You can see my (rough) training plan here.
Week two of 25k training was mostly successful, but let me excuse the lack of hiking this week; Wednesday – Friday evenings and most of Saturday were spent removing rocks and grass from a corner of our yard. I think the result was worth it though:
The rest of the week went pretty much to plan. Let’s recap:
Monday: 3.5 easy miles. In contrast to last week, not on a treadmill; easy and uneventful. Followed by some barefoot strides in the backyard, which, as you can see here, were both aided and impeded by the dog.
Tuesday: 3.6 hilly miles, 547 ft elevation gain; lower body strength workout. I didn’t do a specific workout for this run, just chose a hilly trail that’s very steep in some places and ran it with as little walking uphill as possible.
Wednesday: Rest, apart from the garden work.
Thursday: Upper body strength workout. I had planned to go to a yoga class also, but ended up searching for mysteriously missing samples in the lab instead.
Friday: 7 miles long trail run, 497 ft elevation gain. I had previously hiked just the first couple miles of this trail, and the trail there runs between a creek on one side and a steep hillside on the other. Well, shortly before the third mile marker the trail veers away from the creek and heads into a flat area that’s wooded on all sides. The combination of sudden silence and inability to see very far in any direction made me a bit uneasy, and when I found myself constantly scanning the forest for bears I decided it was time to turn around. I ran just under 6 miles on the trail and finished up on the road.
Saturday – Sunday: Planted garden. Drove to Colorado.
Totals: 14.1 miles, 1044 ft elevation gain. Apart from not hiking, which I expected would probably happen this week, the only thing I missed in week two of 25k training was yoga class. I really have no reason for not turning on a yoga video except that I just…didn’t. I apparently also need to check out trails more thoroughly before long runs!
How did your training go last week?
Do heavily wooded trails ever freak you out?
I’m new to following your blog, so apologies if this has been addressed before, but what is the benefit to barefoot strides versus doing it in shoes? I think this is the first I’ve read of such an exercise, and I’ve never thought to do this. Thank you for any help you can give me on the matter 🙂 Love reading these recaps and I look forward to reading the rest of your training!
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I think the main benefit of doing strides barefoot is foot & ankle strength. The secondary benefit (but really the main reason I do it) is that they are more fun that way 😉
Here’s some more info: http://strengthrunning.com/2012/10/what-are-strides/
Eeeek! Running through heavily wooded trails would TOTALLY freak me out. The leaves would only have to rustle to make me jump, haha! Hellloooo chicken!
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Complete silence is what freaks me out! Totally logical, right?
Way to go!! And good call on the turn around. I enjoy the quiet but there is totally a limit to “too quiet” when out on a trail!
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Thanks! I probably just spooked myself, but in some situations you don’t want to wait to find out 🙂