[Day598] WS Training Week2

Time goes by fast. I am at the end of the second week of 25 ish weeks of training for the Western States 100. 10% of my training already! I haven’t done anything.

I felt not much happened. I continued to drag with the morning training, waking up sometimes an hour to two hours early before work to train. Couple times I slept through. On the days I made it to my training, they felt great. This week mileage total is around 12 + likely a 35-36 miles will be added over the weekend. Total days run: 3. Tuesday morning, 1 hr. Thursday Morning 2 hours. Thursday night 1 hr. Weekend, Saturday 5 mi, Sunday 50k.

Personally, I think it was an average load. I am trying to be careful not to do so much the first few weeks of training and to slowly build up my miles. I believe I have a pretty good core already, but still I need to train harder in the coming months to get where I want to be.

I do not have any specific training plan yet. I know how to train for a 100 mile race, but I might need some guidance in term of improving on my performance. I have been considering of hiring a general ultra coach, not specifically for Western States but more for Old Dominion 100 or Hurt 100. It is tough to hire a specific coach. Coaches for Western States probably can be very expensive. My budget is probably around $100 a month for the next six months. It will help with my Western States though. I do not want a national wellknown coach.

The excitement has come down a lot. Reality has set in. There is still a general hapiness. I know why I am crawling out of bed each morning even though my body wants to sleep in some more. I do want that finish.

Training actually feels like a ultra marathon itself. 25 weeks could be viewed as 25 hours in a race. It might seem so long but actually is not. I know for a marathon, in the past, I trained for 12-14 weeks. Usually by about halfway in I lost focus. 25 week training seems a bit long. But when I view it as an hour in a race, it doesn’t seem too much. Now I am “two hours” in, it is like getting warm up. I know by hour 6, I will then feel the effect. I need to get myself ready for them. I am thinking, of every six weeks, I need something intense to test myself. (I need to keep this in mind).

A funny thing I had these few weeks. You know, I wrote about not being in shape amd being fat and slow and all that. The moment I got into Western States, my view of my body changed. Suddenly I felt fast, I felt healthier, I felt slimmer when I looked at myself in the mirror. Perception is weird. I still have the same weight. My mom commented that my face looked slimmer! And asked if I have lost weight!

Indeed, I see things a lot differently. There is hope in everything. The past Sunday, my pastor preached on Steadfastness to patiently endure trials. A way God’s people can endure sufferings is because they have an eternal perspective of the end goal where they will be with God. The end goal is very important. I felt as an ultra runner, we keep too our end goal in sight. We know we will reach a finish, so any mud, cold, rain, is just temporary. Same indeed for my trainings. It is just temporary, 25 weeks. All the previously seemingly unpleasantness of training suddenly became enjoyable. Then the race of course. The race is my end goal.

I will train for it. Realistically, I don’t have much time. 8% (2 weeks) already passed. Only 92% left. To me, it is like watching my phone battery drained. I wanted immediate changes, but these two weeks, I felt and seemed to be the same. Am I not going to see any result until closer to the race day? I felt I have to hit the ground running. I have not any clue what the next two weeks will be any different. I know, I will need to come up a plan, of ramming up the intensity of my training, and training specifically toward key things needed for Western States, such as heat, downhill, and being fast.

Grand Slam also has been on my mind. This is running 4 of 5 special 100 mile races over the summer (Western States, Leadville, Vermont, Old Dominion, and Wasatch Front). My friends urged me to attempt it since it is not easy to get into Western States. They are right in this.

In the end, I don’t think it is realistic for me to pursue it. Vermont maybe. Old Dominion Maybe. But I don’t think I could do Leadville or Wasatch Front this year. Leadville lottery signup is almost over. TOMORROW is the last day as I write this (Dec 15). I could not bring myself to enter it because, I think I have maybe 40-50% chance of getting in. Yet, I don’t have the confident to run the race even if I do get in and to finish it. I put that away. I will enjoy the races I already committed myself to this year (2024). It is my own grand slam without all the press (MMT, Old Dominion, maybe Vermont, Burning River, Western States, and Grindstone), which is still a pretty tough schedule.

Back to training. Ideally, I need to train on hills, downhills, train for heat, and train for moving a bit faster. I do not have the confident of finishing under 30 hours yet. From the Devil Dog, the first 40 miles I could be on pace of 5/5.5 hrs every 20 miles. But the next 60 miles, I could not maintain that pace for some reason. I would be moving at 6.5 hrs every 20 miles. If I could maintain under 5 hours every 20 miles, I would be able to get under 30 hours for the 100 mile. I hope my training would help.

Weather is getting colder. But because of training, I am willing to brave the cold. Still it could be a challenge to my training.

Summary: I need to be faster! I need to commit to changing my life

Meta: I know training blogs can be boring to read, because I am not making a lot of progress. Many times, I am unsure of my direction. There are a lot of second guesses, trial and errors, haphazard attempts, setbacks, and they are messy. You are right, this guy does not know what he is doing. Free free to skip it. I write this mostly for myself as a journal, and hopefully, I could train myself better (self-hack) from this.