S2S Training: Week 2 of 14

 This week's goals:

• Long run of 15 miles OR split runs 12 & 6 miles, with 3,000ft elevation
• 10k Hill workout: 10km Hill Strength. 1.5-mile easy warm-up. 3.2 miles of continuous hilly terrain (or 5 x 3-minute hard uphill bounds with a slow jog recovery down). 1.5-mile easy cool-down.
• Wednesday 50-60 min Zone 2 trail
• Friday 4-5 miles easy

Monday

Rest

Well, I mowed the yard but that was it.

Tuesday

6.28 mi @ 9:28/mi avg

Holy hills, Batman! I tried out a new route from my house and omg the hills. Almost 750 ft climbing in a 10k. 

Of course I also went out at the absolute hottest part of the day (gross). Yuck but wow. Didn't do the structured workout but I'd say this counts as hill training!

At least there was a nice view

Wednesday

47 min trail run (3.5 miles)

Didn't cover as much distance today during the Wednesday night trail miles, but both Ivy and I were tired! 

Sweet new GUTS trail socks

Always time for a pond dip

Thursday

rest!

Friday

4.7 mi @ 9:37/mi

Plan had 4-5 miles easy, Garmin suggested 45 mins base... so there you have it. Got out on the XC trails and did some random assortment of sections of the 5k but in the "wrong" direction just to keep things interesting. Legs were kinda still from Tuesday and knew I had a big day coming Saturday so tried to keep things easy!

Saturday

11.25 mi w/ 2,900 ft climbing

With some time constraints, I decided on the "split plan" option for the weekend long runs. Target was ~12ish miles and a lotta vert on the trails at Table Rock State Park. Up Pinnacle Mountain Trail, across on Ridge Trail, up to Governor's Rock, then back down Table Rock trail, finishing with a loop around the lake. The climb up Pinnacle is slightly more gentle than the climb up Table Rock, but I'd forgotten how overgrown that trail was... lord, I needed a machete! It would have been more runnable if there had not been such dense overgrowth. That was more mentally exhausting than anything.

Bald Knob for a quick break!

Snack once I got to Bald Knob, then proceeded up the rest of Pinnacle (still overgrown). Did not go all the way to the summit because again the trail looked super dense, so I continued on Ridge and finally got to run!

Made it across and up to Governor's Rock for another quick break before heading down the many many stairs all the way down the Table Rock descent. 

By the time I got to the Lakeside loop I was actually feeling pretty amazing and enjoyed the last couple of miles!

At the end there was a park interpreter who had one of their resident King snakes from the visitors center (which is closed for renovations) so I got to hold him! So cool 🐍

What a great day on trails!!

Sunday

6.4 mi @ 12:41/mi 

Much easier miles today on the trails at SCRA, but still managed almost 1000ft of climbing with all of the little rollers! Took Ivy with me and she did AMAZING on her longest run ever... she's such a great trail pup! We ran out and back on the Bob Ross Parkway all the way to the Saluda River. On the way back, however, we got caught in an absolute downpour and wow was that exciting. I mean completely drenched, but she just kept trucking. I didn't get any pics of us afterwards because we were just trying to get into the car and not soak everything (mostly unsuccessfully) but boy that was a fun run!

Turtle friend!

Snake friend!

Week Summary Thoughts

✅ Long Run Split - 12 & 6, with 3000 ft elevation - Maybe not quite there on mileage but I think the total of nearly 4,000 ft of vert gives the extra credit needed!

✅ Tuesday Hill work - again, not the plan but enough hills to count this as complete!

🟨 Wednesday 50-60 min Z2 - a little short on this one

✅ Friday 4-5 easy - yes!

Total of 32 miles run, 25+ of them on trail - yeah!! 💪

Feeling really good about this week and the training so far, but I know the weekends coming up are going to be busy and with school starting, all the routines are getting flipped on their heads. Going to be tough to keep up with the miles and especially the long runs needed, but gotta just do the best I can. 

S2S Training: Week 1 of 14

Time to actually train for something!

I'm signed up for the Sky to Summit 50k in October and looking forward to putting in trail miles and vert to prepare for it. Last time I ran was in 2021 where I honestly felt like I crushed it... did tons of training, weekly Altamont runs, and placed 5th overall female. I am not coming into this training with as strong or as fast of a base, but we'll see what my Google Gemini-generated training plan can do... (sorry to the actual running coaches out there... )

I know my September weekends are going to be really busy and therefore not allow a lot of time for long runs, so I asked Gemini to front-load my training plan in August and also utilize my weeknight trail access (during D's NICA practice) to maximize my trail miles. I also asked it to give me weekend long run options - either single day long run or split days long run. I think it did pretty well and this allows maximum flexibility in my training while building around known weekly obligations (like 10k Tuesday). 

So the structure is 

August = rapid build to peak

September = maintain & strengthen

October = final push & taper

For this week:

I'll be at Trail Camp this weekend, so anticipating some decent trail mileage.

Monday

2 mi pup run @ 12min/mi

Morning slow run in Cleveland Park after camp drop-off. Legs were pretty dead from the Reaper 50k on Saturday!

2 mi trail pup run

Two loops of the 1-mile "Every Second" trail at Lakeside during D's NICA practice.

Tuesday

6.36 mi XC run @ 9:14/mi

Double loop on the work XC course at lunch. Pretty speedy for this course and it was still quite hot! Legs coming back to life.

Wednesday

1.4 mi pup walk

Met up with Robin and Ru for a pup & coffee walk from Swamp Rabbit Grocery. Lovely morning!

4.24 mi @ 13:42/mi trail run

Goal was 50-60 minutes of easy Zone 2 running, and with a hot tired pup in tow, that was pretty easy to accomplish. 😅 Really loving these evenings at SCRA (aka "Yo Mama's House") while D has NICA practice.

The trail names here are the best

Thursday

rest!

Friday

4 mi trail run

Group run on day 1 at Trail Camp! Took a loop from camp to the Joyce Kilmer loop in the rain. Moist fun in the woods!

Trail campers!

Saturday

13.7 mi w/ 3,500ft elevation gain

This was a rough start to a run give the *ahem* Trail Camp shenanigans on the river the previous afternoon. It's also rude that the worst climbing is right at the beginning - you start out with a huge stair climb from the highway. The trail ascends almost 2,000 ft in less than 6 miles, then bombs down the other side to the Nantahala Outdoor Center losing the 2,000 ft you had gained minus another 1,300ft in the last 8 miles. All that being said, it was an amazing run through the forest and there's such a sense of accomplishment doing a long point-to-point run like this! The rain at the beginning kept things cool, gave the forest a quiet creepy mist, and made the sunshine at the river at the end more enjoyable.

Sunday

rest

Week Training Summary:

✅Long run of ~12 miles with 2,000ft elevation - slight over-achievement, but goal met!

🟨10k Hill workout - not a hill workout, but did the 10k

✅Wednesday 50-60 min Zone 2 trail - done

✅Friday 4-5 miles easy - done

Just over 32 miles for the week, but they were all trail miles! 

Race Report: The Carolina Reaper 50k

I completed this race in 2024 and swore I'd never do it again. Last year I completed it as part of a 3-person relay team and had a great fun time, but there was some FOMO for all the people doing the really hard 50k solo. 

Soooooo when there was an email that went out towards the end of last year advertising a special "fire-and-ice" medal for completing both the Snowbird Challenge and Reaper Challenge 50k, I of course signed up only to then have the Snowbird cancelled (ironically) for snow.

I did not prepare or do much specific training for this race. I ran a few runs in the heat of the day in the month or so leading up to this race but otherwise was quite underprepared.

Sunrise over Paris Mtn as I departed for the race

I took basically zero photos the whole day, it was all about survival. Set up camp near the finish line with coolers, canopy, and chair. Ate my McDonald's breakfast biscuit and got ready to face the day.

I felt really good and strong for the first half (6 laps) and thought it would be just a nice hot day for a run. Cold ice towels, water, and whatever fuel I could manage between laps. However, into laps 7 and 8 I was still moving about the same pace to finish laps in ~30 mins (plus or minus a minute) but those felt so much harder. Obviously, accumulated fatigue and getting towards the hottest part of the day... yeah, that tracks.

Died on Lap 9 and almost didn't go back out for Lap 10.
But look at that elevation per lap! 😳

Then came lap 9 where I felt absolutely AWFUL. Didn't want to eat anything, couldn't get enough water into me to balance out the ridiculous heat. So so terrible. I'd honestly convinced myself to quit after finishing lap 9. I wanted to go straight home and sleep. The starting gun for Lap 10 went off and I was still sitting on the curb at my tent going "nope, I'm done, not going." I knew if I started Lap 10 I was going to finish it (because it's not even worth quitting with 2 laps to go). 

...and then I grumbled, cursed, and started Lap 10. Reaper wasn't gonna get me yet.

I told myself I could walk, slow way down, just barely make the cut-off for the remaining laps because with the small mileage left (~7.5 miles total for 3 laps) I didn't need much refuel in between to make it through. Friends who had finished their runs were willing to help and rallied to help with bottle refills, ice, cooling towels, and whatever I needed. I did lap 10, told myself one more lap to go, and then the final lap 12 would be the victory/beer lap because it didn't have a time cut-off. Even so, after setting out (in much happier spirits) for the final lap I was able to power walk under the 45-minute lap time. 

The downhill start was rough

My faces during the run say it all...

And then this dang climb to the finish line... UGH. Every. Time.

So while I'm happy(ish) that I didn't quit and finished the race, I am not looking back at it going "That wasn't so bad and I'll sign up again". I'm in camp "never say never" but it will take a LOT of convincing to get me out there for this one again. I think being out at the relay last year made it even harder to stay away, and I might just have to avoid this event entirely.

We'll see... 'til then, don't fear the Reaper... 💀