Mohican 50 Mile 2017

Well, I got it done! The Mohican 50 Mile is in the books.

11:34:40

39th overall out of 191

2nd AG (60-69) out of 7

12:12/ mile

2 loops with 6400 feet of elevation change.

It was a tough one. Had some mishaps that didn't help. I fell 4 times, 3 times in 1st loop. 2nd time I fell on my head and broke my sunglasses. I got a nice bruise and a good 1/2 inch cut above my left eye. It bled for awhile and I probably ruined my shirt wiping it away, but it did stop and coagulate. Fall number three effected me the most. I managed to wrench the lower back a bit. Although it wasn't terrible, I felt it for most of the 2nd half. Even had a couple of thoughts of dropping after the 1st loop. Fortunately, I didn't. I did slow down some, though. What was the worst part of the 2nd loop, was without the sunglasses, I was constantly getting having problems with my contacts. First one, then the other. Some kind of particles were constantly getting in my eyes. So, I would have to walk slow or even stop to mess with them. In particularly, the 2nd to the last section of the 2nd loop, I struggled mightily. By the end of that section, I was beginning to think I wasn't going to get even close to the sub-12 hour finish I wanted by that time. But something wonderful happened and all of a sudden on the last section, I felt strong again and managed Run most of it except for the big hills. In fact, I ran it faster than on the 1st loop. And I not only broke 12 hours, but almost ran under 11 and a 1/2.

So, overall, I was pretty pleased. Although I would have loved being in the 10 to 11 hour range, I was pretty sure going in that would have been very difficult and everything would have to have fallen into place. I felt sub-12 was going to be tough, but within reach and I achieved it.

Lake Mingo

Saturday was the Lake Mingo Trail Run. It is a 7.1 mile trail run around Lake Mingo at Kennekuk Cove County Park. It was a great race for me. The first mile and a half is pretty much flat but lots of calf high grass. Had trouble holding to about an 8:00 per mile pace, but once on the single track, started to feel strong. Lots of up an down, nothing real long but pretty constant. I managed the uphills very well. A little slow in miles 2 and three, because of being stuck in the old conga line, but once past followed a couple of young ladies and moved very well. Over the last 4 miles passed about 20 people. The time was 5 minutes faster than 2 years ago and I could really tell how much stronger I was (maybe not necessarily faster, but able to maintain pace much better). It was a good day (also added another 8 miles or so for the day). So it looks like my coach, Adam, is really getting me there.

As usual in the woods like that, Strava data shows only 6.71 miles, but they have been running this race long enough to know the proper distance of 7.1.

Week of 5/2817

Time: 12.7 hrs

Distance: 76.5 miles

Longest Run: 22.9 miles

Hills: 78

Week of 6/4/17

Time: 12.0hrs

Distance: 73.6 miles

Longest Run: 15.4 miles

Hills: 73

Recovery Week

Except for the Rockford Marathon last Sunday, it has been mostly a recovery week. Quite happy with marathon results. Basically two Boston qualifiers in eight days.

Week of 5/21/17

Time: 12.1 hrs

Distance: 73.1 miles

Longest Run: 28.2 miles

Hills: 60

Marathons ... Done!

Okay, I finished my two marathons in eight days and felt that they were very successful. At Starved Rock, I finished in 3:51:13 for 27th place overall and 1st in my age group with even splits. 

At Rockford, I went out easy at 2:04 and change, but came back with a 1:53 and change 2nd half for a 3:57:39 finish, 63rd overall and 2nd in my age group. Actually, I was very surprised that I could run that fast in the second half after running well at Starved Rock just a week earlier.

With these two under my belt, I feel I really fit. Now to get really into my Tahoe training to build up strength. These next few weeks leading into the Mohican 50 mile will be interesting.

The latest weekly running stats.

Week of 5/7/17

Time: 12.1 hrs

Distance: 78.8 miles

Longest Run: 31.2 miles

Hills: 74

Week of 5/14/17

Time: 8.5 hrs

Distance: 48.7 miles

Longest Run: 9.5 miles

Hills: 40

Hiring A Coach For The Tahoe 200

Week, after all these years of running, I have bitten the bullet and went with a coach to help me succeed at the Tahoe 200 Mile. I haven't had a coach since high school (over 40 years ago). The coach is with Carmichael Training, a firm that includes Jason Koop. For the Tahoe race they offered an opportunity to get a coach for only $1 the first month and $205 for the next three months in a four month plan. After filling out a form with a lot of information about myself and my goals, they matched me up with Adam St. Pierre who lives in Boulder, Colorado. He is a young guy, in his thirties, but after doing a little research I found that he definitely seems to know his stuff.

So, after a preliminary workout we set up through email, we set up a phone conference three days before the official start of coaching on May 1st. It was a good discussion as we felt each other out. This was a Friday and by Sunday he had set out three weeks of workouts starting the next day which would encompass my two upcoming marathons (Starved Rock on May 13th and Rockford on May 20th). Normally, I would not run two of these so close to each other, but when I registered for Rockford it was only $25, so I figured it would make a good supported long run. 

It has been an interesting week and a half so far. Adam decreased my mileage, but upped the intensity. Overall, nothing crazy, but mixing in short sprints and fast short hills. He has given me one very hard workout each week or at least very hard compared to what I have been doing. The first was a progressive run that got me down to sub-7:00 by the time I had to stop. Today was the second. It was a tempo-fartlek workout at 7:00-7:20 on a hilly loop. God, it was hard. I did finish it though, albeit sometimes a bit slower than the target pace.

Is this going to help in the marathons? I don't really know. I do know that I seem to be a little faster with similar effort that I was putting in a few weeks ago. We will just have to see.

The latest weekly running stats.

Week of 4/23/17

Time: 15.4 hrs

Distance: 90 miles

Longest Run: 18.4 miles

Hills: 66

Week of 4/30/17

Time: 10.4 hrs

Distance: 59.7 miles

Longest Run: 12 miles

Hills: 61

Weekly Running Stats

The latest weekly running stats.

Week of 4/9/17

Time: 15.4 hrs

Distance: 84.1 miles

Longest Run: 25.6 miles

Hills: 91

Week of 4/16/17

Time: 11 hrs

Distance: 65.8 miles

Longest Run: 12.2 miles

Hills: 68

A Good Two Weeks of Training

It's been a few weeks since my last post, but things have been going well. It was a lower mileage week after the Paleozoic 50K. But a very big week after, which included a 10 hour day on the trails at McNaughton Park which was a lot of fun. It also gave me some confidence in that I was able to be out there without any aid from aid stations for the whole time. Since at Tahoe there will be a couple of very long stretches between aid stations (20 miles or so). So all in all, it was a good two weeks.

The latest weekly running stats.

Week of 3/2617

Time: 11.6 hrs

Distance: 63.3 miles

Longest Run: 12.4 miles

Hills: 51

Week of 4/2/17

Time: 35

Distance: 102.7 miles

Longest Run: 35 miles

Hills: 126