You might recall a month or so ago that I shared one of my hobbies, which is desiging things with a CAD program. I showed a pic of an engine I had been working on and now it has gotten substantially more complex. A few weeks ago I finished it to this point as you see it now. I've added pulleys, drive belts, camshafts, valves, and managed to get the timing all working properly. It's been a great learning experience for me trying to design something from scratch and working out how to get different parts to interact correctly, as well as figure out how to get the timing sequence down, all while bettering my CAD skills.
Speaking of learning from experience, I definitely learned some things from my first ultra. First, really focus on starting out much slower and not getting wrapped up in the excitement. For me, it's tough because I'm competitive by nature and I hate to run in crowds. Therefore, for me it's only instinctual to get more to the front and into some open space. Second, I learned how important it is to really take it easy on the hills. Running hills on the roads is much different than the short but steeper hills on trails. They'll drain you quickly if you're not conservative and walk when needed. I'll definitely be following this strategy for the Ice Age 50-miler in a couple of weeks. The third thing I learned was the importance of fueling yourself earlier before you need it. I fooled myself into thinking I didn't need that much fuel for a 50K because I had run 20+ mile training runs with only a few bottles of electrolyte. Duh oh!
Training last week:
Monday - R&R after the 50K on Saturday and a 5K hike with the dog on Sunday.
Tuesday - 5.1 in 48:20; A nice relaxing run to work out the kinks from the ultra. Man, I can't believe how much that race hammered my body!
Wednesday - Rest; Still tired and a little sore.
Thursday - 9.8 in 1:28:49; Ah, that's more like it. My body feels much more rested and I felt smooth and strong. I love runs like this!
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Father and son bonding day while the missus hung out with her friend all day. The weather was crappy anyway.
Sunday - 14.5 in 2:13:13; 2 loops of the '08 Trail Mix course. I felt really slow and sluggish, but the clock said otherwise. Surprisingly, my pace was decent even though I walked the big hills. On the down side, the back of my left knee is aggravated and really tightened up later in the evening.
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