Now that we've been here a little bit, we have developed a solid training routine that will hopefully translate well when we return to the "continent." Everything starts and ends at Magen's Bay, simply because this is a great place to run and with the beach just a few feet away, it is possible to cool down after. There are a couple different runs that we have been alternating between which we now have solid times for.
Peterborg Run: 8 miles, 1,100' gain, :51 minutes finished with some laps around the track.
Trail Laps: 3 miles roundtrip, 700' gain, 13 up, 10 down. I've been doing three laps with a lap around the "track" between each.
The Track: .8 miles in one loop. I do speed on the backside of the track (the side in the trees), and mark each distance by the 3 gates. Going clockwise on the loop I have Gate 1-2 fast session: .54-.59 seconds, Gate 1-3 longer session: 2:32-2:36 minutes. Going counter clockwise on the loop I have Gate 1-2 fast session: 1:30-1:34 minutes, Gate 1-3 longer session: 2:33-2:38 minutes. Between each speed session I do a lap.
The speed sessions are the most interesting for down here. Never having done any sort of speed work, I am finding them particularly challenging and fun. Likewise, the trail laps are also unique in that the trail is extremely technical, tight, and slick. Nothing like a trail in Colorado or anywhere that I have run. Steep, rocky/rooty, very tight, and usually wet.
I'll continue to work on bringing these times down and hopefully after a solid 8 weeks of speed work (with some hills), I'll be a bit faster on my standard runs back home. Similarly, I'm hoping to see an overall improvement in my basic tempo speed which will hopefully allow me to cruz at a slightly faster pace during races and longer runs. Each run averages around 10-12 miles down here, so no long runs, but hopefully I can ramp that up fairly quickly (as compared to gaining speed) once back home. I have a 15 mile race mid-September that is at 10,000' so I'll have to hopefully get acclimated quickly, but I'm also hoping all of the speed work will compensate a bit. Below are photos of the backside of the track and of the trail - different then anything I've run or trained on before.
This is the backside of the track where I do the speed work - nice surface.
The technical trail - 1.5 miles one way with about 700' of gain
The view from halfway up
The bottom of the trail going through the mangrove area. The trail passes through 3 different ecosystems as it climbs: mangroves, dry island forest, and wet island forest.
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