So yeah, I normally hate this sorta thing. I pride myself on being flexible, which drives my partners insane. But life is nuts, especially when your recreational goals are tied to mountains & weather! I get injured, sick, wildfires break out, it snows more than it has ever snowed, work, ect. ect. So by never saying what I’m gonna do, I avoid the letdown when life happens, right? If only it worked that way.
I wanna do a long run, unsupported, somewhere remote.
It is barely even a goal really, but that’s as good as I can do. The mileage is open ended, and “somewhere remote” is about as vague as you can get. But truthfully, I’d like to do a run on the Lost Coast, through the Hamilton Lake basin, or Price Peak in Yosemite, all of which are about ~30 miles. Or maybe something else, but you get the idea.
The motivation here is that it’s been a while since I’ve impressed myself. I’ve spent a lot of time being a newbie & injured in the last couple years, picking up trad climbing and mountain biking hobbies. And while I’m a pretty good skier, I feel like my chances of getting into real skiing shape are pretty low given my location and the amount of spare time I have to dedicate on the weekends. Thus, my strengths are trail running, which I can train for easily, and the fact that I’m a well rounded alpine climber. Slow jogging around the mountains with an ice axe is probably where I can feel mastery the most.
Trail runs are best in August & early September when the days are still long, the weather is warm, and (most of ) the snow is gone. That will put the peak of my training volume on the first week of August. So let’s count backwards, putting a rest week after each 3 build weeks.
Then I’ll convert the number of miles per week into hours of aerobic training, because I will get injured and have to bike for a few weeks or I’ll end up skiing most of my weekend workouts in April & May. Assume I’m running 11 minute miles on trails with substantial elevation gain. So here’s my training plan, you can follow along on Strava if you like.
The main delimma I have right now is how to deal with days when I go hike/ski in the mountains. Throws my total time training way out of whack. The equivalent is probably something like over-racing for running or cycling, and there’s still not a lot coverage on how to handle it. I suppose the risk of over-training is higher, and working in more recovery is important. Still not sure how to handle it.
Week starting Mon, July 31st: 40 miles (440 minutes, 7:20)
Jul 24: 36 (396 min)
Jul 17: 32.5 (358 min)
Jul 10: 26 (Recover, 286 min)
Jul 3: 29 (319)
Jun 26: 26 (286)
Jun 19: 23 (you get the idea)
Jun 12: 19 (Recover)
Jun 5: 21
May 29: 19
May 22: 17
May 15: 12mi (9h37m total moving time with a big day on Lassen Peak)
May 8: 15 (4h27m)
May 1: 13.5 (2h54m)
Apr 24: 12 (9h53m, Carson Pass ski)
Backyard Sam 
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