Training with a Chip on my Shoulder

After the painful around the bay race in March, taking time off to nurse a stress fracture, missing a winnable race in the Mississauga half, and being out 130 dollars from the Ottawa Marathon which I did not run in, I have been longing to get back to racing to prove myself, and as a result training harder and more aggressively than I have in the past. Now, when I run, I think about the long struggle it has been to get back, and dreaming of not just beating my competition in June and July, but dismantling them. You could say I'm running with a bit of a chip on my shoulder. With that theme this week included three hard speed workouts and lots of mileage once again.

Tuesday: After Monday's smooth tempo run, tues. started with a nice 8k shakeout run followed by some drills and a core workout. Then a "recovery" run, first rollerblading 4 miles up to deer valley resort (500 ft of climbing on rollerblades is damn hard). The run was up a highly technical trail, and after the big day yesterday plus 10 straight days of hard running each mile was exhausting. Still, summited Snow Peak Mt. and another summit up deer crest, and managed to get through the 21 km effort. Some pics of Snow Peak,

Wednesday: So today was my "day off" since it was the end up my 10 day block of training. So started the day with an hour long core and strength workout in my room, and then got on the free bus to Kimball Junction (6 miles from my hotel). From there a two second walk over to the beautiful aquatic centre, nestled into the mountain side. Only 4 bucks to use the amazing 12-lane  pool for as long as you want. So I decided to swim for 2 hours and 15 minutes, and it felt great. Well the swim did, the massive burn on my back didn't feel so great. It's amazing though how swimming in a different pool really feels totally different because I'm so used to York's Pool, and now here the sight lines are very different, and it just throws you off for the first couple hundred meters. But I had time to get used to it, doing a few big sets of 400s, 2X200, 100, 2X50 X 6 times. With warmup and cooldown there was about 8 kilometers of swimming, by far my longest ever swim (over 300 lengths). Besides my shoulder feeling raw afterwards, swimming at altitude is pretty intense. It kind of feels like, "Is it really worth it turning my head to breath every 3 strokes, because I'm not getting any oxygen anyways." A really fun day off, and felt like my legs were nicely recovered. 

Thursday (Workout Day): Up bright and early and on the road by 7:30 in the morning, and off for what would be the toughest workout of the trip to this point: 5X2 mile (3.2 km) cutdown at deer valley resort (7300ft). The goal of the workout was to start the first two miles interval just under marathon pace and cutdown to just under half marathon pace for the last interval. And wow, this was tough. The 2 mile loop I made included a pretty solid 600 m long steady hill with a steep grade in the last 50 meters that took some of the sting out of my legs each repeat. The first interval went well and my legs felt nice and snappy. A solid 3:38/km pace for the 2miles (11:39 overall). The second repeat was 3:35/km (11:29) for 2 miles. The third repeat was 3:30/km (11:08), the fourth was 3:25/km (10:58), and the last was perfect pacing yet again at 3:20/km (10:42). I was thrilled with how well the pacing went since it was exactly how I planned cutting down about 5 sec/km for each repeat. The effort level was huge, was only 2 min rest in between each and actually reaching VO2 max on the fourth interval on that hill at 199 beats per minute. Overall 14 miles (22.5k). After a core workout, took a nice nap, then headed up to Park City Mountain resort where I did 14k up Jenni's Trail and straight up a ski run where the other biker's/hiker's were taking the free ski lift up to the trails. But if there's is a path I can run up it. After a really close encounter (15 ft away) with a full grown moose, it was a great way to finish the big day. 

Friday: Okay, the big road day. Same run as last Friday up Royal St. but this time further past empire lodge and back down Royal Street. Overall a 30k out and back, (15k climb), 3000ft of vertical gain overall, and to 9000ft at the turnaround point. Didn't stop once on the climb and maintained Boston Qualifying Pace the whole way up - ya that's right, 10k point at 47 minutes, and the second half 15k downhill was obviously pretty fast although I had to actually stop twice on the way down for like 20-30 seconds, to stretch out my back which was hurting bad on the teeth shattering descent. Here's the video, it's long but I filmed the whole thing so I was going to post it and it was tough to cut it down under 10 minutes. Since it was a lot of climbing I put the gopro on the chest mount since it is really comfortable and I don't even notice it's there but it results it a shaky video. So a disclaimer if you get nauseous easily don't watch.

Saturday: A nice an easy 20k run on the Prospector trail to start the day, followed by a core workout. From there it was off to groceries where the cashier (same one as last time) messed up the change again this time giving me change back for 75 dollars when I only gave her 65, so I got an extra ten bucks, but hell I wasn't saying peep. Not my fault people can't count. Sure it may be dishonest, but last time she short changed me a couple dollars. Really learn how to count cashier - I know you read my blog. Anyways, after some more strength work and drills it was off for a under race pace pure speed workout that I got from Alberto Salazar for Galen Rupp off Flotrack. A broken 1500m where you do a 600, then 400, 300, 200 and repeat 3 times. Damn this was a fast and perfect workout for what I wanted which was to work on my leg speed and turnover. All repeats were done under 3min/km: the 600s in around 1:48, the 400s in 71 sec (2:57/km), 300s in 51 seconds (2:50/km), and the 200s in 33s (2:45/km). Felt nice to run that fast for the 200s especially, I wasn't sprinting wildly, it was more of a controlled fast effort. 

Sunday (Long Run): After an early morning core workout and dynamic stretching, I was off for a long run, a similar route to last Sunday. This time however, I planned on not getting lost like last Sunday. Overall the run was pretty fun, because of the test I inserted into it. I used the virtual pacer feature on my garmin and set it to a modest pace of 4:15/km. What this means was the watch would tell me how far (in distance and time) the pacer was ahead of me or behind me, the pacer keeping 4:15 pace no matter what. What was fun about it was that the first half was a gradual downhill, and the second half of the 33km loop was a gradual uphill - about 1300ft vertical (but nothing like the run from Friday). What that meant was that the first half I needed to try to give myself a cushion and build a good sized lead so that on the second half when I slow not only due to fatigue, but also the uphill, and being straight into a south wind, I could hold off the virtual pacer. The strategy works very nicely and I feel is a good practice for racing. I built a 650 meter lead (2 min and 45 second), and had to push pretty hard in the last first kilometers to hold off the pacer winning by 41 seconds. However, at one point the lead was down into the teens when I hit a really big hill on the way back at 27k, and it was just when my legs were starting to fatigue badly. Still good run, and a nice way to end the week. What I might do next Sunday for a different kind of test is set the pacer up the same way, however this time stay even with the pacer on the downhill portion (holding back), and try to stay with or beat the pacer on the gradual uphill. That would be very difficult given the nature o the second half of that loop, and would require a big effort, but it would serve as good practice. Now off to an ice bath, and more banana, muscle milk chocolate powder, buckwheat pancakes.