Relentless Forward Progress … Another 50 Mile Ultra Journey!
Relentless Forward Progress … Another 50 Mile Journey! IOW - My Race Report – yes, it’s another long one (but includes a training chart for anyone interested)! Okay, now that it's posted, I can see that it's really, really long ... but I'm just not going to go back and edit - consider it your own practice run at "relentless forward progress" if you chose to read it! 
It's not heavy on data but has more of the mental/emotional challenge of this race - I hadn't experienced a race quite like this one before (not even during my previous 50 miler).
In 2012, after doing my first IM in 2011, I decided I wanted to do something different. Hmmm, how about a 50 mile run? Short story on that one is within the post here. The race time limit was 11 hours and my goal was simply to finish – which I did in 10:35.
Did IMWI in 2013 – wasn’t happy with my training or the results. Revenge race was IMMT 2014. Going into 2014, I knew I was going to do both IMMT and a little over two months later try the 50 miler again. Rich prepared my season plan and said to focus on IMMT and we’d plan for the Fall 50 after that. However, based on my 2012 experience, I knew I’d need to ensure miles vs. time during the IM build as “easy” prep for the 50 miler. There have been several conversations in the forums about miles vs. time for slower runners. For me, miles were more critical to build the base than time. So, if a 2.5 hour IM training run was called for, I factored it as 10 minute miles and would ensure a run of 15 miles – even if it took longer than 2.5 hours.
Great run on IMMT gave me confidence that I was on the right track. I took about 1.5 weeks off after I threw in a few fun sprints otherwise swimming and biking were done for the year. The EN Ultra Beta Plan was the basis of my training plan and is very close to what I had used from the Relentless Forward Progress book in 2012. In fact, there is a wiki post about Ultras here.
The plan calls for Tuesday-Thursday running with Wednesday doing some z3 speed work – but nothing like our z4 work – and back-to-back weekend running. To me, the back-to-back weekend runs are key to training for an ultra. The weekend runs were generally X miles on Saturday and .5X on Sunday. By three weeks after IMMT, I was putting in a 20/12 weekend run and feeling okay. The longest run in the plan is a 50k run – which fit perfectly with the North Face Endurance Challenge trail run outside of Madison, WI. Did I do any trail running prior? Only about a 10K one time and forgot how hard it is to run on trails that are hilly, have lots of rocks, tree roots, and sand – yikes!
I tried to stay on track with the training plan but after the 50K and some significant work commitment, I found myself more tired than usual and backed off as I felt I needed to.
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Scheduled |
Done |
Comments |
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Sunday, August 17 |
26 |
26 |
IMMT - 26 miles |
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Tuesday, August 26 |
12 |
5 |
5 miles EZ - 1st run after IMMT |
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Wednesday, August 27 |
8 |
6 |
6 miles - run/walk very tired |
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Thursday, August 28 |
10 |
8 |
8 miles Z2/3 |
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Saturday, August 30 |
22 |
1.5 |
15 min trainer, 20 min run w/strides |
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Sunday, August 31 |
18 |
0 |
Sprint triathlon |
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Monday, September 1 |
0 |
6.5 |
6.5 mile hilly trail run Z2/3 |
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Tuesday, September 2 |
10 |
6 |
time constraints |
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Wednesday, September 3 |
8 |
0 |
time constraints |
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Thursday, September 4 |
10 |
6 |
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Saturday, September 6 |
22 |
21 |
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Sunday, September 7 |
18 |
12 |
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Tuesday, September 9 |
10 |
4 |
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Wednesday, September 10 |
8 |
6 |
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Thursday, September 11 |
4 |
0 |
time constraints |
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Friday, September 12 |
0 |
2.5 |
shake out run, pre-North Face Trail 50K |
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Saturday, September 13 |
31 |
31 |
NF 50K - 13 minute PR |
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Sunday, September 14 |
0 |
3 |
Should have been day off, sprint triathlon instead |
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Tuesday, September 16 |
6 |
0 |
Legs still very sore, day off |
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Wednesday, September 17 |
8 |
1.5 |
afternoon, really tired legs |
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Thursday, September 18 |
10 |
0 |
no time |
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Saturday, September 20 |
16 |
6 |
hot day, hospital vigil |
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Sunday, September 21 |
12 |
0 |
death in family |
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Tuesday, September 23 |
6 |
1.5 |
shake out run |
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Wednesday, September 24 |
8 |
8 |
easy, some walking |
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Thursday, September 25 |
14 |
12 |
some walking |
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Saturday, September 27 |
16 |
10 |
ran/walk for 5, sat for 15 minutes and ran home - very tired |
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Sunday, September 28 |
12 |
0 |
concious decision to take day off |
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Tuesday, September 30 |
14 |
0 |
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Wednesday, October 1 |
6 |
4 |
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Thursday, October 2 |
10 |
8 |
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Saturday, October 4 |
8 |
2 |
shake out run |
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Sunday, October 5 |
26 |
26 |
Lakefront Marathon as training run- 30 minute PR, 4:22 – very solid race – 100% ran – never done that before! |
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Tuesday, October 7 |
10 |
0 |
recovery day |
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Wednesday, October 8 |
5 |
6 |
EZ |
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Thursday, October 9 |
10 |
10 |
good run |
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Saturday, October 11 |
20 |
4 |
family day - limited time |
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Sunday, October 12 |
10 |
20 |
some walking |
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Tuesday, October 14 |
8 |
4 |
very limited time this week |
Comments
nice job sue....great accomplishment and huge PR
I don't know if I'll ever attempt an Ultra, but you will be my motivational hero if I do!!!
Congrats again, and enjoy some down time and recovery (yeah, I know, it's really your "what's next" phase...I have lots of friends like you lol)!
In 2009 I did the JFK 50 and can relate to the difficulty of hitting the 'go' button after walking. The farther into the race you get, the harder it is to get the legs to obey and run.
Well done!
Sue, thanks for posting the details in your report, very helpful.
I am attempting my first 50K trail run on 2/28. I have never run a stand alone marathon much less a trail run of that distance, so this is a new challenge for me over the winter months.
I just rec'd the book Relentless Forward Progress and will also be re-reading your below journey.
Sincere congratulations on the well deserved PR!
SS
So what are you going to do next? 100 ULTRA or the Ultraman Triathlon ?
Very, very impressive, meeting your stretch goal with persistence - anything less than your best was clearly not an option. Toenails?
Nice report Sue, sounds like you had a great race.
If your interested in a trail ultra the Ice Age 50 in May is good one. http://www.iceagetrail50.com/
@Trish - thanks for the shout out on the dashboard too!!
@steve - like the "Viking woman" even though I'm in Packer land!
@Shaughn - Break it into sections - one aid station to the next - that makes it more manageable.
@Tim - Yes, With the exception of IMMT (which was an A race), I used the others as catered training runs (even though I really pushed hard during them). I could have used more volume for a few of those critical weeks but life got in the way. If I hadn't done a 50 before, I would have been freaking out about the missed training day but had enough comfort level with my base fitness to be okay with what I was doing. If I want to push for a faster time in the future, I'll need to be more on top of my training efforts. Next up - GeT Faster (and maybe the same 50 next year).
@al - thanks! A few toenails are looking sketchy but none lost yet!
@Mark - I've done the half - the registration opening date is on my calendar!
@Kim - yes, off the island for a little while!
@Robert - yes, the run was a little painful but I'd been wanting to do that particular sprint for a while so just went for it.