Here's the question of the week: why would any person willingly go 40 hours without sleep and more than 8 hours without food while hallucinating vividly at 3 o'clock in the morning during a run in the backroads of Vermont?
The answer? For fun, of course.
Because this is more or less what me and 13 friends did this weekend. 12 runners and 2 van drivers competed in the Green Mountain Relay, a 200-mile competition throughout Vermont's most civilized cityscapes. Our overall time and place were not what we would have liked, but under the circumstances, we all did fantastic and it was definitely a weekend to remember.
Sure, most of the relay itself was oppressively humid and hilly- but that just made it all the more fun. Knowing your teammates were suffering the same dehydration cramps and bowel explosions you were didn't make your own issues any more bearable, but at least it prevented excessive complaints (though, of course, teenage boys will go to great lengths to describe their poop-- this phenomenon cannot be avoided). The exhausting weekend capped off a 91 mile training week for me, which was significant because it was the first training week that I have ever followed a set schedule. In this case, the schedule was written by Bruce, my new coach, and it was a cycle I really liked. In addition to my relay legs (averaging about 6min pace on brutal terrain at weird hours) I got in two quality days this week- one, on Tuesday, was 4x5min on, 4 minute off, where I averaged 5:35s for 9 miles and was running the "on" parts at an averaging of about 4:50/mile pace and the "offs" at about 5:50/mile, all of this barefoot on the grass. On Thursday I had a pretty good 12 miler, working down to just under 22 for my last 4 (rolling) miles.
All in all, it's been an exhausting, travel-filled, high-quality week. Now I'm just trying to make it to a reasonable bedtime to try to restore some semblance of normalcy to my confused body. I've got about another 3 weeks to train hard for my 10-mile fitness check at the Blessing of the Fleet and already I'm getting excited to race. Have a good week, everybody. I'm going into coma-mode and if I must reached, I recommend you bring a large brass section to help wake me up.
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I totally thought the beginning of this entry was going to detail some awesome LSD-induced journey through the eyes of Craig, and I would be like, damn! I finally rubbed off on him. Oh well...
ReplyDeleteAnyway man, heard you're not coming back to Keene? Boston is it? That's fucking sweet. Boston > Keene. Since coming back to the States I've spent my afternoons driving aimlessly around Concord. Reverse culture shock man, it's about the lowest you can feel. I just wasn't born for small town living.
Anyway, you ever in Keene give me a shout. And if I'm in Boston, I'll just show up at your door unnanounced sometime in the early hours of the morning, mumble vaguely about plans to hit up Vegas and leave just as mysteriously and without warning. Be prepared for this to take place about three times this year.
-Brian
good stuff man! most def love the training log
ReplyDeleteHaha that sounds pretty awesome.
ReplyDeleteJust to give a quick update, I have to change my running schedule around a bit to make place for some other things.... this is a rough outline now:
Monday: AM - 3-4 easy PM: 6-8 easy
Tues: AM - 6-8 moderate w/ strides PM: 3-4 easy
Wed: PM: 8-10 easy
Thurs: AM - 6-8 tempo w/ strides PM: 3-4 easy
Friday: AM - 6-8 easy PM: 3-4 easy
Saturday: probably long run 12-15 miles easy(AM?)w/ strides
Sunday: AM: 3-4 easy PM: 6-8 easy
Right now, all the mileage days should be like 3, 6, but that should increase as the weeks go on. Monday/Wednesday I can only run at 3, so it's going to be pretty hot so I didn't schedule anything hard then. Does this sound good, no need for things like mile repeats (w/ short rest in between) or 200-400 repeats yet?
Looks pretty good, but I don't think there's much need to run more than 13 at a go- maybe a 15-er once a month or whatever, as long as it's easy. You're pretty aggressive there with the mileage, so make sure you're listening to your body/sleeping a lot/eating good/probably taking an iron supplement with OJ (and no dairy/anything with calcium in it for a couple hours before and after the supplement). If you're honest with yourself, you shouldn't get hurt- but if you try to force it when your body is breaking down, you're fucked. I'd say if you feel like shit for more than 3 days in a row, take a day off.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, no need for interval workouts yet- put in the miles. At the volume you're doing, you don't need to do much in the way of quality. Be diligent with the strides.
Keep me updated!