Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Weekly Summary: Feb 7-13

2/7/2011
Mon- AM: 22 miles (2:52) Pogonip-Wilder-West Cliff, 1748'
Not much to say here. The legs were feeling pretty exceptional, so I thought I'd extend my planned 16 miler to 22.
PM: 5 miles (:39) West Cliff, 189'
Nice shake-out. Legs are feeling surprisingly light and responsive.


2/8/2011
Tues- AM: 6 miles (:45) West Cliff, 229'
I got up a bit earlier than normal and after finishing a bit of homework, I decided to head out to meet the sunrise. What a gorgeous run on West Cliff. A slight breeze, but fairly warm for 7:30am. I'm feeling strong from yesterday.
PM: 14 miles (1:50) Wilder-Pogonip, 1542'
Despite the gnarly ~20mph headwind up through Wilder, this turned out to be an awesome run. Based on this morning's strong shake-out I knew this afternoon would be enjoyable. My first couple of miles were in the low 7 minutes, which surprised me considering yesterday's 27 miles...this might have actually been one of my fastest Wilder-Pogonip loops to date!


2/9/2011
Wed- AM: 20 miles (2:52) Ohlone Bluffs-Wilder-West Cliff, 1656'
Met up with local ultrarunner and new friend, Sean, for an awesome trail run this morning. I've never been in Wilder that early in the morning (7am), so it was awesome to experience the sunrise from the Ohlone Bluffs. We made our way along the ocean to 6 Mile Beach and ran into another runner who tagged along for a few miles before we headed up the Wilder hills. I think we hit the Enchanted Loop trail, Wilder Ridge, Wild Boar, and Engelsman...probably another one, but I'd never been out that far before, so who knows! My legs felt really strong today, despite the miles from Monday and Tuesday, and as far as I could tell was floating up most of the climbs. The majority of the run was pretty mellow, which didn't bother me one bit! I was planning another shake-out this afternoon, but I'm feeling pretty tired so I'll just use my time to get some work done. Looking forward to doing this again next wednesday. B-fast was: cereal and coffee


2/10/2011
Thurs- AM: 5 miles (:39) Seacliff-Nisene, 378'
My legs were feeling a bit tight this morning, so I decided to get in a few easy miles before this afternoon's trail run and the track workout later tonight.
PM: 13 miles (1:48) Pogonip o&b, 1100'
Legs are still pretty sore after the run, but I took it super mellow so I'm hoping it won't affect tonight's workout. I'm definitely not feeling as fresh as I was last Thursday prior to track, but that's probably because of yesterday's 20 miler. Before the run I decided to have some whole wheat french bread with a little hummus, and what a bad idea that was. The entire run I felt a little queasy, and I'm still feeling it now.
PM: 1.5 miles warm/cool (:17) w/ 6x600m @ 5k pace, 300m rec. jog, 3.5 miles (:25) Track
2:01, 1:55, 1:54, 1:55, 1:55, 1:55
Solid track workout...definitely more intense than I thought though! Today was 6x600m repeats @ 5k pace. Like last week, I wasn't sure what pace to shoot for, so I just sort of went out with the faster guys. My 400m splits were between 75-79sec, and I was around a sub-5 min/mile for most of the efforts, so I think I pushed myself pretty hard. By the end of the repeats I was ready to keel over. A great day of running, but still feeling weird from today's hummus incident.


2/11/2011
Fri- AM: 4 miles (:30) West Cliff, 224'
Got out earlier than normal this morning for my shake-out. I have class at 8am, so I laced up the shoes and headed outside around 6:45 for an easy 4 miler. I'm feeling awesome, and the sunrise was beautiful over the ocean!
PM: 13 miles (1:50) Wilder-Pogonip, 1546'
Definitely one of my slower days in Wilder, but I think the miles are finally catching up. I've been feeling completely drained this entire week, so I tried not to push the pace and just focused on recovery.
PM: 3 miles (:24) Western, 83'
I decided to throw in a few extra easy miles to see if I couldn't shake the cobwebs off the legs. This run probably walked the line between junk miles/recovery, but I'm feeling better...still tired though. Hopefully some homemade sushi tonight is the answer!


2/12/2011
Sat- AM: 14 miles (1:54) Pogonip-Wilder, 1704'
Bleh. Today was just one of those runs that kind of suck. I was hurting from the get-go, and by the end just couldn't wait to get home. My legs feel a bit crappy and now the top of my right foot is starting to hurt. I think I might have bruised a metatarsal head from the 101's, so I'm going to monitor it closely and take it easy. I was hoping for a solid 16-18 miles this morning, but it just wasn't in the stars...plus I don't plan on pushing through the pain in my foot for an 2 miles. I'm still absolutely exhausted, which is strange because I've been getting 7-8.5 hours of sleep each night. Having said that, I've been finding that I wake up sporadically because of my super firm/uncomfortable futon mattress. Oh well.


2/13/2011
Sun- AM: 6 miles warm/cool (:47) Levee, 284' 
12 miles @ 6:29/mile (1:18), West Cliff, 298'
Considering yesterday's run, I anticipated needing some extra motivation for today so I met up with ma boy Jon for a run! He's training for Boston, so my plan was just to run the tempo workout him. I figured we'd be able to motivate one another and get some speed in my legs. After an easy 3 mile warm-up, we set out on West Cliff for 12 miles @ 6:30 (his marathon pace for Boston). I was fully expecting to drop off the back at about 2 miles in, but to my surprise I stuck the whole workout without feeling anything more than a little uncomfortable! I think I've been underestimating my fitness, especially considering Thursday's track workout and today's tempo-ish run. I probably could have easily ran ~20 seconds faster/mile, which I'm thinking is somewhere around my marathon time. We go a bit over-zealous at one point (mile 4) and hit a 6:18 split, but to my surprise I recovered within ~.25 miles and once we slowed back to the 6:30 pace, I felt like I had settled into a pretty easy jog. My legs started to get heavy towards the final 1.5 miles, which I accredit to not having eaten during the run and only a piece of toast beforehand. We finished with a super mellow 3 mile cool-down through Pogonip. Jon put in an awesome effort today, so I think he'll have no problem hitting his goal in two months! Hopefully this is a good predictor of how I'll perform at Sunday's 50k too!


Totals
-Miles: 142.5 
-Time: 18hr 59min
-Vertical: 10,981'
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I'm writing a few days later than I would have liked, but this week has been amazing. Like most of my training, it lacked structure, and I just sort of ran as to my heart's content. At first I thought this would be problematic because I wouldn't recover properly or wouldn't be running workouts as hard as I could; however, I've found that by simply listening to my body and taking it easy when I feel tired, I am able to string together back-to-back-to-back 20 milers with no problem. This became most evident on Thursday when I hit the track. Besides last week, it's been years since I've done any sort of track/speed work, so to have ran those splits makes me pretty darn happy...and not to mention excited for Sunday's race. I surprised myself again on Sunday with a solid tempo run, which left me only a little winded/uncomfortable. However, having said that I do believe it's time for a small recovery/taper week in preparation for the Lake Chabot 50k and because of the questionable foot pain. My plan for the upcoming week is to log around 80 easy miles prior to Sunday. I want to go into the race feeling almost recovered, but at the same time use it as a tune-up for WTC. Not entirely sure what to expect, considering that the last time I raced a 50k my peak mileage was around 70mpw, and the week of the race I ran only about 20. We shall see!




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