On the Rack on the Track
As I said before this Spartathlon training is long and torturous. :-))
Those Wednesday speed work sessions are hard! All of January, February and March I pretty much varied between 6 or 7x800m in around 3:30 pace.
In the middle of April I decided to throw in mile repeats. 2 weeks ago I did 3x1 mile @ 7:17, 7:10 and 7:04 followed by 2x800m (3:20, 3:04!). Last week I did 4x1 mile in times that were between 7:04 min/mile and 7:10 min/mile. It might just be too soon for the interval training to have a huge impact but I am hoping they will lend "wings" to my feet come September end. They do hold a sort of fascination for me though. The mind wants to find excuses to skip them but they do feel good once the first steps are taken on the way to the 800m or mile repeat.Yesterday (Mon, April 18) I decided to do some hill repeats in lieu of my weekly 4-5 mile climb up Bohlman Road or Sierra Road. I chose a moderately hilly 4-mile out and back and ran fast twice of every steep slope along the way. The last slope, all of ONLY 0.15 miles long, was the steepest and my legs were complaining at the end of it. My breathing was the one to go before the legs. Maybe it's allergies what with all the pollen around and all that.
GUCR Bound
I leave for London on Wed, May 25. This year's GUCR promises to be totally different from last year's where I had the comfort of a 3-person crew. This year I am unsupported and I do have the added goal of wanting to finish in under 38 hours if I can. A new development from the middle of last month - I now have a pacer, a friend named Emily Gelder, who has offered to run with me from mile 1oo (the canal runs by the Kings Langley Rail Station). I will, in turn, be part of her Badwater crew later in July.
(Idyllic English vistas wait for me in Kings Langley and all along the 145-mile course!)
Emily and I spoke last month about Badwater. She loves coming over to the US to run races while I love going over to England! So much so that I signed up for the Ultra Trail South West 100M race (Jun 23, 2012 http://www.endurancelife.com/event.asp?series=49&location=125) 14 months in advance!! My way of helping UK's economy recover. :-))
