Trail Race Archives - Lindsey Hein

Week 1 – Mohican 50

GlennHein — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 12:10:00 +0000

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?

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Hilary Tackling Tecumseh Trail Marathon Tomorrow!

OutForARunAdmin — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 13:42:00 +0000

Tomorrow is the Tecumseh Marathon and boy the weather has decided to make it fun.

There are two important people taking this challenge on tomorrow. I’m sure others running are important, but these are the ones important to me….. Hilary and Glenn. I just hope the weather lets them get to the start line!

Hilary-came to us through the Hendricks County Runners Club back in August, with ambitions to get more serious about her running after some years of on again off again running.

She loves yoga, reading, travel, local food and beer, wine and geocaching. She is a wife and mother and has worked crazy hard to juggle her schedule to get in some tough workouts and long runs in a short period of time to train for such a hard race.

Hilary came to us with a solid base of around 25 miles a week, but the serious training for this race only started 3 months ago and to give you a little insight on what she is about to tackle after just three months of training:

Here’s a little info on the course (from the website):

The Tecumseh Trail Marathon course provides a scenic and challenging route in Morgan-Monroe and Yellowwood State Forests. A major portion of the 40-mile Tecumseh Trail is used for the race course. Participants will be shuttled by bus from the Yellowwood Lake area to the starting line, near the Morgan-Monroe State Forest office.

The trail surface varies from narrow forest trail to wide fire road, gravel, dirt, and paved roads. Several up and downhills of 200-300’ elevation are along the course, along with many smaller hills. The total ascent is approximately 3500’.

And to show you how dedicated she has been:

A glimpse from her log at what she took on just a few weeks ago:

Saturday: COLD! Ran this in the Indiana Dunes but kept to relatively flat trails. 27 degrees and temp falling throughout with up to 30 mph winds and snow flurries at times. Took a while to get feeling back in tips of fingers. I think I dressed appropriately but was slightly cool throughout–more so as I started sweating.

Distance: 20.16 mi, mostly trails with a bit of road

Carried my 2L hydration pack and found out that even with Nuun in it, it freezes at 27 degrees and below. Struggled a lot with trying to get it melted enough to get liquid out (some of my slow miles were me trying to do this) and finally figured out that putting it between layers of clothing seemed to work. Probably didn’t take enough water or food in due to getting lost and struggling with the pack. Hair was a brick of ice when I got back. Very happy to see a warm building and my dry clothes at the end.

And if that doesn’t say dedication…. I’m not sure what does.

I really hope this race happens and hope that Hilary is able to make it down, although I know that safety is most important. We will figure out another way to make this goal happen if weather keeps the runners away!

Glenn and I are both so proud of Hilary for her dedication, hard work and descipline during this time. Training is hard for a lot of reasons and everyone has their own reasons, but she has been juggling a lot with work travel, kids and life stuff in general to make this happen- not to mention- throwing your shoes on and hitting the pavement is one thing, but making your way to a trail to train can often times be more time consuming. If you’re training for a hella hard trail race though, you’d better get your butt to the trails!

Best of Luck tomorrow Hilary- remember that everyone out there will be experiencing the same crazy conditions and trust your training- it’s there. Take your time and enjoy how beautiful this run will be. Also, rely on your fellow runners for support and encouragement, I’m certain they’ll be looking for the same from you!

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