Four in a Row

Self portrait of me and my Joint Juice Glucosamine. It tastes good after a long run (or four days in a row of running) and gives me hope that I will still be running 30 years from now! I do mix it with water.

Hi all. Dana here! I am officially on the countdown to Colorado. Transrockies is about a month away and I am really ramping up the running. I am running! And running. I am eating, stretching and then on to more running. I am drinking spinach smoothies (sounds bad but tastes great) and eating anything on my co-workers' desks that looks like they might not finish, then I run again! I have made 2 significant changes to my running routine this week.

1) Less iPod, more brain. Turns out I have some great ideas when I have some time to actually just think. I would love to say I have solved the world's problems but I have come up with great recipe ideas (oh yes I did make homemade Nutella!), gift ideas (need to say thank you for putting up with my obsessive running) and ideas for doing my job better (yes, sometimes work does creep in). I gave up the iPod when I realized that Tranrockies mid-pack runners take about 30 hours to finish and I computed that even if I only listened for 1/3 of the event that I will need 10 hours of music and podcasts that are new and exciting. So we will see how long I last but at this rate I should have about 5 each of my favorite podcasts saved up for down moments during the race. Thank you for asking, my favorite podcasts are: This American Life, Planet Money, Ben Greenfield Fitness and Radiolab. Go download a few and then head out for a run without your iPod, you never know what you may think up!

2) 4 in a row! I am starting to train in more race like conditions. I have been running hills for breakfast, lunch and dinner, that hasn't changed. What has changed is my Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday running schedule. I have swapped that luxury schedule with lovely days of indoor cycling between runs for running four days in a row with one fifth run thrown in for speed. Last week the 4 in a row set was 9 miles, 10 miles, 9 miles, 15 miles. This week is a funny one with a 50k race so I plan on 6 miles, 6 miles, 32 miles, 15 miles. I am finding that when I am on the fourth day my knees are asking me what is going on. My feet are curious why I am putting on running shoes and not my bike shoes. My running clothes are all dirty and I am out of GUs. The good news is that I am having fun with the change and adding in one day of speed in the 3 days between 4 day sets is a mental boost (I CAN run fast when there aren't gigantic hills in my way!) Next week my four in a row lands in 3 countries (Hungary, Italy and France) so that will be fun. I will let you know how it goes. I think by then my legs will be used to it. Hopefully it won't be too much to ask during race week to go just two more days to make it a six in a row!