A Humbling Hazing

     

     Setting up camp at Maybury
     for some quality running time


     March is a month of a humbling hazing. Making it through 300 miles and eight very intense & humbling personal training sessions will set me for the final stage of training for the Massanutten 100. It feels like I am going Greek and pledging to be a part of the Massanutten Fraternity, lol.

      This month the training is being intensified. My base running mileage weeks are 70, 75, 85 & 70. Once this month is over the miles will hover around 70 per week with two speed work sessions & more tempo pace running.  With the base mile building phase it is more focused on time on my feet and distance vs. covering miles in as little time as possible. April will also play host to three 50K races where I will be able to gauge my training for Massanutten. It worked out so that they are each 14 days apart. Each race I will push harder to see if my training paid off. In the the past several weeks I did two 4 mile races and improved my overall time by 1 minute 38 seconds in a three week period. That is a good sign. Secondly, my first mile in the second race I was able to push off a lot faster.

       Having friends to run with helps a lot with all the running time. This month I would estimate that I will spend about 50 hours in total. Conversating during the runs makes the time pass by much quicker & more enjoyable. The weather has been much more tolerable too this year in Michigan compared to the past few years. Yesterday it was 61F with sun during the run at Maybury.

      On top of that I added eight personal training sessions with a very intense trainer. So far we have completed three sessions and each one has been challenging. Within ten minutes I am sweating and by 20 minutes I am pouring sweat. My only goal is to just make it through the workout. It is very humbling to struggle through these 30 minute sessons. When normally I am use to running for hours and not even close to feeling the same level of suffering.  She has been using plyometerics, cross-fit and intervals to keep it fresh and new with each workout. The other day while I was jumping rope I could feel the burning in my calves. On top of that DOMS set in and made my run the other day even tougher. Glad that it is base miles and not speed miles.
 
     She has also revamped my diet with healthly foods and protein. A basic breakfast is now a cup of oatmeal, six eggs, greek yogurt and a piece of fruit. Then every two hours small snacks in between meals. Almonds, cottage cheese, rice cakes, peanut butter, chicken, fish and all those wonderful good for you goods. I do miss the peeps, raw cookie dough & ice cream! On a side note I do feel full all day long though. Although it costs a lot more money to buy all healthly food too.