Aquatic Center, up the bluffs to Cavitt School and Return via south side lake natoma. 22miles...As the title hints...Valentines Day...No Broken Heart, Just broken legs from the run. In an earlier post I weather was the talk of nocal as Saturday/Sunday approach.
The run was again diverted after hearing weather reports of nasty,cold,snow etc near Auburn..which is only 1200ft elevation. So Friday night with calls from folks it was decided..stay close to Sacramento area and run from the Aquatic Center to Cavitt School via a combination of trail and a well used bike path. This is also part of the American River 50 course so no harm done..it is just more pavement than trail. Rena and I met early Saturday..It did not look too bad out with drips of rain and little wind as we took off. We had planned to head to the Granite Bay Horse Staging area and then back..not to be.
Lets start with what I felt went wrong and then end with positive..I have not been running road, or any ashphalt for that matter much and I was just not I think ready for that mentally as we took off. The mind was thinking...jeez this bike trail thing feels long and no real destination..lots of folks on bikes, a few runners...I wanted to be on the single track trail...alone, only the river below providing sound and focused..The mind was not hooked on the running. Fluid intake was low again this week. I think that hit to my bonk the final 4 miles.
On the plus side this was a good run to be doing since the first 19miles of AR50 are on the trail..this caused leg turnover versus running on the trails..It was faster in overall pace by about one to one and half minutes per mile. So it was kinda a long run with tempo. The last four miles where tough but I kept the legs turning over. Rena knew I was in some pain and was a help by just staying in front of me as we moved to the finish. I was thankful for the finish..let me tell you! The legs felt beat up..again..maybe it was the tempo feel..But overall it was good for me.
As for this Valentines thing..it was a none event...It did leave me time to ponder about someone (a little pinning..how's that for an old fashioned word). WS 2010 really is the outside focus right now..dwelling on situation not in my control does me no good.
On that note about WS 2010,I did get a nice note from Jen Pheifer on some suggestions training leading to WS..Her take was use training cycles to hit the goal..Here is an excerpt....In each cycle I would plan a "focus".... hills, speed, downhill running, uphill walking whatever...that way you can really hit all the important stuff and maybe leave the big endurance training (like back to backs) for the last big cycle which will lead you into the race. At the end of each cycle I would plan a "rest period" so that you make sure you are recovering and not over training.
Pretty good advice...Tony
Tony
Ugh, pavement is so different and hard, not on the body but mentally. That's why I don't like marathons! But super that you hung in there and finished what you started. great AR50 training! I almost signed up for this race, but because of the road running I didn't in the end.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your advice on my last post. I think you're totally right. I'll keep the leg workouts where they are and get stronger:-)
Have a great week!