Training Log Archive: mariaamaya

Event: Badwater Cape Fear 51.4
 

Badwater Cape Fear 51.4 miles

Wow, so much to say. I'll keep it short.

Started with a 11 mile run around the island on flat roads, no wind, comfortable temperatures, I thought this was going to be a great, easy race. I should have known it had the Badwater name for a reason.

Anyway, switched over to 1.4 miles on trail, which ended up being really annoying. It was so short that there was no point in passing anyone but it was a very slow walk run and I had the wrong shoes for a trail run. Regardless, I was really glad to be out of that little trail, although it was quite beautiful!

Now I'm on the first part of a 20 mile two loop course. Up the beach for 10 miles and back for 10 miles. Two loops equals 40 miles, plus the first 12 or so and that makes 51.4 miles.

Up the beach for the first 10 miles was great! Easy, I ran comfortable, again, I kept thinking this is going to be a great race, with a good time. Thank goodness I'm not really trained because I'll still post a good time. The only hard part was trying to jump around the incoming waves, since it was coming up to be high tide. The soft sand didn't help either but it was manageable. People returning didn't look too happy, tried smiling at several and I got discouraged looks, hmm... not sure why.

Well, I arrived at Fort Fisher, the turnaround, grabbed some Coke :) and headed back. I was about to understand the discouraged looks. Okay, this is where the beauty of the kindness of the race fell apart! The wind was horrendous, it was cold but I'd say, "cool" for most people. It was not bad at all, but not warm. However, the temperature was the least of my worries. That wind was the worst, the sand was soft and I felt like I was running while standing still, except on a treadmill at least you get to log miles. I was NOT logging miles, the wind was so ferocious I had to bow my head and just push forward. How was I going to do another loop? Luckily I was determined to do 51 miles, because there was the option to switch to 32 miles at the turnaround.

Finally, around the corner, and now I'm back at the turnaround at 6:11

Okay, let's do this one more time. I'm allowed to push right? Yep, so let's see what I can do.

So, I headed back up the beach to Fort Fisher. I'm feeling good (because of course, the wind is at my back) and I start to try to push the speed. I knew I had to gain as much distance as I could because for one, this was the end, and two, the return was going to be brutal. You can see this push from mile 30-40 my miles start showing somewhere around 10:20 or so, where on my first loop they fluctuate between 10:50-11:00.

Anyway, my legs hurt, I had started doing 38 min run and 2 min walk at 3:40 and every 40 minutes without fail, I stuck to it. I had a tough time starting this run/walk but I ended up doing the following:

@ 45 min walked for :45 seconds
@ 1:10 walked for :20 seconds (little hill)
@ 2:10 walked for 3-4 min (aid station and sand)
@ 2:40 walked for 2 min
@ 3:40 walked for 2 min
@ 4:20 walked for 2 min
@ 5 hrs walked for 2 min
@ 5:40 walked for 2 min
@ 6:20 walked for 2 min
@ 7 hrs walked for 2 min
@ 7:40 walked for 2 min
@ 8 hrs walked for 2 min (aid station and sand)
@ 8:40 walked for 2 min
@ 9:20 walked for 2 min

Pushed hard to the end. The wind was, of course, even worse than the first loop. I saw a trio of three up ahead and decided I would try to catch up... that was a funny joke. Okay, so then I decided I needed to try to finish in under 10 hrs., so I pushed even harder. I had said that I wanted to leave it all on the course and I think I did.

I thought back to my training and realized that I had actually only trained for 5-6 weeks for this race, due to my surgery, so I couldn't feel too badly about how I had done.

I ended up finishing 11/31 of the female 51 mile runners. 47th overall out of 107 or so total 51 mile runners.

First 32 miles = 6:11 (11:35 m/m)
32 - 51.4 miles = 3:59 (12:11 m/m)
Total = 10:10:48 (11:52 m/m)

These women were tough, I had counted 14-17 female runners on the first loop and I figured it would drop to about 6-8 females after the first loop and the 50Kers finished. Not the case, I was still happy to have been able to pass between 3-6 females but I didn't expect so many to hold such a strong pace.

Strategy: I started way behind and moved my way to the front nice and slow, I was torn between trying to push hard at the beginning and trying to keep it easy. Hence the delay in starting the run/walk. I ended up just trying to go at a pace that felt comfortable but not too slow.

My phone died at the second loop turn around, so I only have 40 miles of splits.

Anyway, it was a motivating run, lots of fun and I'm ready to sign up for the next one. It was an amazing experience to know that a flat run could be so hard by just adding a few lovely variables: sand and wind.

Eating: I ate when hungry, and drank when thirsty. I got tired of trying to eat at certain intervals and eating too much or too little. So, I drank earlier than normal, which was a good move, I just took more "smaller" sips. And I ate when I started getting hungry. I feel like my food and water and salt intake was close to spot-on. I also took some acetaminophen at 30 miles and again at 40 miles, that helped a bit, not a lot but enough, most of it was actually psychosomatic - I think.

Well, good to know I can still push on a 50 mile run even after only 6 weeks of training. Great reminder that I have lots of work to do this spring for all my scheduled races!!

DISTANCE PACE ELAPSED TIME

1.0 mi 10:33 min/mi 00:10:33
2.0 mi 10:30 min/mi 00:10:29
3.0 mi 10:45 min/mi 00:10:45
4.0 mi 10:26 min/mi 00:10:25
5.0 mi 10:31 min/mi 00:10:31
6.0 mi 10:16 min/mi 00:10:16
7.0 mi 10:14 min/mi 00:10:13
8.0 mi 10:17 min/mi 00:10:17
9.0 mi 10:24 min/mi 00:10:23
10.0 mi 10:21 min/mi 00:10:20
11.0 mi 10:52 min/mi 00:10:52 (trail portion)
12.0 mi 15:09 min/mi 00:15:08 (trail portion)

13.0 mi 13:13 min/mi 00:13:13 (started out to Fort Fisher on 1st loop)
14.0 mi 10:20 min/mi 00:10:19
15.0 mi 10:41 min/mi 00:10:41
16.0 mi 10:41 min/mi 00:10:40
17.0 mi 11:11 min/mi 00:11:11
18.0 mi 10:49 min/mi 00:10:48
19.0 mi 10:47 min/mi 00:10:47
20.0 mi 10:50 min/mi 00:10:49
21.0 mi 11:11 min/mi 00:11:11

22.0 mi 11:49 min/mi 00:11:49 (started back down the beach)
23.0 mi 13:04 min/mi 00:13:02
24.0 mi 13:07 min/mi 00:13:07
25.0 mi 13:19 min/mi 00:13:18
26.0 mi 12:59 min/mi 00:12:59
27.0 mi 12:49 min/mi 00:12:48
28.0 mi 12:51 min/mi 00:12:51
29.0 mi 11:58 min/mi 00:11:58
30.0 mi 11:45 min/mi 00:11:44
31.0 mi 11:59 min/mi 00:11:59

32.0 mi 13:47 min/mi 00:13:46 (back out on 2nd loop)
33.0 mi 13:08 min/mi 00:13:05
34.0 mi 11:21 min/mi 00:11:21
35.0 mi 10:54 min/mi 00:10:53
36.0 mi 10:58 min/mi 00:10:57
37.0 mi 10:17 min/mi 00:10:16
38.0 mi 10:21 min/mi 00:10:20
39.0 mi 10:37 min/mi 00:10:37
40.0 mi 11:34 min/mi 00:11:34
41.0 mi 10:54 min/mi 00:10:54
41.8 mi 12:38 min/mi 00:09:29 (started return to finish... phone died)

Paul, thanks for your motivating talk when I saw you! :)

Went out for a walk on the beach with Steve and Kodi! Took it easy today but was still on my feet longer than I hoped.

Run 2: Marathon paced "half and half" workout. You can do this all on the TM, or as a mix by doing the flat MP run outdoors then coming into the gym for the hill portion (Either order is fine). After a brief warmup run for 30:00 at the marathon hill combo (9:00 / 4%) and then another 30:00 at the flat marathon pace of 8:05. Then finish off with a few easy minutes of flat jogging.

Warm Up Walk
.27 miles, 7:00 min

I forgot about the cool down run after the second 30 min fast paced run, so I went back and did it after walking for 2 minutes.

0-10 min slow flat at 5.8 mph for warm up

10-40 min at 4% at 6.2 mph (9:40 m/m) didn't quite do 9:00 m/m

40-70 min flat at 7.4 mph (8:06 m/m) almost 8:05 m/m :)

70-72 min walk at 3.2 mph (oops! back to running!)

72-82 min cool down run at 6.2 mph

Okay, finally done! Amazing run, finally feeling like I'm getting back into shape!!

Cool Down Walk
5:00 min, 2.64 miles

So... took some melatonin to sleep last night... then I had convinced myself that work was going to be cancelled. Well, instead I woke up groggy and still had to go to work, so I allowed myself to sleep and told myself I would run in the afternoon - we all know how that usually turns out.

The walk to and from work was a nightmare, windy, freezing, wind chill at 20 or something, and unshoveled sidewalks from last night's "storm". It was a tough walk and I had to walk fast to keep from being blown over. Ugh... will the cold ever end? From Afghanistan to Seattle to DC!

I made it home, took off my five layers of jackets, turned the heat up to 75 and never got off the couch. :(

Run 3: 75:00 rolling medium intensity run. If on TM, mix in some random 4% hills.

Start at 5.8 mph

@ 15 min up to 5.9 mph

@ 30 min up to 6.0 mph
-32 min, up to 4% incline for :30 sec
-37 min, up to 4% incline for :30 sec

@ 40 min up to 6.1 mph
-42 min, up to 4% incline for :45 sec
-47 min, up to 4% incline for :45 sec

@ 50 min up to 6.2 mph
-52 min, up to 4% incline for 1 min
-57 min, up to 4% incline for 1 min

@ 60 min up to 6.3 mph
-62 min, up to 4% incline for 1:30 min
-67 min, up to 4% incline for 1:30 min

@ 70 min up to 6.4 mph
@ 75 min up to 6.5 mph

End at 80 min

Great run, not as hard as I thought, maybe I should have done more hills.