Time started to merge in my head. Week 3 week 4, like in ultras, miles and time just become a one big blur. I could not tell when one week ends and when another one starts.
Week 4 is mostly mirrored week 3. We had the two back to back holidays.
The roller coaster I did on Saturday knocked me out most of the week. Sunday, was Christmas Eve. Originally, I wanted to use that day for another hard training, but my body was broken. Rest was the right call.
Monday being Christmas and for once we had very good weather. Alas no training either. I was mostly procastinating and putting on weight by eating whole day after being knockout the whole Sunday.
Tuesday. Forced myself out and had an hour of low impact running. I always felt good once I ran. It was raining a bit and I ended my run early.
Tuesday night. skipped due to having to work late
Wed. Another day like previous. It was rainy and wet. Got my run done in about 1.5 hours. Personally I think it was good and much needed to be done. I was out of breath on some sections.
Thursday and Friday was a blur. I probably didn’t run. Work was quite hard.
Weekend, I had some hard runs. I did the Boyers Furnace fatass, 40 mi run. Then Monday a red eyes 50k. Probably a separate blog for each or both of them.
Sunday was “resting”. I walked for 4 hours. Most of my body was still sore from the Saturday run.
I blame the holidays. I did not get much out of this week training. Now it is the first of 2024. I really have leas than 25 weeks onward (we don’t count the last week before the race). The past few weeks were a bonus to get me started on this. I love it. It got me up to a mini peak. Now I could reset for another month and go again to get that base training for some real changes.
My goal is really aiming to be ready by May. Of course, I will be doing the MMT 100 and likely OD100 before Western States. Originally, I was going to skip those for sake of Western States, but now there is no way I am avoiding a run. There is no reason other than I want it all! High risk high rewards. My own grand slam. Go big or go home they say.
Change: I need to get back on the horse for week 5.
I know I am tilting a bit (not doing as well as I wanted).
Don’t ask me why. Maybe I lost interest. Maybe getting up in the morning is hard. I had a hard week at work. Because I had to cover for a coworker. It was almost hell and because I don’t have much time. Balls being dropped on my watch, not fun to be in the hot seat, but the week is finally over. TGIF.
Yes I know I need to push through everything and all distractions to get my trainings done. This week is really where the rubber meets the road. Things got tough and unfortunately I could not respond well to the challenges.
They say if you want to form a habit, 21 days is usually when things break. I hope to get past it and reach 40 days. This is the magic week. There is also a magic of carrying past 40 days (2x 21 days). It is number that stands for hardship. Once past that, then of course, if I could reach 90 days, that normally will be where we see result. All exercise plans boast of changes in as little as 90 days, like weight lost or sliming down the tummy. My training carries to 2x 90 days (25 weeks). I don’t expect just physical changes, but by the end of 180 days to see unleashing of performance I always dream about, which is the end goal. However, at the present, I am suffering.
Monday – I was way too tired from Naked Nick, so no training
Tuesday – I could have done my training today but I skipped it to let some wear and tear healed
Tuesday Night – things got heavy at work and I could not make it to my evening training run. Emotionally I was drained.
Wednesday – Morning training was rough, beingbthe first training of the week. It was also very cold. It took me an hour and half to push myself out the door by 5:45. I had a good 1:15 run. 4-5 miles. It was a very good run on tired legs
Thursday – Work really went downhill. I had my hardest day of the week. But training was also my strongest. I had a strong morning run and I was happy
Thursday night. Had to work late so I didn’t finish until late at night. 12+ day. Meaning no night training, I normally do.
Friday. very demotivating due to work. I skipped my run both the day and night. My legs should be fresh and strong.
Weekend. Where magic happened. Probably was the hardest training I did in the past three weeks. I went out to what is known as the Roller Coaster of the AT (Appalachian Trail), at mile 1000 from Springer Mnt, Ga. Luckily it is like a 40 minute drive for me from my house. The section is 13.5 miles with 3500 ft of elevation change. I should be have it done in short amount of time. On paper, it seems like any other races I did. I did an out and back so, plus added a mile to the parking lot, so it was about 29 miles, 7000 ft. But this took me 13 hours! I was broken mentally and physically by the end.
Granted I stopped for a bit for filtering my water. So maybe 12 hours of moving time. The last 10 miles, my legs were dead. I each step required conscious effort and I almost thought I could not make it back out. I kept telling myself I am an ultra marathon runner, I should be able to do a 10 mile. I was at a breaking point. Night fell. Wind got rough. Alone.
Maybe because of it was cold. Winter training is dangerous because of wide change in temperatures. Day time was fine around 45-50 F but night time, I think the temperature was more around 35-40, but might have gotten colder on the ridge and with the wind chill. I could see my breath. Every time I hit a ridge I was freezing and every time I dropped back down in a valley I was sweating. The temperature change might be as wide as 10-15 degrees.
I think it was also hard because I tried not to drink so as not to stop to filter on water. In my mind, I had thought it ahould be half a day. I tried to last on 2 L of water for the nearly 30 miles of trail. Also I did not pack much strong food but only some candy bars, a gel, and a small rice pack. They were not enough. By noon, my energy was drained.
I really thought the run was going take half a day. I struggled with calorie defficiency like at the end of a 100 mile race. This was the hardest 50K run (28-29 miles) ever especially during the second half.
It was plodding one step at a time. Last six miles were unbelievably hard. I know I run ultras, and could last on longer distances, but it was no joke when I was thinking, I might not make it out with only 4 miles to go. I might have to consider a second option to save myself like finding shelter, and to survive the night. Or I might die here.
Note on the way in, it only took 4 hours. I guess I slowed down quite a lot on the way back, 9 hours? That was crazy but kind of expected when I slowed down by that much.
Outake. I got to do it again. I think it was a great training run to test the exhaustion state where normally I don’t get to train on that except in a real 100 race (reaching lactic threshold and pushing beyond). I might in the future to run it again by dropping supplies at the southern terminal before the run, so I could refuel and on the way back with full strength. Testing failure mode is great, but I should not do it too often. It is too dangerous especially in the winter. It also ruin the next few days of training.
This week really brought out areas I needed some work. What happen if I don’t have time and when “real life” collides in? Failure point/breaking point testing. pen test.
I also realized I am not as strong as last year. A few races I did at the end of this year that were exactly the same as last year, but I got slower times. This was telling.
We always believe we can change and improve with training. Reality, is what if I am at my peak or near there. Any training would not bring me any closer or maybe only a little bit. A fallacy I got to watch out is that I can improve dramatically with more trainings. There is a possibility, by race day, I am just the same as today. I got to let that sink in. It might be the worse case scenario, and it might be quite realistic scenerio. I got to ask myself, how much have I improved these 7 years! Anyway, it doesn’t mean I shouldn’t train. I will train but also should know its limitation and my own limitations.
A good training ground, only 40 mins away from my house. Underrated and overlooked. I struggled on this course (Roller Coaster). This is actually easy because you could step on rocks and hop from one to another. The hard part is stay on trail especially at night when I was tired
In awe 