Big Weekend!

After the Montreal trip, I was exhausted. No running on Friday. I still wanted to get 100 miles in for the week, so it was going to require back-to-back long runs on the weekend.

Saturday, 6/21/08

On Saturday, I met Bill, Tim, Paul, and Pete from our Red Eye Runners Reach the Beach Relay team. It's always good to see the gang, and it was fun to catch up with everyone. Everyone likes to joke on these runs and today was no exception. We headed north from Reservoir 6 and crossed over Rt. 185 into Penwood State Forest. We did a loop through the park that was very pleasant. I usually do the Metacomet trail through there, so it was nice to try something different.

After heading back to the cars, we had logged about 10 miles. Bill was heading out for more, so I connected with him for a couple more miles before heading up to Heublein Tower. At the top, I decided to head down the paved road as I had never been that way. This added some good vertical. At the end of the run, I had covered 21.5 miles in about 3:15 running time (not including the stop at the cars in between). I felt pretty good about the running considering that I was dragging at the start. Now, the key was to follow it up with a big day on Sunday.

Sunday, 6/22/08

The Goat and I planned to meet at 7:30AM, so I figured I would get there early to log some early miles. We parked at Penwood as my plan was to do a lot of hard miles with vertical and single track. Bottom line - this was going to be a punishing run to prep for the big hills in VT. The temp was mild, but the humidity was oppressive. I headed north on the Metacomet trail at approx. 6:25AM to the lookout and looped back to catch the Goat. Goat was running late, so I managed to get 90 minutes in before we connected. We did the paved loop out and the trail back again in Penwood, and then we headed for the Tower. Goat was in good spirits and we were moving well. The conversation was the usual stuff. Goat was planning to do at least 3.5 hours with me, and he was doing great. We managed to make 3 trips up to the Tower and around the reservoir before he called it a day. Wow! Four hours for the Goat! Good stuff. I was at 5.5 hours and really wanted to get to 8 hours for the day. My breaks were getting longer and my body was hurting. I did another Penwood loop, and then convinced myself to do another reservoir loop and then head up to the Tower for trip No. 4. This last trip was brutal and I walked the trail to the top. The downhill was welcome and I cruised into the parking lot at 39.3 miles. I wanted to finish it right, so pushed on to 40 miles in exactly 8 hours. I was soaked to the bone from humidity and some rain, had some serious chafing, and was mentally burnt out. My ability to run the uphills was gone, but I was still fine on the downs and flats. I know I could have gone farther, but I figured 8 hrs was enough for the day. It's 5 miles less than last week, but the terrain was much harsher on this run. Also, I had a rest day before last week's long run compared to a 3+ hr run yesterday.

In review, I'm satisfied with the run. I have one more week of hard training, and then time to taper. Tomorrow will be a rest day to get some life back in this body.

Weekly summary -

Monday - Rest
Tuesday - 20 hilly miles fast at reservoir 2:28. Fantastic Run!
Wednesday - 7.6 miles to work - Easy
Thursday - 2.5 hours in Vermont (15 miles?)
Friday - Rest
Saturday - 21.5 miles 3:15
Sunday - 40-41.4 miles (depending on GPS sites), and 12K-17K vertical depending on which site you believe.

Total Mileage - 105ish

If anyone has experience with the Garmin Forerunner 305, please comment. I get different mileage and vertical depending on whether I download to Motion Based or Garmin Training Center. Which is more accurate? I'm liking the Motion Based site better, but who knows?