Pinhoti Training - Phase 1 Complete

For the first time - ever - I have an official coach for an ultra.  The first few that I did years ago, I found training plans online, attempted to follow them, and ended up injured.  Then for the next 20 or so, I pieced together my own plans with decent success.  My times consistently got faster, but I knew there was something missing.  For Pinhoti 100 miler in November, I reached out to my friend and mentor, Joe Prusaitis and asked him to coach me.  Joe has been running ultras and race directing them for years.  He knows everything there is to know about the sport, and I trust him completely.

Joe and I after the finish of my 2nd 100 miler

After watching ultrarunners for years and seeing what works and doesn't work, Joe has changed his philosophy a bit, and the new philosophy suits me just fine.  Gone are the weekends with back to back long runs.  Also gone are the 100 mile peak weeks, replaced by a peak of 70ish miles, but with higher intensity workouts.

The philosophy of this plan is periodization.  The training is broken into concentrated chunks where you do one specific workout consistently, until there are no gains to be made from it, then you have a week of recovery and move on to another challenge.  The first few months are focused on building cardio (speedwork).  

I just finished the first stage where I had 5 workouts of:  5 - 3 minute bursts (as fast as you can run) followed by 3 min recovery, over a 60 minute run.  By the end of this phase, I was beginning to understand periodization.  The first of these workouts was tough.  The 2nd and 3rd were easier and my intervals got faster.  The last two, it was tough to maintain my interval speed (7:15 - 7:30), and by the last interval of the 5th one, it was  a slug out.  I feel like I squeezed everything I could out of this segment, and it ended just as I was getting burned out on it, and inching closer to possible injury.  

Now I am in a week of easy 60 minute runs, and looking forward to the next segment of longer speed intervals.

I am committed to sticking to this plan.  It will be a long, sweaty summer, but I think the dividends will be great come race time.  

Check this out if you want more info on this concept.

I'll check in after the next stage of training to give another update.  

Happy Running Y'all!

Edie