Holding Pattern

Run 6 miles

I'm in this in between segment of my training right now. It's been almost 6 weeks since the Susitna 100 so I'm completely recovered from that but I don't have any races that I'm taking all that seriously until sometime in July. I feel an urge to go out long and hard most everyday but the reality is that I need to work to increase my fitness level right now as slow as possible. I'm focusing a lot on cross training so as to not burn myself out on any one activity. For the past 3 or 4 weeks I've been going with a nice mixture of XC skiing, running, biking, and weight lifting. My plan for now is to stick with this cross training until after I get back from a vacation to Utah in early May. At that point it will be time to hit the trails and get more specific in my training for what will likely be 3 late summer foot races: Crow Pass Crossing on July 21st, Resurrection Pass 50 miler on August 4th, and the Fairbanks Equinox Marathon on September 15th.

With moderation in mind I went out for a mellow 6 mile run after work today. I felt very tired for the first half of the run but then coming home I had the wind at my back and started to feel warmed up and a bit stronger. Around mile 4 I noticed that my knee wasn't hurting me at all. For a few weeks now my ITband in my left knee has been bothering me but today I completed my run with no pain at all. I have also had some pain and swelling in my right ankle (mostly when skiing) and that was pain free today as well. It was a quite meaningless 6 miles but the fact that it came with no pain and that I felt stronger at the end of my run than at the beginning made me feel pretty good about building on today with a good workout tomorrow...