Peaking for the Peaks

A couple of years ago, having plateaued in development and PRs for running, I needed to change things up a bit. I'd seen George Malloy's Summer of Malmo workout schedule from links on Letsrun and thought I'd cook up my own version as a test. So from April through the summer I boosted my volume to getting as much as 70 miles as week and sustained 200ish mile months with lots of doubling up (and the occassional triple tossed in for good measure) and lots of easy miles. It worked out nicely and I netted a new 5 mile PR when I ran the Nightcrawler in June.

Another little thing I did was run a couple of 5 Peaks Trail Series events for fun. I ran their 'enduro' events which are about 12k in length, figuring this makes for a good solid Saturday workout even if I don't do well. This year I signed up for all 5 and the first one runs on April 24, just over 5 weeks away.

I don't know how the races progress from event to event. It seemed to me they start them off 'easy' and progress to 'hard', with easy meaning lots of hills but less technical details, and hard being hilly and very technical. Durham forest was the first one I ran, very hilly but not an otherwise demanding course (good footing, reasonably wide, easy to pass...or be passed as it may be). Rattlesnake Point was very difficult with some hills that were simply unrunnable and slippery moss covered rocks and roots throughout. Last year they kicked off on a ski hill in Kitchener, which seemed to not go well as most racers slogged their way through mud and snow, with even the fast guys barely managing an 8 minute pace. This year it starts in the Dundas Conservation area and I'm not quite sure what that area is like, but I suspect it's somewhat hilly and manageable recreational foot trails.

For the last few months, I've been trying to keep decent volume and plenty of running, but it's always tricky in the spring. Fortunately the weather this winter and spring has been outstanding for running. So no excuse there. For the most part it's been work and home that's kept me from filling the log the way I want to. I have though been able to put short boosts of runs together, getting 30-40 miles over a few days, and then being forced to back off with my other obligations. I hope this works to keep pushing me upwards, theory being that the short but heavy cycles of running can carry over a couple of slack days.

For now I'm more or less on track. I've gotten my butt onto the hills the last few weeks for consistent hill workouts, focusing on short hills which is more applicable to these races. I'll still do some long hills for the endurance benefit. I don't think track workouts are worthwhile. And I need, need, need to discipline myself to adding strides on some easy runs. Also doubles are there, I should (he says, hopefully) get 9 runs this week alone, and then the weekend stuff.

So 5ish weeks to race-one, which won't have any real taper but will have easy runs the couple of days leading up to it, and no hills that week except what's normally on the routes I run. If I can keep mileage in the 50's and 60's and not drift back into the 30's and 40's, all should be fine.

This week it's been nearly summer like. Next week apparently mother nature is to remind us that it's still winter/spring and we shouldn't get too comfortable yet.