I was expecting this thread to have more pictures.
I tended to be metaphorically more a sprinter than an endurance man, but I’m trying to transition to smaller more frequent physical activity rather than occasional feats of bravado followed by a period of relative inactivity.
I kind of let myself go while going through a personal loss, but I’m back on track for the most part. I’ve lost a lot of weight, but I’m not going to try and put on muscle until I’ve dealt with my hypertonia.
That said, my most impressive physical accomplishments were a 5k run and several years doing the 42 mile 5 borough NYC bike tour. I’ve also done most of the Adirondack Extreme.
I’ve done some other extreme things like bungy jumping, cliff jumping, sky diving, zip lining, indoor sky diving, etc, but while they were exciting and perhaps brave, they didn’t actually require much in the way of athleticism or physical effort.
I posted it in the fitness goals thread, but I guess I should post my goals here to qualify for the ‘striving for an ultra club’!
I have a 20-mile race scheduled in February and a 26.2 in April. 50k will pop up somewhere during the summer; depending on my progress, I’ll sign up for one when I feel like I’ll be ready.
I’m pretty comfortable with those goals, since my long run to date is about 17 miles, and I shoot for 10 miles on my average training run.
I have to drink a ton of water, I’m one of those people who sweats a LOT. I eat a snack like an apple or banana right before a long run, then if I’m going to be out for more than 2 hours I’ll eat a Gu or Stinger Wafflle every 40 minutes or so. If I’m somewhere I can loop back to the car, I’ll do another banana and some Powerade halfway through as well.
I’m experimenting with sipping Powerade during the last half. It took dilute PA in my hydration pack and sipped it the entire way through my 25k, and just got water at the aid stations. The constant dribble of calories seemed to work out pretty well.
I don’t know if I’ll ever get the urge to do 50 miles…but then again, when I was dying after running 5 miles in an hour a couple years ago I didn’t think I’d ever do a half marathon, much less on hilly, rocky, rooty gnarly trails.
Speaking of hills, this is a more technical questions. Does GPS take into account the angle of a hill for measuring distance? IOW, is it taking into account that you’re traveling along the hypotenuse of the triangle, or does it just measure the base?
I have done four half marathons and am training for my first Triathlon foray this upcoming race season (Olympic, in case you were wondering :)) and am hoping to make it to Nationals (gotta have a goal). I am a level two race official.
I also CrossFit and my coach hates endurance sports so we have many lively chats over Kettlebell swings. I do Hot Yoga too, but mostly because I have a tendency to be tight Seriously.
My Hamstrings may as well be made of rebar somedays.
I looked at the website. Unlike most trail races I’ve run, this one has good support so you won’t need to carry water and food yourself.
Still be a good idea to carry a small amount of solids(gels, gummies, etc) just in case.
Find out what electrolyte fluid they will be offering so you can try it out in advance.
A standard marathon training plan will work. Running on the trails will beat you up far less than the roads.
That’s my basic plan and hope - I really enjoy trail running more than road and I find my legs recover much quicker. I have trails near work/home that are very close to the trails at Pinelands. I haven’t done nearly as much training on trail for distance so I will have to spend some time working with my current shoes and seeing if different models will serve me better.
Here’s my situation: I typically run 5 times a week for about 25 miles. I’ve run a couple marathons and six half-marathons, so I understand the training and recovery for both. I’m scheduled for a marathon in April (it will be my first since 2009) and I’m thinking about doing a second one the following weekend (the first one is a destination marathon, and I’m thinking about taking a longer “vacation” for it since both will be in the same part of the country).
I expect the first couple days after the first marathon will leave me sore like before, but I generally felt good soon after those races. With just a longer training program with more long runs in the build-up, would it be too much to try two marathons within 8 days of each other? The way I see it is that, with a goal of completion and a decent time (3:30 or so with luck), I’m not going to kill myself on the first one, and it wouldn’t be too far doing training runs of, say, 20 miles one week and 22 the next. Thoughts?
mkecane, you can be a Marathon Maniac (Bronze Level).
I would treat the first marathon as a training run, not a race. Several friends ran Boston last year in the horrendous heat and just took it slow and easy. They quickly signed up for races in the next two weeks and many did quite well. So as long as you are content to take is easy on your destination marathon you probably can do a reasonable job in your second, faster one.
I’m curious when you find time to train. Like even running a “short” ten mile practice run must still take a couple hours. Do you get up like super early before work?
Telemark I agree that the marathon plans will be fine, in 2011 I ran my first two 50ks and in both cases I trained for road marathons and ran the 50ks two weeks after the marathon. If its a trail race I just recommend lots of trail running in your training, though I just generally recommend lots of trail running
mkecane I don’t think it should be a problem as long as you have your body used to doing long runs in back to back weeks. I think if (big if) you have the appropriate base built up doing long runs close close together is more a mental battle of taking the first steps than anything. Once the legs get warmed up they remember what to do
For me a ten-mile training run takes under two hours. You can either plan it for one weekend day, or do it first thing in the morning before work. As the days get longer you can do them after work but I need to train through the spring so I don’t have quite as much daylight as I’d like. Depending on my schedule I can sometime work an 8 miler in during lunchtime.
Some folks will split up the longer training runs into two runs, morning and evening. I’ve never done that but as long as you get the miles in you should be good.
Thanks, Telemark and Clawdio. The challenge for me will be getting the long runs in while it’s cold (here’s to a not-too-snowy winter!), but if I make it to March having done some 16 and 18 milers, I’ll be feeling really good.
I’ve got the advantage of not having a wife, kids, or a job that requires me to put in late hours, so 90% of my running comes in the evening. This also frees up my weekends to put in the long runs as necessary. When I do long runs, I just need to make sure that a) I’ve had a decent meal several hours earlier and b) that I can finish in time to still relax a bit afterward. I don’t want to go home from work, sit around, then have a 2 hour run and then be frantically making dinner, the next day’s lunch, what have you. I’m really impressed by those with spouse, kids, job, and other duties…but then they probably aren’t wasting as much time on the Dope, either!
Mind weighing in on a long run plan that culminates in a 20-mile race on Feb. 9?
As background, I have already run 15 (multiple times) and 17 miles so we’re not looking at increasing mileage that much. Really just getting ready for this course, which is a pretty hilly trail (especially for Kansas!). All of my long runs will be on that trail or similar.
So starting Saturday
12/15 - 14 miles
12/22 - 15 miles
01/05 - 18
01/12 - 18
01/26 - 20
02/09 - 20
These will be interspersed by 6 to 10 mile runs either solo on trail or pushing a stoller on a path.
On another note, I read or heard something once and I don’t remember where:
A 10 k is twice as hard as a 5k.
A half marathon is twice as hard as a 10k.
20 miles is twice as hard as a half marathon.
26.2 is twice as hard as 20 miles.
Keeping the thread alive, I now have a drop-dead date (not literally) for a 50k. I’m registering today for the Market to Market 50kin Lincoln, NE in October.
I expect to be up for a 50k before that time, but if nothing else I’ll have a nice flat 50k awaiting me in the fall (it’s mostly run on old railway grade).
I’m pretty physically fit - I work out almost every day, doing yoga or aerobics or running or weight-lifting. My dad is always trying to get me to train for a marathon. I have zero motivation to do so. Those of you who have done it, what do you get out of it? if you don’t mind me asking…
Well I have not yet run a marathon, but since I’m trying to work up to that distance or longer I think I can weigh in. From my experience, I think it would be very hard to maintain a training schedule for someone who isn’t internally motivated to complete a marathon.
I was just talking about something similar to this with someone last week. Ever heard someone say how much the hate running, they can’t get motivated, yet they end up going anyway? I can’t imagine that; it would suck. I guess there probably ARE people who train for a marathon like that, but egh. No thanks.
As far as what I get out of my running:
Big #1! 90% of my runs are on trails through the woods. That in itself is rewarding.
I like doing things that other people haven’t done. The longer my runs are, the fewer people have accomplished what I have
It makes me feel like a badass…though I am constantly humbled by the people I run with, most of whom finish ahead of me.
