Ultra Training Update

Okay, the first of three promised posts is the easiest one. It goes against my delay-of-gratification life philosophy, but sometimes you have to give in. That’s built into my philosophy, too.

Work is slow right at the moment, so I dropped down and did 10 push ups next to my cubicle. No, my coworkers didn’t see me. The cube does have mini walls. I’ve been doing a little more weights work in recent months to compensate for a lot of the long distances that have been cutting down on some of my muscles. I use the pullup bar once a day at least ... I can do one pull up from a slight jumping start. I'm working my way up to one hanging pullup....someday...

Training is going really well. I hit a bit of a wall a couple weeks back. Exercise and work and life got my very irritable. I guess that’s to be expected for long term training programs. Not all of it will be great. Some runs are tougher than others. Some weeks are tougher than others. But you remember why you do it, and keep going.

So I’ve come back out of the fog. I’m still a bit tired. Last week was a taper week that topped out around 45 miles for the 7 days. This week is the beginning of our build/peak phase. It consists of a 26 miler Saturday and an 18 miler on Sunday in addition to normal midweek miles. So that brings us to 68 miles this week, give or take a tenth or two.

I did a tempo run in lieu of an easy run on Wednesday because I ran on the treadmill and figured that would be an easier workout. Next week I will hit the treadmill again (good for resting weary feet), but will probably take it easier.

I’m noticeably hungrier. I do eat a lot more at breakfasts – I eat two of them. Eggs and Breads, then Cereal and/or Oatmeal. Lunch is a sandwich, salad, soup or other company-provided meal. Dinner is salad and fruit, sometimes eggs, and sometimes cereal. I’ve supplemented these meals with snacks like cereal (notice a trend? Right now I’m into Cheerios), almonds and hot chocolate. Still sucking down 3-4 cups of coffee in the AM for both pre- and post-workout caffeine.

I’m 11 weeks into the training schedule. It does feel second nature now. I refer to my 9 mile morning runs as “back pocket runs” because they are convenient and familiar. Ramping up the weekend mileage will soon take its toll I’m sure (the week before I went into a fog, we ran two weekends 24/18 back-to-backs). But I know now what to prepare for. Even though the intensity of the LSDs isn’t high, 4-5 hours of running on Saturday and 3-4 hours on Sunday does add up.

So 7 weeks until the race!! Starting to look at hotels, flights, etc. I can’t believe that its this close. The closer we get to it – the more surreal it all seems.

Following this weekend’s peak workout, I have Monday off from work. Dare I commit to sleeping in until 7am?? I bet I will. That, and a little Wii Tennis cross training.

PS. I’m getting more and more into Twitter, so check the sidebar once in a while, even if I haven’t posted. I’m usually more diligent about the short stuff.