Training Summary

I guess now is the time to provide for the benefit of the readers some sketchy details relating to my training preparations.  I have already posted some details pertaining to specific runs and events however an overall summary is in order.

Working backwards, my mileage for the year (since January 1st) is at about 550 miles.  As part of that I have logged 2,700 "lb-miles" with my pack.  I use this as a rough measurement and calculate this value by multiplying the miles ran by the weight of the pack.  Pack weight was nominally 16-20 lbs for these training runs.  Put another way I ran with a pack almost 1/3 of the miles logged during this period.

From the time I knew I had a slot for this years event (early August) until the end of 2012 my mileage total was approximately 650 miles.  That also includes 945 lb-miles.

If I go back over the last twelve months my total mileage would be some where over 1,750 miles including 3,650 lb-miles.  The latter is equivalent to running with a 20 lb pack for about 180 miles.  Not too bad given weather and a busy travel schedule.

My focus has been on longer back-to-back type runs with most training in a week consolidated to about four or five straight days.  Hills are always a part of the schedule because of where I live.  Walking and tempo workouts were on occasions included.  The bulk of my training has been on the trails at a steady pace.  Weekly milages never exceeded 65 miles and long runs were on the order of 20-25 miles.  I believe this has worked well and kept my old bones fairly injury free.

We will see if this approach proves successful.  Hope this is useful!