Sunday, December 19, 2010

WS100 Training ~ Weeks 1 & 2 *Doubles Begin*

Last week I posted my Western States 100 training schedule (post here) but as we know, I'm still not done with a few other goals... 
~ Finish 50 Marathons in 50 States (aka. stay injury free)
~ First indoor marathon and GE Corporate marathon competition (run fast on flat)
~ Sub 3:20 marathon in 2011 (get fast!)


Due to the number of goals, my training is a little crazy right now. I'm plan to keep up the 100 mile schedule I posted, but a few of the runs are going to have special workouts with them to keep me injury free, fast, and ready for those huge WS hills. Every workout has a focus on one or more of the following...
~ Endurance! Double long run weekends and increased overall mileage 
~ Strength! 2-3 strength training workouts after runs
~ Hill Training! 2nd long run day completed on tough trails or on large hill repeats (HR). Cross Training completed on a stair stepper!
~ Speed! Short mileage day will be done with speed workouts. 


Week 1 & 2: 
Overall: My mileage hasn't increased drastically, but the intensity of the workouts has, especially adding some very tough strength workouts in there. The first things I've noticed is that I'm STARVING! I can't start a run hungry or I will get dizzy and not be able to finish. This morning was my 2nd week of double long runs and it took 2 hours of inhaling any food I could find before I felt semi-comfortable enough to start... and even then, I needed to bring a Gatorade to keep my calories up. 


Workouts...






Notes/Thoughts: Started indoor track workouts so I can be prepared for the Zoom Yah! Yah! Indoor marathon and to do speed and tempo runs. Besides the tougher strength training I started for my legs, overall it didn't feel too much harder than my normal workouts. 








Notes/Thoughts: 
HR- Hill Repeats. I found a 2 mile loop of long uphill and long downhill on a pretty good grade. I repeated these for 10 miles as my 2nd long run of the weekend. 
This week I definitely started feeling the intensity and length of my workouts. I added a day of yoga to help increase flexibility. The reason I really want to work on this is for my quads... at the end of ultras the downhills tend to pull on the quads and trash them. Making them a little more flexible should help to save my legs and knees. 

Not a bad start to WS100 Training. Next week is a drop down week for the long runs... which is good cause it's Christmas!!! The week after I'll bump up to 16 and 10 for my long runs... then we have a stream of marathons/ultras coming up... yes, again! More to come!!!

Happy Running!
Stephanie
"Run to Win" - Meb

8 comments:

  1. Great time goal. I have the same goal for 2011 but we shall see...I have not run a marathon since before kids..6 year ago. 3:15 would be nice. Love this post. Indoor marathon? need to read more about that...

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  2. Awesome schedule - I'm tired just reading it. I don't know how you can do it all!

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  3. Very impressive training schedule and this is just a beginning. WOW.

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  4. You have some great goals that you are going for. I love that you include a speed goal as part of your ultra training. Have a great week!

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  5. Great job starting your training! I am looking forward to following your journey. What kind of strength training do you do? I hate lifting...I don't do it! I practice yoga, usually Ashtanga yoga as often as possible (ideally 6 days/week, but that doesn't happen often enough!) and consider that my strength...

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  6. I love your training! I dream of being able to train like that...someday the kids will be old enough, right???!!

    You are just amazing all the time. Keep inspiring us!

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  7. Great post - thanks for laying out the workouts. It's always great to see exactly what the good runners are doing! We might try to inject some of this into our workouts! Great job!

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