My winter training has followed a very consistent cycle thus far. This week was a down week within the three week cycle I have been following. I usually cycle my training with down weeks, but this winter I have been really consistent with taking a down week every third week in the cycle. I think my body is responding to it very well. Typically, by day fourteen of the two week high portion of the cycle my body is telling me it’s tired, but not burnt out. By day seven of the down portion my body is telling me it is excited to log some high miles. I can tell, because I start getting really antsy to just cruise for long periods of time, and have little trouble staying motivated and focused. I am a big believer in listening to your body, and not focusing on a set amount of miles. I find it interesting that my body has been so routine in what it has been telling me this winter. It certainly makes things more predictable, which will be nice for planning races.
Speaking of races…I plan to race the Mad City 50k on March 31st! I am excited about strolling the rolling hills of Madison Wisconsin! I’m not sure what kind of effort I will put forth at Mad City. My guess is I will hold back a touch, as I want to really focus on Ice Age 50 Mile in May. I probably won’t taper, but will try to plan a down week leading into race day, so my legs feel relatively fresh.
This weeks miles were lower in comparison, but did end with a bang. I backed off quite a bit during the first six days of the week. I did this for two reasons. First, my body felt tired on Saturday leading in, so I wanted to give it a rest. Second, I wanted to do an ultra style long run at the end of the week, so if I wanted to rest my body I had to do it in the days leading up to Saturday. It all worked out really nice. By Saturday morning I was feeling fresh. I fueled up with some Vespa and just cruised for a little under three and a half hours, for a total of 30 miles. It was one of the smoothest 30 mile training runs I have experienced. I felt pretty even the entire way.
Please see below for a more detailed outline of my running week!
Sunday:
7 miles easy
Monday:
12 miles easy
Tuesday:
10 mile workout. 3 x (2x45 second pick-ups, 1x5 minute tempo).
Wednesday:
12 miles easy
Thursday:
10 miles easy
Friday:
a.m. 10 miles easy
p.m. 5 mile shake out run
Saturday:
30 mile long run
| February, 2012 |
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