More Snow in the Forecast

It's been 3 days since the Best 4 mi XC and my upper body has recovered but my legs are dead. I ran easy this morning rather than hill repeats. Thursday I plan on a 2.5 mi threshold run and Saturday a 13 mi long run. Hopefully I have some spring in my legs by Thursday.

Best XC .... Result

I ran the Best XC Race on the Planet yesterday. My time was 36:35 for 4 mi. The weather was snowing with 2-3" on the ground. It was impossible to run without spikes so I tried to make a tempo run out of it. I lost my heart rate in the middle of the second lap because the electrode slipped off my chest.The second lap was very tough because I was being passed by the leaders so I moved off into the chop at the side. I have a sore left ankle and a bruised ego but I still had fun. Increasing my threshold run next Thursday to 2.5 mi will be no problem after yesterday. I'm upping my training stress level by 10% to 80% because the USATF XC championships on Feb 10 are also going to be a tempo run. I want to get to 90% stress level for 5-6 weeks before the Earth Day 5K where I will qualify for my Bolder Boulder wave. 90% is 4mi Easy, 8 hills, 3 mi Threshold, and 15 mi Long.

5 days Until the Best XC

Every runner in Boulder was out last Saturday running like crazy. Not only was it a week before the Best XC but the forecast for Sunday was cold and more snow. Storm #5 left 2.8 inches in Boulder. I ran 13 mi on Sat. to the drinking fountain, (it worked!) by Boulder HS. I reasoned I could increase my long run by 10% because I had run 2:00 three times and I was going to take Sunday off. It's Mon and I'm thinking of running hill repeats tomorrow. I know I swore only one anaerobic run per week but I'll have 3 days of easy before the BestXC to recover. And Sarah Slattery said she is going to run a hard workout Tue so I have to do the same. I'm betting my hill will be dry tomorrow morning. I will not run a threshold on Thu. I feel like I have recovered from the long run and I don't think hill repeats tomorrow are going to hurt me. I think they are going to give me a little extra spark for Sat.

Update on Last Post

I ended up running six hills on Tuesday because the experiment in Denver ended early when the rat died. Then I ran a threshold run on Thursday just like normal. I'm going to run 2 hours on Saturday, hopefully before the latest snow storm starts. I only have four weeks of training in, actually only three because the week between Christmas and New Year I missed two runs. So I really have three weeks of training but everyone else in Boulder is in the same situation. I probably won't embarrass myself and I should have fun over the next three weeks. Then I will have 13 weeks to train for the Bolder Boulder. I really like my training plan, one anaerobic, one threshold and one long run per week seems to be just about right. I also like the hill repeats for my anaerobic runs. I hate the run along Baseline Rd to get to the hill but the anandamide rush afterwards lasts for a couple of hours.

One More Week of XC Training

I finished week 5 of my training for the upcoming XC races despite temperatures of 0-10 deg F. I only missed one easy run but even that was OK because it ended my 2007 streak at 10 days. According to Mike Sandrock, the running columnist for the Boulder Camera newspaper, I should deliberately miss a day early in the year. Presumably, I will not run when I should not just to keep a streak alive. My last week of training is going to only two hard days because I cannot run my hill repeats on Tuesday due to clinical testing at 9 am in Denver. I will do my hill repeats on Wednesday morning and run 2 hours on Saturday. The week after next is my taper week and I'll run threshold runs on Tuesday and Thursday. It's been tough doing the hard workouts in the snow and cold temperatures, but everyone in Colorado is having the same problem. Maybe the XC races will be cold and snowy, just like my training.

Only One Anaerobic Run Per Week

I got very sore from the anaerobic hill repeats this week. I had planned on running a anaerobic tempo on Thu, my second hard day of the week, but ran 2 mi at or near my threshold, 139 b/m. This is week 5 of X-C training so I really wanted to have a solid hill workout. My heart rate was 165 at the end of the 5th repeat, the best measure of the stress from the workout. I do not use the last repeat because I slack off on the first and last. I did not feel I had recovered enough from the hill repeats to go all out again two days later. Besides, I want to recover some more before my 2 hr long run on Sat. I learned two things this week: First, hill repeats are very stressful and second, I cannot do two anaerobic workouts two days apart. So I will make the second hard day into a threshold run for the rest of the year. I am so impressed with the hill repeats that I am going to continue doing them and not 400 or 800 m flats. The hill I use is a pain to get to. I have to run .5 mi along a busy state highway to get there. But it's a great hill close to my house. It's steep, always plowed, it faces South so the sun melts ice, has very little residential traffic and is 90 seconds long.

Blizzard #3 Complicates Running

Jan 5 Boulder got 11.5 inches of snow. I did manage to stick to my cross country training plan though. My Thu tempo run was a little scary when I encountered ice on the trail. Then my 2 hour long run on Sat was OK when I could run on the plowed Boulder Ck trail. My problem was getting to the trail over hard packed residential streets. When I came back I found one of these streets, Old Tale, had been gone over by a grader. The entire road was a perfectly flat slick ice skating rink. Plus there are no sidewalks. I had to run at the very edge to get any traction. But I did complete week 4 of my 6 week cross country training plan. My plan is not very ambitious nor will it get me to a high level of fitness. But I want to take it easy after a year of being injured. I will be able to run respectable times in the upcoming cross country races and be in great shape to begin training for the Bolder Boulder.

Cross Country Training Plan

I survived 12 weeks of base training and the holidays so it's finally time to get down to serious training for the Best Cross Country (XC) Race on the Planet on Jan 27 and the USATF XC championship Feb 10. Both are in Boulder Colorado. The hard days are Hill repeats, Tempo and long runs. All weeks look like this: 3.5 m Easy MWFSun, 6x90 sec hills Tue, 2 m tempo Thu and 2 hour long runs Sat. This works out to 38.5 miles per week. I will increase my heart rate on the hard runs as the races get closer. I want to start with a heart rate of 150 beats per minute (b/m) and end with 160 b/m for the hills. For the Tempo I'll start with 145 b/m and finish with 155 b/m. For the Long run I will start with 120 b/m and finish with 130. This is an ambitious plan for me coming off injuries for the last 13 months. I have been running the hard workouts for the last 3 weeks but at aerobic heart rate of less than 140 b/m. If I can achieve this plan I will be in excellent shape to begin training for the Bolder Boulder on May 28. All the coaches say to run hills before 400 and 800 repeats on a track and that is exactly my plan.