The final workouts

I'm about at the end of my long road to the Pike's Peak Ascent. This week I have performed my last few "real" workouts and now am in coast mode to the big day.

Breckenridge was a great place to spend the better part of a week before the race since it sits at 9,700 feet above sea level, which gave me some much needed time acclimating to the altitude. I have spent a few days at 6,500, a few days at 5,200 and a bunch of days at 9,500 to 14,000 feet. I'm not acclimated but I hope am in better shape than if I just showed up out here to run the race from good ol' Monroe at about 75 feet. I actually feel the altitude more when relaxing than when running or doing my strength training.

I wabbled between very diverse feelings all week... first I feel like I will never be in better shape to run this race, I've trained so hard that I should be able to turn in a respectable time; second I am wracked with feelings of inadequacy and fear that I will collapse under the stress of such a long, steep race in rarified air. I dwell a whole lot on what could go wrong and think about it all the time right now which at times takes away from the fun we are having on vacation (more on that later).

My training has actually been encouraging... I ran (and walked briskly) up to 10,800 feet on the ski slopes of Breckenridge Tuesday for about 4.5 miles and felt pretty good though the steep hill sections really hurt my lungs and that's why I walked at times. I ran about 3.5 miles Sunday at Breckenridge including a cruise around town and then up the ski slopes to about 10,100 feet and felt strong as well as maintaining a pace of about 10 minute miles which is way faster than my goal pace for the race and at altitude to boot. I did some work on a treadmill in the resort two different nights where I felt very strong and ran at a 13.5% incline (as steep as the steepest 3-mile section averages on PP) at faster than goal pace at 9,700 feet so that too was good and encouraging. Today I did about 5 easy miles... the whole first half was all downhill and the second half was all uphill at about 9,600 feet and at a very good 8:20 per mile pace (my goal pace for PP is about 20:00 to finish under 4 hours).

So given all that positive training and I should feel great right now right? Nope. I have never been so nervous about a race... I have never second guessed myself so much about my abilities... I have never taken on such a physically tough challenge; and now it has become totally mental. I now have to get my PMA (positive mental attitude) back!