What next?

Woo-hoo!! Dan has a new job!!!!!!!!!!!!! He got an offer from a company he had been doing contract work for, accepted their offer, and became an official employee this past Monday. Happy days for us! I feel like 2 tons are lifted off my shoulders. :)

Also in this past week, I decided to train for the next 13ish months for the 100k. But not just any 100k. I want to train hard, risking crossing that line that separates the fit athlete from the injured athlete, and see how fast I can run the Mad City 100k in 2011. The Mad City 100k is this year, and likely will be next year, the USATF 100k championship race. Meaning it draws the fast runners and offers prize money. I'm running it this year on April 10th to have a solid point to train from. And let me just say, I AM PUMPED! This past weekend I did a 31 mile training run with 4 10k intervals at what I would call an "engaged" pace. A pace I could have held longer then the 31 miles I ran, but I'm not at the point of racing a 100k and hitting those splits right now. The whole 50k, warm thru cool down, took me 3:52. Super exciting! I ran almost right at a 7:30 mile average for 31 miles and ended the run feeling good! Like I could have run much faster! Woo-hoo! Sure it was a flat 50k, but it was fast and felt good. The next day I ran 16 miles (on a treadmill at 1% incline-that is my normal TM run incline) in 2:02:40 and that run felt super easy. I exercised self-control and didn't allow myself to push the pace until after 13 miles...and then I forced myself to take a super easy .5 miles for a cool down. So I will race the Mad City 100k this year and plan on running faster next year. This year will be all for fun, as I have absolutely no expectations going into this race. Goals? Of course! But I know that my goals are very un-solid. I've never in my life tried to run a pace that felt anything other then easy for more then 26.2 miles. And I haven't raced a marathon in years. So that makes this year all fun. I can't wait to see what happens, take the results and plan for next year!!

More RR 50 miler

Opps. I left a lot out. For starters, I won the race and set a new course record for females! Very exciting for me. :)

Going into this race, what I was really wanting to do is run as best as I could on that day, all obstacles being tackled as best as I could figure out how to take them on and run well. I knew from training runs that I had a good shot at running in the low 7 hr range and maybe under 7 hrs if things were going close to how I thought they could for me. I have done a lot of long runs (over 20miles) well over 7 mph and ended those runs feeling great- Not at all beat down. So that was my plan. Run around 7 mph for 50 miles. I started out a bit slower then that but by the end f loop 1 was running over 7.5mph. Close to the end of loop 2 I was running just over 7.1 mph. I am very pleased with having averaged about 7.14 mph for this race and look forward to trying for a faster 50 mile sometime in the future! :) :) :) :)

Rocky Raccoon 50 mile race

When my wake up call came at 5am Saturday morning, I knew that today would be a good day for me to practice laying it all on the line under not so great circumstances. So much had not lined up for me to race well at Rocky Raccoon, but running is a mental game. I was ready to tackle this 50 miles with my mind...physical situations and the past weeks stress not counting. I know some of you want to know what was going on. Most of that takes way too much explaining and will have to be another blog. But I will fill you in on some of it. But BE WARNED. What follows is of a personal nature and some readers (especially males) my want to skip to the next paragraph now. I am going to write a little about this because I was actually looking for info on my situation and unable to find much...so maybe some ultra runner lady really does want to know. I know from training that I tend to run and feel crappy in the days leading up to my period. And luck would have it that I would be running this race either right before or during my period. But I knew this weeks back (that is a lot of why I didn't sigh up for the 100. Planing that type of bathroom break during a 100 mile race was very unappealing to me). So I woke up Saturday morning still unsure of how to handle this race...no period yet. But what about in 3 hours while I'm suppose to be running? I decided to play it safe and act as if this was my day one. I also told myself that I could still run well. Training isn't racing. I WILL race well regardless of how crappy I am feeling.

After a warm shower I dressed in my tinniest black shorts, black sports bra, Team Traverse jersey with the cap sleeves, Green Injinji socks and New Balance 100s. I ate a bagel with low fat strawberry cream cheese and plain fat free yogurt on top and drunk a Non fat Mocha from Starbucks w/ only 2 pumps of chocolate. I also took an S!Cap and drunk about 2 cups of water. My parents and I left the hotel at about 5:30am. I thought it would take us 45mins or more to get to the starting line b/c of the fact that over 700 runners were going to be at this race this year. But I have got to hand it to Huntsville State park. They did an amazing job of directing traffic. We were at the starting line a few minutes before 6am. Just in time to see the 344 100 mile runners start their race.

I chatted with a few runners as I waited for the next hour in the starting area. Joe (the race director and my coach) assured me that this course is still fast when wet. It had rained lots in the last few days and there were a few puddles on the course and mud. Joe said to just plow into the puddles, as the stickiest mud was on the outside of the puddles. Ok, I told myself. Run IN the puddles (so fun!). I also chatted with my friend Meredith about our goals for this race.

Before too long we were all off. I started towards the front, as the trails narrow out some and there were several hundred runners in the 50. The first 3.1 miles went nice and easy. My plan was to let my legs get warm and then just run at a comfortable pace that was almost hard. The aid-stations were (in miles): 3.1, 3.1, 2.68, 3.4, 4.4. Then repeat three times. I wore my waist pack so that I had easy access to water, gels and electrolytes. I was also very fortunate to have my Mom crewing for me. Meaning that she would be at 3 of the 5 aid stations with a new water bottle, more gels and electrolytes waiting for me to just grab and go. Having her there saved me several minutes over the course of this race. When I hit the 2end aid station (called Dam Road), a running friend of mine named John was there refilling runner's bottles. I asked him if I could leave my empty bottle for him to fill and pick it up on the way back thru in 2.68 miles (this aid station is sorta an out and back loop). He said sure. Being the Dam Road was BY FAR the busiest station, having John's help on all 3 loops probably saved me another minute.

This was my favorite section to run this year. Not only because it had the most mud, but because of the good sized puddle of water across the path. This puddle was about 2 cars long and came up to my mid-calf at the deepest part. When I saw it up ahead, I picked up my pace and plowed straight in. The cold water splashing on my thighs felt awesome! Especially during loop 3 when my legs were cramping. And my NB 100s draind just magically.

I finished the 1st 16.7 miles in about 2:08 and was feeling awesome. Loop 2 was over about 4:28 into this race and went by much the same as loop 1 had. I was still feeling good, but my legs were getting tight. By the time I hit 36 miles, my legs were cramping pretty bad. While I am sure I still have room to improve my race nutrition, I think that these leg cramps were coming more as a result of the push I was giving my muscles racing. I am soooo hitting the weight room harder in my next training cycle! When I had about 7 miles left to go, I told myself "That is shorter then a tempo workout. NO GIVING UP- NO SLOWING DOWN!" While I wasn't running close to as fast as I do for tempo runs during those final miles, the effort was there. I was pushing hard and my legs were cramping bad. When I hit the last aid station, I knew I could still finish under 7hrs. But I would have to push HARD! With less then 4 miles to go, my GPS died. But I just ran on as if that GPS was telling me I could still make it if I pushed.

I crossed the finish line in 6:59:40. I had made it!! Under 7hrs!!! And I had worked hard to do it. But the most exciting thing to me was the feeling of "I did well. I pushed hard. I can still do better." I have lots of room for improvement. From weight training and nutrition to long runs and speed work. I am so excited to get back to training and race again! If I can get my mind to attack future races like I did this one, then racing will be something I love as much as I love training. Why? Because it isn't about the end result for me. It is all about the process of getting there.

Shoes

So much has been going on lately that I don't even know what to make this post about. So I will pick the funnest thing on my mind and write about that.

Late last year I tried the New Balance 100 trail running shoes. I bought the women's 8.5, as that is the size I had worn and enjoyed in the NB 790's. For anyone who doesn't know (other posts), those shoe didn't work AT ALL for me. So I kept searching. Tried some Inov 8s. Too narrow in the toe box. Tried NB 840s, in the 9wide and the 9regular. I like the 9wide. But only for trails. Running on roads, treadmils, bike-paths, or even very packed trails in those left my legs feeling sorta beat-up.

Being the 9 wides fit well and I still hadn't found a trail shoe (or road shoe) that I liked enough to stick w/, I desided to take a chance and try the NB 100s again in a bigger size. The 100s don't come in wide. So I ordered the mans 7.5 (New Balance's man's shoes in the standard width are built with the same width as the woman's wide) and the woman's 9. After trying them on, I was sure the mans 7.5 fit well enough to give them a go. After running a hard 8miles in them, I was thinking there really was a chance I'd like these 100s. My lefy heel had a painful blister, but no damage. So I cut down the heel cup. Being the heel was then a bit rough, my blister was agrevated on my next run (6miles). I took purple Duck-tape (pink would have worked too) and covered the heel cup. Then I ran 15miles in them and FELT GREAT! WOW! I might have a close to perfect trail shoe!! And I just flet like I was flying in those shoes. My foot didn't slide all over the place. My legs didn't feel blah or worked in a different way then I am use to. My heels felt good. The best part is I get to try them out in a 50 mile race this Saturday. Hoping I love them after that!!