Ultra Training on the Track | Western States 100 Prep

If you’re following along with my journey back to Western States, you know that one of the big focuses of training is finding speed again after two years of training for MASSIVE efforts like the 507 mile Choose Strong Project and the Grand Slam of 200s (1000+ miles). While speed has always been an essential part of my training, I put greater emphasis on strength and endurance for 24 straight months. Now, it’s time to go back to the most basic workouts to get the speed back. This short speed session proved I have a lot of work to do; and as always, it’s humbling to share it with you in this way.

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Thanks to Logan http://instagram.com/loganwelch.cine and Drew http://instagram.com/drewbdarby for filming in Austin.
And thanks to Keith and Tyler for joining me for the workout at Yellowjacket Stadium in Austin!
Thanks for hosting the event http://instagram.com/thelooprunning – event video courtesy of Anthony http://instagram.com/choiboy15

#dothework #ultrarunner #yellowrunner

Shout out to my daughter McKenzie who does those literally twice as Fast today’s workout is going to be super humbling because it’s showing me all of my weaknesses and in my opinion this is my opinion how slow I am so let’s introduce the whole team that was so selfless to come out here with me today super stoked to have all you guys

But first we have Keith just his first name Keith Keith what’s your last name Mitch har Keith is here he’s got super cool tattoos he brought the kettle bells he brought the kettle bells for me thank you and then we have who most people know Tyler what

Up first name BOS first name faces only here we go Logan hey how’s it going I’m excited let’s go Logan’s going to be using this to keep up yes and then we have and I’m here you know just vlogging just making YouTube videos may or may not hop in for the

Last rep so I can say I ran with Sally I don’t know today’s workout is going to be uh just finished with some drills and then it’s a 20 minute um warmup so just getting the muscles warm so we’ll run that easy and then we click in to 4X 4

Minutes at 910 RP so RP is rate of perceived exertion and so it’s kind of a rough uh interval because it’s going to be longer than 800 M but not quite a mile yeah it’s probably somewhere around like 1K is what I’m thinking it’s only my second time doing

This particular workout and the first time I did it in a storm along the coast which I probably should have done on the treadmill cuz it did not go well so today I’m hoping it’ll go a little bit better um and then after we do 4X 4

Minutes then I will do 20 minute um cool down then I’ll take like a 4-Hour break I’ll eat um maybe take a nap and then go run for an hour easy probably around ladybird lake so I’m looking forward to that and that’ll just be a recovery run

So we’re looking about 2 and a half hours of work today and I’m here for it I’m only going to get better if I face all my weaknesses and get in that discomfort zone so never been afraid of doing that but yeah time to get better the track workout was a good mix

Of introducing my body back into into much needed speed training but also a a little bit of a shock just because I haven’t consistently done those types of workouts for the past couple years I’d say a lot of the speed training that I’ve been doing in the past couple years

Has just been natural progression of speed and fart look style stuff like out on the Trails I might you know run hard for a stretch bomb a downhill go hard up a hill but getting on the track and Counting off the intervals it’s been a couple years since I’ve done that and I’ve always trained in a way that complement the race that I’m doing

So last year was about racing anywhere between 200 and 250 Mi putting races on on top of each other so we did four 200s within 5 months months naturally my focus was to keep my body strong and enduring that was the most important thing I knew that within those races

There weren’t going to be a lot of stretches where I was going to be trying to keep a six seven minute pace um it really was about being efficient and strong for the entire stretch I know that as I transition into a different style of racing in a shorter race um

Well 100 mile race but it’s a a faster paac 100 race I need to have a good training block where I’m getting as fit and fast as I possibly can this is good though four minutes we got two and a half minutes left thank you coach for saying that I

Could have true recovery so I’m walking the focus is on the work so uh different from a flick where you kind of keep running intervals um structured rest but recover as best you can so you can work hard again I started off at 55 and I was like nope no

Sally you don’t belong there right now let’s chill [Laughter] out so hopefully number two will be a little bit Better I think that one was roughly about the same distance give or take like 10 m I need to work on my on my pacing I get excited the first Lap four here we go on to the third the third interval went a little bit better but still I had it in my mind that I needed to run it slower so that I could finish the whole rep and then run the last one better so

I became so focused on the LA last rep that I slow down too much for the third rep I don’t think that I executed the track workout very well and it was good for me when I finished to go back and look at my heart

Rate which proved that I did not get up into that 910 RP I also took a look at how my Pace was kind of all over the place and it just showed me that I’m not comfortable settling you know settling in and pacing so that’s good I’m going

To I’m going to work on that better pacing at higher intensity and being okay with getting out of my comfort zone and just settling into that that faster pace for a longer time one more left thank you Keith too that one felt the hardest I’m hoping the last one’s my best one

So I haven’t thrown up yet although the second one and the third one the last 200 met I felt like I was going to throw up do we have to let people know what my Paces are you talk about at the end or do I have to endure like all the comments

They’re going to be asking that That’s The Humbling part and here are my faces but again remember I’m training for 100 mile race well and and your race is in how many months yeah I have I have 17 weeks of like training left and the race is in 18

Weeks so yeah still a lot of work to Do then when I got to the fourth rep I was like so excited that I gotten to the fourth rep um it ended up being my fastest rep but but now my body was was a little bit tired a little hot I didn’t run it as fast as I think that I have

I’m capable of running well that I know I’m capable of running so what did I learn after that track workout I learned that I need to focus on the interval that I’m in and be wise about the pace that I’m in allow myself just to feel it feel

That 910 and not be so obsessed with the metrics which is hard to do cuz I like the metrics I also learned that I don’t have a lot of confidence in my speed and so I immediately hold back a little bit and I learned that looking at my heart rate

And just overall effort of the whole um workout afterwards so all the numbers that I can analyze after those are really helpful um so I’m going to use that going in to my next workout just to be better but as always I think that workouts are really great at keeping us

Humble and reminding us that the hard work is hard but the hard work it it pays off that’s where we get better um I’m okay with being uncomfortable and I think that sometimes it’s it’s easy to feel uncomfortable in something that’s being re reintroduced or that you haven’t done

In a while you know as was a track athlete in high school I love being on the track I actually really really love running on the track I think it’s fun you’re able to settle into you know just settle into the zone of just running you’re not wor worrying

About tree ranches and rocks to jump over you’re not worrying about um getting lost on the trail or traffic signals or uh yeah you can just kind of settle in and focus on just running when you’re on the track so I do look forward to the track workouts and I do

Look forward to executing them better shout out to my daughter McKenzie who does those literally twice as fast you’re amazing Ken Drew and keyth thanks for running with me you guys oh my gosh it was nice to have the company jogging next to me you guys were like barely

Breathing well that was I did one he’s got one more yeah that was good stuff shout out to my coach for giving me just a great workout that definitely challenges me and shows me all the areas that I can work on yeah form speed leg turnover pacing yeah it’s good

Now got 2 minutes and we’ll go into a uh 20 minute cool down so I’m going to change my shoes don’t need to co down in the carbon plated [Laughter] shoes I have like a pretty solid background okay so you understand like programming like macro and micro Level it’s just um it’s just going to be finishing off the legs a little bit I don’t think I’d necessarily tell like a road Marathon or to do this but this is that side where you run fast and then you have to go climb up a mountain and if you’re

Complaining cuz your legs are tired well then you didn’t do your strength work so dude how cool are these These are so red that’s so awesome right I love it yeah so pretty basic here I’m going to start off just with some lunges we got 20 what are these 25 uh those are

Okay 98 99 100 I have to give a little side note here to what I’m doing I just started with my coach um we’ve been working together for two weeks we respect each other a lot and he’s like I know that you like the strength train so I’m going to leave

That up to you but I might step in here and there and give you some Plus or minuses so he did not program this part into my track workout he might see this and be like like and no but I think this is what has helped keep me and dream

Free and pushing hard at the end of a race for the last decade so that’s why I like doing it but I’ve had to work up to it I just didn’t like start doing this stuff right off the Bat also the Invincible is not a good sh sh for this I should be Barefoot grounded I know do you see that my my my uh foot is shaking so Much Easy 15 now it’s time to eat a lot of food recover a little bit and then we got an hour run around the lake it’s good work good humbling work that reminds me there’s still a lot of work to do second run right now I’m super stoked

To have Tyler and you drew with me um we’re going to do it’s warm I actually have like a little bit of a headache I feel like I went from like 50° storms like the past month to coming here where it’s hot and humid which I love the heat

But didn’t really get like a good uh transition time how do the legs feel for a double 4 hours later you know they actually feel pretty good I I think during the track workout today I was still feeling it from Tuesday but I think that’s also like a good thing is

Just getting stronger while you know you’re not feeling 100% um but tomorrow’s like recovery Starts Now tomor tomorrow’s a recovery day um so it’s it’s a pretty good like 36 40 hours of just focusing on recovery so I’m going to take that seriously sidebar we have a third run Tonight so maybe that doesn’t sound like recovery but yeah we have a third run tonight but that’s a fun community group run at Loop running so we’ll talk more about that later but right now I have this awesome opportunity to run around ladybird Lake which I love and just hang

Out with friends for a good 60 minutes all right back from a pretty rad night with Loop running they put on a 5k tonight Community run got a lot of amazing people came out um was really cool to make some new friends and just to connect with the great Austin running

Community I always love coming here we had pizza we had drinks and yeah really cool night and then went out with friends for Texas barbecue afterwards so I could definitely say this is one of my favorite days so far of 2024 we got three runs in connected with the

Community had good food and now it’s time to get some sleep we got a recovery right in the morning and then catching the plane back to Huntington Beach