Training Races and Long Runs

6 weeks til Umstead.  I've been sticking with the training plan pretty well.  I'm a bit tired but that's fine, a taper at the end should snap me out of that.  The main thing is that I've been getting in the miles without injury.

I've had two tune-up 50K races to break up the training.  My goal for these was to run at a comfortable enough pace so that I wouldn't have to miss any training runs to recover, and try out some new things for nutrition to better learn what works and what doesn't.

The first race was Willis River, January 10.  It's 10.5 out and back, then 5 out and back.  I didn't realize we'd be coming all the way back to the start/finish and we could leave a drop bag.  It's a good race but they could give a few more details like this.  Anyway, it was a cold morning, about 17 degrees I think, so there was some guesswork on how much to wear, but I got it right.  Luckily this was a low water year so only one creek crossing was a bit wet, unlike the horror stories I heard from last year.  Lots of fallen leaves covering rocks and roots made me take 4 falls (OK, 3, plus one where I was trying to open a gel wrapper and just flat out missed seeing a fallen trunk that tripped me).  The course is also notorious for getting lost, and I ventured off trail once by myself and another time following a pack, but probably only went an extra 1/2 mile or so.  Outbound on the 10.5 section I saw my speedy friend Nick DiPirro way earlier than expected, well over a mile in the lead for the 35K race.  On the 5 mile section I saw another friend, Martha Wright, with a slight lead over 2 other women in the 50K.  I passed one of the women but didn't know until I finished that Martha did get the win.  As for myself, I felt pretty strong most of the way, and had something left at the end, though I felt a little more tired than I hoped to be.  The next day I did a relaxed 10 miles on the parkway so I was satisfied I hadn't raced myself too hard.

Cold start at Willis River

 In the following weeks I looked for training runs with some hills and not too technical since Umstead is a groomed crushed granite wide course.  The first one wasn't a very good match since it was a Massanutten training run, but I jumped on Sophie Spiedel's alternate run train where we skipped some of the rockiest sections.  It still had 3 1000'+ climbs.  Next up was a double Dick Woods Road from 151 to Miller School (not the Afton climb), 30 miles on a beautiful mostly dirt country road.  Unfortunately an ice storm kept that weekend from being a double.

Dick Woods Road

 Next was a 3x TJ 100 loop, 8.9 miles  (~27 total) in Walnut Creek with some others who are training for AJW and John Andersen's race in mid March (highly recommended if you are looking for an early east coast 100K), followed by a 20 mile loop around Charlottesville on the Rivanna Trail with the CATs.  A great double with a lot of good company all the way, including Jason Farr, who did the same runs (a bit faster).

The Fox Mountain loop is another central VA classic, another mostly dirt 17 mile road run including a section up and down Fox Mountain.  For some reason people were really impressed that I was doing a double, but it just seemed right to me.  I had a few takers for the first loop, and went solo for the second.  33 degrees at the start and 73 at the end, so it was good prep for the range of temps I'm likely to see in Raleigh.  The first loop was a bit faster than I'd have liked but I figured it just simulated the fatigue I'd feel a bit later in the race.  I dragged at points in the 2nd loop but finished pretty strong on the final 3 miles of Clark Rd.  That run was preceded by a hilly 13 miler from high on Wintergreen down to the valley and back the day before.

Yesterday was the Holiday Lake 50K, a fairly flat 2 loop run near Appomattox.  Another cold start in the teens, and it stayed pretty cold nearly all of the race. A lot of CATs were running this race, plus Michelle Andersen was primed for her first 50K.  I ran for awhile with her and a few other friends, and felt good so I pulled ahead for awhile.  Just before the end of the loop we passed right by the cabin I had stayed in so I ducked in to shuck a layer and reload my pack and grab a sandwich and banana.  Once refueled I made up some lost time I had spent in the cabin.  When I caught back up to Michelle she was dragging just a bit though she had been finishing training runs strong so I thought she might catch back up when I left her.  I hit a low mile around 25, but perked up a bit with more food.  With less than 4 miles to go, Michelle came breezing by and I decided to try to hang on.  For awhile I was losing ground but I ran all but one of the hills and caught back up, until she saw a pack of runners to pass.  From then I just tried to hang on and made the mistake of encouraging her to hammer the final 3/4 mile of downhill road, so I couldn't quite catch her.  Looking back, it was good to see I had just 1 bad mile out of 32, and had enough left to run hard the final 3+ miles.  And, I followed it up with a 10 mile treadmill run today, avoiding single digit temps outside.

Nearly eating pavement after tripping over the timing mat at the finish of the Holiday Lake 50K

Some of the mid week runs have been slog fests, but I'm encouraged that the long runs are generally getting better.  I'm feeling strong at the finish of nearly all of them, and really am not having trouble getting out for another double digit run the next day.  A ski friend noted that I was pretty much running a marathon every weekend.  True, but the key is that I'm not racing a marathon every weekend.

3 weekends left of long runs before I start cutting back.  I'm thinking to keep it to multi-loop less technical runs like Ridge/Decca Rd, Blue Ridge rail trail at Piney River, Coal Rd, or another Dick Woods Rd.  We are going to get socked with up to a foot of snow tomorrow night followed by even more frigid weather so that may dictate where I run.  I'm still skiing nearly every week day.  I don't think it does much for training other than to keep things loose.  My concession to the race is that I'm not going out west this year, and I've been staying out of the trees to limit the chance of injury.