Thursday, August 6, 2009

Return to the Blogosphere

Hiatus? Yes. I have been busy. Negatory. I have not made adequate time for writing. It is my shame to bear. But I am back.

I returned to running on the second to last day of June, after a month completely off. I walked 7-10 miles a day and continued core, lower body and upper body strengthening circuits during the break. I put in 300 miles in July - a low and honest number, which I am proud of, considering the self-control it took to not run more. I paced the 3:40 women's Boston qualifier race at the Missoula Marathon after 10 days of training. I ended up taking them in at the 3:36 mark. Oops. I made the run into a 50k (31 miles) to make for a nice training day. Had a great time doing that. With that run, my Fall 2009 ultra training began in earnest.

I then put in several 80-90+ mile weeks leading up to the Elkhorn 50 miler on August 1st. Supposedly, one of the most difficult 50 mile courses in the west. Hard, but necessary lessons learned at that race. Long story short, I dropped out at mile 25 after admitting defeat to the leader who had 5 minutes on me. Probably a silly move (we had 5-6 miles on the pack). Made the run into a 50k at a blazing pace that would have been good for the course record.

Currently, I am coming to the end of my first 130+ mile week since May (a wet 7 miler this mornign). I am feeling great. I am braceless and happy. I have slowed down my training considerably. I would say that 75% of my running is at 8:30 pace or slower. It has made all the difference in the world. I put in 1-2 "speed" work outs a week. But, for the most part, it is all beautiful mountain running. I put in a few of those flat speed work outs a week, but beyond that it is all about the vertical running. I have been averaging about 2,000 vert feet a day. My climbing is getting gnarly-sick. Fast and smooth and my only limit has been the height of the peaks in the immediate area - this has meant several peaks a day on occasion. My downhill is getting better. I have been taking it easy on the gravity-assisted running to save my knees.

Next week, I am heading to Atlanta for job-related training and will take that opportunity to have a cut-back week - let the ol' body rest a bit. Then, next weekend, it is on... A couple of big long runs, followed by a some big and beautiful running weeks. My preparations are for the Le Grizz 50 miler, where I would like to go sub-6 hours this year. Lord-willing.

Alright, back to the blog, now back to work. Daily reporting on training begins! Yeehaw!

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