Seaton 52K trail race this weekend ... Training Update ... Good Idea or Kamikaze Mission

Seaton Trail race

Only three days left to the first ultra trail race of the spring. On Saturday morning I will be heading out to Pickering to run the Seaton trail race. Last year I ran the short version of the race (26k) and being a total trail running newbie I crashed and burned big time. Have you ever tried to run limping in not one leg but both legs. I have and let me tell ya that particular maneuver is not as easy as it sounds.

This time out I will be running the 52k version. That would be an out and back out and back. Besides the tough technical trail there is bound to be lots of mud, pain and plodding through that damn river 4 different times. I can hardly wait! On top of that the weather is looking like it will be a challenge in itself as Saturday is suppose to be cold and rainy. Kim is also running although she figures that 26k will be enough for her. I considered switching to the 50 miler but decided to take it easy this weekend … HA.

Training Update
After a couple of tough weeks where my legs were very dead last week they bounced back pretty good and I am finally starting to run well again. I think that its probably due to finally getting all the racing out of my legs as well as adjusting to the bigger mileage.
I have moved into the next stage of my training cycle so that means less hills and more speed work. Tempo runs are going well and I hit the track for the first time last week. It was nice to resume my love/hate relationship with oval of pain. Ran a bit slow but also controlled for the first time out. I expect to get back to much harder workouts next week.

Brilliant plan or Kamikaze mission you decide
So along with my speed work I am upping the distance of my long runs in preparation for my target spring race, which is the 100 miler at Sulphur Springs at the end of May. My longest run of the spring so far has been 38K but will hit 52 this weekend at Seaton.
The plan is to run 4 longer distance races in the next 5weeks to get ready. They are
Seaton Trail Race (52K)
Waterloo Marathon (42.2K)
Pick Your Poison Trail Race (50K)
Mississauga Marathon (42.2k).
Note I said run NOT race. I will be treating them as long training runs. I am currently repeating the “I will not race” mantra in my head over and over again. Honestly I will not get sucked into racing. Oh that laughing that you hear is my regular training partners reading this and rolling their eyes.
This is either going to turn out really well or end really badly.
Finally I am behind on a couple of race reports but hope to catch up in the next week or so.