Category: Leadville

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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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Mid-Week Training Update

Today was a good day! I got my 8 miles, on trail, done with over 1,000 feet of elevation gain. Work was good. Winnie was good. No drama. No catastrophes.

My knees felts a bit stiff walking this evening but I’m going to chalk it up to 8 miles on the trails.

Tomorrow is 6 miles, which I will run on the trails in the morning with Winnie. Then to the weight room. Everything is on track, on goal and ready for 25 miles on Saturday and 12 on Sunday.

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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)

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Week 21 Recap

This week was the hardest yet. Longer miles during the week and then 22/12 over the weekend.

My knees have been hurting from the fall last week, then on Saturday I fell, again, on the ice hurting my right knee. Geez. I’ve been icing my knees every day.

Saturday was the first long run that was done mainly on trails and a lot of vertical. The trails are muddy and still pretty icy in spots. I was toast after that run. Sunday morning was brutal; I woke up pretty sore. I delayed the run start to 10:00 which is the latest I’ve ever started a weekend run. At first it was slow and painful, but gradually got better. The run was around 80% on road and I tried as much as I could to find trails or run on the dirt next to the road.

I spent Sunday afternoon relaxing and icing my knees while catching up on Arrested Development.

Next week is a recovery week – thank goodness! I need it.

I need to pay special attention to core and get back to some weights this week. I also need to add night running and stair climbing. Saturday is a massage. Yeah recovery week!

The learning process continues.

Average Weight: 158

Average Resting Heart Rate: 56

Total Vert: 4,409 ft (most vertical this year!)

Miles: 57 (includes hiking)

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Week 22 Leadville Training Recap

Dimond Hill Farm – another big hill on Sunday

Sunday’s run culminated in another big hill – Dimond Hill. After yesterday’s hills I’m ready for a recovery day tomorrow.

But alas, let’s recap: Monday and Tuesday became recovery days although I started Personal Training at the Y on Monday. I did my 3-day-in-a-row running on Wed-Thur-Fri. Then on Friday when I hiked with Winnie on the icy trails with my spikes, the chain on the spikes locked and I fell on my knees – OUCH!

I iced my knees and worried about waking up the next day with knee pain.

Saturday I woke up and it wasn’t as bad as I thought. So I stretched and foam rolled and headed out for the 20 miler. It was a slog-fest for sure. I recovered well from the run except for eating too much butternut squash which is apparently a thing – it causes horrible stomach cramping from too much fiber and gas. By 8:00 the pain was gone thanks to Gas-X.

I woke up on Sunday totally recovered from knee pain and sore quads from the long run. My 10 mile run was hilly, and do-able; I felt pretty good. I tried to run as much as I could on the dirt but most of it was on the road.

I took a recovery hike with Winnie and now resting comfortably on my sofa for the rest of the night.

Trail junction on Sunday March 24 at Winant Trails

Training week 22 was a test of endurance and consistency. On the 20 miler I wanted to cut it short and make up the miles on Sunday but I knew I had to get used to long miles, tired legs and wanting to quit – I will not quit. I’m excited for the next BIG week. I’m actually looking forward to running 22 miles next Saturday and hoping that at least 50 percent of it will be on trails. I will also be adding back two-a-week weight training days.

This will happen:

The Goal – under 30 hours

Average Weight: 157

Average Resting Heart Rate: 55

Training Time: I recorded time in Dailymiles.com which ended on March 20 🙁

Total Vert: 4,048

Miles: 48.9 (includes hiking)