Week 3 in Flagstaff

Another week at 7,000 feet is in the books with a couple of solid workouts in the middle of a 150 mile week. On Wednesday I decided to make an early trip to Sedona Red Rock High School in order to drop to 4,500 feet and allow the legs to move a bit quicker. I had to be off the track by the start of school at 8:00 AM which meant leaving at 5:30. The drop in elevation and trading the hilly terrain of Flagstaff for a track obviously made a world of difference for my legs and lungs. The workout consisted of

3.5 miles, 2.5 miles, and 1.5 miles with a 4.5 minute and 3 minute recovery. While the recovery seems long, it's necessary to extend it beyond the normal 3 and 2 minutes I would normally do at sea-level. While the pace was not overly impressive, it was close to my threshold efforts at sea-level when using an altitude conversion. Most importantly it gave me confidence to continue to push through the tough days in Flagstaff and look forward to some incredible sea-level training in the near future. Sedona is a beautiful town surrounded by magnificent rock formations. I had the privilege of refueling with a smoked salmon omelette from a place called the Coffee Pot which has 101 omelettes on their menu. I'm looking forward to heading down again this week for another workout and another dining experience.

Sunday's long run was also fairly successful. Doing an out and back on Lake Mary Rd. in Flagstaff was challenging as the first 11.5 miles were into the wind with a net elevation gain, so it was a slow start. After turning around I was able to get moving and also put in a 4 mile push from 16-20 at 5:11 pace, bringing the overall average to about 6:05. Again, nothing outstanding, but it's nice to see consistent improvement each few days up here.

I'm already down to my last 9 days here before heading back to Portland to continue marathon training. There are still trails to explore, restaurants to test, and the Grand Canyon to see. Feel free to check out last week's training below. Thanks again for reading and follow me here on Twitter for more updates.

Week 3	AM	PM	Strength/Drills	Mileage
Monday	15	7.5	40 minutes	22.5
Tuesday	13 + 8 x 200 meter hills + drills	7		22.5
Wednesday	14	6.5		20.5
Thursday	3.5 mile, 2.5, 1.5 @ 4:54, 4:53, 4:51 w/ 4.5 & 3 minutes rest. On track in Sedona (4500 feet)	6.5		22.5
Friday	12 + 8 x 200 meter hill repeats	6.5	40 minutes	20.5
Saturday	12	6.5		18.5
Sunday	23 miles in 2:20:03, pushing miles 16-20 @ 5:11 average on Lake Mary Rd.	off		23
TOTAL				150