Listening to Your Body

I've been training unofficially since September and officially since January for a 70-mile fastpack run on the PCT in August. I spent the fall and half of winter building a strong distance base, and then began increasing distance, elevation, and trail in January. This weekend, the second hard week in a row at 24 plus miles on Saturday, (and then eight and 10 on Sunday), going for maximum elevation gain, I reached a limit.

Today, I ran 25 miles on Tiger and Squak Mountains. I spent nearly eight hours running and hiking in wet brush, with soggy feet and sometimes muddy tread, summiting four peaks (albeit the highest was 2800 ft) and gained over 8.000 feet of elevation. On my way down from the central peak of Squak, my feet hurt and my knees hurt; fortunately, I only had four miles to my car. In the end, as I ran down through the Sycamore neighborhood and snagged the Rainier Trail back to my car, I felt pretty good. But on the drive home, I came to terms with putting in what essentially amounts to a 50K effort two weekends in a row every couple of weeks.

With Friday night's rain, the overhanging branches and undergrowth were droopy with moisture. Though wet, it was a lush, green, and beautiful trail.

I know that the 70-mile run will be harder than what I've done thus far, but in analyzing the elevation profile of the PCT, much of the mileage will be gentle ups and downs with three big ascents and descents. Though the overall elevation seems daunting, I don't think it will be as hard as what I've been doing. From what I can tell, the first day (50 miles) will be like a moderate 50K course plus a 20-mile hike with 2200 feet of elevation gain and loss afterward (i.e. mostly a hike). The second day will begin with a 2200 foot ascent and then a gradual descent to Snoqualmie Pass.

I also know that whatever I have trained for, be it a marathon or a 50K, you never run the distance you are training for during actual training. Your body (or at least mine) just can't take it. In marathon training, the most I ran was 20 miles; in 50K training, the most I ran was 26 miles on Saturday followed by 10 miles on Sunday, with the week capping at 56 miles. With these ideas in mind, I made my training plan for the 70-mile run, running two hard weeks back to back. I have those two hard weeks to go, maxing out at a 60-mile week. I think it's time to back off a little in terms of elevation gain.

My plan tomorrow is to run my 10 miles on the flat Snoqualmie Valley Trail. Next week is easy, just a 32-mile week. And then I have two hard weeks left before my Cascade Pass-Stehekin run. For now, I have decided to run an easy-ish 26 miles on trail for the first hard week, and then the final 26 will be 8,000+ feet of elevation gain. After that, I taper to the 34-mile Stehekin run, and then taper to the PCT Section J Southbound run of 71 miles.