Halfway to race day! In 6 weeks I’ll be taking the trails with others for the first time. Here’s how the last 2 weeks preparation went:
Week 5, September 21-27
Added in interval training this week with my Tuesday run. Going to attempt to incorporate more of that when I’m running near my house.
My Thursday run was another stab at the 3.8 mile loop that includes the Schaeffer shuffle…I think I’m getting better at it, but it is hard to say. Either way I did the loop twice in 2 hours and 27 minutes.
I ended the week with a hard earned 10 mile run, doing the Upper/Lower sunset loop twice around. Really have a routine dialed in when it comes to having water along the course, so I can run the race using only the Osprey Rev solo.
Really feel I learned the importance of starting easy with my two trail run days this week. I felt more capable throughout the run and still made decent time.
Week 6, September 28-October 4
This last week I started slow, taking a break from running the first two days of the week while tending to some swelling in my right ankle. Pretty sure I slightly twisted it after my Sunday run outside of a store by slipping on a curb 
Despite not running I still did my daily strength and core workouts (monday, tuesday, wednesday) as well as a plyometric workout on Monday. Wednesday after my workouts and adding a HIIT workout I ran 5 miles on road in my neighborhood. All workouts are still following plans from roller derby athletics.
Thursday I ran 6 miles on the canal near my home. Feeling pretty good as I’m definitely noticing an increase in sustaining speed over a couple of miles…let’s see if I can do it for 13.1 haha.
Friday was a full day with a few hill repeats before a 5 mile hike on Upper/Lower sunset leading the El Dorado Hiking Club. These kids were quick! We completed the hike in a little less than 3 hours. I stayed to run a couple of miles (2.6) and a cool down that brought me to around 8 miles for the day. I was pretty wiped afterwards!
After a restful Saturday I went all in with a harrowing morning of training. The rain and wind made the trails very exciting in a slip and slide kind of way. I took a lot of breaks in between sections but still got in 9 miles in the 4 hours I was out at Franklin Mountains State Park (running time was about 2 hours 28 minutes. It was a beautiful day out on the mountains and running into my buddy Ranger Adrianna was great since she gave me some coffee after my first couple of miles and lots of funny conversation. I’ve got a meeting with her later this week about becoming a park volunteer!
Final thoughts:
Really happy with my training plan, I’ve got the next 3 weeks all mapped out. Just got to make sure to stay injury free. I feel confident that I could do the race in 4ish hours if it were held this week which was my initial goal starting out. Not sure if it is too ambitious to want to say my new goal is to feel capable of running the course in 3 hours….definitely have an idea of what will help me out in that (shorter breaks for one!)
elpasohiking 