Training Log - Monday, July 5, 2010

Today marked the official start of my 100 mile race training schedule. A couple of months ago, Richard and I had the idea to try for a 100 mile race and it just so happened that the third annual Pinhoti 100 Endurance Run in Alabama started accepting applications around the time of our foolish decision. I don't know what made me think that I could participate in a 100 mile race after completing just 6 ultramarathons, but I'm all in now. The fees have been paid and my application has been accepted. There is no turning back. While scouring the internet for some type of easily adaptable 100 mile training plan, I came across the Umstead 100 website and RD Blake Norwood's very useful training package. I was able to take his weekly training schedule and turn it into a Garmin training schedule I was able to upload to my Garmin Forerunner 310XT. The first session called for a 7 mile "brisk" run at a pace roughly one minute per mile slower than my 10K pace. I gotta be honest, that's more than just a brisk run for me. To make things slightly more challenging this morning, I ignored my 5:30AM alarm and a 6AM scheduled run turned into a 10AM run. That is not a good idea, since morning temps quickly climb into the 90s with the humidity level well above 50% here in the deep south. It doesn't help that I grew up in Germany, where summer equates to 2 weeks of temperatures in the high 80s with no humidity to speak of from July 15-30. I am joking of course, but you get the idea. When I left the house at 10AM, it was already hot and humid and having to keep a steady and high pace wasn't easy. While I was able to keep the pace for the entire run, I won't make the mistake to sleep in again...at least not during the summer months. There are only four months until the Pinhoti 100 Mile Endurance Run and I amgoing to make sure I'll stick to the training schedule. Now I'll just have to try to convince my partner in crime Richard to stick to this schedule with me.