The motivation to get out and turn a few has been good. I'm tired much of the time, but I am also active in many other areas. Getting out and just running without any thought to pace has been more freeing than I thought it would be. The process of still trying to figure when fast running will get in the equation is still there, but I try and ignore it. Experience shows that piling up a few miles does not necessarily make me slower, being older guarantees the slowness.
One obstacle is the PF in my left foot. I'm good on the right side for now. Ever since I drove off with my inserts nicely placed in my shoes that were riding on top of my car it has been a downhill slide. Like most Americans I will just figure it out and honestly I have learned a few things. Some days it is painful and when it just about seems like it can only get worse it is surprisingly manageable. I almost always self diagnose and figure stuff out. This bugger is one of those deals where the more you put into it the less it seems to get fixed. Yesterday on the 15 miles of trail and road it really hurt. This time I did no self treatment/maneuvering and today almost no pain.
The Glacial Trail 50m/50k is October 14th and I am thinking 50 mile. Mainly because I have never done that one and it is right up the road. I have many races I'd like to enter, but it is hard justifying them when you travel during the week. That and we have other obligations in life. The Glacial 50m looks like a hardy challenge. I'm not sure I can get under 9 hours on this course so that makes it worth doing. The course starts with about 40 minutes of darkness, the trail is a bit more challenging than Ice Age, it is a small field (about 10% of Ice Age size), and there are less aid stations/crew help than my spoiled self likes. In a way it should be a good exercise to try and work on strategies to aid me in this area. Problem is I will buy little of my own gear. I'll look to borrow a good light and possibly a gas station. Probably not a gas station as hopefully I'll get up to the course enough to figure out a hand held strategy and mooch a little crew help.
It dawned on me the reason I believe many people drop off the last half of a 50 mile may also be related to pace. When I train in an attempt to pace through a trail 50 mile I will work on building miles and get some long runs in. Typically I will run most days and because I am tired run 9:30 - 11:00 pace on road or trail...every day. In this manner on race day I go out at this pace as that is what my universal self is dialed into. With the taper I am much fresher, but at the same time it can take 15-30 miles before I get in the groove. I look for this on game day. On the other hand, other runners run less days a week, potentially cross train, and get in decent workouts on both the regular and longer runs. I'd argue this is what people recommend to them, or they figure this is optimal. This means much of their regular training runs can be at 8:00 - 9:00 pace. When race day comes they have a tough time staying back because it feels soooo easy. They eventually slow down because they have to and the body isn't set up to burn at the higher rate. Many of them aren't going to find a groove. The thrill is gone. Big guys in 2s, little guys in bunches. There is much more I could say about this, but I think this gets most of it across.
7/23 = 7.0 (10:10)
7/24 = 3.5 (10:07)
7/24 = 7.1 (10:47) Menomonee Park w/ Tim/Dewey/Robert
7/25 = 9.0 (9:28)
7/26 = 3.7 (9:44)
7/27 = 6.2 (9:41)
7/28 = 15.0 (10:22) Menomonee Park/Bugline w/ Dewey
7/29 = 8.5 (10:14)
Week = 60.0
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