Yikes, I probably should’ve been fresher for that. Struggle bus. 5:32:07 including some stops.
A beautiful trail and super fun to be outside all day. Huge thanks to Scott Brown for the ride back to my car and fun dinner after! I carried 3.5 L of fluids & still ran out. Sweat fest. I knew they would have places to refill, but wasn’t sure where or how many. Now I know. They have periodic well pumps. I think one of them was missing the handle, but most of them had water on the ground underneath, suggested they had recently been used. I tested one as well & it worked, but I didn't drink any of it. I'm not sure how much of the year they are on (probably frozen in winter).
I was tired a lot this week, & didn’t even want to exercise Thursday (so I took it off). I was hoping an easy day Wednesday, and Thursday and Friday off from training would be enough to bounce back, but I think I need more recovery. Legs felt kinda tired even early on running at easy HR. I was telling myself the whole run I need to take a recovery week. Funny enough, once the run was done I was feeling great for hours and already looking forward to my next work out. ???♂️
I was scheduled to race Ironman Mont Tremblant today, until it got cancelled because of Covid. So this was a good substitute.
I was a little worried about taking a run this long on without a more serious running training block and a more serious taper, so I’m just happy to make it through this without an injury. This was the second longest run of my life in terms of miles. My wife was out of town, I had the car, and I had a friend willing to drive me back to the start, so I wanted to take a shot at this run, even if it wasn't the best time from a training stand point, and I got a time on the FKT board.
I planned to do this unsupported (hence, carrying 3.5 L), but at the halfway point I was already struggling, and decided to go buy some ice from the gas station to help cool down. As I ran away from the gas station, I remembered that would disqualify it as an unsupported run. D'oh! But luckily it would still fit as self-supported. Then with 4 miles to go I was out of water and struggling, so I went to a convenient store to get a can of sprite and more water. So it would’ve been self supported at that point too. Funny enough there was a water pump 10 more feet up the trail. So in the future I could’ve gotten water there and kept it unsupported.
I planned to run first 14 miles at 120-125 bpm, then last 20 at 125-130 bpm. But my right IT band started to get sore around mile 12 (which was totally out of the blue, but probably because the shoes I wore have a 10 mm heel to toe drop and I train a lot in zero drop shoes). At the time, I thought the pain in my right IT band might be because I kept shortening my stride to keep my heart rate down. I felt like I was running with an unnaturally short stride. So I tried to run with a more comfortable gate/stride, which was faster & longer, and then just take walking breaks to keep my HR in check. Regardless, it didn’t get worse, but both IT bands did get pushed & have some soreness. Then at mile 14 I was tired and just wanted to run, so I let my heart rate go wherever (and it got to where I would race a marathon, which is high for me) & just ran & took some walking breaks. I stopped to take a long stretching break at one point (3hr43 min elapsed time) & that helped. It was definitely a push for the tendons in my knees.
Today confirmed to me, these shoes seem to put more strain on my quads (taking away from Achilles/calves), since they have a steeper drop. And I recall hearing a podcast say that a mid foot or forefoot strike puts more strain on your Achilles and lower leg, and a heel strike puts more strain on your quads. So it makes sense that a high heeled shoe could promote more of a heel strike.
I fiber fasted on Friday. I only had one bm this whole run and had no G.I. distress. That’s a big win for me. I aimed for ~450 Cal/hr, 3 cliff bars, 3 gu roctane, 1 cliff block sleeve, 2 servings of skratch super fuel, 1* 12 oz sprite, 1/2 snickers bar, 3/4 bobos bar and ~16 salt tabs.
I ran alone and had no support, other than stopping at a couple stores for ice and water. I carried 3.5L of fluids.