Training and ParkRun

This week I’ve officially started to train. I’m on “the program” and following a plan leading up to Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc. There’s still a lot of uncertainty in the back of my head mainly pertaining to training appropriately for a race of such magnitude. Main concern is the vertical gain/loss and being in the mountains. I’ve done races with 30,000 feet of vert before but none with such long expanses of climbing and descending. 

Trail run along the river

I’m changing my training a bit. The first part I’m focusing on one day of flat, fast speed work per week. Something I’ve never done for an ultra. Focus on weaknesses and less specificity of the race early. I don’t train fast, making it a weakness, and it’s not necessarily a specific part of racing an ultra. However doing some 400m repeats at 5km pace should improve my economy, improve my slower speed technique, and also make me quicker at slower speeds. I’ll still focus on one 20-30 mile run per week with as much vert as I can get, and also have one focused muscular endurance strength workout, but I’ve replaced hill repeats with the speed work for now. 

Recent road run.

Considering the lack of big long hills here I’m going to do my best for now at getting vert. Then later in the plan get more focused on that as it will take much more logistically to make it happen, mainly travel. Same goes for uphill and downhill specific training. I need to become a very fast uphill hiker and make my legs smooth running down and strong for long persistent downhills. The training adaptation for downhill running, an eccentric muscle contraction, happens fairly quickly so no need to abuse my legs so far out from the race. Uphill hike training will likely comprise of hill laps with hiking poles at a fast pace, and likely with a weighted vest. Of course any long run I’ll hike fast and efficiently run down too it just won’t be a focus. 

In other running news here I’ve started volunteering at the local Junior ParkRun. ParkRun is a free weekly run, not race, for people to try to beat their previous time. Adult versions are Saturday, all over the country, and are 5km. Junior versions are Sundays, much less available, and are 2km. The kids spoke up a few weeks ago saying they wanted to run it and the wife recommended I volunteer as a course marshal while we’re there. I didn’t really want to, especially being the introvert I am, but I’ve done it twice so far. I essentially sit on the course, cheer kids on making sure they don’t make a wrong turn. It’s alright. I think the best part is before the run starts I get about 5-10 minutes out in the Wyre Forest in silence! No people around. It’s bliss. The kids are enjoying it so far, it’s nice because it’s at 9am so we get out early Sunday morning. 

Bliss.

Arc Thoughts

Well the Arc of Attrition is in the past now but I still look back at my notes to see what could’ve been better. No big mistakes really. A few things in hindsight I could’ve done better. 

I should’ve gone out a bit slower, that could’ve helped out later in the race, but you never know. Common theme in all these races really. It’s easy to get wound up in the excitement! 

I need to trust myself and be more confident in my skills. I end up running with someone usually because it is way more fun than being alone and it’s beneficial for navigation purposes. During the Arc I ran the night with a guy, and although really nice company, I feel I was held back a bit. He took longer than I liked at checkpoints and I felt like I may have been able to run a bit faster without him. You never know though. 

My watch died at 78 miles. Why? Because I had the navigation function on for the entire time. I should’ve saved it until later in the race. Looking back the route finding wasn’t that bad and I was around people for much of the first 1/3 of the race. No need to use the nav function. Easy to say now I guess considering I’ve ran the course. Before there were a lot of course nav concerns thrown around. 

I got cold at night. If you’re cold put more clothes on. It’s simple. It’s unlikely you’re going to run faster just to warm up. This one bothered me. Very stupid mistake. I had crew with tons of extra stuff, I carried extra stuff, I just didn’t use any of it! 

My knee issue at the end. I’m trying to figure out what and how this happened. It’s not a mental thing, ie I’m not just tired and sore, it was an actually injury. The last two or three miles I had an intense pain on the medial side of my right knee. Likely caused from power hiking and steep stairs. It’s likely hip instability referring to the knee. Not sure what I needed, maybe more steep down hill running and power hiking are likely a remedy, things I do infrequently and would both help with prevention. This is the ultimate fear, an injury that stops your race. 

So overall minor things. Of course when you’re excited or exhausted you’ll make mistakes but it always helps me to look back, write them down, and improve in future events. Or in a future Arc of Attrition, yes, I signed up for it in 2023! I didn’t want it to fill and regret not entering! 

I’m about a week or so out from officially beginning training for UTMB. I guess more on that soon.