For the Way Too Cool Race in March, my coach, Lea, sent me bi-weekly training schedules. It was very cool to have her taking the guess work out of things. Every day, I merely looked on the fridge and followed the plan. It was so easy!
It was also nice because Lea mixed things up; I never did the same run twice. One day I’d do hills, another I’d do a time trial, another I’d do sprinting. The variety kept me excited and engaged. When it was time for my “lunch” time run, I was out the door!
I love running in the winter time, so most of my runs were in cold weather and about half of them were in 1 to 5 inches of snow! The snow runs were the best though, because it was so easy on my knees. Also, if I fell, there was no penalty…just, POOOF!, and I’d disappear in a cloud of white puffy stuff.
I had two very memorable runs during the training.
One was a 3.5 hour run in which I ran for the first hour with my friend Anne. Anne and I ran up to the top of Apex park and back down. It was great chatting with her about her Ultra adventures. She is a very good runner and also a logical nerdy type, so all her information and tips were super. After the first hour, Anne left and I then ran to meet up with Dennis at an Ultimate Frisbee field. I used our car as an aid station. After that, I ran over to and up Green Mountain. I ran up and down the “Box of Rocks” trail. It really wasn’t a trail at all, but rather a long skinny flat spot on the side of the mountain covered in rocks. Boy, what a challenge!
The second memorable run was on the south side of Denver. I met up with Kevin this time (Anne’s husband) and he ran with me for 4 hours of a 4.5 hour run. Kevin is also a super guy and had some equally cool tips about running. I really enjoyed running with him along the trails near where he grew up. We even passed his old elementary school! Dennis joined me the last half hour of my run. I was very excited to see him, as it meant my long run was almost over.
My Training Time (totals for the weeks)
Pre-Training: 4 weeks, starting with 30 minute daily runs and ramping up to an hour 6 days per week.
Week 1: 310 minutes
Week 2: 425 minutes
Week 3: 460 minutes
Week 4: 440 minutes
Week 5: 425 minutes
Week 6: 510 minutes
Week 7: 400 minutes
Week 8: 330 minutes
Week 9: 260 minutes
Tags: Running, Trail Running, Training