Quad Rock training week one recap

The numbers:

• 9 hours, 23 minutes running time

• 44.9 miles distance

• 5581 ft elevation gain (D+)

At the start of the week it was 19 weeks to Quad Rock 50, which I ran in 2019, and then 12 more weeks after that to Never Summer 100k, which I ran in 2020. I'm going to try to finish both of them this year. It will require some customization of the training plans I've used in previous years. Quad Rock is closer than I'm used to and I'm not familiar with trying to build and peak again for another long race. It'll be an interesting problem.

I've been running and doing strength and conditioning workouts regularly through November and December. Feeling pretty good about my base, I fast-forwarded the 24 week plan I followed the past two years and am effectively starting at week 6. My mileage is a little less than that of week 6 in 2019 or 2020 because I'm trying to guard against the possibility that my form isn't as good as I think it is. I did do plenty of climbing and got in a solid speed workout. Conditions have been pretty good for running, overall.

I replaced my old Forerunner 35 watch and its busted and superglued band with a new Forerunner 245. Its battery is good for 24 hours of GPS recording time, so I'll be able to record my Quad Rock and Never Summer runs for the first time. I got a new wool top to give my old one a break, but otherwise I'm running in the same gear. Sheet metal screws in the bottoms of my Speedgoat 4s are providing plenty of traction.

This weekend I did back-to-back long runs for the first time in three months. Saturday I went out for four hours of sweaty huffing and puffing on the hills in Horsetooth Open Space and today I went for a easy recovery pace run on the Spring Creek Trail pavement. How easy is easy? I checked my watch's heart rate monitor and whenever it registered more than 120 bpm, I backed off a little. 8.5 miles at 11 minutes per mile. I hardly even broke a sweat.