Monday, March 4, 2013

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!

15 comments:

  1. That's some mental toughness there, running around that track for almost 5 hours! Wow. Good luck with the ultra--I'm betting you rock it!

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  2. That is a lot of running! Can't wait to see how it goes for you, sounds like you have put in all the work and should do well.

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  3. If you can go around and around a gym track for that long you'll have the dissociative part of your brain truly conditioned to blocking out repetitious issues (and pain). Better still when you see the trail that grey-matter will be turning hoops at the stimulus of scenery - it'll make the miles fly by.

    Good luck, it sounds like you are super prepared as ever. Go enjoy it, can't wait to hear how it goes.

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  4. Running on an indoor track for 4:44 sounds like complete torture.....but I'm sure EMZ would be proud!

    The big questions is how many different people did you see start and end workouts in that 4:44?

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  5. If you can run around an indoor track for almost 5 hours you can definitely run a 6 hour race. You might have difficulties, though, running straight after running all those bends.

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  7. Your training sounds like its going well. I have no doubt you'll do great in your ultra.

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  8. This is kind of scary. Ultras are scary. I'd be so worried that I'd be starving. I don't like missing meals, you know? But you're tough enough.

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  9. You, sir, are going to put a beating on that Ultra. Even if the conditions are tough, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised based on what I've seen of your training. Best of luck to you!

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  11. You.are.a.machine! You are going to rock this run Jim. This looks like an awesome race, I will have to make note of it for next year. Best of luck to you!

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  12. Best of luck, Jim! I'll be running a half the same weekend as your ultra, but I'll check in on you when I'm back from the trip.

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  13. Can't believe it's almost here! You'll totally rock it. No worries.

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  14. I'm telling the gym you had snack! I was always the tattle-tale when I was a kid! :)

    I think that race sounds really cool; you're going to do great, I know it!

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  15. Good luck this weekend! It sounds like you're ready and will have a great race!

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