Peak Weeks
With Brazil 135 less than five weeks away, I am in the midst of my final big block of training for the race. My plan, which began on Monday, December 2 was to take one relatively easy week, then run lots of miles for three weeks, then taper for 18 days before the race.
The easy week went well. I ran a comfortable 52 miles, without any particularly long or hard runs. That weekend, Elizabeth and I went down to San Diego to spend some time with my parents and go to a Chargers game (which was a blast – they won and made Eli Manning look awful).
Then last Monday, I got started on my big weeks. And so far, so good.
Last week, I ran one of my biggest weeks ever, getting in over 108 miles (in 18.5 hours and nearly 18,000 feet of climbing). The best thing about it is that I got through it pretty easily. I felt pretty good on every run and even though I woke up with sore legs this morning, I’m not feeling injured at all (knock on wood). I managed last weeks miles on 8 runs; running every day, with a double on Tuesday. Tuesday (10+13 = 23 miles), Thursday (14), Saturday (20.5) and Sunday (26.4) were my big days and Monday, Wednesday and Friday were relatively easier. My high mileage days were also my big climbing days.
This week, I’m going to take a small step back and shoot for something like 85-90 miles with the hope that I’ll recover just a little bit and then be ready for another 100+ mile week with lots of climbing during the third/final week of the training block. That’s assuming all goes well for the next 13 days. I know that I’m pushing myself hard and have promised myself that at the slightest sign of anything feeling really off, I’ll back off.
Two keys to last week were giving myself the easy days between the longer ones and getting a decent amount of sleep. I’m never going to be an 8 hours of sleep-every-night guy, but last week I managed to mix in some 5 hour nights with a couple 7s, and I think that was enough. I also ate and drank a ton all week. Hopefully I can keep it all going for 2 more weeks!
awesome stuff dude… keep it up!
Wow – good stuff Josh!
sounding great, josh! so excited for you! hey, when you are out for more than 5 hours, what are you using for fuel? either in race or training.
Thanks Angie! For my really long runs I do a mixture of liquid calories, gels/chews and real food. Right now, Tailwind (http://www.tailwindnutrition.com/) is working great for me – I usually have some in a handheld and a couple baggies with the powder to refill later in the run. I’ve also been using nutbutters – Justin’s packs and Pocketfuel (though I hate Pocket Fuel’s packaging). Then, for the longest runs (5+ hours), I’ll bring “real food” like almond butter and honey sandwiches, or hummus and cucumber wraps (I use lavash bread, hummus, cucumber, salt and sometimes some quinoa in there too), or rice balls. I almost always bring some Gus and/or Honey Stinger chews for backup or if I feel I need the sugar rush!