I’m in the last week of my training schedule…

Here is an update on what’s happening with me. I am still very busy at home and at work. I have to resort to speed reading the posts on the running forum. So keep running everyone and have a great summer!

Last week I ran 56 km. This week I run 30.5 because it is a rest week. It also happens to be the last week of my training schedule. This is the point where I should be beginning my marathon training plan. Since I am not doing a marathon 19 weeks from now, I have to do much less than a marathon requires. I plan on doing some sort of maintenance schedule where I run 3 or 4 times a week (33 or 44 km) plus one 16 km long run for a total of between 49 and 60 km per week. I will be biking alternate days. I will be modifying this slightly too since I want to do some hill training on the trails. One particularly difficult hill in the Devon trail system I like to call “The Way of the Cross” hill because there are small crosses placed there by worshipers and people sometimes pray their way up through the crosses. Anyway, the Way of the Cross hill is a tough one.

I don’t have a lot of time left before my first 5peaks race. My first trail race this season is May 12th in Chickakoo just north of Stony Plain, and I will be lucky if I can get one hill training session done before then. I am in much better shape than I was a year ago last time I did the Devon 5peaks trail race, but even so, I still think I will come in DFL, partly because the competition is so much faster than me. But at least I will do better. Next time I run I will have to see if my trail running shoes still fit.

Apart from that, I am eagerly anticipating our trip to South Dakota at the end of May. We are driving and will be coming back through Wyoming and Montana via Yellowstone. Have to check out the Little Big Horn in Montana, the Black Hills, and Yellowstone. I hope to run in each state. Nothing official, just so long as I can run there.