Hooray!! I am about halfway through my training and Bigfoot is a little over two months away! Jason informed me that May would most likely be the most exhausting month for me due to the high intensity and medium amount of volume. I will admit that the tempo runs were challenging, especially the back-to-back tempos. I have learned that concentrated training can be more effective and produce better results than spreading out hard workouts between rest days. It has admittedly been challenging for me to accept this, as I have been taught the complete opposite for the past 18 years. I have noticed though how focused Jason is on science, evidence-based studies, and research to back up his training and decisions. I have appreciated that he is open to me asking for explanations, so I can better understand why I am doing what I am doing. I feel like this openness has increased my trust in him and improved our ability to work collaboratively.
I should mention too that I have only done one of these back-to-back tempo run workouts. I expect that there may be more during the next couple of weeks, but I believe the tempo runs will be wrapping up by the end of June. I was admittedly hoping that they would end in May, but Jason decided to extend it. Normally, I would be excited to do tempo runs! I feel like one of my strengths is maintaining a consistent pace. I found myself struggling to achieve this though when Jason asked me to start doing the tempos on different terrain. As soon as I started running on the Greenbelt (local technical trail), I found that I could no longer maintain a 7:00 pace. I vividly recall doing this for the first time and telling myself, ‘wow, I have never felt so ninja-like!’ You would think this would be an amazing experience, but it was raining, I had road shoes on, and I was struggling with the disappointment of not being able to go fast enough and maintain a consistent pace. My breathing was off and I no longer felt confident in my ability to pace myself. My natural tendency would be to beat myself up about this and question why I cannot make myself move faster; however, doing these harder workouts has allowed me to better identify when I am not showing enough self-compassion. I decided to perceive these workouts as opportunities to practice more self-compassion. Yes, I was not running the splits that I wanted, but Jason was not exactly expecting me to. He wanted me to get more comfortable with running consistently on different types of terrain.
Another challenge related to doing these tempo runs was trying to plan them out. I would normally do 4 x 15 minutes or 3×15 minutes. In between each tempo run, I would get anywhere from 5-7 minutes of recovery. I wanted to plan out the route, so that I was doing the tempo run on hills/technical train and the recovery sections on the easier terrain. I am not accustomed to having to calculate all of the mileage and pace. I am still not particularly fond of this, as I prefer to just go out for a run and not worry about my pace, where I am going, what mile I am, etc. I have learned to plan out these routes more in advance though rather than wait until the morning of or an hour before the workout!
Last week, I did my first tempo run on Hill of Life! Jason told me to run the uphill as the tempo and the downhill as recovery. It took me about 5:30 to get up and around 4:00-4:30 to get down. The hill is about a half mile long, extremely technical, and there is about 300 ft. of gain. I ended up doing 8 repeats and most of my splits were between 5:30-5:35. I was very pleased with how consistent I kept my splits. It felt more like doing hill repeats to me, but Jason wants me to focus on consistency. I realized that this was the first time in about 10 months that I have done hill repeats! Last fall, I was training for a flat 24 hour race for several months, so it was not necessary for me to do hill repeats. I was pleased with how strong I felt doing these hill repeats and how quickly I recovered.
During Memorial weekend, I attended my first running camp and had an incredible time! I was given feedback about my downhill running form and how I can improve my nutrition. I also received an immense amount of support/encouragement from the coaches, runners, and volunteers. I could not have asked for a better experience! I struggled with some symptoms of altitude sickness on the last day, but I felt about 20x better after a couple of hours and finished feeling strong. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to run in the mountains for three days on tired legs. I ended up doing the steepest and longest climbs of my life! On Sunday, I went up the Manitou incline (1 mile and 2K ft. of gain) after doing a tempo run the previous day. On Monday, we ran up Mt. Rosa (at 11Kft. And almost 7K ft. of elevation gain in 27 miles). I was certainly tired and sore after Monday’s run, but it has been three days now and I feel recovered.
I could not end this blog without including a couple of lists!
What I did well:
-Managing my anxiety related to doing tempo runs on different terrain
-Running through a lot of poison ivy during my tempo runs!
-Staying strong and positive during Jason’s high-altitude camp
-Practicing self-compassion on a more consistent-basis
-Listening to my body and focusing on recovery (stretching, hanging from my inversion table, and rolling).
What I am looking forward to:
-Fast packing for the first time and visiting the Ozarks in July!
-Starting to make cards for the volunteers at Bigfoot!
-Team TROT Summit and having some new trails to explore at Inks Lake!
-Pacing a friend at Bighorn 100 for his first hundo!
-Becoming a stronger and more well-rounded runner as I do more of these tempo run
-Creating a portable popsicle machine for after my runs!!
