Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Fall Ultra Season is fast approaching

I haven't posted in a while, or gone to TNT. Been busy at work and my training hasn't fit in with speedwork on Tuesdays. But I'm bummed that I missed 16x400 on Tuesday! Well, at least not the first 12. That was my favorite workout in the day....

I realized Fall Ultra season is fast approaching, so I have been focusing on ramping up my distance. 3 weeks ago, my buddy E and I ran 9 miles on NCR at 8:42 per mile. Then 2 weeks ago, we did 13 at 8:40 per mile. Last week, we didn't run together. He did 17 at 8:40, and I did 12 at 8:40. I didn't feel comfortable increasing 4 miles every week, plus it was getting extremely dark, my hammies were acting up, and it was murderously hot and humid. Shortly after I got in the car, it started raining and thundering fiercely.

Running in the dark in a full on gusty drenching thunderstorm would not have been fun.

I think only doing 12 this week was a wise choice for me. Next week, I'll do 17. I think I'll be ready to run the BRRC Gunpowder 50K on September 19th. My goal is to break 5 hours. As long as it isn't any more technical than the HAT Run, this goal is doable. There is no page for this year's race, but here is the info sheet from a couple years ago. Last year's results are here.

I could always do the Big Schloss 50K, which is Sept 26. This is a lot of fun, and has a party at the end. It is crazy-technical, like the Bel Monte, probably because both of them are in the George Washington National Forest. You can forget about goal times for this one.

And I didn't make it into the JFK 50 miler. I am going to do the Stone Cat 50 miler in Ipswich Mass instead. They say it ends at a brewery. If there is no party at the end, I am going to be sorely disappointed. I have no idea if I can keep the 9:00 mile going for 50. So my goal is to average between 9 and 10 min per mile. I think that may be reasonable. I don't recall any mountains being in Mass.

On the nutrition front, a Powerbar Long Lasting Energy Bar before running prevents me whining about not feeling swell during the runs. Today, I discovered that Kung Po Chicken with white rice consumed 5-6 hours before running has a similar benefit.

On the shoutout front, I think I saw Ryan and Barf shout out "Steve-O!" while I was running through Inner Harbor East tonight. And then I think I almost trampled Melissa after crossing the street.

And on the Shoe front, I saw a podiatrist. He told me to get Brooks Dyad shoes, since he said I have flat feet and am not a big pronator. In fact, he looked dubiously at the custom orthotics I showed him, and said that they could have seriously hurt me if I kept using them. They didn't push my feet down enough in the mold. $450 wasted.

The shoes have really helped me, my ankles feel pretty good.

Edit: I just read the post below this one, and I realized I said pretty much the same thing two weeks in a row! I gotta stop making posts after I get a couple beers in me. I forget what I wrote...

3 comments:

  1. re: stone cat.

    I have heard this is a relatively quick course. That being said, MA has tons of mountains, haha. And that area is known for having rocky/rooty/technical trails. I ran an 11 mile race out there the other weekend and ran 1:38....not fast at all, and I couldn't have held that for a 50K or a 50 mile.

    I just looked at some results and stuff and Leigh Schmidtt (super man fast) ran a 7:04 in '06 and a 6:30 last year...so, probably not a really fast course. Collin Anderson, our resident douchebag from TWSS ran an 8:42 there last year, and I would have expected much faster from him if it's an "easy" course. So...I don't think it's super hard, but it probably won't be tow-path type easy either.

    --alyssa (this is only letting me post as anon so I'm leaving my name)

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  2. Thanks, Alyssa, for the intel.

    I haven't run a 50 miler before, so I'm not really sure what to expect. I bet it is a lot like a 50K, but with an extra 19 miles tacked on to the end. yikes? Nutrition becomes even more important.

    I should know better by now not to have aggressive goals. The one 50K I was happy with, I overestimated by an hour. Ie, my goal was 6 hours, and I did 4:56 at the HAT run. Every other race was at least an hour slower than my goal.

    I was thinking about asking Collin about the Stone Cat. What I really want to know is if they really have beer at the end. Seriously.

    When it comes right down to it, I run for fun. I may have a really weird sense of "fun", but that's my motivation. Whenever I stress out about hitting a certain time or getting a certain place, I end up unhappy. And there is too much effort and pain involved to end up unhappy. Otherwise, why do it?

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  3. It was me and Barf shouting you out on Aliceanna, but I think it was our friend Julia Rudd you probably almost ran into. She was waiting for us on the corner of Aliceanna and Central. Taller than Melissa but does resemble her. Same color hair at least, skinny too.

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