Training Update

Week #2 of ice climbing + 25K trail run training is officially complete! Overall I feel like this week went better than last (I did not cry a single time), but it has left me pretty physically fatigued. That plus being exposed to cold weather camping, sick people at work, and my own poor food choices (leftover Halloween candy & beer do not make good recovery food (in case you were wondering )) has resulted in me getting a nasty head cold. Anyway...

Without further ado, here is my “Track My Training” report for week #1 and #2

Weight Training
My weight training initially sucked and resulted in me crying within the first 5 minutes of our first workout (Thank you Meredith for posting about your meltdown! It’s nice to know I’m not the only one who does that!). However, I quickly figured out what alternate exercises I could do when necessary and stuck with it in terms of maintaining reps & sets of exercises that focus specifically on ice climbing goals. I even managed to use a 15 lb weight instead of a 10 lb weight for several sessions.

See this post for a sample work-out from week 1 and this post for pictures of a specific exercise for ice climbing.

The second half of week two was a bit disappointing for me because I tweaked my right shoulder and had to reduce my shoulder specific exercises. My right shoulder is particularly weak from previous repeat injuries (more recent example). The weight training will definitely help reduce my chances of injuries in the future, but it’s a constant battle to avoid overuse injuries in the meantime.

Cardio Training - Total Mileage
Week One: 15 miles on flat, paved terrain
Week two: 17 miles total; 9.5/trails, 6.5/stairs, 1/flat pavement

I think my mileage increase was an appropriate amount. However, the swift increase in terrain difficulty may have been a bit ambitious and a factor in my current state of exhaustion. That said if I can kill this cold with a couple solid rest days I am still going to attempt a 13 mile run on Sunday at Lake Lurleen on my future race course (yay for making the most of the home-field advantage!).

Tashka Trail Start

I do have a dilemma with my Sunday running goal beyond my current head-cold issue. Several members of the race committee along with other volunteer runners will be getting together Sunday morning at 6:00AM to run sections of the course, and they have invited me to run with them. The goal of the gathering is to evaluate the trails to see what work needs to be done before the race next month. I would really love to run at the same time as everyone else so that I’m not out there in the woods alone, but I also don’t want to get up for a 6:00AM run when the overnight lows have been sub-freezing and I’ve been on a evening-shift schedule at work. That just seems like a dumb idea when I’m trying super hard to get well/not get sick again.

So I’m undecided. I think getting up that early and running in cold weather will have a negative impact on my ability to recover well. However, Derek is out of town this weekend and I have no one else to run with. While running alone doesn’t bother me, the trail is a minimum 13 mile loop around a lake with some pretty steep terrain and it doesn’t see a lot of regular traffic.

If something stupid happens (as typically happens to me (like me stepping on a snake; getting attacked by a deer; or something more normal like me spraining an ankle)), I could potentially be as much as 6.5 trail miles from my car, an additional 10 road miles from a hospital, with no way to call for help (no cell service). This just seems dumb. To further complicate the decision, the race itself is scheduled for a morning start in cold weather so it might actually be good for my race day performance to have been training in similar conditions. Or it might just make me sick.

Have any of you ever been in this type of situation? Have any advice?