For the first part of this year my goal has been to run about 50 miles a week, 4 - 6 days a week. Other than my two week lull I've done extremely well at maintaining this base. This past week, for the first time in who-knows-how-long, I was able to actually run a full 6 days in a row. As it turns out, when I run that many days in a row I don't need to do a long run to hit my weekly miles. In fact, even without a long run I had hit my 50 miles by Friday, leaving anything I did on Saturday as fluff. Not that anyone who reads this cares, but I think it's pretty cool. On the other hand, I sure do LOVE doing long runs (you might be asking yourself what I consider a 'long run' - for me it's anything over 20 miles). As I ramp up my training to get ready for some of my bigger goals this year I'll continue to focus on running frequently, but also adding in a long run, which should be my miles upwards of 70 to 80 miles, which is about the high end of where I like to train.
This past week I didn't do anything overly exciting from a trails standpoint, but I sure did enjoy each and every day I ran. I ran the gully twice, the Draper BST to Ghost Falls (which was a messy shambles), the gully up to Lower Bell Canyon Reservoir and back (my longest run of the week at 13.8 miles), and finally a run with my brother Brent on some trails out in Eagle Mountain I had never been on before. WOW, are they cool.
Below are a couple of photos from my run on Friday with Matt up to the reservoir. It was his last day working for our company, so we went out for a little longer run.
Matt heading up the Bell Canyon Trail from LCC.
No, we're not afraid to pull water from streams, especially this time of year. Don't worry, we're careful.
And finally, the AltraManiacs have posted a new video. In my opinion, this is the best one yet. Super funny. If you like it please share it on your blogs, facebook pages, email, pigeon, snail mail, or however else you can share the love. These guys are kind of important to me. And come on, it's funny, admit it.
Oh, poor DC. He has been plagued with a 'non-injury' (doctors can't find anything technically wrong) that won't go away. He has to deal with swelling, pain, etc. He'll feel ok one day and then be on crutches the next. I feel really bad for him. He's already cancelled one race and will probably cancel another that's all the way in June. I hope that by some miracle his body really responds.
I try to find what the pros do for training and the numbers I see are at the high end of 80 to 100 mile weeks. Meltzer doesn't give up his secrets very much but I read he does 60-80 per week. I see others doing 100 plus per week and some at 150 plus per week, and this all on trails! Part-time shmucks like me find it difficult to get such high miles because, well, we have jobs and families. At the peak of my training I would like to be getting close to 100 MPW including long runs of 20= miles, and for Wasatch this means HILLS!
If there is one thing I've learned it's that I can only glean so much from the pros. They do this full time and have lots of time to train and do build-up races. We don't have that luxury, so there is only so much I take from their training plans. I generally just go with what I think will work with me and I know will fit in with my available time. It's worked for me so far.
5 comments:
You forgot to mention our awesome run up Lake Mountain. Yeah, it wasn't the best time for that peak, but I still had a blast. Nice week.
Whats up with your buddy DC...he has not posted for a week now. His injury must be a bit more than originally advertised.
Chris in Syracuse
Oh, poor DC. He has been plagued with a 'non-injury' (doctors can't find anything technically wrong) that won't go away. He has to deal with swelling, pain, etc. He'll feel ok one day and then be on crutches the next. I feel really bad for him. He's already cancelled one race and will probably cancel another that's all the way in June. I hope that by some miracle his body really responds.
I try to find what the pros do for training and the numbers I see are at the high end of 80 to 100 mile weeks. Meltzer doesn't give up his secrets very much but I read he does 60-80 per week. I see others doing 100 plus per week and some at 150 plus per week, and this all on trails! Part-time shmucks like me find it difficult to get such high miles because, well, we have jobs and families. At the peak of my training I would like to be getting close to 100 MPW including long runs of 20= miles, and for Wasatch this means HILLS!
If there is one thing I've learned it's that I can only glean so much from the pros. They do this full time and have lots of time to train and do build-up races. We don't have that luxury, so there is only so much I take from their training plans. I generally just go with what I think will work with me and I know will fit in with my available time. It's worked for me so far.
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