Training Week 4/16-4/22

M- 12.5 miles on the Mt. Washington Auto Road. Progression run past the 6 mile mark (57:55). 8:09 9:15 9:06 8:57 22:26 from 4 mile mark to past the 6 mile mark. Road was clear of snow and ice until just past Cragway. 56:35 down

Tu- 5.1 miles in 48:12 at Whitaker Woods fun run. Earliest we've started these that I can remember. Ran most of it with Jim. Drills and strides after.

W- AM: 6.6 miles on the Conway Rec Trail with Peter Haine in 52:19. Nice and easy.
PM:  4 x Cathedral Ledge Rd. (0.9 miles, ~10% grade avg., much steeper in spots) 7:19 7:16 7:44 7:39. Goal for these was to run tempo effort and I went way too hard on the first two. Settled in nicely on the last two. 1.6 wu, 0.2 cd.

Th- 9.0 miles in 1:24:12 on the Upper Moat Brook Loop plus dirt road add-on. Felt ok. Just tried to run easy as my quads were fried from all of the downhill running so far this week.

F- 4.9 miles in 55:05 with Jim on Hedgehog Mtn. Good solid run and Jim was pushing the climb, so I just tried to stay with him. Quads still not feeling great, but that's part of training. Soaked in the Swift River for about 2 minutes after until I couldn't take it anymore.

Sa- 21.8 miles in 5:20:27 up and down and around Owls Head with Jim and Troy Shellhamer. What better way to get your legs to feel better than to go for a 5 hour trail run? This run was a lot of fun and it was good to run with Troy as I have known him for a few years, but we've never had a chance to run together. The conditions were mixed, but it was good running, especially for mid-April. Soaked in river after.

Coming down the Owls Head Slide

 Lincoln Brook "Trail"

Nice swimming hole / water refill station near 13 Falls

Su- 7.3 miles in 1:04:27 with Jim on the Wal-Mart Singletrack (Outer Limits). I forgot how much that trail climbs. I also forget when the last time someone ran away from me on singletrack on a training run was, but now I know it is April 22. Lunge routine after. felt surprisingly good.

Totals: 76.2 miles, 13.6 hours. Solid week. A good amount of volume, two good workouts and some up-tempo running in there. I'm not used to getting pushed on training runs, but I definitely need it. Good first week of mountain specific training. 8 more weeks until Washington.