I run for...the distance.

As I started to write the title of this blog post, I couldn't help but start singing the Cake song...."He's going the distance. He's going for speed...."

Anyway, today's blog post is about distance because I've come to realize that ultra marathon training really has changed my path on this running journey. I made a list last night of all my 20+ mile runs prior to this year. I needed some inspiration going into my scheduled 26 mile run today. Here they are:

Sept 8, 2012 - 20.7 mile training run
Oct 21, 2012 - 26.2 Rock n Roll St. Louis Marathon
Nov 9, 2013 - 26.2 Rock n Roll Savannah Marathon
Sept 28, 2014 - 20 mile training run
Oct 12, 2014 - 26.2 Chicago Marathon #1
Sept 15, 2015 - 20 mile training run
Oct 11, 2015 - 26.2 Chicago Marathon #2

The first thing that stood out to me is that I never had a 20+ mile run before Savannah!! No wonder that race was so terrible for me. That was the marathon where I ended up passing out at mile 20. I was definitely under-trained. The next is that I really only had one 20+ mile run before my other 3 races and the longest distance was 20.7 miles. Most people will tell you that running longer than 20 miles before a marathon is not really necessary but wow, this was definitely eye opening for me.

Now for this year. I'm gonna talk a lot of numbers here for a minute because I can't believe how far I've come.

Total mileage - Since November 5, 2011 I have logged 2,918 miles. I fully expect to break through 3,000 miles by the end of this month. That's roughly 600-700 miles average each year. And this year's not over yet...

Mileage by month - I started training for my ultra in June. In June I logged 80 miles. In July, I logged 97. In August, I'm already at 102 and I plan on finishing around 115.

And here's a list of all the 20+ mile runs I've done this year:

July 16, 2016 - 20 mile training run
July 30, 2016 - 22 mile training run
Aug 15, 2016 - 24 mile training run
Aug 27, 2016 - 26 mile training run

Just like that, I sign up for an ultra and suddenly I'm logging more miles than I ever imagined. I've run 4 separate 20+ mile runs before race day, as compared to the 7 that I've ran in the last 4 years.

I think it's still too early to officially say where I will go from here. I'm taking this ultra running journey moment by moment and loving every bit of it. However, I highly anticipate that after race day I will have caught the ultra running "bug" and start scouting out my next 50K or possibly even my first 50 miler and 100 miles is not entirely out of the question either. Exciting stuff!

On to today's run...26 miles! It was really weird getting ready for my run last night thinking that I was basically going to be running a marathon today. The formality of my usual pre-marathon routine was dismissed by just a normal night of carb loading and watching tv with my husband. There were no pre-marathon jitters. Nothing to finalize or to schedule or to map out. I was going to get up at 4 am like normal and just go run a marathon. Ha!

Beautiful morning!

Hitting the road at 4:57am

The morning routine was pretty much the same as well. I got on the road just shy of 5am. I can definitely tell we are getting closer to FALL RUNNING!!! (Hallelujah!) I spent the first 5 miles almost completely in the dark before the sun started coming up. I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that there was an abundance of cloud cover. This made for a nice and cool morning and I didn't really start feeling the heat until around the halfway mark. At 16 miles I needed some additional water so my wonderfully supportive husband and son came to refill my water bottles. I also got a nice, cold Popsicle. Just what I needed to put a little pep in my step.

This Popsicle might be the best Popsicle I've ever had!

The rest of the miles went by without too much excitement. The heat did end up getting to me on a couple of occasions so I stopped to lay down in the shade and get my heart rate back to normal while I refueled on some Gatorade chews. I think the best part of today's run was around mile 24-25. There was a woman walking about 4 young children around the block. As I was coming up behind them, they moved out of the way and this little girl, probably not even 3 years old, had the biggest smile on her face and started waving and clapping for me. Just the motivation I needed to finish my last mile. Thanks little girl!

So this week was the peak of my training. As of tomorrow I start tapering for race day. Weekly mileage will probably still be around 20-30 miles but now I just have to trust the training. Definitely easier said than done! But in a month it will all be worth and I will be reveling in the aftermath of having run my first ultra. Can't wait!

Happy running!
Amanda

I run for...progress.

I totally flaked on writing my blog post last week like I said I would. So today...here are some thoughts from last week's long run and this week's 24 mile run.

My Running Manifesto

I've gotten into the habit of listening to podcasts on my longs runs. It makes me feel like the time goes by faster. I used to only listen to running related podcasts but I've ventured out of my comfort zone and have discovered there is a lot of great content out there. Some of my running podcast faves - Another Mother Runner, Ultrarunner Podcast.com, and Runner Academy with Matt Johnson. And my newly discovered non-running faves include Revisionist History and Happier.

So last week listening to Happier with Gretchen Rubin sparked an idea; creating a running manifesto. The benefit of having a manifesto, as Rubin said, would be to have clear and concise goals that are easy to remember. During the podcast the host, Gretchen Rubin, encouraged listeners to create their own manifesto about life, love, work, hobbies, etc. That's where I got the idea to create my running manifesto. So without further ado, here is my running manifesto.

1. Run with your heart.
2. Beware of dogs.
3. Be light on your feet.
4. Most importantly, have fun!

Short and sweet. If I were to sum up all of my running advice, it would be this. I found myself thinking of this a lot in the past week during my runs. It becomes sort of like a mantra in that way. I'm very glad that I did this and I think it will stick with me for a long time.

Ultramarathon Training Progress

So I don't think I've really shared much of my progress on my ultramarathon training since I started 10 weeks ago. There are definitely some things that have stood out as being different from the usual marathon training. The first thing is that I am running A LOT more. In the beginning looking at my training schedule, it didn't seem like all that many more miles but it is averaging between 10-15 miles a week more than marathon training. And now that my long runs are over 20 miles, it's more like 20-30 more miles a week. That's pretty significant.

When I first got started, I really thought my nutrition plan would need to change a lot to accommodate the longer miles but that really hasn't been the case. For the most part, I've stuck to my usual gels and sport beans. The only change I've made is during the last miles of my runs when I switch to candy (Starburst minis, Red Vines). The change seems to help my stomach stay full and not get all "sloshy" from too many gels.

Another change in my training has been running form. To be a more efficient runner and therefore, have more energy in the tank for the last remaining miles, I've become relatively good at gliding. At least that's what I call it. It's this process in which you're moving forward but really moving your limbs as little as possible, just letting the natural flow of forward motion move your arms and legs. I don't know if this makes sense at all but thinking about it like this while I run helps me a lot, especially in the uphills and downhills.

So here's where things get exciting...my progress. I have been training for marathons the last 4 years with the goal of really just finishing the race. I have fun at races and I take it easy and I'm not really "racing". Which is a big reason why I have yet to PR for my marathon. My first marathon is still the best at 5:46. During my ultramarathon training, I now have three 20+ mile runs under my belt: 20 miles, 22 miles, and 24 miles. 20 miles was on 7/16 and I averaged 13:50 min/mile. 22 miles was 2 weeks ago on 7/30 and it was kind of a disaster. After almost passing out from heat exhaustion, I had to take a break and go out and run the last 5 miles later. I averaged 14:36 min/mile on that run but I finished! Now today, I ran 24 miles. It was still hot and it was also rainy for the majority of it but I felt great. I averaged 12:59 min/mile. Based on that, if I were running a marathon this year, I would likely PR.  A 12:59 min/mile puts me at finishing a marathon around 5:40. Using this pace in terms of the Table Rock Ultra, it puts me at finishing around 6:43. If I plug that finishing time into race results from 2015 (2016 had to be cut short due to flooding), then I would finish in the top 20 overall and top 4 in the women's division. HOLY MOLY!

I am not so naive to think that I won't go a little slower than 12:59 min/mile on race day. Obviously it is a tough course and I've never ran it before so this will slow me down. However, to think that it's in the realm of possibility that I might get top 20 or top 10, that's super exciting and will definitely push me to go harder on race day and even actually "race" this time.

Last thought about ultramarthon training. Originally I was pretty nervous about not having any trail experience and I really wanted to go out and find some trails to get at least SOME trail experience. But it's week 10 and I have yet to run any trails. The reason for that being that my running routes are pretty awesome and very similar to trails I would imagine. I get a lot of hills on my runs and a lot of uneven terrain. In addition, I've been running hill repeats and these have been very successful in making the hills during my runs not seem so brutal.

Today's 24 mile run

Yes, today's run was a huge confidence booster after my 22 mile disaster of a run two weeks ago. Haha. I can't say that I was very confident going into it though. I went to a bachelorette party yesterday that involved a party bus and the wine trail. I still managed to be smart about my eating and drinking and I went to bed early. I just didn't know how much I would be feeling it this morning. So my alarm goes off at the usual 4am for run preparation. I was not ready at 4am. I hit the snooze and planned to wake at 5am. Well 5am rolls around and we are under a flash flood warning and it's pouring outside. Nope, not getting up at 5am either. So I just let myself sleep and got in 9 hours, waking up at 7am. Still raining outside but my hour by hour forecast tells me it will stop by 9am. I do all my run preparation and then start getting antsy. I don't want to wait until 9am. So I head out around 8am and it's still raining but I really don't care. Right off the bat I could tell it was going to be a good run. My only concern was my calves cramping up on me again like they did 2 weeks ago. Around mile 14-15 I started to get low on water and I could feel the slightest twinge of a cramp in my right calf. So I messaged my ammmmmazing husband and he brought me water to refill my two water bottles plus a Nuun tablet for replenishing my electrolytes. After that I had a surge of energy and the twinge in my right calf went away. I finished strong. In the last 4 miles I increased my pace to 12:15 min/mile. And honestly, I finished with energy still left in the tank. I think I definitely could have ran a marathon today if I tried but I'm a believer in sticking to my training to a T.


Where to go from here

So here's what the next 6 weeks look like for me. In two week's I'll do my longest run at 26 miles and then start to taper. I'm still in search of a 10 mile or 1/2 marathon race to do in week 13. It just so happens that this falls on Labor Day weekend and I've been looking but there's nothing close to where I live so far. That means I will have to simulate the race or else travel somewhere to get the race in. I'll keep ya updated!

11	Off or Easy Swim or Ride	45-60 min Easy run PLUS Core	70 min Hilly run	1:15-1:30 Easy run PLUS Core	Off or Easy Swim or Jog	16 miles	1 hour Medium Effort Run
12	Off or Easy Swim or Ride	45-60 min Easy run PLUS Core	Hill Repeats:  10 x 600m	1:15-1:30 Easy run PLUS Core	Off or Easy Swim or Jog	26 miles	1 hour Medium Effort Run
13	Off or Easy Swim or Ride	45-60 min Easy run PLUS Core	70 min Hilly run	1:15-1:30 Easy run PLUS Core	Off or Easy Swim or Jog	Race: 10 mile or ½ marathon	1 hour Medium Effort Run
14	Off or Easy Swim or Ride	45-60 min Easy run PLUS Core	Hill Repeats:  8 x 600m	1:15-1:30 Easy run PLUS Core	Off or Easy Swim or Jog	30 min Easy Run	Race: 10K
15	Off or Easy Swim or Ride	45-60 min Easy run PLUS Core	Hill Repeats:  5 x 600m	1:15-1:30 Easy run PLUS Core	Off or Easy Swim or Jog	Race: 5K	90 min Run
16	Off or Easy Swim or Ride	45-60 min Easy run	1 hour Easy run	OFF	OFF	30 min Easy Run	50K Race!

Happy running!
Amanda