I have never raced much. It is nerve racking, making me see things in myself that I haven’t seen in a while, things that I need to work on. I’ve decided to do the hard thing, race more, train more. So to hype myself up for my adventures I am going to write about my next race. It will be something to keep me motivated, keep me pushing forward.

Mt Nebo Trail Run was created by the AURA group in 2005. It is located near Dardanelle, Arkansas, which happens to be a heavily wooded area with rock outcroppings at every turn (for those that don’t know, Arkansas is slabs of rock stacked on top of one another). The run is 14 miles long and has an elevation climb of 1200 feet. Too most this may seem like nothing, but for those of us who live here and train here, it’s a decent climb.

My training plan will be filled with hill repeats, which by the way, I found the perfect hill yesterday on my run in Hobbs state park on Little Clifty trail loop. I will also work on tempo runs, sprints and fartleks. I feel it’s necessary to do speed work to ready my muscles for the shorter, faster run. I will be doing 2-3 speed sessions a week, depending on what they are. I will not do an intense hill day, followed by sprints, and fartleks. That is too much intensity for me in one week. I would do intense hill repeats with fartleks for 1 week. Then the next week I would to a tempo run and sprints. Next I would do hill repeats and double sprints. I find that recovery from sprints is faster for me than any others type of speed work.

As far as mileage goes I have a goal of 30 miles a week. When training for War Eagle 50k I was running 30+ miles a week. My body handled it well, and I didn’t seem exhausted or drained. People in the “know” say, only increase your mileage 10% a week, but only if your body can handle it.

The last thing in my training arsenal will be weight lifting and band work paired up with sauna time. The plan is to go to the gym 2-3 times a week, work on my trouble areas. Mine happen to be gluteus muscles (I have a little butt that needs constant strengthening), hips (weak hips all of my life), and ankles (also weak all my life, I sound like a broken record). The research I’ve done on exercises for these body parts is extensive. There are some new exercises and some old, which all will be mashed together. The sauna will be mainly for heat training and muscle recovery. Plus, I find the sauna to be very relaxing.

So there you have it. I will be running, lifting weights, and stretching to get me ready for Mt. Nebo Trail Run. It will be hot. It will be dirty. It will be fun. -SH