Training Crap

I realized this weekend that I had “completed” the first eight weeks of my 50k training and, well… It’s been pretty crappy. I haven’t been hitting my long runs, not even close. I was supposed to do a 22 miler this weekend and I struggled to make 15.

My training’s been pretty erratic, honestly. I was out of town on a work trip for a week and didn’t run at all. I spent a weekend in San Diego and didn’t run at all. One Saturday, it was raining so hard that the soul was sucked right out of me and I didn’t run at all. I know this is lame. No real athlete would make these excuses.

One thing that I have successfully done is go after some pretty monstrous elevation. I did some runs out in the Gorge that had me climbing 3000+ feet over about 10K. Hills like that are never gonna be easy, but I managed them fairly well, and they’re tougher than what I’ll face in my race – 4400 feet over 32 miles.

I also got some good – I mean RIDICULOUS - technical work in out there, so I’m feeling better about my ability to run on rocky, difficult terrain. I’m planning to continue doing at least one long run a month out there, although I’m probably going to scale back the ridiculous climbs a bit. No need to tear up my calves that much before the race.

I think my training mileage was simply too aggressive. If I were a more consistent runner, maybe it would work, but I’m not. I don’t want running to consume my entire life. I like to run, but I’m not THAT passionate about it. I’m not going to give up my lifting for it. I like doing both, even though they limit my ability to be top tier in either.

So… 12 weeks out from my race and I’m switching up my training plan. The long runs are shorter to start, and I’m only going to plan on one hilly run during the week. Three days a week I’ll run, two days a week I’ll cross train – weightlifting, some functional work and some metabolic conditioning – and I’ll have two days a week to recover and spend plenty of time on stretching, rolling and maintenance.

Wk	M	T	W	Th	F	S	Su
1 2/16	-	-	-	X-Train	Rest	LONG TRAIL RUN: 18 M	1-hour medium effort run
2 2/23	Rest	X-Train	Hill repeats: 7 x 600m	X-Train	Rest	LONG TRAIL RUN: 20 M	1-hour medium effort run
3 3/2	Rest	X-Train	60 min. hilly run	X-Train	Rest	LONG TRAIL RUN: 16 M	1-hour medium effort run
4 3/9	Rest	X-Train	Hill repeats: 8 x 600m	X-Train	Rest	SPRING FLING TRAIL : 13 M	1-hour medium effort run
5 3/16	Rest	X-Train	65 min. hilly run	X-Train	Rest	LONG TRAIL RUN: 22 M	1-hour medium effort run
6 3/23	Rest	X-Train	Hill repeats: 9 x 600m	X-Train	Rest	LONG TRAIL RUN: 24 M	1-hour medium effort run
7 3/30	Rest	X-Train	70 min. hilly run	X-Train	Rest	LONG TRAIL RUN: 16 M	1-hour medium effort run
8 4/6	Rest	X-Train	Hill repeats: 10 x 600m	X-Train	Rest	LONG TRAIL RUN: 26 M	1-hour medium effort run
9 4/13	Rest	X-Train	70 min. hilly run	X-Train	Rest	Trail Half Marathon	1-hour medium effort run
10 4/20	Rest	X-Train	Hill repeats: 8 x 600m	X-Train	Rest	30 minutes easy	Trail 10K
11 4/27	Rest	X-Train	Hill repeats: 5 x 600m	X-Train	Rest	Trail 5K	90-minute run
12 5/4	Rest	X-Train	1-hour easy	X-Train	Rest	50K RACE

The mileage in this plan isn’t monstrous, but I think that’s OK as long as I’m hitting my long runs and getting some good quality cross training in (I approached training for my two marathons last year like this, too). I seriously hope I can get this together. If I can at least be successful with my long runs for the next month, I’ll feel a lot better about this race.