First of all, January was another successful month with about 220 miles and 20K of vertical. That is not even close to where I was last summer when I averaged 265 miles and 36K per month. But it is progress, and frankly much further along than I thought I'd be at this point. I am satisfied with where I am at, but hope to start picking up volume a bit in the Spring.
Next order of business is my weekly training structure. My typical routine has been 5 days a week and cross training on the off days (Monday and Friday usually). There are two issues with this structure. The first is that it puts limits on my volume. It is typically not wise to run much more than 10-11 miles per run (on avg for the whole week). If I only run 5 days a week, it makes pushing volume to 60 or 65 miles a week a challenge without risking injury. And, as I pointed out in my recent cross training post, I am violating the hard/easy rule in my training. My new goals is to do my hard weight sessions/cross training sessions on Tuesday/Thursday. Then I may add an extra day of running (probably Friday) to give me some play with bumping up weekly mileage.
Another thing I want to mention is HR training. As you can see below, I did a HR zone test on Friday. I think the outcome was a little skewed on the high side and I moderated my zones (I am using 172 as my LT). This prompted me to start looking at my training YTD in all zones. I am currently running 86% of my total mileage in Zone 1 (recovery) and Zone 2 (general aerobic/base) combined. I guess that isn't too surprising given that my peak race is an ultra, but it is probably still a bit too much easy running. If I am going to take things up to a new level, I may consider some structure to my long runs (like intentionally running hills harder). I am finding that no matter how fit I am, trail running requires me to push in and out of zones more regularly than road running. In any case, I need to spend a bit more time in higher zones to prepare my body for racing.
I have one hard week of training left before I taper for Old Pueblo 50. As is my nature, my mind is racing with last minute thoughts about strategy, goals, and race day nutrition. I think I am narrowing in on some stuff, but I will save that for a future post!
| Day | Miles | Notes |
| Monday | Rest | Light Weights, Ab Ripper X |
| Tuesday | 7 | TM Hill Workout |
| Wednesday | 10 | Snowy Midlong, KR WODs |
| Thursday | 7 | Friel HR Zone Test, Yoga Melt |
| Friday | 5 | Recovery |
| Saturday | 16 | Hilly, Road Long |
| Sunday | 13 | Deer Creek Canyon |
| Total | 58 | About 6700 vertical feet |
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