Las Vegas RnR Training, week 5

I have not updated the blog for a couple of weeks.  First, it's mid-training week 5 ... heading into the longest long run the 20 miler.  I didn't do cross-training nor strength training, deciding to focus on feet on ground instead, with the long run on Saturday evening through the early night.  Two reasons for not running in the morning, I was was busy with the kids soccer games in the morning and in the afternoon, leaving no time to run, and also I though running an early night 20 miler would be a great emulation of the Las Vegas night event.  The though behind it all was to see how my body react to the stress of long runs at night.

Matt team's played at Lynnwood's High School so I mapped a route back along the Everett-Bothel hwy ... through Everett, downtown Everett then Hwy 529 to end up 64th/hwy 528.  I ran most the stages separately before but never together like that.  Here the route (snapshot from RunKeeper.com)

I headed from Lynnwood High School north ... it had just gotten dark.  After rolling hills in a residential area I was headed down a long drop on 164th to join up a 3-4 mile long ascent up Everett-Bothell hwy.  The Everett-Bothell hwy ends in south Everett by Silverlake lake.  I have ran down then back up this hwy, but is was the first I ran it up like that.  The run though South Everett took me through my lunch runs' neighborhood ... Instead of running up Evergreen though I decided to veer east to follow Beverly blvd to Colby.  Following a new leg made the cold and dark run definitely more interesting.  The pavement on Colby is pretty beat up and I wouldn't run it again though.  At about mile 10 I removed my socks.  I was wearing running socks over my compression socks because of the cold but my feet were killing me.  Removing the running socks the pressure went away and I was back running through downtown Everett.  Up Broadway then hwy 529 ... a familiar route I ran first when I was training for the Heroes' half, my first half marathon in May.  I turned my music on for the final couple of miles for a little inspiration.  I think the up and down hills at the beginning of the route had taken quite a bite out of me so that the last half mile up the 528 hill was quite challenging ... But I went to my happy place and finished the run ... I phased out thinking out about nothing really, just that I needed to finish.

Looking back a week later, this was a pretty good run.  My elevation change was 1280 ft which is the most change I ever run, and my average pace of 10:32 was dead on for the Las Vegas RnR time target.  As they say a picture is worth a thousand words so here is the elevation map ...

The green represent the elevation change while the blue line represent my pace.  My pace is pretty regular throughout ... the spikes are tell tell sign of my walking breaks ... Most the elevation change occurred in the first half of the run thus the added fatigue at the end.  The early dropped killed my quads and the uphill butchered my calves lol ...   The route is not representative of Vegas which I expect to be flatter since it is a Rock and Roll series run (usually easier, flatter course).  However looking to the future, I am eying doing the Three Sister marathon in Redmond, OR next June, a course similarly challenging so this was a good introduction to what to expect in such course.  Given that I must run the first half of the Las Vegas under 2:15 to beat the time limit cut off at mile 13, it is also a good idea what I may feel like towards the end of the marathon as I won't have the opportunity to run slower than pace at the beginning of the Las Vegas RnR like I did at Bellingham ... 

If you followed my training regularly you probably wonder why this run was not on Sunday.  Great question!  I modified my training schedule to run the longest runs on Saturday and follow by a six miler on Sunday.   This is closer to the ultra training philosophy to train one's muscles when they are tired.  It isn't an approach Hal Higdon may recommend I think, but most trainers that are out there do recommend to experiment what works with your body.  Each individual recovers differently.  I was very surprised I had quite an explosive run the following morning of this long a$$ run :)  I revised my training schedule to reflect the 6 milers on Sunday instead of Saturday for the 4 last weeks of the training.  This approach I believe is strengthening my legs quite a bit.  I hope that I won't be over-trained by the time the marathon comes ... but that's why one experiment different philosophy ...

My final take away from that week and that run Saturday in particular is ... eat more ... more carbs (can you say more pasta ? lol)!!  I was hungry by the time I started and the hunger never went away.  I needed to eat more than a regular day to support this run but had just a regular breakfirst and a Subway sandwich (albeit ... a big one) for lunch.  And I should had had that oatmeal cookie I was too lazy to go get on the way to the game ... I think I need to have like a full dinner sometimes around noon for the Las Vegas RnR rather than a lunch lol

Well that concludes the highlights of week 5.  Coming up soon I'll cover week 6 that concluded today with another great 6 miler :)