Notes
For the mile of high intensity I did a new routine that I heard from Lee Conner, who I met at Grindstone a few years ago after pacing my friend Larry for the last 20 miles. She finished 2nd place female and is just a few years older than me. I asked how she got so fit. Moreover she lives in Cleveland which has no big hills. She told me about the importance of strength training.
She just did an interview on URP (UltrarunnerPodcast) and rehashed all this and more. So what I have struggled with BIG time is doing well on the rocky uneven terrain on these rocky east coast trails. Especially going down hill. Randy is so good at it, I am horrible. She mentioned the importance of doing hill training on trails both up and down. On the down she said to keep cadence fast don't pound the knees. This develops the nervous system. On way up hammer it hard, this is not endurance training it is for fitness. And do short hills to max out system and fully recover between repeats. Endurance training is for the long run day.
So I decided to try this. I was gassed after only 2 repeats, each just short of half mile. Just over .2 mile down and .2 mile up. It was humid, like 100% humidity with mist and drizzle in the air, but still damn! On the down I didn't feel like I was hammering but cadence was fast and I was getting winded. Really had to concentrate and the trail I use is really well groomed and runnable so way easier than what we run on during weekends but still hard. On the up there is a really steep part at beginning, maybe 30% grade, I killed myself here on first one. On the second one I still went super hard but paced back just a little just so I could make it to the top. I want to keep doing these weekly. I think they will help me develop into something almost resembling a decent trail runner. Grindstone is a beast and I need to get myself a little more beastly to be able to survive.