Mash Potato Marathon

If you have been reading my blog for a while you know I have a coach for my running.  Jack Pilla is an incredible runner and his coaching has helped my results a lot.  He is helping prepare me for my 5 100's in 5 months.  I love the training schedules he sends me.  To an average coach it would look like a sick joke.  In a typical 16 week marathon training program there are 2 or 3 long runs at or a little over 20 miles in length.  If you look at my last few weeks mileage summaries you will see that I run at least on run a week over 20 miles.  So far this year I have run 9 of them. 

On this weeks schedule was 26 miles for today's long run.  I woke up excited as I have been running 80 mile weeks and I feel great.  I couldn't wait to get out and be on the trails all morning.  The weather looked great and I was wearing shorts for the third day in a row.  I packed up my gels and waist pack with one bottle, but some money in my shorts and headed out.  The snowmobile trails entrance is one mile from my house so I carried my Yacktrax and put them on when I got there.

After several days temps in the high 40's and the nights not getting cold, the trails were very soft.  After only two miles of trails I was beginning to question my route.  It is one of my favorite runs in the summer and it goes 13.1 miles one way where it comes out right at a little store.  I can get a bottle of Gatorade, bag of chips and take a quick break.  Then all I have to do is turn around and go home!  Today the trail was like running on mashed potatoes.  Even with my Yacktrax on I was sinking in with almost every step.  I concentrated on my stride and just worked on being efficient. 

Since October when I set my marathon PR I have been working on changing my stride to more of a mid/forefoot stride.  It seems like everybody in the world is doing this and there is good reason to do so.  Especially if you are running for endurance.  My main reason for changing is that heel striking was aggravating my tendinitis.  I found that when I ran on my forefoot it didn't hurt.  At first my calves took a beating.  They were sore all the time.  It has taken me 6 months to get to the point where I feel like it is natural and todays goal was to keep my form up even when I got tired.  It gave me something to focus on other than how hard the running was.  I was also happy to have my feel soaked for the entire run.  I am trying the Drymax socks because everybody says that they prevent blisters. Here is their new ad.  Take a good look at the picture of his feet from last year.  It is the worst blisters I have ever seen.  Looks more like a burn victim.  I was freaked out when I found out that was his feet after Western States.

The run today took me a little bit over 4 hours and my feet were perfect.  I really won't know until my feet are wet for over 6 hours or so.  That's when they typically start to become a problem.  Lets hope they work.  If I can do a full 100 without blisters it will make it so much more enjoyable.

Here is this weeks recap:

3-7-2011
Monday AM - 7.6 Miles (58:33). 
Ran a little faster than I have been in the Hokas on the roads.  Pretty hilly route.

3-8-2011
Tuesday AM - 7 Miles (1 Hour).  Also strength trained for 20 minutes.  Did full workout.
Easy treadmill run.

3-9-2011
Wednesday AM - 12 Miles (1:42:00)
Some roads, mostly snowmobile trails.  Was supposed to run 14, but my cold got the best of me.  Plus I had to drive 3 hours to an auction right after my run and was antsy to get going.

3-10-2011
Thursday - 9 Miles (1:13:58)
Notes say "I felt really good on today's run.yesterday my ankle hurt all day, so I decided to take it easy today. I did do one hill sprint, but for the most part just had an easy run on the trails."

3-11-2011
Friday - 13 Miles (1:55:39)
Worked on going slow and concentrating on my form. Felt very good, no ankle pain when running.

3-12-2011
Saturday - 8.25 Miles (1:07:14)
Second day in a row running in shorts.  Felt good.

3-13-2011
Sunday - 26.1 Miles (4:06:13)
Mash Potato Marathon! What a tough workout. Only 2 miles of pavement the rest mushy snowmobile trails. I concentrated really hard on my form and feel great.

Totals
82.7 Miles
12:03:37 Hours running

20 min strength training