Sunday, August 28, 2011

The final tune up

With 2 weeks to go, I wanted to see how I was shaping up.

One of my benchmarks is to run a 25k loop at Afton. Old course or new course, it is a good test of strength, but not endurance.

I met up with my Superior Crew, Bill P, for a Saturday evening run on the course.

The weather was near perfect. The humidity had dropped, and it was in the 70s. It was not perfect, as perfect to me is 50's, overcast, and very low dewpoints.

I told him we were going to go fast. Run the hills. Run everything. I said 2:15-2:20, but thought I might be doing a 2:30. I have not run that this in a while.

2 years ago Bill joined us for the first time at Afton, and struggled to hold with the 3:00 pace. He hung on like a horse and kept me on my toes almost the entire loop, ending with a 2:20.

I am thrilled to have come in just under 2:19, and that is with almost 2 minutes of bottle filling at the water pump.

A little more speed, strength, and endurance work, and my PR could fall on this course this year.

Which brings me to confidence and a cautious sense of readiness for Superior 100.

I am probably 10 pounds lighter than 3 years ago, and a better understanding of how to run this. I may not have the endurance training, but enough to get by.

It shall be a fun race

3 comments:

Double said...

Nice to have the confidence builders. I think you said before, "How do you train to run 30 plus hours?" Good question. You have ran it before so you know what to expect to a degree. No doubt, carrying 10 less pounds is huge. You'll do well.

brothergrub said...

Cool - you can carry ten more pounds of gear!

Scott said...

I had a great confidence-builder trail run on Sunday up north. This is a race that builds on experience, sounds like you are in a great place to nail it.