Weekly Fun 4/29/12

This week was scheduled as a rest week, and so it was, with lower volume and nothing long. I even avoided doing more hiking this week - easy because it was cool and rainy early in the week, and, after some unseasonably warm weather recently, it was relatively cold and windy later in the week.

Feeling like I needed an intermediate goal, this week I signed up for the Pineland Farms 50k run in Maine on May 27th. While my training hasn't been specific for a 50k, I should have enough base to finish it without a problem, but most likely I will look at it as a fun run, and will run it according to how I feel that day, and of course the weather.

Mon 23-Apr    run    0:53    450    4    harriman
                        hike    0:34    180    2.5    harriman

An easy run up the creek valley with some hiking.

Tues 24-Apr    run    1:41    1230    4    141    ram park, 9 mins brisk (5k pace)
                       hike    0:18    50    2    ram park

As my fitness improves and I get a little faster, I can reach more trails, and I found some new trails within reach for this medium run. The trails turned out to be slower and more technical than I'd planned on, which was fine, but as I get fitter, the terrain is making it harder for me to get my heart rate up high enough, except of course up hills. More on that later.

Wed 25-Apr    run    0:20        1    new paltz rail trail
                       hike    0:30        2    new paltz rail trail

Just did a really easy recovery jog and the rest fast walking.

Thur 26-Apr    run    0:53    500    5.5    ram park, two tempo intervals
                       hike   0:10        2    ram park

My Achilles were feeling tight and my energy was lackluster as I dragged myself out for a 50ish minute run today. As I warmed up on the mud flats I started feeling good and ran up the hill to the reservoir, decided to do the secondary little lap up the orange trail, then looping back left to the res via the red and yellow trails.

I took off up the hill and felt good so I ran the hill harder than usual, and decided to run the loop at tempo pace, so I continued to push hard as I got onto the sweeping flats of the red trail. After similarly pushing around and down the switchbacks of the yellow trail I found I'd run that in 12:42. I figure it was about a 10k effort. Last time I clocked myself on this little loop it was 16+.

Then I was still feeling good, so I took off around the res and ran that in 10:47, but don't have anything to compare that to. It's a really technical little loop, and not one I normally like to run hard as it has lots of contouring, which can be hard on your ankles. This second effort I pushed at about 10 mile race pace. So I think I probably did my speed for the week right there.

Fri 27-Apr    run    1:17    540    5.5    144    harriman, down red trail brisk hr150
                     hike    0:18    40    2.5    harriman

Today I was scouting a familiar route to see if it would be appropriate for a bunch of repeats for my long run, so that I wouldn't have to carry much. I run this trail all the time, but after signing up for the Pineland Farms 50k, which is on faster dirt roads, I wasn't quite sure if this terrain at Harriman would be best for my last long run before that race. Upon closer inspection, even this easier trail is too slow = too technical and rocky, to be the best training for Pineland.

Sat 28-Apr    run    0:41    60    3    134    ram park
                     hike    0:10            ram park
Sun 29-Apr   off    -- rare day of complete rest!

Saturday I did a few easy laps around my little river/reservoir loop. 


Faster running and the need for faster surfaces:

A good sign is that I've felt like running faster in recent weeks, and last week tried running faster on the river/reservoir loop, which has a 0.88 mile section I can run faster on sandy trails, then a 0.37 shorter section on slower trails to recover, so I plan to do repeats there from time to time in the coming months. This week I did a few tempo pace intervals and felt pretty good.

My run Friday convinced me that I need to run on faster surfaces sometimes, including long runs. The best pace I could manage running moderately hard down the red trail was 11:28 per mile. For a similar effort on flat stuff, I would be running about 8:30 per mile. Most of those trails are even slower, even up to 50% or more slower than roads. Before Pineland Farms, I want to run on faster surfaces. Doing all my runs on slower technical trails is fine for strength, but the consequent lower stride rate and shorter stride length won't make me any faster.


I will likely do my ~4 hour long run next week on the carriage roads at Mohonk in New Paltz, as that terrain better matches race conditions, and it wouldn't hurt me to run on a faster surface once in a while, even though I don't enjoy carriage roads much at all compared to single-track.

Week Summary:
Rtime Rclimb Ltime Lclimb   Htime Hclimb Onfeet
5:45    2780    1:41    1230    2:00    270    7:45

That makes 100 hours for the year, a modest volume for most people, but for me that's good four months into the year, and it's a little ahead of my plan.

Goals:
5/27 Pineland Farms 50 km run
7/29 Escarpment trail 30 km mountain run
9/30 Vermont 50 km run

(no pictures this week)