Training for a 200 miler

Divide 200: Week 8: Phase 1

Planned mileage: 80/Completed miles 80.06

Planned vert: 6,000ft/Completed vert 4,063 feet

Another week of good miles and garbage weather! First time I’ve touched 80 miles in a while and the body took it really well!

The forecast was looking cold, and as has been the theme lately, it decided to dump a surprise 2ish feet of snow, so once again, miles were basically in survival mode. In recent weeks, I’ve done a fair amount of doubles to get my mileage up, but this week I wanted to make an effort to just put my head down and work through longer single efforts, and I was always thankful I did with the cold weather and crap conditions.

This week was my first little peak, with next week pulling down to 70 to reload a little (nicer temps ahead though!). Durability is feeling high and I’ve managed to hold onto my strength in the gym pretty well even though my workouts are pretty bare bones (benched 225 6x6 today easy breezy) which has been a nice surprise. My overall strength split right now is:

Monday: Legs

Tuesday: Chest/Back

Weds: Shoulders/Arms

Thursday: Legs (light)

Friday: Chest/Back

Saturday: Off

Sunday: Arms/Shoulders

The sessions are typically 2-3 movements per body part, taking around an hour in total, so pretty low investment from a time and energy perspective. Overall the objective is to slow build the strength, not negatively impact the run work and stay durable as mileage builds.

Bodyweight is still sitting around 216 most days, so holding on to some nice size even as the miles bump. I anticipate really starting to lean down once the alpine opens up and I start stacking a lot more vert (fingers crossed, that’s soon).

Enjoying a down week and some warmer weather in the week ahead before we crank back up and start making our way toward 100 mile weeks. I get to do this and I’m thankful every day. 200 miles is already feeling more in reach than it was a few weeks ago.

Onward, Always.