Week One in the Books

Week one of what? Of thirteen, of school, of my training for the TNF Endurance Challenge Championship 50mi trail race in San Francisco.


To be honest it was pretty great week, i'm super stoked about school; it appears to be everything I hoped it would be. Also as much reading as I expected. Though i'm not too practiced at it i'm enjoying that a lot of the learning process is based on discussion. Its been busy but it has also given me motivation, running wise. Every morning i've been up at 630 am ready to get out and run. It doesn't hurt that I am 10minutes away from running along the ocean while the sun is low in the sky and the tide is partially out so I can smell the ocean and someone's woodstove smoke laying low over the ground and water. The morning runs have been beautiful and serene. It brings back memories of camping on Haida Gwaii, more so than living near the ocean in Vancouver because you dont get as much of an ocean smell there; I suppose because there is more sea life clinging to rocks here when the ocean recedes. Regardless of the natural beauty here and the location of my residence I enjoy the early morning immensely. Not enough to turn me into a morning person however. My natural sleep cycle is to sleep in late and stay up late, but now that it is necessary to get up at dawn I get to see a part of the day I haven't spent much time in. Anywho, I am feeling on top of the world for the most part, and it incidentally is also the first week of the 30th year of my life.


SO, i've decided to do my first 50mile trail race and picked none other than The North Face 50mi, in San Francisco. It is a very competitive race held in the Marin Headlands. I've chosen it for a number or reasons, not the least of which is the prize purse. I'm not gonna lie, i'm a student and I could use a couple bucks so its as good a reason as any. Of course the money in the race draws some serious competition which should also be fun. Beside these points, I wouldn't normally travel all that way to gamble on running well in a race, but its also in my time zone, at the end of my semester, not at high elevation, and finally not any super long climbs which would handicap me, being that I have no access to mountains. Furthermore, its in the winter so I don't need to worry about allergies. So really, its the ideal race.


Now the reason i'm calling this 'week one' is because i'm taking this race seriously, all business. I have been pretty casual about my running this time around because I just want to enjoy it an do what I want but I want to be competitive in this race and that means training hard and being professional about it. So thats the plan. This week was the first week of that. I'm still sticking with only running once a day, even though i've felt motivated to double, doing a hill repeat workout mid week, and alternating a weekend long run and long workout. For example, this week I did hill reps on wednesday on Mount Tolmie, then today I did a 50mi long run. Next week i'll do hill reps again on wednesday or thursday depending on the recovery, then i'll do alternating 1000m, over and under marathon pace for 20-25k.  Then back to the original week the week after.  The reason i'm doing the marathon workout is so I can be ready to run well at the Vic marathon; once i'm done that i'll adjust that workout.  Fortunately I'm back to being a student so the consistency and routine required should complement each other.


The run today.  I'm not sure if i'm going to stick to my plan of doing a 50miler every other weekend. It was really tough(who knew?).  I headed out from my place with my hand held water bottle and enough fuel stuffed in my pockets for 6 hours. The plan was to run from my place to Elk/Beaver Lake park and do up to 6-10k loops, my house being 11.4km away it would be more than enough distance to potentially get a 50miler in. I headed out at around 7 I guess because when I was stashing my keys they fell down this hole which was almost inaccessible and fishing them out after the run was not gonna happen. Anyway, off I went ran out to the lake and started running loops of a great flat dirt trail which was very well marked so I didn't have to figure out where I was going. I rolled around the first loop in 42:01 and was a little worried it was too fast, but then ended up running with a new friend Tim for the second loop which felt easier but ended up being 42:08, so after he left I made an effort to slow down but failed running 41:06 for the third loop. My body forced me to slow down on the next loop which was good and bad. I slowed because my guts started acting up, but also couldn't stay on my nutrition plan of eating every 30mins. An hour later, around 4h30 I started to suffer. For my last 3 loops I ran 45:27, 44:46, and 49:00. The last loop I was relegated to a walk for 5mins while I ate a gel, drank water, and mentally regrouped. I made it through that loop, at a decent pace (not including the walk), partially because I told myself I would walk again for 5 mins after that loop as I started to run home. I stuck to this plan, again walking out of the park for 5mins, then running for 42mins to make the run end at 6 hours, hoping(and calculating) that it would be at least 50miles. The run into town was really tough because there was no shade whatsoever and the temperature was 23 degrees celsius, which for a dehydrated body feels much more. It turned out the run into town was potentially easier than the walk from my point of hitting 6hours to my house. Once I stopped my body just shut down and I could only walk a few houses at a time then had to sit down. It was an absolute sufferfest which I wasn't sure i'd be able to endure. Fortunately there was a convenience store on the way and I pulled out my emergency $5 and bought a coke, salt and vinegar chips, and a coffee crisp, saved! After eating my food and putting my legs up for a few minutes while digesting, the trip home was much easier(read: less excruciating).  And so that was my first 50mile run experience.  It ended up being decently quick at under 6 hours, but there is still a lot of work to do by December. Time to hit the books, happy trails!


Splits:
11.6km - 47:56
10k(21.6) - 42:01(1:29:57)
10k(31.6) - 42:08(2:12:05)
10k(41.6) - 41:06(2:53:11)
10k(51.6) - 45:27(3:38:38)
10k(61.6) - 44:46(4:23:24)
10k(71.6) - 49:00(5:12:24)(including 5mins walking)
9.1k(80.7) - 47:00(5:59:24)(including 5mins walking)