Wednesday, March 14, 2012

In Like a Lion

Happy March! 

It's been a fun last month.  Training as resumed en force; I had a great training (and social) weekend spending time in Ashland, OR, with The Olsons (who are soon to be "+1"!).  The weather wasn't great, but Tim and I had a terrific 30-mile(+?) run, punctuated by an epic bonk on my part, just a few miles from finishing.  But, with some water, a generous gel donation by Tim, and a few deep breaths, I pulled out of it quickly. 

What a great learning experience!  Bonks are scary.  Running hard is scary.  Running far is scary.  Not always, but many times.  As AJW says, training is familiarization with pain - and fear. 

We're only days from Chuckanut.  It should be a great weekend.  I'm not sure how the race will shake out; there are tons of fast guys on a Jekyll-Hyde course. 

As for me, I'm at the tail end of the first of at least three microcycles of "Three Up, One Down" -- three big weeks, then a down/rest week.  Coincidently, the down weeks coincide with both Chuckanut and Lake Sonoma 50M.  Working full-time and Life makes running big mileage difficult.  But when I know a rest week is coming, it's akin to a hard interval workout: rest is upcoming, and it's more doable to push.  This pattern worked great for Bandera, with three weeks averaging 100M before a big drop and rest. 

I've averaged 90 miles per week the past three weeks before the down, punctuated by the Ashland trip, then a fun and surprisingly fast track relay with Dan-O at McKenzie High School, in the foothills of the Cascades.  The relay called for 40 total laps, split equally between partners.  Dan-O and I thought we'd do some 800s - 10 each - but once we arrived, we changed it to 8x800, then 4x400 - the only rest being when the partner ran.

We also thought we'd do them on/off: a 2:30 - followed by a 3:00 - as neither of us had been on a track in months.  However, we had extra motivation and pacing, via a strong crew of Oregon Track Club Elite Runners, there to take part in "the workout".  So that "on-off" turned into "on-on": we wound up running nearly static 2:30-flats -- ranging from 2:27 to 2:32 -- followed by 4x400s, all between :68 and :72. 

It was a tough workout, but it felt great!  And if that wasn't enough, we drove up river to the McKenzie trail, which was snow-covered, for a two-hour cool down slog through depths of nearly eight inches! 

So, some good solid work was done, and I feel relatively strong going into Chuckanut 50K. 

Lastly, some exciting news in two-fold!  This week we ("Media Mogul" Bryon Powell and I) have launched a new sports med column on iRunFar.com: "Stay the Course".  We should be posting once or twice per month with some interesting pieces on everything from injuries to nutrition to run mechanics.

Secondly: I've relaunched my coaching services.  I think the space between my ears might be useful to some folks, so I've restarted that.  Check the link above for more info! 

2 comments:

  1. I always thought the space between your ears was useful to hold more beer. You'd better get that knowledge out of there to make room for valuable pint storage.

    Nice work with the new gig at iRunFar!

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  2. Dude, beastly looking quads in that pic above. I can smell WS, its gettin' close. Hope Chuckanut proves to be a good stepping stone for this summer. Beat some fast guys this weekend!

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