Mad City 50k and Training Recap: March 25-31

This was a very interesting week of training. I actually ended up running fewer miles than I originally anticipated when starting the week. At the beginning of the week I had a blister between two of my toes, which turned into a nasty scab on the bottom of my foot. It kind of felt like running with a small pebble in my shoe. It forced me to alter my stride slightly, and I did not want to overdo the miles and risk causing a long-term injury. With Saturday's 33.5 miles I still ended up accumulating 114 miles this the week on top of ridding myself of that nasty scab. Most of my runs this week were base miles, but I did manage two solid efforts. The first was a workout of 12x 30-second sprints inside a 10-mile run. The second was the Mad City 50k.

When planning out my race and training schedule for the spring I put the Mad City 50k on the schedule as a measuring stick/workout in preparation for the Ice Age 50-mile race on May 12. This is why I did not really break training too much in preparation for the Mad City 50k. Granted, the foot blister/scab gave me a few more unplanned easy days, but I was only 13 days removed from a week that totaled 189.5 miles.  

My goal going into Mad City was to be consistent and feel smooth the whole way. The course is five loops (10k per loop) with paved, rolling hills speckled throughout. My splits went as follows:

Lap One	36:52
Lap Two	36:45
Lap Three	36:36
Lap Four	36:06
Lap Five	36:48
Total	3:03:07

I felt really smooth the entire way, and I was able to get good fueling practice. My fuel consisted of two Vespa CV-25, three gels and three 20oz bottles. It was roughly 600 total calories, which averaged about 200 calories an hour. The five-loop setup was really nice for getting fuel, and I could not have asked for a better support crew. My girlfriend Krista was kind enough to put up with the chilly, windy conditions to hand me my fuel along the way. This was nice, because I never once had to break stride.  When all was said and done, I was able to walk away with a great workout, a positive outlook on my training so far and a course record.

Please see below for a more detailed look at my day to day training.

Sunday	20 mile long run
Monday	AM: 10 mile easy run PM: 10 mile easy run
Tuesday	10 mile run - w/ 12x30-second sprints
Wednesday	10 mile easy run
Thursday	10 mile easy run
Friday	10.5 mile easy run
Saturday	Mad City 50k (3:03:07)
Total	114 miles

March 2012 Training