Tahoe Triple Training - 3 months down, 2 months to go.
2 months to go. It feels like that's still so much time, but then it's also just 8 weeks, which feels like not much time at all. But those 8 weeks contains a lot of intimidating runs.
Which is not to say we haven't already had some of those. We've now had two 18 mile runs now, one that involved Mt Bonnell and one that involved Dry Creek, Ladera, and a lot of other big hills in our neighborhood. And our Friday-Saturday-Sunday blocks are getting ever longer. This week we had our longest yet: 13 miles Friday, 18 miles Saturday (including the aforementioned big hills), 10 miles today.
Run From Hell elevation. That big V is Far West/Ladera. It hurts.
It's funny.. you build up to it, so it really doesn't sound all that appalling by the time you get there. It seems logical. Last week Friday was 12 and Saturday was 16, so it makes sense they'd go up. They go up each week. But then on Saturday, when you start to run, you remember that 13 miles is no joke, you guys. Your legs definitely remember that, as you start your run. And then on Sunday.. well, really everything's just kinda numb at that point. At least you hope it is. Mostly everything's just tired.
And the weather doesn't help. I won't go on about the weather this time. I covered that last time. It hasn't gotten any better. We're now firmly in the most miserable month of Texas summer. But.. BUT.. that means that next month theoretically won't be as miserable! I mean, if we live long enough to get there.
We did have one positive and reassuring experience recently. It FINALLY rained a couple weeks ago. I had already gotten my run in that morning, but Matt was able to take advantage of it. And he said it was WONDERFUL. Matt hasn't thought running was wonderful in months. He's been suffering badly in this heat and humidity. But that rain run felt amazing, and his paces were ones he hasn't seen since the beginning of this training. So there's HOPE. We have to believe that when we get to Tahoe, because we've trained through this horrible weather, it will feel magical and we'll just be able to run faster and happier than we have this whole summer. But it's really hard to believe that. And Matt's run gave us hope again.
So now we just put our heads down, grit our teeth, and get through this hopefully-last-month of misery. We have a recovery week this week, but then we start with the 20 milers on Saturdays. And a couple sessions of Mt Bonnell repeats on Fridays. Do you know how many miles only 4 repeats of Mt Bonnell gets you? TWELVE. I didn't really believe it until I mapped it out. (That's up and over, then back up and over. That's one repeat.)
Final notes in bulletpoint form:
- By Sunday, I'm generally incurably thirsty. But so tired of drinking water.
- This isn't really fair, because I took two months completely off running last year, but I've already run more miles this year than I did all of last year.
- My previous most miles run in a month was July 2009, 193.58 miles. I just beat that with July 2016, 211.24 miles.
- I woke up at 3:45am three days in a row last week to go run. This is easier for me as a morning person than it is for poor Matt, who definitely is not.
Onward!
My Clifton 2s had 518 miles on them, so they got to retire and be replaced by some snazzy new Clifton 3s
Which is not to say we haven't already had some of those. We've now had two 18 mile runs now, one that involved Mt Bonnell and one that involved Dry Creek, Ladera, and a lot of other big hills in our neighborhood. And our Friday-Saturday-Sunday blocks are getting ever longer. This week we had our longest yet: 13 miles Friday, 18 miles Saturday (including the aforementioned big hills), 10 miles today.
Run From Hell elevation. That big V is Far West/Ladera. It hurts.
It's funny.. you build up to it, so it really doesn't sound all that appalling by the time you get there. It seems logical. Last week Friday was 12 and Saturday was 16, so it makes sense they'd go up. They go up each week. But then on Saturday, when you start to run, you remember that 13 miles is no joke, you guys. Your legs definitely remember that, as you start your run. And then on Sunday.. well, really everything's just kinda numb at that point. At least you hope it is. Mostly everything's just tired.
And the weather doesn't help. I won't go on about the weather this time. I covered that last time. It hasn't gotten any better. We're now firmly in the most miserable month of Texas summer. But.. BUT.. that means that next month theoretically won't be as miserable! I mean, if we live long enough to get there.
We did have one positive and reassuring experience recently. It FINALLY rained a couple weeks ago. I had already gotten my run in that morning, but Matt was able to take advantage of it. And he said it was WONDERFUL. Matt hasn't thought running was wonderful in months. He's been suffering badly in this heat and humidity. But that rain run felt amazing, and his paces were ones he hasn't seen since the beginning of this training. So there's HOPE. We have to believe that when we get to Tahoe, because we've trained through this horrible weather, it will feel magical and we'll just be able to run faster and happier than we have this whole summer. But it's really hard to believe that. And Matt's run gave us hope again.
So now we just put our heads down, grit our teeth, and get through this hopefully-last-month of misery. We have a recovery week this week, but then we start with the 20 milers on Saturdays. And a couple sessions of Mt Bonnell repeats on Fridays. Do you know how many miles only 4 repeats of Mt Bonnell gets you? TWELVE. I didn't really believe it until I mapped it out. (That's up and over, then back up and over. That's one repeat.)
Final notes in bulletpoint form:
- By Sunday, I'm generally incurably thirsty. But so tired of drinking water.
- This isn't really fair, because I took two months completely off running last year, but I've already run more miles this year than I did all of last year.
- My previous most miles run in a month was July 2009, 193.58 miles. I just beat that with July 2016, 211.24 miles.
- I woke up at 3:45am three days in a row last week to go run. This is easier for me as a morning person than it is for poor Matt, who definitely is not.
Onward!
My Clifton 2s had 518 miles on them, so they got to retire and be replaced by some snazzy new Clifton 3s