Back to Running

Finally ran last night after exactly 3 weeks with no running.  I was free last Saturday to run, but antibiotics were just starting to kick in and I didn't feel up to it.  I feel fine now, so last night I headed out for a very hilly run with my two 4lb dumbells to make it a little tougher.  I felt great after 3 weeks off!  Some sore muscles and arms weren't used to the weights anymore, but after a few days it should all be fine.  Time to step it up, less than 4 weeks to Pick Your Poison 50k and 5 until Bear Mountain 50 mile.

Being off for 3 weeks does have it's positive takeaways (everything does actually).  It reminded me not to take being healthy for granted and to stay off my ass.  It gave me time to reflect on training and how I'm doing things:

Short Runs: I haven't been doing fast road runs, been focusing on hilly trail runs with weights, stairs, or both.  Maybe too much? There will be long flat or long incline/decline sections at Leadville, but my runs have been focusing on gnarly, hilly trail and stairs.  I've been carrying dumbells on the trials, which adds to the difficulty and is much more taxing, but it does make the runs much slower.  These are great, but maybe I should add in some more road or flat faster runs also.

Long Runs: What long runs?  It's hard for me to fit them in, but I'll need to get creative and make sure to get more in going forward.

Nutrition: This is back on track.  During my break, I attended a conference which meant 3 buffet meals a day, plus a drinkfest each night, not good.  That was temporary, but I was also letting my regular nutriton slide, but I put a stop to that a week ago.  No extra pounds will be coming with me to Colorado! In fact no extra pounds will be coming with me anywhere soon....

Strength Training: This had been going great pre-break, during my 3 weeks of stupidity I did none.  Back at it now, but I need to focus more on running.  There have been times during lunch at work when I'd hit the gym instead of running, I'll be more concious to run instead and do strength training at home with kids when I can't run.  I bought a 20lb weighted vest the other day, I've been wearing it around the house while doing my usual pushups and squats, my kids think I'm nuts.  They're usually right.  I told my daughter I'm going to pick her up from school wearing the vest to embarass her, I think I scared her!

Races:
I looked into switching dates around so that I could do a 50 mile race in Ontario in May (either Seaton on May 12 or Sulpher on May 26), but my ex wasn't able to switch weekends with me due to her work functions.  This meant the only option for me to do a 50 mile race would be Bear Mountain on May 5th.  The actual race at Bear Mountain would be my pick out of the 3, but the timing is bad (1 week after Pick your Poison) and location is in the Catskills in NY, an 8hr drive which means a hotel and a day off work.  No choice, so Bear Mountain it is.  I signed up for it the other day, should be a fun trip as a few of us are going now.  JD, Carlos, Steve and I have signed up for the adventure, still waiting on Chris to decide and possibly Kendra.  Should be fun!

Not sure what to do about Pick Your Poison on Apr 28th yet.  It's a hilly course, which is great, but being 1 week before Bear means I'll need to decide what distance to do.  A smart person would opt for the 25k, so I'll likely do 50k and not run it too hard.  Last year I signed up 3 days in advance, so I'll worry about it later.

Current Plan:
So, current plan is basically train as hard as I can right up until about 2 days prior to PYP, then take it easy during the week between the races, then go hard at Bear Mountain.  With Bear being right at the beginning of May and no other races fitting into my schedule, I'll have 6 weeks until Mohican 100 on June 16th.  Plenty o' time to rest, go hard for a few weeks and rest again before 100.  So I guess everything is on track for now...

Morgan