It has been quite a while since my last post and well a lot has happened since. Stopped travel nursing and bought a home back in the Old Pueblo (Tucson, AZ). Personally I have been super busy with a bunch of life changes and the work that goes into being an adult and owning things of our own now. Physically I have been feeling fine, most likely because I haven't been putting in the work needed to complete some of the races my mind has been pulling the trigger on. I tried to end my 3 ultra DNF (Did Not Finish) streak at the Flagstaff Sky Peaks 50k (we'll get into that later). I also ended my 6+ month no blog post streak. Moving in the right direction!!
I had previously DNF the Vail-Colossal 50 Miler here in Tucson at the 41 mile mark due to undertraining/dehydration. This would have been my first 50 mile finish, which has been a goal for a few years now. After this poor showing why not just skip the 50 mile distance and go straight for a 100k (smart move huh?) I never admitted to be a great planner, I sign up for races on a whim despite training shortcomings and whatever else life throws at me.
Next was Black Canyon 100k, which I made to about the same distance as previous on an average weekly mileage of less than 50 miles per week. Sounds like perfect training right? Run less mileage per week than you need to run in ONE day. I never seem to learn...right? Even with these DNFs I have had a great time at these races. I love the atmosphere and just being out in nature. So despite the end results the journey has been fantastic. Okay I learned my lesson, don't sign up for the super long distances until the mileage is up! Okay, got it! Right?
Next up Speedgoat 50k. Yep that Speedgoat, which some have called this the 'toughest 50k in the US". I guess it's not in my mentality to take the easy road to anything. I had previously put together a few solid 50k efforts so I focused more on getting my climbing legs in gear. Speedgoat has close to 12,000 feet of elevation gain and descent so it's not your average 50k course profile. It was freaking tough and I spent the day suffering on one of the most awesome courses ever. I had never suffered so much during anything in my life.
I completed the 12,000 feet on climbing and only had a 6 mile descent down to the finish line, but my quads were toast and I was mentally drained from the past 10 hours of suffering. I decided to save my legs for another day and take the snowbird gondola back to the bottom (coolest way to drop from a race in my opinion) and it normally costs like $30 bucks to ride. I had to get my moneys worth! Despite this DNF it was still the most difficult thing I had ever done and I was proud to say I at least completed all the climbs. I'll definitely be back for revenge on that course!
As I'm writing it really brings out a glaring problem with my race selection based on my training. I am almost setting myself up for failure and hoping for the best. I am putting in miles needed to train for a half marathon and competing in races way over what I should physically be able to handle. After most races I seem to bounce back fairly quick and start to think I had more left in the tank, but then I show the play by play in my head and see that I gave everything I could for how I had trained. I realize this as I keep signing up for these races, but my mind is always thinking bigger. While I still have big ambitions of putting together a solid 50 mile and eventually 100 miler at some point. I want to really nail some 50k and shorter distances and slowly work my mileage up to a higher level. I'm not quite ready to "level up" to those distance yet, but when I am I WILL be both mentally and physically ready!
That statement was only realized this past weekend at the Flagstaff Sky Peaks 50k. I had another sub par training session with no long run longer than 10 miles since Speedgoat a few months prior and I sign up for a 50k. I must really like to suffer because this really doesn't make sense, especially as I am writing about it. I will write a full breakdown of this race in a separate post, since I have rambled for long enough. But *spoiler alert*, I actually finished. Tune in next entry to see how a 50k with no long run goes....
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