MCM week 9

Marine Corp Marathon (MCM) Training Week 9 and Colonial 200 mile relay – (Done)

Week 9 mileage
Monday            5 (5.25) 

Tuesday         off

Wednesday    off 

Thursday        off

Friday             20 (20) 

Saturday         20 (20.61)

Sunday           off
Total 45.86 miles 

If during the first 8 weeks on the road from injury to the MCM my knee was holding up well.  When I first came down with an “over use” injury to my knee, two thoughts haunted me.  #1 Would I be able to get back to my running  #2 I have two big races on my calendar, the Colonial 200 mile relay and the Marine Corp Marathon.  I wanted to recover but I also DID NOT want to miss these races.

Getting back on the road after a month and half off took baby steps and slowly over 8 weeks I’ve been able to get back to near the same weekly mileage as pre-injury.  But week 9 was really going to put it to the test.  Week 9 hosted the colonial 200 and the during the relay I was not going to be able to baby my knee.  Where before I was asking my knee to recover, now I was going to have to ask it to perform.  Where I was asking my body to heal, I was going to ask it to take punishment and ask it to get back out on the road with only minimal rest.

I’m very happy to report my knee held up fine!  Here is a look at my legs (in red) of the Colonial 200 Mile Relay.

Leg 1 

6.45 miles from Cortez to Charlottesville, VA  The opening leg of our 206 mile adventure began on a beautiful winery, but since it was 0600 in the morning it was hard to see all the beauty before us. The run itself was a medium difficulty run with rolling hills through the wine and horse country of Albemarle County, two small climbs in a leg that is overall downhill.

Leg 8

5.76 miles from Barboursville to Gordonsville, VA  If not the longest of the legs this leg could be characterized as  “The Toughest Climb” on the course.  A hard difficulty run, noted by a climb of 400+ ft over the first 2.3 miles.  Whoever ran this leg of the race was given a “King Of The Mountain” pint glass as a memento.  I’m sure as the years go by the stories of my mountain run will grow by epic proportions.  It was on this stage that I did catch and bury a fellow racer via “Lance Armstrong.”  And to the USADA (a gov’t body with no power, no authority and no control) I did not dope, but I did have a few pizza goldfish before hand.  

 Leg 12

4.41 Miles in Louisa, VA  A medium difficulty run with rolling hills that are mainly downhill the first half and uphill (100+ ft) the second half of the run.

Leg 14

6.33 Miles in Louisa, VA  A medium difficulty run with rolling hills with a couple of good (75+ ft) climbs along the way.

Leg 22

5.15 miles in Ashland, Va  A medium difficulty downhill (-50 ft) run into the city of Ashland.

Leg 25

7.75 Miles from Hanover to Mechanicsville, VA  A hard and long leg with a 100+ ft climb over the last 3 miles.  This leg was run in the middle of the night over some very dark, dark roads…it was spooky.

Leg 30

5.66 miles from Providence Forge to Charles City, VA  My last official leg of the relay a Mid-distance, medium difficulty downhill relatively flat leg that ends with a descent (-75 ft) over the last mile.  At the end of this leg my team greeted with an ice cold Yoohoo and high fives as my part of the relay was DONE!

Leg 36

1.66 miles, finishing at Jamestown Beach Park in Williamsburg, VA  This final leg was not an official leg for me. Our team wanted to finish this race together so we all walked out to meet Josh, who was “closing out” our adventure, and run the final mile together.  I walked a little faster then the group so I got in a bonus .66