I finished the year strong last weekend with a 5:52 time at the McNotAgain 30-Mile trail race (
12th out of 51 starters). In five finishes, it was my best effort at that race. Feels good to finish strong. Now, I need to build through the winter and develop an aerobic foundation that I can race from in the spring. Yet, I feel so good, I want to race again...soon. I've been trolling around looking for December ultras. Heck, I've even been looking at local short races: road 5Ks, 10Ks, and a nice cross country 8K. I need to control my impulses and simply do base-building. When I get excited, I get injured. I should be happy with a strong finish, be thankful that I am healthy and uninjured, and go forward in a cautious manner. Why push? If I need to concentrate on something, it should be steady-state aerobic runs. If I get in consistent runs over the next few weeks, my paces will slowly improve. By the end of winter, I'll be rocking a solid "easy" pace. I'd love to run my local trails at an easy 8:00 pace!
For now, the mantra needs to be...take it easy...keep building. Slow and steady wins the race...especially when it's an ultramarathon! Be the turtle.
2 comments:
Glad to see the running trajectory is pointing the right way. It's funny how your perception of the year would likely have been radically different had the chronology of your races been reversed.
I too am looking to jump into a few local 5K/5milers (on roads too!) which is something I haven't done in a couple years. I'm a little nervous as I've never raced a short distance at altitude (I moved to Boulder last year) and 5Ks are lung-busters even at sea level. It's been fun mixing up my training recently, replacing super-long weekend runs with track interval sessions - again something I haven't done in a long time. Gotta keep things fresh!
Insightful David. If my races were reversed, I'd be heading into winter in a depressed mood and frantic for new training methods and chances to race. I'm happy now--even though i tweaked my left calf by running in sandals on Sunday. Oh well, I've had that injury many times. Good luck in the shorter races and different training.
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