Slowly but Surely - Week 13 Training for Grindstone 100.

FOOT INJURY UPDATE

Another week of training in the books and probably my best week yet. The foot responded well after swelling up after last weeks long run. I took two days off from running and just biked those days. By Tuesday I was able to run mostly pain free and then the rest of the week it felt good.

I had a PT follow up this week and got the green light to continue training and progressing. It’s the downhill and flatter terrain where I’m running at a faster pace for several miles that seems to irritate it. So the goal is to get in a few runs where it doesn’t flare up before race day.

SLOWLY PROGRESSING

Thankfully I’ve been able to keep progressing the past 3 weeks and have done two back to back 50 mile weeks. Of course I would love to be doing more, but with the cycling and weight training it’s enough for me to feel confident to go for my goal of sub 20hrs.

It’s ambitious but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Setting big goals changes who you are because of what you have to do to achieve them. There’s this quote I once heard that I love. It goes “Set the kind of goals that will make something of you to achieve them.”

Thats what I try to do. If you set that audacious goal you will become far greater then you thought possible. I believe a sub 20hr race at Grindstone will put me in contention for a podium position. However, my main goal is to execute a good race and to leave it all out there. I hate setting goals too small because it gives you an excuse to go easier when it gets tough.

Maybe you have pushed hard and have had a good race and banked a lot of time, if you pushed really hard you could beat your goal by an hour but instead you don’t push because you know you’ll still reach the goal you set before the race. That’s what scares me is that when that moment comes I’ll give in and not push as hard as I could. That I won’t leave it all out there.

WEEK 13 TRAINING

Monday: 20.19mi bike ride.

Tuesday: 12.25mi bike ride, 3.57mi run.

Wednesday: 10mi run.

Thursday: 7.01mi run.

Friday: 6.17mi run.

Saturday: 14.07mi run, 11.39mi bike ride.

Sunday: 11.42mi run.

Total: 52.24mi running, 43.83mi biked.