A little over a month of serious training!

I just passed my month mark (20th) of seriously training. In the past I have yo-yo'd in mileage from almost no running to about 50 miles. This last month was the first time I have ever tried hitting weekly distance/time goals. I am using a training program that running coach phenom Aurthur Lydiard came up with through experimenting on himself, and used the techniques on his athletes. The gist of it is to obtain as high an aerobic threshold as possible through maximum mileage bombardment week after week. His suggestion is 100 miles a week. He calls this phase "conditioning". The goal is simply to: grow new capillaries, strengthen the heart, improve running form and efficiency, burn fat efficiently, and improve pulmonary O2 uptake. By running this kind of weekly distance your speed and times slowly increase as your body slowly makes the changes necessary to maintain the distance. As you run as hard as your aerobic ability allows you to each week you improve and you raise your aerobic threshold. You now start your more specialized training such as hills and interval work once the proper base is laid. I won't go into the details of these following steps because I hope to limit my anaerobic training until late winter and early spring.

This week saw me extending my weekend run by 4Km which is small but I do not want to risk injury at this point. Ultimately I would like to be running two marathons a week. This will occur some time in November. Perhaps I will run a marathon or even a 50 Km run on Wednesday and Saturday. The other day's will see the distance spread over easy recovery runs and hard aerobic capacity runs and I will have to run several times a day a few days a week and no breaks except on a rest week every three weeks. My rest weeks will perhaps be 50-75 Km and will be more for psychological reasons but perhaps I will not even do them.

I feel that these distances are manageable. I just rounded the horn and am half way to my weekly mileage. This distance came fairly easily with little trouble I saw my speeds increase as well. I must admit by the end of the week I was noticing my muscles (hamstrings, shins and lower calves) breaking down a bit and getting sore. Today (Monday) will be a rest day to help recover for the upcoming 90 Km week.

Calories are getting harder to keep up with. I burned over 5300 calories last week which basically means, I need to eat about 2.6 extra days worth of food (calories) a week, to keep up my weight. So far I am doing well and only get really hungry a few times a week. I worry about our grocery bill come November when I will most likely be burning 12,000 calories a week or 6 days worth of Calories on top of the weekly 14,000 to maintain weight. A lot of these Calories will come in a liquid form on my long runs. I will start experimenting with nutrition as my long runs approach 3 hours.

I have some great trails I would like to run on this winter and I am really anxious to start nailing 3-6 hour runs. This is the aspect of ultra that is most enticing to me. I look forward to long stretches of solitary running on single track, through some of the most "Rave Run Friendly" territory in the world with just my thoughts. I have found that it is during these long runs that I really relieve stress, solve problems, work on my thesis and research ideas, I plan my future and think about strategies for running 100 milers.

I must admit as I am writing this I want to run I am finding it more and more challenging to take rest days and the week is fast approaching where I won't be able to take a rest day and still achieve my goals. Distance trail running is amazing and has completely solved some of my problems with stress, insomnia, and it has improved my overall outlook on life and has added a very exciting facet of adventure to my already adventurous life.

Monthly Highlights

Total Distance = 261.5 Km or 162.5 Miles

Total Run Time = 24 hours +/- an hour

Total Calories burned = 17,258

Avg. Starting Weight = 143.2 (144.8 Max)

Avg. Finishing Weight = 140.4 (139.0 Min)

Avg. Sleep Duration = 5.9 Hours

Avg. Time since last meal = 1.7 Hours

Avg. Pre-run fluids = 770 ml

Avg. Post-run fluids = 600 ml

Weekly Highlights

Total Distance = 81.02 Km or 50.5 Miles

Total Time ran = 7:19:45 Hours

Total Calories = 5321

Avg. Pace Kms = 5:43

Avg. Pace Miles = 9:11

Positives this week

• I ran a PR on my 14.48 Km loop in spite of running through a patch of stinging nettle, to circumnavigate some old dog walkers who were clogging the trail. They are hard of hearing and walk side by side making a pass impossible, and if you are trying to make a good time your only option is to bushwhack. They always say sorry as you run past. The stinging nettle actually gave me a little pep towards the end of the run. The stinging skin was easy to focus on taking the spotlight off my tired legs. Perhaps I will start hitting myself with nettle whenever I need a little extra kick.
• I ran a 19 Km run on Saturday, it was tiring but not too bad and I recovered fast running 15 Km's the following day.
• I stayed injury free and felt fairly fresh most of the week.
• Met and surpassed my weekly mileage goal.

No challenges to report, it was a smooth week!

My pace slowed down a bit, but I am only interested in improving my time on my feet and not getting injured. All the durations of my runs were long (+14 km) with the exception of a 4 K I did with Vye and the kids Friday.