Training? Again?!

Today I looked up at the WS100 website and their counter suddenly hit me – 39 days until the race! Ouch! Somehow the last two races were so demanding, I almost forgot it’s not the peak of the season yet. Not to mention I still have Squaw Peak 50M, what is third hardest 50 in a country (after Zane and Devil’s Backbone in UT). The weather here suddenly hit 90F, perfect heat training, though it’s difficult to jump into it after NW winter. So, after measly 20M last week I am on track to build up to the base level of upper 80s where I left it before my vacation.
Monday was 9M on roads at good pace, weight session and a come-back to speedwork. I did 6x400m repeats while waiting for Stephen’s baseball game. It was hot like hell (95F) and I couldn’t move too fast, thirsty and tired, but I pulled even 1:40 on each of them. I franticly came back and searched my old calculations of various pace for repeats, and it turned out I wasn’t far off – by all those web predictions I was supposed to run 1:38.
This morning I woke up sore – considering that I didn’t do any leg weights for 3 weeks, no surprise. Luckily, today is scheduled easy day. I went for 7 road miles in the morning, and then for 10 recovery miles on trails. 2 bottles of water proved to be not enough – between hot day and low calories, after an hour and half I started walking steep portions of the hills. How in the world did I train in NYC summer, at 90F and 90% humidity? Insane! I wasn’t disappointed with my slog though, and made it to the end. I even set in a cold bath for the whole 7 minutes afterwards! OMG, I am becoming such a good girl, what’s happening with my wild image? What’s next, listening to reasoned coach advice? Speaking of, as of today I am coach-less (our agreement with Lisa expired last week, and I am not sure I can afford anything at this point, including new shorts I planned to buy). So I am having fun setting up a schedule for myself. I put together what Scott had taught me, what Lisa had implemented and what I did while strayed away time to time and this is how the rest of my week shapes up:
Wed: AM – spin class and weights, PM – hilly Marquam trail run in the heat of the day. Both workouts are shorter yet much faster/harder.
Thurs: AM – intervals on track inside 10 miles. I am trying to decide whether to jump right back to 1 mile repeats or hold it for another week and do 800m as a build-up step. I guess I’ll figure it out once the day comes, as long as I have 3M of fast twitch muscle work. PM – Bikram yoga. Two reasons: heat adjustment for WS and I need to stretch! I can’t believe only a year ago I could easily make a split and a backbend touching my head to the ground, now I hardly reach my toes (exaggeration, but somewhat like this). And this is taken only 3 days after Umstead 100M during our backpacking trip in Glen Canyon:)
Fri: off. May be I’ll go swim if wake up early enough – I have a 7:30 start at work that day. Also 4th rolfing session.
Sat: Gorge, 7 hrs, with 2x50 min build-in hill repeats.
Sun: somewhere in a vicinity of 4 hrs run with tempo in the middle, course depends where our family will be – we plan a camping trip with rock-climbing, biking and hiking. Need to get up before crack of dawn so I can spend whole day with Stephen and Oleg and do what they like to do. Gosh, I haven’t climbed in 3 years!
BTW, the WS100 websites claims snow melt rather fast and we may not have as snowy of a year as was predicted, nothing worse than last year. Though with the return of old course times will be slower – people say it’s 30 min for front pack and 60 min for mortals (longer as you move outside 24 hrs). Well, somehow I am fine with any outcome. 24 or not, I love this race!

p.s. I thought I won't write until my next race report - ha! Who said "run more talk less"? Everything to the max! Actually, when I don't run, I don't talk:) It says something...doesn't it? Am I hallucinating?