BOOKS I'M RELYING ON

In past marathon training cycles, I’ve almost exclusively followed Jack Daniels or Pete Pftizinger’s training plans. I don’t really know why I never mixed it up more. I know people who’ve had success with Kevin Beck’s program, and I have a buddy that keeps using the Hanson’s Marathon Method. I’m sure there are other programs out there, but honestly, I don’t know what the latest craze is.

As I’ve been mentioning a lot lately, I’ve been on a Matt Fitzgerald kick lately. If you combine that with my affinity for the professional team, NAZ Elite, you get the following list of books that I’m going to rely heavily on for this training cycle;

Run Like a Pro (Even if You’re Slow): Elite Tools and Tips for Runners at Every Level by Matt Fitzgerald and Ben Rosario. This book takes Matt’s 80/20 Running program and includes some Coach’s Tips from Ben. I really like the program, at least as it is on paper, because it focuses on volume, but 80% of that volume is easy running. As for the other 20%, it includes a variety of workouts that seem manageable (again, on paper). By “variety” I mean, tempo, fartlek, hills, fast-finish, long runs w/ progression, steady-state, leg speed, 5K and 10K pace intervals and so on.

80/20 Running by Matt Fitzgerald. This came out years before Run Like a Pro, but I read it afterwards, so I included it second. It’s probably not necessary to read both of them.

Running the Dream by Matt Fitzgerald. This book follows Matt as he spends an entire 13-week training cycle in Flagstaff, AZ as a “fake pro”. During that time, he’s coached by Ben Rosario, he works out with NAZ Elite, and he has access to everything the pros use. Spoiler alert: after years of training and 40+ marathons under his belt, Matt makes a huge breakthrough. Oh yeah, he was 47 years old at the time.

Inside a Marathon: An All-Access Pass to a Top-10 Finish at NYC by Scott Fauble and Ben Rosario. This is perhaps one of the most unique running books on the market. It follows NAZ elite athlete, Scott Fauble, and his coach, Ben Rosario, through a 20-week training cycle leading up to the 2018 NYC Marathon. After each week of training, both Scott and Ben write a recap from their perspective – without the other knowing what they wrote.  

Yesterday I mentioned that my plan was to document this 18-week session as best I can – ala Running the Dream. In addition to blogging about it, I was thinking I would add a lot more color to my Strava posts, however, now I’m reconsidering that second part. I was listening to a podcast with Steven Pressfield about his creative process. He mentioned that it’s bad luck to talk about what he’s working on before it’s been released into the world. Not that I believe all that, but most of my Strava followers are my high school athletes, so they probably don’t need to know the details of my marathon training. I’ll limit exposure to my dozen or so blog readers.

Quote of the day;

“The past is a memory, the future is an idea, all that exists is the moment.” – Scott Fauble, Inside a Marathon

ANCILLARY GOALS

I’ll start with a random thought I had on Monday, which is trash collection day in my neighborhood;

Why do we make it easy for mail to be delivered – 1 mail carrier with all the mailboxes on the same side of the street – but make it difficult to get our trashed picked up – 5 trash collectors that need to drive on both the odd and even sides of the street to collect trash?

The plan after Sunday’s race was to take some time off (up to a week) from running, which will give me a week of easing back into things before jumping into the deep end of training. Being in the middle of a cold snap makes taking the time off easier, but it’s still weird when you go from 50 MPW to 0 MPW. You realize how much time running takes up.

I’m trying to fill some of that time by determining what ancillary training routines I’d like to include during this marathon build-up. As I get older, I find myself looking for more and more non-running activities that will help with my running performance. Of course, it would have been smart to include these things 20-30 years ago, but you do what you can at the time. My time commitments and responsibilities were a lot different back then. Heck, COVID alone changed a lot of this for the better for me. By only having to commute 1 day per week, it’s freed up about 5-6 hours per week. That time can be better spent by running in the morning, cooking dinner in the evening, including more ancillary work, or any number of things not related to my job. Perhaps my favorite thing about working from home is the ability to take a nap at lunchtime. Anywhere from 20-40 minutes is perfect for me. It allows me to recharge, without keeping me awake at night.

I’ve already added 3 ancillary things to my routine and am excited to see their combined impact on my training; 1) Strength training twice per week – this isn’t in the form of 1980s gym class with curls, bench press, and dips. This is at a gym built with runners in mind and the workouts are specific to functional running movements, lunges, planks, split squats, hamstring curls, sumo squats, banded walking and so on. I work out with my buddy Scott - on Monday’s we have a trainer, Jacob, and then we repeat that workout on Thursdays, without Jacob. 2) The aforementioned naps – especially important if I’m going to be logging mileage, workouts and long runs unlike anything I’ve done in years.  3) Not really a routine, but I’m including super shoes in the mix. My PRs were set in the era before super shoes were a thing. If they truly give you 4% improvement, that like 7-8 minutes over the course of a marathon at my goal time.

Other things that I plan on adding include, 1) Self-massage through foam rolling, Roll Recovery, and work with a lacrosse ball to help loosen up my glute, piriformis, hamstring, IT band, quads, etc. 2) Flexibility work, especially for the hips and back. 3) More dynamic warm-up before easy runs and workouts in the form of drills (skipping, high knees, butt kicks, etc). 4) Mental skills training along the lines of progressive relaxation, visualization, confidence journaling, etc.  

Obviously, this is a lot and it’s likely that some things will be easy to include, like naps, while other things, like drills before an easy run, are more likely not to happen. But as the saying goes, “Plan your work and work your plan.” Without having these things in mind, they’d definitely NOT happen. Whereas, by sharing them on the interwebs, there’s a chance that I could be held accountable – and therefore more likely to include them.

That’s where my head is at as I sit in limbo before training starts. My plan is to document this 18-week session as best I can – mainly for my own benefit as I look back on what worked and what didn’t work, but also maybe someone else will find it useful.

Quote of the day;

“I don’t try to block out the pain in hard workouts or races anymore, if you want to be in charge of the hurt, you have to let it in. That’s the key to being able to endure a lot of pain, it’s to know it intimately. The discomfort is coming along for the ride, but it doesn’t get to drive and it sure as shit can’t pick the music.” – Scott Fauble, Inside a Marathon

OLD SCHOOL RANT

 

Both feet (barely) off the ground.

Photo: Evan Roberts

As January comes to a close, I like to think I followed my “master plan” for the month. The idea was to;

11  1) build mileage at the end of December and into the first week of January – I ended up with 38, 43 and 49 miles during that stretch.
2) take a down week and race on the 14^th – backed off to 28 miles and ran a decent 5M race.
3) build mileage for the next 2 weeks before racing on the 29^th – had back-to-back 7-day stretches of 47 and 54 miles (note: I say 7-day stretches because they were from Monday to Sunday, which isn’t my typical Sunday to Saturday “week”. I did race yesterday – more on that below.
4) backing off for a couple of weeks before jumping into marathon training – that’s where I’m at now.

I also tried to keep things fun by including 3 fat bike rides and 4 skis, along with 8 strength sessions. Overall, I’m happy with where I’m at and my plan moving forward. That plan being the Level 3 version from 8020endurance.com. I originally downloaded their Level 2 plan, but then David Goggins was whispering in my ear, “Go big or go home.” In reality, I’ll probably have both plans side-by-side and try to follow a combination of both.

I feel like I need to caveat a lot of my posts with “back when I was more focused on road racing…” because it’s been so long that that has been my focus. But back when I was more focused on road racing, I always looked forward to winter running as a chance to put in a lot of miles and build a base heading into spring. During most winters, this base building phase included me running the Winter Carnival half marathon as a way to benchmark my progress. All those years the race started in downtown St. Paul and was basically an out-and-back on Shepard Road, which is a 4-lane road with clear surfaces (as long as it wasn’t snowing at the time) and rolling hills. In addition, there was also plenty of competition and people to run with.

This year’s race was held on at the State Fair grounds and you had the option of running 1 – 4 laps that were supposed to be 5K. I signed up for the 20K option with the hopes that the closed-off fair grounds would include dry pavement. That turned out not to be the case. Just walking across the parking lot was a challenge with all the glare ice. After picking up my bib I looked at the start/finish area and could tell that the roads were not plowed very well. I initially had my racing shoes on, but even prior to warming up I knew those wouldn’t be a wise choice. I switched to my trail shoes and changed my mindset from “racing” to just getting in a solid effort. It turned out that there were about 1 mile of clear roads during each loop. Otherwise, we were running on packed snow or ice covered in sand.

The 15K and 20K started together with 18 and 44 people running those respective events, with he 5K and 10K starting 5 minutes later. When the gun went off, I followed my latest strategy of running without looking at any splits. There was an 8-minute pacer just in front of me for the first lap, but he eventually gapped me. After about 1.5 laps we started lapping runners from the other events, so although it was a pretty boring course, there were a lot more people on it than you’d expect from such a small event.

There really isn’t a lot to report from the race itself. It was about -3 degrees at the start, so I was bundled up. I am curious how much that affects a runner’s performance. There are lots of conversion charts for things like altitude and heat, but I haven’t seen one for wearing 2 layers of pants, a shirt, vest, and jacket, 2 layers of glove/mitts + hand warmers, and so on. My guess is that it’s significant – at least that’s what I’m going with.

In my last race I had a guy pull away from me towards the end and he ended up winning our age group. During the last mile of this race, I caught 1 guy that was really struggling and was able to beat him to the finish line. As a result, I was the first 50–59-year-old and he was second. I won’t mention the fact that there was a 64-year-old about 8 minutes in front of me.

In the end, I was pleasantly surprised to finish in 1:35, which is 7:40 pace for 20K. That was until I saw that my watch only recorded 11.7 miles – and that I averaged 8:08 pace. Recently I mentioned that I’m now one of those runners that puts full stock into their watch. This is a prime example of why I do that now. Granted my watch might not be perfect, but it’s not .7 of a mile off. Honestly, being this far off is unacceptable. Maybe I’m too “Old School” but when I run a race I want 2 things; 1) an accurate distance and 2) accurate finish results. Heck, even #2 is debatable, because if I have #1, I can time myself.

I really don’t know who’s at fault here. Is it the Winter Carnival committee who probably came up with the route and said, “that’s close enough?” Or is it the timing company who probably just showed up and was told, “here’s the start and finish line, don’t worry, we’ve marked the course?” I hate to sound like an old curmudgeon, but around this area, all the classic races are disappearing and being replaced by charity events. There’s nothing wrong with having charity events, but they typically have much deeper pockets than the people putting on the classics. As a result, the price to host a race goes up and drives these people out of business. Then we’re left with race where the top priority is swag and a DJ.

It’s time to put an emphasis on races with certified courses – DJ’s be damned!

RECAP OF WEEK 1/15 – 1/21

Sunday – 7K classic ski
Monday – AM: Strength + 2 mile easy, PM: 6 miles easy
Tuesday – 6 miles
Wednesday – AM: 6 miles, NOON: 4M fat bike
Thursday – AM: Strength + 2 mile easy, PM: 6 miles easy
Friday – 7-mile run w/ Scott
Saturday – Day off
Summary: 35 miles of running, 4 miles of biking, 7K of skiing and 2 strength training

 

RECAP OF WEEK 1/22 – 1/28

Sunday – 12 miles w/ Scott and Derek
Monday – AM: Strength, PM: 8 miles easy
Tuesday – AM: 5 miles + strides, PM: 12K skate ski
Wednesday – 7.5 miles
Thursday – AM: Strength + 2 mile easy, PM: 6.5 miles w/ 6 x :30 hills
Friday – AM: 5.5 miles w/ Scott and Pat, PM: 2 miles easy
Saturday – AM: 5M fat bike, PM: 4 miles easy
Summary: 52 miles of running, 5 miles of biking, 12K of skiing and 2 strength training

Quote of the day;

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” - Chinese Proverb

CHARTS BASED ON PERCEIVED EFFORT

10-pt Scale of Perceived Effort

 

Zones and Paces that align with workout intensities from Run Like a Pro

Current and Goal Paces for different intensities

Paces and MPH for treadmill use

EASY RUN PACE

One thing I forgot to mention about Saturday’s race and running by feel vs. checking my splits is that my first mile was way too slow. I ran it in 7:19, which is just above my average pace for the race, however, we lost about 65’ of elevation during that mile. Of course, looking at my watch at mile 1 wouldn’t change that fact, but it may have planted the seed that I should be able to run harder for the remaining 4 miles. Or perhaps I could have checked what pace I was running prior to hitting the downhill stretch. But I don’t know how accurate the pace feature is either.

I will say that I could probably benefit from a more dynamic warmup routine, rather than just running 2 miles with a couple of high knees and butt kickers. Funny, being a mid-January race doesn’t really make one want to spend more time outside doing a full warmup.

Okay, today’s topic focuses on easy run pace. I hear it all the time, “most runners run too fast on their easy days and not fast enough on their hard days.” After reading Run Like a Pro and 80/20 Running I’ve been trying to put together a spreadsheet of the various terms and efforts for each training intensity and how they all relate to one another. Basically, I started with a 10-point Perceived Effort Scale that includes Rating, Description, and Internal Cues. From there I layered in Zone, Pace, Race Distance (that I could hold that pace for), and Workout Type (that I could run each pace at – i.e. is it steady-state, fartlek, 5k pace, etc.). Finally, I added Intensity (low, moderate, high) as outlined in the 80/20 program. I could also add in Heart Rate, but I don’t fully trust the measurements from my watch. For the paces I punched my recent race results into Tinman’s Pace Calculator. These results happen to correspond to a 3:30 marathon, so off to the side I also included the paces for each intensity if I improve to 3:25 or 3:20 shape.

After laying all this out I was really confused by what my easy run pace should be. Again, the concept of 80/20 Running says that 80% of your runs should be at a Low Intensity and the other 20% should be at a Moderate to High Intensity. In the book, Matt Fitzgerald says that for most runners the split is closer to 50/50. Prior to putting together the spreadsheet that I mentioned above, I assume for me a Low Intensity would be around 9:30 pace, which is like MP + 90 seconds per mile. However, as I re-read parts of the book it says “the boundary between low intensity and moderate intensity falls at the ventilatory threshold (VT), which is where the breathing rate abruptly deepens. This is slightly below the more familiar lactate threshold.” Again, in terms of my fitness, I could run as fast as 7:50 pace, which is :10 faster per mile than my MP.

I bring this all up because it was really confusing to me because NONE of my easy runs are EVER done faster than MP. I don’t understand how “most runners” are able to run 50% of their mileage faster than MP. My best guess is that maybe it’s a fitness thing and that this applies to newer runners. I’ve coached some new runners and their training runs were all faster than their MP. Or maybe it applies to younger runners. Perhaps when I was in my 20s I could hit those paces, but not in my 50s.

I was originally thinking this will be great, I’ve been running too fast on my easy days. I’ll slow down and then have more in the tank for my hard workouts. Now I’m like, “I can actually run faster on my easy days? Then would I have the energy for my hard days?” I guess my key take-away is that I don’t have to slug along at 9:30 pace on all my non-workout days. Also, listen to my body and do what it’s telling me.

Quote of the day;

“The process of becoming is better than the being.” – Unknown

YUKON CHALLENGE RACE REPORT

The challenge of running back-to-back races of (essentially) the same distance is trying to evaluate them objectively. I’d love to say that after 7 weeks of building my mileage and doing 1-2 workouts per week that I crushed the pace I ran during my Thanksgiving 8K. However, Saturday’s 5-mile race was run at 7:18 pace or :06 per mile slower.

NOTE: I’m now one of those runners that uses what their watch tells them as gospel. There was a time when if I ran a race, I’d believe that the events were their advertised distance. But I now take the opposite approach and assume they’re just approximations. For example, after the 8K my watch said 4.89 miles, even though 8K = 4.97 miles. After running the 5-mile race my watch said 5.07 miles. Not that my watch is correct, but at least it was the same in both races. If I assume the courses were the correct length, then my 8K pace would’ve been overstated and my 5-mile pace would’ve been understated.

But let’s forget about the watch – for now. I’m happy with how I raced on Saturday. This was a fairly tough out-and-back course that started at the Guthrie and followed the River Road south before turning around. That means the first mile was downhill and most of the second mile was flat before climbing to the turn around point and repeating those hills in the opposite direction. Temps were just under 20 degrees and there was a slight first half headwind.

Another change I’ve adopted – in addition to believing my watch to be the gospel – is to just run by feel once the gun goes off. There was a time when I’d take my splits at every mile and then spend the next minute or two analyzing them and projecting my finish time. Now I try to stay more present and monitor things like my breathing, my pace, and how relaxed I am. Mentally, I like it a lot better, but if you have a specific goal in mind, you have no idea if you’re on pace or not. You don’t get that immediate feedback at the mile marks. Maybe it doesn’t matter. Perhaps you’d run the same exact time either way. I don’t know, I’ve never tested it.

Anyway, I said I’m happy with how I raced and that’s because I stayed engaged during the whole race. I was constantly monitoring the things I could control. It was a pretty small race with less than 300 people. I think after about 1.5 miles I was in the same place that I finished. I ran back and forth with one guy for a few miles. After being about 10-15 feet behind him at 3 miles I caught up to him in the next half mile. I think that woke him up a little as he pulled away and put 25 seconds on me the rest of the way. Of course, he ended up winning my age group and I was 2^nd.  

Back to the watch. I’m currently using a COROS Pace 2, along with their app. As you can imagine, there’s a lot of data being tracked – things like running performance as a percentage, Load Impact, Fatigue, Base Fitness, etc. I’m still trying to get a feel for all of it. I constantly click on the little question marks that provide more information trying to understand what an “optimized” fatigue level off 44 means or an “excellent” Running Performance of 112%. Can I really trust when my watch says I’m above the recommended Load Impact range of 594-1081?

Getting back to using my watch to compare my 8K and 5-mile races. Here are a few of the key metrics that stood out to me.

Metric                               8K          5M

Avg Effort Pace                7:06       7:03

Running Performance    119%     112%

Training Load                   171        160

Elevation Gain                 164        266

 

Overall, the race served its purpose. It proved that Thanksgiving wasn’t a fluke and that I’m still on the right path and motivated to work towards my 2023 goals.

RECAP OF WEEK 1/8 – 1/14

Sunday – Day off

Monday – AM: Strength, PM: 4 miles easy

Tuesday – 16K skate ski

Wednesday – 6-mile fartlek (1/2/3/2/1/2/3/2/1:00 “on” w/ 1:00 “off”) 1:00 run at 5K, 2:00 run at 10K and 3:00 run at HMP

Thursday – AM: Strength, PM: 5 miles easy

Friday – 5-mile run w/ strides

Saturday – 8 miles total, including 5-mile race

Summary: 28 miles of running, 0 miles of biking, 16K of skiing and 2 strength training

 

Quote of the day;

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” – Unknown

2023 RACE SCHEDULE (first half)

It’s funny that the winter that I decide to ramp up my running is the time that we have incredible snow. Just a week ago we received 16” of snow over a 48-hour period. I think that brings our total for the season up to 45”. It reminds me of when I was a kid, and we’d go to Michigan’s U.P. and snow would be piled over their mailboxes along the road. As Dave mentioned in a comment on my last post, lots of runners switch to skiing over the winter and get into great shape. I agree that it’s possible and I’ve done it myself. The hard part is, of course, you’re dependent on the snow. Now we have places that make snow, which is great. However, if you don’t receive any, or enough, natural snow, you’re stuck doing 2–3-mile loops over and over all winter long. That can get extremely monotonous. To have a really good ski season you have to start early – as soon as the first man-made loop is open, which is typically early December. Again, if you commit to that and don’t get natural snow, then you’re stuck with man-made loops. With all that in mind, this winter I’ve committed myself to focusing on running, while using the occasional ski (and bike) outing as cross training. The problem with that approach is skiing gets so much easier, and more fun, the more often you do it. Your form gets better, and you get stronger, making the whole process much easier.

I have 2 other “excuses” for not focusing on skiing this year; 1) I work from home 4 days per week now, so I no longer pass by ski trails on my way to work. Plus, our new office doesn’t have a shower like our previous location. That pretty much eliminates exercising before work on the one day that I do go to the office. 2) I’ll admit it, I’m a fair-weather skier. I just don’t enjoy skiing when it’s below about 10 degrees. And guess what, that happens a lot in Minnesota during the winter – especially in the mornings.

I guess all of this is my way to justify focusing on running when the footing has been terrible, but the ski trails are fabulous.

While my running motivation is high, I took the opportunity to sign up for a bunch of races. Here’s what my 2023 race schedule is looking like at the moment. The plan is to build fitness through increased mileage and workouts through 1/29 and then have 2 weeks before I’d start an 18-week build towards Grandma’s on 2/12.

1/14 Yukon 5-mile

1/29 Winter Carnival 15K or 20K

4/2 Goldy’s 10-mile

4/8 Zumbro 17-mile trail race

5/6 Human Powered Half Marathon

6/17 Grandma’s Marathon

This means I’m racing a 5 miler this Saturday. If you’ve been following closely, my last race was an 8k on Thanksgiving where I surprised myself by averaging 7:12 pace. I want to use this race to see where the last 7 weeks of hard training has taken me. But I also realize that the weather and road conditions will be vastly different than on November 24^th.

One last topic before I recap the last couple of weeks of training. I like to read/listen to books and I’m already through 4 this year. I mentioned Matt Fitzgerald’s 80/20 Running previously. This covered a lot of the same themes from Run Like a Pro, which I read at the end of 2022. Next, I read the biography of Bill Squires, Born to Coach by Paul Clerici. I love the history of the sport and being the coach of Bill Rodgers, Alberto Salazar, Dick Beardsley, Greg Meyers – guys I looked up to as a kid – I really thought I’d like this book a lot. Unfortunately, it didn’t meet my expectations. I think the story could have been told in 100 fewer pages. There were lots of stats about runner’s results from each season – and many of these runners would only be known if you lived in the Boston area at the time.

The next 2 books I really liked, so I’m going to give them their own paragraphs.

I think most endurance athletes are familiar with David Goggins, the former Navy Seal that has done some mind-blowing endurance events that usually involve finishing after some setback that would cause most runners to DNF. He covered his back story a couple of years ago in his first book Can’t Hurt Me. Everything I read about his latest book, Never Finished, said it was even better, and I’d have to agree. While I think he can be a little much at times – pushing way passed bodily harm (or at least what I’d consider bodily harm) – he does have a way of motivated people and having them question their effort levels. It happens to be one of the reasons why I’ve been bumping my weekly mileage. I would recommend listening to the audio version of this book because after each chapter, he does a mini-podcast that provides additional insight.

I’m not sure if I’m mentioned it at all, but I took an assistant coaching job for cross country and track 3 years ago. I bring that up because it’s one of the reasons I read the next book, What Makes Maddy Run. It’s the story of an all-American girl that’s great at everything she does – until she gets to college. It’s about her struggles with mental illness – something no one saw coming, given how successful she was in high school. I would consider this a must-read for all parents, especially if their kids are in sports. As a coach it was very insightful, but it also scares the shit out of me. It’s much easier to come up with a weekly workout schedule than to monitor the mental health of my athletes and then try to have difficult conversation with them if I suspect anything. It’s even harder when that’s not the environment you grew up in and you’ve never had mental health issues yourself.

RECAP OF WEEK 12/25 – 12/31

Sunday – Day off - Christmas

Monday – Strength + 8 miles easy

Tuesday – AM: 2-mile shuffle, NOON: 4.5 miles easy

Wednesday – 6-mile progression run (steady-state pace to CV pace – 7:45 – 7:10)

Thursday – AM: Strength + 3-miles, PM: 2 miles easy

Friday – AM: 6-mile run, PM: 10K classic ski

Saturday – AM: 8 miles, PM 4 miles – poor footing led to sore hips in the morning, so I cut my long run short and added a 2^nd run.

Summary: 43.5 miles of running, 0 miles of biking, 10K of skiing and 2 strength training

 

RECAP OF WEEK 1/1 – 1/7

Sunday – 9-mile fat bike ride – perfect conditions

Monday – AM: 2 miles, PM: 8 mile including :40 at steady-state pace (7:45) + strength

Tuesday – AM: 4+ miles easy, PM: 2+ miles easy

Wednesday – 6-mile run – lots of shoveling

Thursday – AM: 2.5 miles, PM: 5.5 miles – Fast Finish – last :10 at LT (7:25)

Friday – AM: 5 miles, PM: 7K classic ski

Saturday – 14 miles solo (2:18)

Summary: 49.5 miles of running, 9 miles of biking, 7K of skiing and 1 strength training

The last 3 weeks of 38, 43 and 49 miles of running have me looking forward to a cutback week. That will be a nice mini-taper leading up to Saturday’s race.

 

Quote of the day;

“You are allowed to be both a masterpiece and a work in progress simultaneously.” – Sophia Bush

HUNKER DOWN

If I go through with it, my next race will be in a month. I used to run the Winter Carnival half marathon ever year as a benchmark to see how my winter training has been going. It was a nice out-and-back course with some rolling hills. I haven’t done this race in a few years. When I searched for it online, I found that it’s going to be held on the State Fair Grounds and you can run 5K increments anywhere from 5K to 20K. This has me thinking it’ll a 5K loop run multiple times. Not exactly what I was looking for, but if I just want a benchmark, I guess it will suffice.

The last 2 weeks I’ve been including workouts from the Run Like a Pro book I mentioned in my last post. Even though the book has workout plans for 5K, 10K, half-marathon, marathon, and ultra, the workouts aren’t that different between them. The book states that one of the more common mistakes that non-elites make is over-specializing their training for a particular race. The workouts listed within the 2-week recaps below were all run on the treadmill. Mainly because the weather these last 2 weeks has been quite snowy – on two separate occasions I’d say we got 6-8” of snow over the course of 2-3 days. This makes for really poor footing for your average run, let alone a workout. The second occasion of snow was followed by a week of temps around 0 degrees with a strong wind. It's times like that where I just try to hunker down and do what I can. 

While the treadmill can be quite boring, I will say that I do like having the ability to dial in on specific paces for harder workouts - especially when I haven't done "real" training in a long time. I was thinking today that it's been kind of fun to run a race and then punch those results into a calculator that tells me what paces I should be running for different workouts - then going out and executing them.  

RECAP OF WEEK 12/11 – 12/17

Sunday – 10-mile fat bike ride & easy 3-mile run

Monday – Strength + 2 miles easy

Tuesday – 8K skate ski

Wednesday – 6 miles fartlek – 1/2/3/2/1/2/3-minutes “on” w/ 1:00 “off” [1’s at 5K, 2’s at 10K, 3’s at HMP]

Thursday – AM: 2-mile shuffle, NOON: 5 miles easy

Friday – AM: 5-mile run, NOON: 7K classic ski

Saturday – Day off – daughter’s college graduation

Summary: 24 miles of running, 10 miles of biking, 15K of skiing and 1 strength training

 

RECAP OF WEEK 12/18 – 12/24

Sunday – 13-mile-long run (longest run recently)

Monday – AM: Strength, PM: 3 miles easy

Tuesday – Easy 4-mile run

Wednesday – 7-mile Critical Velocity (CV) workout – 5 x 4:00 @ 7:10 pace w/ 2:00 easy

Thursday – Easy 16-mile bike ride on trainer

Friday – AM: 2-mile shuffle, PM: easy 4-mile run

Saturday – 5.5-mile Max Aerobic Speed (MAS) workout – 8 x 1:00 @ 6:24 pace w/ 2:00 jog

Summary: 38.5 miles of running, 16 miles of biking, no skiing and 1 strength training

Quote of the day;

“The quieter you become the more you are able to hear.” - Rumi

RECONSIDERING

I like to read quite a bit. Included in my reading are a lot of books on running, runners, and training. I mentioned recently that I was considering following a training plan out of Jay Johnson’s book Simple Marathon Training: The Right Training for Busy Adults with Hectic Lives. Not because I’m a busy adult with a hectic life, but more because I like the idea of 1 workout and 1 long run per week – with filler activities in between. Now I’m reconsidering that approach.

I started reading Run Like a Pro (Even if You’re Slow): Elite Tools and Tips for Runners at Every Level by Matt Fitzgerald and Ben Rosario. I really like the work both authors have done. Ben was the coach for the NAZ elite training group before stepping away from coaching and into their director role. He teamed up with Scott Fauble on the book Inside a Marathon, which is a great look into the coach/athlete relationship. He also teamed up with his high school coach for the book Tradition, Class, Pride: Building a Cross Country Dynasty. This is a must-read for any high school coach looking to build up their program. While Ben is a coach who’s written a few books, I’d say Matt is a writer who also happens to coach. He’s written a lot of books for the endurance community. The ones I’ve read or listened to include; How Bad Do You Want It, The Comeback Quotient, Racing Weight, and Running the Dream. In the last one, Matt spends a summer and trains like an elite athlete, at the age of 46, as part of the NAZ elite group coached by Ben.  

Matt also has a book called 80/20 Running. I haven’t read it (yet), but its main theme is to get faster by going slower. The idea being that 80% of the time you should be running super easy, then for the remaining 20% of the time you run harder workouts. He’s built out a whole business model if you want to explore more at https://www.8020endurance.com/. This 80/20 principle is covered in the first part of Run Like a Pro. The premise being that most weekend warriors train too fast on their easy days and not fast enough on their hard days. This isn’t a new concept. In fact, I’d say I tried it in the mid-90s when HR monitors were all the rage. I started training super slow, even walking hills because the slightest incline would cause a spike in HR. I’d like to say this led to incredible gains in fitness, but I can’t say I got any faster. In fact, I think I got slower if I remember correctly.

Fast forward 25+ years and I’m considering a similar approach. Why? Mainly because I think this approach will allow me to get in 2 workouts per week plus a long run while not getting burned out along the way. At least that’s the hope. Plus, on some level I enjoy the challenge/process of trying something new on myself to see if there’s a better way of doing things. There are a lot of other things in the book that I think are worth exploring more, but I’ll share those later. One challenge is that I like to run with people as much as I can. Typically, these runs would fall into this gray zone of being too fast for the 80% portion, but too slow for the 20% portion.

One thing Matt mentioned that he added during his summer of training like a pro was 20-minute shakeout runs, up to 5 times per week. I thought I’d start adding in a few of those throughout the week to see if they help (or hurt). I have 2 goals when doing them; 1) no GPS, just an ‘old school’ stopwatch and 2) run as slow as possible.

RECAP OF WEEK 12/4 – 12/11

Sunday – 11-mile trail run (1:55 – longest run by time since Grandma’s Marathon)

Monday – REST DAY

Tuesday – AM: Lifted, PM: 12K skate skiing

Wednesday – 5 miles easy

Thursday – NOON: 8-mile fat bike ride, PM: lifted w/ Scott

Friday – AM: 6-mile run w/ Scott, Jerald and Pat, PM: 20-minute shuffle

Saturday – AM: 11-mile run w/ Dave and Sarah

Summary: 35 miles of running, 8 miles of biking, 12K of skiing and 2 lifts

Quote of the day;

“As to methods, there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.” Ralph Waldo Emerson 

EVAPORATING PLANS

If nothing else, this newfound motivation has me thinking about my exercise routine more. Although I wouldn’t say I’m “training” yet, I am more aware of my exercise plans for the day and week – as well as what’s taking place from week to week. The nice thing about this approach is that it makes me more committed to training through the winter. Last winter it was easy to just let things slide when the weather got crappy. But now I feel like “crappy” will have a different meaning – I’m more willing to venture outside because I have a race on the calendar. And if things do get really bad I’m more likely to find other alternatives to get a workout in.  

Recently I mentioned doing my best to get one workout in per week despite the conditions. I guess that’s easier said from the comfort of my computer screen than the reality of outdoors. Yesterday’s plan was for a lunchtime run with some threshold work throw in. As I worked through the morning, I could see those plans start to evaporate as just enough snow fell to make things sketchy. I’m talking about less than half an inch of snow. But that was enough to leave me feeling uncomfortable with picking up the pace. Normally this wouldn’t bother me, but lately we’ve been having some thaw/freeze cycles taking place. The thought of hitting a patch of ice covered by a little snow doesn’t make the harder effort worth it to me. Instead, I just ran an easy 5 miles.

I can still remember a blog post I wrote years ago after we got about 2” of snow and the roads were a slushy sloppy mess that made running unenjoyable. At the time I was Nordic skiing a lot, so I juxtaposed photos of the sloppy roads and the freshly groomed corduroy of the ski trails. I think the title was something like “You Choose” – implying why would anyone run in that footing when they could be skiing instead. I bring this up because of the recent conditions, but also because Tuesday night I went for my first ski of the season. There’s no denying that it’s incredibly fun and a great workout. Of course, being a perfect 28 degrees helps a lot too. It’s just nice to have options to help maintain my fitness in the winter.

Quote of the day;

“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” – Lao Tzu

OPTING FOR NAPS

 I think I mentioned this the other day, but one of the challenges for me (and every other runner) is figuring out what works as I get older. As a longtime proponent of “more is better,” that approach just doesn’t seem to work as well for me anymore. It “works” for a few days, but then I get exhausted. This week I’m trying to balance taking advantage of the great weather with making sure I’m recovered from 4 hours of exercise during the weekend (2 hours fat biking and 2 hours running, on Saturday and Sunday, respectively). Yesterday I really wanted to take advantage of temps in the mid-20s and go for an hour fat bike ride at lunch. However, I felt tired when I woke up and opted for a nap over lunch instead. I’m sure it was the right decision physically, but it’s tough to pass us those nice weather days in December when you live in Minnesota.

I’ve been thinking about a couple of things that I’ve been missing lately. One is just that feeling of being fit. Not that I’m out of shape right now – in fact, in some ways I think I’m stronger than when I was running fast. But without a real race schedule lately, I haven’t had the feeling when you know you’re super fit. Of course, it’s only December so that feeling will have to wait. However, I made it official yesterday and registered for Grandma’s Marathon. So hopefully, come June, I’ll have that feeling again.

The other thing I’ve been missing is the process of writing, which is one of the reasons I started to blog again. But I miss writing articles for MDRA (now Run Minnesota), interviewing local age groupers for my other blog, and just trying to collect my thoughts in cohesive blog posts. I feel like I have more to share – but I’m not sure if I have the right mediums any longer. Run Minnesota no longer has its magazine and I think people would rather listen to a podcast than read an interview. Instagram and social media are nice, but I’m more about connecting through words than images. I wish I had an eye for photography and the skills to take great photos, but even if I did, I’d probably forget my camera at home most of the time.

Quote of the day;

“Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

MANAGING MEASUREMENTS

 

I remember a reader once saying, “What isn’t measured isn’t managed.” That simple comment has stuck with me over the years. I find that if I don’t pay attention to the numbers on some level, then it gets too easy to let things slack. Before I know it mileage dips, days off increase, motivation wanes. In addition to keeping a log book using pen and paper, I’ve also used Excel spreadsheets to track my training in a number of different ways; weekly mileage and minutes broken out by running, biking and skiing, mileage graphs of different rolling time periods (7-, 31- and 92-days), plus a calendar for the upcoming week that lays out when I’ll have time to exercise (AM, noon, or PM).

I have pen and paper logs going back for probably 25 years. I would track everything from time and distance to who I ran with, in what shoes, and what was the weather – among other things. I found that I never ever referred to these logs, so I stopped doing them a year or two ago. And I got away from filling out the spreadsheet too. The numbers weren’t measured and as a result, they fell. 2009 was the last year I ran over 2,000 miles. Then there was an 11-year stretch where I averaged 1,800 per year (between 1,544 and 1,988). Last year I dropped all the way down to 1,119 – not even 100 miles per month. This year will end about the same. Perhaps if I had kept up the spreadsheet during the last 2 years, I wouldn’t have cut my mileage by one-third. Then again, I wasn’t really training for anything so maybe it doesn’t matter.

Of course, there’s more to training than these numbers. However, I do believe that they have a place in analyzing my training. One caveat is that these are just running numbers. They don’t take into account skiing or biking. Some winters I’ve skied more than others – and lately I’ve been biking more frequently. NOTE: even tracking bike mileage can mean different things depending on which bike I’m riding. I might bike 16+ miles in an hour on my road bike, but only 6-7 miles per hour on my fat bike.

I guess this is a long-winded way of saying that I’ve dusted off the spreadsheet and started using it again to track my training.

Looking back, the last 6 weeks of training have been solid. I averaged 24 MPW of running and 40 MPW of biking, and I’ve lifted twice a week for each of the last 4 weeks.

11/27 – 12/3

Sunday – 14-mile mt. bike ride

Monday – Lifted with Scott (and Jacob as trainer) in the morning and 5-mile run in the evening

Tuesday – day off w/ 8” of new snow

Wednesday – 16 miles on the indoor bike trainer

Thursday – Lifted in the morning, 7 miles at lunch including threshold ladder of 1/2/3/4/4/3/2/1:00 “on” w/ 1:00 “off” in between. Paths still slippery with the new snow, so I did the best I could.

Friday – 6-mile run with Scott, Jerald and Pat

Saturday – 13-mile fat bike ride with Kurt on beautiful trails

Summary: 18 miles of running and 43 miles of biking, and 2 lift. I didn’t get in a long run during this 7-day period, but I’m okay with that. The 2-hour fat bike ride presented itself on Saturday, so I pushed my long run out a day.

Quote of the day;

“Everything should be made as simple as possible. But not simpler.” – Albert Einstein

FUN WITH NUMBERS

I was listening to a podcast with Neil Young today and was struck a couple of times by how his relationship with music is similar to my relationship with running. At one point he was talking about the next generation of musicians and how they were different. Not good or bad, just different. That had me thinking about the local racing scene and how it’s different than when I was racing a lot. Many of the “classic” races are no longer around – squeezed out by charity races with deeper pockets willing to pay the high police fees to put on a race. Or maybe the race directors are getting older and moving on too. Anyway, I guess I could say the “new” race scene is not good or bad, it’s just different. Another point Neil made about needing a break after making a record reminded me of needing a break after a big goal race. He talked about the importance of stepping away and enjoying some downtime. I think that’s important in running too. While maybe taking 3 years off from serious goals is a little over the top, I’ve always said you can’t force motivation.

Since I do have some motivation working in my favor right now, I started looking at local races coming up in the first half of 2023, with the main goal of running Grandma’s Marathon in mid-June. Part of this journey is going to be trying to find out what works at this age. I’d have to say my last decent marathon was in 2014 – just before my 45^th birthday. In the past I’d follow either Pfitzinger or Daniels training plan, but I’m confident that 2 workouts per week, plus a long run, aren’t in the cards for me this time around. With the marathon over 6 months away here are some simple rules I’ve come up with;

1 hard workout per week

1 long run per week

1 day off per week

Run, bike, or ski however I want the other days

1-2 lifts per week

That’s it, the K.I.S.S. method – at least for now. The seeds for this came from Jay Johnson’s book Simple Marathon Training: The Right Training for Busy Adults with Hectic Lives. Jay ran at the University of Colorado, under Mark Wetmore, and he offers a lot of great advice for High School coaches. It was through his info for coaches that I found this book. His training programs are 20-weeks long, so the actual start date would be January 29^th.

I talked about age-grading yesterday and I’m still a little befuddled by my recent 8K result of 68.5% given my recent (lack of) training. My best post-college race results are around 71.5%. Punching those 2 percentages in the marathon at my current age and the range is 3:17 – 3:26. That’s really not that big of a difference. I guess the real difference is that I didn’t just run 3:26. My 3:48 from last year is a long way from 3:26. Anyway, this is all just mental math, but it does have me thinking about why I topped out at 71.5%. My best college results would be closer to 76-77%. That would put me in the 3:05 range next year. Anyway, it’s all just fun with numbers. Something to help get me through the next 8 weeks until the program starts.

SEEKING MOTIVATION. FINDING IT.

 

I ran into someone recently that said they had read my Superior 100 recap. Given that that race was over 3 years ago, I went back and read it too. All this happened to coincide with a spark of motivation on my end. Honestly, since that race I have been in a lull athletically. I’m not exactly sure why but I have some theories;

That race took a lot out of me.

That race was the pinnacle for me – I really don’t think I can top that experience.

Covid happened about 6 months after that race.

I trained through Covid pretty well, but virtual races didn’t appeal to me.

I’m in my 50s and have been running for over 40 years. My relationship with the sport has definitely changed over time.

I’ve been helping coach high school cross country and track the last 3 years – placing a lot of my time and energy on their performances.

I’m sure the list could go on and on, but these come to mind immediately. Anyway, this spark of motivation has me thinking about a race schedule and some goals for 2023. And I thought I would write about the process along the way – maybe it’ll help me define this relationship with running and how it’s changing.

The last time I blogged regularly, I’m sure I was very interested in who was reading, how many people were following along, wondering if anyone commented, etc. Given that society has moved on to digital platforms that are more visual, this may be more like a personal journal that nobody reads but me. I’m ok with that.

Just to catch up since the Superior 100, I can probably count on 2 hands the number of races I’ve run since September 2019. I ran Grandma’s Marathon in June of this year and finished in 3:48, which was my 2^nd worst marathon time ever – out of 21 road marathons. Prior to that it had been 6 years since I finished my last marathon, 3:27 and my 3^rd worst ever.  

A month after this year’s Grandma’s Marathon, I jumped into a 10K ran just under 48 minutes (7:42 pace). It's hard for me to get overly excited about racing when those are my performances. Then we had 2 weeks in Italy where I didn’t run a single step. September was okay, but then I got Covid in early October. Then something surprising happened, I entered a Thanksgiving Day 8K with little to no expectations, and I ended up running rather well.

Before I get to the results here’s a look at my 6 weeks of training leading up to the race, after Covid;

Running; Averaged 22 MPW

Long Run; 10 miles

Workouts; Two 3-mile tempo runs – avg ~ 7:40-7:45 pace

Biking; Averaged 33 MPW

Lifted; 1-2 times per week

Weight; Down 6-7 pounds since Grandma’s

As I said, I had little to no expectations. Given my two tempo efforts, I figured 7:30 pace would be a good goal, somewhere in the 37-38 minute range. I ran this race in 2016 in 33-something (6:46 pace). In the “old days” I’d have been concerned with every mile split and analyzing whether or not I was going to hit my goal. This time around, not really having a goal, I just ran. I focused on my thoughts and competing and let the time take care of itself – what a concept?!?! The only time I saw the elapsed time was coming into the finishing chute where I was pleasantly surprised to see 35:XX. I never saw the exact time and results weren’t kept, but my GPS said I averaged 7:12 pace, which would be about 35:50 for a certified 8K.

Utter shock might be a good description of how I felt. But then as I thought more about my (lack of) goal, I’m guessing I was being a little conservative. I mean I did run a controlled 3 miles at 7:40 pace by myself. But the thought of 2 more miles at 30 seconds per mile never crossed my mind. When I got home, I immediately punched those results into an age-grading calculator and pace calculator to see what other race times would be predicted.

Age-grading is one of those tools I used to poo-poo before during 40, now I find it a useful tool. Typically, my race results are around 70% age-graded. For comparison Grandma’s 2016 was 64.5% and 2022 was 61.7% - even this summer’s 10K was 64.5%. When I punched in 35:50 for a 53-year-old and saw 68.5% I was thrilled. Not only that, but the pace calculator converts this time to sub-3:30 for the marathon. Granted, I have a lot of work to do before my next marathon to hit that time, or faster, but it’s a little easier to get out the door when you can see that as a goal rather than starring at 3:48.

This is already getting long, so I’ll save my 2023 plans, goals, strategies, etc. for a later date. For now I’ll just be happy if I can remember how to get this posted to my blog.

SUPERIOR 100 - THE 'WHY' & THE TRAINING

More important to me than the RACE RECAP and getting to the finish line is how I got to the start line. In that race recap I wrote about the seeds that were planted as far back as 10 years ago. But what finally lead them to take root? What was my “WHY” for doing the race? What were the last 9 months of training like? What was my mindset along the way? How did it all come together? These are the questions that I attempt to answer here.

Journal entry 9/17/18 – note this is less than 2 weeks after last year’s race:

The Compete and Strong books talk a lot about goal setting, challenging yourself, not being afraid, etc. As I read from one of these books last week, it hit me, I want to run the Superior 100 next fall. I’ve always said that I don’t like being awake that long, let alone moving that whole time and that I don’t think my body would enjoy it. But deep down I’ve always wanted to see what it would be like – to see how far I could go and if I could battle the mental side of the sport. Of course, there was always the fear of failure, but I’ve been telling the cross-country kids that failure doesn’t exist – we try something, we learn something, and then apply those learnings going forward. Besides, if I “fail” I’ll be surrounded by like-minded people and, most likely, a crew of great friends who would support me.

While I like to coach runners, I admit when I’m out of my league – and training for 100M was definitely out of my league. Luckily, I bumped into Sherri Schummer at a happy hour in October and I was able to pick her brain. I first met Sherri in 2015 as I trained for my first 50M and she trained for her first 100M. That year she finished Superior with less than an hour to spare. Then last year, she ran 6 hours faster and was the 10^th woman. Obviously, she was doing something right. That “something” was being directed by Coach Alicia Vargo.  

On October 29^th, I reached out to Alicia;

I’m friends with Sherri Schummer and have been extremely impressed with her improvement over the last few years. I’d like to run the Superior 100 next year too and am looking for a coach. I’m wondering 1) if you have any openings and 2) how long you typically like to work with a runner leading up to a race? When it comes to #2, I imagine “the longer the better” but I was wondering if I started in January, would 8 months be long enough?

She replied the same day;

Thank you so much for getting in contact with me. Sherri is such a tough gal and it has been a pleasure to work with her!  I would love to see how I can best help you moving forward with your training and racing. Superior is such a unique and tedious (and beautiful!) 100 miler. It definitely necessitates a long, proper buildup. I think that 8 months would be prefect. I would probably structure your training, depending on where you are starting from, into two segments. A based building phase for 3.5 months, shorter break for 2 weeks and then 4 months of Superior specific training. January would work really well!  I do have openings and it would be a pleasure to work with you! Please let me know if you have any additional questions or if you would like information on what we would need to do to get started. 

Game on!

While Alicia handled the physical side of training, I knew it was also important to work on my mindset. As I tell the marathoners I coach, if we leave our thoughts to chance for 3 to 6 hours, it’s very likely that they’ll turn negative. I can only imagine the negative spiral that could take place during a 30+ hour race. To help get my head on straight I turned to sports psychologist, Dr. Michael Gervais – well I didn’t turn to him personally, but through his terrific podcast, FINDING MASTERY, where he interviews “tip of the arrow” performers.

Journal entry 6/11/19

Being scared shitless is giving way to confidence and excitement… Feeling more confident because I’m able to get on the trails again, because of the two 50Ks I raced, because of some power hiking workouts, along with back-to-back longer runs.

One thing I’m working on is finding my ‘why’. I don’t want the Superior 100M to be about racing / competing / numbers. Instead, I want to focus on the process and let the outcome take care of itself.

Dr. Michael Gervais talks about the importance of clarity of purpose and finding your “why”;

“The more extreme the environment, the greater the benefit of clarity of purpose holds. When pain is greater than purpose, we give into the pain. When purpose is clear, we can override the discomfort to move to the expression of purpose.”

Right now, my purpose for running the 100M is a tribute to 40 years of running, sort of my Love Letter to Running, if I had to put a name on it. During hill repeats I’ve been thinking about everyone I’ve met through running, typically going through the different phases of my running life; my youth, high school, college, roads, trails, MDRA, youth running, and so on. I also think about all the races I’ve run, other events, and all running has given me. 

Journal entry 7/30/19

I like the idea of spending time on the trail thinking of everyone that I’ve met through running over the years. On the next few pages I’ve tried to make a list of everyone that I can remember. I’m sure I missed a bunch, but that’s not the point.

As someone who was concerned with sleep and being tired, I heard a few things along the way that gave me confidence.

On the drive to South Dakota for the Black Hills 50M, I heard a podcast where an ultra-athlete said that a 24-hour race isn’t really long enough to get sleep deprived.

Also, Steve Tapajna (who ran his first 100M last year at Superior) told me this summer that you don’t get sleepy when the sun goes down. That was really good for me to hear.

Not sleep-related but I also heard that if you stay hydrated and consume enough calories, you can do amazing things.

Dr. Gervais likes to say, “By doing the inner work, you earn the right to tell yourself ‘I can do difficult things.’” For me, inner work included defining my “why” as stated above, but also adding in a meditation practice. I use the Headspace app. Also, a gamechanger for me has been doing yoga twice per week. I used to have hip and back issues that seem to flare up 2-3 times per. Once the pain forced me to skip the Birkie ski race and just 2 years ago I DNF’d at TCM. Soon after TCM I added yoga to my practice and I haven’t had a flare up since.

As for the training itself, I don’t want to give away all of Alicia’s secrets, but let’s just say I was shocked when I look back at my weekly mileage. And, I mean, shocked because it was so low. From January 1^st through August 31^st, I average less than 42 MPW. Other than when I ran the BH50 and ran 66 miles, my largest week was 60 miles. And my largest month was 232 miles. I’ve had marathon build ups with way more mileage.

That’s not to say the training was easy. The numbers don’t show the back-to-back medium-long runs, or power hiking 15-20 hill repeats at Hyland when it was 90 degrees out, or the last three long runs of 24, 27 and 30 miles – the last one being a solo run on the SHT. There were definitely hard days, but there was also a lot of recovery. It was just surprising to me, because I think most people would associate 100M training with HUGE numbers in the log book.

   

As I mentioned above, I didn’t want this race to be about time or place. The only reason I put any time down on paper was so that my crew would have a better sense of when I’d arrive at aid stations. To help with this I used the information on Course Record times into each aid station and multiplied that by 50% to 67% in order to get a range. That seemed to work pretty well as I compared this range of time to actual results for friends I know from previous years. The problem with these previous results is that they were all over the board. The same friend would run 26 hours one year, but 33 hours the next.

After being set on my times for each aid station, Mallory Richard’s STATISTICAL ANALYSIS was posted. I reviewed my numbers with her method and tweaked a few things to determine the final numbers that I gave to my crew.

Another thing that really helped was reading Kevin Langton’s COURSE DESCRIPTION . Going into the race I’d only been on about half of the course, so this provided some great insight. Although I will admit that most of that goes out the window when on the course.

All of this combined to bring me to the starting line feeling incredibly calm. I wasn’t really sure why, however, the week after the race Dr. Gervais explained why.

“There’s a relationship between skills and challenge. If the challenge is hard enough and you believe you have the skills to match that challenge, that’s the sweet spot. If you don’t believe you have the skills to match that challenge, that’s where we get anxiety. You might actually have the skills, but if you don’t believe, if you don’t trust yourself, that’s where we get sideways.” – Michael Gervais

I definitely believed that this challenge was hard enough, but I also believed I had the skills to match the challenge.

Photo: Brian Beckman