Category: Leadville

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Game of Thrones, Season 4 Daenerys Targaryen

I gave into popular culture and started watching Game of Thrones.

I tried a few time over the last year and never made it past episode 1 on the first time and second try. Then finally on the third try I made it past episode 3 and knew I would watch until then end. I only made the third attempt because my co-worker/friend told me, who happens to read A LOT, it is truly just a great story – well told – minus the blood, gore, nudity (full frontal female nudity only, shall I say) and a lot death, which I abhor.

One month later I’m binge watching Game of Thrones, which is ill-advised but I really don’t listen to anyone. I’m on Season 4.

GoT came at a good time – I’m training for the ultra race, the ultimate race, a race I’m not sure I can finish but mentally I need to think I can. So, recovery this race season is Game of Thrones.

The character I love: Daenerys Targaryen. Why? She knows what she wants. She turns a bad situation into the best situation. She has great mental energy.

I say that not knowing what happens in the final season that is on HBO right now – which I don’t have.

Right now, okay maybe tomorrow (it’s been a long weekend of not meeting goals) I’m going to feed my desire to achieve by taking in everything this character embodies.

Okay, maybe the last quote was more political than personal but the personal is political – so there.

Week 17 recap tomorrow.

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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)