Sunday, April 28, 2013

Training Week - 4/22/13

4/23/13 - Ran the usual 6 mile loop in 43:52 and did a 3.25 mile cooldown.
     Later that evening I did another 4 miles in my five fingers.
4/24/13 - Ran a greenway and Raleigh Court loop.
4/26/13 - Did a 8.33 mile track workout of 2x(6x400m with 1:30 RI) and 2:30 RI between sets.  1:20, 1:23, 1:19, 1:21, 1:21, 1:21 then 1:22, 1:21, 1:21, 1:21, 1:22, 1:18.
     Then we went out to Falling Creek Park to mtn bike assess a new long loop for the half marathon. 
     12.5 miles.
4/27/13 - 6.35 mile greenway/graveyard loop
4/28/13 - Ran up Poage Valley Ext. to Slings Gap Rd, then an out and back and down the Blue Ridge Parkway to Dawnwood and back.  I've been hearing that "we need to see" Poage Valley Ext. for a long time so today was the day.  It was a nice cool windy rainy day to head up the steeps of PVE.  Once to the top it mellowed out and we were able run the rest.  It's pretty nice up there.
Weekly total of 52.93 miles running and 12.5 of mtn biking.

Next week should be a lower mileage running week due to us having a race on Saturday and the fact that it is time to bring the miles down after 3 hard weeks. 

Monday, April 22, 2013

Training Week of 4/15

4/16/13 - Ran my usual 6 mile loop in 42:56 and 3.6 mile cool down.
4/16/13 - Later in the evening I ran 4 miles in Five Fingers.
4/17/13 - Ran 8 miles at the cove.  Ran in on the road, songbird, tuck-a-way, and 4 gorge to the parking lot.  Lungs felt pretty bad today.  Maybe due to all the pollen and humidity.
4/19/13 - Ran a 6 mile loop to the greenway and around Raleigh Court (graveyard loop CW)

I am now just under a two months until the San Juan Solstice 50 miler and one month from the Smokey Mtn Traverse.  The traverse has been planned as the last big training for the SJS 50.  The plan is to tackle the 68+ miles of the Appalachian Trail in the Smokey Mtn. National  Park in 2 days.  Day one will be from I-40 to the parking lot of Clingman's Dome.  This has been mapped out at around 40 miles and 16,000ft of elevation gain.  Day two will take us from Clingman's Dome to the Fontana Dam and maybe a little beyond.  This section comes out to 34 miles and 9800ft of elevation gain.

4/20/13 - Ran the Catawba Run Around - 31.67 miles.  This is the second time doing this full loop.  Jonathan Adcock and I started at 779 where Andy Lane Trail Starts.  We crossed 779 and started out on the Catawba Valley Trail, which took us up to the ridge of North Mtn.  From here it is a rocky technical ridge run to 311 and the Dragon's Tooth parking lot.  We headed up the trail to Dragon's Tooth and took a left onto the Boy Scout Trail (this trail skirts around the pretty much non runnable terrain and comes out, on the AT near it's junction with Newport Road.  We continued on the AT to 311, where Gina and Rebecca started, and refilled our water and loaded up on some more food.  Next up was McAfee's Knob for a brief soaking in of the view and then onward to Tinker Cliffs and down Andy Layne Trail to finish the loop.
See all the stats here - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/300753568
     We took it pretty easy on this one.  The goal was to do the loop at a comfortable pace and not beat ourselves up.
4/21/13 - Feel pretty good today.  Not very sore, quads are a little tight but all in all I feel great for travelling 32 miles on rugged terrain yesterday.  I ran the 6 mile graveyard loop that I did on 4/19 but CCW.
Total for the week was 65.27 miles running.

Friday, April 19, 2013

Training Weeks 4/1 - 4/14

This is the week that Gina and I race our 5th 6 hours of Warrior Creek in Wilkesboro NC.  It will be our first time on the same team.  We'll be racing duo coed and I will be taking the first lap and hopefully not blowing up by going out too fast.
4/2/13 - Ran my usual 6 mile loop with a 1.5 mile cool down.  Ran the loop in 44:17.
4/3/13 - Ran 6.75 miles at the cove.  Ran up Hi Dee Ho, down buck, and finished running Hotel.
4/5/13 - Did a 12.5 mile mtn bike ride to preview the course.
4/6/13 - Raced 3 laps for 43 miles.  Raced a 1:20, 1:11, and 1:14 lap.  The first lap was 3 miles longer than the others.  My times were OK but not on what I had hoped.  We ended up with a respectable 7th out of 17 teams.  I do think I pushed to hard in the first lap.  In the middle of the lap I hit a wall and it took me awhile to recover. 
4/7/13 - Ran 7.25 to preview the Mill Mountain Mayhem Course.
Total for the week:  21.5 miles running and 55.5 miles mtn biking.

4/9/13 - Ran the usual 6 mile loop in 43:25 and did a 1.5 mile cool down.
4/9/13 - Ran 4 miles in five fingers later that night.
4/10/13 - Ran 10 miles at the cove.  Ran the road in, comet, enchanted forest, little bell, schoolhouse to Happy Valley and then went back. 
4/12/13 - 8.6 miles of track work.  Did 2x1200m and 4x800m with a 2 min RI (4:36, 4:36, 2:56, 3:06, 3:02, 3:02).  My track times a quite a bit slower than they should be and compared to a year ago.  My endurance is good but my turnover isn't there.
4/12/13 - Later in the afternoon we marked the Mill Mountain Mayhem Course.
4/13/13 - 4 miles of mtn biking to check the MMM 10k course.
4/14/13 - 19.5 miles running up Poor Mtn to Break Rd. and back.  See details here - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/297998219
Total for the week:  53.2 miles running and 4 miles mtn biking.

The countdown for the San Juan Solstice 50M is 2 months.  Training is going well and my attitude is picking up.  I've done a little recon for the race this week and the excitement is starting to build.