Today marks the end of a 3 week base building period. I've been following a 50M training plan from Krissy Moehl's book, Running Your First Ultra.
I highly recommend the book if you're looking for a comprehensive book about training with built in training plans. She has training plans for your first 50K, 50M/100K and 100M. In addition, I like that she has workouts and non-impact cardio built into the plans. The strength-training exercises that she includes in the appendix are also super helpful for adding onto what I'm already doing for strength/core.
Last week, I finally started feeling like my body was absorbing all the training I've been doing. I think the key has been a super consistent training schedule and consistent strength/core/slant board training. Also, I finally started introducing a tiny bit of yoga into my routine and that has definitely helped. I was really encouraged by the way I felt during and after my 12 mile long run yesterday. I definitely felt like I could go longer and felt strong running uphill. It's always nice to have some faster miles the last couple of miles and I was able to do that yesterday. This morning, I followed with an easy 5 miles to test out running on tired legs and all went well. Of course, running on a sheet of ice the entire run was challenging, but the YakTrax made it feel a little safer. Proper recovery has also been key- active recovery with walking during the day after long runs, icing my knees and ankles as well as foaming rolling and stretching. I'm also a big believer in ginger/turmeric tea. The naturally occurring anti-inflammatory compounds seem to work wonders, plus it's just delicious. Just slice up ginger and turmeric root and add boiling water and a small spoonful of raw honey.
To put it nicely, running conditions outdoors have been far from ideal. February has been snowy, icy, snow on top of ice followed by ice on top of snow. My favorite trails are socked in or too treacherous to run on. I've been coping by cross training via cross country skiing, which has been really great and just generally dealing with running in snowy/icy conditions on the road with either my Altra Olympus (which have nice grippy tread) or using the YakTrax. I've figured out that running with YakTrax on is definitely safer, but it also starts to hurt my feet around mile 6. Speaking of feet, I've had to pay attention to foot care. I'm sure that running with the YakTrax has been part of it, but the dry weather has also taken its toll. I've been religious about moisturizing daily with a lotion that contains hyaluronic acid. I also started adding Glide to my toes and heels during long runs. I tried running in thicker ski socks a few times and found out that wasn't a great idea. My feet were warmer, but I also has some rubbing which didn't feel great. Went straight back to the Injinji toe socks.
I've gotta say that being on Strava and seeing my little community's adventures has really been encouraging for me. There are some definitely dealing with worse situations than me. Some folks are still dealing with quarantines, others with temps in the single digits or worse. I also recently joined the Territory Run Team. It's been nice to connect with some folks from the PNW where I hope to be this coming summer for the 50 miler.
I'm a little unsure how this 12 mile trail race will go this coming Sunday. I'll bring both YakTrax and my Katoohla microspikes with me. Best case, I'm thinking, it's going to be packed down snow. It's supposed to be in the upper 30s later this week, so some of the snow will melt, but then it will just keep re-freezing overnight. If it's not really runnable, I'll just have to think of it like a long hike. I'll bring plenty of hydration and fuel just in case.
Next week is a recovery week and then comes the building phase. I'm a little nervous about how I'll get all of the mileage in. I might have to start splitting up the runs into doubles depending on my schedule. No matter what, I can't sacrifice on sleep. Gotta stay healthy and rested with time to recover in between runs. Back to back long runs start in a couple of weeks.
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