3 days out

Well this Saturday is my next run, the Catoctin 50k in Frederick, MD. Training since my last race has concentrated on speed, heat and some hill work. I was comparing some times from Feb and recent speed work I did, well I was a bit surprised to find I was running slower! I guess I should not be surprised, I've really dropped the ball on speed work for most of the year and have concentrated on long slow runs. I've read comments on the Ultra mailing list that long slow running makes for long slow runners. So for the past few weeks I have been doing some road runs and pushing the pace to try and up my speed. Of course there has been some serious heat lately, I've found I'm not real fond of running in it, but I've made it a point to get out and suffer through it so I'm not blindsided by the heat during my next 2 runs. My second run this month Aug 26th will be my first 50 miler, the proximity of this weeks 50k to it is of some concern so my goal for the 50k is to just treat it as a training run and take it nice and easy. I want to be as prepared as possible for the step-up to 50 miles. After the 50 miler I'm running the Army 10 miler in October with a friend of mine and then the Mountain Masochist 50 miler in November . Depending how well I recover from this months 50 miler I will have to decide on my final run of the year. I have in mind running Hellgate which although the 2006 date is not on the website I assume will be in early December. Hellgate is a 100k night start run, sounds like a lot of fun and would be a great capstone to my 2006 ultra running year.