I would have rather been at the Barr Trail race today, taking measurer of my stock, but I did not register - as at that time I was thinking I'd not be able to run at all. Things have changed. Alternatively JV was heading for 3-2-1s at Pikes (so he'd be killing himself near the top while folks killed themselves in the race at the bottom), but I had too much to do to blow a whole day down there again.
Motivated, I decided to get in a good long run. I got a late start, but made my way south on the Mesa, up Fern, to Bear summit, then broke over to SoBo. Back from SoBo to the arm of Bear and then on the connector back over to Green. Up to Green, then back down Ranger - Gregory. I kept the whole run "in check" as it was long, it was pretty warm, I was feeling the near 2 hours from the day before and Lindens on Friday. That said, I never got wasted, or wiped. I think carrying the Camelback (which I emptied over the course of the run) helped with that ALOT. 2:45 round trip. I'll need to check with JV as to what the elevation delta is on this but I am pretty sure it has to be 4 or 5K of up.
- M - easy 25 in AM, easy 67 in PM
- T - 77 minutes, with Davidson Mesa tempo
- W - 95 minutes, 53 in AM, 42 PM, with 16 x 200 strides
- Th - Green, 72 minutes, easy
- F - 75 minutes, Lindens, ow.
- S - 113 minutes, easy
- Su - 165 minutes, Bear, South Boulder Peak and Green
Good week - definitely worked well coming off Pikes (last Sunday), and I feel like with each run, I am incrementally improving. Well, maybe not immediately after the run, but the next day. :)
689 (11 hours +) minutes on the week, so decent volume. Will look to continue to build on the hard effort (track repeats, Linden or similar like hill repeats), a tempo effort and a long effort with recovery in between. I will continue to worry less about what I do for running on recovery days (meaning I will let volume desires go) and look to focus more and more on my hard efforts (although I have been saying this for weeks with no significant change there).
Jury is still out if I Double or just do the Marathon. Good choices to have. I can make a case for either in my head right now. I will continue to see how the journey goes up until race weekend before making any absolute decisions. The question is not whether I am improving, it is a question of how much runway I have.
Did you see the Hardrock 100 stats? Kyle Skaggs broke 24 hours. Thats essentially running 4 Pikes Peak Marathons back to back to back to back in under 6 hours apiece. Incredible.
ReplyDeleteThe Skagg Bros, Anton ... those guys are resetting the expectation as to what is possible in ultras. We are going through a shift at those distances. Pretty cool to watch and inspiring!
ReplyDeleteHow goes the recovery - training?
"How goes the recovery - training?"
ReplyDeleteYea I meant to ask you that too. I haven't heard anything about the not to be often mentioned something.
I haven't really felt anything in my knee in quite a bit - surprising. I don't know what the heck it was - maybe tendonitis, maybe some wierd scar tissue thing that had to get worn out...
I am burning the candle at both ends right now trying to play catch up - trying to extend my long run on pavement and trying to extend my long run on incline both within every 10-12 day period. I am getting there. I am taking 2 days off each week and/or doing a lot of incline -walking- to try and not over do it...so far so good.
I see from your blog you are still looking at different options...thats ultimately a good thing. You don't have to decide until even race day do you?
I am registered for both so I don't need to decide anything up until the gun goes off. Unless it is decided for me! :)
ReplyDeleteof course ... I think about it a lot!