Mt Washington Epilogue

As every big run had shown up to this time, there would be big logistical challenges before the start. It turned out that our GPS had the Mt Washington Cog Railroad programmed into as a local attraction so when I jumped out of the car at the starting area, Jan and the kids let it take them to their destination. Here’s the kicker… it actually had the WRONG location programmed in! They were late, lost and in the end missed the train by 4 minutes so they never got to see me run. I felt horrible for them. It must have been a terrible feeling watching that train head up the mountain without them… especially since the $180 of tickets were non-refundable and non-transferrable so that was money out the window. Oh well, its only money. I will say this... the kids told me she said a couple of choice words along about that time in the car :-) tsk, tsk

Well I know now that I have a LOT of work to do to get ready for Pike’s Peak once I take a few days of slow and easy. I felt so ready, but my legs were SO spent at the end. I focused on training slow for the last few months but I think I need to change that through June and July. I think I need to keep my long run on the weekends but make it even longer and then my other two quality runs during the week need to be all about speed to strengthen my muscles. My weekly hill workout will probably change to being mile repeats at a 12 degree incline with lots more speed in the repeats instead of just a long slow run at expected race pace. My weekly tempo run will speed up gradually and lengthen up as well to where I’m working much harder. I’ll need to consult the “rundoc” (my friend Paul) for more advice as well on why I cramped up because if I cramp up at 6 miles on Pike’s Peak I’m toast with 7.3 miles left.

Pike’s Peak is different though… it is mostly trail running and it has a number of breaks from hills… there are flats, there are downhills and there is altitude. I feel like I can be ready for the altitude with my Altolab trainer and the 1.5 weeks in CO ahead of the race. I just need to get my legs ready…

LiveSTRONG my friends!