Bighorn (and Whitney) Training Off to a Great Start!

Bighorn Training Weeks 22 and 23 to Go
 
 
The 24 weeks of Bighorn training are officially underway and off to a great start.  I'm trying to follow, very loosely, a training plan of that length for a 100 miler, peaking at a few 70 mile weeks, that's contained in Bryon Powell's Relentless Forward Progress book. 
 
At the same time as I start to ramp up (from a good December base of 30-something mile weeks), I'm giving myself the luxury of "scratching the racing itch" more frequently than usual during this early stretch (maybe about President's Day?), as I raced quite little over the second half of '13.  Why that move in this base-extending phase?  Well, for starters, I've missed the racing and I think I need to get back into that mindset a little.  And second, I really want to inject some speed back into the legs, through some road racing, some more runnable 50k's and speedwork.  I'm also trying to work on flexibility and strength training. So far, it's nothing but "checks" in all those boxes!
 
I'll do separate posts on the Hot Chocolate and Watchung races.  I can't say enough about how pleased I am with my endurance and "stick-to-it" attitude at Watchung in the snow and bitter cold, and then how much I enjoyed and how surprisingly well I performed in my first time back on roads in many years.  Very encouraging, and now I need to find some synergy there!
 
Overall,  I was back pretty much on the mark for total volume last week, after understandably exceeding it with the Watchung race week before (wasn't supposed to hit 54 miles till week 7, but I'm not stressing about that!).    Here is the beta:
 
Week ending Jan. 5th:  Training through a fat ass race week
 
Total Mileage Goal=37 over 5 runs 
Actual Time on Feet=12.45 hours over 5 runs (one on snowshoes and counting Watchung 50K fat ass)
Actual Estimated Mileage=54.5
Speedwork:  One solo four-mile tempo road run
Long Run:  50K (32 miles in fact), trails
Strength:  One upper/core, one mini-Iron Strength full body
Cross-Training:  No
Stretching:  Uneven, most days
 
Week ending Jan. 12th:  Recovery then training through a road race week; beginning of Mt. Whitney climbing training for March


Total Mileage Goal=40 over 5 runs
Actual Time on Feet=7.8 hours on feet over four runs and one three-hour hike
Actual Estimated Mileage (incl. hike and 15 minute treadmill incline):  39.5
Speedwork:  Five half-mile reps with hills, 72nd transverse to Engineer's Gate, with 1:30 recoveries (4:11/4:00/3:47/3:49/3:45)
Long Run=15.5 total on Hot Chocolate race day with warmup and cooldown
Weighted Hike:  20 to 25 lb. pack with poles, Gate Hill trailhead, Harriman, out and back on Suffern-Bear Mtn. Trail, hiked 7 miles in about 3:05
Treadmill Incline:  15 minutes post-speedwork, with 10 uphill and 4 "down" walking backwards, all at 15% max incline
Strength:  One full legs, one upper/core
Yoga:  One 1:15 class
Deep-Tissue Massage:  One
Stretching:  Good

Planning Ahead

Checking the "master plan," I see that mileage goals for Weeks 21 and 20 are 44 (continued ramp-up) and 38 (pullback).  I'm thinking as much in terms of "time on feet equivalent" as miles, but I want to at least keep the overall flow of buildup and stepback weeks in synch with the program as much as I can.  That latter part (sequencing) should work out with the Batona fat ass (34 mile) this Saturday capping an otherwise light week, and then a week where I'll have a much shorter long run(s) with maybe the Brooklyn Half and otherwise try to dial it back in the first half of that week. 

Otherwise, thinking of both Bighorn and Whitney, I want to make sure I'm now getting the "magic weekly four" of one yoga, two upper/core, and one legs (Iron Strength counting as two as it gets all three elements).  Maybe getting in two leg workouts on some non-race weeks. And working in weighted hikes every few weeks, and the occasional treadmill incline or (once I invest in one) weighted-vest or pack-carrying stair workout.  When I can or need it, a ride or swim.  Biweekly massages.

Let's hope the strength, flexibility and speed keep coming together like they have been so far in this new year!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sedona Canyons 125 Race Report: Trail Redemption

Image
This was a race to warm a grizzled ultra vet’s heart! Outstanding company of friends and newfound fellow trail travelers. Amazing deserts, canyons, and mountains in a point to point journey. All sorts of cool flora and fauna.  Generous cutoffs without constant time pressure. Challenging but fair. Superb race organization and generally very good markings.  Weather that was predictably sunny and dry but not unbearably hot, and got a bit cooler as we moved higher on days 2 and 3. And 125 proved to be an unusual but pretty cool distance. So it all came together for a  great race experience, the stress meter running reasonably low though there were moments. All this was good for a return to a 100 mile finish line I hadn’t experienced in 8 long years. Finally that lucky 7th 100–damn it felt good!  Day before checking out a water station we'd pass the next day The particulars are that I finished in 62:11:17, 124nd out of 197 starters and 144 finishers. I was 12th out of 16 ...
Read more

Enlightened New Forms of Masochism: The Looped Mountain Climb Repeat (aka "Mt. Tammany 10 Race Report")

Ok, I know memory fades, and this was back on March 31st, but I'm just now getting a moment.  Some background's in order first.  I've done the Delaware Water Gap fat ass 50K two of the last three falls.  Love the course.  It goes up and over Mt. Tammany twice, one time in each direction, during the Jersey segment of that two-state event (where you cross a busy highway bridge on the pedestrian ramp spanning the very scenic Gap).  The two co-organizers of that event, Alex and Dennis, let us know at last November's event they were doing this unusually structured event in March:  climb up, over, down, back around the base, and then repeat Mt. Tammany....for 10 loops, in 10 hours, covering 1,000' each of vertical in each climb (actually 1,200), but they liked the symmetry of all the "ones" and "zeros," hence the "Tammany 10."   Never be a guinea pig for a new ultra and some R.D.'s dystopian fantasy of a cool course?Wrong, this was fun!  ...
Read more

High Desert and Snowy Peaks: Old Pueblo 50 Mile Race Report

Overall Impressions Old Pueblo is a beautiful, well-organized 51-mile trail run through the high country of the Santa Rita mountains, about an hour southeast of Tucson. It features more dirt roads than is to my trail purist's liking. But fortunately these are mostly pretty remote forest service roads, with little or no vehicle travel. Some well graded and smooth, but occasionally pretty rugged. So you still get that "away from it all, out there" feeling, as you go back and forth from public land to private ranch land, crossing more cattle guards than I carry to count! Plus there are three distinct sections of the beautiful Arizona Trail single track. These tend to be the sections with the most forest cover in what is mostly a pretty exposed course. You have that "I can see for miles and miles" feeling at many different points in the race, contrasting sharply with that "closed in, don't know what's around the next curve in the trail" from our ea...
Read more