The Week of February 25 – March 2, 2008

Synopsis of Week’s Training: Oh, the joys of the really lengthy long run. With the Old Pueblo 50 on Saturday, […]

By on March 10, 2008 | Comments

Synopsis of Week’s Training:
Oh, the joys of the really lengthy long run. With the Old Pueblo 50 on Saturday, I managed to run the fewest number of days in any week in 2008 – 3 – and yet still have my highest mileage week on the year with 61.5 miles logged.

The early part of the week was, in a word, lame. I took off Monday with travel from North Carolina and then I came down with a cold that had me feeling awful and on the verge of canceling my trip to Arizona. I did manage to get out on Tuesday for a few miles in an attempt to loosen up after the Mount Mitchell Challenge. While Tuesday was my first run in the La Sportiva Raceblades, I will hold off any commentary until I wear them for a run during which I’m not otherwise feeling awful. I took off both Wednesday and Thursday.

Big cacti on my my Finger Rock Trail excursion.
Within minutes of reaching my hotel in North Tucson, I did what any dedicated trail runner does, I slipped into my running clothes (and my new Raceblades) and set out to explore the local trail system. Unfortunately, I took a wrong turn and ended up running along the roads a good bit. One nice thing about the roads in the Foothills area of Tucson is that they are consistently flanked by actual trails or wide dirt/gravel shoulders that make for good improvised trails. Eventually, I made it to the Finger Rock Trail and explored the first half mile or so of the trail before heading back to my hotel. Two things I noticed during the run other than the tremendous natural beauty of the area was that it was @#$%@ hot for February (we’re talking 80 degrees!?) and that I ran 7 miles the day before a 50 miler. Oops!

I’ll save my account of the Old Pueblo 50 for a full … or at least an abbreviate race report. I’ll just say that I didn’t race it, which allowed me to take many a picture on course. Take a look at my Old Pueblo 50 mile pictures.

Steve and I decided that Sunday was better spent driving up to the top of Mt. Lemmon at the east of of the Catalinas. Whereas Friday and Saturday were hot, I got to play in the snow in Arizona while up on Lemmon!

By The Numbers:
Monday – 0. Travel.
Tuesday – 3.5. Awful/sick.
Wednesday – o. Sick.
Thursday – 0. Sick.
Friday – 7. Shakeout.
Saturday – 51. Old Pueblo 50.
Sunday – 0. Rest.

Weekly Mileage: 61.5
Year-to-Date Mileage: 424
Three Week Moving Average: 56.3
Year-to-Date Weekly Average: 48.8

Upcoming Training Goals:
Take the next week as a recovery week. Get a 20+ miler in on the weekend.

Bryon Powell

Bryon Powell is the Founding Editor of iRunFar. He’s been writing about trail running, ultrarunning, and running gear for more than 15 years. Aside from iRunFar, he’s authored the books Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons and Where the Road Ends: A Guide to Trail Running, been a contributing editor at Trail Runner magazine, written for publications including Outside, Sierra, and Running Times, and coached ultrarunners of all abilities. Based in Silverton, Colorado, Bryon is an avid trail runner and ultrarunner who competes in events from the Hardrock 100 Mile just out his front door to races long and short around the world, that is, when he’s not fly fishing or tending to his garden.