May 19th - May 25th

"If you always do what interest you, at least one person is pleased." - Katharine Hepburn

Monday:

10 AM: 4.75 miles averaging 8min pace.  Easy cruise from the office. Super chill for the legs are shit today from the weekend. Just trying to get some of the junk out of them before the upcoming weekend. Got this in between meetings at work.

4:30 PM: 35mins lifting.  Easy lower body lifting at VASA while Paula got on the treadmill. Just went through all the lower body machines doing 3 sets of 10. Lots of waiting around due to how busy the gym is the time of day, hate that and miss being able to pop in here at 10am.

Tuesday:  

5:30 AM:  35mins in the garage gym.  

Warmup: Rowing, Crossover, mobility.

All upper body today doing super sets for major muscle groups. Did chest, shoulders, back, and a little bit of arms. Really efficient way to get in some good work in a short time frame.

4 PM:  8.2 miles averaging 7:10pace.  Easy 2 laps of Davidson Mesa and 2 laps of Harper. Just a late afternoon cruise in super strong wind coming out of the west. Half of each loop against the wind and half pushing from the back. Just adding some miles for the week.

Wednesday:

10:30 AM: 7.25 miles averaging 7:20 pace. Easy 2 laps of Davidson Mesa and 1 lap of Harper again. Just an easy place to hit up before heading home to finish the afternoon working from home before heading to CA for Western States training camp this afternoon.

Thursday:  

  -NOTE:  Weight check in:  Nope, traveling this week.

7 AM:  7.4 miles w/ 1000ft of vert averaging 9min pace.  Cabin Loop outside of Fruita on the way to CA for Western States training camp. Super chill jog taking some photos and videos before driving another 10 plus hours today.  Made it just outside of Reno to bed down for the night tonight.

Friday:

9:30 AM:  6 miles w/ 800ft of vert averaging 9min pace.  Easy trail run in Donner State Memorial Park on Donner Pass. Basically a lap of Donner Lake with an out and back up a hill. Neat little park that is worth checking out when driving down I-80 to CA, just over the NV state line. Felt pretty damn good today.  

Rest of the day was figuring out where I was going to camp in the van tonight.  Ended up in the grocery store lot in Foresthill, CA which was great since it was only a 3min drive from where we are meeting for camp in the morning. Second photo below was my view out the side window as I chilling out in the evening eating dinner.

Saturday: 

7 AM:  31 miles w/ 7000ft of vert in 6:15.  Western States Training Camp!!! Robinson Flats to Foresthill. This was a crazy section. I was not expecting the 8400ft of downhill we did in this section and did not expect the 3 canyons that we crossed to be that steep. I was humbled for sure. Coming from Colorado one thinks that canyons can't be as hard as mountains but that is completely wrong. The canyons are going to be a bitch come race day. They will be from mile 40 to 60 during the race, I plan on being totally in the pain cave when I come into Foresthill on race day after doing them.

Sunday:  

8 AM: 18 miles w/ 4000ft of vert in 3:15.   Western States Training Camp! Forest Hill to Rucky Chucky then hike out to Dusty Corners to catch the bus back to Foresthill. This section is really runnable but there is another 5000ft of downhill in this section too which smashed my quads even more, that is over 13,000ft of downhill in 2 days. Did do a hard superman fall and landed on a rock on my left quad which hurt like hell, had to walk it out for a mile or so. This will be the first section that I can have a pacer come race day. Looking forward to it.

Total Weekly Numbers

This quote hit home for me this week...  been pushing so much in all aspects of life that I feel like I am drowning and honestly about to just give up.  I really need to keep this in mind the next month as I try to balance getting ready for Western and how much more time work takes with going to the office most days.  I can't let myself drown per se.

"Once, I saw a bee drown in honey, and I understood."

— Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek philosopher and writer. (I take this to mean that we should be careful with what we desire—even, and especially when, it’s good for us. If we don’t develop good self-awareness or practice restraint, and I believe this holds true whether it’s training, work, or virtually any other aspect of life, even the sweetest things can “drown” us before we realize it.)

Not a bad week of training overall, could have been better.  Did miss one weight session this week and as you will see next week I did skip Monday's 22 miles to start driving home due to how bad my legs felt after the weekend.  Need to really focus on running downhill hard the next few weeks so hopefully I don't have these issues come race day.