American Canyon 50K Training Week Eight: Two Runs and a Ski Weekend

Found on Facebook, comes to mind mid-run occasionally and makes me laugh

Week eight began with an extra day off due to DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) from last week's trail marathon, and ended with a ski weekend instead of back-to-back long runs. Every February, I take a long weekend in Tahoe to ski and indulge in comfort food. The menu has taken a decided turn towards European peasant food in recent years. Braised meat, on the bone, cooked for hours, and wine, whiskey and chocolate make for a Saturday night dinner worth skiing hard all day. Throw in a little marrow on bread (mmmm, meat butter) and late night poker, and you get the general idea. If the 49ers had managed the greatest comeback in Superbowl history, this year's trip would easily have ranked as the best ever. As they did not, it still equals every year I have gone.

Tahoe views from the deck at the cabin

The week:

Wednesday: 60 minutes, treadmill hill repeats (10x60 seconds at 12 degrees)

Friday: 90 minutes at 8:30 effort

Saturday: 21K vertical feet snowboarding at Homewood

Sunday: Casual walk with friends to Paige Meadows

Totals: 16.49 miles ran, 5.6 mile walk, ~24K elevation change

Happy to be back in Tahoe

I could tell on Saturday that my legs are in great shape. Absolutely no soreness or fatigue all day. In the years since I began running, my skiing fitness has steadily increased, but not until this year have I felt that I was this fit on my first day of resort skiing. It feels good!

By Sunday, my legs were twitching to get some mileage in, but I opted to hang out with friends I have not seen in a long time, and walking to Paige Meadows provided a little bit of relief. Next week's taper into the American Canyon 50K will be difficult, as I have only a couple of hours to get my ya-ya's out before the race. All this bodes well for the race, but it is always foreign territory to my increasing fitness and body-awareness.

Paige Meadow snow angels

This training cycle has provided so much more confidence than those in the past. Going into CIM, I felt unprepared and nervous about my ability to reach my goal. Despite American Canyon being a tune-up race for the fifty miler in April, I feel ready to attack the course with solid effort, and it feels like I am making progress in huge leaps as I stretch my long runs and weekly volume up month by month.

Homewood has the best Lake views

On Rainbow Ridge at Homewood