Cloudland Canyon 50k Training (Week 12 of 18)

Weekly goals:
- Split long run weekend 13+13
- 45+ mileage

Monday
Planned: strength
Did: 35 min strength
I had to do a morning strength session due to an all-day class at work... not my favorite, and I was limited on time. I did a lot of stretching because my legs are tiiireeeddd. Better than nothin'.

Tuesday
Planned: 8+ mi track Tuesday
Did: 7.0 mi treadmill speedwork
Rainnnnny morning (although not as thunderstorm-y as predicted so probably could have braved the mist to run the track... but eh) so I headed into work early and hopped on the treadmill.
2x1mi/2min recovery @ 7:30/mi
2x1000m/2min recovery @ 7:00/mi
2x600m/90s recovery @ 6:40/mi
2x400m/75s recovery @ 6:15/mi
Holllllerrrrrrr and these paces felt easy until the last 400... even though the miles are supposed to be at my 10k pace, the 7:30 is sub-PR pace.

Wednesday
Planned: early morning run
Did: 8.27 mi @ 8:21/mi avg
Ran with the early group this morning, got a few miles done before meeting up at 5:30 to run the West Side 6 route. Got ahead of the group and turns out the lead pack didn't actually know the route (oops!) so we didn't quite do a full 6 miles. Still, was wonderfully chilly this morning and last night, a sign of the seasons changing, I got this notification for the first time since spring!

Thursday
Planned: trail run
Did: 6.43 mi work trail run
This ended up being an afternoon/end of workday run. In honor of October being breast cancer awareness month, work organized a 5k run/walk to raise money and awareness. I did not buy a pink t-shirt, but I participated in the 5k. I guess my competitive edge got the best of me, because I did the 5k in less than 24 minutes! Then, I ran the course in reverse to get in the miles I needed.

Friday
Planned: rest
Did: rest

Saturday
Planned: 13 mi trail
Did: 13.2 mi @ 9:32/mi avg
Ended up doing a road run Saturday, decided to climb Altamont to get in some hills. It was a slow climb but I didn't walk any, so I count that as a win.

Not much to say about the run... legs were tired by the end but not bad.

Sunday
Planned: 13 mi stroller
Did: 13.04 mi trail run
Hit the trails at Paris Mountain for a midday run. I thought it would only take me ~2.5 hours to do 13 miles, but I underestimated the slowness of climbing Sulphur Springs, plus I decided to do the "hikers only" section of Brissy Ridge (it's steep and rooty). So yeah, slow going there. It was also WARM today... ugh, bring back my cool fall temps. Still, it was a beautiful day in the woods.

North Lake

Reflections

View from Brissy

Week-ending thoughts:
47.94 miles total
Aw yes, high mileage. Feeling good but man, back-to-back half marathons on the weekend is tough. Still, grateful to be feeling good and strong.