As Ultra Ready As I'll Ever Be

Pretty good weekend of working out here in Fargo ... errr KC.  16-20 inches of snow still piled up on all the Spring lawns, and 4-5 foot mounds along the street curbs ... as well as the 9 degree wind chill forced me inside for my Saturday run.  But on Sunday, it warmed up a little and I got in a good recovery run outside.

Jack enjoyed this first 10" snow,
the second 12" snow last week brought the snow to his belly

Saturday's workout was 30 miles on the track at Legacy Park Community Center, my small & overcrowded, but very nice gym.  It took me 4 hours, 44 minutes with bathroom breaks and refueling stops.

I tried to take it fairly slow.  When I was running and not eating or peeing, I averaged about a 9:00/min/mile pace.  I probably can't keep that pace in my upcoming ultra marathon on an actual trail, but we'll see.  I felt really strong and my heart rate was really low.  It's just matter of getting into a comfortable rhythm and then just gettin' it done.

You're not supposed to have any food or drink other than clear water in the gym, but I packed my bag full of  Naked Coconut Water, bananas, potato chips, Gu gels, and ... clear water.  (Please don't tell anyone at my gym that I broke the rules.)

Other than having to continually force myself to focus, the run wasn't really "that bad" at all.  Plus, I proved to myself that I could run 6 hours.  I felt strong at the end, like I could have gone quite a bit longer if necessary, and properly motivated.

On Sunday, I ran a slow 14 miles of recovery around the side roads of our neighborhood.  It was still a little chilly with about 18 degree wind chills from a 12 mph SSE wind ... and my legs were reaaaaaally dead ... but it was good to get some additional mileage in and flush a little of the lactic acid out.  I made sure I stretched really well throughout the day and on Monday when I woke up, I felt pretty good.

I think I'm about as ready as I can be for Tatur's 6 Hour Snake Race in Tulsa, Oklahoma in two weeks.  At the race, we basically just run for 6 hours, and whoever runs the farthest wins.  Originally I was hoping to run about 40 miles, but that's probably a little too aggressive for my first ultra marathon.  At this point, I would be extremely happy with anything over 35.   But we'll see.  A lot will depend on the course and the conditions.   It will probably be extremely muddy with less than ideal footing.

Overall, I feel like I've put in the work.  Since the first of the year, I've averaged 72 miles per week, with the exception of the week I tapered for the Lost Dutchman Marathon.  On all of those weekends, I've combined back-to-back long runs, with the longest being last weekend of 3:45/Saturday & 4:05/Sunday ... and this weekend of 4:44/Saturday & 2:08/Sunday.  I've used back-to-back long runs for a while now, but not for this extended period of time.  I also combined several double workouts, morning & night, during the week.  One thing I noticed during the training is I really had to shorten my runs during the week to about 7-8  miles. I really had to use weekdays as recovery for the extended weekend workouts.

Basically this weekend has proven to me that I can get through 6 hours of running.  And the challenge on race day will be not going out too fast and bowing up at 4 hours.  I feel like I have my nutrition plan down, and I've done a ton of trail training ... so hopefully all will go well.  Hope your weekend workouts went well too!  Have a great week!
... be great today!