This is the view from the summit of the first big climb at WOH. The course profile is pretty amateur, but this is the big one. Behind the camera person (I think Hal Koerner took this pic), in the distance, is Sin City. Looking at that through the morning haze, falling (literally) down through the rock and trail was really nice. Great course.
This pic is the only evidence I've found (I haven't looked that hard) of the course we'll run at the Xterra World Championships. Looks good to me. It's all about the dirt.
The title of this post also refers to the the training I'm doing right now. It's not that I'm running on dirt necessarily although much of it is just so. I'm referring to the real work of getting fit. I'm getting dirty, it's a dirty job, yada yada, but the analogy works for me. Trevor is teaching me how to really train. The specificity involved is not very impressive on paper ("I did 80 miles in 2 hrs and then did some track workouts consisting of 5:10 mile repeats, 20 of those. . ..). My work-outs are just solid. They kick my ass. They're preparing me for the work I have to do. WOH proved to me that these workouts are effective and I wasn't even nailing them then. I'm getting better and better. This is why:
I'm getting better at preparing myself to train. These are quality workouts, so they don't happen everyday. The night before a quality workout I need lots of sleep, and good fuel. I don't necessarily live this way all the time. I enjoy life (the decadent parts) way too much. But now I'm starting to know how to prepare to train. New concept.
Furthermore, the workouts are such that recovery is essential to those workouts . . .working. The recovery within the workouts is making as much sense to me as the recovery between workouts. I guess the proverbial light bulb is sorta pulsating, threatening to turn-on. I look forward to learning from Trevor the other 3/4 of a season to see how this all works in full. I feel strong. I can't wait for Hawaii. Sure the island life will be epic. But I'll have 3-4 weeks more of this training which is progressing in difficulty as the race approaches. SICK.
I can't wait for 2009.
Oh come on man. I need more detail than that. I dig that they are kicking your ass and that what does not kill you makes you stronger but I want the skinny. I want to read and hence visualize the workout. Give me the 10 x 1 mile, starting at 10K race pace, recovered 30 seconds between each and then brough them down to 5K race pace with 15 seconds blah blah blah blah.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you are dialing it in.