Consistency and Lessons Learned

Week 1 of my 4 week focus on consistency was good. Fri & Sat was a challenge if only because I had to work weird hours and didnt have time to get Friday in, so moved it to Sat. this had a direct impact on my 50k on Sunday but was good to run back to back. Need to get used to that.

The 50k went well overall, learned a lot. One of the things I learned is that I dont run flat very well. the course was very flat with only one hill in the middle that you went over twice. The problem is most of the time my training has involved focusing on mountains because that where I prefer to run. The yukon race is mostly rolling hills so perhaps I need to focus on that a bit. Considering my training up until this past week has been sketchy due to injury I am happy finishing. 

This week is week 2 of consistency training, should be interesting to see if I make it.

Consistency

One of the biggest challenges for me is consistency. Its not that I quit when it gets hard, I prefer it hard, but I just sort of wander off when I get bored. Luckily I like training enough that I am usually trained enough to finish a race. Realizing this was an issue for me, last year I tried CFE as a way to finish a 100. Well it worked, the longest run I did was 13 miles, but I did enough intervals and cross training that it worked out for me..Yay! Unfortunately for me I dont think thats going to cut it for 300 miles. Even if I did the same percent of the 100 i did in my longest week last year (most miles last year was 20 so 20% of race) that leaves me expecting to do a 60 mile week.. which I have never done outside of a race.. While I would argue the distance for the week doesnt matter for this kind of race(really it doesn't) I do need to work on back to backs as 8 days of running requires quick recovery.

So where that leaves me now  is trying to address my consistency problem in order to complete the 300. My goal these next 4 weeks is to be consistent. Not drive distance, not drive speed but still get out there and do what I planned for 4 weeks.. Shouldn't be hard right??

haha so last weekend I took a weekend off, I spent a lot of it with my wife talking to her about these next 104 days. Basically we talked about what I have to do, to pull it off (Lose 20lbs, be consistent with training).

 I think I got acceptance from her, while she wasn't excited about it, the fact that I got acceptance is enough for me. I couldn't fight her, and myself at the same time. So even though I didnt train like I wanted to last weekend, I cleared out my life to allow me to train the next 104 days like I need to...
and right now thats what I needed

Pacers

so the first time I did 100 miles (Leadville 2011) i was trying to determine if pacers are a benefit. I spoke with a lot of people who had used pacers and it seemed mixed. Some  people swore by them, others said they got in the way more then were helpful. What it seemed to come down to was personality. A runner might be cheerful, friendly and bubbly at the beginning of the race, but by about hour 20 they might be the crabbiest person you have ever met. 

I point this out because having pacers is both a benefit and responsibility. Chances are you haven't paid these people, they are there because they are either friends/family or just generally interested in running that race some day. So in a way its a vacation for them. and the last thing they may want to do is deal with a problem child. When considering having a pacer you need to keep their needs in mind now, because at mile 70 you wont care.

So what did I do? I was lucky to find 3 people to pace me. 1 I ran with consistently, and another I ran with sometimes, and the 3rd I met once.. This seemed like a gamble but I wanted all the help I could get since I never ran over 50k before and for this race I didn't train over 13 miles at a time (Interval training only, maybe info for another post)

I'm not going to go into details about how the race went, it went well I finished! But I do want to take this time to thank the pacers (again) and point out that they did a great job.They are very patient people, who not only provided all I needed during the run (including the push at the end) but have become some of my dearest friends. 

I think overall pacers help, I think the personalities have to match and I think I was very lucky to find the people I have both as pacers and friends. 

Twin Peaks 50

Twin Peaks 50

Or

A Series of Unfortunate Events

The day started out as any other race, but on this race I met a friend from NorCal he was wearing his Goruck G2. He has been very excited about this race and with me just getting over an injury I told him not to wait up for me as I’ll be slow. He said his goal was 10hrs. Then I realized he had no idea what this course was like so I told him not to go out too hard. He decided to start with me rather than run ahead.
We were running pretty well,, ahead of schedule until the aid station at the bottom of horse thief canyon(about mile 15) when suddenly he stopped talking and slowed down. He was complaining of a headache and cramping. I checked with him he seemed to have had food/electrolytes and water. Then he mentioned his bag was kinda heavy so I asked what he could dump. He said he had a lot of water.. which was true he was carrying 5 big smartwater bottles(33oz each)
I was a bit shocked,  but dumped out 3 of them and made him carry the other 2 where he could get to them easier. Then gave him some Tylenol for his headache. After a while the headache seemed to go away, but the cramps didn’t. we walked slowly to the top of Santiago stopping for his cramps along the way. At the top of Santiago he started to sit down but I made him get up and get moving. As we walked down the hill (he couldn’t run) we talked and he decided to shorten it to the 50k. After dropping him off at the 50k turn off, I picked up the pace and ran to the next aid station.  I was already about 1 hour behind the time I needed to make cutoffs, but I felt strong and knew I could make it up.
The next aid station was about 5 miles away and by the time I got there I had already made up 20minutes of it. I was doing well but I still had horsethief canyon to climb. My goal was not to make time, but not to lose it either as this is a nasty long hill. As I got about halfway up it, there was a chopper flying all over the place, above me, below me. He seemed to be searching for something. When I got to the top I could see him sitting on the road off to the left. I was hoping no one was hurt, and it was Mtn SAR training or something, but when I got to the top of Horsethief  it was obvious something was wrong. There were firetrucks everywhere. I was able to get through the aid station before it closed. However, as I was running down the road I found the helicopter blocking the road. There was no way I was going to be allowed to go around it. As I waited for the helicopter to take off the aid station captain of the last aid station came up and told me my race was over and took my number.. damn
I was sitting there chatting to an EMT waiting for the patient to go by to the helicopter and cleaning some scratches on my hand with wet wipes when he offered to clean them. I figured why not im just standing here, couldn’t hurt to have some alcohol ran across it.. 5 minutes later I’m answering questions with big gauze mitts on wondering WTF… IT wasn’t more than a small trail rash, not even bleeding anymore (I had fallen on some rocks around 7:30 am no big deaL).
I rode down with Steve and enjoyed some good conversation while the sun set and realized even with all the crap that happened, I had a good time and want to do it again next year.

Lessons Learned:
1)   If running with someone else, you have to make sure they have what they need, especially if its their first race. He would have enjoyed the race more with proper gear/nutrition and we would have maintained a much better pace. When running with another runner, especially someone you know, its important to realize you have some level of responsibility for them. I just don’t have the personality to say F you im out of here

2)   Don’t tell EMT its ok to do anything, it became a big todo when I was really fine.

Good Things:
1)            Im definitely not injured anymore. I had no problems with  my calf and im ready to dive back into training. No more taking it easy

2)            I was much stronger in the second half, I know if the unfortunate events didn’t occur I would have finished the 50 pretty strong.

3)            Its amazing out there, I need to train more out there.