A blog about running, hiking, dogs and seeing the world
Tomorrow is the TARC 50K in Weston, Ma. I’m excited for this race. It’s not really a race but a training milestone. I pretty much just need to finish and beat the cut-off times.
Then on Sunday, run 10 miles.
I’m ready.
Today, Friday is a recovery day so I hiked with Winnie this morning and took her on a few long walks during the day. This morning it was sooooo humid.
I’m going to bed early and then heading south of the border, the New Hampshire border.
Race report to follow shortly.
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)
That’s what I’m talking about! Over 2,800 feet of elevation gain. I’m sore. But ready for 12 tomorrow.
Spring is here. Ran in 70 degree temps!
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.
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)