Visiting ZAP

Monday, March 17:

8:00 AM - 6 Miles, 40 min along the Mystic Lake

Tuesday, March 18:

11:00 AM - 9 Miles, 59 min @ Salem Lake w/ Thomas

5:00 PM - 5 Miles, 35 min @ Zap w/ Thomas

Wednesday, March 19:

9:00 AM - Progression run @ Watauga River Road w/ Jon and Thomas - 23 min w/u, 20 min PR (4 Miles), starting at 5:10 and picking up the pace every 5 min, 2 min jog, 10 min @ 5:40 pace behind Alli and Jess, 20 min c/d

4:00 PM - 4 Miles, 29 min w/ Jon, Thomas, and Jess; followed by drill set 'A'

Thursday, March 20:

8:30 AM - 11 Miles, 75 min @ Moses Cone Park w/ Ryan, Thomas, Jon, Brendan, & Chris; followed by 1 1/2 hours of core

Friday, March 21:

8:30 AM - 3+ Miles, 26 min @ Moses Cone Park

3:00 PM - Workout @ Moses Cone Park w/ Jon and Thomas - 21 min w/u, 3000m , 8.5 mjr, 3 hill sets (800m, 400m, 200m) w/ 200m jr/1000m jr between sets, 4mr, 1500m, 14 min c/d

9:26, (2:52, 78, 35), (2:47, 77, 35), (2:44, 76, 34), 4:40

Saturday, March 20:

9:00 AM - 10 Miles, 67 min @ The Greenway w/ Ryan; followed by 100m strides at the track

3:30 PM - 20 min @ Zap w/ Jess; followed by drill set 'B'

Sunday, March 21:

9:00 AM - 15 Miles, 98 min @ Mulberry Road w/ Brendan, Ryan, & Thomas

Week Total = 91 Miles, 2 workouts

As most of you know, I spent the majority of this week in the small town of Boone, North Carolina. This was a trip I'd been planning for quite a while and one that couldn't have come at a better time. It was a week of great training, plenty of rest, lots of food, and amazing hosts. Truthfully, I couldn't have asked for anything better. These hosts that I speak of were: Pete, Zika, Ryan, Thomas, Jon, Alli, Brendan, Mike, and Caroline; a group that currently makes up the Zap Fitness family. Jess and I were fortunate enough to be guests at their lovely estate (seen above) for the duration of this trip while participating in the daily happenings of the Zap Fitness lifestyle.

As you can see in the numbers above, it is quite easy to get in a healthy amount of training when in an environment like this. It was one of my best training weeks ever and when I look back to where I was a month ago, I'm thrilled to see a week like this in the training log. As my spring season rapidly approaches, I am getting more and more eager to feel fast again. I didn't necessarily feel fast this week, but I felt strong! ...and that is a big step in the right direction. To sum up the workouts a little bit, I would say they were both very challenging, but also encouraging. Jon and Thomas are quite possibly the most fit they've been all year so to run even a portion of these sessions with them is saying something. I would have liked to feel better on the progression run in Wednesday's workout, but I made up for that by feeling great in Friday's session. I did a little less volume than those guys for the opening and closing segments, but hung onto them pretty well through the hill intervals and closed in the last lake loop feeling very comfortable.

I also have to say that the running venues available to us this week were unbeatable. We spent the majority of our miles at Moses Cone Park which starts at an elevation of 3500 ft and climbs to elevations in the mid 4000s throughout the maze of soft cinder trails. The scenery on each run was unlike any other (as seen on the left) and when you combine that with extraordinary people to run with (captured on the right with the "runner cam"), it makes for some great long runs.

I am very grateful for everything and everyone that made this week a success and I will use all this as motivation to get me through my upcoming season as I try to accomplish something I've never done before. I'm still not sure what that will be, but I believe I am on the verge of entering new territory in this sport, and I can't think of anything I'd want more.