I'm back in Juneau now and feeling really solid about my running moving toward the "serious" racing season. Went out for an easy 24 mile run today in which I might have felt better than I ever have after 24 miles of running. It was one of those days that I would die for on a race day. Felt like I could run forever with almost no effort.
In a couple weeks I'll be heading out to New York to race the North Face 50 miler at Bear Mountain and then it'll be 7 weeks of final Western States preparation here in Juneau. I might not be entirely ready for the heat at Western States by being here in Juneau leading up to it, but there are few runners, if any, who will be running on as challenging and scenic terrain in their weeks leading up to Western States as I will.
I've got big plans for my training here in Juneau this spring and summer. I did a lot of off trail runs up onto the mountain ridges around here last year, but my craving for this year is to make last summer seem like the tip of the iceberg. I'm almost getting to the point of obsession with this. We still have quite a lot of snow in the mountains here, but more and more I'm feeling like a caged animal just waiting for the snow to melt a little bit more before I begin my almost daily assault of the high terrain in these parts. It might sound a little crazy but I'm so excited for the training that I'll be doing to get ready for Western States and UTMB that I almost feel like the races themselves are just a side effect of all the mountain ridge bliss that I'll be experiencing the next 4 months.
9 comments:
Keep kicking hard! Be great to see what you do at North Face 50, best of luck! Snow just get's in the way of training when the race's you run don't have snow. Well WS will have some snow.
Geoff, that post was amazing to read! And, I love it! You are so inspiring. I hope all the training goes well this spring and summer. We will be rooting for you at WS. Get it! Keep posting
Wow, its amazing how you manage to keep your training up in less than perfect conditions up north. Gives us Vancouverites no excuses in our training! We will also be rooting for you at WS !
Geoff, Congrats on a great year last year and what looks to be another successful year! Silly training question from a mere mortal: when you do easy training runs that are 20+ miles in length, do you stop at all to stretch, drink, refuel, etc or are you moving for the whole time? Thanks.
i think running in snow can be a huge benefit for building agility and strength even if your races aren't in the snow.
anon, some runs are constant without stopping and sometimes I stop to soak up a great view or eat some food or whatever. it just depends on the day and the mood. i don't stretch during runs ever though. i don't really stretch anytime though so if i did stretch i might stretch during runs.
Good luck, for heat training use a sauna, just a thought could help.
You can find sweat suits at sporting good stores that lock in heat and moisture.. Kind of annoying, but a good way to get some sort of heat training. Saunas are great, but are even better if you can get a treadmill in one.
Geoff my girlfriend and I are running the Bear 100 this year and it will be our first 100. Do you have any advice? Our training peaks around 75 miles/week and all our runs are back to back in the mountains of Oregon. And we are doing 5 or so 50k and White River 50. The Bear looks beautiful so our plan is to let the foliage take us to the finish line :-)!
I'm going to channel your energy for my race on Sat!
Sounds like an epic four months coming up for you...hope to see you down at WS!
GR
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