt a wave of nausea, extreme fatigue, and couldn't stand up any longer. For several days afterwards, I was wrecked. A couple months later, I attempted to start training again and my condition once again worsened.
After 4 or 5 months of extremely high doses of experimental antivirals and a 100% commitment to zero physical activity whatsoever, I finally felt that I was able to start running again. I was heavy, aerobically out of shape, and mentally not the same cocky and overly confident person that I was a year before, but at least I had developed some grit and tenacity from making it through all of my health struggles.
I had a very hard time getting back into legitimate training. I had PhD qualifying exams to study for (mind you, these aren't easy exams, these are the types of things that require months of intense study), lots of physical kinks to get past while working myself back into running, weight to lose, and loads of confidence to gain.
Why do I mention all of this? I have never really fully reflected on my time off of running and I believe that, now that I have come full circle, I can finally look at my past trials with complete honesty.
In any case, it took awhile for running to even be all that enjoyable again, but I reached that point and now, I have finally started to retrieve some of my old fitness.
I doubt that I am as fast as I was 2 years ago; that will take track work, tempo runs, etc, but my endurance is likely at an unparalleled high and I have a newfound grit that only a solid year of suffering could give to me.
Just yesterday, I did a 28 mile run on a painful stomach (I guess I ate something bad the night before). I had barely eaten all day before-hand and could only stomach 250 calories of M&Ms during the run, which occurred later in the day. With 7 or 8 miles to go, I was bonking badly, but I was able to conjure up the stick-to-it-ness to continue to push all the way up the final big climb of 1500' in gain and coasted it in from there without ever letting myself resign to the pain.
In the past 4 weeks, I have run more miles than I ever have in any 4 week span of my life and in the past 7 days, I have run more miles than I ever have in any 7 day span of my life. The one thing that has allowed this, beyond my newfound grit, is a sense of longterm sustainability that a year off helped me to develop.
In the past, I would just train as hard as I could day in and day out and never maintained any consistency with high mileage, but lately, I've found a happy medium of running 4 days at a moderate effort, 1-2 days easy, and 1 day hard for a typical week. This has allowed my legs to recover much better and run more mileage, even with vastly greater amounts of vertical gain than I ever did in the past.
If you're still reading, I guess the important point I'm trying to make is that I have developed into a significantly different runner and person than what I was 2 years ago. I finally have the ability to think long-term, the ability to train smartly, and the grit to get done what needs to get done. As I enter the taper for my first race in 2 years that I have put adequate training towards, I have come to realize that I care less about the racing and more about the journey to the racing. Don't get me wrong. I have significant goals for next weekend, but the most important thing for me right now is that I have gotten back to the place in my life and my running that I am actually able to prepare for a 12 hour race without horrendous health-related side effects. If I completely bomb out next Saturday, I will be disappointed, but I will not let one day overrule the success I've had on a day-to-day basis in my recent running.
In today's 21 mile run, my body didn't feel 100%. I was a bit sore from the miles I've put in over the past month, especially after yesterday's grueling 28 miles, but I found that something overruled everything else: pure joy. Coming up to about mile 19, with 2 miles to go, I had a massive wind at my back, some of my favorite music pouring into my ears, and I felt an incredible flood of positive emotion. I raised my arms to my sides and let the wind carry me for a ways, experiencing the purest of happiness I have ever felt in my life. Regardless of how ridiculous that sounds, I have come to realize how much I truly value having running in my life and I am looking forward to a summer full of expressing my passion for it.
Music for this post is Sergei Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Poem, Isle of the Dead, as conducted by the master himself. This doesn't convey the same type of emotion that I felt during my run today, but this is one of the few pieces of music in existence that I have found to capture pure emotion as strongly as I felt today.
Part one:
Part two:
Friday, March 16, 2012
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Week of 3-5-12: 93 miles, 14500' gain.
Monday: 14 miles, 2000' gain, 1:45 to 1:50-ish?, JCC to city creek on shoreline, back up to the meadow above city creek, and back to JCC along a somewhat indirect road route. Took the first 2 miles pretty easy and then tempoed from there. This was by far the hardest effort run I've had in quite some time. I don't recall the overall time, but my split coming out of city creek was 54, and that's after an easy first 2 miles, despite this typically getting split in around 62 most days lately.
Tuesday: 12 miles, no gain, 1:23:xx, treadmill, 1% decline (to make it more like at sea level). Felt pretty easy, made sure to not pick it up at the end, even though I wanted to.
Wednesday: 4 miles, no gain, didn't get nearly enough sleep the night before, tired, just a very light jog with Holly at about 10 minute pace.
Thursday: 15 miles, 2500' gain, 2:13. JCC to City Creek and Back with Adrian Shipley. Took it out in 62 and just got lazy on the way back, finishing with a second half split in 71, when an even effort would be only about 3-4 min slower on the way back. Haha...
Friday: Similar to the theme of the week, not enough sleep, stayed at work later than expected, and had to wake up early for Saturday's long run, so I unfortunately took the day off.
Saturday: 34 miles, 7000' gain, 5:10, with Adrian Shipley. Hogle Zoo via slightly long route to JCC to City Creek via long route to radio towers, to end of this chunk of Shoreline Trail in Bountiful and back, same way. Splits were 2:30 and 2:40, but we ate almost all of the food in the 2nd half and walked while eating, not to mention that the 2nd half should be slightly slower by around 3 minutes by my calculations, so I'd say this was pretty even run. I had this run in mind for quite awhile since it's a full out and back of the longest local complete section of the Shoreline Trail, but just never previously got out the door to get it done. Felt pretty decent, but in the last hour, my lack of electrolytes caught up to me and I just felt like I had a lot less pep in my step. The high temperature was predicted at 58, but later in the day on the way back from the run it was 62, so I'm guessing we hit a high of 63 or 64, which. While that's not hot by any measure, it is hot enough for me to sweat out lots of sodium over 5+ hours of running. I definitely didn't feel quite as good as I did at the end of last weekend's 37 miles / 10k' gain long day, but last weekend was much colder and I think that the simple act of taking electrolytes and drinking a slight bit more would have made the entire run feel completely fine. Oh, and my nutrition for the run was 38 ounces of Powerade (had about 40, but gave a couple ounces to Adrian, who didn't bring as much fluids), one reese's big cup, a caramello, and half a 100 grand bar. Gotta love the simple sugars on long runs like this; I really think they work better than all the complex carbs in gels (and they taste a lot better...)
Sunday: 14 miles, 3000' gain, 2:00, with Holly. Bountiful to radio towers down to city creek, slightly out the front, and back. Took it easy, legs felt pretty decent, but I was a bit dehydrated right from the start and the temps were around 60 again, so the run was less pleasant than it could have been.
Holly on the trail out of city creek, during today's run:
Weekly totals: 93 miles, 14500' gain. A little less gain than previously and 1 mile less than last week. Once again, a large focus of the week was on doing a high quality long run of at least 5 hours, so I was pretty pleased with the week overall, even if I intended to get above 100 and missed out on that due to one missed day and one very short day.
For next week, I'll plan to do at least 100. I have 301 miles in the last 3 weeks and feel that 4 weeks with over 400 miles would be good to have in my legs right before I taper for the Moab 12 hour. I still don't really have a definite goal or expectation for that race, but I would like to be able to run relatively strongly for the full 12 hours, whatever that means.
The lower country is getting pretty clear of snow right now and while I'm sure we'll get more before summer, this ought to be a good week to run the lower trails in the Wasatch Mountains (ie, what I've been running lately):
Music for the week is the Japanese band Koenjihyakkei. Definitely an acquired taste:
Oh, and one other point of interest is how destroyed my first pair of New Balance MT00s is after 281 miles of use. I plan to buy more of them since they are the best feeling pair of shoes I've ever run in, so I'm going to load up the inside with anti-blister pads under the weak spots, which has prevented similarly thin shoes from falling apart on me in the past. Hopefully I can get at least twice as many miles per pair in the future by strengthening the weak spots...
Tuesday: 12 miles, no gain, 1:23:xx, treadmill, 1% decline (to make it more like at sea level). Felt pretty easy, made sure to not pick it up at the end, even though I wanted to.
Wednesday: 4 miles, no gain, didn't get nearly enough sleep the night before, tired, just a very light jog with Holly at about 10 minute pace.
Thursday: 15 miles, 2500' gain, 2:13. JCC to City Creek and Back with Adrian Shipley. Took it out in 62 and just got lazy on the way back, finishing with a second half split in 71, when an even effort would be only about 3-4 min slower on the way back. Haha...
Friday: Similar to the theme of the week, not enough sleep, stayed at work later than expected, and had to wake up early for Saturday's long run, so I unfortunately took the day off.
Saturday: 34 miles, 7000' gain, 5:10, with Adrian Shipley. Hogle Zoo via slightly long route to JCC to City Creek via long route to radio towers, to end of this chunk of Shoreline Trail in Bountiful and back, same way. Splits were 2:30 and 2:40, but we ate almost all of the food in the 2nd half and walked while eating, not to mention that the 2nd half should be slightly slower by around 3 minutes by my calculations, so I'd say this was pretty even run. I had this run in mind for quite awhile since it's a full out and back of the longest local complete section of the Shoreline Trail, but just never previously got out the door to get it done. Felt pretty decent, but in the last hour, my lack of electrolytes caught up to me and I just felt like I had a lot less pep in my step. The high temperature was predicted at 58, but later in the day on the way back from the run it was 62, so I'm guessing we hit a high of 63 or 64, which. While that's not hot by any measure, it is hot enough for me to sweat out lots of sodium over 5+ hours of running. I definitely didn't feel quite as good as I did at the end of last weekend's 37 miles / 10k' gain long day, but last weekend was much colder and I think that the simple act of taking electrolytes and drinking a slight bit more would have made the entire run feel completely fine. Oh, and my nutrition for the run was 38 ounces of Powerade (had about 40, but gave a couple ounces to Adrian, who didn't bring as much fluids), one reese's big cup, a caramello, and half a 100 grand bar. Gotta love the simple sugars on long runs like this; I really think they work better than all the complex carbs in gels (and they taste a lot better...)
Sunday: 14 miles, 3000' gain, 2:00, with Holly. Bountiful to radio towers down to city creek, slightly out the front, and back. Took it easy, legs felt pretty decent, but I was a bit dehydrated right from the start and the temps were around 60 again, so the run was less pleasant than it could have been.
Holly on the trail out of city creek, during today's run:
Weekly totals: 93 miles, 14500' gain. A little less gain than previously and 1 mile less than last week. Once again, a large focus of the week was on doing a high quality long run of at least 5 hours, so I was pretty pleased with the week overall, even if I intended to get above 100 and missed out on that due to one missed day and one very short day.
For next week, I'll plan to do at least 100. I have 301 miles in the last 3 weeks and feel that 4 weeks with over 400 miles would be good to have in my legs right before I taper for the Moab 12 hour. I still don't really have a definite goal or expectation for that race, but I would like to be able to run relatively strongly for the full 12 hours, whatever that means.
The lower country is getting pretty clear of snow right now and while I'm sure we'll get more before summer, this ought to be a good week to run the lower trails in the Wasatch Mountains (ie, what I've been running lately):
Music for the week is the Japanese band Koenjihyakkei. Definitely an acquired taste:
Oh, and one other point of interest is how destroyed my first pair of New Balance MT00s is after 281 miles of use. I plan to buy more of them since they are the best feeling pair of shoes I've ever run in, so I'm going to load up the inside with anti-blister pads under the weak spots, which has prevented similarly thin shoes from falling apart on me in the past. Hopefully I can get at least twice as many miles per pair in the future by strengthening the weak spots...
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Week of 2-27-12: 94 miles, 18,500' gain.
Monday: Off. Was very tired after not getting enough sleep the night before and went to bed super early. Kind of disappointed, but made up for it throughout the week.
Tuesday: 13 miles, 2500' gain, 1:44. JCC to shortly before CC and back. Planned for 15, but didn't quite have time and had to turn around a little before the typical midpoint. With Adrian Shipley.
Wednesday: 17 miles, 2500' gain, 2:17. JCC to CC, 1.5 miles up the canyon, at which point it started hailing, despite the fact that the storm was supposed to be a few hours out still. Was running with Adrian Shipley and we both had shorts and thin jackets + 1 pair of gloves to share (ie, we each used one glove so that neither of us would completely die of frostbite). Not wanting to die, which was basically the theme of the 2nd half of the run, we turned around at this point (9 miles, 1 mile early of the 10 out we had planned to get an even 20). We went back to the bottom of CC and climbed up to the meadow above CC, at which point we were greeted by deafening 60-or-so mph winds and a snowfall that was getting more and more outrageous, ie not fun when the temps were around 15F. Not wanting to die far up on a mountain, we exited back down to the neighborhood and ran roads from there hoping to get wind blockage from houses. Unfortunately, the weather just got worse and worse, so with a little over a mile to go, I suggested that we stop at Shriner's Hospital to warm up our totally numb hands for a few minutes before finishing. We did so, and as soon as we left, we were greeted with a gust of wind so strong that it carried a big enough blanket in front of me that I momentarily could not even see my hands. Fun. Despite having warmed back up for 5 or so minutes, I instantly became numb in numerous digits again and finished the run with 3 numb fingers and 3 numb toes thanks to having soaked my shoes in mud earlier in the run. This run absolutely sucked.
Thursday: 21 miles, 3500' gain, 3:01. JCC to CC, 3 miles up CC, and back. Took it pretty easy. Ran by myself.
Friday: Off. Frustrating, but didn't get home until 10PM and had a long run planned for 9:30 AM on Saturday, so I decided to just go to bed.
Saturday: 37 miles, 10,000' gain (split 33 with 7500' gain in 5:23, then 4 miles with 2500' gain in 1:30-ish, didn't time the 2nd one). Started the day with 33 miles in tons and tons of deep snow with Adrian Shipley. Ran JCC to CC, the annoying long way (actually there really isn't a short way) up to the ridgeline, back along the winding path to the radio towers, back down to city creek, almost all the way up city creek canyon (turned around when the snow was knee deep without any sort of path near the top), back down to the bottom of CC, and back to JCC. Breakfast consisted of 2 Reese's eggs and my in-run nutrition consisted of 7 more reese's eggs plus about 40 ounces of gatorade and 8 or so ounces of water. Felt great all the way through and we actually ran the last mile at sub-6 pace to avoid getting passed by a particularly zealous women that wanted our scalps. Definitely encouraging to be able to pick it up that much at the end of a 5:23 effort, even if that effort was pretty easy the whole time. After this, I got a quick bite of food, went home for dry socks, then picked up Mark Lehmkuhle to go do a lap on the west side of Grandeur Peak with Jared Campbell on his 10-lap Grandeur day (a fundraiser for Breathe Utah). Unfortunately, Mark was on a time crunch and Jared was slightly behind the schedule Mark anticipated for him, so we only got up the false peak for 2500' of climb and 4 miles or so. This was one of the iciest runs I've ever experienced and the west side of the mountain is unbelievably steep in most parts, so I was a bit concerned about tumbling down the whole thing. Fortunately, this did not happen. Haha... Oh, and, importantly, legs felt completely normal on the 2nd run despite the long early effort and the nearly 7 hours of running for the day.
Sunday: 6 miles, roads, 55 minutes, no gain. Super easy recovery run since the legs felt slightly sore today.
Weekly totals: 94 miles, 18500' gain. Obviously I'm disappointed about missing Monday and Friday, but I'd say that 94 miles is a good week considering that I missed 2 days. I'm going to be more careful to not miss days in the future, if at all possible. I'm looking for a big week this next week, so we'll see what that entails. I'm planning to mix in some roads to prepare my feet for the hard slickrock at Moab 12 hour in a few weeks, so I should be able to get in substantially more mileage if I spend the same amount of time running.
Great music I listened to this past week (and one of the best music videos I've ever seen):
Tuesday: 13 miles, 2500' gain, 1:44. JCC to shortly before CC and back. Planned for 15, but didn't quite have time and had to turn around a little before the typical midpoint. With Adrian Shipley.
Wednesday: 17 miles, 2500' gain, 2:17. JCC to CC, 1.5 miles up the canyon, at which point it started hailing, despite the fact that the storm was supposed to be a few hours out still. Was running with Adrian Shipley and we both had shorts and thin jackets + 1 pair of gloves to share (ie, we each used one glove so that neither of us would completely die of frostbite). Not wanting to die, which was basically the theme of the 2nd half of the run, we turned around at this point (9 miles, 1 mile early of the 10 out we had planned to get an even 20). We went back to the bottom of CC and climbed up to the meadow above CC, at which point we were greeted by deafening 60-or-so mph winds and a snowfall that was getting more and more outrageous, ie not fun when the temps were around 15F. Not wanting to die far up on a mountain, we exited back down to the neighborhood and ran roads from there hoping to get wind blockage from houses. Unfortunately, the weather just got worse and worse, so with a little over a mile to go, I suggested that we stop at Shriner's Hospital to warm up our totally numb hands for a few minutes before finishing. We did so, and as soon as we left, we were greeted with a gust of wind so strong that it carried a big enough blanket in front of me that I momentarily could not even see my hands. Fun. Despite having warmed back up for 5 or so minutes, I instantly became numb in numerous digits again and finished the run with 3 numb fingers and 3 numb toes thanks to having soaked my shoes in mud earlier in the run. This run absolutely sucked.
Thursday: 21 miles, 3500' gain, 3:01. JCC to CC, 3 miles up CC, and back. Took it pretty easy. Ran by myself.
Friday: Off. Frustrating, but didn't get home until 10PM and had a long run planned for 9:30 AM on Saturday, so I decided to just go to bed.
Saturday: 37 miles, 10,000' gain (split 33 with 7500' gain in 5:23, then 4 miles with 2500' gain in 1:30-ish, didn't time the 2nd one). Started the day with 33 miles in tons and tons of deep snow with Adrian Shipley. Ran JCC to CC, the annoying long way (actually there really isn't a short way) up to the ridgeline, back along the winding path to the radio towers, back down to city creek, almost all the way up city creek canyon (turned around when the snow was knee deep without any sort of path near the top), back down to the bottom of CC, and back to JCC. Breakfast consisted of 2 Reese's eggs and my in-run nutrition consisted of 7 more reese's eggs plus about 40 ounces of gatorade and 8 or so ounces of water. Felt great all the way through and we actually ran the last mile at sub-6 pace to avoid getting passed by a particularly zealous women that wanted our scalps. Definitely encouraging to be able to pick it up that much at the end of a 5:23 effort, even if that effort was pretty easy the whole time. After this, I got a quick bite of food, went home for dry socks, then picked up Mark Lehmkuhle to go do a lap on the west side of Grandeur Peak with Jared Campbell on his 10-lap Grandeur day (a fundraiser for Breathe Utah). Unfortunately, Mark was on a time crunch and Jared was slightly behind the schedule Mark anticipated for him, so we only got up the false peak for 2500' of climb and 4 miles or so. This was one of the iciest runs I've ever experienced and the west side of the mountain is unbelievably steep in most parts, so I was a bit concerned about tumbling down the whole thing. Fortunately, this did not happen. Haha... Oh, and, importantly, legs felt completely normal on the 2nd run despite the long early effort and the nearly 7 hours of running for the day.
Sunday: 6 miles, roads, 55 minutes, no gain. Super easy recovery run since the legs felt slightly sore today.
Weekly totals: 94 miles, 18500' gain. Obviously I'm disappointed about missing Monday and Friday, but I'd say that 94 miles is a good week considering that I missed 2 days. I'm going to be more careful to not miss days in the future, if at all possible. I'm looking for a big week this next week, so we'll see what that entails. I'm planning to mix in some roads to prepare my feet for the hard slickrock at Moab 12 hour in a few weeks, so I should be able to get in substantially more mileage if I spend the same amount of time running.
Great music I listened to this past week (and one of the best music videos I've ever seen):
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Week of 2-20-12: 114 miles, 20k' gain.
Monday: 17 miles, 2500' gain, 2:35. Up and down City Creek Canyon, utilizing the trail rather than the road up until the trail ended, plus some more out front of the canyon. The road ended up being covered in snow entirely shortly after the road ended, so the whole in-canyon portion felt like a trail run. There was a semi-path blazed for the first bit of the snow-covered road part, but the top mile had no tracks whatsoever, so I got to blaze my way through snow that got up to literally waist deep in a few spots at the very top, which was very slow and VERY cold given that I never wear long pants (literally, my picture in the header of this blog is the only run in over 3 years during which I wore long pants). Fun!
Tuesday: 15 miles, 3000' gain, 2:10. Jcc to City Creek and back, pretty easy.
Wednesday: 16 miles, 3000' gain, 2:17. My building on campus to JCC to City Creek and back, also pretty easy.
Thursday: 10 miles, no gain, 1:04. Ran on a treadmill, kept it at a 2% decline so I could run a bit faster while having it feel easier on the legs. Ran the first 5 pretty easily in 33:30 or so, then decided to throw in a super fast (for me) quarter mile pickup at 13.5mph (4:27/mile pace). Unfortunately, I actually broke the treadmill doing this, so I had to move to the one next to it to finish the run. Kept it easy through 7 miles and then knocked off the last 3 in 5:57, 5:40, and 5:08. Felt pretty in control, though the next day when I had to go out for another long run, I kind of wished I had taken it super easy the whole time as planned.
Friday: 22 miles, 5500' gain, 3:12. My building on campus to JCC to City Creek, up the north side to the saddle, then left a bit from the saddle more to get to the highest point in that area, then back. Legs felt slightly rough in the final climb back out of city creek.
Saturday: 8 miles, no gain, 1:12. Run on roads, and, obviously, this was a super easy recovery run. I skied Snowbird earlier in the day and knew that I had to make that day's run all about recovery to get my legs fresh for Sunday.
Sunday: 26 miles, 6000' gain, 3:40. Jcc to City Creek, up to the north side saddle, along the shoreline trail from there to the low radio towers, then horseshoe back along the ridgeline to a bit past the highest radio towers, then all the way back. Legs actually felt quite good the whole time, which was a bit surprising.
Weekly total: 114 miles, 20,000' gain. I think my gain counts are slightly low for the JCC to City Creek and back runs, so the entire week's worth of gain is probably slightly higher than the listed 20,000'. Overall, this was a great week. I haven't done a good 100+ week in some time and I was originally only planning for somewhere in the 90s, but I felt good and just rolled with it.
For next week, I don't have an exact mileage number in mind, but I'm thinking it'll be slightly less in overall mileage (probably 100-110) with a longer long run.
Yes, I realize this is a big increase in mileage, but I felt 100% in control the whole week and did a great job of listening to my body, so I'm not worried.
Oh, and since the hip new thing for blogging trail runners to do is to post the music you've been listening to, this band has been in my playlist a lot this past week:
Tuesday: 15 miles, 3000' gain, 2:10. Jcc to City Creek and back, pretty easy.
Wednesday: 16 miles, 3000' gain, 2:17. My building on campus to JCC to City Creek and back, also pretty easy.
Thursday: 10 miles, no gain, 1:04. Ran on a treadmill, kept it at a 2% decline so I could run a bit faster while having it feel easier on the legs. Ran the first 5 pretty easily in 33:30 or so, then decided to throw in a super fast (for me) quarter mile pickup at 13.5mph (4:27/mile pace). Unfortunately, I actually broke the treadmill doing this, so I had to move to the one next to it to finish the run. Kept it easy through 7 miles and then knocked off the last 3 in 5:57, 5:40, and 5:08. Felt pretty in control, though the next day when I had to go out for another long run, I kind of wished I had taken it super easy the whole time as planned.
Friday: 22 miles, 5500' gain, 3:12. My building on campus to JCC to City Creek, up the north side to the saddle, then left a bit from the saddle more to get to the highest point in that area, then back. Legs felt slightly rough in the final climb back out of city creek.
Saturday: 8 miles, no gain, 1:12. Run on roads, and, obviously, this was a super easy recovery run. I skied Snowbird earlier in the day and knew that I had to make that day's run all about recovery to get my legs fresh for Sunday.
Sunday: 26 miles, 6000' gain, 3:40. Jcc to City Creek, up to the north side saddle, along the shoreline trail from there to the low radio towers, then horseshoe back along the ridgeline to a bit past the highest radio towers, then all the way back. Legs actually felt quite good the whole time, which was a bit surprising.
Weekly total: 114 miles, 20,000' gain. I think my gain counts are slightly low for the JCC to City Creek and back runs, so the entire week's worth of gain is probably slightly higher than the listed 20,000'. Overall, this was a great week. I haven't done a good 100+ week in some time and I was originally only planning for somewhere in the 90s, but I felt good and just rolled with it.
For next week, I don't have an exact mileage number in mind, but I'm thinking it'll be slightly less in overall mileage (probably 100-110) with a longer long run.
Yes, I realize this is a big increase in mileage, but I felt 100% in control the whole week and did a great job of listening to my body, so I'm not worried.
Oh, and since the hip new thing for blogging trail runners to do is to post the music you've been listening to, this band has been in my playlist a lot this past week:
Monday, February 20, 2012
Week of 2-13-12
Monday: 7 miles, 500' gain, with Holly. 3 miles up City Creek Canyon with 500' gain, 23 min, 3 miles back down with 500' drop, 17 minutes, 1 mile cooldown.
Tuesday: 19 miles, 5000' gain, with Adrian Shipley. JCC to City Creek on Shoreline Trail, then up to the saddle in the ridgeline above city creek and back. 3:06 (so, easy-moderate). Pace was significantly slowed by copious amounts of mud, especially on the North Side of City Creek.
Wednesday: 10 miles, 2000' gain, 2 mile warmup around campus followed by JCC to 5-way and back, moderately hard on the way out, hard on the way back. 59 for the 8 miles with 2000' gain. Slowed by mud. Ran with the new New Balance MT00 and loved it.
Thursday: 16 miles, 3000' gain, Middle campus to JCC to city creek and back. 2:03, so moderate pace for this loop with a couple relatively serious climbs. Slowed by mud. New Balance MT00 again. Great shoe.
Friday: Off, letting legs recover for a big Saturday.
Saturday: 24 miles, 5500' gain, with Joe Dean. JCC to City Creek to ridgeline as on Tuesday, but then further through the south and west around the mountain and up to radio towers, then back. Took it out easy since Joe hasn't been training climbs like I have. Stuck together until we were nearing the 5-way on the way back, at which point I took off and ran moderately hard for the last 4.5 miles. Total time of 4:13. Very easy effort for all but the last 4.5 miles, overall slowed by mud once again. Ran this in the MT00 again and I think this will be my go to shoe from now on.
Sunday: Off, letting legs recover to hit another big day today (Monday) that I'm about to do since it's President's Day.
Total: 76 miles, 16000' gain. Not bad for only running 5 of the 7 days. If I hadn't been switching up the footwear, I wouldn't have taken any days off, but the MT00s are totally flat and I haven't worn a totally flat shoe in awhile, so I wanted to make sure I didn't overwork my calves. Overall, I'm pleased with the week and will be shooting for at least 15 more this next week.
Tuesday: 19 miles, 5000' gain, with Adrian Shipley. JCC to City Creek on Shoreline Trail, then up to the saddle in the ridgeline above city creek and back. 3:06 (so, easy-moderate). Pace was significantly slowed by copious amounts of mud, especially on the North Side of City Creek.
Wednesday: 10 miles, 2000' gain, 2 mile warmup around campus followed by JCC to 5-way and back, moderately hard on the way out, hard on the way back. 59 for the 8 miles with 2000' gain. Slowed by mud. Ran with the new New Balance MT00 and loved it.
Thursday: 16 miles, 3000' gain, Middle campus to JCC to city creek and back. 2:03, so moderate pace for this loop with a couple relatively serious climbs. Slowed by mud. New Balance MT00 again. Great shoe.
Friday: Off, letting legs recover for a big Saturday.
Saturday: 24 miles, 5500' gain, with Joe Dean. JCC to City Creek to ridgeline as on Tuesday, but then further through the south and west around the mountain and up to radio towers, then back. Took it out easy since Joe hasn't been training climbs like I have. Stuck together until we were nearing the 5-way on the way back, at which point I took off and ran moderately hard for the last 4.5 miles. Total time of 4:13. Very easy effort for all but the last 4.5 miles, overall slowed by mud once again. Ran this in the MT00 again and I think this will be my go to shoe from now on.
Sunday: Off, letting legs recover to hit another big day today (Monday) that I'm about to do since it's President's Day.
Total: 76 miles, 16000' gain. Not bad for only running 5 of the 7 days. If I hadn't been switching up the footwear, I wouldn't have taken any days off, but the MT00s are totally flat and I haven't worn a totally flat shoe in awhile, so I wanted to make sure I didn't overwork my calves. Overall, I'm pleased with the week and will be shooting for at least 15 more this next week.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Last few weeks
I had to take 2 more weeks in there to let a banged up foot heal up (could have cleared up faster if I more religiously followed my stretching plan from Pete Egoscue's 'Egoscue Method of Health Through Motion', which cleared it up within a couple days once I finally decided to use it and stick to it).
I did about 30-40 a week for the weeks of 1-23-12 and 1-30-12 and a 17 mile hard nearly tempo effort run near the beginning of the week of 1-23-12 is what seemed to flare the foot. Training seems negligible, but totals were about 70 between the 2 weeks.
Week of 2-6:
Monday: 6 miles, easy: 3 loops of Liberty Park plus an extra 2 miles.
Tuesday: 12 miles, 3500' gain, with Adrian Shipley. Up the west side of City Creek Canyon, over the ridgeline, down to the meadow that leads to eastern North Salt Lake, back up to the ridgeline north of the radio towers, in and around there, down capital hill, and back through a bit of roads.
Wednesday: 10 miles, 2000' gain: Lower Campus to JCC to 5-way and back.
Thursday: 4 miles: 5k on treadmill at 1% decline (to make up for altitude) in 17:24 (5:55, 5:35, 5:24, and last .1 in :30) plus cooldown.
Friday: 16 miles, 3500' gain: Lower Campus up to JCC, up dry creek to city creek along Bonneville Shoreline, and back, with Adrian Shipley.
Saturday: Skiing for a few hours, no running.
Sunday: 7 miles, 1000' gain, easy, City Creek Canyon.
Total: 55 miles, 9000' gain. A good bridge week to get me back to high mileage.
Current week of 1-13-12 is at 52 miles with 11000' climb after Mon-Thurs, so I'm off to a good start. Foot is finally good after a month or so of occasional mild irritation. It never really hurt too much and never was much of an injury per se, but I decided to be careful so as not to drag anything into a big training cycle.
I did about 30-40 a week for the weeks of 1-23-12 and 1-30-12 and a 17 mile hard nearly tempo effort run near the beginning of the week of 1-23-12 is what seemed to flare the foot. Training seems negligible, but totals were about 70 between the 2 weeks.
Week of 2-6:
Monday: 6 miles, easy: 3 loops of Liberty Park plus an extra 2 miles.
Tuesday: 12 miles, 3500' gain, with Adrian Shipley. Up the west side of City Creek Canyon, over the ridgeline, down to the meadow that leads to eastern North Salt Lake, back up to the ridgeline north of the radio towers, in and around there, down capital hill, and back through a bit of roads.
Wednesday: 10 miles, 2000' gain: Lower Campus to JCC to 5-way and back.
Thursday: 4 miles: 5k on treadmill at 1% decline (to make up for altitude) in 17:24 (5:55, 5:35, 5:24, and last .1 in :30) plus cooldown.
Friday: 16 miles, 3500' gain: Lower Campus up to JCC, up dry creek to city creek along Bonneville Shoreline, and back, with Adrian Shipley.
Saturday: Skiing for a few hours, no running.
Sunday: 7 miles, 1000' gain, easy, City Creek Canyon.
Total: 55 miles, 9000' gain. A good bridge week to get me back to high mileage.
Current week of 1-13-12 is at 52 miles with 11000' climb after Mon-Thurs, so I'm off to a good start. Foot is finally good after a month or so of occasional mild irritation. It never really hurt too much and never was much of an injury per se, but I decided to be careful so as not to drag anything into a big training cycle.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Last 4 weeks
Week of 12-19-11: 39 miles in the first 3 days, capped with a good 20 mile effort in Afton State Park in Minnesota, but unfortunately, I got a pretty bad virus and had to take the rest of the week off as I was feeling pretty under the weather.
Week of 12-26-11: Rested to finish recovering from the illness, which took through about the 29th. On the 30th, I ran in the Across the Years 24 hour. Having only just over 2 weeks of decent training for this race, I didn't want to go in with too much expectations, especially since I'm just rebuilding my fitness right now. I ended up doing 63 miles, at which point I felt that I had done enough to be happy with the result. I had probably another 15-20 miles in my legs before things got really ugly, but I knew that I didn't have a full 100 miles in me. Hving already made more than 100km, I decided that somewhere between 75-85 wasn't really that much better than 63, considering that both would be shy of 100, so I figured that I would play it safe and just use this as another step in the build to be ready for a good 100 in the summer. This was 25 miles farther than anything else I did all at once in 2011, so I'm pretty happy with what I did, even if I know that I could've gotten in more miles. No running on Saturday or Sunday afterwards, just some fun New Year's Eve celebrations with Matt Taylor and his family in St George.
Week of 1-2-12: Took the first week back pretty easy, especially since my peroneus longus muscle (the portion through the outside bottom of the foot) in my right foot felt a bit strained. 31 miles for the week in 4 days of running, with the longest outing being 11 miles in Mill Creek with Adrian Shipley (Pipeline plus Mt Aire out and back). Also got in a couple hours of skiing at Snowbird, though the lack of snow will probably keep me from going back much until we get a legitimate storm.
Week of 1-9-12: Started the week with a moderate 12 mile run at a hair under 7:00/mile on Monday. Unfortunately, this proved to be a bit much for my still slightly sore foot and it made me relatively sore for a couple days afterwards. Took of Tues/Wed/Thurs to make sure that the foot would recover, then did just a 3 mile pickup test run on Friday (splits of 7:30, 7:20, 5:30). Foot didn't quite feel perfect, but it felt mostly better. Took Saturday off to make sure things would be OK, then did 3 hours, 35 minutes on Sunday. No idea what the length was, but it was certainly well shorter than a typical 3 1/2+ hour outing. Did the run with Jared Campbell, Ryan McDermitt, and Mark Lehmkuhle. Jared is training for Barkley and Ryan likes doing absurdly ridiculous routes, so we navigated what is considered to be one of the most difficult ridgelines in the entire Wasatch range. I don't know the exact name of the route we took, but it was the 2nd ridge to the right of Emigration Canyon (as looking towards the canyon from the city, ie the unbelievably jagged and steep one, as shown as the tallest ridge in this crappy picture, which does not accurately reflect the fact that the ridge is several thousand feet above the valley).
There was no trail for most of the route, the course was littered in massive boulders, the bushes were barkley-thick for most of the way:
, there were a lot of very very steep drops and climbs, the wind on the ridgeline was 50+ mph, and there were a number of outrageously tough portions where I had to use hands and knees to get around large obstacles (usually rocks right next to a huge cliff drop), so well over half of this "run" did not involve actual running. I'd give the run 7 miles, as even the very few runnable portions were incredibly steep and slow. So yeah, only 22 miles for the week, but my foot held up fine today and I feel totally ready to start hitting the training again.
Week of 12-26-11: Rested to finish recovering from the illness, which took through about the 29th. On the 30th, I ran in the Across the Years 24 hour. Having only just over 2 weeks of decent training for this race, I didn't want to go in with too much expectations, especially since I'm just rebuilding my fitness right now. I ended up doing 63 miles, at which point I felt that I had done enough to be happy with the result. I had probably another 15-20 miles in my legs before things got really ugly, but I knew that I didn't have a full 100 miles in me. Hving already made more than 100km, I decided that somewhere between 75-85 wasn't really that much better than 63, considering that both would be shy of 100, so I figured that I would play it safe and just use this as another step in the build to be ready for a good 100 in the summer. This was 25 miles farther than anything else I did all at once in 2011, so I'm pretty happy with what I did, even if I know that I could've gotten in more miles. No running on Saturday or Sunday afterwards, just some fun New Year's Eve celebrations with Matt Taylor and his family in St George.
Week of 1-2-12: Took the first week back pretty easy, especially since my peroneus longus muscle (the portion through the outside bottom of the foot) in my right foot felt a bit strained. 31 miles for the week in 4 days of running, with the longest outing being 11 miles in Mill Creek with Adrian Shipley (Pipeline plus Mt Aire out and back). Also got in a couple hours of skiing at Snowbird, though the lack of snow will probably keep me from going back much until we get a legitimate storm.
Week of 1-9-12: Started the week with a moderate 12 mile run at a hair under 7:00/mile on Monday. Unfortunately, this proved to be a bit much for my still slightly sore foot and it made me relatively sore for a couple days afterwards. Took of Tues/Wed/Thurs to make sure that the foot would recover, then did just a 3 mile pickup test run on Friday (splits of 7:30, 7:20, 5:30). Foot didn't quite feel perfect, but it felt mostly better. Took Saturday off to make sure things would be OK, then did 3 hours, 35 minutes on Sunday. No idea what the length was, but it was certainly well shorter than a typical 3 1/2+ hour outing. Did the run with Jared Campbell, Ryan McDermitt, and Mark Lehmkuhle. Jared is training for Barkley and Ryan likes doing absurdly ridiculous routes, so we navigated what is considered to be one of the most difficult ridgelines in the entire Wasatch range. I don't know the exact name of the route we took, but it was the 2nd ridge to the right of Emigration Canyon (as looking towards the canyon from the city, ie the unbelievably jagged and steep one, as shown as the tallest ridge in this crappy picture, which does not accurately reflect the fact that the ridge is several thousand feet above the valley).
There was no trail for most of the route, the course was littered in massive boulders, the bushes were barkley-thick for most of the way:
, there were a lot of very very steep drops and climbs, the wind on the ridgeline was 50+ mph, and there were a number of outrageously tough portions where I had to use hands and knees to get around large obstacles (usually rocks right next to a huge cliff drop), so well over half of this "run" did not involve actual running. I'd give the run 7 miles, as even the very few runnable portions were incredibly steep and slow. So yeah, only 22 miles for the week, but my foot held up fine today and I feel totally ready to start hitting the training again.
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