Apes-Ma

...and your cage isn't getting any bigger.

But maybe mine has, or should I say it would be nice to have a bigger cage.  If Quick wants a bigger cage then why can't I?  In that spirit, a conversation (briefly, but that's all it takes) recently with Brother Grub about running certain events has me contemplating something I thought I had put away for good. 

First, how I got to this idea was rather simple in nature.  A few days ago on a hobby jog it hit me that at Voyageur I was 41st out of what....just over a 100 finishers?  Then at Al's run 8k I was 41st out of 2,906 finishers.  Which to me is odd because I train for ultras and not short races.  I mean 8 - 10 minute miles in training is the norm.  What gives?

I told Brother Grub what about going to the Striders 24 - 12 - 6 hour event next September and attempting to hit 50 miles in 6 hours?  Sure...it would be a stretch, but if the Grubster was there and motivated it would be an honest reason to try and strap it on.  I love the track.  I like the idea you can continually monitor progress and take care of yourself.  Right this moment I feel I could do at least half that distance minimum.

Part of me wants to run fast struff again, but not necessarily waste it on a bunch of short races.  I also have a feel for what it takes having raced 5 road 100ks (not well most of the time) and what it may involve.  The trick isn't hard if it was 35-40 miles.  It's what happens the last 10-15 miles.

I'm so darned fired up about it I am subconsciously running numbers in my head without trying to think about it.  If you run 7:12 pace for 50 miles that is 6:00 flat.  I have a taste of this as I went through the 80k (49.7 miles) split in 5:58:04 at Ed Fitz in the 100k.  Sure that was 9 years ago and I am 50, but I still have this mentality I can run faster on hard surfaces.

But Dave, what about the training?  I know what it would take and honestly it seems easier training on the roads.  I ran 9 miles today and wound it out a little in 1:06.  A run on the trails like that for me is typically 1:20 - 1:30 which seems to take more out of me.  Once you beat yourself into road shape, training does not take that long.  A 2 hour run turns into 16 miles...done.  I'm more of a volume guy for this type of running with only a few key long runs sprinkled in, but they would be road maps to the event.  In otherwords, they would be trials on the track. 

On the flip side, if Grubby was there and I could convince him I was in shape to go out at 7:00(?) pace, surely one of us could make it.  I mean, I would want to know beforehand on a trial run I could make 35 miles at near that pace (considering it would be under training load and in the summer). 

The sad part is I believe this is doable.  The trick is still being fired up after Ice Age.  I'm seriously thinking about doing the Rocket City Marathon on December 10th.  I don't want to waste all my adrenaline stores on this race, but breaking three would be the goal...on the least amount of miles possible.  There is a reason behind this, but it would take too long to explain.  I'm sure Quick knows the answer already.

Maybe this is a pipe dream.  I'd run thousands of miles for one magic day.  Perhaps this to shall fade, but just when I thought I'd accepted my running lot in life that little 8k got me thinking again.