I finally feel like I'm back at full speed. My calf strain set back my training a little more than I thought, although for a couple days I thought it was a little more serious than it was.
Thinking back, my calf was bothering me a little even before the Boston Marathon. I remember using "The Stick" at the marathon expo and by the time I paced the Brainerd Marathon the calf was pretty sore. I took four days in a row off after pacing the Minneapolis Marathon, then did one short, easy run and took two more days off. Since then I've been back for two weeks and I'm just now feeling back to normal. I thought after the calf was better I wouldn't have lost a step since I only missed a few days. Instead it turned out that I really had to shake the rust off.
Today was probably the best run I had in the last two weeks. After going about five miles with Laura I went eight more at a pretty good clip and felt great the whole way. This week I got in about 58 miles, which was right around what I wanted to be the week before Afton.
Speaking of the Afton Trail Run, besides the calf problem, training went pretty decent. With six days to go I'm a little nervous but confident enough in my training that I feel if I run smart enough I'm not going to completely blow up.
There's not a whole lot of training plans out there on training for a 50k so I came up with my own plan; I just ran a lot of miles (for me). I peaked at 87 miles and between Boston and the week before Afton I averaged around 54 miles a week. I also got in lots of runs over 10 miles and after shaking the rust off after the calf injury I'm feeling pretty good.
I'm not going to taper much at all for this race--I'm not looking to run fast, I just want to finish. The hills at Afton are tough and I'm hoping that after running sections of the course a few times and being prepared to walk some hills that I'll be able to finish with a respectable time.
A few more runs this week and I'll be running through the hills of Afton State Park on my way to becoming an ultramarathoner.
1 comment:
It is so frustrating how long it takes to bounce back after just a few days off!! grrr!!
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