Working On My Golf Game

I am still not quite 100%. My right IT band is about 85% healed. But I am back on track and running again. And boy does that feel good! I am not doing the 50-60 mile weeks on the hard road that led to my injury. Instead I am taking the advice of my running buddy Matt and doing very specific training. For example, I will be power hiking at least 40% of the WS100. That much of the course is unrunnable to a person with my abilities. So I am now working on my power hiking. And I am getting good at it.

The analogy that Matt uses is "working on your golf game". In golf, you have your driver and you have your putter. If you are only good at one of them you are going to be a terrible golfer. So you need to practice both. The driver is your running. The putter is your power hiking. It does not hurt my leg to power hike, so I am doing much more of that now. I want to be a really fast power hiker. That will help me immensely in this race.

My typical training week looks like this right now.

Monday - 4 mile run at an easy pace at lunch. Yoga at night.
Tuesday - Power Hiking the hills in my neighborhood for one hour. Weight training at lunch or at night.
Wednesday - Hills - walk up - run down -- basically it is 5 miles of hills. Weight training at night or at lunch. Pilates (core) at night.
Thursday - 4-6 mile run at lunch or at night.
Friday - 4-5 miles of power hiking at a 12.5 to 15 degree incline on the treadmill. I do this to simulate the climbs I will face on the course -- especially the first major climb to Emigrant Pass.
Saturday - trail running - 15-20 miles - do a race every four weeks of 30 miles or longer.
Sunday - REST

Some of my week day runs will be a little longer than above. It just depends on how much time I have available at the time.

I am going to work on some speedwork on the Wednesday runs instead of hills a little closer to the race. I need to work on my speed to beat those aggressive WS early cuttoffs.

I am on a 4-5 week training cycle right now. Here are the races or longer runs I am targeting.

March - Grasslands 50 mile next weekend
April - Freestate 100K at the end of April
May - WS Training Runs at the end of May -- this is on the actual WS course and is highly recommended
June - WS100

I may also do an additional training weekend in the Guadalupe Mountains of far West Texas if I can work it in in May.

Right now, my immediate focus is the Grasslands 50. I ran the marathon there last year. The course is not terribly difficult. I am hoping it will be hot so I can work on my hydration plan. I am going to do a 5/5 plan at this race. Run 5 minutes/Power Hike 5 minutes. I don't think my IT band is up for running the entire course. I am treating this as a training run. I will work on my calorie intake and hydration plan. My buddy Josh will be out there with me. He is running the half marathon and then hanging out all day to pace me for the last 10 miles of my race. That is incredibly cool of him. I am really looking forward to this race. Hopefully my IT band will hold up. If it does, it will give me a huge boost of confidence for the rest of my training and races leading up to WS100.

105 days until WS100!!!