The Road to Monadstock

Back on the treadmill after a long hiatus.  Feels good to start again.  Super proud of the dog for hitting the road hard the last couple weeks ( and for hitting the strings as well).  By Monadstock, hopefully we will both have made some real progress in these things that, though they do not come easy, bring us immeasurable joy!

Week 10

Well, what a difference a week makes... set a plan, execute it and life is good. Rested the two days after last weekend's terrible run... ran a regular 5 on Tuesday and ran the brutal Crotchet Mountain 10K loop on Wednesday... which includes the auto-road with over a mile of 9-12% grade. It's an incredible experience, breathtaking actually... when I was fit I used to run it a couple times a week. And no, I was not able to run the whole thing today, I died on the steep ramps and had to walk... but I still did it (and will do it again next week). Rested two more days and ran long, slow distance (LSD) today. Felt 100% better than last weekend, it was 10 degrees cooler... and turned in a solid 18 miler, slow and steady. Wore a pair of "0 drop" minimist NB trail shoes... no serious blisters, more good news there. This also puts me back on track to before the renovation break, my last long run was Week 3, a 16 miler. Now we can continue to ramp up to race day.

Week 9

Well, what a fine mess I'm in. Twelve weeks to go yesterday and I am wildly off plan. Seems to be the theme for all of us. I skipped last week's blog... didn't want to report another week with only 5 miles run. It's the start of a new month and absolutely time to shit or get off the pot. So, here's the emergency "get it back on track" plan... a long run every weekend, preferably Saturday the same day as the race. Two short runs, back to back in the middle of the week (Tuesday/Wednesday) leaving a couple of rest days to and from the long run. The Saturday runs must get progressively longer topping out to 24/26 miles by early October... then a two week taper to the race. This is an emergency salvage plan, not pretty... but I see no other choice. Yesterday I began with grand plans to go out and bag a very slow long slog in the heat... perhaps 20 miles or better. Ha! On the strength of a half  dozen 5 mile runs over the last five weeks my body would have none of it. It was hot, low 90s here with high humidity when I went out at noon. I overloaded (mistake) my 2 liter Camelback with 3+ liters of water (too heavy) and one of the straps broke at 4 miles in... had to carry the bag after that... that didn't help. By 8 miles I was losing control... shakey and nauseous. I bagged it at 12 miles... a disappointment, but my goal was a bit ambitious. Oh well. We will try again next weekend, perhaps for 16. I wish the others well, don't give up... we need to make this happen!