Monday: 8 miles - Ryan Park trails alone. I was feeling exhausted and sore, and after an epic trail race, the desire to run is low. But I willed myself to go to Ryan and test things out. What was interesting is that it felt better to run than it did walking and sitting. I stuck to the wider easier trails and my pace wasn't terrible. I stretched the run at the end to make it longer.
Tuesday: 7 miles - Calf Pasture Point (bike path, beach, and trail) alone. I still was lacking motivation to run and again debated a zero. The weather was so awesome though I needed to run. I ran the bike path out to the beach and then did two loops (2.2 miles each). I love running the beach with the wind at my back and decent footing. It felt good to run here again.
Wednesday: 20 miles on two runs. First, I woke up at 5AM on this dark chilly morning and drove to the CCMS track to meet up with Nate and Chris. It was about 42 degrees at the track, but I saw the temperature as low as 38 near my house. I wore a few layers and also gloves and a hat. After a two plus mile warm up we did another college workout from Chris's past. 5x400 at 5K pace with descending rest and then 5x400 starting at 5K pace and dropping 1 sec each rep with consistent 45 sec rest. Chris ran my pace today, so I got to just follow him. We were a little inconsistent on the splits, including the rests, but it was a good workout. The target was 80 for 5K pace. Results: 77/80/81/77/80 79/78/76/73/75. Two mile cooldown in the opposite direction on the track. 8 miles total. Later in the day I headed over to Rome Point for a recovery double. The weather was perfect yet again, and I found myself tacking on miles before I hit the beach portion of my run. My legs were holding up okay. Could I get 20 miles on the day? I stretched out the non-beach portion of my run for as long as I could and then hit the sand (and rocks and shells). The tide was low, so I was able to reach the bridge, and then continue south quite a way. What a day! Really enjoyed this run and a big mileage day.
Thursday: 10 miles - Quonset bike path and roads alone. My legs were feeling tired and I didn't have much motivation today. I thought I would just do 5-6 miles on the bike path. My first mile felt slow, but I was surprised it was sub 8. I felt slow on the next mile, and it was 7:28. I was nearing the end of the bike path and decided to run on the mostly flat Quonset roads rather than repeat the bike path. My mile splits were getting faster and my effort still felt easy. I found myself increasing the intensity near Allen's Harbor as I was running into the wind and had to climb a small hill. This resulted in a 6:40 mile 6. So easy compared to trails! I then wanted to continue the progression theme and ran another 3 fast miles (6:31/6:12/5:42). I did one more mile at a slower pace to get 10 for the day.
Friday: 16 miles - Perryville trails solo. I got my chance to run on the long side so I took advantage of it despite feeling tired and sore. The weather was really nice, if not a bit warm (77 degrees and sunny). My plan was to get in about 2.5 hours on the trails. I ended up cutting the run short because I was thirsty (didn't carry anything) and I missed the entrance to Sand Plains Rd (dirt). Well I saw it, but it was posted as a private road from the Gravelly Hill Rd side. The plan was to run DuVal trails for a while, run up to Browning and run all the trails in both directions up there, and then connect via dirt roads back to DuVal. My legs were tired from the start and never felt great, but never felt terrible either. I really enjoyed my time in Browning, figuring out a way to run every trail in both directions without ever repeating the same direction. By the time I finished and hit the road again, I was thirsty and at 1 hr 40 minutes. I ran to DuVal and headed east to the ocean overlook. I decided to just head back from there. My watch kept warning me I had low battery, and finally died on me with about a mile to go. Total time was about 2 hrs 10 mins. My hope is that this longer run on tired legs was good marathon prep.
Saturday: 3 miles - home trail loops alone in the morning. Another busy weekend on tap. I wanted to try out my new trail shoes - Nike Zoom Terra Kiger. They felt a little weird at first, but I got used to them. They definitely have the sturdiness I need, and are relatively light (8 oz.). 4mm heel drop, but still seems more than I am accustomed to. My body and mind were tired from a heavy load of running the last few days. I didn't feel like getting up in the dark to get 8-10 miles and we had to get the kids to the soccer field at 8:45 and then drove up to NH. I had a small window for 3 miles on the home trail loop. Mile splits: 8:14/7:50/7:37.
Sunday: 8 miles. In the morning I ran the dirt roads around my parents' Stoddard, NH house. I decided to face my fear and run up Kings Highway (messy 4x4 road) alone. It measures as a 5K climb on GPS (feels longer), that is steep early and more gradual for the duration. I got to test my new trail shoes again on the loose rocks and was happy with the results. I decided to head back through the neighborhood a different way and ran into Joel. After a 10 minute chat, I hammered the downhills and flats for the final two miles.
In the afternoon, my son and I had a plan to hike while my wife and daughter were at a baby shower. We picked up Greg and his dog Griffin and drove to the Madam Sherrie Forest in Chesterfield NH. We hiked the Ann Stokes Loop trail to Indian Pond and then took the Mine Ledge Trail to the summit of Wantastiquet Mountain. This was a really nice hike with over 700' of elevation gain. We had to pick up the pace on the way down, including running some early sections and then length of the Ann Stokes Loop trail.
Indian Pond with Wantastiquet Mtn in background
scramble up Mine Ledges
view from summit - Brattleboro and Ct River below
Overall: A great week of training, especially right after the Pisgah race. Nipmuck here I come. I'm not super confident about a trail marathon. No long runs. No fueling practice. Hopefully I'm ready.
Weekly Total: 72 miles
Last Week: 67 miles
Year to Date: 2349 miles
Dude! You are killing this week!!! Freakin' beast!
ReplyDeleteThat hike with your son looks awesome, Jonny. Fun times.
ReplyDelete"a baby shower" - i think you mean your twin niece and nephew's showers! ;)
ReplyDelete