Toby Repeats

Excuse the dust on this blog, it has been a busy two weeks.  The Mountain Series will soon begin, also the final month of training before Mt. Washington.  The Wapack race wrapped up with more climbing in a week than in some months this year!  I have been laying down personal records everywhere.  My training strategy is to pack more climbing into fewer runs, ensuring plenty of climbing and plenty of flat to stretch my legs and stay fast.  Climbing is ... easy, it has to be easy climbing to prepare for a slow sustained pace up Mt. Washington.  I also need to avoid injury while tackling the big numbers, focus on my gait and form and breathing and not on speed per se.

 

This approach generates plans like the map above.  This is a creative repeat of Mt. Toby with a neighboring hill thrown in for good measure.  I also intend to do a massive climbing run at Mt. Tom next week.  Just the other day I took a ten mile spin up to the summit of Whitney Peak on the Tom range from my house, great feeling.  At the Thursday races, I've begun doing a summit run before and after the race.  At Wachusett this weekend, I'll take a direct route down the mountain and repeat the 4.3 mile course for another 2000' or so of easier running.  

 

To recap, the Wapack Race went well, despite some unforseen difficulties.  Friday morning I woke with a sore throat and by evening kleenex was a constant companion.  I kept my energy up and started pumping in some good fruit juices and wholesome food.  I made good ground on the cold but that night I could not sleep much, waking to drink every couple hours and blow my nose.  I felt pretty miserable by early morning, and was probably a nervous wreck.   Somehow I managed a good run, and the link to results is at the sidebar.  This was also an Ultra event, with a 50 mile component, and the day truly belonged to them.  The spectacle before me, as runners followed me in with two laps to my single, after 42 miles they looked pretty fresh and eager to tackle the 8 miles of hill repeats which would finish their day, left me agog.  Many of the runners posted reports on  kickrunners.com.

I avoided dehydration on the run, and felt in control using e-caps.  If I didn't immediately begin gobbling pizza, I might have run more.  The RD was tempting me to, to run the 42 miler next year, and I did declare that I'd do the 50.  In any case I returned home to something better.  My son, Nye, ran his first race that morning.  He has been training for a mile race in June, and this opportunity popped up.  Congrats Nye! Both of us pushing past boundaries, a picture is worth 1000 words: