Training week 20-26 April 2015

Weekly Totals:

Miles Run: 20
Hours Run: 300
Running Elevation Gain: 171'


Miles Biked: 188.6
Hours Biked: 12:57
Biking Elevation Gain: 10,548'


Total Training Time: 15:57
Total Elevation Gain: 10,719'

Summary: Well April is shaping up to be a decent month. My toe healing is getting better and better but moving it in just the wrong way reminds me it is still broken sometimes. Beginning with running, I got no gain for the week but that was more of a product of weather and situations than injury. I was happy to have some solid miles under the belt. I ran 4 miles each Mon, Wed, and Fri, with 8 miles in the rain Sunday all feeling great and each one slightly faster than the previous at the same heart rate. 20 seems so low but it is higher than last week and last week higher than the week before. Its all about a slow build back to where I was. This week I plan to be over 40 and then hopefully after that back to the normal 50+ range with 7-10K gain per week. The problem with gain now is being on day shift. I work at 6:30 and If I wanted to brave going to the incline before, I would have to give up a bike commute. If I do a long run on a weekend day, I would want the other for a long ride. Luckily, I don't have school so perhaps the incline one evening a week isn't out of the question. Now onto the riding. One of the rare occasions where I commuted all 5 days for a total of 140 miles. I got hailed and rained on a bit Mon and Tues due to poor weather man forecasting and 40 mph of headwind to deal with on Friday on the way home before wishing I didn't ride that day. Friday was a debate already being the day before the Ridgeline Rampage 50 Mile Endurance Mountain Bike race and my first ever bike race at that. I was sore from the previous days riding but I wanted the training aspect of the high mileage.for the week so I compromised and said I would ride easier. I plan on writing a whole other post outlining the experience of the race but it was fun. Ended up with 188 bike miles on the week which blows my best ever by over 50 miles. While sore on Sunday, I was reluctant to get out and run in the rain but my 8 mile jaunt turned out to be very therapeutic. It worked out many kinks and I finished feeling much better and confident in my toe getting stronger

In the weeks to come, I plan to continue steadily increasing my running volume and maintaining a relatively high biking volume. I am willing to sacrifice biking to ensure my running catches up as the first Leadman event at the Leadville Trail Marathon is less than 60 days now. I plan to bike commute as many days as possible to work (which is mandatory now with my car in the shop) and do weekend long runs in the 25+ mile range along with weekend long rides in the 3+ hour range (more when time permits). I have no other races paid for between now and Leadville, but I may jump in on a few. Still on the fence for the Battle the Bear 60 mile Endurance Mountain bike race in 2 weeks on May 9, then May 23 I have the Tener tour which will be more gain intensive than mileage intensive. May 30, I am on the fence between the 66 Mile PV Cycle Derby MTB race in my backyard practically or else the Big Mountain Trail Run Marathon in Cheyenne Canon the same day. One way or the other I will be busy getting after it. In the mean time, I have to figure out how to get some elevation gain this weekend around my graduation Saturday and party Sunday.



Until next time..
See you at the top!