Now THAT'S training

This past weekend I added a new element to my training, and I feel like I'm really on to something. I hesitate to even share this, because I feel like I may have finally found a leg up on the competition. No, no, no, I'm not talking about performance enhancing drugs. This is even more effective, I'm certain.

CONCERT-GOING! That's it. Brilliant, right? Right? What do you mean you don't get it? Must I explain everything to you people. It's quite simple, really. All you have to do is go out and train like you normally do. Now, if you're like me in peak training, you go to bed early and cherish your sleep time. Ah, not so fast. Here's the catch. Instead of eating dinner and going to bed, go out and see a rock show.

I stumbled upon this method rather accidentally. There were shows this last Friday and Saturday night that I was very excited for, but there was training to be done as well. I figured that I may be a little tired but no big deal. Well I went out Friday morning and did 16 miles with 8 of those being uphill at threshold pace. That was followed by an hour at the gym. Sounds like a decent day of training, right. So here's where I took it to the next level. At 10pm, which is already my bedtime, Andrea and I headed downtown to see Liam Finn perform. Although the show was fantastic, I was feeling incredibly sleepy but forcing myself to be alert. It's perfect training for hundreds. Friday was a long day, but like ultra training, the back to back rock concerts are the core of this program. So I was up early Saturday morning for 23'ish miles on the trail followed by yet another show. This one even tougher than the previous days show. Mike McCready of Pearl Jam was playing his annual CCFA benefit show at the Showbox Saturday night. There were 3 openers, and with lots of guest stars throughout the evening, we had to be there start to finish, so as not to miss anything. It was somewhere after the second opener, when I was struck by the effectiveness of this training. We'd been standing in place for about 2 hours and my legs were aching and begging for a break. Rather than whine about how uncomfortable I was, I sucked it up and looked at it as time on my feet. "This is damn good training", I thought to myself. When all was said and done, I'd been standing for nearly five hours, and the time was 1:30am, way past my bedtime. Now here's the bonus capper of the weekend. This is where you really put the nail in the coffin of your competition. I was in bed by 2 am Sunday morning and up by 6:30 am to lead the store trail run. Now THAT's training!