Advice

This weekend was the ultracentric 24 hour run in Grapevine, Texas. Last year I had a difficult time with the 6 hour run. It was the lengthiest amount of time I had ever attempted, and I had a healing stress fracture in my right foot.

This year I felt a lot better about the run. I’ve run three 50Ks this year and I’m continually getting faster while they are getting easier. I also have a sort of lofty opinion of my ability to handle myself on courses.

No mistake about it: I failed.

I went out there with sufficient training to run this thing, but I didn’t prepare for the aspects that really matter. In shorter races it doesn’t matter as much if you start a little fast, if you don’t pace right, if you don’t think about food, and if you ignore the weather.

I typically run with the attitude that I will keep drinking some fluids, get some food in my body, and read some advice that works for others. It almost always works.

This weekend I learned that if I’m going to run some races like 50 milers, 100Ks, and 100 mile races, I really have to respect my own body a little more. Every runner is different and has to think about what works for them and tinker with things. I tried what worked for others and it blew up in my face.

I think that the mistakes came in hydration, food, and pacing. I read someone who said that if you just drink Nuun you will be ok. I think it might have worked but I got tempted by other drinks at the aid stations. I ended up mixing a lot of water, Heed, Cytomax, and Coke at various times. Bad idea.

It was also hot out there. There was little tree cover and the sun was beating down at about 80-82 degrees during the heat of the day. I was smart enough to weigh myself before the race. I weighted myself about ever hour. By hour seven, I had lost almost 7 pounds. Seven. I knew that I had to pull myself from the race.

I also messed up with food. I read that I should just eat whole wheat bread with honey on it. I had it in my tent and tried to do that but it hurt too much to bend down and get the stuff made. I was there alone with nobody crewing me, so I had to do it all myself if I wanted it. I started to eat all kinds of crap at the aid stations: bits of hamburgers, mac and cheese, pretzels, and m&ms are at the top of my mind. There was no method behind those choices. I don’t know what compelled me to try to mix all that food in an already alarmed stomach.

Finally, I messed up with pacing. I know how my body runs. I do best when I run strong at the beginning and then walk/run as my body calls for it. I listened to people who said you should always run 5 and walk one. I tried that and it wore me out more than if I had just run it.

Anyhow, with the body weight loss, I decided that I had to stop for my own health. I wish that I could have stayed out there and walked it or walked with a little running, but I had to finally respect my body after all the disrespect I gave it. I stopped participating at hour 8.

It was a great race put together by a really good group. I’m not sure if I’ll be back because I’m not sure my body is alright with running on pavement on a two mile course for 24 hours. If it were on a trail, I would be a lot happier with the idea.

At least I can say that some good lessons were learned.

It’s getting to be the time where people start coming down with a few more illnesses. I often wonder whether it’ll be best for me to relax or to exercise and burn off some bad calories. That’s Fit has a couple of good suggestions to help you make your personal decision:

If you feel sick above the neck then run as long as you can breath. On the other hand, if you feel the sickness below the neck or you have a fever or both then you should just relax.

That’s easy enough.

I know some people in my running club who always run alone because they want to go different distances than the group. I know other people in the club who will start with the group but soon are by themselves because of pacing.

I am guilty of both at times but not always.

I like to run further than a lot of people in my club. I am training for races and most of them are just getting exercise, running for fun, or whatever.

With different goals necessarily comes somewhat different methods to achieve those goals.

More often than not, I will run on my own before the group meets. Then I will run their run with them. If I run with the group first, I am often ahead of the group; thereby, I am running alone. If I run by myself first, I am a little worn down and tend to stay with the group because I’m tired.

Seems like a good way to get the best result for running with friends while getting a good base mileage for training.

A friend in my running club let me know his trick for drying out shoes. As you might have read, my most recent race had a down pour of rain and then plenty of mud. I decided to clean out my shoes. Regardless of the washing shoes, they would have been wet and in the need of drying them out.

The problem is that you shouldn’t dry shoes in a dryer. Aside from how noisy it would be, they don’t hold up well with that sort of intense heat. If you set them in the sun, it can take awhile for them to actually dry.

My friend told me to put them by the vent on your refrigerator. It works perfectly! If the vent is on the front, place your shoes on the floor. If your vent is on the back, then you can try overhanging them a little on the top of the fridge.