Back on the grind. Better start talking again. Since we last talked in November not much has happened….Thanksgiving, Tecumseh was snowed out, I ran, Christmas, ran some more, took some time off, went vegetarian, ran, etc. You get the idea.
This past week marked the official start of my new training cycle for the Mohican 50 Ultra. I decided on this race for a couple of reasons:
1) I really didn’t want to train for another marathon, at least not yet.
2) A new challenge has me excited to train
3) Mohican has been doing this for 25+ years so it should be a great race.
4) Its drivable from Indy.
A lot of my thought process centered around the first two points above. Coming off last fall, I have had very little desire to race a marathon again. Last summer and fall was a grind. Granted, I ended up PR’ing but not in a way that I was prepared for or wanted. I need a new challenge. Mohican is it. It’s perfect.
Since Monumental, I’ve been running but really with no structure or scheduled workouts. I was maintaing some fitness as I had planned on running the
Tecumseh Trail in early December but a snow storm that dumped over 10” of snow in Monroe and Brown County put a damper on that race happening. It was the right call to cancel…we were in Bloomington for the race and it was dangerous to drive around in town let alone trying to get out to Yellowwood or Morgan Monroe. It would have been a nightmare.
That same day, some runner’s knee that had been bothering me really flared up. It got so bad that I had to walk in the last two miles of an 11 mile run with Lindsey….so maybe the snowstorm was a blessing in disguise. I’d much rather get caught in town then in the middle of the woods with an injury.
I was not overly concerned about the knee. I figured a little time off and some icing and I’d be set. Fast forward two weeks later and I was ready to go again. Runner’s knee is funny…it is really just some inflammation on the knee and there really isn’t much to do for it besides ice and keeping the knee used to running without running too much that it becomes painful and then just gradually expanding the time or distance that you run. Also important to keep your IT band and Quads in check.
It bothered me a little bit from first couple of runs back and then one day gone. Just gone. Like it never happened.
Back to the training log, since things have been pretty unstructured and lower mileage of late I am easing into Mohican training slowly. If I had to guess I would say my mileage since Monumental has been in the 35-40 mile range per week…just maintenance running and allowing my body time to rest.
Week 0 – really a week I used to get used to structure again coming off the 10 days for my knee and prepping for Mohican training.
Miles – 43
Runs – 5
No real workouts
Week 1
Miles – 53
Runs – 6
2 or 3ish workouts
Monday – Rest Day
End of the world snow storm and I needed a rest day anyway.
Tuesday – 8 miles
7:10 pace
It was stupid cold outside…like really cold. Like -40*F with the wind chill cold. This along with a foot of snow made a real easy decision to run inside.
Wednesday – 8 miles hills
7:18 paceAbout 1,000 ft of climbing. Mohican is real hilly so I am going to be doing this a lot.
Thursday – 7 miles
7:05 pace
Easy light progression run. Started around 8:00 and worked my way down to 6:00 at the end. Most of the “harder” running came in the last 2 miles. Easing back into the structured running routine with stress workouts very slowly. Not trying to rush anything in this cycle.
Friday – 8 Miles
7:10 pace
Easy running. I need to slow down my easy days…but this felt comfortable.
Saturday – 12 Miles
6:48 pace
Steady state to progression to fast finish. Continue to sprinkle in some stress work. Just cause I’m going long this year doesn’t mean I don’t get to run hard. 6:50 down to 6:00 over the last four miles. I have a lot of work to do. Felt good though to ran hard.
Sunday – 10 Miles
7:28 Pace
Recovery/Easy miles by myself and with the dog. Getting used to running “long” back to back days on the weekend.
Overall, I’m happy with how the week went. It feels good to be really training again…granted I’m easing back into it but it feels good. My current plan is to peak my mileage somewhere around 80-90 miles a week. This should be a manageable increase from the fall where I peaked at about 78 for a couple weeks. I think I am going to focus on slowing down some of my easy runs this cycle so I can really nail some of the harder long runs and stress workouts that I have. I need to get used to being on my feet more anyway.
Any new goals for 2014?
Going long in 2014?
Ultra advice?
How’s the training going?
