Training update and remembering the big picture.

Talk about a crazy couple weeks since the 50K.  It's been full of ups and downs, frustrations and excitement.  On the Thursday after the 50K Dave and I did our usual Turkey Trot 5K race.  It's a pretty flat course for where we live, gets a good crowd, and we LOVE the shirts (it's all about the shirts after all).  I was hesitant to do a hard 5K that soon after the 50K, but we signed up for it knowing we could always just do it for fun and go easy..... hahaha, yeah right.  If you know Dave and I at all you know we're not really wired that way.   It ended up that the race went fantastic!  According to my GPS watch (not official, I know) the course was decently short.  But I figure either way I did a sub 25:00 effort and I was over joyed with that!  Took it easy a few more days and Dave and I did a speed session on Sunday.  We did a workout Dave really likes, but slightly different.  We did 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 500, 400, 300, 200, 100 twice.  It's 6K worth of speed work.  I really want to work on my turnover and speed, and Dave's great at going super fast, so we thought it'd be a fun workout.  And it was!  It was really tough, mentally and physically, but we both did great.  He had the fastest times for all the 100, 200, 300s, but I had all the fastest 400 and 500s.  We both went faster than we have in quite a while, so I was really happy with both of us. 

Then we decided to finish up the siding on the bunkhouse.  We had what we thought were going to be some of our last warm days, so we worked like crazy.  I spent a lot of time up really high on a ladder reaching waaaaayyyyy over holding my breath to hammer in nails.  My chiropractor said this is probably what caused my back/SI joint and shoulders to go totally wonky.  And I mean, wow.  I went out later to do a 30K and hobbled home and barely finished 14K.  I cross trained a lot, and a week later did a 30K with Dave in Olean for orchestra weekend, but it was one of my slowest 30K times in years.  So I was getting really frustrated.  How am I supposed to train hard and go faster and really push myself to reach my goals on February 21 if I can barely finish a 30K.   Those few weeks where I could barely go anywhere were really testing me mentally.  I was very frustrated and thinking about when I should retire (now?).  When things are going well it's super easy to get out and workout, but when things are not going well it can be hard to get out of bed. 

(Beautiful sunrise on my way to South Carolina)

Through the frustration I kept stretching, rolling, seeing my chiropractor, got some massages.  I think what finally did it was I saw my chiropractor the day before I left for South Carolina and then saw an ART practitioner the day after I arrived in South Carolina.  They both really got stuff loosened up and my second day in SC I felt great!   Ian and I went to do a speed session at the track, and even during my warm up I felt better than I had in months!  We did 10x1K, a session I haven't done in quite a while and was a little nervous for.  I did them all between 4:42 and 4:46!  The majority of them were 4:43 and 4:44.  I haven't done that consistent of an interval session all year!  And it felt like I was pacing, like I had another gear somewhere.  Alas, it was not in my legs that day, but it would be.  I backed that up with 8x400 in the afternoon.  They weren't as fast as I would've liked, but I got them done fairly quickly and pushed through all of them. 

The rest of the week included a solid 30K, A double speed session on Saturday that in the afternoon we did a 5K road race.  It was fairly hilly, and I got stuck at the start.  In the first 150 meters Ian gained probably 50 meters on me just from not getting stuck behind people.  this course was significantly short, but I extrapolated out and I think I would've been about 24:30, not bad for hills and a second speed session.  At this point in the week I had already covered well over 100K too!   Sunday finished off with a really solid 30K and a not so solid 10K.  I finished that 40K, but man I hit the wall.  The most important thing?  I got it done! 

(never send us to the store after a long workout, we may drift from our intended plan)

(smiling after a 40K, that's what good company, good weather, and a good course do!)
We went home and had an amazing massage therapist there to work on us.  She did a great flush of my sore, tired muscles and it felt amazing!  She really helped get things loosened back up.  This week I tried, the day of my long walks, going out for a second session.  I know there are elite 50K guys that double up on long days, and I wanted to, carefully, give it a try.  Thursday when I did my 30K I went out for a 5K run in the evening.  I thought that doing the second session as a run might be a bit easier on my system than trying to RW.  I figure I'll do it running for a bit and then try walking it.  The 5K Thursday went well, I definitely had to warm into it, but by the end I was moving really well.  Sunday, after the massage and rest I felt great!  I didn't time my run, but I felt like I was moving great.  I know you're not supposed to play the numbers game, but I knew if I ran a 6K I would hit 170K for the week.  I thought the boost it would give me mentally far outweighed the sin of going father just to add numbers up, so I put my headlamp on and headed out in the dark for one of the best feeling 6K runs I've ever done! 

(post 6K run photo, with headlamp to see in the dark)

This week I've had two solid distance walks, two days of speed all well under my 5K race pace, and days in the middle of them that built strength and helped me recover.  I think this week may have been my best training week ever!  

And what's interesting about that is it came right after such a horrible week where I was on such a low and am now on such a high.  There's that picture that floats around the internet of:  This is what you think your road to success should look like, and it's a straight line.  And this is what the road actually looks like, and it's a bunch of squiggles going everywhere.  I have felt like that these past two weeks.  Squiggling everywhere, but still working my way towards my goal. 

I also am reminded that it really is true what I say to my athletes....  it's not the few amazing workouts you have here or there, it's consistent training over time.  Sure, my workouts weren't that great a couple weeks ago, but I was doing as much as I could, cross training to fill in gaps, and still moving forward.  I was giving my best at whatever I was doing and making the best of the situation I was given.  Over time the hills and valleys fill in and as long as you're steadily going upward you're making progress.  You never know what could make something turn around; a workout, a change of scenery, a word of encouragement from an unexpected source.  The thing to remember is things generally do turn around for the better, you just have to stick with it. 

So here goes another solid week of training, where I will continue to work as hard as I can with a well thought out schedule, decent weather, good company, and lots of focus.  I miss Dave, for sure, but I know that I am moving towards accomplishing amazing things and these times apart really mean something.  I think I sometimes train harder because I feel like I have to make the time apart worth even more.   Guess I'd better go get ready for my second session!  Happy training everyone!

(the fruits of some of my down time between training sessions)