Weekly Training Wrap - 1/21 - 1/27

Training is winding down and Saturday I completed the pinnacle training run on my plan -- 30 miles on a course that is very similar to the Old Pueblo 50 race course. The day was sort of a mixed big and I came away a little unsure of whether I can sustain the effort I'd like (10:34 pace) for 50 miles. We faced several challenges, including lots of stoppage time to find the trail and refuel at our mini aid station. I intentionally overdressed for the run to try to acclimate a bit for the Arizona heat and that may have caused some of my discomfort. The good news is that I didn't feel at all wrecked on Sunday. Quite the opposite, I think I could have run if I wanted to. Clearly there is room to push it a bit more in a true race effort.

Nonetheless, I walked away a bit disappointed with my endurance. It shouldn't be surprising that I feel unprepared considering I am doing a somewhat light mileage plan. I just have to remind myself that it was by design as I get healthy. I have one last hard weekend of training (in two weeks). If the weather and life schedule line up, I may try and push the B2B to something like 22 and 20 as one last effort to increase my endurance.

And, going forward, I may tinker with training a bit. I have been following the same plan(s) for nearly 2 years now. One example would be to experiment with a plan where I try to log big mileage Friday - Sunday (50+ miles) and keep my workouts light during the week.  Perhaps I can do some weights and light work on the bike. We'll see how this all lines up after Old Pueblo.

One last note, I experimented with some new nutrition stuff on Saturday. I really like the concept of a "multi hour" bottle of Perpetuem and I have tried that twice now. But I just don't think I can drink enough of that when the temperature rises. I think I will stick with GU Roctane as my primary beverage. I have also been experimenting with mixing Generation Ucan with both GU Roctane and Perpetuem. That idea seems to have some promise and is one I will explore further. Unfortunately, all this means that I am likely to carry a Hydration Pack on race day. I would prefer not, but that is the price of having the nutrition you want.

Day	Miles	Notes
Monday	Rest	Yoga for the Core
Tuesday	7	Easy
Wednesday	5	Easy
Thursday	3	Hotel TM
Friday	Rest	Various Core and Strength exercises
Saturday	30	Race-specific test
Sunday	Off	Active Recovery (Bike, weights)
Total	45	About 4500 vertical feet