Here I will document my unconventional training to prepare for a 50K in four weeks time. Sometimes, you just gotta mix it up! For background, I’m coming off of a solid training block last fall and a solo 50K trail run in December. I had a lot of consistency through January and ended the month with a Yeti 24 Hour Ultra Challenge.

Here is a recap of my second week of training:

Monday – 5 mile run

I did this run first thing in the morning before breakfast to help simulate running on empty later in a race. It was 10 degrees outside which felt SO cold! But one good thing was the wind wasn’t blowing.

Surprisingly, I had the park to myself on this frigid, pre-sunrise run. Go figure.

Tuesday – 6 mile run

This run was structured as 2 miles at 50%, 1 mile at 100%, 2 miles at 50%, and 1 mile walk. I took the 50% to mean marathon pace and the 100% to mean 5K pace. I made the final walking mile a steady effort, but not quite my speed walk pace.

I felt really good on this run and had fun mixing up the pace throughout. It was also a downright glorious day compared to our weather lately with some sunshine and temperatures in the upper 40’s. I ran in shorts!

Wednesday – 1 mile run

The assignment for today was to run 1 mile at a 100%, PR effort. That sounded pretty daunting. I did a 1 mile warm up and stretched a bit before getting started.

I ran hard and expected to run somewhere between 8 and 9 minutes. I never imagined I could run under 8 minutes for a mile, but I surprised myself and finished in 7:45!

The 1 mile effort was pretty scary to take on, but it turns out that running a 5K is still scarier and more painful.

Thursday – Cross Training

Three minute mountain legs routine (lunges and step-ups).

Friday – Rest

Saturday – 6 mile run

I met up with Kim to run this one on the New River Trail. She was running 20 miles (!!) and I joined her for the last six. It was not such a nice day outside…

As you can see by the trees, we had a lot of ice the day before. The trail was fine, though, and was just wet at muddy. But it was 30 degrees and raining our whole run. Yuck! The bridges were a solid sheet of ice, so we walked/shuffled across those.

Despite the weather, it was really good to see Kim. It had been awhile since we ran together. As always, the miles flew by and she’s a total rockstar for cranking out 20 miles in that weather.

Sunday – 6 mile run

I was really sleepy and didn’t feel like doing this one. But of course, once I got out there I felt good.

No rain, but it was another gray day. It was also foggy and I got soaked from running through the fog. I need to remember to wear a light wind breaker for running in fog in the future.

Total miles – 27 miles