My last race was a DNF at mile 83 of a ~108 mile run through the mountains of northeast Georgia. For my next race, I’m changing gears. My next race will be a flat 2 mile road race on July 4th called the Lake Burton Fun Run. It’s about as far apart as two races can be while still being in the same general sport category.
I ran the same race last year and managed to get 6th in the male masters division with a time of 13:43. My goal last year was to run under 13 minutes – something that felt like a pipe dream at the time. That’s my goal again this year, and it also feels like a pipe dream this year.
I’m doing what I can to prepare for the race targeting that 13 minute finishing time. I spent a few weeks exclusively doing easy running to recover from my last race, then last weekend started doing work to try and tease out what leg speed I can in three weeks.
On Sunday I ran 2 miles downhill with pace at the start of my long run, logging the first at 7:11 and the second at 6:33. That was a shock to the system and my calf muscles are still recovering three days later. I also added strides on Monday and Tuesday.
On Friday I plan to do an actual workout for the first time in months. The plan is 4-8 x 400m (quarter mile) at race pace or slightly faster (~6:25). I’ll do the first two intervals significantly slower, easing into the effort and squeezing down to the target pace by the 3rd or 4th rep. I’ll stop when I feel like I can still do one or two more at the target pace without burying myself which I expect to be around 5 or 6 intervals. If I’m feeling great I’ll cap my effort at 8 repeats.
If all goes well, I’ll do another workout next week with 800 meter (half mile) repeats and then later in the week do a one mile time trial. From there I’ll do a short taper where I trim volume but keep up the strides. And then we’ll see what happens on race day!
I can’t control who else shows up, so I won’t worry about place. The goal is just to see what I can do with a short speed-focused build on top of ultra-level endurance.