Well this week has been full of changes and pretty interesting from my perspective though I basically did the same workout for the whole week because of Tuesday. First I decided to start doing doubles and simply added an easy 3 mile run around the a track each morning with 5 100m strides afterwards. Its amazing how many miles doing doubles can add to your weekly mileage. Just 3 miles in the morning for 6 days equates to 18 miles for the week extra. The second thing I changed was time, I stopped caring about it. I no longer wear my watch while I'm running and plan not to for a couple of months.
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday:
I did pretty much exactly the same thing each of these days. I did 3 miles easy in the morning with strides and a 5 mile out and around the lake run in the afternoon or evening. You'll understand why when I describe Tuesday for you. I also decided to take Saturday off because I was already at 52 miles this week and I don't want to increase my mileage too much.
Tuesday:
Today was planned to be a run with Jake. Originally we planned to go to Michigan bluff and I would run a 12 mile out and back while he went much further so he could put in mega miles this day. Monday I got a call from Jake as he had heard of a group of guys that were getting together in Foresthill to run from there down to Ruck-a-chucky and back up to the highway from there. I was told it would be 15 miles. I figured it wouldn't be too bad adding an extra 3 miles, so I agreed. Plus I wanted to meet some other ultra runners, maybe talk with them a bit, get their reaction when they found out I wasn't an ultra runner :). I find it humorous how everyone assumes I'm an ultra runner every time I run with Jake, though its understandable. There were a few things I wasn't aware of going into this run though. The first is a little obvious, the course, I'd never run this part of the Western States trail and it would be new for me. It had been explained to me that most of it was downhill, so I was mentally prepared for the beating my quads would be taking. When we got there I met the guys and one lady who turned out to be top end ultra runners. I probably couldn't have kept up at this point if they had been average ultra runners. To boot, they were doing a time trial on that section of the course today. Oh well, little chance of chatting very long on the course with them ditching me. They staggered the start so I went with the first group and hung with that guy until he started to pull away from me. Every once in a while a person or group of guys would pass me. I carried a water bottle of cytomax mix in it that Jake had lent me. The second to last person to pass me was a man named Graham (though I'm not sure if thats how it is spelled) who turned out to be someone who has won Western States before. I tagged along at his pace for about 10 minutes or so and we had a nice conversation until I let him take off. A few moments later the last person Meghan flew past me after tripping over a log behind me a ways. I was on my own, but I was probably 2/3 of the way there by then. So I settled into a comfortable pace and cruised to Ruck-a-chucky. The third thing I didn't know was that the 15 miles Jake had quoted me was from foresthill to Ruck-a-chucky, not to where we dropped off my car, that was an extra 2 miles uphill. So I ended up getting at least 17 miles in with the last 2 of it being a 2 mile climb up to the car. Its the longest run I've been on in about 3 years, and nothing was hurting other than a small spot under my leg which I found out a few minutes later was a tick. My legs were so very tired, but they weren't aching or hurting in any way. We hung out around the vehicles for a little while and talked and then parted ways. All in all I put in 20 miles today with the 3 miles easy in the morning and the 17 mile run with the ultra runners.
Week:
So my total mileage was 52 miles and would have been 60 if I ran on Saturday. I didn't want to jump over 20 miles in one week though, so I figured my legs, which are still tired from Tuesday, could use an extra day of rest. All in all, I felt it was a good week and that God has blessed me through my time with other runners.
Running toward God,
Jason
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