Girls Gone Wildwood

Susan planned out our long runs leading up to the Chuckanut 50k  and for some reason she put a 30 mile run on the calendar 12 days before the race. I would never do anything like that before a race. 

We started just before dawn and got to watch the sun rise Sometimes you listen to the advice your coach gives you, sometimes you don't. This weekend was one of the times I didn't. Not that I think I know more than Ann Trason, but the weather was perfect and my husband and Susan's husband and son were all out of town, so we didn't have to be home by a certain time, which made it really hard not to run far. Ann Trason suggested that I run ~12 miles, since we are running Peterson Ridge 40 miler next weekend, but instead we ran 30 miles. Luckily I am feeling great the day after the run, now I just need to make sure I take it easy this week, so I don't over do.  Throwing away trash that was left on the trail  Portland from the Pittock Mansion  I did feel really guilty when Ann sent me an email asking me how far I ran and I had to admit I ran ~30 miles. I am the worst client ever (not really, but I feel like it). We modified this route a litt...

According to our Miwok training plan Susan and I needed 35 miles for the weekend. Susan had early afternoon commitments, so we decided on 30 miles on Saturday starting earlier than normal. I figured I could add on miles on Sunday. I picked a route that wasn't too hilly so we could run quicker and Susan could get home. As a result we didn't take any pictures, but I did want to document our route. But here is a link to my Strava results.  Route:  birch - ww : .22 ww - maple : 5.25 maple - leif : 3.55 (9.02 total) leif - waterline (mm 10.2) : 3.8 waterline - ww : .35 ww - birch : 16.5 birch - 53rd .22 total : 29.89

It's basically impossible to do a long-enough training run for a 100k race, so one strategy is to really pile on the workouts in order to fatigue your body and simulate additional milage. So that's what we did this week. On Thursday and Friday, we made sure to go hard to pre-fatigue for our long run on Saturday. Here's our "mental toughness" training in four parts. Trillium-spoting-- the first of the year Part 1 - Group Power Thursday morning: an hour-long weightlifting class Part 2 - Animal Athletics night run Thursday night: from Lower Macleay to the Pittock Mansion. 5 miles and 1,000 ft of climbing. In the dark. Part 3 - 50 Shades of Willie Training Friday afternoon: 4 hill repeats on Dogwood Trail, with insane tasks in between-- like holding planks while facing each other and alternating touching each other's hands, then turning around holding planks and alternative tapping each other's feet. Part 4 - 30 mile run Saturday: birch - w...