Mar 7 - 13

I miss blogging everyday. Not that I ever had anything interesting to say, I just enjoyed the freedom to express my raw thoughts. It was some sort of therapy I guess. But it's all about life balance right? And blogging everyday had to take a back seat to my new job. I still have the time to blog, I just don't have the mental energy to put thoughts down. I still solve the world's problems while out on my runs but those solutions stay stuck in my head and by the time I get to my weekly recap, I've forgotten all of them. I will get better though. The balance will be restored sooner than later. Real quick though (before I forget), last week I spent almost all my runs on the treadmill and I gotta say going to the gym is a great place to people watch. I'm in my own little world with headphones on but still notice quirky things like this: have you every seen someone get on the treadmill, crank it up to something like 20%, and then walk as fast as they can while leaning back and gripping the front of the treadmill? It is the funniest damned thing I have seen at the gym in a while! Do they think they are getting a better workout because they cranked it up? I dunno maybe they want to get an upper body workout too. Cracks me up! Who am I to judge though, they probably laugh at me when I'm making all those funny sounds during a 10 x 30 second sprint session.

Onto my weekly recap:

Monday - 4 myles Grigs

Tuesday - AM 8 myles Bluffs

PM 8 myles Bluffs

Wednesday - 8 myles Sanitas

Thursday - 6 myles Des Moines TM

Friday - AM 8 myles HR backcountry

PM 6 myles Bluffs

Saturday - 18 myles Deer Creek

Sunday - 16 myles HR Tour de Trails

83 myles, 12 hours 34 minutes, 11,492 ft of climbing

The key workouts this week were:

1) Sanitas on Wednesday for the 2 x 20 minutes at HR 165-175. It's the first time in 3 months that I've touched that range. First time up was a little short because I went up the East Ridge and it only took 13 minutes, hurt my lungs a little there. Second time up I went up the Mount Sanitas trail which was 19.41, felt much better. It's almost as if my body remembered how to deal with the stress. I had a avg. HR of 172 and it felt good, wanted to go faster but that 175 was the absolute cap this early in the building stage.

2) Deer Creek on Saturday which is the first time since Ponderous Posterior 50K that I've hit the 4K mark for climbing. This run represented the middle 30K at Chuckanut. It was slow because of the bullet proof ice and I should have known better to bring my microspikes for the wall. During this run I practiced my race day nutrition and hydration which consisted of 1 powerbar, 1 EFS liquid shot wild berry diluted in water, and 1 scoop of Pre-Race in a smaller sprint bottle. The Pre-Race is new to the regimen so I wanted to make sure it would not upset my stomach, like last time. All is good and I got a huge boost mentally from it. I took it 1.45 into the run, started to work at 2 hours, and lasted through 3+ hours.

3) HR tour de trails today is the last of the key workouts. Significant because I ran the last 10K in 40:22 (6:30 pace), not blazing, but on tired legs so I'll take it. This is especially important because Chuckanut ends the same way on a flattish 10K. I kept the HR avg. to 159 so that is pretty comfortable to me but I can tell the leg speed is lagging a bit. Truth be told I haven't done hardly any leg turnover stuff in this building phase so that is to be expected. It will come in 16 weeks, I promise.

I just glanced over the Chuckanut start list and I have to say it's impressive! Looking forward to fast and beautiful race next Saturday. And I hear Bellingham has some good local brews.