What a great training run this morning. I finally decided to join one of the Huntsville Track Club training groups that is getting ready for the Mountain Mist 50K and headed to the hiker's parking lot at Monte Sano State Park at 7AM.
Eric Charette had posted the training run info on the HTC Facebook page and based on the responses, it would be rather large group. My suspicions were confirmed when I arrived at the state park and I was able to grab the last open parking spot. Everyone that followed started lining the road leading into the state park. By the time we took off, it had to be almost close to 50 runners. I initially stayed close behind the lead group with Eric, Blake and Rob but smartened up pretty soon after;-) The plan was to run the second half of the Mountain Mist course and with a few exceptions, everyone planned to do just that. There was even a runner from Nashville that headed own here just to get a training run in on this course before race day.
Jason Shattuck met up with me for his longest trail run today. Actually, this 15 miler was not only his longest trail run but also tied his longest distance to date on any surface. Congrats buddy! Before you know it, you'll be signed up for your first ultra. I'd be happy to join and pace you to the finish;-)
The training run went almost perfect. I had decided to work on my body's fat burning ability, so I didn't bring any fluids or food. The only fluids I took in during the almost 3 hour run was a bottle of Gatorade Jason had stashed 9 miles into the run at the hiker's parking lot off of Monte Sano Blvd at the Trough Springs Trailhead. I did need those fluids badly, but I was feeling treaty good overall. When we arrived at the "aid station", we had already completed the most challenging climb of the race going up Waterline Trail. Now, there was just a 10K and one major climb left.
As has been my training goal for the last couple of weeks, I planned no walk breaks at all, not even at the most difficult of climbs and I stayed true to that promise. While it wasn't pretty and my running up the second climb could only be described as a slow shuffle, I kept going without taking any breaks. I completed the run of 15.25 miles in just under 3 hours. My goal will be to maintain that exact pace for the entire race in three weeks, if I want to break 6 hours.
Eric Charette had posted the training run info on the HTC Facebook page and based on the responses, it would be rather large group. My suspicions were confirmed when I arrived at the state park and I was able to grab the last open parking spot. Everyone that followed started lining the road leading into the state park. By the time we took off, it had to be almost close to 50 runners. I initially stayed close behind the lead group with Eric, Blake and Rob but smartened up pretty soon after;-) The plan was to run the second half of the Mountain Mist course and with a few exceptions, everyone planned to do just that. There was even a runner from Nashville that headed own here just to get a training run in on this course before race day.
Jason Shattuck met up with me for his longest trail run today. Actually, this 15 miler was not only his longest trail run but also tied his longest distance to date on any surface. Congrats buddy! Before you know it, you'll be signed up for your first ultra. I'd be happy to join and pace you to the finish;-)
The training run went almost perfect. I had decided to work on my body's fat burning ability, so I didn't bring any fluids or food. The only fluids I took in during the almost 3 hour run was a bottle of Gatorade Jason had stashed 9 miles into the run at the hiker's parking lot off of Monte Sano Blvd at the Trough Springs Trailhead. I did need those fluids badly, but I was feeling treaty good overall. When we arrived at the "aid station", we had already completed the most challenging climb of the race going up Waterline Trail. Now, there was just a 10K and one major climb left.
As has been my training goal for the last couple of weeks, I planned no walk breaks at all, not even at the most difficult of climbs and I stayed true to that promise. While it wasn't pretty and my running up the second climb could only be described as a slow shuffle, I kept going without taking any breaks. I completed the run of 15.25 miles in just under 3 hours. My goal will be to maintain that exact pace for the entire race in three weeks, if I want to break 6 hours.
Wow. What a challenging race. I think it's going to be tough to break 6 hours, but it's a great goal! Keep on shufflin!
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