Category: Goals

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Tapering is hard

I’m doing a mini-taper this week preparing for the 30 mile Blood Peak race on Saturday. I’m not sure what I’ve gotten myself into by signing up for this race but I know that it is going to be hilly, mountainous and ridiculously hard.

All I have to do is beat the cutoffs and finish. Just finish.

But tapering this week has been difficult. I’d rather run 20 miles than 4 miles today. Yes, I really wrote that. I’m antsy. I’m emotional. I have too much free time on my hands. I want to do weights (but I’m not). I want to swim and do yoga (but I won’t). I need my legs to be fresh. I’m not good with standing still. Grrrr.

So I will race on Saturday. A hard race. Not my A race. But a race that is #2 of the 5 races that I have chosen to define 2019. All I have to do is finish. All I have to do is not screw it up.

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Week 16 Recap, Leadville 100 Training

It is the biggest mileage week: 56 miles ran. 62.7 when I include hiking. This may be why I felt like ca-ca today on my trail run. I’m waiting for Garmin to synch to Strava to get total vertical for the week.

This week I ran a 10 mile mid-week run. For the 100 mile training plan there are a few long-ish mid-week runs. This week I opted for a fast-ish road run but in the future it’s all trails, baby!

Saturday I drove up to New Gloucester to pre-run the Pineland Trail Running Festival’s course. The plan was to run a full loop – around 15 miles. However, the groups got split up and we lost the way. Plus, I was talking to some runners before the group run started and forgot to put gel/food in my hydration vest. I realized the error when I was suddenly starving at mile 6.

Along with lack of food and 100% humidity and the endless hills – I was, again, feeling like ca-ca. I decided to cut the group run short and headed back to the car for a grand total of 7 miles and 800 feet of elevation gain. My legs were sore. I drove in my car longer than I ran.

Here’s how the week played out:

I had to move a bunch of runs around due to running the Pineland course and then not getting all the miles in that I needed. I didn’t get two days off which is probably why my legs are wrecked but also getting a massage the day before a long run isn’t advised. But, again, I had to work everything in without ideal scheduling.

Next week is the Peak Ultra in Vermont. I’m starting my taper Monday and trying to keep keep the legs fresh before this mountain trail run on Saturday. And just 20 days until the 50 miler.

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Week 19 Recap

The most mileage yet and I’m feeling it. 38 miles this weekend!

I hope after the last few week I’ll be ready for the first race of the year – next Saturday. The race is a 50K on trails.

This week I am back on track with weight training and stairs. I’m up to 1,200 stairs on the stair climber. I slept well all week except for Saturday night. However, I wasn’t too stiff/sore when I woke up on Sunday to run 12 miles. I feel like my knee is 100% back to normal after Saturday long run that was mostly on trails. It didn’t hurt at all on Sunday’s run. Icing and ibuprofen really worked well.

One note about Saturday’s 25-mile run. I started running at 10:30 which is really late to start a 25 mile run. It was also the hottest and most humid day of the year so far. I wasn’t prepared for the heat and overdressed; and ran out of water when I was about two miles from the house. Also by starting late, I ran into more people on the Concord Trail system. There were a lot of dogs too; all very well behaved!

But since it was the first warm day, I also saw more people outside their homes on the routes I usually run super early. When you run at a different time, the typical run routes are like a new world.

I’m excited for tomorrow’s rest day and will not mind the rain that is in the forecast.

Average Weight: [I’m just going to remove this category on future posts]

Average Resting Heart Rate: 48

Total Vert: 6,229 ft elevation gain (woot woot – high score)

Miles: 58 (includes hiking)

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Week 20 Recap

This is the second recovery week since I started training. What a strange week this has been.

As a recovery week, the mileage during this week was really low and I took a few more days off due to knee pain. I think I figured out what happened with my knee: the fall, over use, stress and putting on too many miles. I’m following a plan that has gradual mileage increases but it still wrecked my body. I think, too, that I stopped weight training and that didn’t help. I did everything right this week, well, maybe not everything right but I iced, rested, elevated and got my legs stronger. Since I had pain in the adductors weeks leading up to the knee injury, I think that part of the knee pain was coming from the weak adductors.

Now, I will get back to weight training and do my core exercises every day. I remember reading that the most important think about ultra running is arriving to the start healthy and injury free. The miles have been a struggle on my aging body and now I understand that I have to do everything I knew I had to do to stay healthy and injury free.

Lesson Learned.

I will do yoga a few times a week and weight training. I will hike and run at night.

Next week is Week 19 – the biggest week yet.

I’m excited for the week and to be strong and healthy.

132 days to Leadville.

Average Weight: [I don’t want to talk about it]

Average Resting Heart Rate: 44

Total Vert: 2,273

Miles: 23.9 (includes hiking)