Predictions for the Race

One more ten-miler, a little cross training, and some rest is about all I have planned for training during the rest of this week and next. Never did get that 40-miler in--let alone the two 50-milers I had hoped to do. I did a 20-miler last weekend (a little faster than my normal pace), and a 10-miler this week. Saturday I will do the final 10-miler at race pace (SLOW!), and then that's about it save a couple little jogs next week. But mostly there will be just rest and mental preparation for the beating I am going to take.

I am planning on finishing in under 24 hours despite my low mileage training (or lack thereof), but here are my realistic predictions for the race:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mile 1-10: Get to know people (supposing there are still people around)and enjoy the morning.

Mile 11-20: Feet start hurting and hunger kicks in.

Mile 21-30: Feel nauseous because I ate to much around the 20 mile mark. Feet really hurt now.

Mile 31-40: Quads get very tired. Family gets very bored. Try to keep a smile on my face.

Mile 41-50: Quads will give up and the rest of my legs will carry the pain. Family starts falling asleep. Feet are gone. Start denying that I can go another 50 miles.

Mile 51-70: A blur.

Mile 80-90: Hate myself and say I will never do this again!!!

Mile 91-99: Feels like another 50-miles, but this time with broken ankles. Start thinking up excuses for why I have to quit even though I am so close.

Mile 100: Start planning for the next 100 miler.

Life IS an Ultramarathon!

I am going for another 30 miler this weekend before tapering. Part will be ran with a buddy who is doing 50--I don't know that I recommend that so close to the race, but he knows his body I guess.

Mostly though, I am getting excited and doing a lot of mental focusing: reading all the info on the Mother Road page, going through the logistics, and looking at pictures of the course. I think this kind of mental focus was a big factor in me finishing the first 100 miler. I just hope I don't go crazy over thinking everything.

You know, I wish I put this much mental effort into other areas of my life: My Spirituality, Family Relationships, Finances... If I was as heavily focused on those things, I would be able to get through the most challenging endurance event of all--life!

Just another 30 miler

Ran another 30-miler. If you can really call it running 30 miles. Here is how it went:

I started early as usual (about 2:30am) and jogged 3 miles to an apartment complex where I clean. I quickly finished cleaning an apartment I had been working on the night before and moved my stuff to the next apartment. Then I went back out to the streets.

Then I jogged to the gym that I clean, quickly cleaned it and then went to the treadmill. For 10 miles on the treadmill I followed the 10 mile plan I want to use for my race: walk 2.5 miles, run 5 miles, walk .5 miles, and then run 2 miles. It breaks up the monotony and gives my legs plenty of rest.

The last ten miles were a "run for a while/jog for a while" method with no real structure. It was run partly on lake Hefner. The heat of the sun had come and it felt good after the cool night. The run went well, but I ran out of Shaklee Cinch bars to eat and Shaklee Performance to drink, and only had water for the last 5-miles. Needless to say, I was starving when I got home and for the rest of the day easily ate all the calories I had burned during my run--In answer to all my friends' questions, that's how I can run so much and still weigh 225lbs!

Aaaah! It's Almost Here!

Good night, this event sure krept up on me! I finally got in a thirty-miler in last week (and surprisingly didn't walk much and felt pretty good afterwards). But I never got up to a 50-60 miler like i wanted to. Besides that, my total weekly mileage barely ever got over 40 miles.

I wouldn't write a book on this training method, but I really think I can still do it. I think I can run a 40-miler sometime this week, but I am afraid if I go beyond that I might do some damage that won't heal fast enough.

Anyway, If you are running the Mother Road 100, I hope your training went better than mine. Please let me know,

Rocky

Hanging in There

Training is still by no means what it should be. But the twenty-mile runs are being run more consistently and getting easier. I wish I was running more thirty-milers. i have only ran one thirty-miler and it was three months ago. I am averaging about 25-30 miles per week with my twenty-mile long runs (which means typically besides a twenty-miler I will get one ten-miler or two five-milers--besides that, just lots of rest for my legs). Not the typical ultramarathoners training plan, but I guess its working. We shall see!

I am at the gym about every day (I clean it so I don't have a choice) so I do get in some weight training and a little boxing or some other cardio pretty regularly. Still, I am hoping to get in a 30-40 miler and a 50 before the race, but I am not sure how that is going to happen so close to the race.

Low mileage training...Ok?

I have been doing some reading that has made me feel a bit better about my training:Click here to find out more.

This advice is quite contradictory to some of the young fireballs that are out there today. Anton Krupicka logged in some 200+ mile weeks training for Western States (unfortunately it was cancelled, and in some regards, all that training was wasted). I admire such training and wish I had the time and the motivation to do it, but with my busy schedule and a family who needs my attention, I have found that the importance of the weekly long run far exceeds the total weekly mileage.

Also, I don't feel so bad about having a 10-mile week after a 30 mile run--it keeps the injuries down-- just as long as I get right back to the 30-mile long run, or even more, in the following week. Anyway, this is going to have to be the way I train for this 100-miler because the time just isn't there.

Thank you Jeff for your comment on my last post. I have been able to keep my head up, and after a 30-mile run tonight, i just might have my confidence back. I still plan on doing a 50-miler before November, and on at least one occasion I would like to do back to back 20-milers.

You Play Like You Practice

Growing up, my dad use to always tell me, "You play like you practice." So in the sports I played, such as soccer or baseball, I always wanted to push myself. This is always true. If I have not trained hard before any event in my life I can pretty much predict the outcome of the event.

That being said, I am beginning to worry a little about my next 100 miler. Work, family, and...well, life have caused me to be so inconsistent in my training. I keep hoping for the best and telling myself that next week will be better, but the truth is training has not been a priority. I'm not saying that it should be a priority, but if I expect to finish this race with any decent time, I have to train harder. So, if that means no sleep, no TV watching, etc. So be it!

I've got priorities, yes, but that doesn't mean I can't make some other sacrifices to be able to train harder. There is less than three months to go--enough time if I crack down now. Stay tuned to see how and if I do it!

Making the best of it!

I have been too busy to write since my last post. I had a good training week last week, starting with two 10-milers and ending with a 30 mile run that went quite well. The only problem was that I hadn't packed any food, so I ran the whole thing on some Performance drink, some coffee, and a couple Little Debbie snacks that I picked up at the gas station with the change in my pocket.

This week I knew I wouldn't have much time to run everyday, so I decided to rest several days and then try to run two back-to-back 20 milers. I will run one a little later this evening and one tomorrow nightif all goes well. I'll let you know what happens.

Even though this will total only 40 miles for the whole week, I think it will be very good training. Getting through the week on very little sleep will also help my prepare for the endurance needed for the 100-miler.

Back to Work!

Coming off of a busy week of Vacation Bible School at the church, a full load of apartments, houses, etc. to clean, and then getting out of town for a couple days to celebrate my wife's and my 10th anniversary, it's easy to see why I didn't get much running in last week. In fact, I averaged about 2 hours of sleep per day that whole week--until our vacation that is. Putting in the miles I wanted to would have probably killed my immune system and I would have gotten quite sick.

So when I got back in town, I was ready to get back to work. No, not my job (not that I mind working), I mean what my daughter use to call my "running job." And though I don't get paid for it, I can understand why she thinks it is my job. I change clothes, kiss everyone good bye, and then I am gone for 2 or more hours before I come home sweaty and smelly--seems like a work to her!

I was able to run a 10-miler on Monday and a 10-miler on Wednesday. However, I was quite busy with my real job this week, and not wanting to take from the little time we get together as a family, I saved my longest run for EARLY This morning--a 20-miler.

4:00 this morning, I set my stop watch. I had 4 hours to run 20 miles before going to Saturday church bus visitation, and I took the whole time. Nice and easy I enjoyed the whole run. I was passed by Richard (a fellow ultra runner also training for the second Mother Road 100) and his running partner, Dave, so I sped up to their pace for most of the Lake Hefner part of my run to have a little company.

It was my best long run so far this training period. There was no pain, save for the normal foot-aching. My breathing was good, perfect temperature (Nice cool breeze came off Lake Hefner). If all goes well next week I would like to get in two 10-milers and two 20-milers. I will feel good about my progress then.

Yeah, about last week...

A whopping 8 miles when I should be running about 50 miles per week now! Well, let me explain, and surprisingly I feel like it was a good training week:

Monday

I felt a little ambitious and decided to do some weight lifting with a friend of mine. We did some heavy leg work, and since I'm use to lighter weights and more reps, I overdid it a little.

Tuesday
Limping from Monday's work out, I took another friend of mine (a young man who has been doing some running with me to stay in shape for sports)to run some stadium stairs. After 3 repeats up and down the stairs (little stairs/big stairs/little stairs), we jogged it off around the track. Then we did 2 more sets the same way. Ordinarily, I could have handled this, but after Mondays heavy weights, this hurt pretty bad.

Wednesday
Forget about running! Instead, I killed my biceps with the same friend I worked out with on Monday--He is a monster!

Thursday
I took the same young man I ran stadium stairs with on a 4 mile trail run. Yes, I was still hurting!

Friday

Wanted to get a long run in, but it hurt too bad. I only did a couple miles on the treadmill.

Saturday

I felt like I could get in a good long run, but I opted out when some guys were meeting together for a basketball game. Why not! I played hard and soon felt like I tore a muscle in my quads.

Sunday my quad muscle still hurt pretty bad and I was worried about my training, but by Monday this week, I felt great and got 12 miles easy miles in with little effort and no soreness to follow. More details on this week to come.

Running Fat!

Okay, enough of Dean and enough of Shaklee. I want to write more about the status of my training for the 100-miler. I am glad to write that I have had NO injuries this training period. Several days ago I ran 14 miles and my hip bothered me a little. I got worried, but it was completely better the next day. That and a little pain in the heel every now and then is about the best I could ask for as far as injuries go.

I am very surprised that running has been so easy lately considering I am training at about 226 lbs right now. I got down to 205 lbs two years ago when I ran the first Mother Road 100. My goal this time was to get down to 190 lbs. Typically it makes since that less weight helps you to run better. But the fact is, I have had very little, if any, restrictions on my diet and have gained weight in the last few months until now when I am seeing a plateau at about 224-226 lbs--and my running seems to be as effortless as ever! I feel like I am ready to start doing a couple 20milers a week now along with my typical 4-8 mile daily runs (5-6 days a week).

Granted, I gained a few pounds of muscle during weight training in the previous couple months, but I have got to admit that junk food, sweets, sodas, etc. has contributed the greatest to the amount of body weight I am presently carrying.

I think I sweat a little more than I use to, but at 90 degrees I am drinking a lot of fluids and need to sweat a lot to stay cool. My heart feels strong, my legs feel strong, I am not crashing much during my long runs, I can still get by on very little sleep, and my body is not getting sick or run down...Man! As much as I want to get down to 190 lbs. I have to ask myself "Why change my diet?"

I think the advantages of not restricting my diet are obvious. I am getting plenty of calories from each food group to sustain my muscles. Besides this, I take my vitamins regularly (at least every other day--Shaklee, of course)and I get plenty of protein (including Shaklee Physique as a supplement after workouts--also great for muscle recovery). But I am not saying that limiting my simple sugars and bad fats wouldn't benefit me, I am just saying that they haven't seemed to hurt much so far--to my surprise.

My Mother Road 100 (part 2) Training Plan

This month I plan on bumping up my average mileage from 20-25 miles per week to 30-35miles per week. I am building my base mileage now for endurance training. In a couple months, when I am at 60 miles per week or so, I will start strength training--Lots of hills, heavy weights, etc. Then, closer to the race, I will fine tune my training with speed work. My goal is to peak at a 120 mile week and 60 mile long run. Then taper a week and rest the week of the race with very little running.