Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Running to the West Coast update
I decided to do a virtual run to visit my mom in Victoria. I started this on 1 Jan 2006. As of this past Monday, 17 April, I have ran 1006 km, which means that I am now in Alberta! Back to the homeland soon, maybe I'll take a side trip up to Peace River just for fun. The route is on this gmap-pedometer link: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=133355
D.
D.
The 70+ mile weekend
This past weekend (6 weeks prior to the Blackfoot 100k) was my hardest training yet, with over 70 miles planned. So, here I am a few days later, finally finding the time to write about it.
Friday was a good day. I started out a bit later in the day, about 9:30 as I had done yoga the night before, ate late and wasn't in too much of a rush to get out of bed. The usually bagel and a short latte, filling the camelback and off I went. The plan was to hit Garbage Hill and do about 30 repeats (or 15 miles) and then return to home base, re-fuel, and head out again. All went according to plan. I ended up doing 38.05 miles in 5:52:28 for an average pace of about 9:16 min/mile. This was the first time I used the virtual training partner on my Garmin. It is also likely the last time I'll use it on a long run. One thing I really like about the Forerunner is that it will give me lap splits at whatever distance I want (I generally use 1 mile). With the virtual guy on, there are no splits, and no laps. For the record, I set it to a six hour run at 9:40 min/mile pace. As you can tell by the pace, I kicked the poor guy's ass :-)
Saturday started out a bit earlier. The goal was to do 4 hours at a 9:40 - 10:00 min/mile pace, with as much of the run on trails as possible. I headed straight to Assiniboine Forest with the Harte Trail as my destination. The forest was quite muddy and wet in places, but without my mother waiting at home to give me heck for coming home all muddy, muddy is what I was. The Harte Trail was in great shape, nice and dry. For the day it was 26.21 miles in 4:06:14, average pace of 9:24 min/mile.
Sunday. Ugh. Getting going was tough. I kept telling myself that all I had to do was get to the Running Room, take the group out, get home and I'd be good. Natalie ran the first mile or so with me, which was good, otherwise I'm sure I would have just turned around and went back to bed. Once I got going, about 2 miles into the whole run, I felt good again. It was just hard to get to that point.
So after racking up 73.46 miles in three days I felt quite good and I don't just mean that in a relative way. I was not sore, other than the sunburn on my neck and arms from Friday when I didn't even think about the possibility. What surprised me was that my appetite didn't go as crazy as I thought it might. It wasn't until Monday that it all caught up to me. I was ravenous the entire day and by 10:00 that night, completely exhausted.
The food experiments with e-load, Harvest bars, Ensure and gels all went well, with no real stomach issues.
I'm feeling ready to tackle the Blackfoot with gusto!
D.
Friday was a good day. I started out a bit later in the day, about 9:30 as I had done yoga the night before, ate late and wasn't in too much of a rush to get out of bed. The usually bagel and a short latte, filling the camelback and off I went. The plan was to hit Garbage Hill and do about 30 repeats (or 15 miles) and then return to home base, re-fuel, and head out again. All went according to plan. I ended up doing 38.05 miles in 5:52:28 for an average pace of about 9:16 min/mile. This was the first time I used the virtual training partner on my Garmin. It is also likely the last time I'll use it on a long run. One thing I really like about the Forerunner is that it will give me lap splits at whatever distance I want (I generally use 1 mile). With the virtual guy on, there are no splits, and no laps. For the record, I set it to a six hour run at 9:40 min/mile pace. As you can tell by the pace, I kicked the poor guy's ass :-)
Saturday started out a bit earlier. The goal was to do 4 hours at a 9:40 - 10:00 min/mile pace, with as much of the run on trails as possible. I headed straight to Assiniboine Forest with the Harte Trail as my destination. The forest was quite muddy and wet in places, but without my mother waiting at home to give me heck for coming home all muddy, muddy is what I was. The Harte Trail was in great shape, nice and dry. For the day it was 26.21 miles in 4:06:14, average pace of 9:24 min/mile.
Sunday. Ugh. Getting going was tough. I kept telling myself that all I had to do was get to the Running Room, take the group out, get home and I'd be good. Natalie ran the first mile or so with me, which was good, otherwise I'm sure I would have just turned around and went back to bed. Once I got going, about 2 miles into the whole run, I felt good again. It was just hard to get to that point.
So after racking up 73.46 miles in three days I felt quite good and I don't just mean that in a relative way. I was not sore, other than the sunburn on my neck and arms from Friday when I didn't even think about the possibility. What surprised me was that my appetite didn't go as crazy as I thought it might. It wasn't until Monday that it all caught up to me. I was ravenous the entire day and by 10:00 that night, completely exhausted.
The food experiments with e-load, Harvest bars, Ensure and gels all went well, with no real stomach issues.
I'm feeling ready to tackle the Blackfoot with gusto!
D.
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
12 hours in 3 days
Well, the final 45 days of training. The mileage has been high, the legs are holding up. Now to tackle the toughest workout in my schedule this weekend. The lowdown is that on Friday I'll run for 6 hours, 2.5 of them going up and down Garbage Hill. Saturday will be 4 hours. Then top it all off, I'll do about 2 on Sunday.
Why? To really prove to myself that I'm ready for this crazy adventure I've embarked upon. If I pace it all right, I will cover the total 100km distance on Friday & Saturday. The hardest part for me will be to slow down on Friday. A few weeks ago I ran for 5 hours at an average pace of 9:01 min/miles. This is just way too fast for my ultra goal. I am going to throttle it back to 9:30-9:45. I just have to figure out how to set the Garmin to nag at me.
I'm sure that on Saturday it will be quite easy to stay slow, as I doubt I'll have any other speed but shuffle. I still want to keep the pace no slower than 10:15/30 that day though, but a good chunk of the run will be on trails, so it might just be naturally slower. We'll see how it all goes.
Sunday is going to be 5 miles with the clinic I'm teaching, and another 8-10 on my own. The clinic part will be relatively slow I'm sure, probably 12:00-13:00 min/miles depending on the group that morning.
I am planning on naps all three afternoons :-)
I am already looking forward to my massage on Monday morning.
D.
Why? To really prove to myself that I'm ready for this crazy adventure I've embarked upon. If I pace it all right, I will cover the total 100km distance on Friday & Saturday. The hardest part for me will be to slow down on Friday. A few weeks ago I ran for 5 hours at an average pace of 9:01 min/miles. This is just way too fast for my ultra goal. I am going to throttle it back to 9:30-9:45. I just have to figure out how to set the Garmin to nag at me.
I'm sure that on Saturday it will be quite easy to stay slow, as I doubt I'll have any other speed but shuffle. I still want to keep the pace no slower than 10:15/30 that day though, but a good chunk of the run will be on trails, so it might just be naturally slower. We'll see how it all goes.
Sunday is going to be 5 miles with the clinic I'm teaching, and another 8-10 on my own. The clinic part will be relatively slow I'm sure, probably 12:00-13:00 min/miles depending on the group that morning.
I am planning on naps all three afternoons :-)
I am already looking forward to my massage on Monday morning.
D.
