Training: Week of July 11 and July 18, 2010

Week of July 11

Total mileage: 50
Races: None

Sun - Lunch 4m @7.49 Total - 4

Mon - Morning 5m @~8.00; Evening Bike 16m @20.1 mph Total - 5

Tue - Evening 8m - 3 1/2m tempo @5.45 avg. Total - 8

Wed - Morning 4 1/2m @7.50 with 4 x 100 strides Total - 4 1/2

Thu - Morning 3m @8.00; Evening 12m @~8.05 Total - 15

Fri - Morning 4m @8.15; Evening 4 1/2m @8.05 with 4 x 100 strides Total - 8 1/2

Sat - Evening 5m @~7.40 Total - 5

Week of July 18

Total mileage: 48
Races: Xterra NC Beech Mountain Trail Run - 2nd - 46.15

Sun - Morning 11m Xterra NC Beech Mountain Trail Run 10K (~6.5m) - 46.15 Total - 11

Mon - Off Massage with Michelle

Tue - Evening 8m - 3 1/2m tempo @5.46 avg. Total - 8

Wed - Morning 4m @7.37 Total - 4

Thu - Evening 8m - Hill workout 3 x ~1100 meters(2 up, 1 down) with full

recovery ~5-6 minutes ^3.58, 3.31, ^3.54 Total - 8

Fri - Off (Spent all day laying rock around foundation of the house, tough!)

Sat - Morning 17m @~8.28 at Fisher River Park, much of run with Alison Total - 17

The back is doing better, or at least hurting less. The Beech Mountain Trail Run was interesting. It was the first race of the Xterra NC trail series, I guess I'm doing the series. The course was surprisingly real trail racing. About 3/4 of the course was tight, technical singletrack. They posted that there was about 1500 feet of climbing for the 10K, I'd estimate it wasn't quite that much. But the course ran through Beech Mountain Ski Resort, so it was a mountainous course. There were two younger guys that I was chasing for first 5 miles. I was still not climbing well, but felt okay otherwise. I was warned that the one guy was a flyer on the road. I finally got in the lead at about 4.5 miles, but both guys stayed close. Then one of the bigger and longer climbs came at about 5 miles. I thought surely I can stay in front or get a little lead. Nope, I got passed by one of the guys and could hear that the other guy closed on me. After the climb was another steep, technical singletrack descent. I passed the guy back and built a small lead. Then we came out of the trails and onto the road with about 1/2 to go. The one guy came by and I couldn't match his speed. He beat me by 4 seconds, but I held off third by 16 seconds. Talking to the guys after, the winner was a grad student, Patrick Morgan, who ran a 4.01 mile for Appalachian State in February. Not surprising he outkicked me, but frustrating. Who likes getting outkicked? The other guy, Jared, had run for App State's cross country team I believe. Maybe I'll be able to climb again at some point, but I was pleased with my trail speed. My training shows I'm fit, my back just tights up badly on climbs.