After my awesome 100km trail run this spring, I decided to make the jump and signed up for my first 100 mile trail run late this year. The 2018/2019 run season is the last run season of my 30’s and what a better way to round out this decade than with my first century run! I’ve done several century bike rides, and they were pretty brutal so I can only imagine what running 100 miles is going to feel like, haha. But back then I was fueled by SAD (Standard American Diet) and so like my fruit-fueled 100k, I hope my 100 miler goes smoothly thanks to my high carb low fat raw vegan diet. I am working with my same 100km coach again, Dr. Douglas Graham, author of The 80/10/10 Diet. For those of you outside the raw vegan realm, maybe he will make mainstream news soon as he is coaching a few NBA hopefuls including Michael Porter Jr and I recently saw this article from GQ about it. Anyhow, Graham broke my training into four nine week phases and I just completed the first one (Strength & Conditioning; with a heavy focus on strength).

There have been several things that I have worked on that I haven’t done previously.  First and foremost, one of the two biggest changes that I’ve made is getting more sleep. Like, a LOT more sleep. Apparently sleep is critical for recovery which is clearly important when training for a race such as this. It took me SIX WEEKS of trying, but I finally hit 60 hours a week and have been able to maintain this much sleep as a minimum for the last 4 weeks. Believe me, with three small kids and a training and life schedule like mine, this is no small task!!! But gosh, I feel good. I bet it’s been since middle school since I got sleep like this. Seriously. Even in high school we swam two-a-days and I’m pretty sure we hopped in the water at 5:30am if memory serves me correctly. There’s no way I was in bed early enough to warrant 60 hour sleep weeks! The second big change is that I’ve been deadlifting and I’m starting to get more into squats too. I’ve made a lot of progress this phase both strength and form-wise. I definitely still have room for improvement but I’m on the right track and am pleased with how far I’ve come in such a short time. This is something that’s never been a part of my training in the past. I’ve been timing myself and my mile time has dropped from 7:25 at the start of Phase 1 to 6:54 at the end. I had never previously broken 7 minutes for a mile (in my life!) and I’ve done it a handful of times now. During this phase, I was way down on my run mileage (only 20 miles a week) while I primarily focused on building strength. While not required by my coach (although he is in favor of it), I have been doing awesome getting in 6 yoga classes per week, usually at least 5 of which are hot yoga. It’s been a while since I’ve had my practice be so regular and I’m enjoying getting back to that. Back in 2015 I completed my 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training certification with the goal to deepen my own practice. Life has been such a whirlwind since then and this is the first time I’m getting to dedicate the time on my mat like I want (note: baby #3 was born days after graduation and I already had a 2.75 year old and 15 month old too at the time!).

Tomorrow I head into Phase 2 and I’m excited to see what it brings! I’ll keep you posted!