Full Speed Ahead

Monday: The week started with the longest run of the trip, a 35 kilometer trek up the mountain here at Park City Mountain Resort, and across the famous midmountain trail to the Canyons Resort. Definitely a different 35k run then those that I did last July/Aug/Sep in my buildup to STWM. Lots of tricky rocky sections over 3000ft of vertical gain and consistently at over 8000ft altitude, a little different than Bathurst. The first chunk went incredibly well, but the last 5k or so was very tough. My feet had enough of the rocks, and my toes were starting to hurt bad. But battled through and finished. Some stunning views along the route, I can see why this route is a must-do classic of Park City - although most people do it on a bike, not on foot.

Tuesday (A 6 mile trip to Kenya): Jeremy Ranch Rd. is the tempo run road of choice for the Alberto Salazar coached Nike Oregon Distance project featured Dbl Gold Medalist Mo Farah, and Silver Medalist and AR holder for the 10000 Galen Rupp. Now, I can see why. After watching so many documentaries on Kenyan runners, as well are North Americans going to train in Iten, the running mecca of the world, a common discussion point about the training environment is the bumpy dirt roads meandering through the village. Jeremy Ranch road is the exact same, an amazing dirt road going forever, bumpy, and the road weaves between mountains very close on either side -creating somewhat of a tunnel. The road is absolutely perfect for race simulation tempo runs since has rolling hills throughout, and the atmosphere with the mountains on either side creating that tunnel really helps to just lock into your pace and stay there. After a 4k warmup, and some drills/strides I was off for a 12k tempo run. However, I didn't want to set a specific pace to hold, I wanted to just go by feel and wanted it to be at a comfortably hard effort. Started off really well clipping off 4k in a row around 3:25, then was hanging in at just over 3:30 the next 4. The last 4 however my legs got destroyed by a stretch with 4-5 good hills which sapped the pace and energy out of my legs, but the last kilometer was able to push through the extreme fatigue that overcame my legs and ran in for a decent 42 min 12k. At sea level 3:30 avg isn't going to blow anyone away, but I was very happy with the effort level evidenced by the HR avg of 172 - right at the comfortably hard level of about 85% HRmax. After a 7k cooldown back to the start and over to the bus for a good end to a solid workout. From there lunch, and then in the evening a 6k flushing out the legs run, and a 30 minute circuit workout on the track that I learned from Team Indiana Elite.

Wednesday: Wanted to work on some mental toughness in the morning by pushing through a 22k at a medium pace on a very hot day with zero water and no gels. First 17k went well, and last 5k accomplished exactly what I was looking to do: I felt dehydrated and tired, but kept it rolling and finished. It's exactly what I did all last year in my build to STWM running on those extreme heat alert days with no water or gels, and then thinking back to those and using those for motivation on the cool October morning of the race. After the run, off to the track for an hour long workout of drills and the same circuit workout. In the evening, a very high intensity but very different workout. Went to the biggest hill in the area - 25% grade average, and did 20X100m (9k with warmup and cooldown) all out sprints up the hill to work on form mostly, and put a different type of demand on my legs this time using power and strength instead of my aerobic base. Holy smokes, this was tough. Just gasping for air after each repeat, and with only about 30 sec rest in between each, started the next sprint already breathing hard, plus HR peaked out at 197.

Thursday: The final day of three day stretch of hard workouts and lots of speed work. After a 30 minute core workout in the morning, a 4k run over deer valley at 7300 ft for another speed workout. This time it was 8 X 1km with 600m rest in between each - so a decent amount of rest about 2 and half minutes so that I could turn my legs over fast for each of the repeats. This was a beastly workout, and I could see the sprint work up the hill last night paying off. Despite being at 7300ft still managed to run well under half marathon pace, in fact actually under 10k pace. A 3:12 avg per km for the repeats, and managed to actually get to the halfway point of one of them at 2:50/km pace. Even though I was flying, I felt in control and smooth. In addition, after about 4 years of training, I think I have finally mastered one of my biggest issues, and that is thinking about the workout as a whole instead of focusing on each individual interval. In other words, when I'm on interval #2 let's say, thinking "Wow, I have like 6 more of these to go, so leave some energy in the bank for the next one," or "okay two down 6 to go." I have been trying to overcome this way of thinking for a while now and after the last couple workouts I think I have finally have worked through the problem. The key thing during any workout is to focus 100% on the interval you are doing, not the next one or how many more there are to go. What ends up happening is subconsciously, or maybe consciously, you slow down on the current interval, because you are trying to leave some energy or the next few. This is especially evident on the second to last interval where you go a little slower than your goal because you want to hammer that last one. However, the goal of the workout is not necessarily to get faster with each split (sometimes that may be the goal) but instead to run an even pace from interval number one until the last. This time out I was able to focus on interval number one and only number one, then interval number two and only number two, and so on. As a result, the splits were consistent and fast. Here is a tip that I learned from the McMillian group training out of Flagstaff: Let's say you doing a pretty standard workout of 400m repeats, and let's say your doing 20 repeats. To prevent the workout from just accelerating start to finish every 4th repeat throw in what Greg calls a hammer interval. So for instance, do the first three 400s at say 69-71 seconds, and then the fourth at 64-66. Then repeat this pattern throughout. So the 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 20th 400 is a hammer interval, the rest are all at tempo pace. Essentially what this does is prevent the workout just getting faster and faster since those hammer intervals will knock out some of the energy in your legs and keep you in-check. Back to the day, after another 4k back, chilled for a while and finished the day with a 10k run on the Prospector trail in the afternoon.

Friday: Okay so this was kind of a chill out sort of day, and let the legs recover from three tough days of training. So started the day with a 13k shakeout run, and over to the track to just do some dynamic stretching - mostly working on my left hamstring that had been getting a little angry with the heavy amount of speed work the last three days. Back in, had some breakfast than went out for another 13k this time up Armstrong Trail at an easy pace but still with about 1500 ft of climbing. From there, over to the bus to go for an hour long swim. Chilled out in the afternoon, and then in the evening went back over to the track to do another 30 minute Indiana strength circuit. O and I almost forgot, check out these two guys who were just chilling about 30ft from the door of my hotel for about 8 hours. Click on the picture to enlarge, it's tough to see because the camera is designed for high resolution up close, but not as good further out - pretty much nearsighted, plus there is no zoom, but I assure you I am standing about 15ft from the two of them (the other is behind the birch).

Saturday: Started the day with a 30 minute strength workout, and then was off to do a trail close-by that I hadn't done yet at Park City Mountain Resort. I have no clue what happened to the go-pro halfway through, it seemed to restart and erase the first half of the run, where the majority of the climbing was done. But anyways the run was 24k at an easy effort, but with 2500ft vertical gain - most on this one ski run that I ran up just for kicks. Afterwards it was time to take a nap, and then a speedy 6k run just before sitting down to see the Belmont. On that, what terrible tactics by California Chrome. He had the inside lane, but quickly let himself get boxed in, and Chrome is notoriously poor running from that position. The jockey made a terrible move, breaking to the outside of four horses in between he and the fence, trying to overtake the others on a turn. Every track runner in the world could have told you when he did that the race was over. This killed all Chrome's energy. Boy that was disappointing. For the video threw in some CCR and Jimmy Hendrix, in case over the last 3 weeks of videos house music isn't really your thing.

Sunday: And last but not least, the week ended with some drills/strides followed by a 32k long run where from 30-60minutes I did a minute on at marathon pace/a minute easy, and then the same from 90-120 minutes - so 30 minute total at marathon pace just to shake things up along the way and keep my mind occupied. After that a core workout, and that was it for the week. Overall, my second biggest every mileage week at 214 kilometers - ya that's right, a good serving of speed workout, and to top things off lots more elevation gain.