Really Great Training Week and Planning Continues

I have been kind of quiet about my training lately as I have been trying to run a lot and not get injured. The amount and type of running I'm doing is different than before, because I'm trying to do back-to-back long runs on Saturday and Sunday (and leaving out, sadly, long rides). While I ran 52+ miles in a week just 4 weeks ago, since that was all done as part of a double Ironman training thing, I wasn't sure how quickly I could ramp up my running.

I knew going in that I couldn't train for a 50-miler the way one should, i.e., putting in 60-100 miles per week, because I just didn't have enough time between ROTPM and the race (8 weeks!) to increase my run mileage. I hoped that with my copious Ironman experience and general overall training volume that I could get away with less running than that.

I did read some stuff about how to train for a 50-miler and talk to some people, a few of which assured me that with my background I should have no trouble finishing. And that is what I am going in to do--not be fast--just finish. My body needs to understand what it's like to run 50 miles all at once, or at least I think it does. Some people who train for an Ironman have never run a marathon, and that's OK, but that's just not how I roll.

As the weeks since ROTPM have been marching on, I've been working on my training plan through UMC. I had put 3 key training weekends into it during the last 12 weeks before that will entail a very long swim followed by a 2.5-3 hour ride, a 100+ mile ride the following day and a long run the third day, so it's like the Ultraman format. But the question remained how to prepare for these events and how to recover from them. Hopefully, by the time those weekends come around, it won't be as big of a deal to recover from! At least, based on my experience, I recover (at least to the point of being able to put in the volume) pretty rapidly. I am already surprised at how good I feel post-ROTPM, and if you've been reading here for any length of time, you know that the week following IMUSA I logged 180 miles of riding and then went over 200 for the next 3 weeks, so I think that says a lot about my ability to recover.

But I have been being careful with this running thing, as it is the thing that will get me injured. It's been 10 years since I've just run trained, and even though I'm biking about 3 hours a week still and also swimming a decent amount, what I'm doing right now is mostly running. But 10 years ago I wasn't as dedicated to stretching, massage, icing and sleeping as I am now. Those things make a HUGE difference in my ability to maintain high volume.

Anyway, based on last week's running and how I felt during the past week (pretty good, albeit really tired Monday and Tuesday mostly from a wedding hangover ;), I thought I'd try and ramp up my 2 weekend long runs.

Yesterday called for rain beginning around 10AM, so I thought I had better sacrifice going to the farmer's market for fresh local tomatoes to the running gods. I went to Waterfall Glen with the intent to run 12 miles and then fast walk/hike 5 more. I hadn't run in Waterfall Glen since ROTPM, so I thought it might be interesting to see if my hill running had improved since I'd been running up and down the hill at Greene Valley.

I thought I could go 6 miles out counter-clockwise and then back on a 12-oz. bottle of Coke since I'd chugged another 12 oz. of Coke right before I started. It was a nice cool morning, and I tried to ease into things, and based on my first mile, I thought I'd chosen a good pace for 12 miles (about 9mpm). When I got about 5.5 miles in, I ran into a friend, Bill, and we chatted for a few minutes. He's doing a 50-miler on a relay team the same day I'm running 50 all by myself. I got him caught up on what I'd been up to (yes, I am SO narcissistic, but it seems people love hearing about my training/racing exploits, what can I say?), and then he continued on his way and I kept going.

The 6-mile marker came faster than I thought it would, and then I turned around to head back. Up until this point, I'd only walked the hills on miles 1 and 2, but vowed that on the way back, I would run everything. It's harder going clockwise, especially the mile between the 5 and 4 markers, since on the way in, it's a good downhill. When I got to the Mile 5 marker, I told myself this isn't any worse than climbing the big hill at Greene Valley. I thought back to when the last time I had run up this thing, and I think it's been well over 5 years! I headed up, and it was hard, but I just kept going, and it ended up taking me 9:20 to go up which is about the fastest (9:15) I've run up Greene Valley so far.

That made me feel really good, especially since there were hoards of high school cross country runners in there, and I didn't want to look too sluggish to them! As I got past the nasty part, I picked up some speed and even managed to negative split the 12 miles! I was so happy that I quickly went to my car and grabbed some more fluids so I could get going on my 5-mile walk.

About .7 miles in, another friend of mine, Mike, runs up on me, and it was funny because he is on the same relay team as Bill. So I commented how I'd run into Bill. I told Mike I was walking, but he said he'd slow down for me, so I guess I figured I might as well just run slowly, and we ended up running about a mile together, at which point, I told him I had better stick to my walking plan, and I let him go.

But in continuing my walk, I decided I could run anything mostly flat or downhill, and so I actually did more running than walking! I ended up at almost 17.5 miles total, and I was very pleased with how I felt. When I got home, I iced my upper hammies and quads, got in a good stretch, ate well, and got a great night's sleep (10 hours).

This morning when I woke up I felt just fine. I didn't feel like I'd put in 17 miles yesterday, which was awesome. The day called for sunshine, and I wanted yet more hills, so I decided I'd head to Greene Valley. My plan was to run 10 miles and walk 5, by running about 7 on the flats, and then doing the rest up and down the big hill.

I covered the first 7 miles in about the same time as last week. Wow, I am actually running pretty well still for the week! I took a short break to drink some water and have a gel back at the car, and then it was time to run up the hill. Here I let myself slow down a little bit, as my legs already had plenty o' hill in them for the week! But it didn't feel bad to run up the hill, and then I just let it fly running back down. I ran back up a second time, and was starting to feel a little tired, so I let myself walk maybe 30 seconds. That was supposed to be the end of running, but I just couldn't deal with walking down, so I ran, and it felt good, my quads were fine. I went back one more time and walked up the hill, but then ran back down.

Then, I ran into Ian, another friend, who I had expected to see earlier, but it was nice to see him. I told him I'd already been up and down 3 times, and he said he needed to do 2 repeats, so we got to share one together of mostly walking both up and down. It was nice to talk with him, since he's done and crewed for many ultras, and I still feel like I have no clue what I'm doing and he assured me I will be fine for the 50.

So for the week I got in 52 miles of combined running and walking, although most of the walking was running, too ;) Assuming I don't feel too trashed tomorrow, my goal for the coming week is going to be 60+ miles total. My 2 long runs will not be back-to-back, though, since I have to go to Philadelphia on Saturday for my custom bike fitting!!! Still, I am going to be walking as much as possible during the week and shooting for 15+ miles running on Sunday followed by 6 miles of walking. The following weekend I will try and get close to 50 miles total on the weekend so that I've covered the distance over 2 days, and then I taper down.

Meanwhile, I've been working on my training plan for UMC. I've got my swim training down, and I'm pretty set on the biking and running. When I add it all up, it's very high volume, but when I look at swim, bike and run individually and look back over the years at what I've done before, I've come close to each sport individually at one time or another, and (fingers crossed) so I think that putting all the highest together is something I can accomplish. Besides, the biggest jumps are for swimming and running, and the swimming isn't as punishing, and a lot of the run volume will be done between now and December, and so my base will be established and I will actually run less next year.

Anyway, it is all starting to look very doable on paper, and whether I still choose to engage a coach or not, I think I know what it takes for me to feel ready for Ultraman. As I said to Ian today, I do not want to think I am near just making cutoffs for any of the 3 days. I know the 3rd day (double marathon) will be tough no matter what, but I want to know going in that my legs know what that feels like several times before race day. And with my mega-weekends planned (well, we'll have to see if I can get through them!), I think I will have done everything I possibly could have done to be prepared. There are only 2 28-hour weeks in there, 11 20-27 hour weeks (about what I do for Ironman prep except the maximum weekly volume usually only goes to 22 hours). It is still more than I have ever done in a season, but I am already trying to make myself strong.

My massage therapist told me this week that my muscles are all getting thicker. My legs it's probably due to the hill running, my abs is due to extra abs/core work and probably also hill running (which works the lower abs nicely), and my guns are coming back from extra pushups and chinups!

Half the time I think I am nuts for doing all of this and the other half of the time I am enjoying the hell out of it. I think that if most people thought they could do this and see how wonderful it can feel that they would do it because there is something truly special in taking one's body to the place I am going. Please understand I don't feel like I'm anything special, and I am surely not fast, and I know there are many others who do far more than I do, but in a small way, I am starting to feel like one of those rare, odd people that you run into occasionally and wonder, "How do they do all that?" I wonder about myself, I am tickled to death when I meet ultrarunners and ultratriathletes and I still don't think I'm one of them, but I think my mind is already there. Now it's just time for me to bring my body along for the ride!