Now 3 weeks into 2011 and am starting to feel strong and my training is going well. My 2010 season was disappointing and I have made it a point to work on areas that I struggled with and I am starting to see improvements in those areas in my training thus far.
The week started out with me taking MLK day off and enjoy my day off from work and training. As usual Tuesday and Thursday I worked out at my gym (Island Athletic Club, which BTW is the best, Murph is the man!! and runs a great place), I lifted weights for an 45 minutes followed by an hour of spin class (if anyone in the area wants to come to a tough spin class, take any of Pam's classes she will put a hurtin' on you for sure). Wednesday I did some interval training on the road in a business park, which is a circle that comes out to a bit over a mile. I did a mile warm up followed 1 mile x 3 at a 10k pace, which for me is 8:20ish. After the intervals for my cool down I ran a quarter mile then walked another quarter mile. Friday I got in a 45 minute workout on the Stair Master and was looking forward to a nice double run on Saturday and Sunday. It has been fairly cold this winter so far and Saturday proved to be brutally cold (at 7am it was damn cold, I know I sound like a woosie) and was 17F at 6am. The warm blankets seemed to be such a better idea then running 15 miles in the cold. Since I didn't run on Saturday I decided to do a longer run on Sunday to make up for punking on Saturday. When I woke up on Sunday it proved to just as cold at 6am as it was on Saturday. I couldn't lose two days long runs, so I decided to wait until noon and wait for the sun to warm things up. I made it out to Cromwell Valley Park (wanted to run Susquehanna State Park, but they received another 2 inches of snow this past week and until I purchase some microspikes I am going to have to wait for some warmer temps to help melt the snow) and ran approximately 23 miles in 4:24. I ran really well the first 20 miles (5 mile laps) in 52:21, 52:08, 51:44, and 55:00. I ran all the climbs and felt good until mile 21 where my lack of water consumption and S! Caps proved to be my undoing so I cut short my 5th lap and turned the run into a 23 mile run instead of 25. I learned that I need to be more conscience of my fluid intake during the colder weather runs. Even though I am not sweating (it's tough to gauge how much you are sweating because the sweat is being drawn away from the skin and evaporating quickly) as much as I am during the summer, the dry air also draws extra moisture from the skin, I need to drink more fluids and stay on a regimented S! Caps schedule.
I feel that my Stair Master routine and spin classes have helped my uphill running tremendously, my legs feel more powerful. I used to walk all the uphills during races and training but I am trying to break this habit in an effort to improve my times. I am now seeking out hills that are challenging and tougher then the hills I will see during my upcoming races.
Hopefully I will keep the momentum going in training as I have the Holiday Lake 50k (Horton race) coming up on February 12th. This upcoming weekend will be my last long runs as I begin to tapper for the race. Hopefully I will get in two decent long runs in this upcoming weekend and I might even have to stop by EMS so I check to see if they have any microspikes (if they do maybe I can run the HAT course this weekend). I will keep ya updated if I do purchase the microspikes and write up a review. BTW I have gear section on my blog that highlights some equipment that I like.
See ya on the trails,
JP
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