Weekly Training 1/31/11 - 2/6/11

February 7, 2011

The week started off with a taper for the Empire State Building Run Up. All of the long hours of cross training these past 6 weeks seems to have paid off as I shaved 44 seconds off my best time in the race and finished as the 1st American and 4th overall. Wow! That was unexpected! I think all of the stress leading up to the race and the lack of sleep that accompanies stress finally got to me. I did a single workout on Wednesday and felt really awful. On Thursday I was shoveling my car out of the driveway when I suddenly saw the the snow in front of me turn a beautiful crimson red. My nose was bleeding profusely. I stopped the bleeding, went inside and began to feel nauseous. I got into bed a little after noon and didn't get out until Friday at 11am. Wow! I did a few shorter workouts on Friday but didn't feel very good at all. I wasn't sure if I should do any of the snowshoe races of the weekend, but the call of good company and Winter fun got the best of me and I went to both. Saturday's race was a BRUISER! One thousand feet of climbing, LOTS of single track and very fast competition. It felt like the Empire State Building all over again! After the race, I did the course again with Dave Dunham and Tim Mahoney to pick up the course markings. When we finished I could hardly lift my legs. Sunday's race was much more forgiving in the elevation department, but the unbroken crust throughout the entire race made for very tough going. I used up everything I had and then some to maintain the lead. Somehow, I managed to pull off wins at both races. Now it's time for some R&R.