Catch up post

Well the 50K is in the books. Here is a recap of a post that I put onto runnersworld's discussion board.

I ran my first 50k on Saturday- The Mendon Ponds 50k in upstate New York (beautiful course). It was 5 loops with 1100 feet of climbing per loop. My time was 7:01, which was basically in the range of 6:30 to 7:00 that I thought that I would run. Here are my observations about my training and the experience of running my first ultra.

1. Training- I started training back in June and gradually built up my long runs to 4 hours 3 weeks before. I would run for 2 hours a couple of times and the run 2:30 a couple of times etc. 4 hours was not long enough. I would have done a 5 hour run. I also would have done more hill work. I played basketball once a week in lieu of speed work. I don't have the running base to do that so I would have played less basketball and done more speed work. On a positive note I did not have any major injuries outside of a sore knee (I did a century ride about 6 weeks before which was the reason for the sore knee) and the inevitable ankle twists.

2. Ultras are a lot harder than I thought. My groin was tight the entire 2nd half of the race and any time that I would trip on a rock or almost stumble pain would shoot up my legs. I also ran alone for most of the race and had to fight boredom. I guess that is where the longer runs would have come in handy.

3. I am not a smart (experienced?) runner. My lap times were 1:03, 1:11, 1:22, 1:44 and 1:39. Obviously way too fast and I payed for it dearly in the final laps. Why I thought that I was on a weekly 2 hour training run I will never know. In my defense I knew that the time of the first lap was way too fast but I would have slowed down a lot more and conserved energy and I would not have used up so much the first lap. I also had only about 15 songs on my ipod. These were just stupid mistakes and I should have known better. So mentally I should have prepared better.

4. Ultras are fun and addictive. While I was on the trail I experienced every emotion that you can imagine and the feeling of making the final turn to the finish with the knowledge that I have accomplished something and have pushed myself farther than I ever have before makes all of the training mistakes and pain worth it. At shorter races you get t-shirts, there is music at the end and people are cheering you on. At the end of the race there was a guy collecting my chip, a guy on a laptop and my wife. It was a good reminder of why I run. So armed with the experience and excitement of having run my first ultra I am set for next year and have my calendar mapped out with the big goal being the JFK 50 miler.


Since the 50K I had a good December and January and did a long 22 mile run where I power walked the last 3 or 4 miles. The temperature was less than 30 degrees and it was snowing but nonetheless it was a great day. A few days later I rolled my ankle playing basketball and have been out of commission for about 3 weeks. I plan on picking up training next week by swimming and riding an exercise bike and then resuming my schedule in March with the Hat 50k in Maryland on the 21st. I will probably only do half of the race.

My schedule for the year year is below

Hat 50k March 21st
North Face half marathon at Bear Mountain May 9th
Speedgoat 50k in July
NorthFace 50k in Washington DC October
JFK 50 miler in November

After the Speedgoat 50k I am planning on breaking up the running with some mountain biking and I may skip the JFK 50 miler and do the Mendon Ponds 50k again and do a 50 miler next year. I will probably also do a century and a triathlon for fun at some point.