Some Ultra Strategy

I forgot to talk about one thing the other day about my Sunday long run.  I've been thinking hard on my strategy for the Hennepin race.  A run/walk strategy will probably be best.  In the past, I've run as much as I could for as long as I could, walking any hills and walking for awhile out of each aid station.  But this course really doesn't have any real hills to speak of and I am considerably older now.  So I figure I will need to be a bit more conservative in my approach.  But although my main goal is to just finish the 100, I really feel I can break 24 hours.  To do that, I need to average under 14 minutes and 24 seconds per mile.  I know, it sounds like it shouldn't be that difficult.  A lot of people walk almost as fast as that.  But to do it for almost a whole day makes a very large difference.  I have been doing some run/walk mixing here and there on my rest/easy days and I have been able to cover up to 8 miles at a 12 to 13 minute per mile pace with only three or four minutes of running out of every ten.  But truthfully, I am more comfortable with more running.  So, on my 20+ mile run on Sunday, I decided to try an eight minute run/two minute walk strategy.  I was able to average about ten and a half minute miles and felt pretty good by the end.  Obviously, that's much faster than I need and who knows how I will be feeling in the second half of the 100, but it wasn't bad.  I will continue to experiment with this over the next couple months varying the two amounts.  Between this and my marathon the week before, I continue to be encouraged with my training.