Week 8, 2013: Montara Mountain 50K

Okie dokie, so what do we have here this week. Well, on Monday I was still finishing up my Death Valley adventure with the scaling of the Corkscrew peak. It ended up being a pretty laborious hike and so was the drive back home, so Tuesday was definitely off.

On Wednesday I still felt pretty tired but decided to go for an easy run anyway. Something funny happened there. Usually, out of habit, I set myself a heart rate zone to keep for my runs. But I hardly need it. Especially for easy runs, I just settle into a familiar pace and my heart rate stays within the zone without any reminders from my watch. Not so today. My watch was constantly complaining that I'm jogging instead of running and that I should try harder. So I did. As a result I did my fastest easy run ever (at least on the Baylands Park loop). And I felt really tired afterwards. It certainly wasn't an easy training, but why did my heart rate stay so low??

As a result I skipped the Thursday run without thinking twice and on Friday still felt tired and decided to call it off as well. The main reason was that I wanted to run the 50K Montara Mountain trail run on Sunday and wanted to be kinda rested and fresh for that.

The plan didn't exactly work out, as a friend suggested a hike on Saturday and I couldn't say no to that. In a group of four we went to the Big Basin Redwoods State Park; all the photos in this post are from this hike. My GPS didn't work so that sucked big time and if it wasn't for the fact that I had company I'm sure I'd have turned around and called it off ;). After the hike I felt tired and was seriously concerned about my performance on Sunday... so, how did it go? You'll have to wait for the next post with the race report to find out :).

In two weeks the Los Angeles maraton is coming up. By the way only recently I realized that after many years I'm breaking with my tradition of running every marathon in a different country (with US states counting as separate "countries" for the purpose of this exercise), as I also subscribed for the San Francisco marathon in June. Oh well. Another interesting observation is that between the marathons and my 50K trail runs I am now running a marathon-or-longer event basically every month. Who would have have thought... and I remember one day thinking that membership in the 100 Marathon Club is unattainable... just give me a couple of years more ;). And on this positive note... stay tuned for details about Montara!

(See more photos: Big Basin Redwoods State Park).

Comments

Karol Osłowski said…
Sorry but I cant see what was your time in this 50 KM run...
March 11, 2013 at 7:26 AM
Karol Osłowski said…
but nvm I found it allready
March 11, 2013 at 7:27 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Budapest, marathon

Image
2/10/2011 marathon Budapest, Hungary 3:25:51 4:53 min/km 165 hrm 256/2990 (8.6%) That was supposed to be my 10th marathon. And my hopes (as usually) were high :). I wouldn't settle for anything less than a new PB... It didn't start so well. I arrived to Budapest on Friday and it was really hot. I mean, like summer hot. And when I arrived to the hotel it only got worse -- the room was sooo bloody hot; it was like an oven! Now that I think about it I should have tried to change rooms. I didn't. And I payed for it dearly as I hardly got any sleep that night. Next day -- business as usual, picking up the starting number, working out the logistics, stuffing oneself with pasta... and trying to go to bed early. Thankfully it kinda worked and I even managed to get a decent night of sleep. The race was starting at 10 so I woke up, ate breakfast and got myself to the starting line without too much hurry. The starting sections were for the grabs, that is one
Read more

My goals for... the lifetime.

Image
The other day I was thinking about my running goals for the next year (completing a milestone event such as the Lakeland 50 often does that to me ;) and then I though that it would actually be nice to put it in the perspective and first come up with goals for the lifetime. Things I would like to achieve sport-wise before my expiration date. Quite a biggie. So without further ado, let me outline them and then I'll talk a bit more about each one of them. Qualify for and run in the Boston marathon . Complete in a good time a demanding trail ultramarathon. Complete an Ironman Triathlon (for those in the dark: 3.86km swim + 180km bike ride + 42.2km run) I have no illusion, those are all grand goals and each one of them would require total dedication and a lot of training (possibly over some years) to complete; and even then there is no guarantee of success. But, hey, as they say: Better shoot for the sky... . Anyway. Let me elaborate on those goals. Qualify for and run in the
Read more

Week 19 & 20, 2012

No activity week, followed by the best week ever Cannot display training data. If you're viewing it in an RSS feeder (such as Google Reader) you'll need to open the original post to see it. This was a crappy week; I was in Portugal and didn't feel much like running. I only went for one run on Friday. If you look at my speed during this training you may think I was out for a walk. Not so. I don't know good places for running around Braga, so usually I end up going up the Bom Jesus hill ; and that's a hell of a hill to climb. During this session I did a total ascent of 560m; and such an ascent can do that to your pace! Cannot display training data. If you're viewing it in an RSS feeder (such as Google Reader) you'll need to open the original post to see it. The following week I decided to step up my game. On Monday I again attacked Bom Jesus, but this time with a twist. I would go 4 minutes uphill and then back up and go down for 1 minute. That means that
Read more