Round and Round the Track I Go! - March Training & Nutrition

If my February training was all about climbing, March can be summed up with one word TRACK.  My training this month involved track sessions, fasted long runs, and a peak mileage week.  Now I have not done track work since I was in the Navy running for my command. My memory of those revolves around the word PAIN; those hurt, a lot.  I tried to block out these memories as I swapped my Monday hill repeats for track sessions.  To compound the agony, Mother Nature has been holding Wisconsin in her vise like grip of winter.  With the school tracks snowed in and my refusal to run track workouts on a treadmill, I bought a pass to the Petit Olympic Training Center; they have an indoor track that circles the ice. 

I showed up for my first session, a ladder starting with a 400, working up to a 1600, then back down to a 400.  I went out like I was running a 100 for the first 400 quickly realizing I had no idea how to pace myself through a track workout.  The backside of this ladder workout was painful.  It only made matters worse that I was running these solo so I was sans company to share my misery.  Listed below is a brief description of several of the track sessions I completed.

Ladder workouts:

(400-800-1200-1600-1200-800-400 with a 400 recovery)

(4x400, 2x1600, 4x200 with a 200 or 400 recovery)

Repeats:

(6x800 w 200 recovery) (12x400 w 200 rec) (6x1600 w 400 rec) (3x1000 w 400)

Another facet of racing that I am working on in training is my ability to utilize fat as a fuel longer.  To really prioritize this I completed all of my long runs backed up against race pace runs the previous day, fasted, and without consuming extra calories.  This means I would run hard on Friday, eat my normal meal, then run on Saturday without consuming any carbs both before and during my run.  I practiced this regardless of run distance.  I really feel that this training has allowed my body to adapt to solely burning fat, and allowed my mind to adapt to running through hypoglycemic states.  Below you will find how I prioritized my nutrition pre run, during the run, and for the rest of the day.

Pre Long Run

12oz warm water with apple cider vinegar

Green tea with coconut oil

1 VESPA JR

During Run (2.5+ Hours)

Coconut water

Post Run Meal

12oz Coconut Water

1C Full fat Greek yogurt with cinnamon, flax, 1/4C blueberries, 1/4C pineapple, ½ banana

½ Grapefruit

1 multi vitamin

1 fish oil

1 vit D3

Afternoon Snack

¼ C raw almonds

Some Raw Cheese (Maybe)

Dinner

Large kale salad with beets, asparagus, tomatoes, avocado, broccoli, shredded mozzarella cheese, & onions

6oz chicken

½ sweet potato

Red Wine or Hard Cider

Dark Chocolate (Maybe)

Foam Rolling, Active Isolated Stretching, & 1 Magnesium

I had my largest volume week, ever, at the end of this month; it is now time to taper for Mad City 50K on Apr 20^th.  Time for this Ultra Runner to see if focusing on speed instead of long and slow will pay off!  Wish me luck!

TOTALS

RUN               303 Miles  39:59:40

SWIM            4     Miles

BIKE              0     Miles