Memorial Day weekend: Capping 97 miles

I completed a 97 mile week today with my usual Mt Wilson Toll Road 20 mile workout:  Powerwalk up 10 miles to the summit (2:44), run down (20 miles total, 4:05).  I ran in my Trail Gloves and carried a lot of water;  however,  I found that the spigot at the summit was back on.  Thats good, lugging water for a 20 mile jaunt is a bit uncomfortable.

Yesterday I'd run 28.3 miles in the Verdugos, as I needed a break from the Mt. Wilson loop course I've been doing.  That's a great course but I've done it now 3 weeks in a row.  I started the Verdugos course before sunrise, power walking  up from La Tuna Canyon to the ridge top (3.3 miles) with a ton of water.  I made a water cache there, then ran out  east to Burbank (9.5 miles at the Burbank trailhead) and back to the water cache (15.7 miles).  Then ran west to a La Canada trailhead (20.2 miles at the turnaround) then back to the water cache and down for 28.2 miles in 5:23.  I did a lot of walking-- wherever the grade was ~10%, and because both achilles/hamstrings were tight and I had some pain.  I love this course since, running the ridge top, one gets a real sense of distance;  plus the fire road is largely a white decomposed granite so that the route is just sun soaked and one is bathed in light.  The views of the San Gabriels north is also just spectacular -  a real sense of grandeur on this route.  The only downside is that there is no water.  Here is the track for the route/the run:  http://connect.garmin.com/activity/518177476

The weekday running last week comprised 49 miles.  I did double workouts from Wednesday on, after I'd recovered from last weekend's training.  When I get into the double workout mode-  waking early to run, then running again at lunchtime, I feel cleared out.  Hard to describe but worth experiencing.

So far so good in this base building phase of my training; I'll keep this 90-100 mile week training load up for a couple more weeks, then take a down week to crew my pal Dale for the back half of  his solo RAAM bike race across America.  After RAAM, I'll resume 100 mile weeks and hopefully begin to work on speed if all goes well.