Thursday, February 07, 2008

Groovin'

Now that I finally have a race schedule for the first half of the year, I feel like it's time to get into the training groove. Even though I'm not so hot with details, I'm pretty obsessive/compulsive with the amount of training I do (it's the format of the training that is a little vague for Scott's tastes:). So, I'm getting focused on Ruth Anderson 100k and realizing that I better get a little more specific with the details. The problem with a 100k, for me, is that you really need to get jiggy from the start. There is no room for a nice relaxed 6-12 mile loop before you start picking it up. As I have mentioned, I am not a fast starter. I like to take my time, chat with people, get really warmed up, get my breathing regulated and then start focusing on the race. We are only using Ruth Anderson as a tune-up for KM100, but still, I have no clue how to run it. I ran two fifty-milers before I ran my first 100 and thought they were much harder than the 100s/24 hour races. Not a good sign for a 100k :),

With all of this confusion, I am trying to pay attention to how other people race 50s and 100ks. Most seem to be able to start at a certain pace and then maintain it (or close to it) for the entire race. To me, that is amazing! How do you they get into a groove so quickly? And then stay there? I know speed work would help (ick), so I have promised that I will incorporate some (soon). Wearing a watch might be helpful, too. Whenever I know my pace it's because someone tells me, "Hey, we're at 8:03 (or whatever)." I do own a Garmin, and I have it charging, so I will start wearing it more regularly. At the moment, most of the tempo/pace work I do is by feel. I start slowly, then when it is called for, pick it up for the amount of time scheduled in the workout. If I start to get that sick (I'm going to hurl) sort of feeling, I know I'm going too fast. If the walkers start to pass me, I know I'm going too slow. Okay, it is a little more scientific than that, but you get my drift. But, since I would like to have some target times for the race, I know I better see exactly where I am. Sigh.

We have rented "Vitus" to watch after dinner. It is a movie about a young musical prodigy. According to the cover, it won several awards at the various film festivals. I love movies (and books) about people doing really cool things - especially things I could never do in a million years. I have absolutely no musical talent, so I find it fascinating to watch people who just...hear it, play it, create it. I'm in awe. I'll let y'all know if the movie is any good. Oh, and remember how I mentioned "Mountain Madness," the story about the Everest guide, Scott Fischer, who died on an expedition in 1996? It is really good. The author was a friend of Scott's, so he has taken the time to give us a lot of insight into what made Scott tick. It's not just one of those sensationalist books that gives a million gory details about the accident. You really get to know the man and what made him who he was. I'm really enjoying it.

Happy training!

4 comments:

Bev said...

Carilyn sounds like you are going to have to break down and search for the tech geek in you and use that Garmin and your watch.

Hey I just saw a blip on Good Morning America about a bionic knee brace that has been developed to charge small devices like cell phones, ipod, etc. If they hooked one of those things up to you, they might be able to supply El Paso with its' daily energy need.

Bob - BlogMYruns.com said...

I am slow starter also, and I don't think that is going to change anytime soon for me :-)

and YES I need to add more speedwork also, I think the pool running is really helping me gain some speed so that is cool, better then that track--lol even though I have now added that into my weekly schedule.

I love music all kinds except for Rap... and I am in awe also of peeps with musical talents.

Have a great weekend!

Kendra Ralstin said...

Hi Carilyn! I find it really hard to start off all on fire, too, especially for a race that's going to last over 5 hours! One thing that sort of helps me is to do a warm up and get the slowness out of my system before the race starts. It seems a little ridiculous when you're going to be running 50+ miles but that way you aren't using the first 15-20 minutes of the race to do your warm up. It's *amazing* the gap that can open up in that time and how hard it is to close it (unless they slow down). Of course if you're not really competing (some people make me feel like that's a naughty word) than why not just go with how you're doing it? It sounds neat - chatting and all that. In fact, I know that the front runners actually do a lot of gabbing the entire race. The gals? Oh my gosh, talk talk talk. I can't do it but they do. I secretly think it's a way of assessing each other's fatigue ("hmmm, I noticed she couldn't answer me very well now that I've stepped it up to a 5 minute mile up this 15% grade.") heh heh. :) Nice blogging.

Ronda said...

Love the description of how you do speedwork and the benchmarks you described...it cracked me up! Like we have discussed before....poor Scott, I'm way to focused and rigid and your easy going....a nice in-between would be good. Keep up the good work and since I have never run a flat 100K before I will let you know what happens out there.