Big Day and a Big Smile - Grindstone 100 miler prep - Week 11

I’m smiling big writing this week’s recap. Simply because I was able to get in a 6hr day in the mountains.

TRAINING ON COURSE

I went and did the first 30 miles of the Grindstone course this past Saturday to see what I was dealing with. It’s going to be a long race. The climbs and descents were not super steep on this section but they’re long. Like 6-7 miles of steady climbing then 6-7 miles of steady descending which toasted my quads even though I wasn’t pushing the pace.

I really probably shouldn’t have done this big of a day having not done more than 10 miles in the last 2 months. But that’s how important I think it is to be able to train and see the course you’ll be racing on. It’s the best way to really be able to develop a solid pacing strategy and to know how much fluid and nutrition to take with you in between seeing your crew.

I’m thankful that my foot held up for all 30 miles and 5700ft of climbing and descending. Being able to do big days in the mountains, whether I’m training for a race or just having an adventure always brings a big smile to my face! I hope be able to do this for a long time!

WEEK 11 TRAINING RECAP

Here is a recap of this weeks training

Monday: 2hr bike ride (22.90mi)

Tuesday: 6.10mi run, 30min bike ride (5.5mi)

Wednesday: 8.76mi run

Thursday: 1.5hr bike (16.11mi)

Friday: 1hr bike ride (12.28mi)

Saturday: 30.16mi run

Sunday: 45min bike ride (8mi)

Total: 45.03mi Running, 64.81mi Cycling.