Monday, August 22, 2011

Long-ish run on the Kingdom Trails

Thursday, I did a short sprint workout at home. All told, including warm-up and cool-down, I did 2.5 miles, with 10 minutes of hard effort. I felt stronger than I'd felt on this workout recently, and really had a fun workout.

Friday, I was planning to squeeze in a workout, and I was allegedly on vacation, but I ended up working most of the day and never got to the gym. That was fine though, as I was planning a long run on the Kingdom Trails in East Burke, VT on Saturday. The runners for that run included my wife, two friends from Canada - Pat and Lorne - and me.

Lorne is planning a rim-to-rim-to-rim in the Grand Canyon next month, and this was his fifth consecutive weekend with a run of 5 hours or more. He is as lean and fit as I have ever seen him.

We started our run right about 9:00 a.m., on the easier side of the trail system, rather than on the Burke Mountain ski area trails. For a while, we took it fairly easy. Pat and I ran towards the front, talking away, while Lorne was hanging back a bit with my wife. About 75 minutes into the run, my wife took a hard fall and hurt her right pinkie, but luckily it wasn't broken or dislocated. About half an hour later, we crossed a paved road that provided an easy way back to the car, and Cheryl called it a day. She still had two miles to the car, but she could do them at her own pace.

By this point in time, I had decided that three hours was enough for me. I'm glad I didn't have thoughts of going longer than that, because as soon as my wife headed for the car, the pace changed quickly. I was walking through a sunny meadow, trying to take an electrolyte capsule, and suddenly Lorne and Pat were gone. I spent most of the next hour trying to stay close enough to see them, and not get lost.

As we closed in on three hours, we got back to the car and discovered that my wife had just gotten there. She and I changed clothes and did almost a mile back to town, where we had some lunch and relaxed until Lorne and Pat were done. I did just under 12 miles for my workout. By the time Pat and Lorne finished, in about 5.5 hours, they'd done about 22 miles.

Lorne seems to be in great shape for his run in the Canyon next month. My wife and I were both happy with our runs. We each did a run that matched our fitness levels and our training goals. Pat hadn't gone nearly as long this year as he did Saturday, but as usual, he was strong the whole way through.

We spent the rest of the day getting some food and hanging out together. I don't get to see my two friends from Canada very often, and we were up well after midnight, just catching up with each other.

Today, it's back to work and back to CrossFit. This is our final week in the Wendler strength cycle. I have made every single strict press workout in the cycle, but my attendance for squats and deadlifts in the last 3 weeks wasn't very good.

Next Monday, we try the CrossFit total again, and I'm hopeful that I'll improve from last time. But, I honestly don't expect a big improvement. If I can keep my squat at 315, add 5 pounds to my press to get to 130, and add 10-20 pounds to my deadlift, I'd end up at at 820-830 total pounds, vs. an 805 last time we were tested. That's not a big improvement, but my training probably hasn't earned me any more than that.

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