April 1, 2012 – Catching Up + Solid Week 3 of Spring Ultra Training

Catching Up - - Well, I haven’t posted in a while.. so really quickly I thought I would through out what has been happening over the past month leading into last week.

After a period in February where I would get sick.. then get healthy.. then get sick again (I repeated that cycle a few times).. I decided I would take some time off to get back to 100%.. After 8 days of no running, I started back fairly easy getting in about 70miles my 1^st week and 75miles the next.  Both weeks ended with a long run, where I crashed and burned. 

The first was a 21miler on A1 road.  I got about 12miles into the run and completely ran out of energy.. I ended up stumbling at 8 to 9min /mile pace over the last 9miles, and eventually I made it to the finish. 

The next weekend, I teamed up with Jason Louttit (a solid ultra runner from Canada training in Flagstaff for the World 100k champs in April).  We ran a 33miler in the Canyon.. S. Kaibab to the Cottonwood campground at the base of the N.Rim.  All was going well most the day.  I felt really good / relaxed until about the 3hr mark. At that point we were digging into the climb up S.Kaibab and I just ran out of gas.  I pushed through it for a while, but eventually had to resort to hiking.. The last 3miles seem to take forever.. but once again, I made it to the finish.

So at the end of Week 2, I am healthy and I feel as if I am slowly headed in a positive direction.

Week 3 of Training - - At the start of the week, my legs were just coming around from the Long Run in the Canyon.  By Tuesday, I was ready for the Team Run Flagstaff “Tuesday Night Track Workout”.  This is a really cool gathering of all sorts of runners.  For me, it’s nice to be running with so much company, since I seem to run most of my miles either solo or in very small groups.  Also, the workouts just have a great vibe about them that is just fun to be around.

The workout went very well.  I felt strong.. and recovered quickly.  Both good signs.

Thursday I did some Hill Repeats to keep the legs sharp and once again.. I felt pretty solid which was a good sign heading into a Saturday Long Run.

Saturday came and I was hoping to really put my body to the test.  I met up with Eric Bohn and Jared Scott.  Eric & I ended up running down S.Kaibab across Tonto to Indian Gardens.  From there, we went down Bright Angel to Phantom Ranch.  We stayed on the Kaibab Trail heading North til we got to the Clear Creek Trail.  At that point, we ran about 2miles out on the Clear Creek Trail and then came back to Phantom Ranch.  To finish the day up, we ran the up S.Kaibab and back to the car.  This ended up being about 30miles. 

The run went awesome.  It was very hot, but we took our time at the water stops making sure to take in plenty of fluid.  Towards the end of the run, I kept waiting to fade a little, but it never happened.  I was able to hold a steady pace all the way through the finish.. It was the best I have felt since last August.  The most encouraging part was that I did this despite running over 100miles in the previous 7 days.  After this run, I am really excited about the training / racing coming up..

So this week, I not only “made it to the finish”.. I came through the finish smiling.. and looking forward to next week…