The Mid-Packers

This writer believes he is writing about The Mid-Packers, folks like me; but I think it provides just as much insight into the mind of someone who is usually closer to the front.

WHAT'S NEXT?

So ... What's Next?

I've learned that training consists of a cycle of push-and-recover, push-and-recover. This cycle occurs  at all different levels, weekly, monthly, yearly. In the course of a week, you stagger your workouts between long and short, easy and hard, aerobic and anaerobic. Week over week, you build strength, endurance, log more miles until you reach a target event or pinnacle of some sort. Then, take some time off to recover, regroup, recoup. Repeat. Over years, that base builds, experience is gained. If you're smart about it, and with a little luck, you Level Up instead of Break Down!

In the build-up to the Frenzy, I reached a peak of 40+ miles per week (with one 50 mile week!), and had a string of 100+-mile-months (and one 150 mile month!), all a first for me.  Now, it's time to come full circle, back off and run about 20 miles a week for a while.  Then, start the build again... 30, 40, 50 miles a week to prepare for the next challenge.

A big component of training that I have not bothered with is speed training.  I have worked on making running a consistent habit in my life, part of my routine.  Then I worked on endurance and stamina.  Now I am ready to try to speed things up a bit.

Towards that end, at the moment, I am eyeballing the Pickled Feet TIMED Challenge (http://24hour.pickledfeetultras.com/) in which you run for a set time, not a set distance. The person who runs the most miles in the set time is the winner. This event has options to sign-up for the following times: 6 hour, 12, 24, and even a 48 hour!  Yeah, I think I'll stick to the 6-hour, thank you.

The course, while unpaved, is a flat and smooth 2.5 mile loop.  Based on my experience at Weiser River Trail last April, in which I hit the 26 mile mark at 5:45, I think it is possible to come along a year later and complete 50K (31 miles) in 6 hours.  According to my calculations (thanks Excel!), this would require an overall average pace of 11 minute miles including stopping at the aid station. It's ambitious for me, but I don't think it's unrealistic.

I have the stamina. I've been "out there" for 6+ hours quite a few times now and I know I can handle it.  The challenge is going to be maintaining the speed for that long. I maintain that pace or faster all the time in my mid-week training runs of 10 miles or less. Other than the three half-marathon events I have done, for distances beyond that, I've slowed way down. I'm pretty sure it's mostly mental. I psych myself out -- "You're going soooooo far today! You have to slow down if you're going to make it!"  The physical training -- preparing -- for a target is the easy part.  That self-talk is killer!

So far, the best way I've found to quiet those voices is to prepare.  Worried about running 20 miles? Go do it. When you're successful, it shuts up the voice that says you can't!  Worried about running fast(er)? I'm just going to have to go do it!

RACE REPORT ~ Foothills 50k Frenzy!

RunKeeper stats

OK, I've sat down at least a dozen times to do a race report for the Foothills 50K Frenzy (which took place on Saturday, October 5, 2013) and somehow found myself not quite ready to do it yet. It's taken 10 days, but I'm ready now! It's funny, the delay is not because the experience was SO profound. In a way, it's because it's somewhat the opposite. I feel almost a sense of, "Meh, I trained, I did it. No big deal."  This, I do not understand, because by all of my counts the Frenzy was pretty epic!

Thirty-one miles. Eight and a half hours. Six Thousand feet of climbing (and descending)....  and it doesn't feel like a huge deal?!

MINDSET

The Foothills 50k Frenzy took place Sat, Oct 5. It's been a week, and I finally feel like I can start to put the experience into words. This event was both exactly and nothing like any event I have done before. On one level, it's very simple. Do the work, day in and day out, then show up and run. On another level, it was very profound to experience the culmination of months, even years, of training.

It's sometimes difficult to pin down a watershed moment. I can't quite recall precisely when or how I learned that there were folks who ran farther than a Marathon (26.2 miles, or 42.2 kilometers). Within a few weeks last summer, I heard about Dean Karnazes and his running exploits for the first time, and learned that my buddy Rich had signed up for a 50 kilometer (31 mile) run called the "Vaquero Loco" (aka "Crazy Cowboy")!  All I know is that instead of instantly thinking, "That's insane!" I thought, "I gotta try that!"

Welcome to my Blog 2.0

I started this blog in 2008 as a way to keep in touch with family and friends, primarily with updates about The Girl.  Then, I joined Facebook, and it all fell by the wayside....  Now, thanks to running, I have resurrected my blog! Thank you for accepting the invitation to view it. (I just have to actually post to it! haha)  One thing I have done to populate the blog for the last 5 years is copy my "notes" out of Facebook and put them in here.

Every blogger worth their salt has to have a catchy name. I came up with one by accident. This is the story: We have magnetic letters on the fridge. Our latest game is "Word of the Day" in which we spell out things that happened in the day, like "hawk" if we saw a hawk, or "pancake" if I made breakfast for dinner.  Well after my run, I spelled ULTRA.  Then I was randomly inspired to add "M O M" to it ... ULTRAMOM!  And thus, a name is born.

Race Report ~ Weiser River Trail 50K

Race Report: 

Weiser River Trail 50K Relay and Ultra

04-27-2013

Most of you know this story REALLY begins either 20 years or 2 years ago when I started running the first and second times. But, we don't need to go back that far. How about to five months ago when I decided to train for a Marathon? To train, I used the Plan provided by my Run/Walk group and stuck to it. Week after week, month after month, logging the miles: building a base, increasing mileage, working in recovery weeks, then the taper.

On New Year's Eve, I ran 14 miles, which was my longest run yet. Then, a few weeks later I went for 16 miles. Then 18. Then 21 ... 23!

Somewhere along the way, I sent a message to the directors for the Marathon I had chosen asking about the route.  I wanted to drive it, bike it, and run segments of it before event day. This is when I discovered that the event I had so *carefully* chosen had changed from a loop all the way around a lake to an out-and-back. I was so disappointed! I didn't want just to run a Marathon, I wanted an *experience*, and now I wouldn't have that caché of saying "Yeah, I ran around the lake".  So, I decided to find another event within the same time-frame that fit my criteria, and discovered the "Weiser River Trail 50K Relay and Ultra".

Marathon Madness

(I doubt this Note will be of much interest to anyone but me;

but I have to get this out of my head and Husband is sick of hearing it!)

As I have heard from many and varied sources, training for a Marathon will take over your life. I accepted this as fact; but, academically, the same way that everyone told me having a kid would change my life. Also in the same way, I am discovering the reality is so much more than one can ever know beforehand!

My Run/Walk coach says, "We train using a textbook plan, but we don't lead textbook lives."  As my training plan progresses and the weekly long runs get longer and longer, I am realizing I will not be able to do my long runs on Saturdays. So, I am reevaluating my plan to figure out when to do my long runs.