Headed to Hennepin Week 10

Week 10 of 50 mile training continued to build on distance and time on feet. After receiving some helpful feedback from my coach last week, I was able to maintain confidence with where I am at in the training cycle, and thankfully my body continued to respond well to the load.

The speedwork this week was another fartlek interval run with a greater number of intervals than previous weeks. Considering I used to dislike speedwork when I was doing the Hansons plan, I surprisingly love the speedwork that my coach gives me each week. I feel like it breaks up the slow, easy miles and gives me something else to focus on rather than the number of miles. 

I had a medium distance run on Thursday that felt more difficult than it should have, but I am getting more used to running tired legs. While I do miss the feeling of starting a run feeling fresh and rested, I have been putting in a lot of focus on recovery and trying to ensure I can eliminate the usual inflammation and aches and pains that I typically have before another run.

Happy to be back on the trails

Saturday was a fast finish long run, and I was nervous about this run because I have never really been able to complete a fast finish long run very well in previous training cycles. I expressed this to my coach who told me it is more about effort than finishing at a speedy pace, but I still went into the run a little leery. It is enough just to finish an 18-20 mile run on its own, never mind the fact that I needed to pace myself to be able to finish strong. I was also under time constraints to get the run completed so I had time to get ready for evening plans to see Pearl Jam at Wrigley field. I seem to do better with longer runs when I know I have lots of time and don't feel rushed. I kept my miles nice and easy, bumped up my calories around mile 12, and I found I had the intensity I needed the last few miles of the run. While my pace wasn't necessarily the fastest of all my miles, I wasn't slogging to the end either. I felt I still had a nice kick in my legs to push me home. 

Thankfully Sunday was a short recovery run and not another back to back long run, and I was so thankful for this. I was worried my legs would be wrecked after the run yesterday and standing on them for 3 hours at the concert, but surprisingly I felt good enough to head to one of my favorite trails and I had a really great time. I hope this is a good sign that I am adapting to the load and my body is finally responding.

Week 11 is full of fast finish progression and back to back long runs, so it will be one of the more challenging weeks, but I definitely have some great confidence going into it, and I feel more prepared to handle the load. 

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: Fartlek workout
Wednesday: XT
Thursday: 75-90 min easy run
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 18-20 miles fast finish long run
Sunday: 40-60 min easy run
Total:  35.41 miles