Coming down to the wire

O24 is tomorrow, I have to say I am severely under train for it but then how do you seriously train for a 24hr race on a 1 mile loop. I know for this race it is all mental, having to fight the urge to quit, nutrtion is also a factor making sure to stay on top of the eating and drinking and not wait til the last minute.

I picked up some playaway from the library to listen to while running and walking, this is probably one of the best gift to ultra running instead of music, listening to some of my favorite books. I do not have the time to setup a play list and listening to the same kind of music for 24hrs will get old fast and I get to listen to a book since I normally don't get a chance to sit down and finish one before they are due back but can get through a playaway within a week. Love them

Periodic race result can be found here, goal is 100miles which if I pace properly we are talking a 11:59 pace in 20hrs or 14:01 pace for 24hours but this being a 24hr race a lot can happen so I am hoping for the best but planning for the worst, above all I want is to have some fun and finish without injured and a smile on my face.

Still a struggle getting the support for endurance races which is  something I really love and not willing to give up. oh well.

Break Through Weekend

In December, I was wondering why it was hard for me to hit the high range of my training pace, so the goal was to start pushing my pace, I know I can run the pace since I do it in races when I have other people around me. I was wondering can running faster(fast is relative, so take this with a grain of salt, fast for me) in training, help reduce the fatigue my body feels at the beginning of a race and how log it takes to warmup. It seems like I have placed a lot of limitation on my running probably because I got injured and am afraid of getting injured again.

I read a lot and love to read and the book I was reading in December was The Self Coached Runner by Allan Lawrence & Mark Scheid.

I actually get it and have been working towards the goal of starting slow but finishing faster and pushing where that slow start, also just going all out with some runs and see what happens (pass out-have RoadID, puke or walk home), to my amazement my body is fine with it.

Okay back to the book, I have a 50k race coming up in 10 weeks, so since the book's 4hr marathon program has back to back long runs, I decided to give it a trial before training truly began this week, am using the marathon training for my 50k. After a heavy week of running, strength training and yoga, I did 15.72 miles on Saturday the goal was the last 10k has to faster than the beginning and then to get up the next day and run another 10k as fast as possible with the hope of keeping above a 10 min pace.

Saturday
9.62 miles 10:24 pace - treadmill
6.1 miles 9:40 pace - treadmill

Sunday
6.1 miles 9:53 pace - outdoor icy, cold and wet.

I felt fine, didn't die, didn't puke and didn't walk home after reading Mike's blog today, I will have to agree that Running is mostly mental, my body never place a limitation on me(ok I could stand to lose another 10#) but my mind did, most of my PR was after my injury so why was I haven't problem with the pace. In trying to run a 4hr marathon, the book indicates that my easy pace should be between 9 and 10 mins per mile, well working towards since breaking 4 hours is a goal not sure when but I know it will happen.

The book is really a gem and even though dated it is one of the best running book I ever read, there is nothing outdated about the training information but the device well that is a different thing, there is a book 2 which I also own & like that is for cross country and shorter races.