Weekly Total: 37.75 miles of running with 6,545 feet of vert
Monday
Backpack out of Mystic Lake Cabin: 10.4 miles and 268 feet of vert
Notes: I hardly slept and woke up early so I could make it to work in time to start a 9 hour shift that luckily ended up being 7! Sadly I missed my Lift and there was literally no time to run today.
Tuesday
Recovery run at Triple Tree: 3.95 miles and 639 feet of Vert
Notes: I didn’t have time to run the whole trail because I had to make it back in time for work and spent my morning getting quality time with a friend before I dropped her off at the airport. I considered a rest day because I felt terribly exhausted, sore, and didn’t have much time for this but the thought of doing a 200 mile month and a text from my friend Megan made me get out the door. In retrospect I definitely should have just taken the day off
Wednesday
Bailed on a treadmill workout: 2.25 miles
Notes: I slept ten hours straight last night. I did the warm up and started to do the first of 10 reps and my legs felt absolutely awful, further confirming that I should have just taken a rest day yesterday. I was attempting to do the 10×2 minute workout I did two weeks ago but didn’t even feel remotely close to hitting the same mark on the first rep. I’m glad I tried but after the last several days of feeling awful I decided that this week is going to be a deload week. I have matured enough in this running journey to know the difference between a hard week and needed rest and this is it. I reminded myself of my goal to not get injured or burned out this year and to take regular rest weeks as needed. So far I’ve been taking a rest after three weeks of higher volume but I needed it after two weeks this time. I skipped my lift as well. Taking a week off of lifting outside of a race taper or the “off season” is very unusual for me.
Thursday
Easy run with Megan @ the Foothills Trail: 6.41 miles and 1,788 feet of Vert
Notes: This trail always lifts my spirits when I’m feeling down. The run still didn’t feel easy like it normally does but the company was the best! Megan is one of my most frequent training partners right now and one of my best friends!
Friday
Long Run with Corine – North Cottonwood/ Johnson Canyon Loop: 14.44 miles and 2,234 feet of vert
Notes: It was the first run all week that I felt good. Corine is such a great running buddy and really pushed me to run those last 3 miles of rolling hills on the road. I can’t wait to come back and do this loop in a few months hopefully feeling stronger. This was an hour shorter and significantly less vert than my usual long run. It was a great one for a deload week. I did a good job eating enough by setting a timer for every 20 minutes after the first hour.
Saturday
Town miles and social event with Megan: 8 miles and 515 feet of Vert
Notes: Megan and I met up at 8am for some easy town miles before heading to the running store for their valentine’s day run and shoe demo. It was the “halfway meetup” for the “Forward is a Pace” challenge I am participating in. My feet were so sore from work the night before I had considered bailing on this but they felt better by the morning. Particularly my foot injury I had from Scout Mountain last year felt like it was throbbing as I was falling asleep. I ran the last three miles in the Nike Vomero Plus shoes and wow they felt AMAZING. I need to get new shoes so badly. I think this is why my feet have been killing me. I’m really hoping I can win a pair through the challenge I am participating in but we will see!
Sunday
Short Hill workout with Twig: 2.67 miles and 1,368 feet of vert
Lift // Pull Day
Backsquats 4×4 @115lbs
Romanian Deadlifts 3×4 @ 135lbs
SS1: SL DB HiipThrust 3×8@ 25lbs
Crossbody DB RDL 3×8 @30lbs
SS2: Eccentric Pull Ups 3×8 + KB Gorilla Rows 3×8/Side @20lbs
Notes: Warmed up on steep M (18 minutes) and 5 x 2 min hard steep uphill at the top of the M with some dog management happening because Twig kept running away as I was going up and down. Also there were too many people for our taste since it was a weekend day. I enjoy quieter trails with Twig. Keeping true to my deload week I didn’t want to do anything crazy today mile or time wise and I also wanted to get in a shorter workout and Lift. I would usually do my workout and lift on Monday but since I have RUFA on Saturday I am moving everything a day earlier so I can have one more day between my lifts and the race.
Weekly Reflection
I am so glad I eventually decided to make the week a deload week but it took me one too many days to figure it out. I wasn’t expecting to feel so bad this week or need a rest week so early but I am glad that I took it. I think there could be a couple different reasons I needed this unexpectedly:
1. I might have under fueled and under hydrated my long run so bad last Friday that it affected me for a long time after the fact. When I said that I came home and peed dark yellow I meant it was DARK and I was nauseous the rest of the day. Usually I only ever feel like that after a very hard race.
2. I had company in town over the weekend and did not follow my usual routine, I missed taking most of my supplements I take daily particularly vitamin D, B12, and Iron. I hardly got enough sleep and didn’t have a great appetite which was possibly a lingering effect from that long run or I tend to get distracted from eating when other people are around.
3. It is possible that two days of speed work on top of two lower body lifting days is just too much for me. I have never done two workouts a week before and perhaps this increase in intensity isn’t the best thing for me. But I feel like I have a solid base that allows me to do it and I would never know unless I try! I may adjust my training to only one hard workout a week and incorporate more strides into an easy run on my second day of lifting.
4. This could be an effect of my menstrual cycle which I am trying to pay more attention to this year. I don’t necessarily think that having a hard week lines up with me actually being on my period ( I often PR and have my best training days while I am actively menstruating) and I am trying to figure out if there is a pattern and if I can adjust my training to somewhat accommodate that pattern.
Even though this week was a deload week I still hit 37.75 total miles of running. It was nice to feel like this was still a much easier week yet still be well above 20 miles. During previous deload weeks I was running 20 miles so this feels like progress to me!
In regards to the “Forward is a Pace” challenge.. I have run 86.41 miles of the 100 I should have completed by now assuming I would hit an average of 50 miles of running per week. I’m not sure if I will be able to hit the 200 mile mark but I am still planning to give it a try. The challenge has allowed me to track some of the miles I walk with Twig which puts me at 95 miles of the ones I have actually tracked but I really want to do 200 miles of running. Running Up for Air is on the 21st. I signed up for 12 hours of lapping Drinking Horse Mountain. It is a 2.2 mile loop with approximately 600 feet of vertical. My goal is to get at least 28 miles in for my 28th birthday which is actually on the 19th. At that point I’d like to just extend it and get in a 50k to make it an ultramarathon effort. This means I will have to complete 14 laps and 8,400 feet of vert. I feel like this should be very reasonable. I expect the biggest challenge to be the weather which is currently predicted to be a high of 25 and a low of 8 degrees. I particularly struggle in the cold and that is quite a long time to be outside. I am also curious to see how my foot will hold up because it has been particularly irritating this week. I put new insoles in my work shoes so I hope that this will make enough of a difference. I easily spend 10 hours on my feet everyday between work, running, and walking Twig. I am excited to report back next week about how RUFA goes. Here is a link to the race website if anyone reading this is curious about the event.
Race website: https://upforairseries.org/
My fundraiser: https://runsignup.com/Race/194114/Donate/L6mwKft82p0dLd53
(please don’t laugh at how small my goal is 😂 asking people for money in this day and age feels absolutely wild from someone who doesn’t easily pay their bills or afford too much extra in general every month)
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