Are we there, yet?
January temperatures vacillated from above normal to well below normal. Missed two days of running due to extreme (for me) wind chills of 3-4F. Still managed 163.9 miles but only one double digit run.
2024 Races:
03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles
05/11 - D3 50K, 9:11:09 06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.
Pain is my friend
I have been luck to not have to run in any single digit days this winter. I finished the month out with 339 miles. Might be my most ever. Only got in 13,700 ft of vert. Damn road running and racing.
ATY 24 141.445 2019 1st
Bear 100 22:08 2021
Jackpot 100 Feb 14:59 - 5th
Pulse endurance 48 hr 175.3 miles
Bonnevile Backyard ultra
Ute 100 Aug
24 hour loop race?
Duke of the Internet
247 miles for the month (100% outside) and 16,198 feet of gain for the month. One race, bandera 100K (got my western states qualifer for 2023). My fitness is good but I do feel a bit beat up. I think that's normal for Janaury with the weather. Plus I ran over 300 miles in December.
king of the non-sequitur
I was slacking big time 146M in Jan. the 15k i was training for has been cancelled. time to schedule something to work towards!
Bridle Trails 50k 1-13-24 5:39
Cottontail 6 Hour 4-13-24
Cougar Long Series (May,June,July,Aug 2024)
Carkeek 6 Hour 10-19-24
Finished Sean O Brian 50 miler today in Malibu State Park. I had over 10k in gain on my coros. Tough course.
Congrats!
Finished January with 172 miles. Kicked off February with Ft. Old 50k yesterday. A great race to ease back into things, lots of rolling hills but no crazy climbs, 4800' vert. Low 40s at the start, mid 70s when I finished, which was a little too warm but not fatal. Finished in 6:38:55, which is a course PR for me, 3rd in AG. I feel like the leg workouts and hill repeats have made a difference so it's good motivation to keep it up.
Badger, great job at Sean O'Brian!
A finish line photo by a friend. I was clearly happy to be done. This also sort of shows the weird twitchy things I do with my hands while running. My thumbs are often straight up in the air, like Fonzie.
6/9/24 Cinderella Trail Run 50k, Berkeley, CA
7/20/24 Tahoe Rim Trail 56 miler, NV
9/21/24 Mountain Lakes 100, OR
Nice job Gatsby! weird hands lol. i have a tiny imaginary drum kit that i play when running
36M this week. ran a 2-mile race on Sat. I was cold and not very warmed up but was able to open things up a little anyway at a pace some of you use for your 20 milers
got a couple events lined up: Feb is Lord hill 50k and then in march a 5-hour march around green lake. It might be a good challenge to try and get 50k there too if Lord hill dont kill me. both very local
QOTD: do you keep track of your races & times? i used to but have slacked off just wondering why. so many local ones aren't on ultrasignup
Bagger- Awesome job at Sean O Brian 50 miler
Gatsbeybird- Yahoo for PR on the 50k
I finished up the week with 81 miles and 6k vert. Ran my last big run on Antelope Island. 27.5 miles and 3k vert. Ran most of the ups and felt like I could run faster and farther when I finished.
I ran 216 mi in Jan, my 2nd highest month ever. Wasn’t sure I’d make it back to this board. The week after my 6 hr training run was significantly more miserable than I’d allotted for. I was pretty sure I was going to pause my ultra running pursuits but apparently 2 weeks is enough time to forget. I’m mentally committed again to doing the 12 hr challenge virtually. Now I have 2 weeks of waiting and trying not to injure anything.
Badger, nice 50 miler!
Gatsby, congrats on the course PR!
A smith, that was a very speedy 2 miles!!!
Krash, sounds like an amazing training run
QOTD: a few years ago I spent a day googling whatever previous race results I could find and created a gmail draft that has all my times. Now I just update it as I have something. Athlinks is another place that will find results for you, I have no idea how well they do with ultras but they’ve found some pretty small 5ks I’ve done.
5k 24:53 (2020) |10k 52:24 (2021) |HM 1:57:14 (2019) |FM 4:24 (2007) |50k 5:57 (2022)
That's an interesting question I have never considered. I run as many road races as I run trail races. I have completely lost track of my road races. I tried to create an athlinks account a few years ago but I gave up. I know Ultrasignup is missing a bunch of ultra's I have done but also includes a bunch of races that are less than an ultra. I kind of wish I had kept track of my races now.
Ultrasignup says I have 85 races but that includes one DNF and one race I'm registered for in March. So really 83. Now if you take out the distances that are less than 50K (12 of them) I'm down to 71 true ultra's on their site. No idea how many local ultra's I have done but I know of one 50K I have done four times that's not on the site alone. Good question.
Caitlin, that's great you haven't given up. i feel like the misery is part of the deal and for me is one main reason I keep doing it. life is freaking hard sometimes and we need mental stamina to endure esp as we age. i know that sounds cheezy but it's true and i forget sometimes. deliberately putting myself through non-lethal misery...albeit a fairly controlled amount like the last 10 miles of a hard 50k for me at this point...putting myself through that helps build mental stamina that will help me later. i have definitely grown a lot from all the ultras ive done!
a smith, that's a good way to look at it. I was expecting the 6 hr training run to hurt and be mentally tough and it didn't/wasn't. It was the week of recovery afterwards and feeling completely wrecked that had me doubting whether it was worth doing again.
Yes the week after a race or hard long run can be hell. While your you feel hurt from all the muscle breakdown, your body is rebuilding and making you stronger. Same with your mind. 6 hour was hard but now you know you can do 6 hours. That tells me you can do 7 or 9 or 12. You got this.
oh! lol. anyway maybe what i said still applies? i should also say that for me the other 2/3 is mostly pure bliss! recovery gets better for sure even when old. i like salt baths and rollers
I did my six mile recovery run today after the 50 miler Saturday. It’s always hard to get started but then it’s just running. I’m sure I will feel much better tomorrow after running today. I agree with everything you said.