Striding Into Week V

Mon - 64min/ 8.3m/ 600' - Fisher Farm Park - first 7.5 miles ran in 56min, 8 min cool down

Tues - 62min/ 7m/ 400' - Latta Plantation - easy paced effort today on some really technical trail

Wed - 0hr - lazy bum

Thur - 75min/ 10m/ 500' - Latta Plantation - first 3.2 in 27, next 5.2 in 33:30!, last 1.6 in 15 min for a cool down.  Wow, what a great work out.  Didn't really know I possessed that type of speed, but I guess the recent  consistency of time on the the feet is really paying off!

Fri - 35min/ 4m/ 300' - Fisher Farm Park - nice easy effort after yesterday's speedwork.  Legs felt good.

Sat - 3hr50min/ 22m/ 4000' - Ridgeline Trail - met up with the Rock Hill Striders and ran from Kings Mountain State Park in SC to Crowders Mtn State Park in NC.  Sweet trail for sure and a great time on the trails running with Jose and some other new folks.

Sun - 26min/ 3m/ 100' - Davidson - shakeout run around Davidson, NC.

Totals =
Time - 8hr12min
Miles - 54.3
Gain - 5900'

Pretty great week of running.  I decided to take a little break from the vert side of running and decided to work on some speed this week.  I've been purposely running slower (comfortable pace) the past month as I've been changing my view on training for ultras.  Time on your feet is the most important thing in my opinion and speed should come second, well actually third, because vertical gain is definitely the second catalyst in successfully preparing one's self for a mountain ultra.  But at the same time, I believe that you need to still incorporate speed into your training regiment or you want be used to pushing yourself in a race or a FKT attempt.  Hence, this is the reason I thought it was time to test my turnover.  And the test was a success!  I was able to get in two tempo style efforts that really  blew my expectations of what I actually could do.  Especially Thursday's run!  For those that don't know, running slower can also help you run much faster.  It seems counter intuitive, but it is true.  You just have to make sure you at least run fast a few times a month.  Okay, thats enough of my coaching advise.  Saturday, I joined a local Charlotte area running group, the Rock Hill Striders, for a nice run in Crowders & Kings Mtn State Park.  I'm really glad I joined these guys because this run was the one I was actually planning on doing this weekend.  I had a really good time and ran solidly for almost all 22 miles and 4000ft of gain of this run.  The Ridgeline Trail is one of the nicest trails I have been on and contains a lot of diversity.  Glad to know that we have some gems like this in the Piedmont.  The Rock Hill folks are definitely a great crew of people and I look forward to joining them on future group runs in the area.