The time has come, where my shoes shall meet the trail once again. This coming weekend I have my first of many official trail races this summer. Starting early Saturday morning, I will be heading out for an 18+ mile jaunt through the rough and rocky Rothrock State Forest here in State College. The race: The Rothrock Trail Challenge 30k. While I will be "racing" this event, I will also force myself to be moderately conservative, as next weekend, I have my first ultra of the season: The Laurel Highlands 50k. So in a sense, The Rothrock is a beefed up training run, much like the Finger Lakes 50m will be for the Vermont 100.
Since finishing the Pocono Marathon 2+ weeks ago, I have maintained a rather aggressive training schedule, with the hopes of going into this season's trail races ready to give them a run for their money (no pun intended). Last week I topped out at 56 miles for the week. This week I will be instituting a very small taper towards the end of the week, but still hope to get in a fair amount of miles. I'm trying not to think too far ahead, but I do have my eyes looking a little bit ahead to next week's 50k.
Nothing like starting off with bang. The Rothrock 30k is aggressive. The course is littered with notorious PA rocks and has a hell of an elevation profile. 30k may not be an official "ultra", but this race will assuredly kick my ass regardless. Here are some pics from the event's website:
...and the elevation profile
