This is an absolute look inside my training and what it took for me to come away with a great race!
Training
I started with an 18 week training block. 16 weeks of total training, including taper. Then 2 weeks of recovery built in to give my body time to transition from each phase of training.
Phase 1
Speed
These 5 weeks were about speed and turnover. Each week had a VO2 Max workout, a tempo day, and a endurance long run. Each workout was very specific, more importantly, it was the foundation to the rest of the training. Building a aerobic base is essential for any endurance athlete. Workouts during this phase looked something like below.
After a 1 week recovery I jumped into phase 2
Phase 2
Milage and Elevation
This phase was 6 weeks long. Ample time needed to ramp up mileage to my mileage goal for this block. I wasn’t as focused on pace or “workouts” as much as I was making sure I had enough time under tension. I had mostly smaller runs throughout the week followed by 2 bigger days to end the week. My goal was to build mileage in the week and make sure each of the long runs were done on “tired legs”. Also, in this phase I planned to run the course and a couple different times “training camp”. This was extremely important in learning and understanding nutrition, effort, and much more. Elevation played a major factor each week. My goal was to make my peak weeks exceed my race milage and elevation. In trail races elevation profile plays a large role in how you are able to run. So making sure my body was adapted to the elevation gain/loss was imperative. If you see, there are no real paces listed on the training this phase. When dealing with elevation RE or relative effort comes into play. Mimic the elevation profile of the race as much as possible.
After those big weeks, a recovery week was necessary.
Phase 3
Endurance (speed, and milage)
Here in this final phase before the taper my body should be in decent enough shape to handle the milage with the speed work. Marking sure the body remembers and is ready to go fast, if needed, along with being able to produce enough energy for the longer durations.
Taper
This taper I was only going to go with 2 weeks to taper. I ended up taking 3.5-4 weeks because I got some sort of head cold and didn’t want to over fatigue myself. I take roughly 20% off each week leading up to the race. All while still mixing in some speed and distance but all with extra recovery. Keeping my RE below 4 on the none speed days.
So there it is. I hope you gain some insight on how I go about training and my thought process.
Run Arkansas! 