Less than three weeks to go until I finally defeat the 100 mile distance. I have attempted this distance twice before, both times in 2017, and twice I came up short. This time around I looked at the training that I did before and committed to more training and better training this time around. I set up a 16 week training schedule and 14 of those weeks are history. This post is an attempt to recap what happened in those 14 weeks.
First off, the first 14 weeks were set up so that I’d run 810 miles. I actually ran only 703 miles. The plan included no dedicated walk days, but I walked at least a mile 36 times with 6 of those walks being longer than five miles. The first change that I will make for my next ultra training program is to cut out most of the walks. When increasing your mileage to over 60 miles per week with 35+ mile long runs, rest and recovery are more important than cashing in on Step Bets.
The 703 miles that I have run over the past 14 weeks happened within 69 runs. 22 of those runs were over ten miles, 12 over 20 miles, 7 of at least marathon distance and 2 over 30 miles. Last Saturday I ran over 30 miles, but split it into a 21 mile morning run and a 12 mile afternoon treadmill run. I ran 194 miles in February, 240 in March, 201 in April, and, through May 12th, 88 miles in May. Including the walking miles, that’s 864 miles in 14 weeks, and good for 2,331,617 steps.
My training plan included a handful of incline training and speed sessions, of which I completed about half. I am familiar with the 100 mile course that I will be running and I know there is a good amount of elevation to deal with, but honestly, most of it will be between miles 50 and 80, so I will be walking a higher percentage of those miles anyway. Training to run those hills would not benefit me much if I’m walking them. The one thing I could not train for is the weather. With average highs of 70 and lows in the mid 40s by race day, northern Michigan is much, much cooler than Central Florida is for about 10 months out of the year!
Although I did not make my training goal every week and did not achieve my total planned running mileage, I have seen improvements in my endurance and my heart rate while running. I’ve noticed that my heart rate stays lower for longer while running and during walk breaks it recovers faster.
2017 Lighthouse 100 starting line with Lake Michigan in the background. (Petoskey, MI)
I also have an extra form of motivation for this race in particular. I attempted this race 2 years ago and dropped from it at mile 85. After 23 hours I was completely exhausted, meandering down the road like I was intoxicated. I had also suffered some minor knee injuries to both knees between miles 40 and 50. I made the decision to stop running after 85 miles. Since that day the images of the coast of Lake Michigan, of Torch Lake, the various aid stations along the course, the lighthouses, the bike paths, and everything else you can imagine have been bouncing around in my head, taunting me as if to claim victory over my attempt. Yes, the course won in 2017 and at the time I didn’t think it was a big deal. Now I know better and now it’s 2019. It’s time to even the score.
rillaruns 