Life Lessons through 100 mile training- Part I

My journey to 100 miles started at the beginning of the year with training for the American River 50 Mile Endurance Run. To say I was spoiled in my experience was an understatement. Perfect training plan, best support system from my BFF and Coach Holly, spectacular race, the best pacer, Ultramarathon Goddess Laura Yasso, prefect weather and an overall positive experience. So the next natural progression (in my mind) was 100 miles. Quickly, did the wakeup call arrive. Weekends of sleeping or freedom of any sort are a thing of the past. Instead I have spent the last 6 months running back to back 20- 30 mile runs, followed by a 10-20 mile run. If I am lucky I can travel to run a marathon (or two) and use these are my supported long runs with variable scenery and of course, good company.
Being the type A individual that I am, I have followed my training program to the last 10th of a mile that the schedule calls for. If the plan calls for 65.5 miles I will not run a mile more or less. When training for my 50 I had a strict training plan that I used, I followed it to a “T”, determined my race goal, executed the plan and had success. Naturally, this would be the recipe that I planned to use for the 100 mile training… easier said than done. This past weekend, my body had other plans for me that were not written into my training schedule. As I woke up at 4 am on Saturday morning after 4 hours of sleep from a busy a work day, tired was an understatement. I went through the motions of getting dressed, shoving some food down, grabbed my head lamp and off I went. Typically for me on any run it takes about 3-5 miles for to feel “normal”. However something about this run was more painful than usual. After 8 miles (of a 30 mile scheduled run), I felt like I could not take another step. At 4 am it was already 85 degrees and 90 percent humidity and it was brutal. But, something else was not working, my mind was shutting down and my body was agreeing. I stopped by my house for a pit stop and then the flood gates opened. I was crying and felt physically spent. How could I feel this bad after 8 miles when I was trying to run 100?!! After much mental debate I decide to take a shower and go back to bed for some much needed sleep and healing. My body was going to win this battle, and it was high time I listened. This I think was one of the biggest lessons I have had to learn and relearn over the past decade and ½ that I have been a runner. After waking up and calling numerous running friends, they told the exact things I should have been telling myself, here are the top 3 lessons I have learned so far in training for my 100 miler
1. Missing one training run is NOT going to equal a DNF
2. Ignoring my body could lead to injury or even more unsuccessful training runs
3. Sleep is not overrated when it comes to training.
These lessons can be applied to any aspect of your life, which is one of the many reasons I love to run. So after my tough training day, I woke up the next day, did the scheduled run and will press on with my training. My ego and running pride was a bit bruised, but my body and mind are thanking me.
Next up, my first race as an ICEDOT athlete, the Evergreen Grand ridge Trail Run 50 K in Washington State!
Stay tuned and WAG Strong

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