Month 1: Training for the Triple Crown of 200’s

Before I started my first full month of training, I emailed the race director, Candice, to ask for suggestions regarding coaches. After much deliberation and some email exchanges, I went with my instincts and choose Jason Koop. Aside from his strong background in ultrarunning and the science behind it, I found myself drawn to his enthusiasm, generosity, and support.  He walked me through what the training would look like over the next several months.  I felt excited, scared, and inquisitive!

April was my first full month of working with Jason. Yes, I am aware this blog is about two weeks late, but due to my lack of technical skills, it has taken longer than expected to create this website and blog.  Around the end of March, I was trying to resolve a lot of blister issues below my big toe and sometimes in between my toes. I am prone to blisters, but I found myself getting blisters on shorter runs.  After trying different shoes,  Jason suggested I try lacing my shoes differently and recommended I check out the following site:

https://runrepeat.com/top-10-running-shoe-lacing-techniques

I believe my feet were sliding to the front of my shoe, so Jason suggested I try the lacing for the narrow foot even though I have wider feet (I mainly wear Altras, Pearl’s, and Topos). It prevented my feet from sliding forward, and I have not had any blisters for about a month!

You will quickly learn that I am a fan of lists! Rather than write several paragraphs about this first month of training, I decided to break it down into the following lists: highlights, challenges, and insight.

 

HIGHLIGHTS:

-My weekly mileage ranged between 60-70 miles

-My long back-to-back runs consisted of 2.5 hour runs on trail during the weekends

-Interval training consisted of repeat 3 and 4 minutes and also a few pyramid workouts with 2,3,4,4,3,2 minutes and always equal recovery. I did these workouts on the track, the loop around St. Edwards, and around Lady Bird Lake.

-Running a marathon for the first time in years and my first trail marathon! I ended up racing Dan Man Challenge on 4/1/17 and came in 1st overall with a time of 3:41; not too far off from my 50-mile pace that I ran there two years prior. I took this as a strong indication that I need to do more speed workouts!

 

CHALLENGES:

-Embracing the discomfort of doing interval workouts for the first time in years

-Decreasing my anxiety related to doing speed work

-Wrapping my mind around doing interval training using time and not distance (after running track for years, the mind fixates on meters!).

-Using my split button on my watch and ensuring that I separated my warm-up, each interval, recovery time, and cool-down. This was and is surprisingly challenging for me, as I am so accustomed to just pressing start and stop!

-Talking positively to myself when I was not running what I considered to be a fast enough pace

-Being patient about seeing the progress and results from the interval training

-Doing all of my interval workouts solo and not having friends to push me

-Getting out of my regular running routine and not seeing my running buddies nearly as much

 

INSIGHT:

-It takes at least two weeks to see the results of interval workouts.

-I need to focus more on self-compassion and not be so hard on myself when I cannot easily measure progress.

-Blisters can sometimes be easily resolved by just lacing your shoes differently!

-I do not like to use weather as an excuse for a poor performance, but I need to be more comfortable with perceiving it as a factor that can potentially have an impact on my performance.

-Jason and I work quite well together! He is extremely thorough when explaining workouts, studies, and his expectations. He has a good sense of humor as well!

-I am not doing as much strength-training as I planned to, and I need to incorporate that back into my routine.

-My body feels stronger and happier when I make recovery a priority with stretching, rolling, and using my inversion table.

-My Triple Crown journal encourages me to make more time to reflect, process, and focus on what I feel grateful for.