Headed to Hennepin Week 1

And just like that, I am done with my first week of 50 mile training. As detailed in my previous post, I am now training for the Hennepin Hundred - 50 mile distance which will be my first 50 mile race. As with other training cycles, I am detailing my training each week.

The word for Week 1 was Endure. For a base building week, and one that had pretty low mileage, I was not expecting to have to endure anything. I started the week excited to start a training plan again and ease my way into training. After discussing where I was at with my coach, she incorporated some easy base building weeks to start. 

I started the week with my birthday run. I always run on my birthday and so I had to keep up with tradition. The run was a stride run, and I enjoyed throwing 30 second bursts of speed into the mix. After several days off it felt really good to run fast and celebrate my birthday doing my favorite thing, running. 

Then the heat came. Wednesday's easy run felt horrible. I struggled to breathe in the humidity and had to walk a significant portion of the last part of my run. This only became worse as the temps continued to rise along with the humidity, and I struggled on Saturday's long run. I cut the run a few minutes short and was nervous to tell my coach this as I didn't want it to look like I couldn't even get through the first week, but thankfully she understood that I still need to acclimate to the heat, and that it was a dangerous mix of a heat advisory and air quality alert. My motto for the run was just to endure. I walked when I had to, ran extremely slow, and made it through the miles I could. When Sunday was much the same, just a shorter distance, I kept things positive and focused on making it through the miles as conservatively as possible.

Super sweaty hot miles

Overall, I was proud of myself for completing what I did. A year ago I would have felt like a failure. I wouldn't have felt like the person who just completed a 50k a month ago and is now struggling to run 7 miles. Instead I focused on the positive, which is that I finished a very challenging week of running in brutal heat. I have come a long way, grown thicker skin, and having successfully run my last 50k, I feel stronger both physically and mentally. 

I have noticed a trend where I feel a bit off when I start a new training cycle. This happened when I started training for the GRT 50k and was stuck in a comparison game with myself and others, and unhappy with where I was at physically. I feel similarly this time around, not so much in comparison to others or to myself, but having run on the lower mileage side for several weeks, I feel sluggish and clumsy when I run. I gained a few of the pounds back that I lost when training for the GRT, and that has also messed with me mentally as I don't feel great in my own body. I know these things will change and I just need to stick with it as the weeks go by and I will be adjusted to training again. In the meantime, I am looking forward to another week of base building, and getting myself back into a strong mental game again.

Monday: Strides workout
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: 50-70 min easy run
Thursday: XT
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 90-105 min long run
Sunday: 45-60 min easy run
Total: 20.12 miles