Leadville training recap and a decent July

Well the training is all but done for Leadville. It's all over but the crying and another week and half of tapering. My training ended up going fairly well, not perfect but not bad. I will give it a grade of A- or maybe B+. I managed to finish off my training with a pretty decent July. My days running streak ended at 38 days with the start of my taper.

July Statistics

# of runs = 39
Days run = 31 out of 31 days
Time spent running = 59:39:27
Races = 2: Creemore 50k and Limberlost 56k
Total mileage = 351 miles or 565 km

I am happy with my overall mileage for the month but still it was a little less than planned. Had expected to do over 600km but cut one of my long runs short.  I found that towards the end of the month I was right on the edge of over training. I figured it was smarter to pull back a little. I call this trying to learn from the past. Honestly though it still sometimes seems like slacking off. I have a little trouble excepting that I am not in my twenties anymore.

July was a really tough month this year. It was almost non stop heat wave conditions making some of my 2 a day runs seem like a bad bad idea. Running in the heat for a few days is tough but for weeks on end can be soul sucking.

A big thanks to Steve Parke for spearheading the run everyday in July challenge and all those other trail runners that played along. It really helped getting me out the door a number of times during the month.

Leadville training recap

I had a decent training plan which went not exactly like planned but still went well. November was all about getting back into shape and rehabing my injured shin. That meant lots of cross training / strength training and a lot of time on the bike in spin classes to get the cardio  back up while I rebuilt my mileage.

# runs = 48
# weight training workouts = 39
# spin classes / bike =  31
Total running miles = 469 miles or 722km

In January I tried to get down to doing long runs, B2B runs and lots of tempo. I dropped the biking but kept the strength training up until the end of June.

# runs = 170

# weight training workouts = 84

# spin classes / bike =  6

Total running miles = 1848 miles or 2974km

Runs 50km+ = 6

The Good

Got a lot of back to back long runs in. After doing lots of tempo I raced a HM in March and was only 25 seconds off my PB even though I didn't taper at all. Spent a lot of time on the trail running long due to the mild winter and practiced / worked on nutrition trying to solve my stomach issues. Ran PBs in the marathon (no taper again) and the 100 miler. Currently I am great shape with less than 10% body fat.

The Bad

Pulled up lame with a hamstring injury at the end of March. Ran through it for a while but was forced to take some down days in April. It was okay to run on at marathon pace or slower but would become a big issue after any fast tempo or track work. I was forced to change my training program replacing fast running with more hills, long treadmill climbs at ridiculous grades and some stair workouts. Hamstring finally seemed to be fully healed in early July.

The Ugly

Got sick in my 100 miler at Sulphur Springs so nutrition was still not worked out. I though I might have to drop at 50 miles. Wasted a ton of time at the aid station trying to recover. Got to learn to push on when that happens. If I waste time like this at Leadville I will be toast.

Taper
First week went well but got a scare when I turned my ankle on the trails. It ended up being okay though. Now I just got to make it to the end of the week healthy and I will be good to go.