This week began my new semester and saw more time available to devote to my running. How did it go, considering the last month has been pitiful?
Friday and Saturday were comprised of two horrendous runs of 15 kms each, where I almost died because of my decreased fitness from the wussy previous mileage. I huffed and puffed, even walked up a few portions of the climbs. I felt awful and I was sad because I was so excited to run after my nasty semester, but my body said to chill. I took Sunday off to recoup from those painful and slow runs.
Monday was cool and rainy, and I decided to do some back-2-back-2-back-2-back summits of Doug (4 total). I love hill repeats. I ran these babies right up until I was about to puke. Immediately following my speedy descent I would turn around and crank back up the mountain as fast as I could. I feel that the hill repeats are huge for several reasons. I think many runners have fear of hills and dread them. I am no different but I have found that the more you do something that intimidates you the less intimidating it becomes. I have found that summiting 2 or three times in a longer run is not that big of a deal after comparing to the hill repeats on Monday. This Monday I will add another repeat and make it an even 5. It took about 1.5 hours to do the 4 repeats on the course I chose. It was pretty rough but fantastic. I also think besides the psychological boost from running hill repeats you also get added VO2 max and lactic acid tolerance. Really hills are speed work or sprints in disguise. I will definitely make hill repeats a standard staple in my training repertoire.
Wednesday was a long run and consisted of 4 laps around the base of Doug. I avoided hills on this run and just went for distance on the fairly level perimeter trails (Norn and Whitaker). It was a nice 2 + hour run on a very warm sunny day. I used my sweet duct tape bottle holders and was well hydrated and rested. I have also solved my previous blister problem (for distances less than 15 miles anyways). I purchased a couple of pairs of well....ladies nylon stockings (I know, ridiculous, but it is a small price to pay for blister prevention). They are the ones that only cover the sole of your foot. I put those beauties on, and then my socks and have not had any hot spots or blisters since. We will see how they work when I start hitting the 5 and 6 hour runs.
Thursday (yesterday) was my fastest time of the Mount Doug gutbuster course so far. I believe it may have been my strongest run of my life even. I was possessed. I couldn't be slowed, I just tore up all the hills and nearly sprinted the flats. I shaved 10 minutes of my PR for the course. That is so awesome considering I had such a tough start this week. I think I had just kept my fitness up enough that I just had to push through this first week and then I was right where I left off. I was even forced off the trail by two other runners and I flew into the brush off the steep side of Doug. I was able to save my joints and legs and grabbed branches to prevent myself from rolling. I just got back on the trail and pushed even harder, I just flew through the next two miles of trails. I even had huge scratches on my legs that were bleeding and I just thought they looked sweet. It began to rain and I cooked home the rest of the way. I must throw in a learning experience. After running for a hard hour I was nearly done with my run and was experiencing that warm glow we all call the runners high. Well there was a large log about a meter tall across the trail. I usually run around it, but the warm fuzzy state I was in made me decide to hurdle it instead. I don't know what got into me but I leaped off from my left leg and was instantly gripped by a severe Charley horse. I am talking one of those where your entire calve is a big knot. I quickly dorsi-flexed and was able to run it off, but I easily could have injured myself. I will not leap logs on extremely tired legs ever again. I decided to take today off as well just so I don't over do it where I have lost a lot of my previous base mileage. I finished the week out at approximately 40 miles. I will pass 50 next.
Comments