Saturday, March 6, 2010

A New Training Cycle

I am excited for my next training cycle.  It doesn’t technically start until the beginning of April, but I think I am already into it.  I am going to run the St. George Marathon in October with the friends I have met here*.  It will be Kelly and Heidi’s first marathon and I am looking forward to having someone to do long runs with again!  There is a run from our neck of the woods down to the beach that I have always wanted to do, but didn’t want to do it alone.  Now that there is a group of us training, we can do that run together. 

Between now and then, I have an even bigger goal in front of me.  I am going to take that leap and train for a 50K!  Gulp.   Did I actually just write that?  Yup… I am going to run my very first ultra this year.  I have fallen in love with trail running and would love to take it to another level.  I love the idea of just focusing on conquering the race and not worrying about PR’s etc.  There is also the “communing with nature” factor that is very appealing. 

I have had trouble trying to find one to fit in my schedule.  I don’t want to do one too soon; I want to be fully prepared.  I also don’t want one too late which might interfere with sharpening for St. George.  I would love to do this race** in September, however it is only a few weeks before St. George and I am not sure if I would be recovered in time.  I am have tentatively chosen Montana de Oro on August 15.  It is my husband’s birthday that day, but we talked about doing a family trip up to Morro Bay to either camp or stay in a motel.  I love that part of the California coast and have never spent any time there.  Even though that is a hot time of the year, the trail goes along the Pacific Ocean, so it should be gorgeous!
My first 25K is tomorrow.  I may change my mind after running that.  I would have to run the 25K loop twice.  We’ll see how I feel tomorrow.  I’m going to play around with pacing and fueling and see how it goes.  I am both nervous and excited.  It is a tough course, but I have run a course that has more elevation gain and survived, so I think I’ll be fine.  
  
I am very excited to finally be meeting Penny!  She and I have run so many of the same races and never met face to face.  She and I have gotten to know each other better through Facebook and Twitter.  I know she is happy about the forecast of rain.  Me…not so much.

My biggest worry is the river crossing.  It comes pretty early in the race (sometime before the 4.3 mile aid station).  I am not afraid of crossing the river so much as running twelve miles with wet shoes and socks.  I have been told that if you go for drier ground, the “real” trail runners will give you a hard time.  Have any of you crossed a creek/river in a race?  Any tips, tricks or advice??

For some reason, I didn’t really taper for this race.  I am approaching these trail races so differently than I approach road races.  I am not sure that is wise.   I ran twelve miles this morning.  Oops.   I went for my regular Saturday morning run with my friends and before I knew it, we had run over an hour before we turned around to run back to the cars.   I did stay back with my friend Heidi, who was hurting a bit.  We ran/walked the last few miles.  I tried to keep the pace slow, but my legs feel a little tired right now.  Hopefully, they recover in time for tomorrow’s adventure.

In researching 50K training plans, I found that most of them advocate back-to-back long runs.  I suppose that I am doing that this weekend.  So tomorrow’s 25K is a training run.   I guess that means I am officially training.   Woo hoo!!

Happy Running…. 

*if, of course, we get a lottery slot.
**my friend Jimmy is one of the race directors and I really want to support their racing efforts!   Plus, it sounds like an incredible race!

9 comments:

Unknown said...

a 50K? gulp. good luck with that!

Kristin said...

Good luck tomorrow! I have NO trail running tips but, for what it's worth (not much), I have inavertently run through ankle deep puddles and not had any problems after...hopefully you have wicking socks! :) Have fun!

Anonymous said...

Right on... your first back-to-back for ultra training! ;-)

And I will totally come to St. George to cheer for you.

** And I will be doing the timing for the Rio Del Lago race!

Aron said...

dont think about it, just GO :) have fun tomorrow!!!

cant wait to follow you on the rest of your training too.... yay 50k!!

Marathon Maritza said...

Yay 50K, how exciting!!!

And best of luck and fun times at your race tomorrow, can't wait to hear about it!

L.B. said...

50K??? Awesome!! That's on my "Maybe someday I'll be crazy enough to try that" list.

I've crossed a river before during a race, but it was actually part of the course, and it was an obstacle course run - the Camp Pendleton Mud Run. I just walked through it; it was probably up to my armpits. Good times.

Aka Alice said...

If there's anyone who can conquer the 50K, it's definitely you!

Glenn Jones said...

Okay. I'll be watching you now! Not that I already don't, but I'm thinking I feel that 50K and eventally, a 50 miler, in my future. The big question in my mind is the training thing. As inhomw much when. Thank goodness I now have you as my guinea pig!

I'm eyeing Montana de Oro, but not the 50K. And yes it *is* beautiful there.....

The Alien said...

I don't know if you are completely insane or extremely brave!!! 50k??? WOW!! Now THAT is a HUGE goal! But I'm sure that if there's someone that can pull it off that's you. So keep us posted on your training.

And about crossing a river while running, I've never done that but I've run under heavy rain a couple of times and had a lot of rain during a half marathon once and I've never had problems, I try to use really thin socks that dry fast. I've heard that the drymax socks are specially good for this.

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