Somery

Here is a somery (dig the Descendants reference) of the last 4 years where I have concentrated heavily on running ultramarathons:

2008
Marathon: 1
50k: 1
50 mile: 1

2009
Marathon: 1
50k: 1
50 mile: 2
70 mile: 1
100 mile: 1

2010
50 mile: 1
77 mile: 1
100 mile: 1

2011
50k: 1
100 mile: 1
DNF: 1 (100 mile)

My ultramarathon-to-marathon ratio (not counting the DNF) is 6:1. Um, maybe a bit high. In addition, my fastest 50 mile time, and fastest 100 mile time, were both on my 1st attempt. I suppose this does not count for course difficult though (JFK 50 mile, and Oil Creek 100, respectively).

Nevertheless, here are some tidbits I learned along the way:

1. Don't worry about what the "elite" runners profiled in Ultrarunning magazine are doing, in terms of their training or racing schedule. Their personal life, professional commitments, ability to recover, training grounds, financial backing, and experience level may all be very different than mine (or, maybe not -- who cares?). Bottom line, they've got their thing and I've got mine. Don't worry about it and definitely don't try to keep up with it.



2. While it is impressive that Anton Krupicka can run in excess (WELL in excess) of 100 miles per week, I cannot. I can't even come close. Again, see item #1 above about different lifestyles. I am happy for him that he can do it, however I most definitely cannot. Therefore I am not going to follow the conventional wisdom that if I can't run 100 miles in a week, I'm somehow not training hard enough.



3. Early, early morning is certainly an ideal time to run. No work to worry about, no diapers to change, dishes to do, animals to tend to, bills to pay, or any other of life's worries to think about. It is also a major pain in the rear end to drag your tired butt out of bed when all you'd rather do is sleep. I read somewhere that the "athlete in training is a sleepy animal." Therefore, don't skimp on sleep. Don't deprive yourself of sleep. It is a losing battle. If early morning running just ain't working out, don't fight it. Find another time to do it.



4. Pushing through fatigue and discomfort in the late stages of a race or long training run is part of the deal. Continuing beyond safe and reasonable limitations is something else entirely. Know the difference. It is only a running race, you're not fighting for your life. Doing permanent damage just to say you finished a race is not worth it, in my opinion. Others may feel differently, they are entitled to their opinion as well.



5. The best aid station strategy is to get in and out as quickly as possible, while saying as little as possible. The benefits of this are two-fold: 1) you don't burn a lot of time hanging around the aid station, but more importantly 2) late in the race, it is my opinion that the volunteers try to drum up conversation with you to get a rough estimate of how you are doing mentally. If you give them the slightest clue that you are in any way incoherent, or aren't all there, they might start to think about yanking you from the race. I learned this the hard way one time, where I actually had to spend some time trying to convince the aid station captain that I was really ok. Lesson learned: just keep your mouth shut and get out of there.


6. Roger Waters had it right: You are young, and life is long. Therefore, there's no need to cram everything into a single year. Take things slowly...........try different race distances or different sports altogether for a while.