And the build to Leadville starts...

This spring slipped away on tip toes in the night, quietly and quickly. I'm not sure if I'm behind in Leadville training or not. I'm sure I should be doing more climbing. I'm sure I should be doing more speed. I probably should be doing more distance.

I guess I think I should be doing more, period.

I want to finish under 25 hours. Whew, that's hard to admit in the broad daylight. I think lots of things will have to come together for that to happen. Some things I can't control - the weather - but I am going to train as hard and as consistently as I can for it.

So many things run around in my head when I think about this. Strategies - Maybe I get a second nathan pack so my crew can have one packed and ready for me at each AS, and I just swap out and go. How Nascar should I try to get? Could this include battery changes in the lights? My stomach has always been ok with eating, but maybe because I don't eat a lot and I don't go hard. If I change both those things, I don't thing I want to place bets on what would happen. I need to figure out ways to not stop at most of the Aid Stations. Probably only really pausing at 3: Winfield, TL inbound and FH inbound. Maybe I don't change shoes at TL outbound, only at TL inbound to get rid of the waterlogged shoes and socks. I need to eat more. I will need to run more of the course, but not waste energy on the climbs. I will have to get better at climbing, which means I should try to lose the 5 pounds I picked up over Christmas.

I think a lot about needing to get comfortable with the idea of suffering. At the Ice Age 50 miler, I went out too fast, and cramped at mile 18. I finished in 9:56. But I spend a lot of the last 32 miles "taking it easy" because I was cramping. Especially after I started drinking Heed (which it turns out I can stomach, even though I abhor the flavor) I think I could have run the last 15 miles faster than I did if I had been willing to suffer a little. Instead I kept a steady easy pace until the last 3 miles, and then decided to push to get under 10. I won't have the luxury of doing that at Leadville if I want to go faster. But I'm not sure even how to go about working at that. Suffering during speed work is short lived, and I know it's short lived. (and sometimes I still ease off.) Maybe suffering during tempo workouts will help, but again, that's only 20-30 minutes. Not 10 hours.

ah, the pre-Leadville brain dump. I'd forgotten how the small concerns build up. And then the relief to blurt them all out, even to the infinite emptyness of cyber space.

Things to include in the ramp up:
2 - 100 mile weeks - for building running efficiency, muscular endurance, confidence
5+ night runs, with my new fenix lights - for comfort
4+ ski hill sessions, working up to 3 repeats - for better climbing. Really work this.
Tempo runs getting to 5 miles, 1/week.
Some rocky trail running.
At least one run at altitude per week.

Really there is only 8 more weeks of training left, +2 weeks of taper. Yowza. I am now on the border of cramming, and I didn't want to be here!