April 19, 2018
Snowboard season is officially over, for me at least. I am so thankful for being able to get close to 50 days on the board this season, but its time to switch focus and emphasis back to running. It was a really rough winter and early spring for running with only a handful of days that were pleasant. Thank goodness for treadmills!
And thank goodness for friends! Last month I organized a "fun run" around the back cove in Portland, Maine that measures just under 4 miles per loop. My plan was to run 6 hours around in circles in preparation for the DFL 12 Hour race on april 21st. I had friends join me from the first loop at 4am all the way until 10am. I am very blessed! This was the day after I ran 50k solo around the Portland and South Portland. These back to back runs were crucial to my training and gave me the confidence that my body was capable of such trying things.
My training Since mid february has been pretty consistent. There were a few weeks in which I didn't meet my weekly mileage goals, but that was supplemented by days snowboarding. I had an 80 mile week which is something I've never done before, but I'm sure I will be hitting again as I get closer to Vermont 100!
DFL 12 Hour Race Plan!
So this saturday is the 12 hour timed event down in Savannah. I drove down to Philadelphia last night from Portland and stayed with my brothers. We will be taking my van all the way down to Georgia for the event. My oldest brother, Kris, will be running the 3 hour event while my middle brother, Ian, will be crewing us for the duration of the races.
We plan on stopping outside Raleigh, North Carolina tonight and staying with my childhood friend, Courtney, and her fiance tonight after running some trails. Then it's off to the loop extravaganza!
The reason I signed up for this race is because I wanted to bridge the difference between the longest distance I have ran (54.56mi) and what I will run (100mi) in July. I'm looking to hit somewhere between 62 and 72 miles in the 12 hour time limit. I plan on starting out at a painfully slow 12 min pace for the first hour or two, then slowly speeding up to a 10min pace and maintaining that until I reach the 9 hour mark. At this point I should be around 50ish miles and this is where I want to push myself. I would like to run Sub 10min pace for the 10th hour, sub 9min pace for the 11th hour, and let the legs fly and push myself to my limit on the last hour. If I can successfully execute this plan it will be so beneficial to me in later races. To be able to start slow and maintain a reasonable pace for 50 miles and have the option to flip on another switch after completing that distance can be the difference between not making a cutoff and finishing. During my 50 miler last fall I ended up running 8:30 pace for 3 miles trying to catch up to the top finisher after running 50 miles (I took a detour early in the race). I feel much stronger than I did then. I just want to find my limits.
As far as nutrition goes, I'll be keeping it pretty simple. I plan on consuming 300 calories every hour via tailwind along with a random snack every hour, as long as I can stomach it. I've had great luck with tailwind in my training runs and being able to consume 300-400 calories every hour without a problem, at least for 6 hours. Let's hope my stomach doesn't rebel against me 8.5 hours in like it did at Farm to Farm.
I also found out my parents and grandma are coming to the race! It will be the first time they have seen me run! So, I'm pretty stoked about that!
I'll follow up this blog with a race report.
Stay warm and run wild!
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