The Road to Finger Lakes 50K
My week-by-week account of what it was like to train for the Finger Lakes 50K in 2014.
When I signed up on New Year’s Day for the July 5 Finger Lakes 50K, I knew I needed a plan to get ready. I quickly found a 50K plan over at running.competitor.com that seemed like it would work well. I calculated backwards that this plan would start the week of March 17 (this week!), but I would be starting at a base of 32-33 miles per week, which I also needed to work up to. On January 1, I started an 11-week marathon buildup based on Hal Higdon that started me at 19 miles and ended at 30 miles per week. That training has gone incredibly well (despite my addiction to downhill skiing, which also went incredibly well given our winter), and I’m ready to start the “official” plan I chose!
March 17-23 (30 miles)
This was my first week of 50K training, and I think the next 15 weeks are going to challenge me more than any other fitness regimen I’ve done! This week pales in comparison to what I’ll see at the end of the program, but overall I feel positive going into this.
Tuesday – 5.78 mi easy pace: The sun was out today, shining brightly! I was supposed to go out for 45-60 minutes, so I made up my route as I went along, heading back home when I was getting close to finish time.
Wednesday – 4.73 mi hills: Started out on the Taughannock Rim but quickly realized that would be catastrophic. Lousy with ice and packed snow, so I did a bit of cross country through the woods to make it out to Gorge Road. Continued to the base, up the park road (non-stop, attaboy), and did a few smaller loops in the hills at the top to wrap up 45 minutes. Also added core work with BodyPump. I convinced my Dad to join me at BP Community Corners tonight, and he did a great job! He kept up really well with all of the moves. I was spent, as usual, by the end. We enjoyed some relaxing minutes in the sauna when all was said and done.
Thursday – 9.16 mi easy pace: Supposed to be out today for 1:15-1:30, so this was perfect. Stashed water and gel in the mailbox for midpoint, and was delighted when it started lightly snowing and I caught some on my wagging tongue.
Friday – 10 mi long run: Got it in before nastiness comes in the form of rain tomorrow. Early in the run, I was startled by what turned out to be a sheep. Also added core work with Friday night BodyPump.
Saturday / Sunday – Skiing: A weekend of skiing stood in for a post-long run recovery of a medium effort. After next weekend, I’ll get into a routine of long Saturday run, recovery run Sunday. Looking forward to that, actually, as it’ll also be WARMER.
March 24-30 (39 miles)
Weekdays – I took Monday off, and did a timed run for Tuesday’s workout. Tuesday called for between 45 and 60 minutes, so I just went out on an unplanned route and ended up splitting the difference at 53 minutes. Wednesday was repeat day (groan). I found a stretch of Rabbit Run that is approximately 600m of uphill, and did the 3 repeats up, jogging back down. Thursday was too cold to be outside, so I took advantage of time when Elizabeth was a dance class to bang out close to 9 miles on the treadmill. I got in my 12.5mi long run outside on Friday morning, since the weekend called for skiing. The Friday forecast was RAIN, and while I dressed for it, it never materialized. Friday night BodyPump at the gym was followed by a delightful date with my wife at ZaZa’s Cucina.
Weekend – We skied 9 runs as a family Saturday, and had the foresight to bring our gear home in case Sunday was a bust, which it was: while an overnight storm brought a bunch of snow, we didn’t feel up to skiing in wet, heavy snow so slept in Sunday. The streets were plowed well enough for a nice Sunday afternoon run, though, which I just got in from: 7 miles to cap off the week.
March 31-April 6 (43 miles)
Week 3 of 50K training and feeling strong! Sunday I did a lifting session at the gym (no running, except a quick 1/2 mile treadmill warmup). Also managed to get in the pool for 1,000 yards, which will come in handy for the triathlon this summer.
Tuesday’s run was fun: we juggle schedules so the kids and Amy can have piano lessons amidst Elizabeth’s dance lessons. It’s crazy, but it works. Amy and I usually hit the gym as part of this, but I opted to run from Trumansburg to Island Health & Fitness, a 10.3 mile run. It was good training for the Skunk in retrospect.
Wednesday’s run was standard fare, but Thursday was CRAZY! Amy had to get her long run in, and there was weather coming in Friday, so I suggested a nighttime run Thursday night. She thought that was pretty cool, so she banked 14 between 8p and 10:15p, and I joined her for the last 6 with a headlamp to help light our way. It was surreal, with warm temperatures and really calm streets. It’s pretty fun to run at night! I headed out Friday for my last run before the Skunk Cabbage Half on Sunday, and also took in Friday night BodyPump at Island.
Sunday’s Skunk Cabbage Half was AWESOME. I got to meet and run alongside my teammates from Finger Lakes Running & Triathlon Company. It felt so cool to be part of a team, and our singlets are great. I wrote about the run in this post. I came in 1:34:08, 7th in my age group, with 7:12 minute miles, and was really happy with the run (and the post-race massage wasn’t too shabby either: what a perk).
April 7-April 13 (41 miles)
This week started off with SORE legs, a post-Skunk Cabbage Half symptom I would have rather done without. I see more stretching and yoga in my future! I spent my Monday walking down stairs “funny” and also taking in Monday-night BodyPump (which WAS good fun with Jess calling me out - yes, it turns out I like that).
I kicked off the race training week Tuesday with a 45-minute treadmill run - tactical, nothing fancy, but also not fun. Wednesday brought no respite from training drudgery, with 5x500 hill repeats. Sure, they kicked my ass, but I was beginning to wonder if this was worth it. Then Thursday arrived, and oh, the wonder of trail under these now-refreshed legs. I banged out ~8 miles on the trails at Taughannock, taking special care to step IN the mud puddles along the way, now that I have some proper trial gaiters. I also took special satisfaction in not having to stop on the way up the North Rim, except for those pesky stairs. Must be all that LesMills BodyPump I’m doing at Island Health and Fitness. Friday was a rest day, but that didn’t stop me from our happy hour BodyPump followed by a much-needed dinner at Viva, where we celebrated my wife’s birthday amid servings of nachos, margaritas, and burritos stocked with tofu and calabacitas. I love saying calabacitas. So fun.
Saturday’s long run was epic for me, mostly because it was the longest I’ve run in years, save the marathon last year, since I was injured and couldn’t train past 16. I ran 16+ solo miles on road and trail, between my house and Taughannock’s trails. I rounded out the week with an hour-long shakeout run Sunday, and am now plugging next week’s training in to the calendar. So, week 4 is in the books, and week 5 beckons!
April 14-20 (45.5 miles)
This week’s wacky weather made for an interesting start. I had to split Tuesday’s run into two parts: the first, aborted stretch was just over a mile due to plummeted temperatures and hostile winds that kicked up just a half mile in, and the second was a treadmill run made pleasant only by the presence of Seinfeld.
This running “low” was made better by Wednesday’s trail run at Taughannock, which was so good it inspired me to write more about it (see: Rave Run at Taughannock). Thursday’s run was also good, a 10 mile run during a more moderate time of the day, temperature-wise.
I was really nervous and restless about my long run on Saturday, since it’s the longest I’ve run, but I had nothing to be nervous about. I got out at 6:30a, and did two round trips from my house to the base of Taughannock. 12 miles on road, 6 on trail, and it went really well. We spent a few midday hours volunteering as a family at the Tough Turtle on Saturday, too, which was good fun. Sunday’s hour-long run also went well, rounding out week 5 of the 16-week training plan I’m in!
This week I also started training in earnest on the Skier’s Edge (downhill ski cross trainer) and yoga. Inspired by the checklist I made for the kids, I made my own checklist to make sure I’m doing these things each week. Otherwise, time just gets away from me!
April 21-27 (47.5 miles)
This recaps week 6 of my 16-week 50K training plan. So far, so good! I work from home most of the time, but had to travel to NYC for a business trip the first half of this week. I worked running into both of my mornings Tuesday and Wednesday.
Tuesday, I ran from Wall Street up the Hudson River Greenway to the Intrepid Museum, which was 10 miles of fun. Once I was out of the lower Manhattan concrete jungle, the Hudson River Greenway was packed with runners. It was like an out-and-back race, except nobody was wearing numbers. I even saw an “Ithaca is Gorges” shirt along the way! Wednesday I headed out over the Brooklyn Bridge for a few laps, making just over 5 miles.
Thursday night I was back home for hill repeats (ugh!) which I would have rather NOT done. I was not in the right frame of mind, but I got it done nonetheless. Saturday I hit the roads for a 20-mile long run which was amazing. I broke it into 2, 3 and 5 mile loops, and felt great afterwards. Sunday’s 7 mile shakeout revealed no nagging joints, so all is good on the running mechanics front.
April 28-May 4 (44.3 miles)
This was a pullback week in terms of the long run being 4 miles shorter than last week; the coming week has me shooting for a 22-mile long run on the weekend!
Monday was a much-needed rest day, so my week’s workouts started with an hour and a half timed run on Tuesday. I do love running to Taughannock’s Rim Trail from the house, and count on that for a good hill workout when my run is supposed to be 9 miles or longer. Wednesday was a 45-minute easy pace, which Amy and I got in together after dark, with headlamps. The day’s rain broke long enough for us to have a mostly dry (well, misty) run, and it was really nice to catch up. Thursday I did an hour of hill work over on Curry and Searsburg, racking up another 7.5 miles. Friday was another much-needed rest day, gearing up for my second time wearing my FLRTC singlet at Saturday’s May Day 5M.
I did a post-race report on the May Day 5M, which was a family affair. I was so proud of my wife Amy (one of the race co-directors) with her 1st Female Masters in the 5K, and I was also proud of myself for the 1st Male Masters in the 5M. Both of my kids got in on the action, too, with wonderful performances by both of them. It’s always a great community race. If you’re in the Ithaca & Trumansburg area for this race, you should totally add it to your calendar. Check out more details at mayday5k.org. Since I raced 5 miles on Saturday, I counted that as my Sunday medium-effort 1 hour run, and chose to get my 16-mile run in on Sunday. It was difficult, being lunchtime and all, but I got it done, and wrapped up week 7 of 50K training.
May 5-11 (50 miles)
This week’s mileage put me at 49.8, so let’s just call it 50 for a dramatic headline, shall we? My running week started Tuesday with a timed run from Ithaca on the Black Diamond trail, and it was really fun: my first time on this trail. I planned to come back to it, which I did on the weekend (with a vengeance). Hill repeats on Wednesday (8x500), for which I was grateful to have a watch that would do counting for me, since basic math goes out the window when my heart rate passes 160. Thursday’s timed run of 1:15 rounded out the weekday runs, and I admit … I was NERVOUS about the weekend. My longest training run yet - 22 miles!
For Saturday, I planned a route from my house, down Rabbit to the Black Diamond trailhead at Taughannock, and then Black Diamond all the way to Ithaca. Easy, right? Reverse it for 22, and it was a plan. Things did not bode well when my shoelace broke as I was getting ready, but a quick square knot did the trick. New shoes are next on my list! The run to Taughannock was great, but then the first mile of the Black Diamond trail was mostly mud. I promptly soaked my shoes, and regretted that later on in the run when I had some issues with pain in the sole of my foot. Turns out my feel got all waterlogged (like when you’ve been in the pool too long) and got creased, which hurt (oh, the pain!) I actually took my shoe off at one point ‘cause I thought I was bleeding. The stones from the old rail bed are HUGE in spots, making footing tricky, too. Oh, one more thing. I screwed up my nutrition somehow, and the last few miles were unbearable and then I really had a problem with my stomach at home. I couldn’t bring myself to eat dinner, so opted for a banana and ice water instead. My own little post-race aid station! So ... I learned some things to not repeat for my next long run, but I’m SO glad I was able to do this distance. Mechanically, all is well.
Sunday I went out for my plan’s medium-effort hour-long run, which went surprisingly well in spite of Saturday’s pain. I wore my singlet due to the heat, and it put a big smile on my face. For the next 6 weeks, I alternate between step back weeks of 16 miles on the weekend with increasing the distance four more miles, first to 24 and then to 26. And THEN, the taper for July 5th’s 50K!
May 12-18 (45 miles)
What a study in contrasts this week was, weather-wise!
Tuesday was hot and humid, and my evening run on the Black Diamond trail felt SO difficult as a consequence. My pace felt 1:30 faster than I actually ran, the way my body was feeling. Wednesday’s run was better, mostly because I chose a route I’d never done before: all road, from Ithaca Mall down through Cayuga Heights to Ithaca High, and then back up. Thursday’s temperatures moderated a bit and I enjoyed that while running the trails at Taughannock. Thankfully the week’s weather washout hit Friday, where I was able to stay dry on my rest day. Amy and I did take in a BodyPump class Friday night, though, which provided a much-needed core workout. Chased that up with some good margaritas and burritos with friends at Viva!
Saturday’s long run was just 16 miles, since this is a fallback week for me. It was a great run! I ran from my house to Taughannock, rim/base/rim, rim/base/rim reverse, and back to the house. The falls’ mist at the base was amazingly refreshing both times, and I had fun playing in the puddles on the base trail. Wore my compression socks and Dirty Girls too, and they kept me nice and debris-free. Sunday’s medium-effort hour-long run was just bearable, since I bookended it with a lot of yard work. My legs are SO spent as I write this! No amount of beer is going to help, but I’m going to test that hypothesis anyway.
May 19-25 (56.4 miles)
The miles really added up this week! Tuesday’s run was an hour timed effort, and I logged 7 miles on the Black Diamond trail. I explored a bit too, and found a side trail that heads up to the hospital just after the power lines cut West. Really nice small waterfalls along the trail there. I had my nemesis workout Wednesday, hill repeats, BUT they turned out to be not so bad! My body is getting used to it, I guess. I did 9x500 repeats on Rabbit, and while I’m sure I was slower by the end, I was by no means totally spent. Thursday was also a timed run (1:30), and I used Xander’s soccer practice time to get 10 miles in, from the school in Trumansburg to Taughannock’s rim/base/rim combo and back.
Saturday’s long run made me nervous given the length and that they were solo miles, but it was really good. It was cloudy and moderately cool, so the weather was perfect for my planned 24 mile run. We are staying at MacQueen’s guest cottage on Cayuga Lake while our house is rented for Cornell graduation, so I started with a half mile uphill jaunt to Route 89. I hooked around to Taughannock Park via Kingtown, Seneca, Curry, Rabbit and Falls Road, and did the rim/base/rim combo. I varied my route back a bit, heading up Cemetery, and at mile 16, had the serendipitous run-in with Amy and the kids having breakfast at Falls Tavern. They had just gotten their food, so I stopped in and helped myself to a few hash browns and a bite of blueberry pancake. Heavenly. Back to Main Street, South Street, a run by my house, and back out to Curry to loop back to the start on the route I came in on. I enlisted a small cheering section by calling my parents a minute before I got to their porch, and they greeted me with cowbells and encouragement.
I ran Sunday’s hour-long run with Amy. We did 7 miles in just a few minutes over an hour, and enjoyed the sun and good conversation together. With just 6 weeks left until the 50K, I only have one longer run than this week’s - a 26 miler - and the rest is maintenance and taper. Looking forward to a great race!
Sunday afternoon I also did a bit of cross-training: Xander and I kayaked to Taughannock Falls from MacQueen’s together, just about 6 miles in 2 hours round-trip. The concession stand ice cream made for a nice respite at the turnaround point.
May 26-June 1 (51.65 miles)
Week 11 of 16 all done! My Tuesday run was a great 7-mile random route, which I really like. Just head out the front door and see where my legs take me. Wednesday’s 9-mile hilly run was also good, but I ran during the dinner hour (always a tough proposition for me) and while Xander was at track. I finished but felt kind of “off”, which was a harbinger of Thursday’s 9 mile run: I had felt AWFUL the entire day and debated whether or not to run. I know I can skip a workout and should do so without regret, but my Type A tendencies to completely fulfill my plan won out and I ended up lacing up. Friday erased whatever bad feelings I had about Wednesday and Thursday, paving the way for an AWESOME Animal Athletics Mountain Goat Hill Running Clinic at Buttermilk Falls State Park.
Amy and I both went to the Animal Athletics clinic, which was a terrific way to spend a Friday evening. There was a good amount of non-running work with warming up, doing some footwork drills and instruction, and then we did a total of 3.5 miles of uphill, downhill and circuit running, practicing our new skills all the way. This trail running clinic was SO good, and it was amazing to get advice and tips from some amazing trail runners: Krissy Moehl (2 time Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc champion), Yassine Diboun and Willie McBride (both ultra runners and founders/owners of Animal Athletics).
Saturday’s long run was shorter than normal since it is a fallback week, just 16 miles. It’s amazing what can change in a month. Four weeks ago, I did this same workout in 2:29, and Saturday I ran it almost a minute per mile faster! From the house to Taughannock, rim/base/rim 2x, and back to the house. It was beneficial to have had hill training on Friday, as whenever I encountered a hill (up or down) I focused on what I learned. Pretending Yassine was right behind me spurring me on helped, too! I closed out my week Sunday afternoon with a 7.15 medium-effort in the sun, thinking mostly about how a number of athletes I knew were gutting it out at Buttermilk/Treman for the Cayuga Trails 50 Mile race. Amy, the kids and I volunteered most of the morning at the Old Mill aid station. If these runners could go 50 miles in the heat, I could certainly run a few miles around my house.
Next week is the biggest week yet! 26 for the long run, which will be the longest of this training plan. BRING IT ON!
June 2-8 (56.5 miles)
The race is just four weeks away now, and I decided to shift fully to trails for the week to see how it went, and to get some good practice time on the race course in the Finger Lakes National Forest (FLNF). What a week!
Monday: Off
Tuesday: 6 miles on the south half of the race course
Wednesday: 10x500m repeats up a hilly stretch of Taughannock’s South Rim
Thursday: 10.25 miles in the FLNF again, this time on the northern half
Friday: BodyPump core fitness at Island Fitness
It could have gotten interesting on Saturday for my long run, the longest my plan calls for. I took it easy on lunges and squats in Friday’s BodyPump class, opting for nothing more than body weight, but somehow did something to my right calf that made it sore. Probably squatting TOO deeply, which would have been easy without any weights! Anyway, I managed the entire 26.2 miles of the run without having any mechanical problems. My biggest problems were (a) nutrition (had a mild bonk at 20 where I needed to seriously psych myself out to keep going, and (b) a GPS fail where the TomTom lost satellite for a good 3 miles, meaning my map had a straight line where there should have been nice undulating curves, and (c) arriving at my car with 2 miles left! That was the hardest part: doing smaller loops within proximity of my getaway car. I probably ran 27 miles, but can’t be sure. I’ll go with where I stopped the watch at 26.2, which seemed a serendipitous marathon-like number to get to.
I just wrapped up Sunday’s medium-effort recovery run in the shade and light wind of Taughannock’s trails, and will very much look forward to a day of rest tomorrow. Next Saturday I’ll be doing the Tanglefoot Trail run (a 20K) down in Elmira. After that, just 3 weeks until race day!
June 9-15 (29 miles)
What a wet and humid week it was! My weekly mileage is dropping now, partly due to taper for July 5, and partly due to a (wisely) skipped workout.
Tuesday’s hour-long run was at Taughannock, and then Wednesday I decided to hit Taughannock’s rim for hill work. It supposed to be a 70-minute effort, but I decided instead to do 2 rim circuits, HARD. First rim repeat was counter-clockwise and I had a good time of 27:52.
Then I decided to really go all out and hit 23:51, a PR for me. I was quite grateful for hill training, since I didn’t lose too much time on the uphills for both of these circuits. Thursday I opted to NOT run, since the weather was lousy and I wasn’t feeling up to it. Hindsight being what it was, this was a good choice. It definitely dropped my weekly mileage down even further, but it saved my legs for Saturday!
My plan called for a half-marathon for this weekend, so I signed up for the Tanglefoot Trail Run 20K in Elmira on Saturday. Turns out the distance was 10.5 miles instead, but everyone kind of knew that, and the course terrain made up for it, and more! It was either up, or down, but NEVER flat. Over these 10.5 miles, I gained 2,075 feet of elevation. Ugh! I did finish 9th overall, so was really happy with that!
I closed out the week with an hour-long run on Sunday at Taughannock, where finally the sun started shining again!
June 16-22 (33 miles)
I was traveling for most of this week in New York City, but made the most of it by exploring Central Park each morning. One morning I made it all the way to the north end of the park, and asked a passerby: “Is the park over?”. She smiled and said yes, and I said “I’d better turn around, then!” I did 24 miles over the 3 days, and had a good business trip too!
Since I’m tapering now, Saturday called for a half hour of easy pace, so I had the pleasure of running the rim with my daughter, Elizabeth! We had a nice time, and got to flank the run with dropping off Xander at a birthday party and helping Amy and Jenny with aid during their 22 mile run.
Sunday called for a 10K race. Without one handy, I made my own! Two loops around Taughannock is 5.83 miles, so I ran it hard. I hit 23:30 for the South/North route, and 23:47 for the North/South route, with an aggregate 962 feet of gain. Both beat my 23:51 from last week, so I’m really pleased about that!
Just 8 more running workouts over the next 2 weeks until I toe the 50K line on July 5! Getting excited ...
June 23-29 (24.82 miles)
The countdown is in the single digits: just 6 more days ’til race day! Hard to believe that just 3 weeks ago, my weekly mileage was DOUBLE what it is now in taper. I focused on doing some cross-training this week in addition to my running plan, including a 14-mile bike with Amy, Skier’s Edge, yoga and a lot of leisure walking (16+ miles) during a pleasure trip to New York City.
I had a variety of running workouts this week, all relatively modest distances, but different focus areas:
6 mile Easy Run @Taughannock: Humid! Enjoyed doing 2 rim loops at Taughannock, using the camp road instead of the stairs on the North side each time.
5x500 Hill Repeats @Taughannock South Rim: Disgustingly humid and wet! These were my LAST hill repeats of my plan, so done is done.
1:30 Timed Run @Taughannock: Rim/base/rim x 2, including the camp road. Wet, humid ... and surreal! It was dawn and foggy/cloudy, and under the treed canopy the trails were quite dark. It gave me an appreciation of what 100 milers must feel as the sun sets on their first day, knowing that darkness is imminent, their headlamp is going to need to come out soon, and they’re only halfway done with their run. Thank goodness mine was only 90 minutes this morning!
Midday 5K (Fast): Made up a 5K run on the roads around my neighborhood. Ran at high noon with the sun beating down, but I only needed to be in it for ~23 minutes, so that was some consolation.
Just 4 more running workouts before 50K day ...