Slacker blog post. I had a good week of training on the trails post Brrr-lingame race. I got in 70 miles with only 15 of them on pavement. I didn't get any speed work in, but I was happy with the hill workout and the time spent on technical hilly trails. I ended up with just about 4000' of elevation gain for the week according to Strava. This upcoming week will be an easy taper until Saturday's Big River Half Marathon. I can't wait for this one. Unlike Brrr-lingame, just being fast doesn't translate to success in this race. Technicality, rolling terrain, and endurance are the keys to this one. I'm hoping I've trained accordingly. I loved this fortune I received Saturday night:
Monday: 10 miles - Ryan Park trails alone. I may not have won the race on Saturday, but I think I won the race for quickest recovery. I felt great today and spent a good amount of time looping around the newer east side single track (yet another brand new section too). I then made my way over to the west, and stuck with the more interesting single track.
Tuesday: 11 miles - Big River trails alone. I had the time for my first trip to Big River this year, and I got a chance to preview most of the upcoming half marathon course. I began at the Hopkins Hill lot. The trails were dry and snow/ice free. The drawback was that the long period snow cover didn't allow a lot of use, so many of the trails were leaf covered. It was also a tad confusing, but that's nothing a few hundred orange flags can't fix. I was happy to maintain a peppy pace throughout this run. Running here has me pumped about the race. This course is brutal, especially compared to Brrr-lingame. I'm hoping my trail heavy training will really pay off.
Wednesday: 10 miles - Gilbert Stuart Rd hill workout solo. I wasn't motivated to meet Galoob at the indoor track and I procrastinated going out for any kind of run. Finally, I opted to run repeats of the Gilbert Stuart Road hill. This seemed like a relatively wind protected spot (it was a super windy day) and I thought controlled hill repeats would be an easy way to get a workout in. I know this sounds crazy, but that's how I think. I parked at Camp Nokewa, and ran the dirt road down to the paved one. I then did a 10 minute warm up and began climbing. I felt slow. The climb was hard even though I wasn't charging it. I ran almost all the way out to Rte 1 each time, which is longer than I normally would do this. It gave me a bigger break between the main hill repeats, but it forced me to do a second climb each time. The second felt even harder, and I thought about bailing, but the third was fine, and so was the fourth. My results on the .5+ mile Strava segment (218' of elevation gain) were: 3:58/3:55/3:59/4:04 (7:20 - 7:40 min pace). I was really pleased that my overall pace for the run ended up at 7:15 - I definitely felt like it as going to be close to 8. Also pleased to get 1207' in elevation gain for the entire run. Not easy around here!
Thursday: 7 miles - SK mix lunch run with Galoob and Nate. We met up at Nate's new place and wandered around his trails until pushing on to the TriPond trails. We then made our way on the bike path and ran more trails at Curtis Corner. We connected back on some paved roads until Nate took us on a detour through his neighbors farm. Directly through it. Good Thor's Day fun.
Friday: 8.5 miles - Burlingame trail run with Muddy. I was home from work watching my sick child for the day and decided to see if Muddy was interested in joining me for a late afternoon trail run. He was game, so we ran a fun course I did last week from my house. Lively conversation and a good run ensued.
Saturday: 16 miles - Big River course recon with Muddy, Seth, and Garvin. I was planning on running the course at a challenging pace and was happy to have some of my friends join me. After a 2 mile warm up on the New London Turnpike (dirt), the four of us headed out on the course. It was fun chatting along and getting to show Muddy and Chris around (Seth did the race last year). The pace was peppy, but not hard for most of the run. Fatigue set in (just like the race) on the final twisty 5K (Lego trail). Ugh. Flashback. We did the course in 1:50. I just need to be 20 minutes faster next Saturday....
Sunday: 7.5 miles - Burlingame trails alone. I headed out in the light rain after most of the 5+ inches had already fallen. I knew I was going to get extremely wet, but the temperature was warm (low 50's) so I didn't mind. The moving water was incredible. North Burlingame was in okay shape, but the real Buckeye Brook was a raging scary river. I had to cross one spot that was a little dicey (deep, fast moving water). I then ran some single track on the other side of Buckeye Brook Rd. First off, there was a mtn bike race going on, and the trail was torn up. I found sections of trail that weren't part of the course (I never actually saw a mtn biker, just tracks) that were in better shape. But, most of the single track was a stream. My gross shoes came out looking brand new. Sometimes I would have to run through puddles thigh deep. Pretty interesting way to end the week.
Weekly Total: 70 miles
Last Week: 53 miles
Year to Date: 766 miles
March Total: 293 miles
I'm not sure it's still called a puddle when it's thigh-deep!
ReplyDelete