Unplanned Speed Training and Race Trepidations

It’s just after 9pm and I’m struggling to stay awake.  I ran with my 15-year-old daughter this morning.  She’s not in great shape for any kind of distance, but she’s extremely competitive.  She pushed me hard for that first mile and then challenged me to a sprint for the last quarter of a mile.  Lucky for me she was slow on the hills in between.  I felt great all day until I came home from work.  Now I’m dragging.  The pressure is on to keep running consistently this month, despite triple digit temperatures in the Las Vegas Valley.  Getting up before 6am is imperative.  Soon I’ll need to get up even earlier to avoid the sun.

The Wasatch Back Ragnar is fast approaching, less than 20 days away.  My training for the past few months has been almost non-existent.  Until the past two weeks most of my running has taken place as part of race instead of a regular training program.  Following the Ogden Marathon last month and a generous donation of a pint or more of blood to the Red Cross, I’m finally back to running about four days a week. 

This will be my fourth year running of the Wasatch Back Ragnar.  I’m runner 1 for the first time.  Just under 21 miles, I’ll cover the second longest distance of the race.  Looking ahead I’m intimidated by the distances and the hills.  The first leg is 6.5 miles with a good hill right away.  It will be a beautiful run up along the eastern rim of Cache Valley above Logan.  Leg 2 will leave from Snow Basin on a trail with a 300-foot climb and then scream down SR-167 for about seven miles.  The total leg is 9.3 miles.  My third leg, luckily, will be the easiest at just five miles—mostly flat with a little bit of rolling hills.

With the time that’s remaining, I won’t be able to set any great speed records.  I can, however, build my endurance and speed enough to finish each leg and make recovery a bit easier.  Hopefully I’m fast enough that I don’t anger or disappoint any of my teammates, but I ran with them last year so I don’t think their expectations are too high.

My goal is to keep running through the summer, despite the heat.  I need to get my body weight down while building some endurance.  In order to register for the Ogden Full Marathon next year I need to be down 10 pounds (hopefully 15) and consistently be running double-digit mile distances by October.

If I can keep my daughter running with me, I think she’ll help me out on the speed training.

Please enjoy a few of my other running themed blog posts:
The Early History of Running
Why I Ragnar
Ragnar Etiquette: Dos, Don'ts, and Please Don'ts
Ragnar Zion - To the Trails
Profile of a Ragnarian: Jarad Van Wagoner
Running with Reed
The Art of the Marathon
Ogden Marathon 2013
Ogden Marathon 2014: Oops, I Did It Again