Base Building

January weather in Wisconsin is not all that conducive to any kind of speed work (unless it's on a treadmill...and I HATE treadmills), so I'm taking a slightly different approach to my buildup for the April STL marathon and the Ice Age 50K. I've been running based on time and not really distance, and really working to keep my HR under 150.

Last week included about 6.5 hours of aerobic base building, with two long runs on the Ice Age Trail. I recently purchased a pair of Kahtoola Microspikes and loved them! Before getting the spikes I was in snowshoes, which I don't mind with the exception that my left foot seems to twist a bit at toe-off, resulting in my right ankle getting slammed by the snowshoe. Not fun.

With the STL marathon on April10, I'm hoping to continue with this aerobic building (HR under 150) until around February 10, at which point I'll have 2 months to start building more strength and speed.

I'm not sure that I will have a sub-3 performance in me at STL. I'm okay with that, though, as I'd much rather have more of my running done on trails (even with the 2 feet of snow we've got right now) than on a treadmill.

Hopefully this week will see my running time get up to 7-8 hours total with some more time on the trails.