"ABC Gum" Two-fer Ending 2/12/11

Week Ending 2/5/12

Mon: AM: lo normal, 9 miles, 1:30:00, 1500ft.

PM: virgen, 8 miles, 1:00:00, 500 ft.

Tues: lo normal, 9, 1:30:00 1500 ft.

Wed: AM: 1:00:00 bike

PM: torres, 7 miles, 1:00:00, 1000ft.

Thurs: AM: lo normal, 9 miles, 1:30:00, 1500ft.

PM: 1:00:00 bike. weights.

Fri: AM: torres - virgen, 8 miles, 1:00:00, 1000 ft.

PM: punto de lobos, 8 miles, 1:00:00.

Sat: around Pichilemu. 11 miles, 1:30:00. 1,000 ft.

Sun: off.

TOTAL:

69 miles, 12:00:00, 8500 ft.

Went to the beach this weekend. The Friday run to Punto de Lobos actually included 3 miles at low 6:00/mile pace, the rest was shuffling and feeling crappy. Sunday, I had planned to run, but just felt a little too shitty to think it was worth it. I definitely have noticed a steady decline in the quality of my running this past week. I need to be careful about this.

Week Ending 2/12/11

Mon: AM: lo normal, 9 miles, 1:30:00, 1500 ft.

PM: torres - virgen, 8 miles, 1:30:00, 1000 ft.

Tues: AM: lo normal + virgen, 10 miles, 2:00:00, 1500 ft. (tired as hell)

PM: ran w/ Steph towards the virgen, but she needed to turn back early. 7 miles, 1:00:00

Wed: AM: torres-virgen, 8 miles, 1:25:00, 1000 ft (still very tired)

PM: torres, 7 miles, 1:15:00, 1000 ft. (tired-er)

Thurs and Friday: OFF. resting before Volcano Marathon.

Sat: Desafío de los Senderos del Volcán 42K. 26 miles, 4:40:00, 5th place overall. 5,300 ft.

Sun: off.

TOTAL:

75 miles. about 13:30:00, 11,300 ft.

Elevation profile for the race

Looking back at the first climb.

Quim finishing.

Recovery meal. Lamb on a stick.

The race went OK. I was tired and felt kinda bad going into it. I have completely smoked my hamstrings over the past couple of weeks and it really sucked having to run/hike the longer climbs in this race. Downhill, I was very fast and felt strong, but going up...oof. I did beat Chile's reigning ultra-queen, Marlene, who runs for The North Face. To be fair, this is her off-season and I think she was just chilling through the race. The guy who won traveled from the south of Argentina, nearly 24 hours in buses and whatnot, alone. He won and then got back on the bus early the next morning to go home. Awesome.

This week I learned an important lesson: Yes, I am able to make myself get out and run even when I just can barely pick up my feet to get out the door. While it is good to know (I guess) that I can push myself beyond what my body can handle, I need to now take that knowledge and try to be a little more attentive to making these runs "count" for something. Flopping around in the hills feeling absolutely useless is a fairly limited approach to training.

Also, try as I might, I seem sort of stuck at about the 13 hours/week mark. What I've noticed about my daily runs is that they are never steady, aerobic efforts anymore. When I write that a run was 9 miles with 1500 ft. of climbing, the elevation gain is not spread out over those 9 miles. It is basically one, 1.2 mile climb that is very steep and maxes me out completely. So, while the miles leading up to and back home from the climb are fairly easy, there is always about 15 minutes of very intense, high HR part to every single one of my runs, where I see spots in my vision and I'm gasping for air. So...yeah, I'm thinking I may need to mix things up a bit more and give myself some breaks in between those sorts of efforts.