Weekly Training Wrap - 5/12 - 5/18

Phew, I've had races in each of the past 3 weeks. Of course, I am not sure I have truly raced any of them other than maybe the Quad Rock 25. How much of a true race effort can you put in on tired/training legs with no taper and minimal recovery? I guess that varies from athlete to athlete. Anyway, I spent the first half of this week recovering from Quad Rock and trying to save up some mojo for the weekend. I never intended to run the Colfax Marathon, but I got a free entry from work and decided I would use it as a long training run. My buddy Jon is transitioning over to the trails in preparation to run the North Fork 50 with me and asked if I would want to run Deer Creek on Saturday. Not wanting to lose momentum on the trails, I agreed to run with him and just do both. Honestly, this is the kind of test I need once in a while, but maybe not one week after Quad Rock.

Here is what I wrote as my run description (a mini race report) for yesterday's marathon:

Brings my 2 day total to 43 miles and 6.5 hours of running and my week to 68 miles. Not too shabby. I knew I couldn't afford another race effort -- 3 weeks in a row and I am running out of matches to burn -- so I decided to make it a mostly Zone 1 and 2 affair with some progression. I tried to keep the first 8 miles entirely in Zone 1, but I think I started losing that around mile 7. Then I wanted to keep the next 8 miles somewhere between 145 and 150, which was a struggle because it is mostly uphill. My average HR at the halfway mark was 141. Next, I wanted to stay in Zone 2 (under 155) until mile 20. I had to really keep myself in check in miles 17-20 because it is easy to fly down Colfax there. I felt super strong and was easily picking off runners. Then I just sort of went with it for the final few miles. I got a little bonky (only 200-300 kcals all race) between miles 22 and 23 and nearly threw in the towel. But I found some Gatorade at mile 23 and guzzled a few cups to give me enough energy to finish. The last few miles up 17th in the heat were BRUTAL, but I just set my sights on picking off runners, mostly 10 milers. All in all this pretty much turned out exactly as I thought/hoped. I cannot argue with that. I wore my Altra Instinct 2.0 without socks. About mile 16, I regretted not having socks.

The short version is that I never intended to race. I set up a structure that allowed me to run progressively faster (both pace and effort), but still make it a predominantly aerobic affair. And, I intentionally made it low in calories to both test and push myself there. But, I won't lie, I was pretty upset with myself for not packing a few extra "just in case" gels. The last 5 miles were a real struggle with almost no calories coming in. In hindsight, I sort of wish I had packed a multi-hour bottle of Ucan to try nursing that. I figured if I ran the race like I intended, I could run 3:35 or 3:45 and achieve my objectives without blowing myself up. 3:37 was on the faster side of that range and I feel like I should be able to return to normal training this week. Mission accomplished, I guess!

One last thing, I finally got my gym membership back and plan to get back into cross training again this week. Though, I was predictably sore and could only go once last week.

Day	Miles	Notes
Monday	Off	Rest
Tuesday	5	Easy Strength Training
Wednesday	9	Easy
Wednesday	6	Easy
Thursday	Off	Rest
Friday	5	Easy
Saturday	17	Deer Creek
Sunday	26	Colfax Marathon
Total	68	About 5800 feet of vert