Sunday, January 30, 2011

Week Ending Jan 30

Monday - Noon: 7.5 miles (1,700') easy. Falls - Spring Creek - Stout - Towers - Herrington - Spring Creek - Soderberg. Gentle cruise to mark the beginning of the taper.

Tuesday - AM: 10.5 miles intervals. Met Jane's group at City Park for an early morning interval session. Cold as all get out again, but at least no wind. Anyway, the workout went: mile, 1,200, 1,000, mile fartlek, 1,200, 1,000, mile. Jogged three miles with Slush, Sarah and Celeste to warm up, and actually felt kind of spry from the get go - which is rare. Intervals went: 5:28, 3:58 (5:19), 3:18 (5:18), 5:22, 3:51 (5:09), 3:16 (5:15), 5:31 - w/ 3-5 minutes rest between.
Noon: 4.5 miles (900') easy. Falls loop.

Weds - AM: 6 miles (500') easy. Valley.
PM: 6 miles easy. Bike paths.

Thurs - PM: 10 miles (1,800'). Towers TT. 29:26. Ran three with Eric B to warm up, then, after setting off 32 runners before me, headed out for what I figured would be a close-to-PR effort - if not time, given that it was pitch black out and there was likely ice on the trail. With the lack of depth perception that comes with running in a bubble of headlamp light, I stumbled my way across the Swan Johnson connector, but still managed to get to Towers in a very easy 2:45, which is just a hair over PR pace. I decided then to take the plunge and commit to a hard effort. At Stout I was still on PR pace at 8:43, and by Herrington I had gained a few seconds with a 16:43 split. Up to this point, the track had largely been snow and ice free and it remained that way past Mill Creek (24:45), but beyond Westridge, it was pretty icy and treacherous. Going around Kyle at the crest of the last grunt, I took a digger, landing hard on my knee, which cost seconds and energy, and then I slid a few more times before the summit. However, I still managed to top out in a reasonably controlled one second PR (29:26). Still way off Sam's 28:50 FKT, but probably pretty close to it had there been a dry track and sunlight. Looking forward to a spring assault, but for now I'll take this as a sign that I'm in great shape and ready to go hard in New Orleans.

Friday - Noon: 8 miles (1,650') easy. Falls - Spring Creek - Stout - Loggers - Herrington - Spring Creek - Soderberg - home.

Saturday - AM: 8 miles (900') easy. To Indian Summer on Bluesky and back. It was so nice out, I found myself scanning for snakes ... in January.
PM: 5 miles (1,600'). Hike to Horsetooth summit with Alistair.







Sunday 15 miles (1,500').
Frost Giant 5k/10k double. Certainly wasn't going to be laying down any PRs, but felt like I got the workout I was after, which was a tired 10k effort. Warmed up with 3.5, raced 3.1, cooled down with 1.75, raced 6, cooled down with 1.75.

Total: 80.5 miles (10,550')


My legs felt great all week, which is really encouraging considering this is the first week of the taper. I still plan on cutting back significantly next week and again the week of. Probably won't run much more than 75 miles over the next two weeks, so I should really be raring to go come race day.

Great to see Andy Henshaw busting out an impressive 2:26 in Miami this weekend. He looks to be in great shape for Mad City where I predict he'll get the spot he wants on the US 100k team. Andy beat me by less than a minute at the Salida Marathon last year, which means I should be ready to rock out a 2:27 in New Orleans ... or at least I think that's how it works.

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13 comments:

  1. Wait, you're counting hiking miles now? Is this just to get a leg up on GZ for when December 31, 2011 comes around? I think he could file a protest on this one.

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  2. HA!

    I remember running with Tommy Manning after Club Nats in 09. He said it was too slow to be considered running (we were doing 8:30 pace).

    That would eliminate probably 75 percent of my miles.

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  3. Justin - you've obviously never 'run' an ultra. I bet everyone who finishes a 100-miler puts '100 miles' in their running logs. I'd wager that the average 100-mile finisher walks 30 percent of the race - way more if it is a big mountain race. But, yeah, guilty as charged. Plus I was hiking at a 4.5-year-old's pace.

    GZ - I consider 8:30s to be one of my most important training paces. Seriously.

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  4. Ryan Hall's beard still has nothing on yours. Enjoy the taper...

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  5. The Hall beard disappeared the night before Houston. Disappointing. Can guarantee that mine won't be coming off the night before NO.

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  6. Hey Nick, what time are you shooting for at AR? Looks like you've got a pretty nice little season planned, huh? I'll be rooting for you man! Good to hear from ya, btw nice pic in the TrailRunner calendar!

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  7. Andy - Under 6:00 for sure, but would really like to go sub 5:50. Seems plausible on a good day. 2:45 for the marathon, then just got to hold a 7:30 average on the last 24 miles of trail. Piece of cake, right?

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  8. good luck in new orleans nick! look forward to meeting you at AR, it should be a blast.

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  9. Nick, I would say you should hold off on going with the front pack right at the beginning since they always shoot out at like 5:30 pace. Just go out at 2:45 marathon pace and the pack will come back to you. The last 24 miles are rolling single track but thats obviously something you don't mind (i.e. western states, 4th place). You definitely have the strength to pull through that to a sub 5:50 time! Are you going for a spot on the 100k team too? That would be pretty sweet. I'll go ahead and give you my email so we don't have to talk via blog posts. henshawa@gmail.com

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  10. Jacob - thanks. See you in Sacramento. Looking forward to it.

    10:4, Andy.

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  11. Just saw your name pop up on Hardrock lottery.
    Nice! WS or HR... look forward to reading your choice.

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  12. Really? Not seeing anything on the HR website. Do you have a link, Mike? Exciting day in Huntsville yesterday!

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  13. Okay, never mind, I see they are posting names to Twitter. Wow, my summer plans look to have taken an epic turn! Can you say WS/HR d...d...d...double!

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