Offseason: What is it, and what should I be doing during it?

Whether you are a competitive triathlete, or just looking to maintain optimum health, your training needs to have what we call an “off-season.” This is a time to rest, refresh, plan and prepare for the next season. Give yourself both a physical and mental break. You may gain perspective on your prior training, or decide it’s time to switch things up completely. 

For multisport/endurance sports the end of the year/winter is considered offseason. This is the time between your last race of the year and the beginning of next year’s focused training plan. This can last anywhere from 3-4 months. 

Many driven individuals have a hard time taking time off, it’s seen as “I’m losing my fitness”, or some say, “I’m being lazy”. In actuality, the off-season is just the opposite. Time to allow your body the chance to recover from all the trauma (yes exercise to the extent we put it through is trauma), time to mentally recover, time to catch up with family and friends, and also time to plan for your next season.

Here are a few tips on how to make the most of your off-season.

1. REST: Easier said than done. It’s recommended to take as long as two weeks away from all workouts, followed by relatively light workouts to get you rolling. This leads me to the concept of periodization. Which is strategically planning your training calendar so you have various phases of training throughout the weeks and months of your in-season training. 

If you ended your season with major or minor injuries, rest is a good idea. This may be a good time to visit a physical therapist for help with your injuries, or a sports mobility coach for help with your mobility issues. 

2. Mix It Up: Cross-train. The occasional swim/bike or run doesn’t hurt, but the key is to break the routine of your in-season workouts. This is the best time to begin to incorporate weight training, especially heavy lifting and powerlifting into your routine.
   
   

3. Set Goals: There are two parts to goal setting, internally and externally driven. 

Internal: Look over your prior year’s performance, how pleased are you with your races and your injury status? You may realize that you want to dramatically improve your swim times, get fast on the bike, or that you have a nagging IT band issue that you need to address before hard training again. Or maybe this upcoming year is the year you jump up to a much longer distance, or a more competitive age group.

Improvements in your desired growth areas can become part of your goals for next season. Don’t forget to set a goal for how to take action on each line item goal. To become a better swimmer, maybe you need to join a local masters swim group, or even get one-on-one coaching to address that IT band issue. Perhaps you need to set a series of appointments with a therapist or rehab specialist.

External: Now let's look at the calendar. Find the races you are interested in participating in and place them on a calendar. Once on the calendar look to see how far apart they are spaced out. You may have some a few weeks apart, or others months apart. The important part now is to decide which ones are your “A” races, the ones you want to be in top shape for and maybe are hoping for a podium finish, or maybe an overall top finish. Then do the same with the rest of the races, labeling them B, C, and D of lesser importance or focus. Think about other likely family or work commitments too - it's not fun being in peak training mode right when you are taking your family on a trip to Europe. Whatever works for you, be intentional about your races so your training plan has a definition and focus.

4.Start Your Base Training

After a few weeks of resting your body, breaking out of old habits, and doing some cross-training, it’s time to begin base training. This base training is characterized by low-intensity but consistent training that allows your body to establish both a cardiovascular and muscular base of fitness before adding intensity and distance. That being said, now is the best time to be hitting the BIG weights, and working your power movements. Obviously, you need to build up to them, improving your mobility to get lower into your squat so you can engage the end-range muscle better and get a fuller range of strength. This practice of routine structured workouts will help your mental toughness later in the harder stages of training. 

Your off-season time is a great time to experiment with new techniques or training inputs. From looking at your nutrition and hydration options, to swimming or run form analysis, or maybe you haven't been up for power meter input yet. Now is the best time to start to play with these new modalities, instead of race week or even race day.

5.Find or Create a Plan

Some people like to wait until the offseason is over to start looking at the race/event calendar. I challenge you to look now. Use this time to see what events you might want to do, and see if they fit into your calendar, obviously working around family and work stuff. Once you have an idea of your events it’s time to sit down and look at whether these are feasible for you. Meaning, if you did these same events last year, but you never felt quite prepared, maybe you had too many events, or maybe you didn’t plan your training peak for the right time. These issues can cause some people stress. You don’t have to stress alone. Maybe this year it’s time for a coach. Coaches are there for more than just creating a program to follow. They provide feedback on your race calendar and can help you set up your plan of attack for the season/year. They can also help you figure out why last year you didn’t peak or peaked too soon. 

6.Check Your Gear

Your bike may have had a squeak or felt sluggish in the braking power, or your goggles are fogging up on all of your swims. Offseason can be a great time to do both maintenance and gear inventory. Doing this maintenance when you don’t have an urgent ride or race in just a few days away can be fun, and for sure much less stressful. You may even learn that you like certain parts of bike maintenance, and this can help save you time and stress during the season.

This time of year is also a good time to get discounts on all your gear as manufacturers are closing out on last year's models. Old models of gear work well, sometimes better than the first iteration on a new one where all the kinks have already been worked out. If you wait closer to the season there is a good chance that gear prices will go up as demand increases. Also really important:  make sure everything you use is in good working order. This goes for your bike, helmet, bike shoes, bike computer, running shoes, watch, glasses, wet suit, swimsuit and goggles. Perhaps your bike helmet is past its safety range and it’s time to replace it. Or maybe your tires were not as grippy or maybe too heavy for your liking, or just worn out, now is a good time to replace them.

This is the perfect time to make changes like going tubeless or switching to disk brakes. Switching in the offseason gives you time to learn some of the ins and outs of what these changes entail.

Use your offseason to recover from your prior racing/event season and also prepare for the next one. Just because it’s the offseason doesn’t mean you lose structure and discipline in your workouts, instead, it’s about consciously taking a break, and taking the time to evaluate and decide what routines to walk away from that don’t suit you, and replacing them with ones that help you thrive and enter your next season with proper goals for you, renewed health and even better base conditioning than last year.

Finally Completed my 50K Trail Run

On December 5th, I was in St. George, Utah for my 50K Trail race. That day started off fine, even the first lap (there were going to be 5 laps) went well. Unfortunately the day did not work out for me in a few ways and I ended up having to pull out of the race in the middle of lap 3. I was pretty bummed, and tried not to let it get me down for the duration of my time in St. George.

**A few pictures from out on the course in Utah. **

I knew however that I had some unfinished business I needed to attend to. I needed to get another 50K back on my schedule as soon as possible. I even tried to get it in the very next weekend. After chatting with my coach and coming down off my frustration horse, I was okay with scheduling it for December 27th. That gave me 3 more weeks to prepare, after not completing the first. 

**Here is a short video of the St. George, Utah race location. Take on lap 2 of 5 in the counter clockwise direction.**

Those last 3 weeks leading up to my second attempt, my main focus points were on keeping stress low, getting enough sleep and plenty of good healthy foods. Ugh that's hard around the holidays, but I managed. For sleep I was making sure to get 8 hours, which for me is normal, but I was extra careful not to stay up even 5 minutes later than planned. When it came to nutrition I cut out all alcohol, except on Christmas day, and made sure to get plenty of healthy proteins and veggies. Plus cannot forget my carbohydrates in the form of sweet potatoes, gluten free bread, and oatmeal.

The day of my event I had already packed most of my food the night before, but still had to fill my water bottles and eat breakfast. At 6am I sat down to eat my breakfast which consisted of homemade oatmeal (I usually use steel cut oats, but we only had rolled oats left) with cinnamon, raisins and maple syrup, a cup of coffee with oat milk, and a blueberry fig bar. For the food I would eat during my run I packed 4 blueberry fig bars (420 calories), 1.5 packages of Clif Blocks (135 calories plus caffeine), 2 homemade energy balls (440 calories), and 12 chicken nuggets (220 calories). Then for my fluids I took 1.5 liters of water plus Clif Hydration powder in each water bottle, this was to help my body absorb the water better than just plain water. If you want more information on hydration for the endurance athlete, read my blog on Hydration, How Much is Enough.    

I packed myself some dry cloths for after the run, and also a second pair of shoes and socks just in case it was wet and my feet needed to dry off. In addition to the cloths, I also packed my GoPro for a little extra fun while out on the trail. Now it was time to head off to the park.

Upon arrival at the park, I noticed there were less than half the parking spaces left and was a bit nervous about how many people I would come in contact with. So, I grabbed my handheld face covering (it's a chammy cloth the size of a washcloth) that I can easily hold in my hand to cover my nose and mouth while close to people but then take away from my face just as easily. 

It's now go time, I've got my backpack filled with everything I will need for my first 2 laps and my Garmin is on and ready to go. I pass through the gate at the parking lot to the start of the trail hit my start button and off I go. My plan is to start slow, as is always the case, and start by running around the small loop first then head off into the Lisa-Cottle Loop for my repeats. As I'm heading toward the first gate which is only a quarter mile from the car park, I notice a bunch of cows on the other side. Yay I pull out my GoPro for a little distraction and then off I go.

While making my way around the short loop I start running through my head my plan for the day. This plan involved several key items, pace, nutrition, fluids, fun, family. Pace needed to be kept slow, nutrition and fluid plan was to eat/drink early and often. I've had a few runs in the past that I started eating and drinking too late and ended up feeling exhausted, or getting leg cramps. I needed to stay ahead of it if I wanted to finish this run on my feet. 

The hills at Rancho San Vicente are not steep so my pace doesn't slow down much on the up hills, but my goal was to not go faster than a nine minute per mile pace, on the flats to keep it no faster than 8:20 pace, and on the down hills no faster than 7:20 pace. With my excitement of finally getting back out to give this distance another go, I kept going over my paces in the first lap. However I was much better at controlling my speed in lap two. 

Along the course this time I came across several cows on the trail. As I had never been so close to them before I did not know how to approach or pass them. Admittedly I was a bit afraid. I stopped, said hello to them and slowly, very slowly walked toward them. One by one they all started moving slowly off the trail until it was safe for me to pass. I had to do this 3 times in the first lap, once in the second lap and by the third lap they had all made their way up the trail to higher grazing ground. 

In my first and second lap I drank 300 milliliters of hydration fluids, and 250 calories of food each lap. This then allowed me to hop off the look and head back to my car after the second lap to refuel. I swapped out my water bottles, emptied my empty food wrappers, and grabbed more food. It was now time for some savory bites of yummy chicken nuggets, along with more homemade energy bites.

By the time I got back out to the start of the third lap I could feel my body getting tired, and it should be I was at mile 17 now. When I ate my first chicken nugget I noticed my mouth was not watering as much as it had earlier, this told me I hadn't had enough to drink, so I slowed down to a walk and got some hydration in me. At this point I knew I was going to need to step up my hydration game so now instead of drinking every 20 minutes I was sipping water every mile. This helped tremendously, because at mile 22 it was time to eat another energy bite and I was able to eat it without feeling like it was a dry rock in my mouth.  

Mile 24 was where I was starting to feel my legs getting very tired, I was having trouble lifting my toes or getting a good toe off. My hamstrings were starting to get irritated, and my calves were rocks attached to my tibias. I was able to keep the hamstring issue under control by focusing on the position of my pelvis as I was running. I noticed every time I would feel the hamstring straining that I was rolling into anterior rotation of my pelvis. This told me I was allowing my abdominals to get lazy and my lumbar muscles to tighten up, thus putting my hamstrings on stretch. Glad I knew what to do for that.

I hit the wall at mile 27. My whole body just said no more. I felt my heart rate go up for no reason, I was on the flats at that point. My legs wanted to seize, and it was taking all my might to not stop. Up to this point I have only ever run 26.2 miles at my longest. I think my body was saying hey, woman, what are you doing, you're all done now. Because it took all my energy to keep going I told myself I could walk for 3 to 5 minutes, then it's go time again. After 3 minutes I felt good enough to push on. After this point my pace had slowed down quite a lot, but I was just focused on finishing the mileage. 

With 0.9 miles to go to complete my 50k (31.1 miles), I realized I still had a little over two miles left to get back to the end of the trail. Ugh! The trail was mostly flat and about to start heading downhill to the finish so with a quick last swig of hydration, I shut out the pain and started running again. Those last 15 minutes seemed to fly by and before I knew it I hit mile 31.1 and was still running. With only 0.75 miles to go I'm headed downhill and can hear my coach shouting to me. Oh wow what a wonderful sound. He rode down to the finish where my wonderful wife and niece and nephew were waiting with a finishing tape. I think that last three quarter miles was my fastest on the day as all I wanted to do was be done. 

As I crossed the finish line, to the amazing cheers of my loved ones and my coach, I hit my stop watch and saw that I had completed 32.2 miles in 5 hours and 16 minutes. This felt so good to have finally completed my first 50K trail run. And I can now say I'm an Ultra Runner. 

**Here is my recap video from my completed 50k at Calero Reservoir.**

Thank you to my coach for all the amazing training you put me through to get me ready to run that distance. Thank you to the unwavering support of my wife, and thank you to my niece and nephew for your cheers.

This whole experience from the beginning of the training through to the completed event was so much work, and fun, but worth every moment. I've already decided that wasn't long enough and am planning on doing a 44 mile run for my birthday in 2021, and a 50 mile run by December 2021. Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed as much as I did.

Week 13, Training for 50K Trail Race

After Sunday's epic run my body was tired both physically and emotionally. I needed extra nutrition on Sunday and Monday, and extra rest and mobility exercises. By Tuesday I was feeling about 70% back to normal, and by Wednesday I hit homeostasis. 

 Week 13 Training Plan: (2nd - 11th November)

Monday: Rest and Recovery, Mobility 30+ minutes.

Tuesday: Rest and Recover, Core strength 30 minutes.

Wednesday: Run on flats 4 miles HR not to exceed 143, Strength 30 min.

Thursday:  Run 7 miles @ 8:15 pace with 1 mile @ 6:50 pace, Mobility 30 minutes.

Friday: Recovery day, CORE & Mobility 30 mins each.

Saturday: Go have fun and ride bike outside for 90 minutes. 

Sunday: Trail run 4 hours with 3000+ feet elevation gain.

The beginning of this week was great having both Monday and Tuesday set aside for rest days, then coming back with an easy run on Wednesday. Since it has been a while that I've done any speed work due to focussing on endurance of late it was time to hit a hard effort on Thursday.

Thursday was so much fun getting out and really pushing the pace. Since my focus for so many weeks has been on longer distances my pace has slowed down, so it was a bit hard to hit my fast 1 mile effort prescribed pace. I was able to maintain my elevated pace before the 1 mile effort and again after so I was happy with that. It is true you cannot trail well for both speed and endurance, one will suffer at the other ones gain. 

Friday was another rest day, so I spent the day trying to upload my videos from the last few weeks. My poor iPad is on it's way out, it knows I ordered a new one so it's giving me even more grief, thus the reason it's taking so long to get my videos out. Between attempts at uploading, I spent time working my mobility for my legs so that they would be all nice and happy for Sunday's big run.

Before we get to Sunday I had to go have fun on my bike Saturday. I bought new wheels a few months ago and it's taken me a while to get them set up. Tire and pump issues, but finally thought I had it resolved. I jumped on my bike and a very chilly Saturday afternoon only to turn around 3 minutes later due to brake and drivetrain issues. So frustrating especially since I'm a mechanic, but I don't have the tools to make the adjustments this time. Off the road bike and onto the Mountain Bike then. Off I got to hit some dirt near my house, but keeping it to the flats as much as possible.   

Saturday afternoon and evening meals were very important in preparing for Sunday's run. The goal was to get plenty of proper nutrition and hydration so that I will wake up feeling refreshed and ready to go. My lunch consisted of lean turkey burger with some yellow mustard, roasted broccoli, and buttered baguette. Then dinner was grilled asada chicken thigh with roasted cubed yams and butter, and a small kale salad (kale, lemon juice, shredded parmesan cheese, drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper). Oh yeah and about 60 ounces of water throughout the day on Saturday. 

I got to bed by 10pm Saturday and up by 6:30am Sunday.  My breakfast was a cup of coffee with oat milk, 2 slices of toast with butter, cinnamon and brown coconut sugar. Right before I started my run I ate one of my homemade no bake energy bites (super easy to make: banana, oats, peanut butter, shredded coconut, protein powder, chocolate chips/dried cranberries/dried blueberries/ect). Here is the recipe if you want to give it a try for yourself.

This week I stayed close to home for my route and headed to South San Jose near the reservoirs. I started at the new entrance for Calero Reservoir where all the mountain bikers start. There was an 8 mile loop that I did here, before meandering my way over to Almaden Quicksilver park at the Hacienda entrance. Once there I made my way through another loop taking Mine Hill trail to Cape Horn Pass, Hacienda trail, Virl O Norton trail and popped out at the Mockingbird hill entrance to Quicksilver. Dove back in to Hacienda where the trail had about 4 really steep nasty sections of which I walked all of these as they were too steep to try and run. Eventually Hacienda starts going back down hill and meets back up with Mine hill trail and I then ran down the road to the trail head back to the Calero trail system and finished my run. 

In all this was a really fun route. I brought a different backpack today (this one does not leak) and had a straw into the water reservoir, and I started my hydrating at about 20 minutes into the run instead of my usual 45 minutes. This made a HUGE difference as I did not feel any muscle cramping, my lips never got chapped and my mouth never felt dry. Plus when I was eating my nutrition I didn't need to drink my hydration to give me enough moisture in my mouth to help break it down. This run, in addition to my previous foods, I added chicken nuggets to the mix. OH WOW!!!! That was a treat. Most of my other foods are very carb centered and sweet tasting, but these being a bit more protein centered and savory, they actually made my mouth water when I ate them. Those are a definite for my event in December. 

In total my run was 4 hours on the nose, and this time I completed 25 miles and 3200 feet of elevation gain. This is the longest run I will do before the event now. Next week will be focused on recovery as it's been a solid 3 weeks of building up, my body needs a rest week. 

Thanks for reading.

Week 12, Training for 50K Trail Race

Recovery from last week went really well on Monday, and I had no problem getting my first run of the week on Tuesday. The big focus this week is being prepared for the long run on Sunday. This will be my longest and most elevation gained in a run. I need to take care of my sleep, nutrition, and stress this week.  

*Half Way point on Sunday's run.*

Week 12 Training Plan: (26th October - 1st November)

Monday: Rest and Recovery, Mobility 30+ minutes.

Tuesday: Run on flats 4.75 miles HR not to exceed 143, Strength 30 minutes.

Wednesday: Run on flats 4.75 miles HR not to exceed 143, Strength 30 min.

Thursday:  Run Hill Repeats (2 mile warm up, 5 x 7 minutes hard pace uphill, easy downhill, 2 mile cool down), Strength 30 minutes.

Friday: Recovery day, CORE & Mobility 30 mins each.

Saturday: Run flats 5.75 miles HR not to exceed 143, Strength & Mobility 30 minutes each. 

Sunday: Trail run 3.5 hours with 3000+ feet elevation gain.

*Ocean View before heading in toward Muir Woods.*

The big focus this week was 3 solid runs staying at the low end of my Zone 2 heart rate range, for me that is 135-143. I was able to manage that for my first two runs but with some difficulty. The problem I was having in keeping my heart rate low was managing to keep my form. I tend to bounce up and down more when I go that slow and then I feel my back and knees getting upset. After the first run trying to keep the HR at the low end I chatted with my coach and we decided to allow me to run "faster" but keep my HR in the zone. 

The second and third runs attempting to do Zone 2 were much better. I was able to keep my HR at 143 and no higher, and was also able to manage my run form. Run form at this point in my training is just as important as Heart Rate ranges and daily nutrition.

Unfortunately I was not able to get out to the trails on Thursday for my hill repeats. I planned on attempting it Friday morning but that also fell through. These things happen and I allow myself to be upset for a few minutes then I start focussing on my next workout. 

*Nutrition for Sunday's run. There is 1.7L of hydration, and 1000kcal. I drank all the fluid, but only ate 600kcal during the run.*

For Sunday's run I planned to follow the Rabbit Chase 30K route. It started in Stinson Beach at the Dipsea trail Trailhead, meandered it's way up the Steep Ravine trail (which included an 8 foot ladder ascent) and out to the top of the hill side for a full ocean view before heading inland and into Muir Woods. 

*Final results from Sunday's run.*

The trail system in that area I found to be confusing. There were so many trail heads, and many times there were no signs at the split offs. Luckily I had studied the maps so much that I had a good idea of when, by mileage, I needed to make my next turn. I still managed to make 2 wrong turns but neither of them resulted in my ending up in Santa Rosa or San Francisco so I'll take that as a win. 

At the end of the run, I sat down in a cute little park in Stinson Beach and enjoyed my post workout protein shake, more water, and snacks. I was feeling a little dehydrated and was craving what I thought was Ginger Ale, but turned out I ended up buying lime flavored bubbly water. 

*Video of my Sunday run adventures.*

I realized that with my bottles leaking as much as they did, I did not get enough water during the run, and also I put too much of my hydration formula in my bottles. I didn't figure out the too much hydration mix issue till Monday and Tuesday when my intestines were in a bind. The plan now is to decrease the amount of hydration mix in each bottle, and get better bottles. 

Time to get some solid rest and recovery before next weeks training and next weekends longer run. Stay tuned.

Week 11, Training for 50K Trail Race

It's crunch time, there are 6 weeks till my event and I'm getting excited. I also have a small calf issue that I've had to be very careful with over the past week and a half. The calf strain happened 2 weekends ago during my 16 mile trail run. On my way back down the Quarry Loop trail, which serpentines and is rocky and steep in some sections is where it happened. In one of the the steep turns I was going too fast and I felt my foot slide in my shoe and felt a light pull in my left calf. I didn't stop as it was so minor at the time I thought it would be fine.

Throughout the following week it didn't bother me until I got off my bike after this past Saturday's Tour de Cure bike ride. Due to the recurrence of pain my Sunday run became a Sunday mobility, ice, and compression day, so did Monday.   

Week 11 Training Plan: (19th - 25th October)

Monday: Rest and Recovery, Mobility 30+ minutes.

Tuesday: Run 4 miles steady 8:10 pace, Strength 30 minutes.

Wednesday: Hill Repeats, 4 x 7 minutes on hills, Strength 30 min.

Thursday:  Bike spin on trainer 40 minutes, Zone 2 high cadence, Strength 30 minutes.

Friday: Bike spin on trainer 40 minutes, Zone 2 high cadence, Mobility 30 mins.

Saturday: Trail run 14 miles at Rancho Preserve, Mobility 30 minutes. 

Sunday: Trail run 14 miles at Rancho Preserve, Mobility 30 minutes.

Tuesday's 4mile run was the test to see how the calf was feeling, and it was to be kept of flat surface at a safe pace. Through the run, I felt no issues and kept my goal pace too. Good news I thought. Later that evening while walking in my socks in the house I slipped while turning and felt the pull in both the hamstring and calf. UGH! Back to mobility, compression and ice again.

By Wednesday morning the left leg felt back to normal so off the Rancho I headed for my hill repeats workout. Usually I park at a school a mile outside the park, but that takes 3.5 miles of running to get to the base of the climb I use for my repeats. So this time I decided to actually park in the park, and being it was 10am on a Wednesday I figured it would be easy to find parking. I mean really, shouldn't everyone be in school or working? Nope! The lot closest to the trail was FULL. Good thing there are a few more lots close to the trail.

Got my 2 mile warm up in, and off I went right into my first hill repeat. These were supposed to be 7 minutes in length where I am pushing the pace on the way up, turn around and take it easy coming down. The going up on my first attempt was good except I was only able to last about 6 minutes before deciding to turn around and head down. My lungs and legs were not happy to go further than 6 minutes on the first rep and turns out for the rest of them as well. On the final descent I slipped in the gravel part of the trail and strained the hamstring and calf again. NOOOO!!! These things once started can take time to heal. So once home I rested, iced and put on clean compression as I was wearing compression sleeves for this session due to wanting to keep the calf happy.

Thursday and Friday were a nice change from running to be able to ride my bike. Felt good to sit and get my cardio in instead of pounding the pavement. 

Saturday and Sunday's runs ended up being flat instead of on trails. I had to start at 6am on Sautrday due to a very busy day, and since 6am it's dark still, I was not about to go be Mountain Lion breakfast. So my option was stick to the flats at Shoreline and what a great morning for a run it was. I brought my headlamp and set off for my 14 miles. It was surprising to see how many other people are out o early, but I get it as the sunrise was amazing. My nutrition and hydration was spot on for today,  and I had 1L of my hydration fluid plus 400 calories that I ate during my 2 hours on my feet.

Time to rest up and get ready for next weekends long run at Stinson beach and heading up the infamous Dipsea trail.

Week 10, Training for a 50K Trail Race

 This has been a recovery week, and I surely needed it. After finishing my 16 mile trail run, I spent the rest of my Sunday getting plenty of rest and recovery. Unfortunately I did not sleep well Sunday night through Wednesday night. Each night I felt like I was having hot flashes, and was nauseous. Looking at my sleep tracker I was very busy tossing and turning all those nights. Needless to say My week didn't start off well. 

Week 10 Training Plan: (6th - 18th October)

Monday: Rest and Recovery, Mobility 30+ minutes.

Tuesday: Glute & Core Strength 45 minutes, Mobility practice 30 minutes.

Wednesday: Glute & Core Strength 45 minute, Mobility Practice 30 min.

Thursday:  Easy run 3.1 miles on the flats keeping Zone 2, Strength 30 minutes.

Friday: Easy run 3.1 miles on the flats keeping Zone 2, Mobility 30 mins.

Saturday: Tour De Cure ride 4.5 hours with some significant climbing.

Sunday: Trail run 14 miles keeping Zone 2 as best I can with the hills.

Luckily Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were rest days from running and riding but I still needed to get in my strength workouts, and my mobility workouts. I was fine doing those, but mentally I was struggling. I also felt like I was coming down with a cold. My eyes were heavy and itchy, I had a slight sore throat and some post nasal drip, not to mention my energy level was a 2 out of 10. 

By Thursday I had enough of being tired. I called off my late morning and afternoon work commitments and tried to nap. This nap was semi-successful in that I did sleep, but not for as long as I was hoping for. Needless to say I was still able to get some sleep Thursday into Friday and even woke up feeling refreshed. 

Friday I had to take my car in for service in the morning, then was going to do my run when I got home. This was a great plan especially since it was going to get into the low 90's again. On my morning run the temp was already 75 degrees when I started, but the light felt like it was 5pm. It's definitely fall even if the temps are not fall like. 

Friday evening I prepared all my food and water for Saturdays long ride. This helps me rest better knowing I'm all ready for the morning. The good news about these rides is there are plenty of places along the way to stop and refill my water bottles. The ride was going to be around 6 hours in length so I packed enough food for 200 kcal an hour plus water with Clif Hydration at 20 ounces an hour. In all the ride  went really well, we all stayed together and enjoyed a nice lunch break in Pescadero. The air was so clear that when we go to Hwy1 you could clearly see the ocean. Also by this time the temperature had risen and we were all feeling quite warm. I was able to get a few bits a pieces of video from the ride, but unfortunately during the last descent my camera flipped down and I didn't know it. When I got to the bottom of the descent I saw my camera pointing at the ground and realized I may have missed the entire Kings Mountain descent. Oh well, I'll just have to ride that road again and make sure that darn camera stays facing forward.

**Here is the video from Saturday's Tour de Cure ride.**

Sunday's run ended up getting cancelled. Long story short, my long run from last week ended up causing a strain in my left calf. It was fine most of the week, however when I got off my bike after Saturdays ride, something went pop and it hurt the rest of the day. With my event coming up in only 6 weeks I need to stay healthy so the run had to be canceled. 

These things happen in training, and you just have to go with them. When we try to push through is when we create bigger problems. So instead of running, I will be focusing on recovery through rest, ice, compression and gentle mobility exercise to keep the knee and ankle moving while I'm not running. We shall see how next week goes. 

Week 9, Training For 50K Trail Race

Anniversary weekend is over and full recovery has occurred. Time to hit the pavement again. This week I'm going to be doing a bunch more Zone 2 training with some Zone 4/5 thrown in for extra adaptations. It also helps after doing a lot of the long slow Zone 2 training to break up the monotony with some higher effort Zone 4/5 training.

 Week 9 Training Plan: (5th - 11th October)

Monday: Rest and Recovery, Mobility 30+ minutes.

Tuesday: Run: Hill Repeats 4 x 1/2 mile, Strength 30 minutes.

Wednesday: 75 minute fun leisurely Bike ride, Core strength 30 min.

Thursday: Run 8.5 miles on the trails keeping Zone 2, Strength 30 minutes.

Friday: Trainer ride 1 hour working Neuromuscular Activation, Mobility 30 mins.

Saturday: Outdoor team ride 4 hours lots of climbing.

Sunday: Trail run 16 miles keeping Zone 2 as best I can with the hills.

First workout of the week happened at Rancho San Antonio preserve again. This time instead of parking at the elementary school outside the park, I drove into the park and got a front row space near the bathrooms. From here it was just a smidge over 2 miles to the start of the hill I decided to use for todays hill repeats. Normally I go up Rogue Valley trail  to the top, but it would have been a 2.6 mile warm up just to get to the base of the main climb. Instead I opted for a new to me trail, the Chemise trail just off lower Rogue Valley. Turns out this trail is quite steep in places and I definitely got the leg strength workout that was planned, which also gave me some great Zone 5 training as well. The best part about this trail is that no one else was on it. Maybe it was the time of day or maybe just because it's so exposed people don't want to use it. But I loved having the trail to myself to huff and puff and slog my way up and down it 4 times. Unfortunately I forgot my GoPro so I have no video or photo of the trail (from that day), but trust me from my other pics and video's there is no difference between this one and all the others in the park. It's wide, dusty, and steep. 

**This is the steep section on Chamise trail I took from my video's of Sunday's run.**

This week I got to ride outside for a fun filled leisurely 75 minute stroll which took place just before lunch on Wednesday. It was a perfect day to be outside, the sun was shining, the temps were a cool 65 and hardly a car on the road. Can't ask for much better than that. The nice easy bike spin was really goof for stretching out my legs from the hill repeats I did on Tuesday, and to prepare my legs for more hills on Thursday.

Thursday's run was just an easy Zone 2 trail run at Rancho again. I took my usual route up Rogue Valley to the top and today I just got to turn right around and head back down. The leaves were noticeably different than the last several runs here. You could tell fall is here, as there were many laves falling or already on the ground. The light coming in through the trees felt different, and the air again cooler.

**This was taken at mile 7 of Sunday's run. This is looking towards Cupertino/San Jose.**

Skipping Friday's trainer ride as it was not much to report, just an hour doing high cadence spinning while keeping my heart rate low. Only good thing about those sessions is that I usually get to watch some crazy YouTuber doing insane stunts and generally just get to zone out for a short bit. 

Saturday however was supposed to be 4 hours of climbing, which got changed to a 3 hour ride with some climbing. Once out on the route and about 45 minutes in my legs were starting to feel more tired than normal. At that point we were about to climb Page Mill road. That is not an easy road to climb, and I made a last minute decision to save my legs for the onslaught they were going to get Sunday for my run. So instead of heading up Page Mill from Altamont, I headed down the hill and stayed on the flats for the rest of my ride.

**On the Quarry Trail loop headed back down the hill toward PG&E trail.**

I made sure to get plenty of rest Saturday night, plus I wore my compression sleeves for several hours after my bike ride to make sure my legs got plenty of recovery. Then before I knew it, it was Sunday morning and time to run my longest run since 2014. For breakfast I had 2 slices of toast with butter, cinnamon and a sprinkle of brown coconut sugar plus a cup of coffee with oat milk. 

In my backpack today I planned for being out running for about 3 hours. So I brought 1.5 liters of fluids in my 4 bottles that fit nicely in this new pack. I filled 1 liter of that with the Clif Hydration mix I've been using, and the remaining 0.5 liter was plain water. I also brought food for 200 calories an hour plus extra in case I was out longer than expected. Also since this was a new trail for me and quite far from any homes or roads I also packed a small can of pepper spray as I was told the chance of seeing a mountain lion up there is petty good. I also brought a map of the park that I folded and put into a plastic baggie so I can read it without it getting soaking wet from sweat. In the baggie I tossed a couple band aids and some moleskin just in case I got blisters. Last but certainly not least I brought my GoPro. 

The run started off my usual from the car park to the Farm is 1.75 miles, then the course starts to increase in elevation just a slight bit, maybe a 1 or 2% grade. The Rogue trail is where I started, and at mile 2.5 in my run I turned off onto the Chemise trail. Initially it looks steep, but it didn't feel that bad. However at mile 3.5 till mile 5 that trail gets very steep. It was steep enough that I would alternate between fast walking and super short step running. This trail is also very open with no shade until the top, but great views of the Rogue Valley trail and out towards Los Altos and Cupertino.

Once I hit the top of Chamise at the start of the Black Mountain trail connection the trail "flattened" out a bit. But that flatter trail enjoyment didn't last long. It was about mile 5.8 when the trail kicked back up for the next 2.4 unrelenting miles. The steepness of the trail meant that there were many switchbacks, but also at times some pretty amazing views of the South Bay. All these amazing views I'm talking about can be seen in the video just below. 

 

Now the steepest part of the trail was yet to come. At mile 7.5 is when I hit the last section of trail that would lead me up to the top of Black Mountain. To get close to hear by car you would drive to the intersection of Page Mill road and Skyline Boulevard, just to give you an idea of where I was. At my highest point I was at 760 meters up or 2500 feet of elevation. The peak of Black Mountain trail tops out at 850 meters, so you can see I still wasn't even at the top, but for my legs today I was. 

This is where I stopped talked to the camera tying to get a good picture of the steepness of the last section of trail, and just to take in the amazing views from here. At this point I could truly say it was all downhill from there. One the way down I had to take the Quarry loop trail which hooked up with the top of PG& E trail. The Quarry loop trail was really interesting as I felt like I was in a maze. The trail itself was a single track trail, with the brush along the side being only 6feet in height and it just twisted and turned for the next 2 miles. The neat part about this trail is even tough it was narrow, steep and eerily like a corn maze, every now and then you would get a view of the Bay and this day did not disappoint. The sky was so clear and blue and fresh I couldn't help but to turn on the GoPro and try to catch as much as I could. 

**View from the top of my run at 8.1 miles and 2600 feet of elevation, and I'm still not at the top of this trail, it goes up another 200 feet.**

Once I got to the bottom of the trail and back to my car, I had my post workout protein shake ready to guzzle down. I also ended up guzzling down my last 500 mL of water I hadn't drank yet. Note to self need to drink more water during the run, drinking 1 liter for 2 hours and 40 minutes of running is not enough for me.    

For he rest of the day Sunday I keep pretty quiet. My compression sleeves were on for about 3 hours, and I sat with my legs elevated as much as I could. A good hearty meal was also in store for me about 2 hours post end of the run. This lunch consisted of a toasted turkey sandwich with mayo, and a side of romanesco broccoli and cauliflower, sauteed in a butter garlic cream sauce, plus more water.

This week ended my 4 week cycle of building up some decent long miles. Next week will be a rest week, but there will still be plenty of activities.