When Things Go Well

Monday, March 30
a.m. 45 min Treadmill
6.5M (6.5)

p.m. 68 min Road
10.3M (16.8)

Tuesday, March 31
a.m. 45 min Treadmill
6.5M (23.3)

p.m. 50 min Road + 6xHill Sprints
7.5M (30.8)

Wednesday, April 1
a.m. 35 min Treadmill
5.2M (36.0)

p.m. 1 hr 46 min Road incl 3 x 1.4M Hill Climb
16M (52.0)

Thursday, April 2
a.m. 37 min Treadmill
5M (57.0)

p.m. 69 min Road
10M (67.0)

Friday, April 3
a.m. 35 min Treadmill
5.1M (72.1)

Saturday, April 4
a.m. 50k race/workout 3:08:28 (PR), 1st
Lap 1 - 39:02
Lap 2 - 38:32
Lap 3 - 37:34
Lap 4 - 36:51
Lap 5 - 36:27
31M (103.1)

Sunday, April 5
p.m. 20 min Road
2.4M (105.5)

Total Miles 105.5

And that concludes the "base/pre-season/learn to run again" phase of my training and I'd be hard-pressed to find anything negative about how I've progressed the last three months, considering that this was the first week I logged on the blog for 2009.

Now I'm going to take a rest week and then its 10 weeks of workouts and a couple races until Grandmas.

As for this past weekend, it was one of those I'm going to tuck away to relive in the future. I had a pleasant drive back to civilization - which I consider anywhere with a Noodles and Co., Chipotle, Best Buy, and/or Target. Also four-lane highways.

My original plan for the race was to treat this as a long run, shooting for 3:20 - 3:30. It may seem a long ways to go for a long run, but the weather was beautiful, I didn't have to carry any aid, and Katie was in Evansville, IN for a conference this weekend, so I was flying solo anyway.

Race morning was amazing weather, completely opposite from the 2007 100k debacle. It was right around 30 degrees at the start, but the sun was shining and very little wind. By the end of the race temps were in the upper 40s. Race director Tim Yanachek only went with a 50k this year because the World Cup is in June, making a spring 100k US champs impossible. Turnout was good - 30+ solo runners and 40+ relay teams.

Right from the start I knew I was feeling not just good, but phenomenal. I had put in some good miles earlier in the week, but went very easy on Thursday and short on Friday so as to feel rested. When I saw that was running 6:20s with ease early on (thanks Garmin 405) I decided to test the waters a little bit and see what I was capable of comfortably. I felt it was a safe situation because I had a scheduled easy week coming up so as long as I didn't go to the well I would be fine coming back to the marathon-specific training the following week.

My aid was working out great as well. I made a race-day decision not to carry a water bottle the whole way. Instead I bought a bunch of 20 oz bottled waters and mixed my Cytomax in. I picked up a bottle and a gel each lap starting with #2, carried it for about 1.5 miles and then dumped it.

All in all it was one of those days where everything is clicking and you just have to roll with it. I ran very relaxed through 4 laps, pressed a little bit the first half of lap #5 and then, after grabbing one last cup of water at the mid-lap aid station, I kicked it in comfortably hard over the last 4k.

But the best part of the weekend was getting to hang with Andy the rest of the weekend. Our first stop was Chipotle were I enjoyed the sweet ambrosia that is the steak burrito with black beans. Then, after cleaning up and watching some golf, we headed to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the Final Four and eat chicken wings. I tried Guinness for the first time (I know, I know). And then we topped the night off with some bowling where I managed to bowl 2 really good games (for me) out of three.

It might just be that this weekend was some sort of karma payback for all the crap I've been dealing with at work. If thats the case, then I need a few more of them.