At the start line of the Bear Mountain 50k, feeling very unsure about what I was doing with my life.

The end of the journey!

Week 21 (4/9/18-4/15/18): Fine tuning. 47miles. Back into high mileage, but I’m not going to go beyond the 52-mile peak from two weeks ago! I did a midweek speed workout, which was kind of a nice change: 15 minutes warmup, then 6 sets of 5 minutes hard with 1 minute recovery jog between, then 15 minutes cooldown. The weekend long runs were hard – I did 20 miles on Saturday at the Rockefeller State Park Preserve in 72-degree sun, which was a shock after so much cold weather … and then 10 miles on Sunday at Palisades in 40-degrees-feels-like-34-with-windchill. Which was another shock.

Week 22 (4/16/18-4/22/18): Fine tuning. 38 miles. One hill/stair workout, one hilly run followed by stair machine, a few easy runs, and a final 18-miler up at Bear Mountain.

Week 23 (4/23/18-4/29/18): Taper. 23.4 miles. A speed workout early in the week, a few short runs, and a “long” run of 8 miles. Feeling weird not to be running a ton.

Week 24 (4/30/18-5/5/18): RACE WEEK. 39.5 miles. Super-light speed workout, a couple tiny runs, and suddenly it’s race weekend! I’ll write a separate post about the race report itself, but the summary is that I did it and it was amazing.

Total: 148 miles running.

Feeling: SO weird, confused, and unsure going into the race, and incredibly satisfied after it. Training pays off!

Not actually a run. Appalachian trail in Harriman State Park.

Week 17 (3/12/18-3/18/18): Endurance. 45.2 miles. My training plan has some speedwork over the next few weeks but I’m swapping it all for extra hill work because the elevation situation on Bear Mountain is so intense. Lots of rock climbing this week. I tried for a long run on the 50k course in Harriman State Park but the snow was so deep it ended up being a hike. Sigh.

Week 18 (3/19/18-3/25/18): Endurance: 51 miles. I think this was my first over-50-mile week ever. I didn’t manage to do Saturday’s long run (20 miles) on trails–with serious snow earlier in the week, I was pretty sure the trails would be too snowy to actually run–so I ran 7 miles through Brooklyn down to Bay Ridge and ran a half marathon there along the water. 20 miles on roads was tough (okay, 20 miles anywhere would be tough) but I kept my pacing really even. Midweek long run (7 miles) was mid-snowstorm and awesome, though very hard. I did my workout the next day at the gym, alternating between treadmill hills and the stair-climber machine for 2 hours total. Hard work.

Week 19 (3/26/18-4/1/18): Endurance: 52 miles. Wow. This is hard work, you all. Have I said that already? But . . . I did it? Peak week of training, and most weekly miles of my life, checked off the list. The weekend was long: 5 miles on trails Friday, 10 miles on a section of the course at Bear Mountain Saturday (with a lovely crew), and 22 miles solo Sunday on the Long Path at the Palisades. I had a pretty good wipeout (scraped shin, nothing too bad) around mile 7 on Sunday but picked myself back up and finished 15 more miles. Finishing the 22 and realizing I’d kept a steady pace the whole way was just . . . wow.

Week 20 (4/2/18-4/8/18): Recover. 12.2 miles run/14 miles bike. Ahh. Easy runs, some rock climbing and strength work at the gym, probably a few too many ciders but overall an excellent recovery week.

Total 160 miles + 14 biking.

Feeling: Cautiously optimistic. I’m not gonna be anywhere near the front of the pack at the race, but I think I have what I need to finish in one piece.

At the top of the Beacon firetower.

I’m posting this so late! But here it is.

Week 13 (2/12/18-2/18/18): Endurance. 24.4 miles. This was a weird week in that it REALLY didn’t go according to plan – in the first twelve weeks of training I only missed two (minor) runs; this week I missed one regular run, one hill workout, and one speed workout! I didn’t feel very rested after last week’s “recovery,” plus my husband came down with a bad flu, and between all that and taking on too much freelance work I was lower on sleep and shorter on time than I should have been. Extending my recovery week, which is basically what I did, was a good thing, even though I’m feeling bad about missing workouts. I still got a lot of strength work in (two yoga sessions, plus some stuff at home and one rock-climbing session) and the weekend’s long runs were awesome: 7.6 miles with 3,000 feet of elevation gain on Saturday, then 12 miles flat but mostly snow and ice on Sunday.

Week 14 (2/19/18-2/25/18): Endurance. 38.6 miles + 13 biking. This is more like it! I was still feeling pretty beat from the weekend’s runs, but I dragged myself through a speedwork session on Tuesday, got in a long (8-mile) midweek run Wednesday, and swapped things around to do my Saturday long run (14 miles) on the treadmill Friday morning. It sounds worse than it actually was.

Week 15 (2/26/18-3/4/18): Endurance. 44.7 miles + 9 biking. As far as I can tell, this was my highest mileage week ever! Cool. It included a 7.7-mile hill workout, a 9-mile midweek run, and weekend runs of 15 miles (Rockefeller State Park Preserve) and 8 miles (Prospect Park). Plus quite a bit of rock climbing. I’m feeling pretty beat, and definitely ready for a recovery week.

Week 16 (3/5/18-3/11/18): Recovery. 15.4 miles + 0 biking. Lots of rock climbing and yoga.

Total:   123 miles + 21 biking.

Feeling: A little worried about the next four week. They’ll be my peak mileage weeks.

Bear Mountain was beautiful. But I’m glad there’s not gonna be any snow or ice there in May.

I just hit the halfway point! Overall I’m feeling VERY good. The hard stuff is hard, but it’s not knocking me out. I’m eating well and being much more deliberate about getting enough sleep (I actually write down how many hours I slept in my training notebook, which helps keep me honest). I’m trying very hard to be good about time management and healthy eating. Also, it’s super fun running in the woods every weekend.

Week 9 (1/15/18-1/21/18): Speed. 28.6 miles + 17 biking. Speedwork on trails is intense but kinda fun. This was also my first time throwing in some just-for-kicks hill repeats (like steep, power-hiking-style hill repeats) during my long run.

Week 10 (1/22/18-1/28/18): Speed. 36 miles + 15 biking. I got out to trails in New Jersey both Saturday (South Mountain) and Sunday (Palisades).

Week 11 (1/29/18-2/4/18): Speed. 35.7 miles, no biking. Midweek runs were lighter but weekend runs were longer at 12 speedy miles (Palisades) and 8 icy miles (Bear Mountain).

Week 12 (2/5/18-2/11/18): Recovery. 20.4 miles, no biking. This didn’t feel quite as “resty” as the recovery weeks in the first two cycles. I guess it was about 5 miles more than them, plus I threw some bouldering in, plus I had one very late night working at the Empire State Building Run-Up.

Total:  120.7 miles + 32 biking.

Feeling: Some awkward combination of hopeful (I can do this?) and realistic (there’s still a lot of hard work ahead of me).

Mission Trails Regional Park, right around the time I realized it was going to be a HARD run and not as many miles as I’d hoped.

Another four weeks done!

Week 5 (12/18/17-12/24/17): Hills and strength. 30.5 miles. Weeks 5, 6, and 7 all have a tough hill workout. I found myself wishing for longer and slightly steeper hills in Prospect Park.

Week 6 (12/25/17-12/31/17): Hills and strength. 34.5 miles + 8 biking. I bought a bike trainer from a friend and joined Zwift so I can do some indoor cardio since experience has shown I do NOT get outside on my bike in the winter.

Week 7 (1/1/18-1/7/18): Hills and strength. 27.5 miles + 6.5 biking. This week was a bit weird as I had a sick day (dizzy?! what?!) and we were traveling over the weekend so I ended up doing my hill workout and an easy run on a hotel treadmill. Which was rough. But Saturday’s long run was on some serious trails (Mission Trails near San Diego) and was both daunting and fun.

Week 8 (1/8/18-1/14/18): Recovery. 14 miles + 8 biking. I ate better this week than my last recovery week (vegetables! hooray!) and got mostly decent sleep.

Total: 107 miles + 22 biking.

Feeling: excited

Coach Fuzz.

Okay, I’m just posting a single training log for every four-week cycle of 50k training. Otherwise I’d spend my whole life posting training logs. And I’d rather spend my whole life either eating or sleeping. Or running on the snow.

Week 1 (11/20/17-11/26/17): Base building. 20 miles. Really fun to be doing almost every run on dirt. I’m so glad there are good trails in the park right next to our apartment – there’s a great 4-mile trail loop, and by adding on side trails I think you could easily run 7 miles in an “extended” loop without seeing anything twice.

Week 2 (11/27/17-12/3/17): Base building. 30 miles. Also doing strength twice a week – either the rock climbing gym or a yoga/myrtls/strength routine at home.

Week 3 (12/4/17-12/10/17): Base building. 31 miles running + 10 biking. Yeeeah.

Week 4 (12/11/17-12/17/17): Recovery. 14 miles. I was totally ready for an easy week, and it felt good. I didn’t really keep my nutrition or sleep on track like I should’ve this week, though.

Total: 95 miles

Feeling: good

Monday 10/2/17: Off.

Tuesday 10/3/17: 3 miles easy, watch-free.

Wednesday 10/4/17: 4 miles in the park with a few friends, picking up the pace a little in the second half.

Thursday 10/5/17: Off.

Friday 10/6/17: 3 miles easy.

Saturday 10/7/17: Off.

Sunday 10/8/17: Portland Marathon! 26.7 miles on my watch. First two-thirds was amazing, second third was more of a struggle than I expected. Sigh. Still a PR. I will probably write a race report soon.

Totals: Running 36.7 miles

I’m combining two weeks because I forgot to post the first one!

Monday 9/18/17: Off, just light yoga and vigorous foam rolling after work. I’m feeling pretty rough after Sunday’s long run.

Tuesday 9/19/17: Easy 5 miles

Wednesday 9/20/17: Off.

Thursday 9/21/17: Off.

Friday 9/22/17: 8 miles at a good clip (tempo-ish?)

Saturday 9/23/17: Partying at a wedding most of the day.

Sunday 9/24/17: Too tired (and slightly hungover) to get myself out for a run, so I pushed it to Monday.

Totals: 13 miles running, though counting Monday’s 12 it would be 25 miles running.

Monday 9/25/17: 12 miles in the park before work, 10:36 avg pace.

Tuesday 9/26/17: Off.

Wednesday 9/27/17: Two short tempos (1.5 miles each around 10:00/mile) for 6 miles total.

Thursday 9/28/17: Off.

Friday 9/29/17: Easy 4 miles. Cooler weather feels amazing!

Saturday 9/30/17: 10 miles on my bike.

Sunday 10/1/17: Final “long” run: 7.5 miles.

Totals: 29.5 miles running (would make better sense to subtract Monday’s long run and call it 17), plus 10 miles biking.

After this week, it’s taper time!

Monday 9/11/17: Easy run after work was cut short because I felt frickin’ seasick. The only reason I can think of is that I had an eye exam on the way home from work, and the doc used some eyedrops that might have affected something balance-related. 2.5 miles. Ugh.

Tuesday 9/12/17: Off.

Wednesday 9/13/17: Morning 400s! Warmed up, ran 8×400, was about the run the final interval when a woman who had found a scared, slightly scratched up lost dog in the park asked me to help her sort the dog out. Sweet dog, and we managed to find the owners and everyone was tearfully, happily reunited … but this was my second run of the week that was cut short! Good news is there was none of the nausea I was feeling Monday evening.

Thursday 9/14/17: Off, and feeling a little pain from the 400s (or maybe from the lack of cooldown?).

Friday 9/15/17: Easy 3 miles before work.

Saturday 9/16/17: Off.

Sunday 9/17/17: Final long-long run. The humidity has been WAY up this weekend and this was tough. 20 miles in 4 hours even, for a 12:00/mile pace. I’m not entirely happy with that pace, but just getting it done was a struggle, so there it is.

Totals: 29.4 miles running.

Very happy to find Bush Terminal Park. Mile 7 or so of Sunday’s long run.

Monday 9/4/17: Off. Legs feeling trashed from the duathlon.

Tuesday 9/5/17: 4 miles easy before work, with a nice sunrise!

Wednesday 9/6/17: Off. I think the duathlon broke my right quad?

Thursday 9/7/17: Feeling a lot better. 4.5 miles with some tempo-ish pace in the middle. Slightly sore at the end but not hurting like Wednesday.

Friday 9/8/17: 4 easy miles before work.

Saturday 9/9/17: Mostly off, but quite a bit of walking in the Labor Parade in Manhattan.

Sunday 9/10/17: 17 miles: a little bit in the park then following the same route as last week down to Coney Island. Bonus: finally finding Bush Terminal Park in Industry City. It was a beautiful detour!

Totals: 29.5 running, gotta get back on my bike now.