Punxy progress report

In my last post I wrote a bit about my 'crash' training plan to get ready for the Punxsutawney 50K. Here's an update now that the race is just four weeks and a handful of days away.  The good news is that I've trained hard and made a lot of progress. I haven't hurt myself (though I did run with inadequate recovery time in my drive to rapidly build my weekly mileage).   I've had some hard, strongly-improving workouts, but I'm lacking in the long runs needed to really be ready  Punxsy will be a struggle  - I really started late...

training plan

Mary and I just got back from spending almost a month wandering about in France.  We had a great time - but looking at my running log, I only did 10 runs in June while traveling.  I ran in some interesting places, but there wasn't a lot of intensity or duration.  This fall I'm planning on running the Punxsutawney 50K in early September, and then the JFK 50 Mile run in November right before Thanksgiving.  How can I be ready?

I've got just 9 weeks left before the Punxsy run.  Here is what I plan to do for the two races:
1.  Set the bar fairly low for Punxsy - my goal is to finish the event without beating myself up too bad.  I'm going to think of it as a good step on the way to the JFK 50
2. Focus on 'duration' over intensity.  I want to accumulate as much 'time on feet' as possible, and to get that number up fast I will sacrifice intensity (speed).
3. Get some higher intensity work in each week.
4. Don't get injured.  A big increase in workload is risky, I like to think experience will help keep me out of trouble, but you know self-coached runners ...

I think I'll stay on the roads getting ready for Punxsy, running back and forth over Powhatan hill close to home to get ready for those Pennsylvania hills.  In September and October I'll get out on the Appalachian Trail as much as I can (maybe once a week?) to get ready for all that rocky footing in the early part of the JFK 50..

I'm certainly well rested now, so, I've got that going for me.

a thought for today

"Sucking is the First Step to Being Sorta Good at Something" (Alexis Ohanian)

I guess I'm on my way then.

looking back

2013 was an 'ok' running year for me.  Maybe it suffers a bit in comparison with 2012, where I trained smart and hard to get ready for the Comrades, and ran the race of my life.  This year I didn't have any big hairy audacious goals, and as the JFK 50 approached I wound up just trying to spend enough time on feet and get enough miles logged to be able to finish the race.  I did finish, but it was a hard day - in some ways I thought my familiarity with the course and running experience played as big a role as my conditioning. did.

This year I will improve the quality of my training.  Run faster.  I've been thinking that the software I use to track my running (SportTrack) focuses on TRIMP.  I can always accumulate plenty of TRIMP with lots of long slow running.  My old Suunto watches calculated TE or training effect - what I need to do this year is make sure I get some higher intensity / TE runs done as part of my weekly routine.

Running highlights of 2013

There were no real racing highlights for me, but I did have some memorable runs.

- My sister Lisa and I ran the Appleton, WI 'Turkey Trot' 5 miler on Thanksgiving morning.  It was a cold day in Appleton, and the first time my sister has run 5 miles that she remembers.  My wife Mary was on the course at the same time, walking it with our extended family.  Everyone had a good day - definitely a running highlight for me too!

- Portland OR run-about.  A couple of days in Portland in September gave me the chance to run some new routes starting from in-town, going up the hill to Skyline Drive, then back into town on a two-mile downhill stretch coming down Burnside about as fast as I have run in a long time.  A blast.

-  Exploring and running bits of the great Leadville 100 course, and then watching the race from various points on the course.  Wow ... just wow.

Keep your feet under you, and have a happy new year!

Bernd Heinrich

I really admire this man's passion for running ...

Bernd Heinrich

And other things - he's one heck of a tree climber.

I'm currently reading his book "Why We Run", and liking it a lot.

Scott Jurek video/interview

Nothing really special to see here, but it's just nice to hear 'what's up' with Scott Jurek in this interview from the UK ... I'm almost (not quite) sold on the idea of going to run in the muck ...

run faster!

This year it seems I'm running slower than ever.  Even when it feels like I'm just blazing on a downhill, I'll check the pace my watch is showing and see that I'm barely running a pace I ran for 5K last year.  I believe that a long stretch of easy long runs this year is the reason.  While the good news is that my endurance base is not too bad, it seems I'm going to have to actually do some hard work to get some leg speed back.

One short extract from a Bruce Fordyce interview in Ultra Running magazine back in 2005 ...

Mark: What are the most important things an “average “ultra runner can do to improve performance?

Bruce: Run faster not longer! When I went to Chicago for the U.S. 50-mile championship, I thought I was better prepared than my American competitors because I had focused more on running fast than longer, which of course is not to say that long runs should be ignored.

Bruce ran a 4:50:51 at that 1984 AMJA U.S. 50-mile championships in Chicago.

What an endurance runner is really looking for is running efficiency.  An efficient runner is going to cover distance with less effort, and probably faster.  I'm adding some faster training runs (interval workouts) to try to improve my speed and efficiency.