Building Endurance: How Menopausal Women Can Train Smarter

We all know that in order to build a strong aerobic body, we need to do lots and lots and lots and lots of zone2 training. But as women age, especially in peri and post menopause their ability to recover from these bouts of exercise takes longer. However, we are also built for this. If you have been paying attention to the endurance sports world of late, you will have noticed that women have been making the news. A lot. And even a few have taken an Overall win, such as Fiona Kolbinger in the Transcontinental bike race, an Ultra endurance event. This is due to our ability to prefer fat use over carbohydrate, and our bodies ability to store more fat, and retrieve it easier than our male counterparts.

With that in mind though, we do need to be careful with the long endurance training as we age, and be mindful to mix it up, but also listen to our bodies and give them a rest when they ask for it. And they do ask for it. When I say mix it up, I’m talking about not only the mode of which you are participating, be it, run, bike, swim, hike, or other. I’m also talking about the intensity in which you are doing it. There isn’t just one way to build that cardiovascular system, so why do we see some people only train one way. Now I get it some people just don’t like anything but that one form of movement they choose, or maybe they cannot, for whatever reason, use another form of cardiovascular training. Let’s get creative then. Let’s find you at least one other form of cardiovascular movement that you can do even just once a week to break things up.

Now that you have found that other form of cardiovascular fun, now I’m going to tell you to ALSO do 2 more things. What??? You are probably saying. This is all part of making sure you are well rounded and a complete and durable athlete/human, and not one that is going to be held back by annoying little niggles, as we like to call them. In addition to your Zone 2 training, I’m going to challenge you to do at least once a week of HIIT’s/SIT’s and at least once a week, preferably twice, of strength training, AND short bouts of mobility right before your endurance workouts. Why, oh Why do I forsake you like this??? Because as we age, our bodies do not like the repetitive activities, it breaks them down much faster than when we were younger, and we need more time between bouts to recover. So instead of taking a full day off, I know you would rather keep moving, do it in a different way.

Let’s say you are an Ultra Runner, and you are training to do a 50 mile run, be it a race or you just want to complete it. If you go out and run zone2 for 5-6 workouts a week, yes you will get better, but at some point your body is going to say it’s had enough. And training that way will only build your zone2 base of fitness, and remember there are many more aspects of fitness. Instead let me break down a week I’ve given to my athletes who have already been training for several years, and they are going into their offseason. Huh, sound about right for this time of year?


Monday: gentle mobility and lots of stretching and foam rolling and even a massage if needed.

Tuesday: Morning - Strength & Plyometrics. Evening - Pre-run Mobility, then Track intervals, for top end speed and run form.

Wednesday: Pre-run Mobility, Recovery Run All Zone2, post run mobility.

Thursday: Morning Strength & Plyometrics. Evening Cross Train Day: either bike or swim for 60-90 minutes of mostly zone2 with a few short Zone4 bursts.

Friday: Pre-run Mobility, Tempo/Fartlek Run (this is an undulation between Zone 2-4 efforts).

Saturday: Cross Train - Long bike/hike/swim (several hours if possible) etc. Afternoon Core strength & Mobility.

Sunday: Pre-run mobility, Long Run (several hours depending on where they are in their training) mostly Zone2 with some short efforts into Zone3/4 on hills.


Doing something more like this example week versus Zone2 for 5 to 6 days a week, will not only produce results sooner, but your body won't always feel beat up and run down. Keep it fresh and change it up often. Don’t skip your strength and mobility, and please please please don’t just do Zone2.

The reason we ALSO need strength training isn’t just to make us overall stronger, it’s to help build our bones. Again as we age that osteoporosis nightmare likes to pop its evil head up for some of us. But, you can decrease its effects by lifting consistently, twice a week, and lifting HEAVY-for-you weights. When I say heavy I’m talking about something you can ONLY lift for 4-6 reps, and doing that for 4-6 sets. Now what are you waiting for? Get out there and get moving. Switch things up, lift heavy stuff, run fast, faster, fastest. And by all means HAVE FUN doing it.

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 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 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.

Week 7, Training for 50K Trail Race

Last week, week 6 we focused on a big block of trail running with two days back to back at the beginning of the week. This was to begin putting extended time on my feet, followed by some recovery time on the bike to flush out the lactic acid build up.

Week 7 Training Plan: (21st-27th September 2020)

Monday: Rest and Recovery, Mobility 30+ minutes.

Tuesday: Bike trainer 40 minutes, Strength 60 minutes.

Wednesday: Run 4 miles EASY (Low Zone 2), Core strength 30 minutes.

Thursday: Run 7 miles EASY (Low Zone 2), Strength 1 hour.

Friday: Run 7 miles EASY (Low Zone 2), Mobility 30 minutes.

Saturday: Outdoor team ride 3 hours.

Sunday: Trail run 12 miles keeping Zone 2 as best I can.

This week we were still maintaining 30 miles total running, but we are dropping the intensity down to heart rate zone 2. Dropping the effort down to zone 2 will help build up my aerobic base in order to allow me to sustain the long efforts with less fatigue. In short Zone 2 training uses more of the Type 1 muscle fibers, these are the muscles that are most used in exercise lasting longer than 3 minutes. Zone 2 training also encourages your body to build more capillaries and increase your mitochondria ability to process lactate. It also trains your body to process fat for fuel in preference to carbohydrates which are in short supply. 

Both Tuesday and Wednesday's plan was executed as planned, and my nutrition and sleep was on target. My sleep was about 8 to 8.5 hours each night leading into the workouts. My nutrition was spot on taking in a good healthy mix of nutrients with 40% coming from carbohydrates, 30% from protein, and 30% from fats. My total calories in and out was just about flush both days, and my hydration was also spot on. 

                             **View from Friday's run along the Bayshore route.**

I went to bed Wednesday night ready to take on my first day of a 2 day block of 7 mile runs on Thursday. Unfortunately Thursday I woke up completely exhausted even after getting 8 hours of sleep and not remembering waking up. Turns out that my hormones were messing with me, and I actually had a temperature Thursday. I kept drinking cold water, and stayed near a fan but nothing helped and I felt run down, low energy and ended up deciding not to do my workout. 

Thursday I got to bed at my normal time, in bed by 9:15pm, read till 10pm and then lights out. My plan was to get up at 5:20am on Friday to do my 7 mile run from Thursday, so that I could do Fridays run in the evening. As all good plans go, they don't. Ha. Again I woke feeling exhausted and feverish. However by 9am I was finally feeling better, so I got my first run done. Due to the higher temps that day I was happy to go in the morning. I brought my handheld water bottle and my GoPro and off I went. 

                                              **View from Friday's run.**

Since I decided to go a slightly different route than my normal I created a short video of my route and how peaceful it is at that semi-early time of the morning. You can watch it here on my YouTube channel. The rest of the day was spent working, so I never got a chance to do the second 7 mile run. And actually looking back that would not have been a smart move considering how much training I had on my calendar for Saturday and Sunday.

Oh glorious Saturday and a ride planned for the East Bay. I was looking forward to that ride all week. I actually looked back in my Strava and found I haven't been to this particular route since 2013. The route was starting in San Jose near Calavares and South Park Victoria, riding North into Fremont then out toward Sunol to climb up Palomares road, before descending back down and finishing our jaunt into Sunol and past is taking Calavares road all the way out past the reservoir and back to our starting point. The route was 48 miles in total with 3800 feet of climbing and it was the perfect early fall day to be there. We had cool temps to start, clean newly paved roads, then a beautiful ride through the canyon of Hwy84 to get out to our first climb up Palomares road. Once back down we continued to head East into and then past the little town of Sunol. Once we passed Hwy680 we still had a few miles before we hit the beauty of Calavares and the reservoir that lays below. As we were riding Calavares I remembered this was the sight of one of the recent fires, but yet I hadn't seen and damage. Just as I was saying that to a teammate, we turned a corner in the road and there it was in all it's fire scorched glory. I made a video of our ride and about 2/3 of the way through the video you can see some of that damage on the canyon above and in front of us. 

                                            **Saturday's ride video. Enjoy!**

After getting back to my car I had my usual recovery protein shake waiting in my lunch pail, and extra water and a second cup of coffee, and a sandwich. LOL, that sounds like a lot, but after burning 1500 calories in the morning I needed to replenish as much as possible. Plus it was only 11am so still early enough to have my second cup of coffee.  

  

Last but not least was Sunday's long run. I knew it was supposed to be hot out again so I started my run at 7:30am, which was a perfect 63 degrees. For this run I used my hydration backpack as I didn't want to carry a water bottle in each hand. The backpack had only water in it today, but I did bring some of my own nutrition bites I have been making. I've got to say they are pretty yummy. If you are interested in the recipe it's also here in my blog from September of 2019. 

https://northsnotesonline.blogspot.com/2019/09/homemade-energy-snack-balls.html

Hope you enjoyed reading this weeks adventures. Next week I have to get all my runs in as it's 11 weeks till my run and I need to be getting all the miles in my legs as I can now. 

Week 6, Training for 50K Trail Race

Last week, week 5 was a tough week with the air quality getting as bad as it did. With is not allowing any outdoor activity over the weekend things had to be shuffled around and we went to a play it by ear schedule for the first half of this week.  

This week we planned for the two 10.5 mile trail runs on either Monday and Tuesday, or Tuesday and Wednesday.  

Week 6 Training Plan: (14th-20th September 2020)

Monday: Trail run 10.5 miles with 900+ feet of elevation

Tuesday: Trail run 10.5 miles with 900+ feet of elevation

Wednesday: Bike trainer 40 minutes. Core strength 30 minutes.

Thursday: Bike trainer 40 minutes. Strength 1 hour.

Friday: Undecided, Mobility 15 minutes.

Saturday: Outdoor team ride 3 hours 

Sunday: Easy, flat run 9 miles.

Unfortunately Monday was still in the high 160's on the AQI scale so once again outdoor activities were a bust. However things were looking better Tuesday morning as it had dropped back down to 120, and by the afternoon when I had time to run, it was about AQI 88, so off to the trails I went. 

Midday on a weekday turned out to be a great time to run. I think I passed only 3 people my entire time on the trails. The sun was shining, and the air was clear, maybe still not as clean as it could be but it wasn't orange-brown anymore.  Since I was excited to be out and about, I brought along my GoPro again to take some footage of the beauty I get to enjoy. You can enjoy my Clean Air Rancho San Antonio Preserve Run (click on the name to go to the video) too.

Wednesday was the second day in my back to back trail runs, and the weather was perfect yet again. This being my first back to back day of longer trail runs meant I needed to get plenty of sleep and proper nutrition between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning when I could do my next run. My sleep was okay though I did get suckered into watching an extra episode of Grey's Anatomy (I'm in season 11) and got to be 45 minutes later than I planned. Considering I usually get 8 to 9 hours of sleep I was plenty rested for Wednesday morning. 

 Thursday it's time for the first of my short bike rides, and my leg are feeling heavy. I know that active recovery is always better than doing nothing at all, so I hop on and get started. At first my legs felt sluggish and powerless, but by the time I got through with the 10 minute warm up my legs were feeling loose and happy again. I had the same workout both on Thursday and Friday, and both days my legs felt the same. Heavy at first, then by the 10 minute mark all better. 

Saturday is long ride day, and I was looking forward to seeing my teammates on our social distanced ride. After I got up late, and was feeling rushed to get everything together (I usually have everything packed and prepped the night before, and I did not this time) I decided I just needed one day where I wasn't up and rushing out the door right away. Instead I enjoyed my cup of coffee, had a slow breakfast and even ready a little in my book. At some point I realized I just did not feel up for a ride, so called it a day about 11 am and used the day to clean up my bike space in the garage. The goal was to get all my tools back into my toolbox, and get rid of stuff I just don't use, and of course to clean and re-lube all the bikes. Not only did I accomplish that, but also set aside 3 items in my give away pile because I was so good that I took pictures and posted them online. 

After a full day of rest and a bit of a mental clearing of the cobwebs I was ready to get back to it on Sunday for my 9 mile run. This run did not have to be on the trails so I decided to head over to Shoreline and enjoy the peacefulness of the Bayshore area early in the morning. Of course since I'm blogging about this I had to take my camera and take some quick video snippets of the sights. You can see my video from this week, along with all my other videos on my YouTube channel. 

This run route is flat, mostly, and is fully exposed to the sun the entire time. Even though I ran at 8am when it was cool, I still brought my handheld water bottle to keep my mouth from drying out and to prevent post workout dehydration. I'm starting to get used to having something in my hands while I run, especially when I bring the camera too so I stay better balanced. I do however switch hands every mile with the water bottle and the camera as they are not the same weight and I can feel it in my shoulders as I get further into my runs. 

In all this week was a success, and I continue to look forward to each following week.