Peak week of training

I finished training for the Indian Creek 50m with my hardest weekend of training ever. Saturday – 21 mile trail run with 4500ft of climbing (Deer Creek) We started off at 6:00am on the trail with headlamps. This was my first time running in the dark up a trail with headlamps. The beams of light from the different runners bounced off the rocks and casts weird shadows. About 3 switchbacks up I started to feel dizzy because of the lights. We watched the sunrise around 7:00am. I dropped my friend off in the parking lot at about 8-10 miles and then headed up the mountain again for lap 2. Sunday – 16 mile trail run with 3700ft of climbing (Mt Falcon) My legs and feet ached when I woke up and I started the run very dehydrated. I took in lots of liquids and ate a lot on the trail. After a few miles I felt much better but the overall tiredness stayed with me. Just like yesterday I ran with my friends and then dropped them off in the parking lot around 10 miles and then headed back up to the top of the mountain. Weekend totals for the last 2 runs 37.4 miles 8:11 total running time (13:10 pace) 8,200ft of climbing It helped that I was spoiled with great trails and great weather.

Down but not out

On Saturday I had on the hardest run of my life. 20 mile trail run with 3900’ of total climbing. On the final climb the wheels fell off and I spent the last few miles questioning my sanity. I worried that I would not make it back to my car. I found out that when your legs turn to mush they don’t like running downhill. This 20 mile run took me 3:56:37 which is about 2 minutes on my feet more than my last marathon all while averaging a HR in the 150’s. I was ready to give up on my next race (switch to the 25K).

Mental Recovery in 3 steps:
1. I took Sunday off and didn’t think about running
2. This morning I had a redemption run 10 miles at 8:15 pace, my legs felt fine
3. Made the graph below to see the elevation of this training run vs. the upcoming race (red was the tail run this Saturday and blue is the race in a few weeks). The trail that I have been running is way tougher than the race will be.



I got kicked off the horse but I am back on board, confidence slightly bruised. Already looking back I can see a few mistakes I made that I can improve on for the race