Week 14 2014 Recap

It was spring break week, the week for the biggest training miles, end of sugar season, and perfect weather and conditions for backcountry skiing!  Needless to say this week was full of outdoor activities.  I had an incredible week and I can't believe it but my body feels the best it ever has.  We started the week boiling the last of our collected maple sap and decided to call the season over after this weekend.  We may have been able to collect a bit more, but the weather was beautiful and there were other things I wanted to get done this week.  
Wednesday night we had a pretty decent freeze and highs on Thursday were in the 60s, so I couldn't pass up a day to ski in the Adirondacks.  I made the 6 mile skin and slide climb from the Garden TH in Keene Valley in almost exactly 2 hours.  Ski conditions were marginal, but it was a great day to be in the mountains and get a great workout in.  I wasn't sure how this would set me up for my long run on Friday, but I felt great for about 24 miles and fair to good for the remainder of the run.  Hillary was nice enough to find me along the way for a refuel stop!
After running 34 miles I figured I wouldn't be to keen on getting out of bed at 4:40am the next morning to spend a day skinning and climbing another Slide in the Adirondacks, but to my surprise my legs felt 100% when I woke up and I felt strong the entire day in the mountains.
Today I tried to get out on some of the atv trails around the house and the trails were muddy and marginal.  I did muster an 18 mile loop consisting of some trails and dirt road with nearly 2000' of elevation gain.  The run started a bit sluggish, but I finished the training run feeling really strong again.
Overall, this was a big week and I was expecting the be in the hurt box, but the miles since January are really starting to pay off.  I plan on starting to taper for the Bear Mountain 50, which is in just 3 weeks, and then start to focus my training towards the VT100.  I will not formally train and taper for the Bryce Canyon 50, but instead it will more be used for a vacation and training race with just a one week slow down prior.

Summary of Week 14:
M    OFF
T     5.1 mile run on icy snowmobile trails
W    7.8 mile Griffin Hill Loop run
Th   Backcountry Ski Bennies Slide in Adks (12 miles; 2767')
F     33.8 mile run, Lake Bomoseen Circumnavigation
S     Backcountry Ski Colden Slide in Adks (9 miles; 2500')
S     18.0 mile muddy trail/dirt road run

Weekly Totals:
Run distance:                    64.8 miles (85.8 mi all activities)
Total run elevation gain:    4,876 feet (10,143' all activities)
Total run time:                    9 hours 36 mins (18h 40m all activities)