Last Major Pre-Birkie Workout

Any endurance athlete knows that it's the work that your put in over weeks that gives you your race day stamina, but I did have one last big workout planned for Saturday to give myself some confidence for the Birkebeiner.

I drove out to Baker Park on the west edge of town and took to the trails. Baker has some of the largest hills in the west metro, a large trail system, and some nice scenery. A race had been held earlier in the morning, so the trails were pretty well used, but I didn't care too much--it will probably be like that come raceday.

I did lap after lap on a combination of loops --island, hill, timber, & prairie trails, stopping only for HEED from the camelpak, and once to take a layer of clothing off. At 2 hours in, I had one powerbar gel, which was an incredible energy boost(I'm planning on taking one every 40 minutes during the race).

It was 2:55 as I finished my umpteenth loop, I and decided on one more loop to break the 3 hour mark. I decided to go out to the island trail & back, which entails going downhill for a long time, and then back up the longest hill at the park. My arms were on fire from the start, and mid hill, I switched to single poling, but went back to V1 as soon as the grade leveled a bit. I got to the top with nothing left in the tank. Even my 70oz camelpak was empty.

Distance: 27.99 miles
Calories Burnt: 4271 (an entire pound of body fat is 3500 calories)
Average Speed: 6:39/mile
Average heartrate: 152



Now, I'll put in just a couple very short, ultra-high intensity (probably Tabata) workouts before a few days of preparation & taper.

The Birkie is on Saturday.