HumanNomad prepairs to run 50 Miles (33 days and counting)

[HumanNomad]

Holyshitholyshitholyshitholyshit! In just over a month I'll be toeing the line at the American River 50 miler. It's my longest distance race to date (by about 20 miles) and I'm both excited and terrified. Mostly excited for the challenge, getting to spend a beautiful day out on the trails, and the opportunity to really push myself. Terrified that I won't finish. When I boil everything down that's where my biggest fear sits, that I'll be too slow and won't be able to finish. I know it's going to hurt, I know that it will be hard, and I know there will be points where I'll wonder what the fuck I'm doing out there. That's all part of ultra running. However, my only fear is that I won't get the chance to cross the finish line. And after all the work I've put in that would be completely crushing. 

 

For this race I really only have one goal, and that is to finish. Sure, there are time goals, pace goals that have been knocking around my head. But when it all boils down I just want to finish under the cut off.

 

So the plan is to check in here for the next 33 days up through April 1st which is the day I drive up for my race. I want to hold myself strictly accountable to my training, nutrition, and taper, in order to give myself the best chance of crossing that finish line.

 

Deep breath, here we go.

 

GENERAL GOALS (it's really more like a best practices list):

- Foam roll 5x weekly

- Myrtl Routine and Iliac Crest rehab protocol 5x Weekly

- Address and deal with any minor injuries and pains immediately.

 

WEEK 1: Feb 29 - Mar 6

- Mileage: 50

- Long Run 25mi (or more)

- One speed session, one long run, one hills, one recovery run

- Remainder of days spend walking to boost mileage

- Cut out alcohol and dairy from diet.

- Test out race-day wardrobe and nutrition on long run, make necessary adjustments

- Research race rules about using poles

 

 

Day 1 

Today I spent the morning stretching and doing my hip rehab and the Myrtl routine. I then threw on some push ups and pull ups as I was feeling pretty good. My foot is still a little painful from my marathon on Saturday, so I wanted to give it an extra day to rest before getting back into running tomorrow (likely). Now is not the time to aggravate a small issue into an injury, so I'm being cautious and I'll speak with my coach later today. 

 

I have my breakfasts and lunches packed for the week as well. I'm really going to focus this month on cutting out things that won't help me train. For this first week it's going to be dairy and alcohol since I know both of those things don't help me perform at my best. Next week I'll look further to see where my diet could improve. Now is also the time to start really getting on top of hydration.

 

 

[The Most Loathed]

This sounds amazing. 

Obviously you're quite a runner if you ran a marathon over the weekend and are gearing up for a 50 mile run. what's your running history like?

 

You sound like you're in the right mental space for this. Stick to the plan, it'll be awesome.

[HumanNomad]

DAY 2

 

Yesterday I expressed concern to my coach about my speed and being afraid of not meeting the race cut-off times, and so we're re-formatting the last few weeks of my training to focus on speed and leg turn over. This is pretty easy to do since the race is a relatively flat one, so I'll be dropping the hill session in favor of another speed session.

 

The plan for today was to run six miles pushing the pace a little, and then run the last mile as hard as possible. I say plan instead of workout because what actually happened was that my foot was still a little sore from my marathon on Saturday, but felt fine to walk and run on. However, as I reached the half way turn around it was really starting to hurt, and by the five mile mark I was reduced to a walk. Suck! (as Steve would say). So now I've sent an email to my coach asking about what I should do going forward, and I'm seeing if I can get into a podiatrist this week.

 

This seems like possibly the worst time to get an injury as I won't have the time to recover and build back up. I'm not really sure what this means for the next few weeks before I begin to taper.

 

 

This sounds amazing. 

Obviously you're quite a runner if you ran a marathon over the weekend and are gearing up for a 50 mile run. what's your running history like?

 

You sound like you're in the right mental space for this. Stick to the plan, it'll be awesome.

 

I'm not sure I really have much of a running history to speak of. I've played sports since I was a kid, and so running was always a part of training for that, but I never ran more than 9-15 miles each week. Then after college I got into triathlons and obstacle racing, but never ran anything more than a half marathon until last year when I ran my first ultra (a 50k in May 2015). So now I'm running 4ish days a week, and I walk a lot as well. Trail and ultra running always appealed to me ever since I heard of it, and since I've always been into hiking and backpacking in some ways it's a really obvious extension of that.

[HumanNomad]

DAY 3

 

No run training today, the foot is still too sore to run on or walk on without some discomfort. Besides I'm just supposed to be doing some cross training for 90 mins today, but I went climbing yesterday and then did core and upper body today, so I'm calling it good.

 

Not sure what is going to happen tomorrow, I'm supposed to do 9 miles followed by quarter mile repeats, but I just can't really see getting past three miles without having foot pain. Maybe I'll get on the bike or the elliptical or something. Uhg, sounds boring. We'll just have to see what tomorrow brings.

 

Given how little time I have for this to heal I'm considering trying to get into a doctor in the next few days.

[The Most Loathed]

no word back from your coach yet?

[HumanNomad]

DAY 4!

 

Still no running, but I did see a doctor, and talked to my coach about what I should be doing. But basically it comes down to I don't have a stress fracture, and the bones in my foot look normal (yay!). I've strained some of the ligaments in my foot and they need some time to calm down and relax. So for the next few days I'm off of running, icing several times a day, wearing a stiff shoe, and taping my foot, and taking Aleve 2x daily to help relieve inflammation in my foot. I'm throwing everything I can at this stupid pain.

 

Then in a few days I'll go for a trial run and see where we are. But at least I can cross train (aka riding my bike a lot). Maybe I'll go on an adventure ride on Saturday. Then I need to reintroduce running slowly. The good news is that the ligaments in your foot rarely tear all the way, so if this issue flares up again during my race I'll be able to push through and finish without having to worry about long-term damage.

 

This whole thing really blows and I'm going to miss my long run this weekend. I'm already so bored and frustrated it sucks. But I know that going into a race a little under-trained is far better than going into a race injured.

 

As for food I'm doing well at the no drinking and no dairy.

 

 

no word back from your coach yet?

I heard from her yesterday on the way to my doctor. So now the plan is to chill through the weekend and then try getting back to running Monday.

[HumanNomad]

DAY 5

 

Still not running. Still trying to eat moderately well. And still feeling like I'm turning into a lump of play-doh just sitting around all the time. This kinda blows.

 

Today I noticed that even walking briskly across the parking lot caused my foot to flare up a little bit, which of course totally freaked me out. I just can't believe I would have put all this time and effort into something just to have it all blow up a month before the race. I'm supposed to be running 30 miles tomorrow, and instead of doing that I'll be cleaning the house and going on a bike ride. The two biggest training weeks of my season and I'm sitting on my increasingly fat ass. Fuck, I'm so mad right now.

[The Most Loathed]

That is so frustrating. I can understand the issue of feeling like a lump and doubly the agitation of not being able to prepare as you had hoped. This is where I've seen quite a few people do more harm than good by trying to push their progress forward faster than their body can tolerate. 

 

If you can swing access to a pool or something similar for the next couple weeks, I'd really encourage you to find an outlet for the energy that is bound to build up but in a way that doesn't have you on your feet. 

 

This may also be a really good time to practice a little visualization as well as what ever for of soft tissue work you like best.

[HumanNomad]

BLEGH DAY 8 - I'm basically still not doing much of anything..... AND IT"S DRIVING ME CRAZY!

 

Well, Saturday I rode my bike for an hour, Sunday I went for a mile run and my foot started to hurt, so I just bailed, knowing that pushing on wouldn't really help the situation. Then Sunday night I went rock climbing and felt way better than I did before. I really just need an outlet to burn off some energy. When you go from training 15+ hrs a week to under three it can be a little crazy making.

 

I also reached out to some runners on a local forum and asked about what I should be doing, and their advice was to train in a way that doesn't aggravate your injury, and just view this as a really really long taper. So today I'm resting, and then tomorrow I'll hop on the bike and try and mimic the run workout I would have done, and just go for an approximate time instead of distance (obviously 9 miles riding is far easier than 9 miles running).

 

In addition to training I can start working on prep for race day. Next week I get paid and I'll need to order the nutrition that I plan to use on race day and build out my drop bags. I also need to tighten up my nutrition a little bit as I go through the next few weeks. Which will intail:

- Still no dairy

- Minimize alcohol

- remove extra sugar from my diet (aka no more desserts until post-race)

 

 

That is so frustrating. I can understand the issue of feeling like a lump and doubly the agitation of not being able to prepare as you had hoped. This is where I've seen quite a few people do more harm than good by trying to push their progress forward faster than their body can tolerate. 

 

If you can swing access to a pool or something similar for the next couple weeks, I'd really encourage you to find an outlet for the energy that is bound to build up but in a way that doesn't have you on your feet. 

 

This may also be a really good time to practice a little visualization as well as what ever for of soft tissue work you like best.

I think you're right on the money. I'm a little annoyed about missing running, but I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get to the starting line healthy and ready to run. It's just makes me a little scared and the idea of "trust your training" feels like it's going out the window.

[HumanNomad]

DAY 9

 

Made it into the gym today for 30mins on the bike, 30mins on the elliptical, and a 1 mile run just to see how the foot is feeling. I'm probably only at 60% right now, but it does seem that walking/the elliptical are ok in short bursts which is great news as those are both far more applicable to ultra running than the bike is. Plus, my butt is still way sore from my ride on Saturday. Tomorrow I guess I'll go to the gym... again, yay. Or maybe I'll just ride my actual bike tomorrow, I find I really really hate doing cardio in the gym, it just seems so dumb when it's nice outside.

 

Right now I'll plan on bringing all my workout stuff to my trip this week and try to be as active as possible, even if that means getting on the elliptical or stationary bike for hours on end.