Zumbro training 11/20-1126 Recap

Getting last week's log in a little late.  Traveling for the Thanksgiving weekend put me a little behind, but it was worth it!

Monday: REST  This normal rest day really helped me recharge.  I used to begrudge rest days, but the Friday/Saturday/Sunday combination of Trail/SpeedWork/Long Trail, really kicks my rear, so I'm happy with the recovery.

Tuesday:  Hill day!  Tuesday's assignment was 20 minute warm up, then 14x 1 minute hill repeats with recovery just being what it took to go back down at easy effort, and a 10 minute cool down.  Workout felt good,  despite there being 25mph winds in my face going downhill.  I actually do like the hill repeats, even if they are a road run.

Wednesday: Another Easy Pace Trail Run was on the menu for today.  This one for an hour.  I hit the Ridge again and got in 4.6 miles for an average pace of 12:56... Cracking 13 minute average on that course was sweet!

Thursday:  6.8 miles on the trails at White Tail Ridge in River Falls, WI.  Normally Thursday is a rest day, but a chance to run with my mom and some other trail runners was too good to pass up.

Friday: REST DAY!  After all the running, turkey, and pie on Thanksgiving, this was nice.

Saturday: Speed Work Day!!!  Assignment was 4x1 Mile Cruise Intervals at 7:20 pace, with 2 minute recovery, along with 20 minute warm up and 10 minute cool down. This one took a lot out of me.  Only a year ago, 7:30 was my mile PR, and now I am running 10sec/mile faster as part of an interval workout!

Sunday:  Sunday was my longest duration and distance run of the week.  Inspired by a fellow runner who was attempting an insane run (I mean that in the best way) I knew I HAD to go for more than the nominal 8 miles I can crank out in 2 hours.  I decided to go for 10 miles.  I had planned to run at White Tail Ridge, but I found it closed when I arrived.  After much cursing my lack of checking on open hours, I drove to Willow River State Park and got on the XC trails.  Two hours later, I had run 10.65 miles.  I was pleased with the results, if not with how tired I was.  Saturday's intervals must have taken a lot out of me.  Good run though.

Total Distance: 36.4 miles
Total Time on Feet: 7:28:34

Zumbro training 11/13-11/19 Recap

Week two is officially in the books.  This was a week of awesomeness and uncertainty, but a good one.  Here's a rundown of the week:

Monday: REST  This normal rest day really helped me recharge.  I used to begrudge rest days, but the Friday/Saturday/Sunday combination of Trail/SpeedWork/Long Trail, really kicks my rear, so I'm happy with the recovery.

Tuesday: Tuesday's run was different from last weeks hill repeat day.  Assignment was 45 minutes at easy pace.  Not much to report, really, other than I got in 3.3 miles for an average pace of 13:33.  It was a good run.

Wednesday: Another Easy Pace Trail Run was on the menu for today.  This one for an hour.  I hit the Ridge again and got in 4.2 miles for an average pace of 13:43... Whoa, two runs a minute/mile faster than last week... same course...

Thursday:  Rest day.  I guess I'm lucky, it only took me 2 weeks to get accustomed to having more than one rest day in a week.

Friday: Another 60 minute trail run on my normal route.  Managed 4.4 miles and Average pace of 13:24.... This is getting interesting.  I had almost 4 minutes to spare when I got to the truck and had to do a quick loop through the ice covered parking lots to get my time in.  Am I really getting faster already?

Saturday: Speed Work Day!!!  Assignment was 10x400m intervals at 1:40 (6:40/mile) pace, with 2 minute recovery, along with 20 minute warm up and 10 minute cool down.  This was a GREAT workout!  I actually averaged 1:38 on my splits and felt pretty good when I finished.  I was really surprised that I felt as good as I did when I finished.

Sunday:  Sunday is my longest duration run of the week (note: not necessarily longest distance).  Got up at 0415 and was running at right around 0500.  In the 1:45:00 assigned time, I got in 7.2 miles, for an average pace of 14:36.  I was kind of bummed that my average pace was slower than last Sunday until I looked at the elevation distance.  Today's run was only 0.8 miles further, but I added ~600 feet of elevation.  That'll really slow you down!  In the end, a good run!

Total Distance: 26.6 miles
Total Time on Feet: 5:37:52

Zumbro training 11/6-11/12 Recap

Well, I did it, I finished my first week of training for the Zumbro Endurance Race 100 mile.  This was my first week of training under Jake Hegge from Trail Transformation and it was a good one.  Here's a little recap of things.

Monday: REST.  This was normal for me, I have been taking Mondays off since beginning training for Wild Duluth.

Tuesday: Hill day!  Tuesday's assignment was 20 minute warm up, then 10x 1 minute hill repeats with recovery just being what it took to go back down at easy effort, and a 20 minute cool down.  Workout felt good,  Those 1 minute repeats were deceptive.  The first few felt almost too easy, but the ones near the end really hammered me.  Also, I was dumb, misread the schedule and only did a 10 minute cool down... I really need to read better.

Wednesday: Wednesday was trail day.  Assignment was 60 minutes trail running at easy pace. I headed to Giant's Ridge and went up, over, and back, on the snowshoe trails.  It was a great run.

Thursday: REST.  Ugh, really?  Another rest day?  I'm used to 6 days a week.... trust the process, this is why you hired a coach....

Friday: Another trail run day, and another up and over.  This time I had the nice addition of the temp being -6F (-21C).  Run still felt good, and I actually felt slightly overdressed.

Saturday: Cruise Intervals.  Saturday is now my speed work day.  I ran my 20 minute warm up and got down to business. The assignment was 3x 1 Mile Cruise intervals at 7:20 pace, with 2 minute recovery.  Again, I misread the schedule... I thought it was supposed to be 7:30 intervals.... Oh well, interval splits were 7:25, 7:27, 7:28 so, within 10 seconds of the real goal.  Followed the intervals up with a 10 minute cool down.

Sunday: Final run of the week.  Assignment for Sunday was a trail run of 90 minutes.  I ended up getting in 6.3 miles in 90 minutes, for an average pace of 14:02.  I'm not breaking any speed records but, considering that mile 5 took me 20 minutes, I'm not going to complain.  The downhills really helped me make up time.

Total distance: 27 miles
Total Time on Feet: 5:21:41

Mileage is lower than 'I've been at, but the quality of the workouts is amazing.  I keep reminding myself, Quality beats out Quantity.  It's still early on in my training cycle, My mileage will go up, I just have to allow myself to ease into the higher intensity that Jake has me doing.  I just tell myself to rrust the system and keep pounding the trails.