Those of you that don't follow my exploits on Facebook you won't be aware that Santa was very generous this Christmas and put a coveted Western States 100 entry in my stocking :-) unbelieveable I know!! I'm still get over the shock of it all myself. In short what happened is that I won a contest over Christmas - part of the amazing Running Stupid podcast which was giving away a WSER place for 2013. And it seems that I was the right 'fit' in the eyes of the judges. Friggin' amazing and I still can't quite believe it that come June I'm gonna be standing on the start line with 368 others ready to take on WSER.
This makes for a mouth watering race schedule in 2013 with WSER at the end of June, Lakeland 100 at the end of July and UTMB at the end of August. :-O An insane schedule though and not one that I think is terribly sensible. I'm therefore looking to downgrade my LL100 entry to the 50 miler which will fit perfectly between WSER and UTMB. However it remains to be seen if I can find someone to swap my place with, otherwise I will be running all three as the LL100 race director will not simply let me run the 50 instead.
So with all of that craziness I have a devised a 35 week training schedule (but remaining flexible) and I've just completed week one. In summary this is what I did:
Sunday - Rest day
Monday - 15m road run. 1h55m (7:40 mpm pace)
Tuesday - Rest day
Wednesday - midday - 5m trail run steady / evening - 5m warm up run then 2.5m speed session with club. 14m20s (5.40 mpm pace)
Thursday - 60 miles on the ElliptiGO (2 x 30m to and from work). 3,500ft elevation gain in total
Friday - 45 mins (3.2m) on treadmill set @ 12% incline with heating on full blast..... trying to recreate WSER cannon conditions!
Saturday - 12m hill session on the trails. 2h02m. 2,156ft elevation gain.
Total weekly run mileage = 42 miles
Total weekly ElliptiGO mileage = 60 miles
Would love to get feedback and advice on my training leading up to WSER so if anyone has any suggestions on what I can/should do differently then let me hear it :-)
There's a great blog post my Ian Sharman (Top 10 finisher at WSER last 3yrs) all about 'How to train for Western States'. So I'm taking alot from this - http://sharmanian.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/how-to-train-forwestern-states-100.html As Ian says 'specificity' is the key with training for an event like this so running trails with decent climbs and descents is what will make the difference and so this is what I must find in rural Hertfordshire! The heat at WSER can also be a huge factor with it climbing to over 100 degrees in the cannon section. So heat training will be something else I need to factor in - long sauna session in the final month or two before the race will be the key here as well as over-dressing on my long runs and wearing tonnes of layers although I often get it wrong and do this anyway :-)
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