For some reason or another, my brain is wired to light up whenever I get the opportunity to go climb a mountain.
No matter how big or small, there’s something about the climb to the top that sets my heart on fire.
So, when I saw the invitation for a week-long vertical challenge flash across social media, I was instantly sold.
A week with one goal: as much vert as I can. Sounded simple. Sounded rad.
I was in.
The first question (after answering with a hell yes to signing up) was what would I make of this challenge? This didn’t seem like a race that one sets out to win. Instead, I’m here to make the challenge my own – how can I make the most of a week conquering some vert?
Any time I ask myself that sort of question, I make it a point to check in with where I am at.
The past few months have been challenging for me as I’ve been coming back from injuries (not to mention the more serious challenges I was dealing with that brought on those injuries in the first place). Fortunately, with the help of an ankle brace and a mindset to be hyper-conscientious of every step, I’ve been able to safely go on trail runs for a couple months now.
It’s been a while since I’ve done an organized event. Covid shut down the two I had scheduled last year. It also made doing my big annual event too difficult to sign up for this upcoming May.
Given the solid training schedule with no scheduled event until late summer, I was excited for a real challenge.
That being said, I would be working all week so I couldn’t devote every day to spending hours and hours on the trails. I’d also be constrained to local trails (although living in Phoenix, that’s not much of a problem).
The other piece that was perfect here with this spontaneous sign-up was that I’m coming out of a rest week. A week ago I did my Spontaneous McDowell Mountain Marathon (26.2 miles, 5,000 vert, 6.5 hours on the trail), and after that I knew a rest week was in order.
This means I’d be entering the week well-rested.
The second question to ask myself was where I wanted to go. This challenge – and this life – is my own to make, and what I want to see and do is up to me.
I’ve also learned (especially with the help of good ole 2020) that making plans can be a load of b.s. All we can ever realy do is look at what’s right in front of us and move forward from there.
Given this mindset, I drafted up some ideas for how I wanted to spend the week, and then made a decision only about what Day 1 would look like. Here it is:
Intentions:
1. Make this week an adventure, setting out each day with the specific goal of getting in vert (after all, that’s the true reason for the challenge) while also having fun along the way!
2. Make this week a great training week. I was feeling refreshed and healthy, so it was a good time to put a large load of training on my body.
3. Use this week as a learning experience. This one is worth explaining fully as it will set the stage for the rest of these posts.
I’m not usually one to take on a heavy training load. I’m more of a solid zone 2 trainer, keeping things almost completely aerobic while occasionally throwing in a fartlek or hill repeat. Other than a couple times training for half marathons (during which my pace was substantially higher) I generally just keep it mellow and use consistency to build a solid level of fitness.
That would be different this week as I put on a serious load each day – putting in mileage to get to the hills and getting in as much elevation as I could in the time I had to chase up those hills.
What that meant to me was that now was the time to double down on my recovery strategy. Over the years I’ve accumulated a fair amount of knowledge regarding best practices for recovery, but I’m not always so great at following through with it all. I’d have to change that this week.
I’d also have to be extra mindful of my nutrition. Now this is one that I am almost always good at, but given the extra load I’d hve to take extra care to be mindful of what I’m eating and when so that I can get in all the vertical adventure runs while also staying nourished.
So, with my rest week coming to a close and a set of intentions for the week in mind, I was excited for the first day of the challenge!
How the rest of the week would unfold, I wasn’t entirely sure. I had some ideas, but I knew I’d have to play it day-by-day.
