Saturday my boss closed shop up at 4pm so I hit the hills on my drive home for a short but hilly run on the Worcestershire Way. Huge vert over a short distance. With the race within 4 weeks I really have only two weeks of training left where I'll try for long runs. Other than that the only beneficial workouts will be downhill repeats and acclimating to the heat via sauna time. The final week will be pretty much nothing.
During yesterday's run my foot bothered me but was tolerable. Last night, post run, it was fine. Today it's been fine all day. I don't trust it. However, it was a mobility issue, so it's possible it's healed by loosening up. Good thing is there's positive progress. If it happens to be good to go I'll be focusing on big ass long runs the next two weeks. Let's hope so. A healed injury would be a huge positive boost to my mental well being, I've been in a bad place these past few weeks.
I'm worried about sauna time. With the kids and the lame ass British opening times of facilities it may not work as I had planned. I may resort to sitting in my car with the heat on. Yes. You read that right. The body adapts quickly to high heat, reason being heat will kill you if it didn't adapt! A sauna is the best and obvious choice for spending time in a high heat environment but if that's not available I will resort to what I've got. Doing this twice a week for the final 3-4 weeks should be sufficient, and at least better than nothing.
Downhill intervals. Western States 100 has an ass ton (that's way more than a butt load!) of downhill. The eccentric muscle contraction of the downhill running motion produces a lot of waste and is extremely hard on the muscle. A regime of downhill intervals can help reduce the dead quads that many people get late in the race, many times forcing them to quit. Some coaches claim this is unnecessary but it seems like a very popular practice from elite o beginner racers. I figure it can't hurt.
Getting closer, and hoping for 20 tonight!
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