Zebano - awesome on the Ultra and that you rebounded so quickly. I'll be waiting the race report, ultras have so much more happening.

Darkwave - 15-16 hours a week is massive.  Dps and Keen would be around 10 hours a week, and most less.

Yeah, I would be around 7-8 hours of running most weeks, plus 2-3 hours of resistance training and foam rolling + stretching.

According to my log, 65 miles gets me around 9-9.5 hours.  Keep in mind that I run my easy days pretty slowly, so that adds a bit of time.

Good week. Got miles. Just like other weeks...

I don't want to be a complainer...but I hate running in the heat. I sweat A LOT. On my Friday stride day, I weigh before and after and in 8 miles/64 minutes, I lose an average of 5 lbs In the summer, that's higher and my shoes are soaked. </end whining>

Have an odd week this week, but I think I'm gonna get my miles in. Getting away with my wife next week, so Saturday long run will be shifted to Friday. We'll see.

This week:

Total: 65.6 miles

Good week. Got miles. Just like other weeks...

 

I don't want to be a complainer...but I hate running in the heat. I sweat A LOT. On my Friday stride day, I weigh before and after and in 8 miles/64 minutes, I lose an average of 5 lbs In the summer, that's higher and my shoes are soaked. </end whining>

 

Have an odd week this week, but I think I'm gonna get my miles in. Getting away with my wife next week, so Saturday long run will be shifted to Friday. We'll see.

 

This week:

 

Date	Name	Distance in mi	Duration	Avg Pace per mi	Elevation Gain in ft
06/15/2020	Morning Run	10.20	01:21:40	08:00	558
06/16/2020	12x400 Intervals	11.01	01:25:45	07:47	299
06/17/2020	Taking It Easy	9.30	01:18:06	08:24	0
06/18/2020	Recovery Day	6.00	00:52:46	08:48	0
06/19/2020	Morning Strides	8.10	01:05:31	08:05	433
06/20/2020	Inside Long Run	16.00	02:13:39	08:21	0
06/21/2020	Recovery Day on Treadmill	5.00	00:43:37	08:43	0

 

Total: 65.6 miles

Nice week.  I agree with Mark though - never feel bad about hot weather complaining here!  I'll be complaining about weather significantly cooler than what you're experiencing.

I decided to stick to the bike today when I felt some minor pain in the hamstring in the warm up.  I feel like I'm being over-cautious, but you never know - on previous occasions I haven't been cautious enough when missing one run may have saved me weeks/months of rehab.

DW - I'm pretty sure I've said this before and I'll say it again but. I am continuously impressed by your dedication to the non-running aspects of training and staying healthy. With the focus on top end speed, will you be doing any shorter races or time trials?

Piwi - go do the Parkrun if your legs are feeling good. You're laying down some nice paces in your aerobic runs (or you're at least keeping up with your son).

Flavio & Kemba - sorry I missed you earlier. Good weeks and smart comebacks!

mrakers - I totally get that. Heat and especially humidity is terrible. One of the biggest races in my town is held on the fourth of July. I've literally never raced an 8k and that's what this is but I just cannot bring myself to race in that weather. Fall and Spring are prime racing seasons for a reason.

Steve - smart choice with the hammy!

Going to go write my Monday Journal / weekly retrospective then convert a portion of it into a race report.

Schutzen NEIN Hour Race Recap

Strategery:

I knew that this was hilly and I would be powerhiking all the hills. .85 miles loops, ~150 feet gain / mile. The course record was 54 loops or 6 / hour so I knew that would be spicy hot. I also knew that 50k = 37 loops so 4/mile was too few. Ergo I resolved to start slow, and finish strong aiming for a pedestrian 5 loops per hour.

The next thing on my mind was that I had an upper respiratory infection late a week and a half ago that had just cleared up on Wed and I had done very little running because of it. I optimistically called this a taper and ran just 9 miles before the race this week. As always I made sure I had two rescue inhalers on hand.

Next there was the issue of nutrition. I have never had a good marathon from a stomach perspective and this weighed on me heavily. My primary hope was that the slower paces would make this more tolerable as eating on easy training runs has historically been fine. I loaded up a tote with some of my favorites: twizzlers, swedish fish, clementines, beef jerky, cheeze its, and two types of granola bars. In my cooler I had a jug of water, a bunch of blue power ades, some snapple, pickles, a slice of lemon pie, 2 mtn dew kickstarts, 2 beers(strikethrough) miller High Lifes, a mikes hard lemonade, a water bottle and a handheld water bottle. I dumped ice on all that then tried and failed to sleep. At 4 AM I realized I'd maybe had 2 hours of off and on sleep, got up, made coffee, made oatmeal with walnuts, strawberries and a banana, grabbed 3 sets of clothes and shoes, loaded the car, and started driving.

I arrived an hour and a half before race time, one volunteer and the RD were already there. My initial impression was of a field, a shelter and lots and lots of trees. On the way in I had noticed hills that looked more life bluffs and got a little worried. I set up my lawn chair and relaxed. Pretty soon my club started arriving and we setup a couple of tents along the path as it re-enters the forest. At the last minute, I asked around and found a sharpie On one arm I wrote "Keep Moving", on the other I wrote the initials of my kids. A badass chica showed me her written mantras "Keep Going" (sidenote - according to the website, this is the safeword of the race) and "smile as you cuss". The RD got on a bullhorn, rambled a lot and said something about I hope you're all healthy and you assume a little bit of risk by showing up here in these covid-times. Then the race started.

Results: http://ultrasignup.com/results_event.aspx?did=74846

Just because it's hilarious the website has some awesome testimonials from past participants. I'm just going to share my favorite:

"If you are looking for a race to not only test your strength but also your psyche, your endurance, and most of your friendships then Schuetzen NEIN! is the race for you.
If you think, 'Oh wow. Only .85 mile per loop. That doesn't seem so bad' - I'd like you to run yourself a relaxing warm bath and light some candles and think about the things you love most. Because you will forget about ALL of them the moment you leave the picnic area and head back out on the trail.
You'll run that loop again and again until you've whittled yourself down to the bare bones of a soul. Nothing left but a nub of a person who has forgotten what happiness felt like. Who has forgotten what it's like to not hate nature."
Rachael Pracht '15 - 25 loops

Quick notes on my training:

My goal each week was:
1. Long run of 90min -2 hour
2. med-long run of 75 min-90 min.
3. 2 workouts.
4. doubles! lots of doubles
5. 1 day off

Training went very well. I had a few niggles especially on the track but this was supposed to prepare me for mile to 5k racing, not an ultra. That said, I averaged 50 /41 /39 miles per week over the last 12 / 26 / 52 weeks so I had time on my feet in my favor. I peaked with a 70 mile week, followed by a 16 mile week and the 9 miles pre-race due to illness. In the future when most of my training is 45-60 mile weeks I'll keep my taper a little closer to that as I wonder if fatigue was part of the illness, even though I strongly suspect it was just a crazy amount of allergens in the air.

I digressed, back to the race:

I'd love to say it was a beautiful course, but honestly the first two laps were just straight conga line. I had ignored people suggesting I start closer to the front of the pack and went about 10 people back from a guy I know to be a slow and methodical ultra runner and indeed halfway through our first loop there was a gap ahead of him and I was happy with that. One of my first revelations was that when people say powerhike the hills, they really mean walk normally up the hills and that was grating on me, so after the third loop I started passing people mostly by actually powerhiking the hills. For the rest of the race, my "walking" breaks were aggressive walks closer to 4mph on flat ground than the normal persons 3. I quickly found a rhythm of hiking the hills and running the downhills, which is easier said then done as there are some steep downhills with quite a few 2-2.5 foot drops (the DNR had installed wooden retaining blocks so these were effectively steps made for someone 9 feet tall).

The first hour passed and I was feeling strong but realized I hadn't eaten much (one pickle) so I grabbed another pickle and a granola bar, took a swig of water and kept moving. I really don't like carrying anything so I opted out of my handheld and just took a swig after every loop. The legs felt good and every once in a great while we'd get a tiny sprinkle that wouldn't even penetrate the trees and I started praying for rain. It was only 70F but it was also 93% humidity according to strava. There was about 50 feet of clearing at the highest point of the loop, this area allowed a view into two peoples backyard that had an ground pool and I started dreaming about detouring over there and taking a dip. On the other side besides the expected trees there was a crucifix and I started giving Jesus socially distanced high 5s just for giggles (the bench construction made it awkward to touch him). From there I started thinking about Buddy Jesus and that consumed an awful lot of my attention.

One other thing of note besides all the stairs was that this course featured 3 logs across the trail. One was no big deal, one needed to be hurdled and one was so big they set up boxes on either side to help you safely cross. I am happy to report that in 9 hours never once did I step on top the hurdle-able tree. Regardless, at this point in the race I fell in with the guy who had won the previous year and while I thought he was breathing too hard during the run portions he kept making steady progress. I remember passing two teammates I greatly respect, both had recently completed a 100 miler. The first said "smart race" but it sounded like his legs were giving him trouble and he was planning to drop. The second told me it's way too early to be that aggressive, I'm not sure if she thought I was lapping her but I made steady progress with last years winner for 3 hours (she was probably right).

At this point I'm going to mention there were 4 people that had lapped me multiple times, they were running the uphills and they were just crushing the course. Super impressive and awesome people who all had words of encouragement. At two hours and 52 minutes, we were coming up on course reversal (hours 1-3 were counter-clockwise, 4-6 clockwise, and 7-9 counter) so I took a seat and realized I'd stopped eating after my third pickle spear. My total eating was 3 pickle spears, 5 mini swedish fish and a granola bar. I popped a few more fish in my mouth but wasn't hungry. The smart people rolled through and got one more lap in in the easy direction. I asked the RD how many laps I had in and he said 18, I immediately said "too fast" which caused him to laugh, look at me and earnestly say "yup, too fast" and laugh again. Vibes of Lazarous Lake.

I got one lap in the counter clockwise direction which was just harder to run as the downhills were steeper and the uphills longer and I knew something was wrong. I did one more loop and when I came in one of the two people who did a 100 miler recently looked at me and immediately asked what I had eaten... apparently my pupils were dilated. She sat me down and started listing food trying to find something I could stomach. Eventually I had some ginger ale, some pickle juice and after a 10 minute sit I started walking (Relentless forward progress became my motto). Many people chatted with me, giving me kind words and encouragement but I just didn't feel right (woozy or light headed - I was told I was pale and my hands were swollen also). I carried my water bottle and kept forcing ginger ale and eventually tried some pretzels filled with peanut butter. At some point I realized my other water bottle had a handle!!! and switched to that. Unfortunately as it was smaller the carbonation at the start of the loop would cause it shoot streams of foam out, which I couldn't help but compare to popping a champagne bottle over ... and over ... and over. The best part of the walking was that I actually saw more of the course, I cheered for everyone that passed me and I. Just.Kept. Moving. I'd tell you I was down in the dumps, but while I wasn't happy, the fact that I was moving was enough that I wasn't depressed.

After 2 laps walking I felt well enough to jog half of what I normally jog... and I could feel myself backsliding. I made another effort to chug pickle juice and eat some pretzels, walked another loop then the other person with a recent 100 in his legs dropped and bequeathed to me a magical item! An ice necklace. Ok, it was a triangular scarf with an opening at one end where you could put ice into it and tie it around your neck. I'm getting teary just thinking about it now, and they both  keep insisting that I did the work, but the crew here was simply amazing. I would wear the ice necklace for one loop, roll into aid, get a refill of pop (I switched to coke at some point), leave the scarf and it would be ready next time as I rolled in. At some point passing Jesus I uttered the rather blasphemous (two can rise from the dead). p.s. I'm no longer religious but it's hard to leave behind your past. Each lap, I felt like I got stronger and stronger and when we switched back to the counter clockwise direction I was rolling.

A lot of the rest of the race is a blur but I remember a few awesome moments:

1. The RD told me I had just finished lap 30 and I knew I was earning my engraved spanker (everyone who does 37 laps / 50k gets one). -- and yes you know it's an ultra because it's not a small canoe oar or anything like that, it's a Schutzen Spanker.
2. Trying to sing "we built this city" by Starship and two other runners picking up the tune and singing it.
3. running with the female winner and her pacer challenging everyone to show off hurdling the log and I did a mute grab and my calves damn near cramped up.
4. actually high fiving buddy jesus on that same lap.
5. Dumping half a gallon of water over my head and feeling refreshed.
6. marveling at how after 8 hours of movement, my legs felt rock solid
7. how bloody awesome everyone was. Many people struggled, many people persevered! Especially notable were the two people who only walked. One just smiled the whole damn day the other looked like he was 75 years old, suffered from cramps, spent lots of time bent over his trekking poles but just kept going.
8. Walking a lap with a teammate after we had earned our spankers but wanting to keep going for the full 9 hours.
9. Running strong the last hour, leaving for a lap with 19:50 remaining on the clock, I told myself if there was >10 min when I came in I would throw down a final lap. There was 9:40 remaining, I threw up my hands in triumph, declared "I'm done" and one of the volunteers said "What the F are you doing, you still have time", I told him I was cramping and he said you only have to cramp for 9 minutes with a shitty grin and I tore out of there and ran possibly my fastest lap of the day. I had over a minute left when I made it back.
10. The lady after me hustling up the final steps to get into aid with 2 seconds remaining and the smile on her face.
11. sitting in my lawn chair with my legs on my cooler wishing I had a neck rest so I could sleep, then it finally started raining! That's when I realized that despite setting two tents up right next to each other, I had opted to put my lawn chair right in between the two and it took a lot of effort to move.
12. Waking up the next day and realizing that yes, I am sore but I can move. In fact I went for an 80 minute bike ride on Father's day just to get out and move.

13. One guy who always had a smile and whose stride looked like he was banging a drum when I ran. I cannot unsee it. 
14. 46 loops officially / 39 miles -- https://www.strava.com/activities/3646115686/overview

15. both the male and female records fell, shoutout to those two badasses and the RD who gave us one of the best events I've ever been part of.

yes, there are some clear takeaways, but I battled and that's enough.