Total Mileage: 70mi
Elevation Gain: 7700'
Cross-Training: 6.5mi (3 walking, 3.5 hiking)
Goal: Run at least 60 miles before leaving for a backpacking trip.

This was my first 70-mile week since beginning marathon training last summer (I think I did a couple when training for Western States 100 in 2010) and it included lots of quality workouts, including speed intervals on the track, a tempo run on the road, hill repeats, and two long trail runs. Today's run on the northern section of the Northville-Placid trail got me very excited for Wakely Dam in July. I covered 19 miles of very muddy trail in 3hrs, about the same pace I hope to hold for 32 miles at Wakely (hopefully in much drier conditions).

In addition, the Great Adirondack Trail Run took place on Saturday and was a huge success. Nearly 100 people ran the fun run on Baxter Mountain for the largest field we've ever had by far, and the long run saw some amazing performances including three times that were faster than the men's course record despite the wet and muddy conditions. Huge congrats to Tim Reynolds for his remarkable time of 1:37:36, as well as to local athletes Sarah Keyes (female overall champ) and Matthew Harrison (3rd overall). Plus I have to give a shout out my friend Chris Fey, who ran under 2hrs to improve his time from last year by over 10 minutes and managed to place in the top 10 in our deepest field ever.

Looking Ahead: On Wednesday I turn into a hiker. I'll be in the woods until June 29th, and won't be posting to Adirondack Runner during that time. Thanks for reading, and I'll be back in two weeks!

Total Mileage: 50.5mi
Elevation Gain: 1400'
Cross-Training: 15mi (5 walking, 10 hiking)
Goal: Get as much running in as I can despite a very busy week.

I have to be happy with this week, even though the mileage is lower than I would have preferred. The field trip to Boston wasn't as conducive to running as staying home would have been, but getting two runs in over three days was more than I thought I'd be able to do, and walking around the city made for some easy cross training. It was a tough trip in terms of sleep, but otherwise I think it did me good to have a rest day and to stay loose with all the walking, plus it was a fun time overall.

The week wrapped up nicely, with a feel-good 17-miler on Saturday and 5 easy miles as well as a 10mi hike on Sunday. The hike was quite physical (clearing blowdown) and took over five hours, so between those two factors it was definitely quality cross-training.

Looking Ahead: The following week is my final full week of training before heading into the woods to lead a hiking camp, and I hope to make the most of it. I'll be very busy, but hope to put in at least 60 miles, including speed work on Tuesday, a moderate effort trail run on the GATR course on Thursday (with lots of stops to mark the course along the way), and a long run on Sunday.

Total Mileage: 61
Elevation Gain: 4500'
Goal: Recover from Patch Sprint and get back to doing hard workouts.

What a great confidence building week! After a tough taper for Patch Sprint and a great race day I was not sure how I'd feel during my recovery week. Fortunately the knee ache that I was feeling before the race has mellowed out, and I somehow found the energy for 61 miles--more than I thought I'd do for sure. Highlights of the week include a few days of heat training, which are not fun but are important when race day dawns 80 degrees and humid, and my first tempo run on the road in a while.

Looking Ahead: Tough weeks coming up: I'm in Boston for three days with Finn this week and might not be able to run while I'm there, then I'll be working hard to prepare for directing the Great Adirondack Trail Run the next week (including at least one more day of trail work), all the while getting ready for the 10-day hiking camp I'm leading later in June. I'm going to try not to stress about missing a few workouts, and use the forced time off to recharge for a couple of good training weeks in early July before Wakely Dam.

Total Mileage: 39.5mi
Elevation Gain: 4400'
Cross-Training: 2mi
Goal: Taper and race Patch Sprint on Saturday.

There's not much to say about tapering: I based each day's workout on feel and ended up running a little less than I'd planned but I guess it went well because I felt great on race day. I'll let my Patch Sprint race report speak for the rest of this week.

Looking Ahead: My next race is the Wakely Dam ultra on July 27th. It's 32 miles, so I need to start increasing the length of my long runs and continue to put in moderately high weekly mileage. June is a very busy month for me and it will be difficult to run as much as I'd like--this will be my biggest challenge in the next few weeks. A 10-day backpacking trip later in the month will offer great cross-training but no running. I hope to get some quality workouts in before the trip.

Total Mileage: 50mi
Elevation Gain: 5200'
Cross-Training: 10mi
Goal: Maintain peak fitness for Patch Sprint next Saturday.

Peaking is a difficult art. You're walking a fine line, trying to run your max mileage and hardest workouts without overdoing it, getting sick, or causing injury. My four previous weeks were peak weeks: I ran every day but one, averaging 59mi and 6800' of climbing including three hard workouts per week. It felt great.

This past week was much harder. I didn't want to taper for two full weeks, nor did I want to run as hard as I had during my peak, so I had to do something in between. I didn't cut back enough to make me feel fresh and ready to race, but I did cut back on both mileage and intensity and was surprised to find that toward the end of the week I was feeling more tired than I had during my peak training weeks. I think this is OK--my body is telling me it's time to rest just when I should be resting according to my race schedule--but it's not a great feeling mentally.

Looking Ahead: The Patch Sprint is next Saturday, so this is the time to taper. Assuming I feel good I'll run one more strength workout on the track on Tuesday, cutting the fast miles to 4 rather than the usual 6, and I'll mix a few hard pickups into my Thursday run, but otherwise I'll be running easy and short. More importantly I'll try to eat well (healthy foods, not too much, mostly carbs from Wednesday on) and get plenty of sleep.