"In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt." - Margaret Atwood

Yup, it's time for running season to kick back in. I've had a good run (heh) with the weight training, but now I need more trail time. I'll still do a couple hours of weight training a week, but it falls into a more secondary role when I turn my attention back to race training. February was a pretty good month for my weight training, though.

I did a race in February, the Hagg Mudd 25K, but it wasn't a very serious race for me - I barely trained for it - and I don't like to talk about it. It was my worst race ever. It was fun for 10K, but then I wanted it to be done. That mud was super slick and I couldn't get any traction on it. I don't even want to think about how many times I fell. I've had better marathon times than this.

I did one pretty short hike (maybe five miles) this month up in Washington on Wenatchee Ridge. It was raining on the west side of the Cascades that day, but this was the view on the east side of the mountains.

Interesting side note: the Cascade Crest 100 Miler goes through this area. Ginger Runner has a pretty intense video of his adventure at Cascade Crest on YouTube.

I've got a race coming up on April 10, the Peterson Ridge Rumble 20 Miler (there's a 40 miler, too - maybe next year). This race is in Sisters, OR just on the east side of the Cascades. It's very popular. Last year, Forest Park in Portland - a trail runner hot spot - was empty the weekend of PRR.

The plan has me spending six weeks preparing for that race. Nothing too grueling, since it's not horribly long - tempo, track and trail work. No real hill work since PRR has a pretty easy hill profile.

That should prime me for training up to my next 50K race, the Siskiyou Outback (SOB) down in Ashland, OR.

I spent a lot of time thinking about this plan. I don't know that training plans have a lot of benefit for runners with a solid base, but I like to force discipline on myself. This plan is an amalgamation of several plans I've used, seen, or thought of in my head. I like the variety. There are different types of speedwork, tempos and hill work in this plan. I'll keep doing strength training twice a week with higher volume and less intensity on the lower body plus a renewed focus on plyos and core work.

It's gonna be a busy spring!