Week 19 - Trail running and some bad days

 Much like the previous week the Monday that I ran, with some strides, just didn't feel right.  I got in 8 strides vs the 10 I had done the previous Monday but I also decided that I wasn't going to do any of my "faster" work this week and see if I could get out of this funk.  So that's what I did and I think I might be out of this funk, after week 20. But we shall see. 

Monday was a 36 minute run with 8 strides

Wednesday was a tempo run/fast finish where the last 10 minutes were at a faster pace. 

Friday was back to a somewhat easy run with 8 strides.  This one felt okay. 

Saturday I ventured up to the park where my trail race at the end of August will be and I ran the course.  I also attempted to do some threshold on it and it was way harder than what I was doing on the road so I did one session of 7 minutes and then one session of 4 minutes and dialed it back!  Despite not being able to get a 2nd set of 7 minutes I think this was good because I have a better idea of what I'll do on race morning.  Those things are to get in some strides before hand to buffer any lactic acid up or to get the legs ready for the work. Take your pick. Secondarily I'll make sure to get some more electrolytes in me.  Some in the evening before and then some on the morning before the race.  Lastly I'm going to take a gel or something high in carbohydrates right before the race starts and I may even take one on the race with me.  I haven't decided on the 2nd one.  Even though the race is only going to be 49 minutes and 59 seconds, I hope, I feel like running at a higher elevation and pushing the pace just automatically puts me into that zone where I'm going to be burning more carbs right away.  On the 5K that I had a few weeks ago I took a couple of licorice bites about 10 minutes before the race started and I think that really helped.  I'm hoping that this will help on this trail race.  I don't know if the 2nd gel will be needed but I might bring it along just for the heck of it.  I have yet to decide if I'm going to carry water with me or not for such a short race but it might be beneficial.  

 Week 20 brings us to another test week. So as has been the case for the previous test weeks I'll be taking Monday off and I'll run easy on Wednesday, some strides on Friday and then let it rip on Saturday.  I'm really not sure what to expect.  If I were to place a bet I'd say I'll gain a little bit of critical power but not much!

Run happy, be happy!

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