Tag Archives: devil’s backbone

Training

Blue Sky Trail Marathon Training, Week 5

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I decided to go back to posting training recaps on Sundays. I write these as much for myself as for you guys, and now that school is starting again, my life is easier if I follow a routine. My plan is to post on Sundays and Thursdays again, but don’t be surprised if Thursdays don’t happen for the first few weeks of school.

This was my fifth week of trail marathon training. I finally had another 50-mile week, so I feel more like I’m actually training, if that makes sense. Let’s pretend that 50 isn’t where I usually start  my training, and now I’m worried because I’m barely hitting 50 seven weeks out…

Monday: 

AM: My plan was to do a long incline workout on the treadmill. At 3.8 miles, I paused it and hopped off to use the bathroom, and when I came back, the incline had stopped working! Not wanting to lose my momentum, I hustled outside and ran three miles at tempo pace, then a cool-down. It wasn’t what I was planning, but it ended up being a solid workout nonetheless. (Side note: I later found out that my treadmill isn’t broken; it  just needed recalibrated. Huge relief.)

PM: Basement strength training, per usual

Tuesday: 

6 miles of sunrise fartleks, followed by core work. I love fartleks. IMG_1983

Wednesday: 

8 miles easy… although they didn’t feel easy, because it was unusually muggy. I’m sure my southern friends would scoff at my definition of “muggy,” but it was rough for me.

Thursday: 

AM: Short hills for 7.2 miles. This road and I are becoming very good friends this training cycle.
IMG_1999

PM: Another round of basement strength.

Friday: 

6.3 recovery miles. My training schedule called for another interval workout, but I’d already done three quality workouts this week. Another one, especially the day before my long run, just seemed like a request for injury, so I took it easy instead. And I played with the camera timer…
IMG_2010

Saturday: 

15.2 trail miles. I randomly ran a few miles with a woman who went to high school with my husband and is training for the same race I am. Small world. I also fell THREE TIMES. Graceful I am not. Don’t worry, I’m not hurt. Just dumb.

At least I had pretty things to look at while I fell on my face. Maybe this is why I fell: too busy gawking at the scenery to look at where my feet were.
At least I had pretty things to look at while I fell on my face. Maybe this is why I fell: too busy gawking at the scenery to look at where my feet were.

Sunday: 

Rest

Total: 50.3 miles

Five down, seven to go.

Have you ever fallen while running? Did you feel as foolish as I did?

Teacher friends: when do you (or did you) go back to school?

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That Time I “Wasn’t Doing a Marathon this Year”

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Remember a month or so ago, when I kept whining because I didn’t have a goal? Remember how I told you that I didn’t want to run a fall marathon because I just had too much going on this summer?

Yeah. About that…

blue sky reg

I signed up for a trail marathon. I might be insane, as I still live in non-trailland. But I want to do this, even if it scares me and will be hard and will be by far the slowest marathon I’ve ever run. Plus signing up for it gives me a reason to get to the trails as much as possible between now and October 4.

This will be me the next three months:
photo 1 (29)
(I found this on Facebook, but the original source is in the bottom corner, so I’m not plagiarizing, right?)

I found a trail marathon training plan on the internet, and I’ll be pretty much following it, but since I don’t have trails to train on daily, here’s my general plan:

Monday: Long hills on the treadmill (because that’s the only place I can run uphill for more than a mile)
Tuesday: Mid-distance, easy pace
Wednesday: Double recovery runs
Thursday: Short hill repeats (done on real hills — the only ones I’ve got)
photo 2 (26)
That road and I are going to become very good friends.
Friday: Recovery
Saturday: Long, on trails as often as possible
Sunday: Rest

Monday and Thursday will be interchangeable, depending on the weather and my schedule, and when the race gets closer, I’ll move my long run to Sunday, but that’s the general idea. I’ll also keep strength training 2-3 times a week and do core work 5-6 times.

Last Saturday, since I’d committed myself to this thing, I got up at no o’clock in the morning and drove to Devil’s Backbone near Loveland to train on trails and, as that’s part of the race course, see just what I’d gotten myself into.

photo 3 (22) photo 4 (13) photo 1 (30) photo 2 (27)

Yeah… definitely not regretting this choice. At all. I do need to learn how to run on this stuff,
photo 3 (23)
but my Instagram friends assured me that all it takes is practice and accepting that I need to slow down.

I’m nervous and anxious, but mostly excited. Here’s to new challenges!

What’s your next big goal?

What’s the last thing you did that scared you?