Western States 100 - Week 1

“But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah: 40:31

Forty days until the Western States 100. I had a solid first week of training this past week and totaled out at 61.6 miles. I was able to run 39 miles during the work week and most of that was speed training. The speed training continues to work well and I have been able to knock off a couple of minutes from my standard 8 mile morning run commute.

The week started light with a 50 minute run on the Crossramp stationary trainer and about 30 minutes of upper body weightlifting. Tuesday and Wednesday were morning run commute days along the WO&D / Custis trail. The morning commute has been working out pretty good the route is 8 miles long from East Falls Church Metro station to the Pentagon. The trail itself is an asphalt bike path and has mile markers every ½ mile. The standard on this run has become to run a fartlek or tempo type of run. For the fartlek, I run a 2 mile warmup and a 4 mile fartlek, running hard for a ½ mile and then recovering for a ½ mile, and finish with a 2 mile cool down.

Thursday, I was able to run in to work in the morning and follow up with another 7.5 mile run on the way home, this was from East Falls Church to Vienna Metro, again along the WO&D trail. Friday was supposed to be another 5 miles on the crossramp but things got busy at work and I was unable to get to the gym at lunch.

Saturday was the highlight of the week! At 0730, my daughter Abby and I toed the line for the Girls on the Run (GOTR) 5K. This was the second year that Abby was running this race and we had aspirations for improving the time over last years 37 minutes. Just over 5500 people were in this race, of which about 2400 were 3rd through 6th grade girls. GOTR is an awesome opportunity for young girls to get exposed to the world of running and also work as a group to accomplish a common goal of completing a 5K race.
The race started off a little slow, we were in the 5th corral and had to wait for a good ¼ mile before the crowd started to thin out a little. The first mile or so was in the parking lot of Fair Oaks mall and we were making good time. After leaving the mall parking lot we got ourselves into a couple of pretty good size hills, which Abby did great on. There was an aid station at the half way point and that helped to get Abby motivated for a long climb. Just over 2 miles into the race I could tell that she was starting to feel the pain and we adjusted pace as necessary, but she kept pushing hard and never stopped running, even on the hills. The last ¼ mile was downhill into the finish line and I told her to pick up the pace and finish strong. Well she gave it everything she had, and then some. We were moving fast and about 50 feet prior to the finish Abby said she couldn’t breath, pulled up, and lost her breakfast right in the middle of the road. In true road warrior fashion, she wiped her mouth and ran across the finish line. I could not have been prouder, 34 minutes and 19 seconds.

It was awesome to be able to run with my daughter and to see her accomplish a goal that she had set for herself. She is 11 years old and has completed three 5K’s and a 5 mile trail race, the sky is the limit for her. I think that she has recovered from the embarrassment of the puking episode and is starting to embrace it as a badge of honor, as well she should.

I finished off the week with a great 22 mile run on Sunday morning along a portion of the Fairfax Cross County Trail. We had some big storms on Saturday night and it was still raining a little when I started a 0600 on Sunday. It rained for most of the run but that actually felt pretty good, the trails were incredibly muddy and that made for tricky footing most of the morning. I ran this pretty hard and finished the 22 miles in 3h:21m for about a 9 minute per mile pace.

For the week ahead, I hope to be able to continue with some speed work during the commuter runs and get a 30 mile mountain run in on Saturday along the Appalachian Trail. The goal is to get between 60 and 70 miles for three more weeks and then go into the taper. Like I said before, I have no idea if this training plan will work but I feel like I am able to run better than I was at this time last year and only time will tell. Run Strong!

God Bless and Semper Fi,
Huffer

Training for 11-17 May: Weekly Mi (61.6), May Mi (154.6), 2009 Mi (915.0)

Mon: 5.5 mi- Crossramp and Upper Body Lift
Tues: 8 mi- (Fartlek) AM Run Commute WO&D Trail, AB
Wed: 8 mi- (Tempo) AM Run Commute WO&D Trail, AB
Thurs: 15.5 mi- AM and PM Run Commute WO&D Trail, AB
Fri: Off
Sat: 3.1- GOTR 5K
Sun: 22 mi- Fairfax CCT