April 2017 Running Challenge

I was at 26 miles on 4/24. I ran 4 miles on 4/25 and 3 miles on 4/26. My total is up to 33 miles for the month! I'm hoping to get another few miles in by Sunday to see where the final count is at!

Thank you for all the prayers and support! I, my wife, and her family greatly appreciated it! My MIL was taken off the ventilator on Tuesday and she continues to breathe on her own. She was taken out of the ICU and while short term things are better than expected, the issue she faces is likely to become more frequent and more severe.

For my final week before the race, my mileage has dropped well below what I had planned. I've only run twice this past week, for a total of 14 miles, and won't run again until my race.

While the reduced miles has made all my little niggles, aches and pains go away and I feel quite good, I don't sleep well when my wife is gone and consequently I'm not getting near the sleep I should. I'm averaging no more than 6 hours per night.

I won't do any intentional carb loading for this race, but have raised my intake from a deficit to maintenance for the 2 weeks prior. I feel that I've tuned my fat-burning machine quite well and won't need maximum carbs like I would for a marathon, and what I do need, I can get on the course.

The run I had last night was fantastic! I went on my local, hilly trails and managed my best pace ever while still keeping my heart rate solidly in the middle of my Easy Aerobic Zone per Daniels even though I ran up all the hills.

To keep my post-race report, I'm going to post some a lot of pre-race stuff now. Writing this down helps me work through everything in my mind prior to the race. Feel free to skip.

Course description:

• Chippewa 50K and 10K Trail Run
• 50K on an out & back course on the Ice Age Trail
• 4610 feet elevation gain and loss
• Average finish time: 6:33:49
• Course Record: 3:45:05
• Aid Stations at miles 3, 10, 15.5, 20, 28. Aid stations will have PBJ sandwiches, bananas, Heed drink, Hammer gel, candy, pop, cookies and other items
• 8:00 AM start
• Weather: There's been an inch of rain in the day or two prior, likely making for muddy, wet conditions. Forecast calls for 32°F at the start, rising to mid 50's by the end of my race. Partly cloudy with little wind all day. PERFECT!!!
• The course is described as single track over rolling hills. It's said to be fully runnable but the constant up and down will gradually beat the snot out of your quads.

Pacing & Goal Finish Time
I've struggled to come up with a pacing plan or goal finish time for the 50K. Trail races are unique in that there are so many more variables that come into play than a road race. Weather affects a trail far more than it does pavement, the terrain is far more varied from trail to trail, and aid stations are spaced further apart

There's a website which compares ultramarathons, and even aggregates the results of those who have run the two different races being compared so if you run one, you can get a sense of how you'll do on the other one. Also, once you have completed a race tracked by ultrasignup.com you get a ranking based on your finish, which then is used to guesstimate your time on future races. @MNLittleFinn might be interested in this site: http://realendurance.com/ I compared Saturday's race to my recent Zumbro 17 Mile race. According to the site comparison, 45 people have completed the two distances with the 50K taking 1.87 (+/- 0.18) times longer than the 17M. Plugging my 17M time into that, I get a range of 5:22 hr:mn to 6:31 hr:mn. Not very precise but it's the best I have. The middle value is 5:57 hr:mn. Ultrasignup gives me an guesstimate of 6:15 for this race.

I'll do what I always do in a race...use my HR as my reference. Having never run the distance before my strategy will be to run the first 20 miles around 148 to 150bpm (High Aerobic per Daniels), take stock of how I feel, then if I'm up to it, run the remaining 10 miles at marathon HR of 155-156. When facing hills, I'll try to keep my HR below my LT of 167, walking as much as needed. On the downhills I'll need to be careful not to go too hard because that can really trash your quads...more so than the uphills.

Though I can't closely correlate any of this to pace, My goal time is 6:20 (pace of 12:15 including stops at aid stations) with a stretch goal of 5:59 (pace of 11:30).

Food & Drink

I never did fully test my fueling & hydration plan during training. I ran my long runs fasted for the most part, taking in only what was necessary on my unfasted runs. I have an Ultimate Direction hydration vest I'll be using. I have used that twice and like it quite a bit, but I should have used it more. In spite of that, I do feel confident in my plan of carrying:

• 20 oz water
• 20 oz SiS Go Electrolyte mix (hydration, electrolytes, & 42g carbs/200 cals) - Similar to Tailwind or Heed
• 12 oz diluted honey (260g honey, 20g molasses, 5oz water - 210g carbs/740 cals)
• 4 strips of home-cured bacon mmmm...mmmm...MMMMM
• 1 pack belvita cookies (35g carbs/230 cals) in case I want real food on the trail

Run Gear


Temps are warm enough I'll be in shorts and a short sleeve wicking polo shirt (I've just discovered how comfortable these are to run in) with arm sleeves to keep my arms warm initially. I've never run in these before but they're easy enough to take off it they're a problem.

in addition I'll be carrying:

• UD hydration vest to carry most things
• 2 nuun tablets
• small tube Vaniply for chaffing
• ziploc bag for empty gel packs
• wipes
• ear buds - I've never listed to music on the trail but they're light and I may need a mental boost at some point.
• phone
• Garmin/HR strap
• truck key
• SPI belt for my phone for easy access
• pickle juice
• three packets of SiS powder to mix at aid stations

We get a drop bag at the half way point. I haven't decided if I'll use one or not. If I do, it will have:

• socks
• eye drops
• leukotape
• lip balm
• tums
• dry shirt
• the bacon and more cookies

Aid Station Strategy

• AS1 @ 3M - Skip - too early in the race to stop
• AS2 @ 10M - Refill water, refill SiS, drink Heed, eat PBJ, grab 2 hammer gels
• AS3 @ 15.5 - Refill water, refill SiS, drink Heed, eat PBJ and any other food that looks good, grab 2 hammer gels and my bacon, resupply from drop bag as needed.
• AS4 @ 20M - Refill water, refill SiS, drink Heed, eat PBJ and any other food that looks good, grab 2 hammer gels
• AS5 @ 28M - Skip, but will refill water if necessary. No sense eating at this point because the carbs won't get digested before the end of the race.

I reserved a room through AirBnB about 20 minutes from the start. An older couple rent out a bedroom and provide breakfast in the morning. Only $35. I hope they don't mind getting up early! I'll bring some pre-brewed coffee with me just in case.

So there you have it. There's nothing left to do but pack up, head out and run it!