Race Report: One Day at the Fair 24 Hours
After the disappointment of my previous attempt at a 24-hour race (on an egregiously hot day), I bounced back fairly quickly and was able to resume training. Calling it a day early turned out to have some benefits, I was able to recover quickly enough to try another 24-hour race that was only a little more than an hour's drive from where I live. The training: I was able ramp up again quickly enough to get in a solid 7 weeks of training (after 2 weeks of recovery and allowing for 2 weeks of tapering). During that 7 weeks, I revisited VO2max work. I did 4 quality sessions and ended up boosting my VO2max (according to Garmin) to 56...a level similar to where I was before the knee injury (and a great number for a man who is almost 60 years old). I also revisited "steady state" intensity and did 4 solid workouts, covering as much as 11 miles at 7:22/mile pace. For the first time, I experimented with back-to-back long runs. I did this twice about 6 weeks and 3 weeks out from t