Biggest Running Week Ever!

I am stoked!  I just had one of the biggest running weeks ever and my legs, although sore, were well prepared for the challenge.

I competed in the Great Lakes Relay with 9 other amazing friends, many of whom are former MSU Tri Club teammates.  The event is a wonderful and raw display of running in it's purest form.  A three-day relay from Oscoda, MI on Lake Huron to Empire, MI on Lake Michigan totaling 273.2 miles.  Most of the runs were along the Shore to Shore Trail and the scenery was drop-dead gorgeous.

A good friend, Eric, running the first leg of the weekend.

Great shot of Scott finishing his leg and Monica about to start hers.

This is a picture I found online.  The trails looked exactly like this, but without the fall colors and horses.

All team members are "required" to run at least 24 miles over the weekend.  But you don't actually turn in any forms and no one really checks all that closely because I don't think there are any prizes for being in first place, so who cares?  Anyway, I was slated to run 33mi, the most of anyone on the team: 13mi Friday, 12mi Saturday, then 8.5mi Sunday.  I learned my lesson last year when a few friends tried out-running eachother on the first day and then were trashed for Saturday and Sunday.  So, I figured I would add extra distance on Sunday if my legs were up for it, which they certainly were.

I stuck to my assigned legs on Friday and Saturday and they were wonderful.  Sunday was the hottest day, which would making running extra distance harder.  But both Lauren and Iris had shorter-distance legs early in the day, so I decided to run with them, adding an additional 7 miles to my already assigned 8.5 for the day.  It was tough, but I managed to run with Iris and Lauren and still run my legs at a respectable pace (7:40/mi for 6mi of sandy hills, then 6:18/mi for 2.3mi on road).  I emphasized that last run because it was miles 40-42 in three days and I was shocked at the pace I was able to hold.

I've taken the past two days off to take care of a bad case of Chiggers that the team got Saturday night by camping in a field (oops).  But they're significantly better now, so I will be returning to my workouts tonight with a 4mi run and an OW swim in this 108 degree heat index day.

Ironman Wisconsin is only 7.5 weeks away, so I have time to recover this week then do a serious 3 week build before I begin a 3 week taper.