The Training Week That Was... 6/22-28

This past week I successfully continued my taper down to next Saturday's Finger Lakes Fifties 50k at the Finger Lakes National Forest in Hector, NY. My wife and I are planning on driving down the night before for an impromptu night of camping at the start/finish location.

After corresponding with the race director via e-mail a few weeks ago, we are being led to believe that there will be plenty of room for us to pop up a tent for the night--the only "inconveniences" being that there are no electrical outlets and that we (I) will need to carry all of our equipment the 1/2 mile not the forest where the campsite is located. Fortunately, I have all week to iron out any minute details and having camped together multiple times before, I'm very confident that Anne and I can get all of the necessities together with time to spare.

More details about the racing specifics continue to be communicated through the race blog, the most important of which is more clarification regarding course markings. The red sign at he top of this post is the only marker we will be following (and these will be set up by volunteers in advance this week). Honestly, its this kind of seemingly obvious, but entirely relevant information, that make me feel more confident about the most challenging part of any trail race for me... staying on course!

Here is what took place this past week with my training:

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 4.9 miles @ 7:31 min/mile pace
Wednesday: 8.2 miles @ 7:51 min/mile pace
Thursday: Rest
Friday: 6.4 miles @ 7:53 min/mile pace
Saturday: 10.7 miles @ 7:45 min/mile pace
Sunday: 7.3 miles @ 7:39 min/mile pace

TOTAL MILEAGE: R 37.5 miles (-11.4 miles from the previous week)
Weigh-In*: 183.5 lbs. (-1.5 lbs. from the previous week) [* @ 6:30 a.m. on 6/29/09]

I also unintentionally dropped another pound-and-a-half. I say "unintentionally" because while my goals is to eat healthier and more reasonable portions a by-product of this approach is that I am (hopefully) avoiding wasted and wasteful calories while maintaining a higher level of protein intake to offset the lack of red meat. The obective for this week is to charge the battery and fuel the engine for net weekend's race.

Breathe in, breathe out… YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!