Devil Mountain 50k Here I Come

The training cycle has almost ended – looking back I haven’t said much about the fact that I am training, and for what because I think I was always prepared to ditch everything at a moments’ notice if it became too time consuming for life and E and Hoyt – and I think there are often moments of feeling as if that is the case, especially for E, but regardless I’ve managed to stick with it. Last weekend I ran 20 miles, a week after running 23.65 miles in the Breck Crest Marathon and this weekend I’m registered for the Autumn Color Run marathon, a true marathon this time, but not a qualifier of any sort. Qualifying for Boston isn’t exactly on my radar right now - not my close radar anyway.

I hesitate to out myself because there’s always a chance something could go wrong, especially with the marathon looming and running +20 miles three weeks in a row. Overall I’ve recovered nicely and have been very attentive to how I’m feeling and have adjusted runs accordingly, but again there’s always a chance something could go wrong. Regardless of all of that I will now put on paper (virtual paper anyway) that I’m training and plan to run a 50k on October 1st. I’m running the Devil Mountain Ultra in Pagosa Springs – and while I don’t want to say I’m excited to do it, I am kind of excited to see how I do.

I’ve followed an ultra plan for the past 10 weeks and have made changes here and there if I felt like the mileage took too large of a jump – it did. I also made changes to it if I didn’t hit the long distance mileage for the weekend – I didn’t. Overall I think I’ve averaged 38-40 miles per week over the duration – or I will have after this week if all goes well. It’s a jump from the 26 mile average for the marathon training and I think I’m good with this amount – I don’t think I’d go up past 50 miles per week on a regular basis – there isn’t enough time and I don’t know if I’d have the energy. I feel pretty good so far about my ability to finish, I don’t want to say its ‘only’ 5 more miles more than a marathon because who knows what can happen, but it’s a trail race and while I’m hoping to do better than just finish under the time cut off – there’s always that as a fall back, and going the distance at any speed will eventually get you to the finish.

It’s a completely different animal in comparison to road running and racing. I’ve stayed at 8500 feet elevation for most of the runs, and have done the long runs on trail, well all except for last weekend which was lower and mostly on crushed trail but there were some paved portions – and the difference is palpable. I’m somewhat convinced trail running makes you a better and/or stronger runner. Even if you end up a slower runner for most of the time – I think when I do attempt to qualify for Boston again, there will definitely be some changes. I also think that training in the heat has helped as well – it’s finally starting to cool off and I’m hoping that means my pace will improve as well.

So there you have it – my report on what I’ve done over ‘Summer Vacation’. Bring on Fall, because I’m ready.