I forgot how tough training for an ultra can be! This was my first thought after I ran 20 miles today on the trail. When you are training for a marathon, you usually only have one “long run” a week with the longest run – 20 or 22 miles- being done a few weeks prior to the marathon. In ultra training, you generally will have two back to back “long runs” a week with several 20 and 22 milers and even a 30 miler prior to the ultramarathon. For example, my 50 miler training plan has me run one 20 miler, two 22 milers, two 24 milers, one marathon, and one 50k. That’s a crazy amount of mileage! It can be exhausting and time-consuming. Not to mention painful. And it is definitely not fun all the time.
So why do we subject ourselves to this craziness? While I can’t speak for others, I can give my own reasons. And, no, it’s not because I am insane. Ok…ok…so insanity may make up a small part.
I do it for the sense of accomplishment. While I’m never going to break any records in running, I know that with ultrarunning, I am doing something that only a small population has ever done. I may dread the first few miles, love the in between miles, and loathe the last 4 miles, but I never finish a long run, saying, “That run sucked! I should have stayed in bed!” Now I may state that the run sucked – and many times it does – but I will never regret getting out there. There is something grand about finding your inner strength and working towards something and conquering it while your body threatens to stop every step of the way. Some people call it mind over matter and ultrarunning is definitely a mental challenge. I’d say it is predominantly mental, because the mind will move your legs when your muscles want to stop.
My run started out cold, muddy, and windy and ended cold, muddy, and windy. Since this was my longest trail run in over 2 years, I decided to take a conservative approach and walk up the hills in the first 3 miles. That helped a lot, because I found myself to have more energy when I reached the “heart” of the SJC trails. Due to the rain last week, though, I encountered a lot of mud, which added unnecessary weight to my shoes. Not fun. I spent a lot of time trying to scrape it off too.
The first 7 miles weren’t too bad. I was grateful for all the training that I did, because I was able to tackle those rolling hills better than I did before. The trail was pretty empty, which was good, because I had to pee! It is crucial for trail runners to learn to pee in the open, because sometimes there isn’t always a nice, private area. I found a rock and hoped that a mountain biker wouldn’t fly by at that moment. I got lucky and no one stumbled upon me. I ended up having to pee like a total of 4 times. None of the spots were secluded. You just have to learn to throw modesty out the window and drip dry!
I had to leave the trails behind to run miles 8.5-11.5 on Antonio Street. The only thing that sucked was smelling food. I’m not a Taco Bell person but running past Taco Bell is hard when all you have eaten was gel packets and peanut butter balls! However, I don’t think it would have helped me to run the rest of my miles after eating a bean and cheese burrito!
After mile 11.5, I was back on Arroyo Trabuco Trail, tired and really wanting to finish the run. On my way back, I found myself walking up more hills than running them while being blasted by some serious headwind. By mile 15, I was seriously hurting and doubting my desire to finish this run. Since no one was around to watch me be a dork, I would pull myself up a hill with my “imaginary rope” and sing out loud. These are only some of the tricks I do to get me through a solo long run. I did meet a man who was pushing a stroller up those huge hills. Apparently, he just moved there and did not realize how tough those trails were. Suddenly my problems of being hurt and tired seemed insignificant as I wasn’t pushing anything but me up the hill. I wished him a good day, told him he was crazy, but praised his strength and efforts. I ended up making 5 short videos to amuse myself and get me through the last few miles. It worked.
The last two miles were tough, but I finished. I wasn’t kidding when I said that ultra training was a mental game. In addition to singing and making videos, I spent a lot of time trying to solve personal issues and even had visions of finishing the race. Sometimes I wondered what the heck I was doing running 20 miles on my day off! However, all that doubt disappeared as soon as I sent Chris that happy one word text: “done”.