Grindstone Training, week #2: June 23-29

The training plan called for 70 miles this week. I have been averaging around 50-60 since March (with two weeks off after Promise Land, which I really enjoyed). I am running most days at a very comfy, "100-mile" pace, and my heart rate has stayed in the 120-130 bpm range, which is what I want. This is how the week turned out:

Monday: 8 miles on dirt and road with 10x 1 minute pickups (at about 5K pace) with 30 seconds recovery after each pick-up. I ran the pick-ups toward the end of the run, and overall felt great. Every Monday is "pick-up" Monday, which I enjoy and which really helped me at Masochists last year.


Tuesday: My first double! am: 7 miles easy, HR in the 120s. pm: 5 miles easy, HR in the 120s. I was starving after this run so I was happy that Rusty and I were going out to our fave restaurant, Mas, for our anniversary. I think I ate at least a loaf of bread before dinner was served (actually, tapas...very yummy).

Wednesday: 8 miles with 6 miles at tempo pace (7:20 per mile), as well as two power line climbs at the end. These climbs are short---about a minute long) but the grade is sick, about 15%. Bill Potts and I run this loop every week or so...we call it the "Bread and Butter" run because you get rolling dirt,technical trail, lots of climb, and a tempo run all neatly packaged into a 1:15 run. Our goal for the end of the summer is to be able to run it with 4 powerlines at the end in under (dare I say?) 1:25.

**A fun note about this power line run...a few summers ago, Bill and I were training on this same trail, which is on the UVA campus. We came across about twenty current and former UVA football players running sprints up the powerlines. They were finishing their tenth one, and these huge men were CRYING for their mommies at the end. All except for Chris Long, one of my former students at STAB and who ended up being the #2 pick in the NFL draft this year. He wasn't even breathing hard, while all his teammates were in tears...something to think about!

Thursday: Day Off. I was beginning to feel sluggish and tired, so I went to the gym in the p.m. and lifted instead. I am concentrating on developing my core strength, as well as my climbing muscles. So I did a lot of lunges and squats on the balance board, and a lot of good exercises on the Swiss ball.

Friday: Carter's Mountain run with Bill, 8.6 miles (Bill got a new toy called a GPS today). Carter's Mountain is about 1,000+ feet of climb in 2 miles and borders some really awesome singletrack. We climbed up to the top in 25 minutes, keeping the HR in the 150 range. Then we hammeered down to the halfway mark to trash our quads a bit, then uphill again on another trail for 30 minutes. Then down , down the mountain on sweet singletrack and mowed fields to the parking lot. I can see myself spending a lot of time here this summer!

Saturday: Afton to Humpback and back with Quatro, 5 hours/21 miles. This was an easy, relaxed run with lotsa climb and some excellent downhill. The views at Humpback were gorgeous and it was surprisingly cool all morning! It was fun to catch up with Q, whom I have been ultra training buds with since 2002. The Afton To Hump and Back run was a VHTRC training run in 04 and 05, before the ultra calendar got so crammed with races. Perhaps it's time to bring back the Afton to Hump run? It's wonderful, runnable singletrack with plenty of creek crossings to cool off in. Hmmmmm....

Sunday: Easy 12 miles on rolling dirt and gravel roads near my house. A great way to end my first 70-mile week. Next week calls for 75 miles and I will be at the Outer Banks, so I will be training on flats and on the beach! We'll see how it goes...