It’s been an interesting week.
Sixteen days ago, I started feeling a little queasy. I left work early, and it’s a good thing I did. I vomited several times that night, and had one bout of diarrhea. That was the end of it, but it took days for my energy to return. By the following Sunday, I felt the need to do something, but I wasn’t feeling great. I climbed up Candy Mountain. That turned out to be a nice change of pace.
That week was the week of Thanksgiving, which was pretty busy. I needed to bake pies for CFF Cycle for Life donors, as well as prepare for our own feast. The Hubs & I were alone on Thanksgiving, but we planned to drive to my parents’ home on Saturday to deliver leftovers, and then to visit his mom on Sunday. Friday was spent cooking down the turkey carcass, making & canning turkey matzo soup, and preparing some stuff to take to my parents. Thus, there was no working out last week.
I succumbed to the pressure of an “prices go up after midnight” and I signed up for another ultra – the Snake River Island Hop. And I signed up for the 100K. Why? Because I am clearly a lunatic. The race director was offering a 25% discount. That’s apparently all it took…
On the plus side, the course is flat. Not “mostly flat,” not “rolling hills”: pancake flat. It’s an old railroad grade along the Snake River. The downside is that the course is not easy. It’s a lot of chunky basalt.
The race has a strict 14-hour time cut. Because of that, if a person hasn’t made it to the 75 km mark by a certain point, they’re pulled from the course. I figure I’m sure to get the 50K, and I might even make the 75 km. The pace to complete the 100K within the 4 hours is 13:33/mile. That’s slightly better than my current half-marathon pace. I’m not so delusional to think I’d be able to maintain my HM pace for 62 miles, but it’s a do-able goal. (The race is at the end of April.)
The pace to complete 75 km in 14 hours is 18:00/mile. For the 50K, it’s a 27:00/mile. Pretty sure I can do that.
Nothing like being outed by the RD:
We have out first 100km runner signed up! Kim will be taking advantage of living closer than most of to the trail-head and make the journey from Pasco to spend a day in the canyon. Yay Kim!
I haven’t told The Hubs yet. Fortunately, he’s unlikely to see this post. The thing is, I haven’t been running, as I was hoping to give my knees a break. I hope to continue with my work on core strength and losing weight, as I believe that’s the only way I’ll survive this race. I’d intended to have more fun this winter, and have free time for things like skiing. But I decided while planning out my training schedule that I can still have fun & ski. This is a pretty low-key race, and at this point I don’t much care if I finish. If we decide to go skiing some weekend, I’ll either move my weekend workouts to during the week or just skip it. Crazy? Sure. But is it really crazier than signing up for this to begin with?
This week has been good, workout-wise. I did my core workout on Monday, and I focused on my upper back & shoulders. I swam briefly Tuesday evening – first swim in a LONG time (August!) – and boy howdy, could I feel the previous night’s work in my tired arms. Last night, I focused on glutes & abs, especially obliques; after I was done, I was questioning if I really wanted to swim this morning. Given that I suspect this will be an on-going issue – something is always going to be tired or sore-ish – I sucked it up. The swim went better than Tuesday’s. I decided to focus on stretching my torso & a solid rotation. That took some of the pressure off my shoulders and both worked & stretched my obliques.
And I’m planning to go out with the Nomads tonight. I will probably just walk, as I’d like to go re-train myself to walk fast. If I can’t run without my knees hurting, walking is my future. And I’d rather not run on pavement if I can avoid it.
Diet-wise, things are okay. I didn’t gain weight over Thanksgiving, but I’m not eating enough vegetables. I’ve been eating far too much sodium. I hope I can maintain good nutrition as I start training heavily again. A 100K will be a lot more comfortable if I’m 150 pounds rather than 170.
hillslug98239 