Kurt has run this race all three years, so he was a great tour guide. As I requested, we ran two of the most difficult sections of the course. The course is slightly technical, but not too bad, and there were some good climbs and descents, but nothing too rigorous. The worst part of the sections we ran was the mud. It was shoe sucking off mud. There were detours around the worst sections, and both Kurt and John assured me that the course should be drier by race day. Also of note were the stairs, there were at least three long stair climbs, the worst was called the piano stairs, because there were 88 of them.
This run also turned out to be a heat acclimation run. Temperature was about 85 and it was humid. I actually sucked my Nathan hydration vest dry in a 10 mile section. One thing I was happy about is that I am getting less tentative on the downhills. I know this because I did three full-on face plants. Fortunately the ground was fairly soft and not rocky so there was no blood, just a couple of bruises and lots of mud and dirt. Hey, you can't call yourself a trail runner if you look like you ran on a treadmill when you are finished.
Just in case anyone is interested, here is what I have done in the two weeks since my 24 hour race.
Monday after the race - 3 miles in 56:37 - 18:53 pace. This was mostly walking with short one minute shuffles mixed in.
Tuesday - 3.21 miles in 40 minutes - 12:28 pace
Wednesday - 3.87 miles in 45 minutes - 11:39 pace
Thursday - 7.37 miles in 1:30 - 12:13 pace
Friday - 3.79 miles in 50 minutes - 13:12 pace. Heat index was 105!
Saturday - 8.13 miles in 1:40 - 12:19 pace
Sunday - 3.15 miles in 50 minutes - hill workout
Monday - 15 miles in 3:10:16 - 12:42 pace
Tuesday - 4.48 miles in 55 minutes - 12:17 pace
Wednesday - 9.08 miles in 1:50 - 12:07 pace
Thursday - 4.58 miles in 55 minutes - 12:01 pace
Friday - 3.8 miles in 55 minutes - hill workout
Saturday - 18.53 miles in 5:23:26 on the Burning River course - 17:28 pace
Finally here are a couple of pictures from my weekend.
Kurt and John, my Burning River tour guides
Just one of the sets of stairs
8 comments:
Heat Acclimation sounds VERY fun. LOL
That's so nice and friendly of them to accomodate you like that. I do NOT like the look of those stairs!
Way to get in those miles during the week!!
When you do 9 miles on a weekday, do you do it in the a.m. or after work?
I am still tentative on the downhills. Face plants?!?!?! Oh my. You're braver than me :)
Hi! I'm a new follower (referred by Frayed Laces :-). I am also over 50 and I am totally impressed with your accomplishments and training! While I have completed more than 35 marathons, I have recently put a lot more time and energy into cycling (with a marathon mentality, though, I enjoy riding centuries).
Nice to meet you!
Beth - I work wacky schedules, I do the medium long runs on days that I don't have to show up at work until the afternoon. Also, sometimes I have to move around my long runs, for example, this week my long run will be on Monday.
Cyclediva - Nice to meet you, I'm thinking 50 is the new 25 :)
Wow - so much for time off and recovery after the 24 hour race. I'm still trying to get myself sorted out from a marathon 3 months ago. Mucho impressive!!!
Hi Janette, I'm coming over from Frayed Laces blog and wanted to say hi - your time on the trails looks like great fun. I'm planning to be a volunteer at the Javelina Jundred again this year - so as the time comes, feel free to ask for anything I can help with!
Ditto to coming over from Frayed Laces....I am in my late 40's and didn't start running until I turned 40 :-) Your accomplishments are amazing!
I plan to run a 50k in honor of my 50th birthday; I hope to run McKenzie River (Oregon) Ultra in September of 2011. I also just qualified for Boston and will run Boston in 2011 - me entry in to my 50's is going to rock.
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