Given that all races, pretty much across the globe, are canceled through April and even as late as August due to the novel coronavirus athletes everywhere are struggling. What do I do now? Much of what I have read and listened to via podcasts are suggestions to do 60 to 80 percent of the volume you had been doing to maintain a strong and healthy immune system yet minimize the loss of strength and endurance that has taken months to build up over the off-season months. I agree with the logic, however for me, I love the process of training, sometimes more than racing itself since racing tends to come with added stress on the start line regardless of the discipline. I absolutely need to get outside for most of my riding and running otherwise, I would go nut, crazy, and totally mentally lose it. Being outside is my sanctuary. It is how I decompress, forget about everything going on in this totes cray-cray of a world, especially now, disconnect from everything, and just enjoy the me-time. I always go solo and heck ... even before the pandemic I did 99% of my training solo already.
All that to say that I am still training as if I am gearing up for the races that I had scheduled and registered for and I am not slowing down, not yet at least while in Ohio we are still allowed to get outside for exercise and actually encourages to do so, in a physically distant manner of course. In fact, I am actually doing more these days because if I do not have any real-races coming up in the near future, then I can push myself even harder (ok, admittedly I know that is not always the best mentality to have regardless of the situation).
A few weeks ago a new Virtual Race popped up on my FaceBook feed from
Western Reserve Racing, my go-to local running race organization. The race is called
In This Together and is the motto for Ohioans that we will are all In This Together and will get through this together. The idea is that anyone can register for a 5k, 10k, half marathon, or a full marathon and those that finish will post their results and will earn a finishers medal along with a race tee-shirt. Very cool. Of course, the only option for me is the full marathon. Why you ask? If you have to ask that then man you really do not know me. LOL All that said, I was finishing a three-week training build block under the consultation of my most-awesome coach Jeff Rupnow and his coaching business
Evolution Training Cycles and had a 20-mile run slated for Saturday, April 4th. I decided that I would run the course that was used for the Fools 50k racecourse a few years ago because it was on all trails that I know well and one lap would get my 15-miles and then I could add some miles on a nearby trail for the remaining 5-miles to reach the planned 20-miles.
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| O'Dark-15 from the inside of Mr. Geen Jeep |
To avoid most of the trail users, because it has been extremely and quite frankly oddly packed on the trails lately, I started my run at 6:15am. I usually run earlier during the week, but I did want to sleep in a bit this morning. It was dark at the start and lighted up by the time I finished the first trail on the route. It was such a beautiful, yet cold, morning but I love trails no matter the circumstance and there was nobody to be seen for miles. Overall the run was going well until I got missed a turn on a well-known trail called Ledges. I overshot the mark and ended up doing the loop twice around Ledges. What this meant is that by the time I got back to my Jeep I was at 16.5 miles as opposed to 15-mile.
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| Trail connector from Salt Run to Kenall Lake |
Now, my legs and body on this day did not feel great. My legs felt tired and fatigued and while I was in a good mental state, I just felt sort of tired yet for some reason the thought entered my head. If I am at 16.5 now and I know the extra miles I planned would give me five more miles then that means at this point I will be at 21.5 miles. Huh. Only 5 more miles and I could finish the In This Together virtual race. Hmmm, now the brian was churning even though I did not feel like running a full marathon today. The trail I picked for the extra miles I was familiar with and it isn't kind due to lots of up and down climbing, especially on the trek back. Now I did think that I could just do an out and back and hit just the planned 20-miles but as many of my runs go ... I reached the turn around point, in miles, and kept moving forward, and kept moving forward, and well ... I got to the bottom of the loop and had covered 4-miles since I left my vehicle. By the time I made my way back to the Jeep I was at 23-miles. Well shoot ... 3.2 miles and I will have the full marathon. Meh. Easy peasy, right? I mean it's pretty much a 5k. I decided since the trails were beginning to fill up with other trail users and with my being rather paranoid about getting the virus I took to the road ... sort of. I ran maybe 2/10s of a mile and was like ... screw this I am done. I turned around to head back to the Jeep and then it happened again ... my brain tool over my body and said nope, you're doing this. I "ran" past the Jeep and kept going. This turned into a run/walk which is really not like me because when I run ... I want to run. I was tired, my legs were tired, I was mentally tired and just wanted to be done but what I wanted, even more, was to finish the virtual race because I was just too close to give up now. I finished the 26.2 miles and called it a day. It was far from my fastest trail marathon but surprisingly wasn't too terrible. My moving time was around 4-hours and 32-minutes. Not a bad way to start the month of April, with a trail marathon. Since January it also means that each morning I have run 1-2 marathons and in January ran a 50k. Not too terrible.
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| Along the Ledges Trail |
I have to admit that my perspective on "long runs" has changed a lot over the years much like it did when I first started into ultra-endurance mountain biking. TO knock off a half marathon distance is now what I would call a pretty good run and something I can easily do in the early morning hours before work. A 15-20 miler is slightly better and I feel like I got in a solid workout. A full marathon, while not easy, is much easier than it had been in the past and to do multiple marathons in the span of one month is sort of the norm these days. Racing a 50k, yup I got this ... hold my beer. I can knock off a 50k trail race without thinking too much about it and have done them as training runs as well. 50-milers ... now we are getting into the "hard" category. I have completed two 50-mile races and one 100k self-supported training run, last October. That's the mileage that now I really have to think through and mentally prepare. So ... it's all perspective with regards to what you have experienced. Having said that, I think VERY highly of anyone who runs and rides absolutely any distance. I love hearing people talk about just being active, because in the end what I think is most important is finding your happy place. Whether that is a 1-mile walk, 5k run/race or even longer, what makes you happy is what matters most. Just be active!!
#happytrails
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| The Overlook along the Ledges trail. I seriously love the Ledges trail. |
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