6/12/09: Final Tahoe Buildup

Right now I’m in the middle of the last big buildup before Tahoe. This week I ran 112 miles.

I kickstarted it with a 40 mile run out in the Massanuttens last Saturday. Even aside from the 7,500 feet of elevation gain and typical rocky terrain, this was one tough run. It was extremely wet from lots of recent rain, so my feet got soaked through early on. I also had stomach problems right from the beginning.

But despite not feeling well, I was still able to push through 40 miles. I was hoping for 50, but I was happy to be able to run so far on an “off” day. I also did some running between the 2 ridges of the Massanuttens in farm country. Man, it was beautiful! I’ll have to bring the camera along next time.

I had a lot of other solid running this week including a track workout of 3 one mile repeats with the last one in 5:35. It’s exciting that I’ve been able to keep up the speed work even with the mega mileage and tough, long trail runs. I didn’t do any track workout leading up to Vermont last year, so hopefully it’ll help at Tahoe. This week I squeezed in some cross training too with the Stairmaster, lifting, and some core work.

I’ve also taken two trips to the sauna now. Tahoe could get very hot, so I want to make sure I’m fully prepared. It probably won’t be an issue give that I live and train in hot, humid Washington DC, but I figure it can’t hurt to hit the sauna too.

I’ve got two more big training weeks coming up. This week I’m shooting for 100 miles. The plan is to stack it mostly toward the start of the week so I’m only mildly beat up for the Highland Sky 40 miler on June 20th. I’ll finish with a bang hitting 120 miles 4 weeks out from Tahoe. Then it’ll be some sweet, sweet tapering heading into the big dance.

I feel like I’m in really great shape right now and holding up well to the tough training. I should definitely go into Tahoe in much better shape than Vermont last year. It’s a much tougher course, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens out there!

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