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.
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| 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!
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| 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!
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