Training mashup

I started my Saturday in quite a typical American fashion: waking up at 4:30 am, driving an hour and a half to a secluded parking lot, and hopping in the car with a friend I met on the internet, and riding into the mountains with a bunch of strangers. I also plan to finish it as most 29 year old women do: dressed as a pirate, on a ship, squirting a water cannon at tourists. 

So let's backtrack - I have no idea what I'm doing as far as training right now. This week was some sort of 50K recovery/triathlon practice/JFK preview mashup. 

Thursday, I ran 10.5 miles. 

Friday, Lily and I did a swim/bike/run at Hammerman Lake. I swam 1,400 yards, and my upcominig triathlon (next weekend!) is around 1,600. The swim was really good, not necessarily in terms of speed or sighting, but in that I felt really strong. If I can feel like that in the race, I'll be extremely happy.

We biked 14 miles, then did a 5K run. We didn't start running until 11am, and I thought I was going to melt into the pavement. That's probably around the time we'll begin our 10K run during the tri, so that will certainly be interesting.

The only thing that got me to finish was knowing there was a treat at the end. I don't any strength training at the gym, but I did work on my guns a bit this week carrying my haul from the farmer's market to my car. Here's a tiny fraction of it.

This doesn't even show the vegetables,
which we now know I eat quite a few of.

Cold watermelon after a hot workout is amazing

My foray into the mountains in a car full of strangers this morning was for a very important reason: to preview the Appalachian Trail portion of the JFK 50. I met up with fellow blogger Abbi, another first time JFK-er, and a bunch of her running friends to do the 13 mile trail run.

This was almost at the end, which is why I look so happy. And sweaty.

 I'd heard different things about the trail portion of this race, and of course people's opinions about running terrain are all relative. One thing was for sure - it was certainly rocky.

This was an easier section, hence being able to stop and take pictures.

A little more telling, but the really tough sections you'll have to imagine

 And it didn't seem that anyone had exaggerated how steep the hills were.

Climb 800 feet of elevation then run 48 more miles?
Sounds fabulous!

We did take a little side trip to enjoy the view. While I was running, I was way too busy staring at my feet and praying I wouldn't fall and smash my head open.

The really scary parts were the steep downhills. Even trying to go slowly, the momentum pushed me and I was stumbling over the rocks much faster than I wanted to be. The idea of falling is a lot more frightening than on the trails I'm used to - it wouldn't end on a nice muddy path, maybe with a scraped knee. More likely, it would end with my head meeting a rock. 

So, overall, tough, but doable. Of course, I didn't exactly finish thinking "you know what would be fun now? running 35 more miles!". Maybe in time.


Do you like previewing tough race courses, or is ignorance bliss?