Monday, April 26, 2010

Monday Day off.

I finished last week with a 1 hour walk with my wife and boys, completely knackered. I struggled to keep up walking with my wife and she pushed the double stroller! I call that a 'red flag'.
 The last 4 weeks have seen the most running volume (by time) that I have EVER done and a majority of it was above 8000ft and severely hilly. I ended Saturday with a second run in the evening, a time trial up the jeep road behind my house in 1 foot of snow wearing a Camelbak, instead of water it had 6 feet of log chain and a bag of sand that totaled 10 pounds (and yes, I did listen to the Rocky IV soundtrack during this but skipped the leather sheepskin lined bomber jacket and snow boots). This may sound goofy, but the weighted hill climb (+1150 feet in 2.6 miles) is brutally hard which is what I was looking for (max HR was 186). I also made the round trip averaging sub 8:00 pace which is tough with the 1 foot of snow and carrying 10 pounds. Solid ending to a 4 week block of training. This week starts with a day off from running. On top of taking my son to the doctor this morning for his 1 year check up and 5 (!) shots, a heavy work load plus borderline exhaustion makes it a welcome and much needed break.

A HUGE congrats to Justin Mock on his 2:29 at London. I would be lying if I said I wasn't envious. Nice work JM!

7 comments:

Matt said...

I hope you didn't punch the doctor for provoking those crocodile tears!

Training looks/sounds awesome. That snow is nuts. It's almost May!

Next race?

Lucho said...

And it's still snowing as I type... we had an additional 6" last night and more coming down.
Next 'race' is this weekend... 50 mile mountain run.

Ward said...

My heart would explode at 186!! Rest is always good... Keep up the good work, you'll be ready come this weekend...

Lucho said...

Ward- This weekend is just an experience builder. I have very little so I need some! I'm looking for a fun run on a beautiful course.
And I once held HR 195-198 on a BIKE for several minutes... A cyclist should hit ~10 beat lower than his running HR's. The fact that I was hitting 186 HR at 9000ft is what I like :) That almost shouldn't be possible.

FatDad said...

Dude, you've got issues! lol

Anonymous said...

I can't say my heart would explode at 186 (I've seen that number too often for my taste recently) but I suppose that's just another indicator of both fitness (lack thereof in my case - possession of in Lucho's) and individual biology. What I can say is I wouldn't need 10lbs and a foot of snow to see it. Jeez that does sound so hard core, where do you come up with this stuff??? And don't get me wrong, I am just wondering why I never think of stuff like that to do??

At any rate rest up for that race and have a blast!

Lucho said...

Fatdad... ya I know.

Fred- It is definitely individual physiology that contributes. The high HR isn't the only thing to look at though. Pace per mile at that HR is a huge key too. There are many people who would be at HR 185 at 11:00 per mile pace and then there are guys that would be at 4:10 pace. Lots of different things happening.
I read that Kara Goucher was finishing her long runs with hill intervals wearing a 10# weight vest... I stole the idea. But I also am going to wear a Camelbak at Leadville and I want to make sure I am 100% adapted to wearing it.
Cheers