13 Miles up the north rim. Would have liked to go to the end, but needed to get back. Was going pretty strong, but starting to wear down at the end. I would attribute most of it to no being very fueled up since I've been limiting my calorie intake in an effort to shed a couple more pounds for my 50k coming up. And also, I was only 2 days off a leg press work out and still feel soreness in my legs.
It was definitely a positive considering I could go as far and well as I did with little hydration or fueling up and still sore. Also the next day I wasn't sore at all, so 13 miles or more is well in my limit. Will be trying for 18-20 miles this weekend. But I am definitely concerned that I have no put in enough training to do a 50K. Then again, it's a trail race with lots of up and downhill. I tend to run very strong on uphill trails and downhill. The last 8 miles will be all downhill, so I figure if I can just make it up the 4 miles or so of uphill starting at mile 19 I should be able to cruise to the finish.
Either way, I know I will finish it. I just don't know what condition I will be in at the finish. Hopefully the weather will be cloudy and cool as it has been the last week. But we had a couple of 90 degree weekends last year, so I hope it doesn't happen now.
9 Miles on Swasey Trail. Felt really good to get out on a trail. It was in a nice light shower too so it kepted me really nice and cool. About 2 miles of the trail was heavy incline to a total of around 1500 feet or so. Did the 9 miles in 1 hour 17 minutes which I thought was pretty good considering a lot of it was uphill and all of it was rough trail terrain, and I wasn't working very hard.
5.75 Miles on the AMT at the gym. Got a good workout in, but my heartrate was way higher than it should have been for the resistance I was on. Wondering if I was just tired from yesterday and not enough fuel in the system.
Whiskeytown 50k (31.5 Miles) 06:36:00, Place overall: 30
Slow miles
Fast miles
Total Distance
31.50
0.00
31.50
Ran my first ultra! Couldn't have picked a more brutal one either! over 10,000 feet of elevation changes. Very little flat ground.
Had to do a lot of walking, mostly uphill after mile 10 or so mainly because the hills were so steep.
There was one section that was basically like climbing through a jungle with about 10 stream crossings. It was a lot of fun in that area. It was pretty hard to run through it, so I just walked for most of that section even when it wasn't uphill.
The main reason I had to start walking even when there was no uphill was I started getting really bad cramping around mile 18 or so. Not sure why this happened again because I was very well hydrated and had been taking plenty of sodium and electrolyte caps. I think it's mainly that I just wasn't physically conditioned for this amount of distance. But I never remember cramping up this bad during my first training runs over 15 miles either. Perhaps I always cramped up during marathons but never really paid attention because I was always going for a fast time, and these last 2 long distances I have been running with main intention of just not overdoing it, so it makes me more sensetive. Either way, it's a little frustrating because I could have complete the race much faster if not for the cramps which made it hard to breathe deeply. I hope these are cramps, and not something else. I was very sore in my stomach and chest the day after the race as well. Maybe I just need to condition myself some more and I will handle the long distances fine again.
I told myself I was crazy for doing this 50k and never going to do it again, and now I'm already thinking of signing up again next year and really training hard to get a good time. I feel I could easily get a sub 6:00 and probably somewhere around 5:30 if I am able to run without cramps.
