Weekly Rundown- It Was a Dark and Stormy Week
Less than a week till race day! This post could have been a list of things that went wrong (a weird pressure on the top of my foot, my husband thinks he’s getting sick, my sore achilles flared up again…) but then, it all suddenly felt incredibly self-indulgent. Everyone feels like they’re getting sick and/or injured during the taper- no need to dwell on it. Thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting the Weekly Rundown! Let’s just see how this penultimate week went… Sunday No more heavy leg days at the gym until after my race! Instead I’ve been doing some Caroline Girvan workouts from her Advent Series. The workouts are a little shorter (15-20 minutes) but still hard. Birchwood Pie said she sometimes doubles up and does two of them, and that’s what I did on this day- a 20 minute leg workout and 15 minutes of abs. Monday The week started normally with a 4 mile run. As you can see, this was the start of a gloomy, overcast week for us. Tuesday Upper body day at the gym! The usual- bench press, rows, shoulders, triceps. Wednesday I had planned to do one last run on my sandy trail, but hesitated because it was raining. I decided to go for it and miraculously caught a break in the rain for my ENTIRE RUN. It was in the 70s, but felt cooler because it was overcast and windy. I didn’t need my ice hat or even my sunglasses. Mentally, this 10 mile run felt easy. I felt good physically too, until the last mile where my left achilles started to ache. Well, I guess it doesn’t like the sand- but my race has sand so I’m just going to have to deal with it. As soon as I finished running and got in the car to drive home, it started raining again and rained for the rest of the day. This was the day where we got so much rain, they closed the airport due to flooding. The worst of the weather was to the south of us though- we don’t live in a flood zone. I still can’t believe I got this run in before the deluge! Thursday I had planned to do a short run today, but my achilles was still a little sore so I opted for a walk instead, followed by another abs workout from Caroline Girvan. Friday 4 mile run! The achilles was fine, and we finally had our sunshine back. Saturday Caroline Girvan once again! a 15 minute glutes workout and 15 minute abs. Sunday On tap for today… a 4 mile run and then going to work, UGH! Because I’m taking off next Saturday for my race, I put myself on the schedule today to make up the hours, which I’m now regretting. I don’t like working on Sundays (obviously- does anyone???) Moving forward, I’ll be prioritizing sleep this week, with a few short runs and some upper body strength thrown in. And then the race is Saturday. FINALLY! I feel like I’ve been waiting forever- this month has been crawling by. Let’s get to race day already! How was your weather this week? -It seems like the rest of the country had unusually hot temperatures, while we had this weird monsoon. Do you have a race coming up?
The Weather! And, Race Goals
Well, that was different. After an extremely dry winter, we got absolutely dumped on with rain. It went from “What is this strange liquid falling from the sky?” to “Why is there so much of it? When is it going to stop? AHHHHHH!!!” The worst of it was just to the south of us- the Ft. Lauderdale airport was closed and schools were closed due to flooding. Cari reached out to me to ask if my race course was possibly in jeopardy. Wow- that would suck. To do all this preparation and then have the race canceled due to a bizarre weather event would be awful. I know, that happens to people. But my race is about an hour north of here, so barring any other weather disasters, we should be good. Now that the race is just over a week away, maybe it’s a good time to talk about goals. Since this is my first ultra, I don’t know what to expect, so maybe “goal” is the wrong word. Even “plan” seems too strong- let’s just call these “thoughts.” The race is a 50K on a trail, part of which is sandy. And hilly. The middle section is apparently rolling sand dunes (eep.) This is what makes it hard for me to predict how it’s going to go. I have trained on sandy trails, but not this specific trail. Soooo… Let’s say it takes me five hours to complete 25 miles. Another six miles, plus stopping at aid stations, plus the dunes (again, eep!) and I’m thinking a seven hour finish time. Maybe that’s too long, but I’m trying to factor in THINGS GOING WRONG. Or, maybe things will go more wrong than I think, and that’s too short. That’s okay! My only real goal is to finish before the cutoff time, which is nine hours. I also have a sub-goal, which is that I don’t want to be last. In the ultra world they refer to this as “DFL” (dead frickin’ last, or sub your own F word there.) There’s actually a lot of respect for the DFL, because that person was out there longer than anyone and probably worked the hardest to get to the finish. Still… I’d prefer that it not be me. I’m really excited for this race! I’m excited to run on a trail I’ve never seen before. When I signed up, I thought I would drive up there to do some training runs. But I decided to train closer to home (it’s hard enough to fit those long runs in without driving 2+ hours roundtrip) and let the new trail be part of the race adventure. I’m also, obviously, scared. I’m scared of the distance, the heat, the sand dunes, and of the fact that my left achilles decided to flare up again this week (of course it did!) My imposter syndrome is in full force- I picture showing up and everyone else will be seasoned ultra trail runners. I’m imagining keeping to myself as much as possible so I don’t have to talk and admit it’s my first ultra. I KNOW. That’s so stupid! I’m laughing at myself even as I’m writing this- but those are the thoughts I’m having. Well, I have one more week to freak out, check the weather incessantly, question my nutrition, question my training, and imagine that I’m getting sick. But I promise that I’m also super excited to get out there and run. It’s definitely going to be an adventure. Have you ever had a race canceled due to weather? If you’ve run an ultra, did you have a finish time goal?
Long Runs (Adventures in Eating!)
I was going to call this post “Long Runs and Lessons I’ve Learned,” but after my last long run, it’s clear it’s still a work in progress. One of the biggest things I’m working on is….NUTRITION. I realized that I’ve been seriously under-fueling for these runs. In the past I ate a gel every hour. But recently, from one of my ultra running podcasts, I learned that runners should aim for 200-300 calories per hour- I was getting in 100, half of the lowest recommendation. DOH! After that I really made an effort to eat more often. Here’s my gear laid out before my 25 mile run: The fuel includes two gels, a package of Clif Bloks, Frooze balls, and Uncrustables. I brought along another Uncrustable as well that I didn’t end up eating. Let’s just see how it all worked out… First, I now eat breakfast before the run. I used to get up and get out the door as quickly as possible, so the most I would eat was half a banana or maybe an orange. Now that I’ve been doing my long runs a little later, I’ve been eating a bowl of oatmeal. This works well as long as it’s at least an hour before I start running. On this day, I was behind on my schedule and finished it about 45 minutes before the run. For the first hour, I could feel that oatmeal in my stomach. It wasn’t bothering me too much, but it made me not want to eat anything else. Finally, an hour into the run I knew I was going to get behind if I didn’t eat something, so I ate a gel. That’s what gels are great for- they go down easily (at least for me) even when you can’t eat regular food. About half an hour later I decided I needed to start on the Frooze balls. I had planned to eat them slowly, and eat all five pieces during the run… but on this day, after I ate two of them, I suddenly hated them. WHAT? I’ve been loving the Frooze balls!!! How did this happen? I was really counting on eating that whole package, and now I didn’t see how I could finish it. Sigh. A little later I took another gel and then decided to try the Uncrustable- it was my first time trying it on the run. Well, I have some advice: don’t put it in the pocket of your running shorts. It got all smooshed, and all the jelly ended up in one tiny part. The problem with that was, the rest of the Uncrustable was just bread and peanut butter, which was a little hard to get down. But I ate it. Once it was in my stomach it digested fine- I just didn’t enjoy the shewing and swallowing part so much. Now I was in those last ten, hard miles of the run, and I opened the package of Clif Bloks. They were… inoffensive. I ate one about every ten minutes, and in that way finished the run. In retrospect I didn’t eat as much as I had wanted, which was probably partly why this run was so hard. I learned two things: 1) leave plenty of time for breakfast to digest before running! (this shouldn’t be a problem on race day) and 2) bring along a variety of foods in case you suddenly hate one of the items you planned on eating. For my race, I plan to bring most of my nutrition along with me. I can carry some and put some in my drop bag, which I’ll have access to in the middle. According to the race info, the aid stations will be stocked with fruit, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chips. pretzels, pickles and soda. Now I wish I had tried salty things on my long runs, instead of all sweet. We’ll see how I feel during the race- maybe I’ll want a pickle (?) Twelve days till race day! I’ll have a nutrition update afterwards. I’m linking up with Kim and Zenaida for their Tuesday Topics today! Any other ideas or pieces of advice for me? What’s your favorite long run nutrition?
Weekly Rundown- The Longest Run
Well you guys, like I said in Friday’s post, “The hay is in the barn!” Ha ha… my kids hate that expression. I always say it when they’re all ready for an audition, and they look at me like I’m insane. I don’t care, I’m going to say it! I did my last, big long run this week. My race is now less than two weeks away (gulp) and the phase between now and then will be known as “Don’t Do Anything Stupid.” Thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting the Weekly Rundown! Here’s how the week played out: Monday 4 mile run. I’m appreciating how the sun is rising earlier and earlier! No more dark runs. Tuesday Upper body day at the gym. Bench press, lat pulldowns, rows, triceps with the cable (ouch) and core. I’m looking forward to my son coming home in May- I think I need another coaching session. Wednesday THIS WAS IT! 25 mile run. This run was…. quite an adventure. Unlike my 23 mile run two weeks ago where I felt amazing, this one was very hard. I never really felt great, not even in the beginning, and by mile 15 I was tired. I basically plodded miserably for ten more miles. I wasn’t in pain, and I wasn’t so exhausted that I couldn’t go on. But I also never got a second wind, as I was hoping. It was just ten long, hot, uncomfortable miles. This wasn’t what I was hoping for, the last long run before my race. I was hoping for something that would really pump me up and give me a ton of confidence, so at first I was disappointed. But then I realized- this might be what my race is like. As a matter of fact, at some point in the race I WILL be trudging miserably. What I learned from this run is, if I just keep moving forward, I’ll complete the miles. So this was 25 miles and my race will be 31. If you told me at the end of this run that I had to run six more miles, I think I would have cried. But… I could have done it (especially if I had access to a FULLY STOCKED AID STATION- once again I almost ran out of water and ice.) I have a post coming up on Tuesday about my long run nutrition and what went right/wrong. Phew- I’m glad these long runs are done! Thursday Well, let’s just say I was a tad sore. It was all in my quads, and also my right hip flexor (but not my left, hmmm.) I did a 45 minute walk, which felt amazing. Friday Still sore! Keeping with my theme of “Don’t Do Anything Stupid,” I decided to go for another walk, this time 30 minutes, and then I did a Caroline Girvan Advent Series workout: biceps, triceps, and shoulders. Saturday Still a little sore, but went for a 3 mile run and everything was fine. Followed it up with 10 minutes of core. And lots of foam rolling. Sunday On tap for today…. lower body strength, probably a Caroline Girvan workout that focuses on glutes and hamstrings (NOT quads!) Oh- and Happy Easter! My daughter and I are going to make a carrot cake, and we’re having lasagna for dinner. And I’m hoping for a nice, long Easter nap. What’s the longest training run you’ve ever done? – This was my longest. Are you doing anything special today?