This week marks the halfway point for this training block. 12 weeks to go until the Golden Gate Trail Classic. This is going to be a challenging race for me. With almost 6,000 ft of gain and probably the same amount of loss, there's going to be a lot of power hiking involved.
The 50K course. Plenty of climbing and descending.
What I'm looking forward to the most is getting to run across the Golden Gate bridge and the views from the Marin Headlands. I'm also planning on staying an extra day, so I'm hoping to get up to Muir Woods and Mill Valley. Can't wait to fill my head and memories with the smell of the redwood forest before returning to NJ.
So far, this training block is going really well. I'm feeling strong after this weekend's back to back long runs. I know that really, the term "long run" is all relative. I ran 12 miles on Saturday and followed with almost 9 on Sunday. In 6 weeks or so, the long run will be 22 miles. So, this weekend's run only felt longish. My body felt good though. It was super humid on Saturday and warm to start and Sunday was warm and rainy. The training runs were hilly, but it'll be impossible to mimic the race course here in Princeton. We just don't have those kind of hills here. I ended up with about 700 feet of gain both days and was able to pick up the pace in the last couple of miles on both runs. I intentionally worked on a forward lean on the uphills and charging the downhills. I still need to get myself some trekking poles that are light and collapsible to practice running with. I've never done a race with poles but I'm thinking they will really help with this course.
I have not enjoyed running in over 90% humidity, but that will soon be over. I'm following Krissy Moehl's training plan. I think I started at week 7 and that has worked well because I already had the aerobic base built from training for the Mt. Hood 50M. She has me doing pyramid and repeat intervals. The 5 x 5 min interval workout is tough, but I got through it. I hadn't seen my heart rate that high for awhile - it was well into the 180s. But she also has me doing plenty of easy runs and those (regardless of the humidity and warm temps) have been pleasant. I have not drilled into the details of my runs, but I do feel like my pace overall has picked up considerably. I think the main difference might be that I'm just running injury-free, so I can start at a quicker pace. In the past, with a pain or niggle here or there, I would start off so slowly and eventually warm up. A few weekends ago, I ran 10 miles with my friend Mana. I typically feel like I'm chasing her the entire run and I still felt like she was holding back some to stay with me on the flats, but on the uphills I felt like we were running the same pace and I was ahead of her on the downhills. It was funny- I saw a neighbor who saw me at the end of my run on Saturday and he told me (with surprise in his voice), "You were running fast!" He's much faster than me, so that was a big confidence boost.
This week is a recovery week, which means a rest day for today and super low mileage for the week. I think it's only 15-20 weekly mileage and my longest run will be 5-6 miles on Saturday. Then I go into another building phase which has both speed and hill workouts. I'm hoping that I'll have time to drive to steeper hills to train on. I definitely want to try hill repeats at Baldpate and Sourland.
I've been good about focusing on recovery this training block. I pretty much use the Hyperice massage gun daily and I still ice daily even though my left ankle only bothers me once in awhile. I'm keeping up with a couple of core/strength/slant board workouts per week and this week I threw in traversing on the climbing wall and climbing at the indoor climbing gym. I'm also eating well with a lot of vegetables. Last week, 2 friends were going on vacation, so they gave me their farm shares. A lot of tomato salads and I also made cole slaw and potato salad. So great to have stuff in the fridge to pull out all weekend long. Still taking a turmeric supplement on the daily and I'm not sure if it's helping, but it can't hurt to try to bring inflammation levels down. I also finally got a handle on my ragweed allergies. A couple of weeks ago, the nose would just run like a faucet. Flonase seems to be doing the trick and if it's really bad, I have to take a Benadryl too. I hate having to medicate, but this time of year, it's necessary in order for me to be able to be outside,
I'm going to enjoy this recovery week. Summer is quickly coming to an end. Going to focus on spending time with the kids and getting the house in order before the school year starts up again.