June 12 - 18, 2017

Monday:
     AM: 3.1 miles, 220', 8:08 pace. Easy morning jog with some foam rolling. I feel surprisingly good, much better than last Monday. The only physical reminder of the weekend is the soreness in my shoulder and back but at least I can turn my head all the way left now.
     PM: 7.2 miles, 390', 8:19 pace. City sidewalks. Easy heat training run, 91 degrees out. This went better than expected; I was hot but not that uncomfortable.

I got an email from Ultra Trail du Mont Albert this morning informing me that there will be a delayed start (noon, rather than 10 am) for anyone expecting to cover the first 100K in less than 18 hours. I guess that includes me. There will also be a limit on when runners can enter the Mont Jauqes-Cartier zone because the reindeer that live there are so heavily protected. I suppose that's the trade off that has to be made to be able to use the area. I'm still trying to figure out what this does to my prospects of a sub-24 hour finish. If anything, I'm hoping it'll keep me from going out too fast, especially when the last 25 miles of the race look mostly downhill and runnable; It'll be good to save some legs for that. Along those lines UTMA released a picture of their sub-30 hours 100 mile belt buckle today. I wants it. There will be an as yet undetermined award for sub-24. I want that too. Funny, how I can be so motivated by silly little trinkets.

Tuesday:
     AM: 5.2 miles, 443', 8:34 pace. Easy local roads and trails.
     PM: 7.2 miles, 394', 8:44 pace. Easy city sidewalks and trails. Hot, a right angle day (90 degrees). Apologies for the dad joke.

Wednesday: 3.8 miles, 222', 8:09 pace. Easy morning on country roads. A few years ago I didn't usually bother with runs so short, not thinking they were worth changing my clothes for. Nowadays, I'm seeing more value in them, if for nothing other psychological hygiene. They're a good way to boost mileage, stay loose, and avoid a zero day. I also think about all the times I had a mileage goal for the week and missed it by less than 5 miles because I was too tired or out of time when Sunday rolled around.

Thursday: Speaking of zero days...

Friday: Zero. Trying to get things together for my trip next week.

Saturday: 16.8 miles, 5520', 3:38:08 elapsed time. Another favorite training staple of mine; the Twins, Zealand, Hale loop. I often throw on detours to Galehead or the Bonds, but today decided to put in a focused effort on the simple, classic version. My best time from a few years ago was a little over five hours, albeit at a lackadaisical effort level, and Saturday I felt motivated to give it a good, solid go. Call it a 90-95% effort - hard enough to be a workout and turn a quick time, but not so hard as to overly fatigue me or risk injury. It was a gorgeous, soul-stirring morning to be out.

Sunday: 7.8 miles, 2935', 1:50:00 elapsed time. I wanted to get another hard mountain effort in before leaving for Quebec and managed to hit up the Osceolas from Tripoli Road at dawn. Similar to yesterday, a 90-95% effort got me a personal best time (and back home in time for breakfast.)

Totals: 51.2 miles, 10118', 8h 59m. Not quite the volume I wanted (those two zero days don't help) but I got over 10,000 feet of vert. We'll call it an early start to my taper.