What a volume week. This crew continues to impress with hard workouts, long workouts, mentally-challenging sessions and physically-demanding days. Back in 2016 we did a run one summer day totaling 9 miles on some dirt roads around Jericho. We finished the workout and I was convinced everyone that completed it would quit the team the following day, such was the level of complaining, agony, and fatigue…you’d think we just raced Leadville or Kona.
This Saturday, a small crew of dedicated Pugs set off from the Richmond Park and Ride on run that spanned 20.5 miles, 3 hours and 45 minutes, and 2,500′ of elevation gain. The average pace was 10:30-10:50/mi for the entire run (depending on various GPS watches), generally only held back from single-digits by the steep and twisting terrain of the Cochran’s and Chamberlain Hill singletrack where fast mile splits just don’t happen. On the dirt roads and connecting segments, the squad was cruising and talking at a comfortable 9:00/10:00 pace, and for the final 2 miles of dirt road both Sam and Rose absolutely hit the afterburners and cranked out 7:00/mi pace in some otherworldly display of runners-high the likes of which has never been seen in these parts of Vermont.
“Early days” as the Eurosport commentators say. Taylor and Brady joined for the first 11 miles (Taylor then ran a few more on his own for the half marathon edition) and then departed after a jump in the river
You know it’s gotta happen with our crew…this was cached by me beforehand at mile 16. Not pictured is the 2-liter bottle of flat coke to round it out. Ultrarunner staples!
The last two scenic miles, just as Rose and Sam started to absolutely smash some 7’s en route to the burgers and swimming hole
I’m usually not a numbers nerd for training pace (or even heart rate, always) but one of our summer goals, composed way back in the April Quarantine, as quoted from our shared coaches doc:
“Continue to develop running pace and fitness with GPS and measured consistency”
So the combination of early-season track pacing workouts, more 3km timetrials than usual, purpose-chosen routes on gradual dirt roads instead of only grinding hilly trails, and just more days of running in general, has led us to steadily become more efficient over time at this mode of training. And it’s one we can utilize a lot more for both hard and easy workouts. We never in a million years could have pulled off a 20-mile run a couple years ago, and in this case most of the participants of that run showed up Sunday morning and completed a hilly 2hr classic rollerski to boot. However, I will say that I was in a lot worse state than the rest of us seemed to be from the run, and was glad to be on driving duty.
If you’re doing a big workout, remember the golden rule: “If it’s not on Strava, it didn’t happe.” Although in all seriousness we should not get too sucked-in to Strava…it’s pretty cool to be able to look back on stuff like this. Above is Silas’ data from the run
Of course, a whole week elapsed before this mega weekend even happened! On Tuesday there were skate intervals to be had, with the older group tackling Christmas Tree Lane in Williston. A great spot for anyone interested: rolling climb for 3 minutes, with a reasonable descent that can be handled on skis without a car or van shuttle. A portion of the older crew was still feeling the effects of the LAST busy weekend so we had some choosing to opt for an easy distance ski instead. But those taking on the intervals got a great effort in.
On Wednesday it was time to “grind the gravel” just like our Masters have been doing this summer. While we don’t have gravel bikes like a lot of the older MNC contingent, our mountain bikes worked just fine. Knowing there was a big weekend to come and some interval work again on Thursday, we picked a very flat out-and-back almost every athlete in the area is probably familiar with: Cochran Road to Waterbury and back via Duxbury. This ended up being 25 miles and a perfect 2 hours…oh, and it turns out even this “flat” ride had about 1000′ of elevation gain. Guess truly flat stretches are hard to come by in these parts.
Out to Waterbury and back,, the peloton speeds on
On Thursday it was back to the rollerskis for some classic. In the case of the advanced U16 squad this meant some longer L3 interval action, which encompassed a pretty big stretch of the west side of Southridge. I jumped on a bike in my ski boots and pedaled alongside for the interval portion of the ski, because it was time for a little video action!
And now after a long week with anywhere from 15-20 hours of training depending on the athlete, it’s time for a breather. We’ll have 3 off days this coming week (Mon, Wed, Fri) to rest up and take in all the training. It’s hard to believe we are cruising right through August, but I’ve never been more confident in what this group has done and what they can achieve. I’m starting to get deja vu writing versions of that line, and that’s pretty exciting.
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