Race, Recover, Repeat...

Recovery after The North Face 50-mile ultra (TNF) went better then expected. I was running again after only three days off. The following week I managed to log 134 miles with some quality hill work and some speed work. This was done in 6 days as I took a day off during this training week. The week progressed as follows:

Sunday	17 miles (City Park Hill 15x)
Monday	Off
Tuesday	AM: 18 miles (5x5min @ about 5:45 pace, Menominee Welcome Center Hill 8x) PM: 5 miles
Wednesday	AM: 10 miles PM: 12 miles
Thursday	AM: 10 miles (City Park Hill 25x) PM: 9 miles (in the rain)
Friday	AM: 11 miles (10x30-45 second pickups at all out) PM: 12 miles
Saturday	AM: 20 miles (City Park Hill 30x) PM: 10 miles
Total	134 miles

My recovery pace and urge to get back in an ultra race has me rethinking my racing schedule for the rest of 2011. Having already competed in two trail ultras I would really like to try a road ultra. I can manage at least two more ultras this year if I compete in the Fall 50 (Door County, WI) and the JFK 50 (Washington County, Maryland). The Fall 50 is on October 22 (Saturday), giving me a five-week window after TNF. Though the Fall 50 is on road, my current rate of recovery gives me two solid weeks to build up mileage and then two more weeks to back off a little in time for the race. JFK 50 is four weeks after the Fall 50. This would give me a week to bounce back from the Fall 50 followed by about 10 days of high mileage training before I would need to back off in time for JFK. I believe this plan is feasible given the large base I have from summer training (peak week of 171 miles + workouts).

Assuming all goes according to plan, it will be interesting to see how my legs react to doing three ultras in 9 weeks. Ultra running is all about acclimating the body to the rigors of the sport. The way I see it, the best way to do this is to get out and race!