A continuation of my journeys in running, my training and preparation leading up to my first Ultra Marathon, the Oil Creek 100K.

I need to get back to actually writing down my thoughts on my training as it happens rather than just recapping in retrospect. Most of these are however from my Dailymile recap, which works also.

Monday July 2

OFF DAY it was an off day not much to report, feeling groggy from yesterday. Didn’t get to go to ART today.

Tuesday July 3

AM: Had some extra time this morning, so brought the dogs along on an exlploratory hike/walk this morning. I run thru Linear Park often and see many “could be” trails. Decided I would walk and explore today and just enjoy some time with the pups. Started off at Spring Creek and found a trail that led in the direction of Linear Park. There was a tiny sign posted “trail closed” but no explanation. This was the trail I’ve been looking for the one that continues out of LP. I followed it back until I figured out why it was “closed”. On a normal time of the year I would be forging thru the creek I suppose, but today the creek bed on that side was dry and getting to LP was a cake walk. Had some water play time with Chloe, Roscoe was having none of it. Then we headed off to check out other various paths. Found some to be fisherman or nieghbour trails. Some quite challenging enough to walk down due to brush cover. All in all it was a fun time out with my dogs, and some much needed stretching of the legs this morning. Lots of stopping, lots of playing…lots of waiting for Roscoe.

The walk: Here And There
1:39/4
RTR: 6/10

PM: Went and joined a pretty empty GVH night, as mostly the whole crew is running a race tomorrow. So tonights workout was on my own. Ok technically Jess was running the same thing but ALOT faster. Plan was to pull back a little after the last two track workouts left my knees hurting. Thought I did, but the knee still hurts a little bit, and the foot does as well. I focused my warmup on fixing my cadence which I believe is the root cause. Talked with coach after, and I think next week I’m goign to count my cadence during the speed and focus on that. Finished off the night with some Kenyan Strides on the infield. RTR 7/10
The workout:

The run: GVH Speedwork
1:13/8
RTR: 6/10

Wednesday July 4

PM: OFF DAY

Thursday July 5

PM: Nice night for a group trail, tried to keep the pace up tonight as well. Felt good. Got a little over 2 extra in before we started. Long fun weekend on the FLT ahead RTR 8/10

The run: Medved Group Run –
1:12/7.41
RTR: 7/10

Friday July 6

PM: First run of the weekend, as part of the Medved Endurance Project. Went out with Heidi for an easy run and found a trail that made the steeple chase look silly. Uphill, with tons of downed trees. It was a beautiful run to kick the weekend off.

The run: MEP Run #1 – Easy R
1:05/5.57
RTR: 8/10

Saturday July 7

AM: I’ll have a bigger report coming later on when I have time. Set off with Heidi to tackle M1 of the Finger Lakes Trail. Dsicovered very quickly that most FLT in this section is not very “runnable”. Around mile 9 I started battling with indejestion. Hedi wasn’t feeling good and checked out at the half way point. I continued but for most of the next 7 or so it was a speed hike and just a battle to keep moving forward. At 18.5 I heard thunder coming in, and decided I did not want to be stuck out there with ligthing on top of the mountation. It also coincided with a 2.5 mile downhill. I booked as fast as I could as I heard it growing closer. Took a psill, cut open my knee, then continued. As soon as I hit the road the sky opened up and it poured. I watched lighting strike the mountain just above my Jeep and someone in the process of enjoying the cool cold refreshing shower, dropped my bluetooth headphones. Only to discover the next morning they were smashed along side the road.

The run: MEP Run #2 – FLT M1
5:28/21.5
RTR: 4/10

Sunday July 8

AM: The plan was to tackle and knock off all of M3 another 21 mile section. Heidi joined me today and was feeling alot better, I however was a different story. (To be in a later post) In short I had a horrible day. This section of the FLT was poorly marked and the 9.8 section that we had marked as our half way point, ended up being 13.5 by the time we finished. The trail was badly mismarked in some spots and I will take blame for 1 wrong turn. But this led us to be out 1.5 hours more than we had planned on, I was not only getting seriously sore, but I was getting dehydrated. After going down the wrong side of Holiday Valley, then climbing back up and the down Holimount the final descent back to the car detoryed my legs and the day crushed me mentally. Not finishing my goal this weekend was a let down. I just don’t know how far into the second half I could’ve gone on pure guts and stupidity.

The run:MEP Run #3 – FLT M3 1

Recap / RTW: 6/10

The Good:

Most Miles in 7 days: Sunday thru Sat was 75, Sunday thru Sunday was 85
Most time on my feet: 13 run hours/14.5 with walking
Most week Elevation: 7000+

The Bad:

Not as much running on the FLT as I had hoped. Lots of unrunnable sections, tired, fatigue, dehydration and getting lost.

The Ugly:

Taking my body to the point of breaking. Its an ugly place and I looked over the edge.

Upcoming

A much needed recovery week with some extra off days. I actually have 3 off days, every thing else is easy runs!

Oil Creek 100K Training

Lots of time on my feet, more elevation work and lots of mental stress

Still trying to plan two major outings (for me) one loop of the OC course and the Great range traverse. However I need to find someone to help and join me.

Total miles

56mi (60.6t)/13hr (14:44t)

Trail: 50
Road: 0
Treadmill:0! (YAY!)
Track: ~6
Race:0

CTL: 149
ATL: 203

Weight: 157

Elevation Gain : +7019/-6969