MYSTICAL/MAGICAL

Last week I wrote about trying to get to 60 MPW like it was some mystical/magical number. It’s not. It just happens to be the next 10-mile increment over where I’ve been. In any case, I did manage 61 miles last week. The week included 6 hill repeats on Monday, 10 miles on Wednesday with 6 of them at 7:00 pace, and I finally got over 2 hours again on Saturday’s group run. Throw in an hour of skiing and I had over 9.5 hours of training for the week.

A few weeks ago I was laying out my upcoming racing schedule and I came across another run, bike, ski triathlon. I did one last March and it was a blast. However, after thinking about it for awhile, I decided not to do this one. It looks like I didn’t miss much, as the results show that only 12 individuals and 5 teams participated. Right now my winter races look like this;

1/9 Pre City of Lakes Loppet 15K X-C
1/23 Winter Carnival Half Marathon
2/7 City of Lakes Loppet 35K X-C
2/13 Pre-Birkie 42K X-C
2/27 Birkie 50K X-C

Anyone else out there getting Running Times? Is it just me or does it seem like they’ve been doing a great job lately? I’m not sure if it has to do with them and Runner’s World being under one company now or not, but it sure seems like the two magazines are a lot more differentiated lately.

The latest RT talks about stuff like comparing past training cycles, figuring out if you’re stuck in a rut, and, if so, how to break out of it. It hit home with me because last year I entered the spring in pretty crappy running shape. Then after Grandma’s I convinced myself I was in a rut and I needed to change things around. It was pretty easy to blame it on poor running on skiing. However, as I look back, I think it has a lot more to do with my lack of running. Or maybe it was my lack of running and skiing. Cutting back on running to ski would be fine – if I were actually skiing an equivalent amount. Now that I look back, I see that I was averaging less than 7 hours a week of aerobic activity last winter. If I look back two years, when I was running fairly well, I see I was averaging over 8 hours. It doesn’t sound like a bunch, but if you calculate that out for the three months leading up to the Birkie, that’s nearly three more weeks of training.

I’ve already run more this December than I did last December and January, combined. And with some upcoming time-off, I’m thinking my skiing will catch up to last year’s too. So, as of right now, I think I’m in a good position to ski well at the Birkie and be a lot more fit entering the spring racing season.

Quote of the Day;

“Wow, this weather is incredible.” – Some gal getting out of her car at Hyland on Friday when it was 25 and sunny