Well, I’m officially halfway through training. Eight weeks down, seven weeks to go until race day. I think training is a lot like a marathon, though. You’re not really halfway until mile 20. But I ran 20 miles on Saturday, so that’s gotta count for something! Here’s a recap of last week’s 50K training, as part of the Weekly Wrap link up. This link up is hosted by the lovely HoHo Runs and MissSippiPiddlin’.

Monday – Cross training: Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred level 1 workout. We got nearly 7 inches of snow and a nice layer of ice on top of that throughout the day.

Tuesday – 4 mile easy run with ‘Sven’ (the treadmill) in the evening after work.

Wednesday – 4 mile hill workout with Sven after work. I actually had enough daylight to do this workout outside, but the snow hadn’t melted much at all and I wanted to get in a quality workout. So back to the treadmill I went. I did six quarter mile hill repeats for a total of 624 feet in elevation gain. This was a tough workout for me. I managed to pack in more elevation gain than last week when I did seven repeats during a five mile workout.

Thursday – 4 mile easy run at a park in a nearby town. The snow pretty much hadn’t melted at all on 90% of the trail, which made for a really pretty run.

There were even some parts of the trail I ran on where pretty much no one else had been. That was pretty neat. I also spent nearly 3/4 of a mile running up hill on snow that had a layer of ice on top. So much for an easy run! My pace was easy, but my calves were screaming during that part. It was a lot of work running uphill through that snow!

The only downside to this run was that I severely underestimated how much colder it would be running next to the creek and river. In the summertime it’s nice, but this time of year I really need to remember a pair of gloves and an extra layer on top.

Friday – Rest.

Saturday – 20 mile long run. I also ran the Blacksburg Classic 10 Miler as part of my long run. I ended up doing 8.5 miles before the race, running the race with Barry, and then finishing the final 1.5 miles afterward. I felt great during my pre-race miles, but the actual race and the post-race miles were pretty tough. Full recap coming later this week!

Sunday – Rest. I was fairly sore from Saturday’s run, particularly my quads. But that’s to be expected, since I had issues with cramping the final four miles. Other than that I primarily felt fatigued and most of the soreness was gone by last night after moving around most of the day.

Total Miles: 32 miles

Despite Saturday’s tough long run, this week was a good one for me. During the week my runs felt good and it was a big improvement over week 7. The sunset keeps on getting a little bit later each day, and I’m looking forward to doing more of my weekday runs outside.

Who else raced this past weekend? How was it?
Are you good at dressing for the weather conditions when working out?
Daylight savings: yea or nay?