Mark and I are finishing up our base training and prepping for the Sycamore Canyon 30K in Santa Monica in a couple of weeks. Mark's running between 45 and 50 miles a week while, due to my work schedule, I've had to steal time just to get 45 miles in. Things couldn't have been going better, though. I've been enjoying the training and the focus on this race.
The day after my long run last week, however, I started feeling pain in my knee. I kind of panicked. I've felt this before, just before the Phoenix marathon in 2009. It sucks. An overuse injury just nags at you, but can become extremely painful if not attended to. I'm not sure if it's an IT band thing or what, but we had a scheduled meeting with our coach, Mike, so I took another day off and waited to talk to him about. Of course, Mike's perspective is no big deal. Take time off. Let the knee heal, we've got plenty of time and you don't want to have to keep dealing with this all through the summer. So here I am, taking it a little easier this week, scaling back the mileage. A late spring snowstorm is making it easier for me since it's difficult to go out running in 12 inches of snow anyway.
Mike's got a 5 mile hill run and a 2 mile tempo run planned for us next week so that he can get a measure of our fitness, then put together the plan that will take us to TR. Mark and I will run the 30K, take a few days off, then start the hard stuff. I'm really excited about my running right now and see us performing well at Trans Rockies.
I was talking to our Gu rep about Trans Rockies and he said, "You're doing Trans Rockies? You're crazy!"
Now if the rep for an endurance nutrition product thinks Trans Rockies is crazy, it really does make me realize we're tackling a pretty big challenge. I guess when you live in Flagstaff and your surrounded by professional runners and Olympians (not to mention several "recreational" runners in Flagstaff are sponsored by shoe companies) it's hard to measure your mere mortal accomplishments.
On a final note, congrats to Mike for coming in 2nd at the Chuckanut 50K. He was leading the course through 22 miles until the national ultra-running champion, Geoff Roes, edged him out to take the win. Both, Geoff and Mike broke the course record. An outstanding performance for Mike's first 50K. For you non-runners out there, Geoff Roes is a rockstar; the current Michael Jordan of trail running. I feel privileged to know Mike, let alone be coached by him. -jea
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